Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Freakishly Cool

"I Love to Eat Pumpkin Pie" had been utterly intoxicated as he clicked the upload button. It had been finalized. "An Youyou took the shot on the male protagonist's behalf and died." He had not spared any detail concerning the male protagonist's inner monologue as An Youyou lay dead before him, in a pool of her own blood. He had been shocked, beyond consolation, remorseful, and enraged at the super villain "Gangster Emperor" Ye Wudao. He had to take revenge for An Youyou!

This was a brainless book. As long as the writer came up with a good arc about the ensuing vengeance, readers would be satisfied. It could even offset the toxicity of the "heroine's death." An Youyou's death had given rise to a great conflict between the male protagonist and the villain. Great conflicts meant great climaxes!

The hate was mutual. The villain was just as enraged at the main protagonist. After all, An Youyou was his fiance. Her beauty, standing, family background had all been top-notch. Although her character was somehow unruly and arrogant, all other Ladies were.

In essence, An Youyou was not bad at all. She did go to nightclubs, but she knew that she was a good girl!

Zhao Youyue did not leave the writer any exit plan such as "in critical condition but not dead, she will wake up at the end of the arc" to rescue An Youyou. Hua Banhu had shot An Youyou cleanly through her heart. The "Number One Killer in Southeast Asia" had been that ruthless!

Although Hua Banhu had encountered all sorts of accidents when it came to killing people with the Protagonist Aura, he was still second to none when it came to killing supporting characters

In short, An Youyou was completely dead in the water. At this point, she needed a God or a superhero who had the ability to resurrect the dead. Otherwise, she had no chance of appearing in the subsequent chapters anymore, other than flashbacks.

Zhao Youyue had achieved her goals. Firstly, to clear up the misconceptions that circled this character, sending the readers down the right path. Secondly, to exit via death, closing the loop and giving the writer no absolutely no room to tarnish her image.

As a result, a few hours after this exciting plot was uploaded, the comments section blew up!

Readers of this genre always placed them in the male protagonist's shoes for the shortest path to pleasure. This served as a double-edged sword, for they would also feel his pain!

It was almost taboo for such genres to "betray" their readers. Betrayal could range from a female who talked down on the main protagonist, to her going after another guy. Hurt your readers too severely, and they might just drop the book!

Killing off a female lead was not as critical as downright "treachery," especially when she did it for the male protagonist. In a twisted sense, that was also a form of pleasure. After all, how would there be a girl who was willing to die for you? We're just talking about girls in general, let alone those Ladies of beauty and status. Didn't we read these mind-numbing titles to escape from reality and bask in such ridiculous fantasy?

The problem came after the fact. The heartbreak and grief would be all too real, as they had substituted themselves as the male protagonist a little too deeply. They would more than empathize with the male protagonist's rage, his grief, his loneliness, his anguish!

After all, "I Love to Eat Pumpkin Pie" Xu Liangming had been intoxicated as these events unfolded. His writing may still have been as bland and simply as ever, but it was the simple things, created by a pure heart that sometimes hurt the most!

Who knew that we could break our brains and hearts at the same time, for all the wrong reasons!

The reviews blew up!

"I did not expect to shed tears over this book. Why was such a great female character written to death?"

"The writer has lost it. An Youyou was the driving force behind this book. At this point, I had already treated her as the main character and the harem leader. Now, you dropped a load of bento on her? I really need some personal space. Don't ask me who 'personal space' is."

"This is so tragic. Why did An Youyou have to die? She was way better than those female characters who seemed to be completely fixated over the male protagonist's power and money. She was the only person who truly cared about the male protagonist within the entire book, never once did she ask for any returns. Was the male protag taking her for granted? He's the luckiest person to ever live, period."

"For your information, I have a weak heart. A fair warning would have been appreciated. I'm dropping this book for good. That was just too toxic. The heroine died - just like that. For real? And you guys who are saying that heroines are expendable and numerous. Please, the rest of them are just blow-up dolls, and you know it."

"I can take this much. Knowing who An Youyou was based upon, it was a great cameo while it lasted. It couldn't have ended any better. A clean, just death. Unfortunately, she died before getting f*cked. What a waste. Speaking of which, is An Youyou still a virgin?"

"So it's true that reviews aren't just made by humans. There are some completely heartless animals among us. Can you repeat what the f*cking ice-cold realm of Jotun-f*cking-heim did you just f*cking say, f*cking cold-blooded f*cktard?"

"It blindsided me, but I can live with it. Now I wanna know see the avenging in action. As long as it's well-written, it justifies just about anything"

"I just wanna jump in there and bring An Youyou out to be my wife. She would lay down her life for you, you don't hear that in this day and age!"

"I sorta saw the foreshadowing in the previous chapters. Remember the part where our main man applied some fortune-telling technique on An Youyou, and noticed that her fate was like a flickering candle in the wind. I just didn't expect her to die so fast, so abruptly. It's such a pity."

Zhao Youyue grinned broadly as she surveyed the review section that had erupted into the stratosphere. If An Youyou had not been granted the absolutely fearless attibute, she might not have stepped in so courageously.

Wait, if she had not stepped forward, would the male protagonist die?

He wouldn't. He couldn't. He had the Protagonist Aura. Even if the bullet went straight through his chest, it might only have been an afterimage or something like that

Zhao Youyue was pleased with how everything had played out. She had exited in the best possible circumstances. It was unfortunate to see that An Youyou never attained the level of a "popular character," not to mention "high popularity."

If a so-called "high popularity character" was within the web novel circle, it should at least conquer the Qidian novel website.

However, due to the confines of "God Level Leader's" own popularity, An Youyou's death failed to come through. Her death did break the hearts of the title's own readers.

Zhao Youyue's plan had been near perfect. She had not damaged the novel's reputation, so nothing would come back to bite her.

This was all the "Two Dimensional Gate's" fault. Who told it to randomly throw her into such a worthless title and cause her trouble? Fortunately, she had been clever enough to step over this ridge.

At that moment, "I Love to Eat Pumpkin Pie" Xu Liangming had just recovered from his "intoxicated" state