Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Could Zhao Youyue possibly do something that ruined this novel?

As mentioned earlier, there were three ways to exit a literary world. First, she could simply assign a character with superpowers to end the main protagonist’s life, causing that author’s work to crumble into pieces. She would then bear a consequence of bad luck in reality, and the consequences would be greater if she destroyed a literary work of higher popularity.

Zhao Youyue was done with the character setting of “Yu Shengfan” and would not modify it again to introduce any devastating superpower. Still, it would not be a hitch to kill the main protagonist. First off, she had become unable to differentiate between reality and game due to being intoxicated by excessive gaming. Then, she would stab Lin Feng in the back solely because he had refused to PK her for too long, thus she would just PK him in real life. Eventually “The Strongest King” became a novel which encourages people to appreciate life and stay away from game addiction. Not to mention, Professor Yang would strongly be recommended it on Weibo!

Everyone praised this Esports novel as it was full of positivity and emphasized the Core Socialist Values of Chinese!

This idea previously flashed across the mind of Zhao Youyue who had been restraining her own will to make troubles. She believed that it would be interesting if she made it to the news, but unfortunately, she would harm herself as well as the author. “Yu Shengfan” would forever remain in the hall of shame, and it would absolutely crush Rosemary’s reputation. As for the bad consequences that would befall her, it would not be as simple as the time she messed up “King of Superpower”…

It was actually the punishment of karma that arose from the resentment of readers. The readers’ love towards a character would transform to the willpower for Zhao Youyue to continue inheriting the character abilities, while their resentment would put a curse on her.

Despite her intention to cause a scene, Zhao Youyue was not that of an idiot. Thus, she had decided not to kill the main character, but instead allowed “Yu Shengfan” to follow him, so that she could grab more chances of appearing in the novel, hence increasing her popularity!

It was Zhao Youyue’s idea that “Yu Shengfan” had never bad mouthed Lin Feng. She wanted the readers to fantasize. Would it be that the rich lady “Yu Shengfan” was impressed by Lin Feng’s amazing skill and eventually fell in love with him?

Zhao Youyue answered that question with confidence——No.

But why would she do that?

She wanted the readers to be confused on purpose!

What is more, she wanted the readers to have a false impression of “Yu Shengfan” liking the main protagonist, but they were only in a relationship as loyal teammates. By shipping both of them together, wouldn’t the readers harbor a sense of commiseration for them in the end?

Would they be more sympathetic with “Yu Shengfan” this cute and innocent girl?

According to “Yu Shengfan’s” character setting, most people would take a pity on her, thus increasing her good impression toward readers. It would even encourage people to draw doujin-s of “shipping” Lin Feng and Yu Shengfan together, since one of the functions of doujin was to relieve some regrets from the main series.

This was the real purpose of Lady Zhao.

To display “Yu Shengfan’s” special treatment towards Lin Feng, other characters like Tang Yongkai were not so lucky. No matter men or women, she would always try her best to mock and humiliate them! Since Tang Yongkai was always cheerful, she definitely would bully him more…

Zhao Youyue actually wanted Lin Feng to be with another girl in the end so that “Yu Shengfan” would end up as a lonely girl character. Sigh, such disappointment, was it too much to bear?

Unfortunately, Rosemary had already decided that couples would not exist in this novel, even Zhao Youyue could sense the determination of “creator” while she was still in this world.

Zhao Youyue had the thought of “suiciding” too, since the second way to exit a novel was the death of the character she possessed.

But “Yu Shengfan” was no longer a side character, undoubtedly she could not die in a silent way. Her death would cause an uproar in every possible way as she had just become one of the main characters, she could not just die like that without a valid reason!

What if she got depressed after being deceived several times by Lin Feng, and she ended up killing herself by jumping off a building just because she could no longer trust anyone in this world?

Besides jumping off a building, she could die as an “internet addict” after playing non-stop for three days. All of a sudden, a random news from Bilibili popped up in front of her PC. It was the broadcast about a female gamer who was found dead…

If Rosemary would ever dare to write these kinds of ridiculous plot, he surely would get tons of complaints from his readers. Even though these scenarios could be seen in reality, but who gives a crap about logic in the novel?

He had just created a popular female character successfully. Imagine after a short while, the female character ridiculously ended her own life in the novel!

Could she just die from a car accident? Drown in a river? Or choke herself dead while drinking water? It makes no difference! All of these reasons are absolutely absurd!

Obviously, any character’s death could never exist in “The Strongest King”. Zhao Youyue could not simply make “Yu Shengfan” die even if she wanted to, it would be unacceptable for the readers.

Had Zhao Youyue shifted into a higher energy level world where the villain possessed some lethal abilities, Zhao Youyue could then reenact Uesugi Erii[2] ‘s death scene from “Dragon Raja”. Such a popular character could instantly turn into iconic character upon her demise. For anyone who had read “Dragon Raja”, would they even forget “Uesugi Erii”?

“Committing suicide” was not an ideal way to exit “The Strongest King”, but the last option would be——

Exiting the novel when “Yu Shengfan” was at the peak of her popularity.

Zhao Youyue was rest assured with Rosemary’s writing skill, so she would not stay till the final moment like what she did in “Pure Romance”. In order to get what she wanted, she had to stay on until she had confirmed “Xu Jing’s” death.

If Zhao Youyue exited the novel when Xu Jing was on top of her popularity, Su Li would have changed the whole ending and let Xu Jing become one of the hero’s girlfriends, of course, all Zhao Youyue’s efforts would be futile!

Rosemary was different from Su Li.

Here comes the real question… When will “Yu Shengfan” be at the peak of her popularity?

Translation Note:

[1] The Core Socialist Values (社会主义核心价值观) – a set of new official interpretations of Chinese socialism promoted at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012. The 12 values, written in 24 Chinese characters, are the national values of prosperity, democracy, civility and harmony; the social values of freedom, equality, justice and the rule of law; and the individual values of patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship.

[2] Uesugi Erii (上杉绘梨衣) – a female character in “Raja Uda (龙族)” who loves the hero and bears a miserable fate. She was dead due to all her blood being extracted by the villain.