The Manga Extra Is Still Trying to Get Screen Time Today

Please check out my upcoming novel, Everyone Has Chuunibyou, But I'm Normal. The blurb is at the very end. Thanks for adding it to your reading list! Mu Wenxing has the classic gorgeous white hair straight out of a manga, long, slender, pale fingers, and a dazzling talent for card tricks. He is the magician who has never once shown his face at the Cursed Fate Circus. Just before he dies, everything suddenly seems to hit pause. A cheerful chime rings through his mind, and after the System explains things, he learns that he is actually in a manga world. He is also a minor member of the villain organization, the kind who is about to be unceremoniously killed off. [That face is incredible. I'd bet a hundred steamed buns that it's the author's show-off masterpiece!] [A new character gets killed off just like that? (Wait, what?)] [Damn! This is a failure for the white-haired guy] This is currently the most popular urban academy manga. Its protagonists are four students from the same Esper Academy who end up forming a team through one coincidence after another. As they work together, their bond grows stronger, and they uncover the villain organization’s conspiracy. Naturally, justice triumphs over evil in the end. As one of the forces of evil, Mu Wenxing scrolls through the manga’s comments and forum threads, sharing the same question as its readers: With a face like his, how could he possibly be a bit character who gets killed off after only one chapter? Isn’t that a terrible waste? System: [Host, please make an effort to get close to the protagonist team. The more popular you are, the longer you’ll survive~ It’s a golden opportunity, with no risk and plenty to gain.] Time is automatically rewound to five minutes before Mu Wenxing’s untimely demise. That day, when he encounters the upright and righteous protagonist team, Mu Wenxing is crouched on the ground, with a huge blaze roaring behind him. The beautiful young man raises his face. His little features are smudged with ash, making him look like a pampered, expensive cat who has somehow strayed from home. He blinks up at the brown-haired boy in the lead and calls, “Big brother?” The brown-haired boy comes to a halt. Mu Wenxing effortlessly puts on a lost, helpless expression. His clear pink eyes shimmer with tears. “Have you seen my brother? I can’t find him.” * The protagonist team takes Mu Wenxing back to Esper Academy. The four of them keep him well fed and well cared for, until he grows even more spoiled and innocent. Whenever the team goes on a mission, he follows close behind, insisting that he can’t pass up any chance to find his brother. With his pretty face, Mu Wenxing earns himself a surge of popularity. As the story progresses, his following on the manga forums grows ever larger. Even the casually revealed streak of innocent cruelty is naturally rationalized by the manga’s readers. [Bad guys deserve to be eliminated root and branch. Don’t you dare call Little Mu vicious! What has Little Mu ever done wrong? Letting a tiger return to the mountains is a huge mistake!] [I love this double standard. The tsundere kitty only shows his soft tummy to the protagonist team, and acts all fierce with everyone else] [My poor little sugar cake. He must have suffered so much as a child that he finds it hard to trust people] [Long live the spoiled beauty!! When he does bad things, it’s like a kitten deliberately knocking over a glass. There’s no way I can bring myself to blame him, aaah!] Mu Wenxing tilts his head in confusion and thinks it over carefully. At last, he nods with conviction. “Hmm, so that’s what they call tsundere.” * On the day the team confronts the great villain, Mu Wenxing stands safely protected in their midst. “Had your fun yet?” The great villain, dressed in a black trench coat and radiating a chilling air, stands opposite them, his calm voice edged with certainty. As soon as he finishes speaking, a sharp blade plunges into flesh with a dull thud. Mu Wenxing’s jade-white fingers, beautiful as a work of art, are stained red with blood. He pulls out the knife, flips it in his hand, and it turns into a playing card. Then he steps over to the great villain’s side, facing the protagonist team. The stabbed protagonist keeps spitting up blood. Veins bulge at his temples as he glares at Mu Wenxing standing beside