Passerby, Scraping By in a Manga by Shipping Guys

Shi Songyu got a useless System and discovered that his world was a high-risk comic. If he couldn’t gain popularity, he would die! At the beginning of the comic, the protagonist made his entrance. Shi Songyu was right across the street, in front of a convenience store, a roughly sketched background character whose face hadn’t even been drawn! Good news: There weren’t any dangerous plotlines at the beginning of the comic. Bad news: With his popularity still too low, he had only one day of life left. Shi Songyu couldn’t take it anymore. He marched right up to the protagonist, risking his wrath, grabbed him by the collar, and picked a fight. I’m the school bully. Are you scared, protagonist? Lin Que paused, then smiled and laid his hand over Shi Songyu’s. “Good morning, Shi. Would you like to walk to school together?” Shi Songyu: “…You know me?” Lin Que smiled, his eyes curving. “Didn’t you notice? I was looking for an excuse to hit on you.” Shi Songyu: … When the comic updated, Shi Songyu finally became visible. It was like he’d wandered into a romance drama: in the protagonist’s eyes, he was so beautiful it was terrifying. The comments section exploded: [Is this supposed to be a scene showing how irresistible the protagonist is? Fine, I guess, but shouldn’t the person getting hit on be the other way around?] [A woman would be one thing, but isn’t this guy a man? No matter how pretty he is, he’s still a man!] [Hot-blooded comics don’t pander to fujoshi. Go home and grow sweet potatoes instead.] [Damn author, the comic’s barely started and you’re already pandering to fujoshi. Hope it tanks!] [How can you call it pandering? The author’s clearly trying to improve!] Overnight, the comic shot into the top three on the sales chart. Shi Songyu went from a faceless extra to a popular character. Shi Songyu’s eyes went wide. Wait, it’s that easy…? Isn’t this easier than stealing the protagonist’s spotlight or getting caught up in dangerous plotlines? Shi Songyu made up his mind. He’d sell BL pairings to stay alive in the comic world! * Whoever the readers shipped, he’d go sell the pairing with them. Lin Que, who wanted nothing more than an ordinary life, spending his days as a regular college student and his nights as a ruthless anomaly cleaner. The official leader of the Ability Bureau, the cold and autocratic 1st. The morally ambiguous, fun-loving criminal K, who decided who lived and died according to his whims. Shi Songyu went after every one of them. The comments section joked that Shi Songyu was basically an incubus, stealing everyone’s attention the moment he appeared. Others said he was one of the comic’s biggest mistakes. Shi Songyu didn’t care. He only had to flirt a little, and the comments section would go wild, the collected volumes would sell millions, and the second and third male leads would all confess to him. Shi Songyu was sweating buckets. How could a hot-blooded comic have actual gay men in it? He hurriedly used the protagonist as an excuse. Then, that night, the comic revealed that the protagonist, who wanted to live an ordinary life, the cold and autocratic 1st, and the morally ambiguous, fun-loving criminal were all the same person! They were all Lin Que’s secret identities! Shi Songyu immediately tried to run. He opened the door, and Lin Que was standing outside, smiling as he reached out to him. “I waited for ages, but you never came to confess, so I brought myself to you.” Shi Songyu: … ◆The protagonist is a hot character at the center of a shipping web. The comic’s top three pairings are all with him, either as himself or through a secret identity, and the different fan groups often fight. ◆There are lots of scenes with fujoshi shipping characters, and not much plot. Every plot point is designed to serve the romantic pairing. ◆The protagonist may have more than two secret identities, but only two appear regularly in the comic. ◆This is a fictional setting. Don’t look for real-world parallels in a fictional world.jpg Recommended upcoming story of a similar type ①: “An Ordinary Person, Forced on by the Most Popular Characters” Blurb: Lou Xuejin was assigned to a new department. The comic transmigration department was famous for its high-risk worlds and incredibly low survival rate. The mission was simple: survive in various comic worlds. The problem was