Shift! The Side-Character Heroine Chapter 3

In the comments section of "King of Superpower", there were all comments such as:

"This book has always been a good read, until this sudden outburst. Was the author drunk?"

"I deliberately flipped through the previous chapters, and discovered this "Zhang Jiajia" was merely a side character, who was once humiliated by the male protagonist. Surprisingly, her real identity is the final boss of the story! At one critical moment, she had even shot the male protagonist dead. Should we call this novel "Super Side Character" instead?"

"Bullsh*t, absolutely bullsh*t! Anyway, this book is off the shelf now. I've blacklisted the author too."

"The terrible ending is exceptional! A side character could even obtain superpowers and emerge as the final boss. The author is very creative…"

Looking at the erupting comments section, Zhao Youyue was laden with guilt. Never would she have thought that, being a one-time troublemaker could wreak havoc on the novel. As for now, she genuinely recalled the criteria in order to inherit the character abilities. Obvious enough, she was not allowed to take over those abilities that she simply introduced to the character. Instead, her mission was to mold an iconic character, who will be remembered by all readers. But now, not only this character was not an icon, but it had turned out to be a complete joke!

Meanwhile, she discovered that, in the "Online Writing" board of "Lkong" forum, some nosy people were actively making posts about this embarrassing incident. However, they failed to bring about any great sensation. This novel was not really popular in the first place. Nowadays, there were too many online authors who would come up with outrageous plots, abruptly in the middle of their writings. Not to mention, this often led to a terrible ending...

Zhao Youyue had finally come to a realization. Modifying the character as she pleased would not bring about a memorable iconic character. Hence, she must first understand the background settings of the story. If she could approach the author for discussion, and played the character only after a full preparation, that would be a plus!

In other words, she shall not disturb the balancing of the story, as it would destroy the novel itself. But if her participation in the story helped to boost the popularity of the novel, that would be a double victory! For the novel and herself... After all, the characters of the popular novels are most likely to be engraved on one's mind.

Zhao Youyue was not the kind of girl who runs away from her own mistakes. She had then registered a Qidian account, with the nickname "Youyue", and easily topped up 5,000 RMB in her account. To her, this was just a small amount, as her monthly allowance was already up to 20,000 RMB. Remember, she was the precious daughter of a hospital director. It was the conviction of her parents, that pampering their daughter would prevent her from hooking up with bad guys who have little money… Another interesting fact convicted that a pampered daughter of the rich, will always end up having her heart won by a poor man, who owns nothing more than a genuine love for her. Well, that is quite embarrassing.

Hence, Zhao Youyue did a full subscription to this book and tipped the author 1,000 RMB. With that, she was immediately promoted to the Sect Master [1] of the novel. She had even topped the fans ranking list, in becoming the number one fan! Indeed, this book had never gained a Sect Master. Ah, it could not be helped, the author was a fresh blood, who had just released a couple of novels up to now.

Under this sole approach, Zhao Youyue was able to atone for her guilt. She had never thought that "Two Dimensional Gate" was more than a dream. Come to think of it, that dream was now actually kind of vivid.

Subsequently, her Flashing Red [2] popped up above the comments section --- "Rain of petals is falling from the sky. Tears of joy are rolling down the cheeks. I don't deserve such an honour! Youyue has tipped me the greatest 1,000,000 Qidian coins."

In a split second, this Flashing Red had startled the readers who were railing against the author.

"Wow, a tycoon came into sight! Wait, has this tycoon read the latest chapter?"

"Is this tycoon encouraging the author to write on a whim?"

"I can't believe such an awful novel would gain a Sect Master, this is ridiculous!"

"The author should show up immediately to apologize. For what you have written, don't you feel sorry to this tycoon who has tipped you a Sect Master?"

Zhao Youyue realized that, by just tipping the author, she had attracted a lot of comments. Anyway, it was just that the readers could not apprehend her act. Who would tip an author for a terrible ending? Let alone becoming the Sect Master of the novel.

