Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Around nine at night, Zhao Youyue closed the “Wind Manga” which she was holding. She must admit, that it felt really weird for seeing the character “Xu Jing” into whom she shifted across the Dimensional Gate, along with the things she had undergone to appear in the real-world manga.

There was this feeling of hers being particularly in rage and desired to cause chaos due to the abuse from the mangaka in the manga world. But now, after reading the manga itself in the real world, surprisingly she had this feeling to “crow over the things that one is not involved”. After all, she was now “Zhao Youyue” and not “Xu Jing”. No matter what Xu Jing had suffered in the manga world, she would be untouched in the real world.

That was why Zhao Youyue did not felt shaken upon seeing the fan service of “Xu jing” in the manga. This was her body anyway.

Objectively speaking, this mangaka named “Su Li” had portrayed “Xu Jing” perfectly well. It felt like when Su Li was drawing Xu Jing, she was in a total state of outbursting innovation and drawing skills.

Zhao Youyue had a hunch that this was related to her shifting into “Xu Jing”. She gave “Xu Jing” an actual soul, and the character’s words and deeds were rather sensible too. This had given a third dimension to “Xu Jing”. It was not merely the “life-like” level, but she had actually obtained a soul. Compared to the other lifeless stereotype, the difference was pretty obvious. That was why many readers thought that all the stories and characters in “Pure Romance” were just to serve as a foil to “Xu Jing”, causing her to stand out of the crowd.

From a different perspective, this explained the creativity level of Su Li, specifically her characterisation was too normal. If Zhao Youyue was entering a world of a title created by a high level author, or a world of a group work where every character is vivid, naturally she would not stand out of the crowd and outshine the others.

To Zhao Youyue, this kind of situation had its pros and cons. Naturally, the pros were that “Xu Jing” could easily stand out and leave a deep impression towards countless readers. As for the cons, “Pure Romance” would not break through the bottleneck and would still be known as an ordinary artwork which would not last long. After all, a title could not be supported solely by a character.

In this situation, if Zhao Youyue did not do anything, “Xu Jing” might be a hit for a short period but would slowly be forgotten. Never would she become an iconic character.

Hence, she would not allow Su Li who was flat on all aspects other than erotic scenes to follow her original idea during production. After her long stay while observing the world of “Pure Romance”, she had already gotten a clear picture of her drawing routing of Su Li. Wasn’t it obvious? The reason “Xu Jing” was abused so ruthlessly, following by the appearance of the hero and his sister in the critical moment, was only to let him played the plot of “Hero saves Beauty” again. Then he could reasonably add “Xu Jing” into his harem, couldn’t he?

Wait, how could Zhao Youyue allow Su Li to continue with a story like that? If “Xu Jing” could be turned into an iconic character after joining the harem, she would not mind doing so. It was not her body anyway. Under special circumstances, she could also separate the sensory organs directly, and could shift into Xu Jing again after the story.

Once “Xu Jing” became an icon, she would be able to inherit the ability of Xu Jing and become the type that could turn on and off. This way, she would not need to worry about her studies anymore. She could switch on the ability everyday during the class and for another two more hours after she went home. Then it would be peculiar if she failed to be an elite scholar.

Also, by switching on the Xu Jing’s ability during the exam would eliminate all careless mistakes. Losing marks due to carelessness shall not be belittled. If that was not taken seriously enough, then after every exam when the test papers were returned back, she could not help but to sigh. As to think of what would have happened and how much ranking would go up if the careless mistakes were not made. But the truth is, there are several people who can never cure their carelessness.

Attentiveness is actually a talent. Just like diligence, especially one in a persevered way.

Anyway, Xu Jing did possess all of these talents and abilities.

Sadly, Zhao Youyue did not believe that joining the harem would make “Xu Jing” an icon. On the contrary, it would only destroy “Xu Jing” and make her one of the “plain-jane-s”. She would never possess her strong and independent attractiveness anymore and would only end up becoming an accessory of the male protagonist. Not to mention of becoming an icon.

Most of the men loves needy girls who stick around them. But the ones they actually admire were those who stood on their own and possessed a strong personality. The perseverance, endeavor, independence, tenacity, cool, demure and attentiveness of Xu Jing impressed countless male readers. But if “Xu Jing” ended up becoming one of the harem of the male protagonist, would she still bring up these qualities?

Su Li had never thought of this. She cared nothing more than the high popularity of Xu Jing at the moment. Besides, for a girl as popular as her to join the harem of the male protagonist was what every male readers would love to see. Only this would allow her work to gain popularity and finally be elevated to an anime successfully.

What a foolish thought. After all, Su Li was just a fresh blood from the Doujin manga world.

Actually, Zhao Youyue already went online and saw the great dispute among “Pure Romance” readers who read the latest chapter. They almost broke into two factions and fell into chaos. Weibo, bulletin board, forums and other social networks were their battlefields. This completely heated up “Pure Romance”, a harem manga which merely made a small fame. Of course, a lot of rubberneck chose to try out this manga, as they wanted to see what sorcery did this character “Xu Jing” wield to let so many readers fought over her.

This dispute was about Xu Jing, that whether she should be added into the harem of the male protagonist. Around sixty percent of readers thought that such amazing character like Xu Jing must be added into the harem rather than to present her upon somebody else.

In harem stories, “giving away the girl” is deadly!

Although there were still forty percent of readers who thought that a loser like the male protagonist did not qualify to add Goddess “Xu Jing” into his harem. It was as if he sullied their goddess!

How could someone allow her to become a mistress when she already had such a pitiful fate?

With so many girls lining in front, what queue number would she get if she became a mistress? Was she such a cheapskate to start fighting with those pretty-faced girls?

Couldn’t she find a faithful man?

Anyway if the male protagonist got Xu Jing into his harem, it would completely destroy such a character!

They strongly requested the mangaka to draw a side story featuring “Xu Jing” as the main character. No matter the story was just about her indulging in her studies, the various studying posture of hers, her hard works at doing housework, helping her mother to cook or her routine of taking care of her severely sick father, it would never be boresome for them!

They even thought of a name for the mangaka by calling it “To-aru Super Learning Tyrant of Pure Romance”[1]. Perhaps it would turn out to be more famous than the original.

Translation note:

[1] 某纯恋的超级女学霸– To-aru Super Learning Tyrant of Pure Romance (A certain Super Learning Tyrant of Pure Romance).

Originated from a Japanese manga “とある科学の超電磁砲”or”某科学的超电磁炮”or To-aru Kagaku no Railgun.