Can a Socially Anxious Shut-In Become a Popular Character?

[Pre-release: The Manga Boss Character Profile Completion Plan; blurb at the very bottom~]

Chu Chi was bound to a manga forum System as he lay dying.

The System required him to claim the title of the manga's most popular character, or his life would end the moment the manga did.

The good news: Any setting believed by more than 80% of readers would become reality in the manga.

The bad news: The manga artist said the story would only cover six months in the manga world. In other words, Chu Chi had to rack up enough standout moments and become the most popular character within the next six months.

Another piece of good news: He could have a forum account all to himself.

All right, here's the problem:

How could someone who could barely get a word out in front of strangers survive in a manga world where ghosts, evil spirits, and supernatural creatures coexisted, while also claiming the throne of the most popular character within the next six months?

Chu Chi: ...I'm doomed.

*

Chu Chi was a natural-born social recluse, so he decided to go all in on presenting himself as a "cool, taciturn, masked hottie." But for some reason, manga readers always saw right through the social mask to who he really was...

[I'm dying laughing. Who even is the cool guy in the protagonist's mind? Our Xiao Chi has to run through three rounds of internal monologue every time he talks to the protagonist, hahaha!]

[I'm dying to know when the protagonist will discover the real Xiao Chi.]

[They talked past each other the whole way, and neither one understood what the other actually meant, hahaha... Are they both each other's social disasters? Hahahaha...]

[Hahaha, do you guys really love arguing with thin air this much?]

Chu Chi let out a melancholy sigh. "System, am I really that hard to watch?"

System, coldly: "...As long as you survive."

[Pre-release: The Manga Boss Character Profile Completion Plan. Please add it to your collection~]

The popular shonen manga The Worlds Within and Without received an extremely low rating and overwhelmingly negative, heated feedback after its villainous Boss was abruptly redeemed and its ending relied on a deus ex machina.

The newly born manga world was caught in the fallout and nearly destroyed.

Fang Qi'an and System 23 were urgently dispatched to return to the beginning and fix the story.

Fang Qi'an: ...I see.

Fang Qi'an: Basically, I just need to flesh out the villain's character profile.

*

The Worlds Within and Without was the hottest urban fantasy shonen manga around.

Its complex worldbuilding, vividly realized protagonist team, and constant conflicts had once propelled it to the top of the manga platform's rankings.

That is, until the appearance of that man...

He was the watchman of dawn, the judge of night.

He was everywhere, yet nowhere to be found.

The villains saw him as their mentor, while the protagonists saw him as their nemesis. Manga readers were utterly captivated, fan works flourished everywhere, and the manga remained at the top of the platform's rankings.

Still, plenty of readers worried the story would fall apart at the end. Then came the finale...

Memories and the final battle intertwined.

Every cause and every past event was laid bare on the page.

"I wield the edge that rebels against the world, seeking only to dispel the shadows of the old world," he said.

"My life's wish is to renew the world, even if it costs me my life."

Manga forum:

"You could draw like this all along, you old fraud?"

"Such a great character, such a great plot, sob sob sob."

"No one held anyone back. Everyone wanted to make the world better, and yet conflict still happened, ahhh! I'm sobbing!"

"Begging you, old fraud, write a protagonist with the Boss's character profile!"

"Amazing! I haven't enjoyed a story this much in ages!"

Fang Qi'an: "Yes! All done!"

System (screaming): "What's there to celebrate?! You're supposed to be the Boss, not steal all the spotlight!"

Theme: The bonds of youthful friendship must never be betrayed.