I Became the Most Popular Character by Acting as a Villain in the Manga

Chapter 2

Bai Xuechao ignored what System Xiao 6 said and continued looking through the manga.

The next page was the last page of the new chapter.

I saw the black-haired boy lying on his side on the ground, his eyes dim and devoid of highlights; he was already dead. The white-gold haired youth walked past him with an indifferent expression. The next manga panel was a close-up of Duan Xingzhi’s finger, with white electric light, tinged with a faint blue, flickering between his slender fingers beneath a black sleeve.

In the bottom right corner, it read: “End of this chapter.”

Xiao 6 followed Bai Xuechao to this page of the manga and was still troubled by it, wailing again, “I can’t understand… I just can’t understand! According to the planned plot, Duan Xingzhi was supposed to rush back to the Dark Organization to deal with the trouble the male lead of the manga caused the organization in the previous chapter. But he shouldn't have been in such a hurry, right? It was like he was rushing to reincarnate, boohoohoo…”

Speaking of this, Xiao 6 seemed to suddenly realize something, sucking in a cold breath, and asked, “Ho-host, could Duan Xingzhi have rushed back just to see you??”

Thinking of it that way, it made sense.

Because Bai Xuechao was critically ill and being resuscitated in the hospital, Duan Xingzhi, upon hearing the news, was in a hurry to see him. So, he wasn't in the mood to follow the original plot and just killed the villain who was blocking his way and provoking him. After all, Duan Xingzhi always had a poker face, so who knew what he was thinking at that moment?

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why Duan Xingzhi, who should have been at the organization dealing with trouble, appeared outside Bai Xuechao’s hospital room and only left not long ago.

The more Xiao 6 thought about it, the more reasonable it seemed, feeling that the truth must be this!

Oh dear! The whole plot almost collapsed because of this? Its CPU was about to burn out trying to deal with this mess!

However, this also seemed to reveal Bai Xuechao's identity.

After realizing who Bai Xuechao was, Xiao 6 almost became a garbled mess on the spot, crying without tears, “I know who you are! It’s over, it’s over, no wonder the compatibility was 99%. Why did I get bound to you?! Help, the plot is going to have another bug! You are an important—”

Bai Xuechao slightly raised an eyebrow.

Important what?

As a result, Xiao 6 took a big gasp before slowly saying, “—background plate!”

Bai Xuechao: “…”

So I was an important background plate.

Xiao 6 saw Bai Xuechao’s expression was calm, as if he didn't care, and wailed loudly in Bai Xuechao's mind, “Boohoohoo, sure enough, the joys and sorrows of humans and systems are not interconnected!”

Bai Xuechao lay on the hospital bed and calmly said, “You said I’m a background plate, how important can that be?”

I had the intention of getting information from Xiao 6.

As expected, Xiao 6 did not disappoint me and started explaining in a flurry.

It turned out that, according to the original setting of the manga author, Bai Guzi, I was supposed to die today from failed resuscitation. At the same time, the villain, after provoking Duan Xingzhi, would be absorbed into the organization. In the subsequent plot, the villain would gradually take over my position in the organization, becoming the male lead of the manga's number one opponent on his growth path.

In the mid-to-late plot, the villain would also partner with Duan Xingzhi for a period, serving as an experience package for the male lead to upgrade amidst setbacks.

And I, Bai Xuechao, would only live in the memories and dialogues of characters related to the organization, without even a full name, only a substitute term, like "him."

In other words, I should have died of illness to make way for the villain character, and thereafter live in flashbacks and dialogue, serving as a background plate that never officially appeared.

Because I was just a supporting character among supporting characters, the manga author Bai Guzi didn't bother to set me up meticulously. Apart from the sickliness setting, identity setting, and two plot-related settings concerning me, everything else, even my appearance and name, was randomly generated by the system.

Now, the villain character was dead, and I was alive.

