Just an Ordinary, Popular Person

The cover was commissioned for commercial use, and archived on May 10. This was originally meant to fulfill my dream of writing the kind of shonen manga and light novel I used to love: everyone has a one-sided crush on the central protagonist, a beloved group pet.

[Everyday supernatural abilities, and the protagonist really is an ordinary person]

Jiang Ci had always been a very popular kid.

In kindergarten, a bunch of kids fought over who got to play with him.

In elementary school, a bunch of buddies fought over who got to be his "best friend."

In middle school, the school bully girl and the school bully boy fought over who got to date him.

By high school, a group of people had voluntarily pledged their loyalty and offered to become his underlings, giving him the royal treatment and letting him boss everyone around at school.

Because of his parents' jobs, Jiang Ci had to transfer schools and move away. On his last day, all the underlings from No. 12 Middle School came to see him off, crying and begging him not to go.

Jiang Ci said goodbye to his underlings and transferred to a new school, where he joined a new class.

Then he realized he might have transmigrated...

His deskmate wore strange clothes, dropped out of the sky, and clambered back through the classroom window, looking like a mess, before taking his seat for class.

His classmate behind him gave off so much cold air that everything within a foot of him was coated in a thin layer of frost. He was basically a human air conditioner for summer.

There was also a boisterous girl in the next classroom who loved dropping by to see Jiang Ci's deskmate and the guy behind him. Every time she showed up, she would whisper to his deskmate, thinking she was being quiet: "Oh my god! Your new deskmate is seriously gorgeous!"

The three of them often disappeared together, then suddenly reappeared together.

They even had mysterious bloodstains on them.

And all their classmates acted as if this were perfectly normal.

Jiang Ci finally couldn't take it anymore. Grabbing his deskmate by the clothes, he said, "Could you come back through the front door next time? Stop flying in from the sky."

The three of them immediately made the same face as the figure in the famous painting The Scream.

It turned out Jiang Ci had transmigrated. The world he lived in was a shonen manga, and there was another "hidden world" inhabited by people with supernatural abilities and monsters.

*

Forced into the hidden world because he could see things ordinary people couldn't, Jiang Ci joined a mysterious organization and was placed under protection. He did his best to be a good support staff member.

Then he discovered that even in the hidden world, he was just as popular.

Strange creatures that loved to deliberately bump into passersby turned into adorable little blobs he could squish and knead to his heart's content when they were in front of him.

A senior whom everyone else kept at arm's length inexplicably paid him a great deal of attention and quietly helped him out behind the scenes.

His teammates started arguing over who got to be on his team.

Rival organizations sent people to poach him every few days, trying to lure him away with all sorts of threats and bribes.

One day, a newly formed villainous organization kidnapped him, claiming he looked like a very important character.

Before they could say much more, members of both sides dropped from the sky and knocked them into a crack in the ground.

Bleeding and trembling, the other person asked him, "Just what... are you?"

Jiang Ci thought for two seconds, then answered:

"Probably... just a fairly popular ordinary person?"

[Highlights]

1. I'm trying for the feel of a shonen manga light novel, but the protagonist being everyone's favorite is still the foundation.

2. Xiao Jiang has a cool, adorable cat face. Let's support this easy-to-bully little kitty, okay? Hehe.

Theme: Being the author of your own life