Shift! The Side-Character Heroine Chapter 401

A Passerby and Contingent Worker
Each novel world has its personalized style, with an intense spread of unique contents. Each world would always be relative to its author’s behavior. Zhao Youyue was very well aware of this, as she had already gone through dozens of worlds.
Within “Dog Days,” Zhao Youyue felt surrounded by a leisurely ambiance. Her whole body was held down by such an immense weight, that she had no desire to lift herself up.
She did not despise it. This lazy, harmonious world could serve as a vacation for her mind.
Adhering to her original plan; she took control of the passer-by character “Hua Xiaomao.” She set the character’s behavior as an amicable, adorable young girl. What else would boost her popularity if not for textbook cat-like behavior?
The male protagonist never ever found out the reason of him morphing into a dog. Naturally, Zhao Youyue followed the same format here. Why is she turning into a cat? Who knows?
Such was the advantage of writing fiction. The author was literally the god of every fabricated phenomena, and held the keys to the logic behind it. If she morphed into a cat, so shall it be. No explanations were necessary. In the first place, how could the male protagonist morph into a dog?
The bizarreness of his shape-shifting was a clear indicator of this novel’s energy level. Of course, this meant that there could be others out there, morphing into cute animals at random.
Zhao Youyue finished keying in the settings related to this young cat-morphing girl – “Hua Xiaomao.” The completed vessel was ready for her to occupy.
Zhao Youyue, or rather, “Hua Xiaomao” did not blatantly rush atop the stage. No matter the case, her actions in the novel world had to start off slow. Otherwise, sensitive authors would sense something amiss. This character was just a passerby, aren’t I writing about her just a little too much? She’s stealing the spotlight
She could not risk being spotted. As long as she gave her best effort, readers would eventually take notice of her.
She had to move in like a ninja, since she was starting off as a passerby. Novels would most likely collapse if she went in guns blazing.
It had been a while since Zhao Youyue took control of a passerby character like Xu Jing and Hua Xiaomao. All of her recent characters had been known to their respective authors. She had more free will, without risk of arousing suspicion. The authors would only presume that they had entered some sort of ‘zone.’
On the contrary, passerby characters were as good as “dead.” That’s right, they looked as healthy as horses, but it was their final play. After the one-time show, the puppeteer would cast aside their strings and leave them in the dark, never to be remembered again.
Such passerby characters were plentiful in web novels. For instance, a salesperson who took a slap from a protagonist in some passing city. They would never show up for the second time.
As for those professional gangster cameos, they only served to elaborate on the bravery of male protagonist. They would generously harass the female protagonist, only allowing the male protagonist to express his stand in the face of injustice in hundreds of ways. A female protagonist earned her chance to be impressed, the hero earned his chance to save the beauty, those gangsters earned their opportunity to take a beating.
Nevertheless, the possibilities of such coincidences occurring in reality, were almost none. How could a lady find herself in the middle of some shady business involving some small-fry gangsters, the logic was nonexistent
Hence, such small-fry gangster characters would never appear in a novel twice. Even if they did, they would not carry the same names. The author would not even bother naming them in their first appearances.
Sadly, such as how every other conventional author out there treated these expendable gangsters. Perhaps they would be all out of fresh ideas, bringing out such gangsters to start a fight each time they attempted to introduce a new female character. As they bought time with a lengthy fight scene and more flirtatious fluff, they would start rummaging about for new ideas.
Salespersons, small-fry gangsters, and other passerby roles were disposable renewables. To be cast aside after a one-time usage.
“Hua Xiaomao” was such a character. She was a salesperson in the pet shop, and only served to introduce the variety of cat breeds to the male protagonist in the pet shop just before he made his purchase. After that, she would be completely forgotten. Usually, such a character would not even be left with a name. In this case, “Stop Gambling” had been generous enough to give her a name. Otherwise, Zhao Youyue would have had no chance of finding a doorway into this novel.
Zhao Youyue assumed that it was a good habit on the part of “Stop Gambling.” Naming expendable characters may confuse the readers, but with a name, such characters had the possibility of surprise re-entries. When readers learn of his intention, they would strongly disagree to such a ridiculous thought
So what if they had names? They were still passersby, right?
Within entertainment novels, passersby made up a majority of the population. They could be the hypothetical readers, or a random witness expressing their thoughts on the events occurring in the novel from a third person perspective. After an exclamation of “This is amazing!” they would vanish into obscurity.
Smart authors would use them frequently. These simple, efficient-minded authors would throw out a “This is amazing!” for every new development in the male protagonist, be it character or ability. No matter what people thought of it, its effects were undeniable. Those cheerleaders would vanish soonafter.
Who would remember them?
They would never be mentioned again. However, their momentary presences would have added an unmistakable flair to the novel. Without them, how else would a novel be appetizing?
The genre notwithstanding, such passersby were essential. The protagonist needed an audience, in-novel or otherwise. That’s the point of being a protagonist!
There were several types of passersby. Some were meant to be amazed by protagonist’s actions, while others would blindly hurl praises. The best type of passersby were those ladies who went ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ at about anything
Such ladies had the potential of being propelled into actual roles. Apparently, even beautiful passersby had special rights.
Reality was also awash with such passersby. They all had names, but they easily passed unnoticed. The world will never revolve around them, so they converged around entertainment sources instead. Every man on the street formed people, and people were the protagonists of all time. And people made history.
Of course, there were leaders and heroes among the people. Compared to these protagonists born with gifts that “the creator” bestowed upon them, most of them became audience members who shouted “This is amazing!”…