From the author's perspective, it was like a meticulously designed character was gone, but a casually designed background plate, who should have died, didn't. That would really give them a heart attack.

Xiao 6, chewing on its code handkerchief, cried with a cute and soft voice, “You didn’t die, so the mid-to-late plot of this manga is going to collapse! Those two plots involving you are important foreshadowing, especially as they would affect Duan Xingzhi’s ending. If important foreshadowing that was set up can’t be retrieved, Bai Guzi will go mad at me!”

It seemed that my not dying was now a problem?

However, Bai Xuechao wasn't flustered at all and wasn't afraid of the system suggesting to unbind from him.

Because Xiao 6 could only cry to him, it meant that either unbinding couldn't solve the problem, or it couldn't unbind at all.

Whichever it was, the result was no unbinding, so I had no need to worry.

Bai Xuechao had no self-awareness of being a new bug and even had the leisure to ask it, “Between me not dying and the real villain dying, which one is more devastating for Bai Guzi?”

“Well, it’s still the real villain dying,” Xiao 6 lit another code cigarette with a world-weary sigh and began cyber-smoking. Bai Xuechao felt a smoky haze before his eyes, only hearing Xiao 6’s melancholic voice, “Once the villain dies, the plot starts collapsing from the early stages. The male lead’s most important opponent is also gone, and Bai Guzi will go even crazier.”

Bai Xuechao: Please check the manga author’s mental state with one click.

Then, Xiao 6 exhaled another puff of code smoke, sighing regretfully, “Alas, who would have thought, a great master’s work would have its plot collapse right at the beginning.”

Bai Xuechao tentatively asked, “Is there really no other way?”

“Actually, there is one more way, and that is to reset the data of this world,” Xiao 6 sighed with the code cigarette, its tone even more mournful. “But it’s already been serialized for over twenty chapters; suddenly restarting would be like indirectly admitting that the world created by the great master collapsed at its very beginning. It would be mocked on forums for at least three years, and then Bai Guzi would really go mad at me.”

A great master author had a bit of an idol burden, afraid of losing face, which was quite normal.

But it wasn't just this simple reason.

Xiao 6 continued, “Moreover, the conditions for restarting a manga work are not simple. First, it requires modifying the settings of the main characters, which can't be the same as the current plot, otherwise, the recommendation slot will be cut. Secondly… sigh, it’s very complicated in short. Let’s just bite the bullet and continue with the current situation; it's not entirely hopeless.”

While Xiao 6 was speaking, Bai Xuechao was also thinking, and at this moment, he asked, “Does the author have to draw exactly what they ‘observe’? Can’t they modify it when they draw?”

In my understanding, a manga author was someone holding a pen, so couldn't they decide what they wanted to draw?

“Hmm, this is hard for me to explain clearly to you because we are in different dimensions.”

Although it said so, Xiao 6 didn't simply stop explaining to Bai Xuechao. Instead, it rubbed its non-existent little head in distress, trying hard to choose its words carefully.

“This manga world is more accurately called a ‘simulated world,’ which is currently the most popular creative form in our high-dimensional world, high in difficulty and rich in fun.”

“The author’s job isn't actually drawing mangas with a pen. To explain it in a way you can understand in your world, the author adjusts the camera angle used to observe the world, takes photos or records videos of the observed plot, then uses our manga website’s system to convert it into their favorite two-dimensional art style, and can also edit the plot.”

“Photos converted into a two-dimensional art style are edited and spliced by the author into page after page of mangas for publication. If animation rights can be sold, the author sells the videos converted into a two-dimensional art style; if film and television rights are sold, they directly sell the videos.”

“Authors using this creative form don't necessarily know how to draw; they are more like directors and editors. When publishing manga works, the website requires the work to be tagged as a ‘simulated world.’”

“When a manga author creates a manga, they need to temporarily bind the simulated world to our manga website so it can be converted into a two-dimensional art style. If an author actually knows how to draw and changes the observed plot, the website’s system will eventually discover it.”

