He's the Depressed Cannon Fodder in an Idol Game

The main story is complete, and bonus chapters are in progress! Recommended upcoming novel: Please Stop Sending Me Romance CGs (a crossover with this novel; blurb at the bottom). You can jump to it via the announcement. Mwah~ ❤️

My name is Sui Yi. Just like my name suggests, my existence is entirely optional.

For reasons unknown, I was reset countless times, returning to the same starting point over and over, only to end up as an utterly ordinary person every time.

It was only later that I learned I was a character in a management and raising game.

As an "uncollectible" character, I was destined to be a cannon-fodder supporting character in this world, forever trampled under the protagonists' feet.

So I gave up. I gave up struggling, gave up everything.

The only thing I wanted to keep was the guitar in my hands. That was all I needed.

It was raining heavily that day. After a little wine, I was utterly dejected, slumped beneath the eaves with my guitar in my arms. The rain still dampened my hair.

To my surprise, I ran into one of the game's five-star characters.

He took me in.

When I opened my eyes again, I had become an artist under the game's player's control.

It was my first time becoming part of the player's company.

But I wasn't the protagonist. In the end, I would still fade into the crowd, wouldn't I?

*

Shine On! Super Star, a groundbreaking VR game with an unprecedented degree of freedom, finally launched after decades of development and testing.

Players soon discovered a unique character: Sui Yi.

He was handsome, beautiful, and gifted, yet also dejected and gloomy.

When he was alone, he was like a mushroom in the corner, devoid of life and vitality.

But whenever he stepped onto the stage, he became the brightest star in the crowd, setting off fireworks that were pitch-black yet dazzling.

This contradictory, chaotic flame soon caught everyone's attention.

More and more people came to love him and become captivated by him.

[Who understands how precious this soggy little black cat is?]

[Baby Sui Yi, let's stay alive together, okay?]

[There's no way anyone couldn't love you.]

[Your flame will never go out.]

[You deserve the best. You are the best.]

They wanted to lift him high and tell him, "You are the brightest presence of all."

*

When countless people shower you with love, who could still be cannon fodder?

So, Sui Yi, please be brave and keep moving forward.

"We'll always be right behind you."

//

◎ Maximum sweetness, everyone's darling, universally adored, with countless unrequited crushes

◎ Includes game forums and all kinds of fans

◎ The player's game characters cannot be romanced. All relationships are familial or platonic

◎ No choosing a love interest. Because of the unusual premise (game + ?), there are multiple endings. If that's not your thing, please feel free to skip this little pitfall (sorry!)

◎ At its heart, this is meant to be a warm, healing little story. It isn't based on real life and leans toward a fairy-tale feel

Ensemble cast, with supporting characters playing a significant role. Everyone likes Sui Yi (not necessarily romantically)

◎ Please be active in the comments. You might catch the author slacking off there~ Mwah~

Please Stop Sending Me Romance CGs

Blurb:

I, An Yuxing, transmigrated into the "kid" in the raising game my younger sister played.

Good news: I'm the "player."

Bad news: I have to get an ending before I can go home.

To get home, I started grinding stats.

In my first playthrough, I raised a few stats at random, thinking that any ending would do.

[You have enrolled in an ordinary high school.]

[You helped your celebrity classmate, who was being harassed by fans.]

[You and the celebrity became friends.]

[He confessed his feelings to you.]

Thinking he'd found a shortcut home, An Yuxing agreed in an instant.

The moment the romance CG appeared, the System's notification sounded:

[Ending achieved: The Celebrity's Ordinary Boyfriend]

Before An Yuxing could celebrate, a cold, mechanical voice delivered another blow:

[Sorry, this ending doesn't meet the requirements! Please try again!]

What a scam of a game system! A line of tiny text, only legible with a magnifying glass, told him that he had to achieve a "career ending" to meet the requirements.

So the romance CG was to blame after all!!!

An Yuxing: Fine.

He immediately started his second playthrough, determined to avoid every romance route this time!

But before he could trigger a career ending, that damned romance option confessed to him again.

An Yuxing: (mashing the reject button)

The game went straight to a romance CG.

[Ending achieved: Fated Anchor]

An Yuxing: ...

Fortunately, An Yuxing kept his cool and started his third, fourth, fifth... playthroughs.

He became the behind-the-scenes manager who brought a top-tier star into the limelight, and he also became an idol in a little-known group that won everyone's hearts;

He had been a genius young heir from a prestigious family, and he had also become the only "inheritance" left behind after a top-tier star's death;

He had even been a Ziwei Star who burst onto the scene out of nowhere...

And yet those damn romance CGs haunted him, always popping up when he was just one step away from the ending.

The game quietly grew more difficult: affection levels he couldn't check, hidden corruption routes, memories of his playthroughs slowly overlapping...

They wanted to drag the star down to earth, plunge him into the mud, and sink into it together with him.

The star refused. He became a shooting star and streaked past the edge of the world at the height of his brilliance.

An Yuxing succeeded and returned to the real world.

He thought it was all over

Until those familiar faces began appearing in his real world, one by one.

An Yuxing, traumatized by romance CGs and corruption routes: Don't come any closer

*

"You are beyond compare. You are a star from beyond the heavens."

Later, someone described An Yuxing this way:

"He's the last pure place in the entertainment industry, a star you can see but never reach. The world looks up to him, loves him, longs for him... All those countless descriptions are just a tiny fraction of what he is..."

"If he lowers his eyes to look at you, then you are the protagonist of the world."

So, "Star, who will you choose?"

An Yuxing looked at the group of romance options arriving with gifts and blinked softly.

//

Maximum sweetness! Universally adored!!!

Game references include Daughter of Volcano, Queen's Life, Love Story, and others...

A crossover with The Dejected Cannon Fodder After Infinite Resets. The two games are made by the same company.

Theme: Don't give up. Be brave and keep moving forward.