Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

This time, Zhao Youyue decided not to transmigrate into “Endless Apocalypse” and randomly select a character to possess. She decided to carefully lay the foundations for an easy victory by going for the creator first.

That’s right. She had sacrificed a highly-popular character card for this. She would not settle for anything below a 90% chance of success. If not, why else would she sacrifice her character card?

Zhao Youyue described her envisioning of “Chu Xuan” to Professor Chen in detail. Firstly, she had to be from the military, with a high rank to boot. Everyone would affectionately call her, “Colonel Chu.”

At the same time, Chu Xuan would be a first-generation, genetically modified person. She belonged to the technical military services branch. On top of that, she would be a mad scientist with brilliant ideas, while also being outstanding in all areas of science…

Due to the genetic modifications, her body did not produce several forms of hormones that humans usually required. The modifications had been tailored to increase her intelligence. Her IQ was 220, and her face was expressionless on a day-to-day basis (She would only look visibly mad when she encounters an unknown element, or when she is lying to someone). She had no so sense of taste, smell, pain, or touch. She had no desire, other than a sense of curiosity. She had been born in excellence and power.

In conclusion, her resourcefulness was unrivaled. She was so intelligent that others called her the devil. She was excellent at planning complex layouts, secret conspiracies, and in-depth analysis…

Colonel Chu could be regarded as the embodiment of ‘intelligence’ at its absolute limit. She would the mad scientist of everyone’s nightmares, or the mental patient in a strait-jacket. Beyond that, she would be everyone’s intelligent beauty, and beauty was irrefutable and un-dislikeable.

Zhao Youyue’s input had pierced through the Professor’s thoughts like an arrow straight through a piece of paper. Her creative mind was afire. Zhao Youyue’s input had been amazing. Still, she had her qualms about one particular trait. “Why must Chu Xuan be a girl? If the character is a guy, wouldn’t the spark between him and Zheng Yi be more interesting? Why not just call him ‘Chu Xuan’ [2]? That name changes everything! If Zheng Yi and Chu Xuan got together, sparks would fly!”

Professor Chen’s eyes lit up with the frenzied, crazy look of a mad inventor. She seemed to be very keen on portraying the ‘friendship’ and ‘bond’ between men. It was just like the anime “Naruto.” Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha had the bromance of the ages going on between them…

We should note that Professor Chen was not deliberately trying to go for the Yaoi route. However, she was aware that the crazed fujoshis ran rampant on the planet. If she did not insert that implicit flavoring between her male-on-male interactions, she would lose a huge portion of her readership.

It was just like Rosemary’s classical gaming novel, “The Strongest King.” It did not intentionally contain any Yaoi pairings. She was merely depicting the friendships as one normally would, but it somehow resulted in crazed fujoshis coming up with numerous shipping. What followed was a flood of inappropriate Doujins. Ultimately, it became a classic among the gaming genre.

Now, Professor Chen’s “Endless Apocalypse” was headed for this direction. She sincerely hoped for its success, even going so far as to produce all kinds of videos to promote her work. She might not yield any profit from it, but the sense of achievement was enough for her.

When Zhao Youyue heard about Professor Chen’s plans to change “Chu Xuan” to “Chu Xuan,” [1] she had to speak up. If the character was changed to a man, how was she supposed to possess it? She could only possess a female character in the literary world!

She attempted to dissuade the Professor. “The male ‘Chu Xuan’ is good, but people might not feel much for him. Who knows, they might even hate his self-centered and unscrupulous behavior from the very beginning. However, if he was a chick, and better, a beautiful chick, all would be forgiven, even if she committed homicide or arson. The ‘Yandere’ and ‘Killer Ghost’ attributes are also a type of Moe… Of course, she is not inherently evil. She just wants her squad to survive as long as possible. For this reason, she would even sacrifice herself.”

Zhao Youyue saw that Professor Chen seemed to be lost in her thoughts, so she pressed on. “Professor Chen, you should know that Otaku readers out there are increasing, day-by-day. As long as you create a female goddess character in your novel, and leave her forever single or even better, have no one understand about her feelings, all Otaku readers would love it. You see it, right? She does not belong to any single person in the novel. She belongs to every reader of the story!”

Professor Chen had to admit it. Lady Zhao’s words had moved her. It was true. Chick “Chu Xuan” would be cuter. If she committed the most depraved acts of evil, she would be forgiven, unconditionally. Well, who asked her to be a beautiful chick with short hair and glasses. On top of that, she was a female Colonel. There is a special kind of charm to a loli in military attire…

Zhao Youyue seemed to fear to have Chu Xuan as a male. It was just like proto-saber. Artoria could have ended up as a plain old male King Arthur. Gone was her cuteness and charm. There were so many Otaku fans in this circle, so they felt cheated and robbed of their money and soul.

Zhao Youyue gave her the final push. “Professor Chen, you’re so good at depicting the pure friendship between guys. Why not just try writing the pure friendship between the male protagonist, Zheng Yi, and Chu Xuan? If it turns out good, readers of the novel might even try shipping the two of them together. After all, Zheng Yi is ridiculously strong, while Chu Xuan is ridiculously intelligent. They won’t flirt like boy and girl. If anything, they would respect each others’ strengths and entrust their backs to one another…”

She finally got through to Professor Chen. Her brain was already working on how to present the interactions between these two characters. For starters, let’s have them hate each other. Textbook character development!

Why would they dislike each other? Of course, they had different methods of doing things. Chu Xuan was not someone who would bat her eyes as she manipulated someone to her ends. To accomplish a mission, she was willing to even be used as the chesspiece. She would only accept valuable teammates in her squad, while all others would be discarded…

On the other hand, Zheng Yi was more of a ‘Virgin Mary.’ He would do whatever it took to gain the trust of a new acquaintance. It was naive, but he hoped that everyone would survive the apocalypse. He would always attempt to save the world, no matter the cost!

Naturally, Zheng Yi and Chu Xuan would clash, in the beginning, at least!

Translation note:

[1] “Chu Xuan” (楚轩) is the name that was proposed by Professor Chen. The ‘Xuan’ in 楚轩 is different from the ‘Xuan’ in 楚萱 as both have the same Pinyin, but different meanings.