It was really great to have a system that told me everything it knew.

Given this creative form, everything in the "manga" was something that truly happened in this world; the author could only choose whether or not to "draw" it.

Bai Xuechao pondered for a moment, then asked, “Xiao 6, I’m curious about simulated worlds; can you tell me more?”

Bai Xuechao's usual speaking voice was rather cool and clear, like a handful of cold snow at the peak of a high mountain. But at this moment, his tone was very gentle, as if this handful of snow had melted into clear, crisp snow water, his voice pure and pleasant, charming System Xiao 6 into a daze.

So Xiao 6 began to answer without hesitation.

“In our world, simulated worlds are great in every way, except for being expensive.”

“After purchasing a simulated world, creators only need to create characters and customize their appearances in the creation interface, give them character settings, and then perfect the worldview to run it. All characters will live in the world according to their own personalities, just like living people. When running the world, missing details are automatically filled in randomly by the system.”

“If they are too lazy to customize appearances, creators can also choose to let the system randomly generate faces. For unimportant characters and passersby, they can also choose to let the system randomly generate them.”

“However, once a simulated world starts running, its settings cannot be modified. One can only choose to reset, stop, or delete it. Resetting means starting over, and the randomly filled settings generated by the system will also be randomized again. If one chooses to stop, this world will be sealed, everything will be still, awaiting destruction or unsealing. If one chooses to delete, then this world will be destroyed, and the creator can recreate characters and run a new world.”

“Because simulated worlds are easy to get started with and have a high ceiling, they can be directly used to create mangas, animations, and even film and television works. So, in recent years, they have been very popular among creators, and some even use them as simulation games.”

Hearing that, a simulated world sounded quite fun. It was like a god creating a world and letting it develop freely.

No wonder Xiao 6 had told me that the manga author could be considered the god of this world.

However, Bai Xuechao soon thought of another question and asked, “Since everything in the simulated world is run by the system, and even some details are randomly filled in by the system, how can there be a fixed plot? And how can the plot collapse?”

How could something that didn't exist collapse?

Xiao 6 replied, “Some great creators can control the life trajectories of characters by giving them various settings. For example, if I create a character and set him not to oversleep, he will never be late for school because of oversleeping. Great creators use this method of giving characters numerous settings to keep the entire world's development under their control, forming the so-called plot.”

Bai Xuechao tapped his fingertips lightly on the hospital bed, murmuring, “That sounds quite challenging.”

Setting up character after character was easy, but making so many characters act according to the author's ideas without problems was quite difficult.

Xiao 6 said, “Exactly! That’s why those who can do it are great masters!”

Bai Xuechao smiled faintly, a beautiful, fleeting smile that left Xiao 6 stunned, yet what I said next was piercing, “The great master author you mentioned, their plot collapsed right at the beginning.”

Xiao 6: “…”

Sobbing.jpg

Xiao 6 instantly deflated and lit a code cigarette again.

“Actually, plot collapse is the norm. The randomly filled details by the system are not very controllable; no one knows which detail will cause the collapse before it happens. However, even when a great master author’s plot collapses, it’s usually small details snowballing into a major bug in the later stages, and at most, it ends badly if it can't be salvaged.”

Authors needed to give characters countless settings to make the plot follow their expectations.

But authors, after all, were not true gods; they could still overlook things.

Works created using simulated worlds that were evaluated by readers as “divine developments” or “starting strong but ending weak” were simply too numerous, and other websites were full of them.

That was why they said this creative form was difficult but brought a lot of fun.

But even though people complained after reading, when they saw works created using simulated worlds again, they couldn't help but go in and take a look. Perhaps it was that feeling of "even the author themselves can't be sure what will happen next" that was so captivating (?), which was why this creative form became increasingly popular.