that the mission completion rate was a pitiful 0.1%. The identity cards he got: blind, mute, paralyzed from the waist down, living in a world where ugliness was considered beauty… The comic genres: killers, monsters, impostors, superpowers… Lou Xuejin: I’m not making it out alive. I’ll just wait to die. Goodbye 😨 System (worried): If we don’t get any results, we’re going to be fired. Lou Xuejin: I guess I have no choice but to cling to powerful people everywhere and stay alive 😖 … The most popular characters in comics were either warm on the outside and cold on the inside, or laid-back and carefree; either stoic and cool, but deeply devoted, or gentle and aloof, yet heartless. When it counted, they were all reliable, like a sturdy pillar to lean on. They all had two traits in common: overwhelming strength and an intense sense of distance. Lou Xuejin planned to cling to the protagonist and coast through life, but the most popular characters came looking for him of their own accord. … In a hot-blooded battle comic: a blind owner of a self-service sex shop clings to the protagonist next door. The protagonist’s compassion runs wild, and he brings the shopkeeper meals every day. One day, though, the visitor changes. The most popular character is an immature brat who often teases him. Lou Xuejin pretends not to notice and plays along 😎 A few days later, the protagonist is knocking on the door outside. Lou Xuejin is behind it 🥵, his toes barely touching the floor. The most popular character chuckles in his ear: “You should keep your mouth shut, or he’ll hear us~” In a modern supernatural comic: a paralyzed rich kid. In a suspense-horror comic: a greedy, mute sidekick. … I’m so sick of being forced into love by hot characters every time! 😤 Recommended upcoming story of a similar type ②: “An Extra in a Creepy Cartoon Sells BL to Survive” Blurb: Shi Fuxue was dragged into a horror game. Luckily, he got bound to a System in the beginner level and discovered that the world was a creepy cartoon, where he was one of the most common background characters. Good news: A golden finger had fallen right into his lap 😎 Bad news: He was about to die 😨 His useless System let him watch the cartoon, but didn’t even tell him who the protagonist was! With no other options, Shi Fuxue picked out the best-looking man in the beginner level, a man who looked completely at ease and could instantly kill monsters without even lifting a finger. If he wasn’t the protagonist, who was? There wasn’t time to cling to him. While he wasn’t looking, Shi Fuxue lunged forward and kissed him forcefully 😙 Whether he died from the start would come down to this one frame! Even a cannon-fodder character who sexually harassed the protagonist could survive two more episodes than an extra! The man froze. As Shi Fuxue stared at him in shock, he wrapped a hand around Shi Fuxue’s slender waist, touched the bite mark on his lower lip with his tongue, and looked thoughtful 🤔 “You kissed me. Do you know me? Did I have a boyfriend before I lost my memory?” Shi Fuxue: !! He’s a powerful protagonist with amnesia! The man smiled. “If you don’t know me, are you sexually harassing me?” 😄 Remembering how he’d instantly killed the monsters, Shi Fuxue gritted his teeth. “Yes, I’m your boyfriend!” 😤 At death’s door, even a straight man can turn gay in an instant! The cartoon updated in real time, and question marks flooded the comments above their heads as its popularity soared. [Wait, did I go blind? Two men just kissed? My eyes! 😨] [A random extra just appeared? Hold on, he’s so handsome! Was he hanging around in the background before? 😉] [Heh, the rumored boyfriend obviously won’t survive long. I’ll follow the comic. That face is going to look gorgeous when he dies 😏] [Rainbow Society, you learned all the wrong things! A no-pairing ensemble horror cartoon is pandering to fujoshi? You don’t care about sales anymore? I’ll say it now: if subscriptions go over a hundred, I lose! 😡] […Good heavens, subscriptions are over ten thousand. Who’s even buying this episode?! 