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 ^ ^]

********

(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.

57 thoughts on “Chapter 1.1 The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be in True Love”

    1. Same. It’s been over a year since I read this for the first time and I’m about to read it again. Looking forward to it!

  1. Du Ze is basically “you’re going home with her but you’ll never forget me”-ing the poor author

  2. Reading this for the 5th time. God, I never get bored reading this even though I already knew what will happened🤣

    1. Μαριλένα Πολίτη

      me too for 6th time. it never gets old, again and again. it’s the best bl story

  3. Actually, anti-fans aren’t bad at all. They are not haters. Merely fans who have a different way of approaching/showing their love for certain novels/novelists. In fact, as a writer myself, I’m very happy to see anti-fans pointing out flaws and criticism on my works, ending up being defended by fans. It shows how fan cares a lot for their writers while the anti-fans help me to improve my writing and remind me to be more aware of my mistakes. I really cherish both my anti-fans and fans of my works. It’s really refreshing to see the side of anti-fans in novel. This might be my first time ^^

  4. Sable Stormbreak

    this seems interesting I am reading TGMoDC and TSVSSS (did you know that the Ao3 tag refers to the system as Scumbag system while other character tags that have that trait/quirk after it refers to the character as being from Villain self saving so lol) and TGCF,

    though I have never heard of Marty sue as being the Male version of Mary sue but I have heard Gary Stu being used.

    1. TGMoDC is The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, or Modao Zushi. Do read it, it sooo good!

    2. TGCF is Tian Guan Ci Fu or Heaven Official’s Blessing which is the English title. TGCF, MDZS, which here is referenced as TGMoDC (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation), and SVSS (Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System) are all danmei xianxia novels written by author MXTX and are super well known

  5. l read some of your works, l like your style. l was wondering if you could have a switch theme?

  6. I caught some typos for Yi Ye Zhi Qiu’s name.
    “Speaking of Yi Ye Xhi Qiu’s writing”
    “Yi Ye Zhi Qui, although he is not super popular, he does have 1000+ followers”

  7. You know, in China, do they write their books on websites and releases chapter by chapter? Are those the ‘professional’ books or is it like wattpad? Or are the ‘professional’ books different?

    1. From what I’ve been seeing, the authors create a website for their projects and publish it there! They can also sell it and such. If it becomes too popular, then they “remove it” from the website and start selling it elsewhere…

    1. You HAVE to read Scum Villain Self Saving System and Heaven Official’s Blessing then!!! They’re by the same author as The Founder of Diabolism!!!

  8. Love the concept of all the races giving some critical thing away and to receive something else. All those trades were so interesting! Thanks for translating!!

  9. I remember really enjoying this the first time around. Back for another reread! Thanks for all the footnotes.

  10. AGh this is the WORST thing I’ve ever read! This most definitely is the worst I’ve ever read.

    (Okay since I’ve most definitely angrily commented on this, when can I get sucked into this story… ;-; I wanna get away from darn homework and normal life…. plus this story is to well written. Wait does this author just kidnap all angry commenters?!? I’m scared now)

    1. the original Chinese is 杜泽,but it sounds quite similar to 读者(reader). So you’re right(・ω< )★

  11. I will definitely use my weekend to enjoy this novel, I hope to achieve it without interruptions.
    Thanks and start

  12. I’m here to reread! But anyways, the author said that the book won’t be abandoned…yet he…(spoiler lol).

    Oh well

  13. I just discovered this on bltranslation blog and I totally love it even though it’s the first chapter. Thank you for translating this.

  14. Lol, I can sorta relate. I wasn’t quite Black powder, but I used to be VERY criticizing of works I really really liked. In my head, I was just pointing out very minute details that if tweaked, could make the already amazing story ‘perfect’… Like the kind of thing you do with a group of friends when you get together and watch a movie. “Oh no, this cliche? What a wasted opportunity, wouldn’t it be much better if x was secretly y instead? Ugh, those lines are way too cheesy!” That kind of thing. I had no idea that this could be seen as negative & harmful, and the lighthearted tone I was going for would never be reached in plain text. My comments made it seem like I was complaining and not enjoying the story when it was in fact Quite the opposite- I loved it and just expressed myself horribly.

    Thankfully, I grew up and realized- hey, this project is someone’s baby! They worked hard on it and wanted to share their happiness with the world. Be careful with your words and say what you Really mean! Of course, now I have gone the opposite end of the spectrum- going from a tsundere to a plain ol deredere, gushing about everything I love nonstop X’D I promise I’ll try not to spam your comment section with sappy love-filled sentiments and incoherent screaming, I just wanted to say that the premise in this story is something not commonly seen in a BL and I’m already super excited to see how this plays out! Thank you so much sharing your translations with us!!

    1. Lol, you black powder fan! Be careful not get swept away to a different world.

      🙂 You’re welcome. This story is something I really like, too.

  15. “Every sentence pokes his Meng point..”
    And at that moment she dropped her tablet on the bed and creepily giggled to herself.
    MrsNyan knew that she’s gonna love this series already ✩⃛∗·⁽⁽◞(˃◟̵◞̵˂⁎=͟͟͞͞ ⁎˃◟̵◞̵˂)◟⁾⁾·∗✩⃛

    But no joke. I just dropped it and had to get a grip on myself (ؑ⸍⸍ᵕؑ̇⸍⸍)◞✧

  16. I love this already! *shouts in ecstasy into a pillow* Thanks so much for translating this, and the footnotes are greatly appreciated. 😀

  17. Hmmm, it looks interesting! Lol, i dnt know that black powder fans existed. O.o. Arent they kind od tsundere. („ಡωಡ„) Tq for the translation! I am a sucker for bl love.
    (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

    1. First time reading this novel. From the way the MC is being portrayed so far he just seems like a troll. Not a real anti-fan. Unless the definition of anti-fan on the web is completely wrong and should be called something else. Or the definition here is off.

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