A Manga Sequel, but the Previous Hero Has Gone Mad

[Subscribe to the whole novel for the price of one cup of milk tea~] [Coming soon: My Double-Personality Act as a Background Character in a Manga. Blurb at the very bottom~] One day, while enjoying a leisurely college life, Li Ming suddenly came across a “discussion forum” from beyond his world. The forum users called Li Ming’s world a manga, his roommate the protagonist, and Li Ming a disposable side character Li Ming: ...Huh? He hadn’t wanted to believe it, but after witnessing reality unfold exactly as the forum described, he had no choice but to accept it. After staying up all night piecing together the basic plot from the forum, Li Ming summed up a few key points: 1. This is the sequel to a manga. 2. The previous manga’s protagonist is his roommate, Jiang Huai. 3. After a series of events, the previous protagonist went mad and eventually succeeded in destroying the world. 4. The world has been reset. 5. Every reader on the forum agrees one hundred percent: if things follow the previous manga’s plot again, that bastard of a protagonist will definitely destroy the world once more. Li Ming: ... [But the author hasn’t announced the sequel’s protagonist yet, and all they’ve said is that they want to flesh out the protagonist’s character through a bystander’s perspective in the early chapters.] [Right, exactly. “Fleshing things out from a bystander’s perspective” means writing the college students getting wiped out all over again.] [So the author’s making a sequel just so we can watch the whole school get wiped out again?] [Are we really going to watch the protagonist destroy the world again? QvQ This manga’s gotten so unhinged I can’t even understand it anymore.] [A damned protagonist in a damned world. (Amen)] Li Ming (screaming): ...No, the college students won’t all die, and the world won’t be destroyed! Because From today onward, I’m the damned sequel’s protagonist! * Misty City is currently the hottest action-packed urban manga for boys. It won readers over early in its run with thrilling fights and gorgeous artwork, but the thing that made it a sensation and an undisputed modern hit was its subversive ending. The protagonist of a hot-blooded shonen manga ended up destroying the world, and he actually succeeded. Almost every reader was furious with the ending. So just as readers’ discontent was about to reach its peak, the publisher rushed out an announcement: [Misty City’s timeline has been reset. The manga sequel will be released in early June.] On the sequel’s release day, countless readers flocked to it. And what they saw was A sequel protagonist who had died right at the start of the previous series. [Coming soon: My Double-Personality Act as a Background Character in a Manga. Please add it to your favorites~] On his way to register at the Esper Academy, Ji Qing, an S-rank freshman, was bound to a manga forum System. Comparing the manga with the school brochure, he realized that the protagonist was a classmate in his year. Ji Qing: Interesting. At this point, the protagonist was still an F-rank weakling, while Ji Qing was already at the top of the freshman class. While the S-class students taunted the protagonist, Ji Qing daydreamed in the library. While they fought him in duels, Ji Qing fed fish at the pond. While they were soundly defeated by him, Ji Qing ate in the cafeteria... Watching the stale, clumsy plot unfold in the manga, Ji Qing found it painfully dull. Meanwhile, the System that had vanished as soon as it bound itself to him suddenly returned. Looking at the manga in front of him, Ji Qing had a flash of inspiration Ji Qing (excited): Let’s make the story a lot more interesting from here on! System (horrified): ...What are you planning to do?!!! * Esper Hunter Academy is a mediocre shonen manga about an academy for people with supernatural abilities. The early story stays within the academy, following the protagonist through one stale, clumsy plotline after another. Just as readers were growing tired of it, the arrival of a new character instantly set the forum ablaze He was arrogant and utterly unhinged. His origins were mysterious, yet he had the exact same face as the freshman class’s top student. He moved between the worlds of light and darkness, helping the protagonist time and again, only to put him in danger just as often. The manga became an enormous hit, and the forums filled with ship wars and plot discussions. After readers had spent hundreds of pages debating his relationship with the top freshman and the protagonist, the story finally revealed his identity and past. Manga forum: “Waaah, it’s that ‘after you left, I became you’ thing!” “Revenge, except I’m the only one getting revenge.” “Who actually died? I want revenge no matter who it was, aaaaah!” “Protagonist, stop standing there like an idiot! Hurry up and convince him to join your group!” Ji Qing: Well? The story’s a lot more interesting now, isn’t it? System (coldly): ...What do you mean, “well”? You took a perfectly good hot-blooded shonen manga and turned it into a revenge story, aaaaaah!!! Theme: Never betray youthful friendship