“The simulated world’s system is an artificial idiot; it only knows how to run, not how to handle bugs—oh, for it, those shouldn’t be considered bugs. So, when authors are creating mangas, to prevent randomly generated details from affecting the plot's direction, they temporarily bind the simulated world to our manga website. At the same time, they submit their envisioned plot outline and open up some permissions for the simulated world, allowing our manga website’s system to maintain it and handle variables that cause the plot to deviate, which are bugs.”

Xiao 6 sadly spoke amidst the smoky haze, “Honestly, this is the biggest bug I’ve encountered since I came out of the factory; the important villain died right after appearing.”

Bai Xuechao couldn’t help but ask, “What was the last biggest bug?”

Xiao 6 sobbed, exhaled a puff of smoke, and its voice became even more sorrowful, “The male lead of a shoujo manga, due to incomplete authorial setting of his sexual orientation, became bisexual not long after the beginning. I wracked my code but couldn’t save it, turning it into a harem manga, and the bound host also became a member of the male lead’s harem…”

Bai Xuechao: “…”

That plot was quite outrageous.

However, from this, it seemed that the manga website’s system didn’t have much world authority either, just like the author, it couldn't modify settings. Otherwise, it would have been easier to just modify the male lead's sexual orientation setting.

From this, it could be seen that the system’s repair of plot bugs should mainly rely on binding a host, and by having the host complete tasks issued by the system, achieve the effect of repairing the plot.

I had pretty much gathered the information I needed.

“Okay, good, I understand the situation,” Bai Xuechao changed the subject. “So, the main quests you issue, I don’t actually have to complete all of them, right?”

Xiao 6, the entire system, was stunned, uttering a foolish, “Gak?”

Host, what terrifying things are you saying?!

If it didn't complete the tasks, how could it fix the broken plot!

Bai Xuechao's expression was calm, his clear voice composed as he said, “The plot outline submitted by the author must primarily be from the manga male lead’s perspective, and it wouldn’t be detailed enough to specify what every character says or does, right?”

The first task the system issued him was “Villain’s First Appearance,” and it didn’t require him to appear anywhere specific, in front of anyone, nor did it require him to say any specific lines. It only said that the appearance must have gravitas and not be too low-key, but it also didn’t say what the punishment would be if it were low-key.

From this, it could be inferred that no matter how his main villain quest was completed, as long as it was completed, it was fine.

Therefore, the plot outline should just be a simple, rough outline, not a script, and wouldn't be filled with many details, which meant there was a lot of room for maneuver.

Coupled with the fact that the original villain was dead, and I could take over the villain's role to compensate, it led me to a conjecture—

As long as it didn’t affect the plot related to the villain and the male lead, in other parts of the plot, whatever the villain did didn't matter.

In other words, outside of facing the male lead, I could do as I pleased.

Xiao 6 seemed to be intimidated by Bai Xuechao’s masterful attitude and, after a long pause, dazedly said, “Ye-yes…”

Bai Xuechao said, “Show me the author’s outline.”

“That’s not allowed!” Xiao 6 immediately refused without thinking, a giant red cross appearing before Bai Xuechao’s eyes, and then Xiao 6 explained, “You cannot see the future development of this world. Even if you are my bound host, I cannot spoil it for you!”

I see.

Bai Xuechao chose to take a step back and continued, “If I can’t see the future outline, then I can at least see the past one, right?”

Xiao 6 didn’t speak, seemingly hesitant.

Bai Xuechao lay on the hospital bed, turning his head to look at the sunset-dyed orange-red clouds outside the window, patiently persuading, “I can also see the past plot by logging into the manga website; these are all things that have already happened. The outline and the manga are just the difference between text and images, so it shouldn’t matter if I take a look at the past outline, right?”

Xiao 6 was convinced, “Alright…”

Rows of text appeared before Bai Xuechao’s eyes, the content being a summarized text version of the already updated manga.

I had to say, this outline was indeed quite… rudimentary.