the great villain. “Come back. Mu Wenxing. Come back!” Mu Wenxing acts as if he hasn’t heard a word. His eyes shine as he gazes up at the great villain with adoration. He sounds eager for praise as he says, “Big brother, I’m back.” [What!] [What?!!!] [My cat is actually part of the villain organization?!] [So the big brother he’s been searching for is the great villain? He must have had no choice. I’m quietly imagining a hundred thousand words of tragic childhood backstory TT] [Who would’ve thought? At least this villain fan finally gets a bite] * Reader’s guide: 1. One-on-one pairing, with different phases 2. More to come Upcoming novel starts here Everyone Has Chuunibyou, But I'm Normal This year’s interstellar military academy is packed with outstanding students: there’s the heir who throws money around like confetti, the hot-tempered little girl whose sharp tongue is practically a weapon, and the gentle heartthrob whose extreme duality means he’ll even bite a dog when he goes berserk. But the most legendary of them all is the commoner genius in the mecha combat program. Xie Luyan comes from a poor family, is drop-dead gorgeous, and keeps to himself. Every time he appears, his fans scream. He has all the makings of a legendary figure. On his first day at school, Xie Luyan beats the former top student in the combat program to a pulp. With a black shoulder bag slung over his back, he steps on the other guy’s hand and says coolly, “Move. You’re in my way.” The interstellar military academy is in an uproar. The forums are full of debate, but everyone agrees on one thing: the academy’s about to change. * On the day Xie Luyan gets into the interstellar military academy, he arrives full of anticipation for his wonderful new life. As soon as he enters campus, a stranger blocks his path. “Hey, kid! I hear you got the highest score on the written exam and chose the combat program. You know who I am? This mountain was opened by me, this tree was planted by me… Aaah!!” Xie Luyan kicks the guy flying and forcibly shuts him up. What is this chuunibyou nonsense?! Xie Luyan’s scalp tingles with secondhand embarrassment and his ears burn. He hurries away. But he never expected the interstellar military academy to be full of hidden talents, with one ridiculous chuunibyou line after another. There’s always someone even worse. One student loses a match, cries his eyes out, then yells at him, “Tears are a weapon of the weak! Don’t think you’ve beaten me!” Xie Luyan: …Maybe wipe your tears first before saying that. Another stares at his hands in the middle of the night and suddenly intones, “My hands are already stained with blood.” Xie Luyan: …If you’re going through a dark phase, maybe go get some sun? Then there’s the one who seems to suddenly get a poetic buff while walking, leans against a tree, and murmurs, “If melancholy is a talent, then I must be exceptionally gifted.” Xie Luyan: …How did that car miss you last time? Xie Luyan grits his teeth and says nothing. He feels like he’s living in a bizarre world where everyone has chuunibyou and he’s the only normal person. He’s so frustrated he’s practically getting internal injuries, and he silently rants: What kind of people go to the interstellar military academy?! At least there’s one normal person in the command program. Xie Luyan feels like he’s found his soulmate, as if they’ve known each other forever, and they go everywhere together. Until the command program’s heir gazes at him under the night sky and invites him to elope, saying passionately, “I don’t need a lot of money. I need a lot of love.” Xie Luyan, who is desperate for money, closes his eyes and punches him in the face. “Shut up.” The heir gets a nosebleed, but still manages to finish his line: “Maybe this is the world’s punishment for me.” Then he clutches his chest and collapses dramatically. Xie Luyan lets out a breath and murmurs, “I’m not the one who’s wrong. It’s the world.” * Reader’s guide: 1. A comedy of embarrassment: the recipient is cool on the outside and a nonstop complainer on the inside; the gong is the least chuunibyou person in the world, but hides his “condition” very well 2. Light and funny (probably) 3. The recipient looks like he fits right in with the chuunibyou crowd, and sometimes gets infected and spouts a few pretentious lines himself 4. More to come Theme: Hard work will eventually turn the tables