Nevertheless, this was her very first time to experience such a strong sense of presence, despite the fact that she is a fair, rich and beautiful girl. In the past, Zhao Youyue had never spent a token to relish the attention and admiration of people.

Zhao Youyue was at once filled with an immense satisfaction. An idea had then flashed across her mind. As a side character who experienced total neglection in reality, she could always pretend to be someone cool on internet with the help of today's modern networking era!

Meanwhile, among the varsity grounds, four students shared a rather untidy hostel room. The author who named himself "I'm the Best" had just waken up with a slight hangover. During the previous night, he drank a lot with his buddies. Despite being a heavy drinker, he had unexpectedly turned dizzy right after having two or three boozes of beer. In such condition, he managed to finish writing several chapters of the novel after returning to his hostel, and … he had even admired himself for doing so! He recalled that a decent mood had flung into him at that moment, which motivated him to keep on writing, as his inspiration was pouring in non-stop. With that, he had resurrected a side character named "Zhang Jiajia" in the novel...

"The heck! What's with this inspiration? I must be super drunk last night!" I'm the Best had now remembered clearly about those chapters he had written. He abruptly rolled down from his bed and switched on his laptop in a hasty mood. He then opened the webpage of "King of Superpower", and to his utter surprise, the comments section of his novel had acquired a Flashing Red!

A Flashing Red denotes that someone had tipped 50,000 Qidian coins! This is equivalent to 500 RMB!

Later on, I'm the Best was overwhelmed with excitement, to find out someone had actually tipped him 100,000. He began novel writing upon entering university, and ever since then, he had never succeeded. Not until his final year, he finally gained minimal fame from writing this book. While the other students were bewildered by job selections, at least, he did not have to worry about this problem anymore. For a student graduating from this third-class university, it was good enough if he could earn more than 3,000 RMB. He had now earned himself more than 5,000 RMB from this novel, not to mention he was a lazy writer too. With only 4,000 words worth of writings daily, he would have developed such satisfaction as if he had saved the whole world. Hence, being able to complete six chapters which consist of 12,000 words in one night, even he was nervous for himself!

Could it be that the tycoon was impressed by his immediate release of six chapters, so he was tipped a Sect Master? Indeed, this was his first time obtaining a Sect Master ever since he began novel writing. That was why he got so excited!

At last, his eyes were caught by the tycoon's nickname. Surprisingly, it was "Youyue"! Not only the gender was stated as 'female', but the tycoon had done a full subscription to his book. As for now, he has completely carried away. Was the tycoon a true female fan? For such harem-genre novel, yet written by a forgotten man like him in a brazen way, would there even be a female reader?

Being happy for just a moment, he noticed the scoldings throughout the comments section. He then checked his QQ account and to his realization, his reader group was in chaos too. With just around 200 subscribers, yet there were tens of them leaving the group now. Ouch, that's kind of heart wrenching!

Translation Note:

[1] The word "Sect Master" - "盟主" is used in ancient China to refer to the leader of a Sect alliance. At Qidian Chinese website, "Sect Master" is adopted to address the novel reader who has obtained 100,000 loyalty points of a particular novel, which is done by spending 100,000 Qidian coins (equivalent to 1,000 RMB) on that novel. There are several options which are considered as spending, tipping the author (done by the main character) is one of the options. "Sect Master" is also used to represent 1,000 RMB in the case of tipping, for instance, "tip the author a Sect Master" simply means "tip the author 1,000 RMB".

[2] At Qidian Chinese website, the word "Flashing Red" - "飘红" refers to the system-generated post which appears on top of the comments section of a novel whenever there is a reader tipping the novel author more than 50,000 Qidian coins. The title of the post is of this standard template: "Rain of petals is falling from the sky. Tears of joy are rolling down the cheek. I don't deserve such an honour! XXX has tipped me the greatest 1,000,000 Qidian coins.", while XXX is the name of the reader.

Chapter end