Even more rudimentary than I had imagined.

For example, the plot of the male lead’s awakening at the beginning. The first sentence of the outline was: Zhou Chenhao got a fever and wanted to go to the hospital, was attacked by a special ability user on the way, and subdued the opponent.

However, the manga Bai Xuechao saw had more details that were not in the outline.

Zhou Chenhao went to the hospital late at night, so there was no one on the road. He was riding a shared electric bike and encountered a special ability attack when he tried to take an empty shortcut. Afterward, what he said, discovering that the attacker's real purpose was to eat him, and that he was injured during the fight with the opponent—none of these were written in the outline.

Another example.

Zhou Chenhao joined the official special ability organization—the Special Ability Incident Investigation and Defense Bureau (SAIDB for short), and underwent a month of training within the SAIDB.

Here, the outline simply wrote a sentence: When Zhou Chenhao participated in the SAIDB's intensive training, he met so-and-so, and after the training, he became teammates with so-and-so.

In the manga, not only were there scenes of Zhou Chenhao attending classes and training at the SAIDB training camp, which served to educate readers about the "alimentary special ability users" setting of this world, but there were also some daily interactions between Zhou Chenhao and others, especially focusing on his interactions with his two future teammates.

The outline was just one sentence, but the manga had several chapters updated.

In the next arc, when Zhou Chenhao and two teammates dealt with mutated species on the coast of D City, they accidentally stumbled upon special ability users engaged in illegal transactions at sea, and it was the same.

The outline was very simple, completely devoid of details, almost only writing the result of the plot, with hardly any process.

Bai Xuechao could roughly guess the reason.

The characters’ actions were all run by the system based on the author’s settings. The author could only control the general direction of the characters’ lives, forming the plot. However, what specific words the characters would say or what actions they would take in the plot were uncontrollable and unpredictable. They were like real, living people with their own thoughts.

These characters would naturally interact; the author didn’t need to specially design their interaction plot. As long as it could be ensured that the development of their lives met the author’s expectations, that was enough.

Over time, authors would get used to writing outlines this way, briefly writing or not writing the process, only writing the result of the event.

If the entire world's plot was likened to a person, the outline submitted by the author was the person's skeleton, and the flesh and other parts were all run by the system. It didn't matter if this person was fat or thin, or how thick their flesh was, as long as the skeleton had no problems, and the person wasn't "fractured."

This also sent a signal to Bai Xuechao, further escalating his conjecture—

My freedom was actually very high. As long as the skeleton of the plot, which was the result in the author's outline, could be completed, then what exactly happened to the male lead didn't matter.

After reading the outline, Bai Xuechao had a clear idea.

I said to System Xiao 6, “From now on, when you give me tasks, you only need to tell me what the male lead should accomplish.”

Xiao 6: “???”

How did the host’s thoughts jump to here?

Xiao 6 weakly spoke, “But the host’s task is to play the villain; you should complete what the villain is supposed to do.”

“No, me completing what the villain is supposed to do doesn’t guarantee that the male lead will follow the outline,” Bai Xuechao pointed at the text on the outline, his fingertip resting on a place where the process was missing. “The development process of all events is uncontrollable. A tiny detail in the middle could cause a butterfly effect, preventing the author’s predetermined outcome in the outline from being completed. Didn't you also say this was a snowball effect? That’s why plot collapse becomes the norm, and even great master authors can hardly avoid it.”

Xiao 6 was dizzy from listening, its code almost getting messed up, and it could only ask, “Then what should we do?”

“It’s simple, as I just said, you only need to tell me what outcome the male lead should achieve,” Bai Xuechao curved his lips, his fingertip slowly tracing the outline before him, his cool voice sounding a bit aloof. “I will make sure the male lead achieves the outline’s outcome.”

“Oh… okay.”

Xiao 6: QAQ Why does it feel like something isn’t quite right?