Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Even though Zhou Zhipeng cannot produce a decent book, he was one of the best reviewers around. He had opened up a thread in this popular forum called, "Original work reviews," happily offering to rate the works of authors who were willing to get their books evaluated.

He would even nitpick the flaws of an author who had earned himself the legendary title "Venomous Snake." His attacks were so sharp and precise that authors either lost patience with him, or even began doubting in their own abilities.

Whenever someone attempted to debate with him, they would be quickly shot down with a very justified line. "Stories are meant to be read by others, I'm simply stating my personal opinions, is there something wrong with that? If you can't accept the ugly truth, why don't you just post your story on the web novel site? Loyal fans will surely support you, no matter what you write."

Zhou Zhipeng only loved to oppose for the sake of opposing. He was disliked by many on the internet for not even speaking for the truth! He just wanted to go against the mainstream to show that he was independent and special!

An experienced and nitpicking reader like Zhou Zhipeng would always read the pirated version whenever possible. He had grown thoroughly attracted to "Grand Vizier," as written by "Historical Observer." He believed that he was the first fan of this book, and so he went out of his way to began promoting the book.

So, he went to the forum thread, titled "Recommended trial books" where there were a lot of active users, readers, and failed authors like him as well. They may fail at writing, but that did not stop them from nitpicking the flaws of popular novels. Was this actually why they failed as authors?

Failed authors would only look at the flaws of a novel and pick away, but simply ignored the reasons that made the novel popular in the first place. They always covered it with a blanket statement, saying that readers only followed the mainstream blindly. Their books failed because the crowd simply could not understand the beauty or art in their literary work.

Readers who knew how to look for a book in this thread would surely find what they needed, even if the thread was an absolute mess. The more debate a novel had, the more likely it was worth reading. Sometimes, too many people might be onto something, and that could hurt the overall ratings.

Perfect scores were the suspicious ones. It had either been artificially marked up, or it was that good. People might get attacked by the fans if they left a negative or "nothing special" comment on the page.

If a popular literary work had many negative reviews, there was a high possibility that it was a hollow literature, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. It might be more appropriate or appeal better to the lighter readers. If people could give it a try without questioning its logic, it might turn out to be an enjoyable read, but please turn off certain portions of your brain while doing so. It was only good as a time burner.

In order to become a recommended novel in this forum thread, usually, it had to carry a degree of logic, and it would be best if it was a light, leisurely read. If one could experience or gain something in this novel, it could become one's legendary "five-stars book."

Of course, a "five-star book" was highly subjective. It might be five-stars for a certain individual, but not for others. If one really liked a certain novel, don't try to promote it, or else people like Zhou Zhipeng would decimate it in public.

Zhou Zhipeng never expected himself to be in the position of a promoter. Nevertheless, this book was perfect!

Zhou Zhipeng had developed quite a name for himself on the forum. Whenever people mocked him for being a fail writer, he would state that he only wrote as a past-time, not for fame as he had his full-time job of dismantling households as a demolition expert.

Of course, he hoped to be popular. He had even created a sub ID to criticize his own work in hopes of gaining more attention. Of course, a failed literary work could only go that far, but that did not stop him from criticizing other works.

Active users in this forum were already used to seeing him pick a popular novel apart, but they seldom saw him praising anything. This time, even the title he had put up seemed to be stretching it!

Forum users who knew him did not take his word for it. Perhaps its author had bribed him handsomely, or was someone closely related to it.

Doubts aside, some still clicked to see the bullshit this guy came up with. They soon found a very well-structured and thought out review of the story.

Zhou Zhipeng had many things to talk about, like how it had been written in an ancient style, how it was very realistic and despite its complexity, how it was completely devoid of plotholes! He finally concluded that this author was probably just starting out, and "Source World" was lucky enough to be the stage of his debut…