Ye Cen unexpectedly awakened to her role and discovered that she was the go-to passerby character in three hugely popular shonen manga.
In the action-packed superpower manga, she was the passerby who stood nearby explaining the heroes' moves while they fought, and handing out the line, "How terrifying!"
In the cyberpunk wasteland manga, she was the passerby repeatedly brought back because the author couldn't be bothered to change the character model. She played the prosthetics, bar, fencing, and smuggling boss who sold the protagonist his gear.
In the supernatural urban fantasy manga, she was the designated source of information, always running toward wherever there was a ghost to tell the protagonist, "It's dangerous here" or "They say someone died here."
Ye Cen played her passerby role diligently and was perfectly happy with it. She had no desire to join the protagonist's crew or strike out on her own as a popular villain.
Popular manga characters with big, dramatic moments were too dangerous. As a repeatedly reused background character, she could drop into the edges of the plot right on cue to watch the show, stay far away from danger, and keep herself, her family, and her friends from being sacrificed for the story. What could be better?
Until one day, she saw herself in the manga:
A menacing big-boss figure, shrouded in heavy shadows by the artist, rarely shown full face, and radiating an overwhelming presence whenever she appeared.
The protagonists and villains alike looked at her with fear or reverence, calling her the wielder of omniscient powers, the CFO who commanded a massive business empire in the cyberpunk city, and the guide who always appeared wherever a new ghost realm emerged.
Ye Cen: ...Me?
She only wanted to be a passerby. Stop adding random backstory to her!
Manga readers: Aaaaaah, we love how Sister Cen wanders through every major plotline, casually calls out the villain's killer move, then stubbornly insists she's just an ordinary person!
Theme: Even passersby have value.
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