😱] The comments were full of insults, but that didn’t stop Shi Fuxue from going from an extra who was supposed to die from the start to the protagonist’s rumored boyfriend. His popularity skyrocketed. Shi Fuxue’s eyes went wide. Fortune favors the bold! If selling BL could keep him alive in a horror game, what reason did he have not to do it? An ensemble cast? There were other protagonists, too? Shi Fuxue’s gaze slowly grew determined. … Whoever had the protagonist’s makings, Shi Fuxue would go sell BL with them. The top infinite-game player was his admired idol. Shi Fuxue put on the act of a little fanboy, but didn’t even know the name of his idol’s signature weapon. His teammate (a secret identity) smiled knowingly. “You’re such a fake fan.” 😊 The utterly charming heartthrob was a friend he had a crush on. Shi Fuxue watched the players and NPCs act like they’d lost their minds, rushing to die for the heartthrob. Afraid they’d find out he wasn’t under the spell, he worked hard to improve his status as a devoted follower while pretending to be infatuated. The next day, the heartthrob singled him out. “You were the only one sleeping soundly last night.” Shi Fuxue: …Can’t a devoted follower sleep anymore? 😨 The max-level expert playing the pig to eat the tiger was his underling, whom he looked after. He was the best-looking person in the level, so Shi Fuxue figured he should change his image, too. He couldn’t keep letting the audience joke that he was getting screwed. So he saved the other man, then noticed something was off halfway through and started pretending he hadn’t noticed. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a good enough actor. The expert realized that Shi Fuxue had noticed something was wrong, and Shi Fuxue realized the expert knew that he had noticed. The two of them knew exactly what was going on, but kept playing their roles. (The expert tried to flip the table, but Shi Fuxue held him down and wouldn’t let him.) 🤗 vs 😖 The madcap trickster who deceived the gods was his confidant, sometimes friend and sometimes foe. Shi Fuxue unexpectedly ended up in a level with a classmate from the real world. The other players didn’t know, but surely his classmate knew about his sexual orientation, especially since the guy hated him 😰 In desperation, he picked a madman who appeared and disappeared without a trace and would never show up in a low-level game, then made up a story about how close they were. He told it with such tears and conviction: childhood friends, each other’s beloved, a story about how they could never go back to the carefree days of their youth. Even when his classmate angrily called him a liar, his teammate believed every word. The level’s NPCs were moved by the story he’d made up. They said the madman was here right now, and they’d bring him over so the two of them could put the past behind them. The traveler in the seat beside them lowered his newspaper and smiled with interest at Shi Fuxue, whose face had gone rigid. The next second, he turned Shi Fuxue into a cat and held him in his hands. Shi Fuxue arched his back and cried out in terror 😱. “Meow, meow, meow!” The madman raised an eyebrow 😉. “Well, look at that. You’ve got your hackles up.” The amnesiac evil god who thought he was an ordinary person was his boyfriend. When it came to this first target for selling BL, Shi Fuxue gave him everything he asked for and spoiled him rotten. Other than the necessary kisses, though, he did nothing. Until one night, his boyfriend climbed into his bed and gave him a doubtful look. “Why aren’t we doing it? Are you really my boyfriend?” 🧐 Shi Fuxue: … He hadn’t meant to get himself involved while selling BL! 😵 … The audience insulted him for turning a no-pairing cartoon into a gay romance, while insisting that next episode, all his targets had to run into each other. They couldn’t wait for the resulting love triangle chaos 🤣 Every time he nearly got caught by the protagonists, the comments above his head exploded. Shi Fuxue smiled dismissively 😌. There were countless levels in the infinite game, and his BL targets would never run into each other. What were the odds? He took his flirting even further. But when the next level began, Shi Fuxue opened his eyes to find that every teammate was one of his BL targets. The protagonists warily sized each other up, then instinctively started walking toward him. When they saw that they were all headed in the same direction, they stopped and looked at Shi Fuxue in unison 😶 With everyone watching, Shi Fuxue was sweating buckets 🥶 … Completed novel: “Career-Minded Straight Man, but a Heartthrob [Quick Transmigration]” Theme: Even in adversity, never give up your best qualities