Chapter 1.1 The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love

Chapter 1.1 – Reader: I am a black powder fan

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(Translator’s Note: Kindly excuse the large number of footnotes. You don’t have to read them, the notes are just there to explain the translation process. The first and second chapters are full of Chinese slang, internet memes, and idioms. However, the next chapters are not like that so please hang in there!)

Du Ze is an anti-fan (lit. “black powder fan”).

The phenomenon of the so-called anti-fan can be explained thus: There is a type of fan who likes to attack their idol brutally, as if they were an enemy. Black powder fans are trolls who love to insult and find fault. This is how they express their love.

Du Ze chose to be a black powder fan for three reasons.

The first reason is that he likes to find flaws, insult the author, and fight the other fans, but this is simply another way to get publicity for their idol. Instead of letting the author bask in the loving feedback from readers, the black powder fan will drag them down and smear them with dirt so as to attract the attention and sympathy of others. Once their mission is accomplished, they retire.

The second reason is that Du Ze loves to write scathing reviews and then sit back and watch as the other fans jump out and condemn his review. Seeing the other fans counter his review and defend the author, Du Ze feels extremely satisfied.

Du Ze: Very good, that is what I wanted to say. Brothers, try harder to praise the author.

The final reason is that Du Ze has a playful nature. Of course, fans love and respect their idol but his approach is different. Afraid of being ignored, he likes to take the initiative to make a big commotion to capture the attention of his idol. He can be compared to a shy but black-hearted girl who is waiting for a boy to lift the red veil, saying “Come, come seduce me ~ I won’t be any trouble.”

At first, Du Ze had tried heaping praises on his idol. He wanted to take out all of the love he had in his heart and pile it up in front of the author but this did not work out. His comments just drowned in the crowd of enthusiastic fan feedback. His idol doesn’t use Weibo or QQ. He only comments on the web novel’s home page. Fans keep posting there and Du Ze’s own efforts were always ignored. Du Ze then had a moment of epiphany when he recalled the saying “nice guys finish last.” Realizing that the good fans never get the attention of the author, Du Ze decided to become an anti-fan. The world lost a sincere, nice fan but Du Ze gained success as an anti-fan.

Now let’s talk about the unlucky man who Du Ze had his eye on – Yi Ye Zhi Qiu. As a resident of the internet, Du Ze found his true love there, the YY novel author, Yi Ye Zhi Qiu.¹ It is said that his surname is Qiu and his pen name means “through every page of my writing, I seek to understand myself, haha.”² Those were the author’s exact words.

Supposedly, behind each “haha” was a group of cheering fans. Speaking of Yi Ye Zhi Qiu’s writing, if there was no harem stallion, golden finger, domination of the earth, or ruling the universe, then call Marty Sue in!  (Author’s note: P.S. Those who do not know what Marty Sue is, search on Baidu.)³

Therefore one may imagine how Yi Ye Zhi Qiu writes… And what kind of person Yi Ye Zhi Qiu was…

Haha.

As a matter of fact, Yi Ye Zhi Qiu’s novels do have a lot of golden fingers⁴ but his stories were not senseless. They all have a logical plot, foreshadowing, and originality. The cleverest thing he does is to pick up the mishmash of stuff that can already be found in other online novels, change it up a bit, then put his own spin on these tired ideas, making it refreshing to read. Du Ze had been reading novels for four years when he found Yi Ye Zhi Qiu’s “Infinite Flow”⁵ work and immediately became awed. Since then the world has one less passer-by ⁶, you understand?

Yi Ye Zhi Qiu, although he is not super popular, he does have 1000+ followers so he is not unknown either. He also has at least 100 readers who comment and cry piteously for new chapters and updates every day. His posting schedule is very regular. Yi Ye Zhi Qiu also has the very bad habit of replying only to the comments on the first page a short time after he posts a new chapter. As for the comments that get pushed to the bottom pages, what is that? Can it be eaten _(:3」∠)_？

The author doesn’t know that there was a fan who got tired of his comments always being ignored and quietly turned into an anti-fan.

It was hard for Du Ze to understand his own actions. In fact, he was deeply in love with every page of Yi Ye Zhi Qiu’s work. Every sentence poked his Meng point (TN: Meng = moe, cute, adorable) and every story was able to scratch his itch, making him want to stop trolling but he couldn’t control himself.

As a “black powder” fan, Du Ze has strict standards. For every chapter, he rates it 1 star and leaves a scathing review. Whenever he abuses the author’s work, it causes Du Ze a lot of mental anguish and the silly Du Ze then silently castigates himself before spending the next day changing his username and commenting on the novel’s page again.

So when Yi Ye Zhi Qiu announced his newest novel, Du Ze was extremely excited.

Yi Ye Zhi Qiu has written a total of five novels. Du Ze became a fan when the author was in the middle of his fifth book. In other words, this would be the first time that Du Ze would be able to follow one of his idol’s stories from start to finish. It’s like watching a son being born and growing up. Nothing could possibly stop him from loving this novel…

[In the beginning, the God of Creation told the eight races: “As long as you pay a price and give me something of yourself, you can trade a gift for it.”

The Angels gave away their humility, received healing;

The Demons gave away their mercy, received destruction;

The Elves gave away their passion, received archery;

The Gnomes gave away their tranquility, received forging;

The Dragons gave away their self-control, received durability;

The Undead gave away their kindness, received deathlessness;

The Beastkin gave away their reason, received battle fury;

The Humans gave away their tolerance, received learning;

When a boy who has all of the eight races’ blood running through his veins appears, a legend will begin.

Witness how the young boy will awaken his lineage, experience happiness and hatred, and finally set foot on the road to becoming a god.

***

Professionally written, character quality assured, and this book will definitely not be abandoned⁷! Please bookmark and add to your collection ^ ^]

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(Translator’s Note: 黑粉- the characters literally read as “black powder” but it’s a slang for the type of fan who likes to pick on his idol’s faults aka “anti-fan.” In context for this story, it’s a fan who likes to troll people. 🙂 I will also use “black fan” and “blackened fan” in translation.)

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1. A YY novel is a wish-fulfillment novel where the male protagonist is the reader’s ideal man.
2. Yi Ye means “one page” and Zhi means “to know.”
3. Marty Sue is the male version of Mary Sue.
4. Golden finger/gold finger means the protagonist’s heavenly luck or contrived coincidences.
5. Infinite Flow is a genre of novels in China that contains “infinite elements, including science, religion, mythology, legends, history, reality, movies, anime, games, etc.”
6. Passer-by/Passer-by A in novels and movies is a background figure, an ordinary man on the street.
7. The exact words used are “book not eunuch” meaning it won’t be cut off or unfinished.