The Comic Book Boss's Survival Manual

From the moment Mu Feibai first picked up a pen to write a story, he finally found a little room to breathe in a barren, suffocating world.

He told the System, "I've had enough of being bullied and looked at strangely all my life. Only in the stories I write can I truly be myself."

The System replied: [Mr. Mu, who has ranked No. 1 on both the "Most Popular Manga Characters" list and the "Most Terrifying Villains" list for three years straight, and has spent those same three years fooling the protagonists and readers alike under his dual identities as Luo Meng and an author, please be quiet.]

*

The living whisper among themselves. The dead remain silent.

They listen to the lies of the living and interpret the silence of the dead. Their duty is to ensure the two never meet.

The manga Rebirth of the Eerie Codex tells the story of a group of exorcists who move between the living and the dead, peering into the boundary between life and death.

And Luo Meng is the heretic who seeks to overturn the world's laws, drive the living to destroy themselves, and bring the dead back to life.

This is how readers of Rebirth of the Eerie Codex describe him:

[The source of all evil.]

[The most cruel and cunning ultimate villain in history, with the most outrageous abilities and an indestructible nature!]

[Luo Meng is a consciousness. He can become anyone. He is a ghost who exists only in the future, yet can peer into and alter the past!]

["Listen. I've come here."]

["I will grant you all a new life."]

[Rather than saying Luo Meng wants to destroy all living things, it's more like he's genuinely trying to figure out how the dead can "survive" in this world.]

[Don't be fooled! He was kind to some of the dead, but he never mentions how he later used them until they were utterly obliterated!]

[In short, Luo Meng is an ultimate villain who seems bent on creating a world for the dead, but whose true goal is unclear and who will stop at nothing.]

"Anyway, Mr. Luo Meng, if you don't hand in a new outline this week, I'll have to come over and corner you."

Mu Feibai, who writes under the pen name Luo Meng, hung up on his editor and opened his computer. In the blank document, he solemnly typed two words:

[Outline:]

...and a colon.

*

At first, when Mu Feibai learned that this world was a manga and that he was the most terrifying villain in the story, he took it calmly.

"I've spent my whole life walking on thin ice, surrounded by ruin. Whether I live or die is up to fate."

Later, when he discovered that the first protagonist was his taciturn father, the second was his long-lost older brother, and the third was his childhood friend, Mu Feibai jolted upright from his deathbed.

"Wait, why is this an all-too-familiar cast?!"

Hey, me, help me out. My embarrassing past is about to come to light!

1. Male lead has no romantic pairing. The story features some twisted family bonds and friendships.

Theme: Never give up, even when trapped in a desperate situation.