Chapter 192

8L[OP]: Let me introduce the first-prize manga work to the darlings who haven’t read it.

I followed the first manga competition from beginning to end, so I know best what that work was like when it first signed up. I can only say that a god is a god from the very beginning.

The first-prize manga was actually the second part. It started with the popularity of the first part and countless organic fans promoting it. It firmly held the number one spot on the popularity poll and the promotional spots, directly ascending.

The subject matter was similar to Bai Guzi’s, both of the “superpower users hidden in the world” type. The difference is that this one is a hot-blooded shonen manga with no CP for the male lead, while Bai Guzi’s is more inclined towards Xuanhuan romance, with a lot of sweet love plots.

The early plot of the first-prize winner was really exciting and thrilling, it felt like one thing linked to another. But it started to get a bit weak in the middle, and the later stage became bland and full of daily life. But in the end, it was a happy, perfect HE. Everyone being ordinary is what’s real, right? Some people thought the ending was good, others thought it was too bland.

At that time, some big shots in the relevant industry on the forum analyzed that the problem with the first-prize winner was consistent from the first part to the second part, which was sacrificing logic for exciting plots, with obvious loopholes in the settings. Being able to peacefully go through daily life in the middle and late stages was the best-case scenario. If they were a little unlucky and encountered bad random settings, the later stage would definitely collapse.

I can only say that luck is also a part of strength. If this one had collapsed, it would have been worse than Bai Guzi’s. At that time, it would have been uncertain who would get first prize.

After reading this floor, Bai Xuechao asked Xiao 6, “Is this first-prize manga also from Green River?”

“It is!” Xiao 6 chirped, as if sharing in the glory, “This manga is now number one on our Green River Comic website’s overall ranking! It has been dominating the list for more than a year! It was about to drop half a year ago, but the animated version aired in April and it became popular again, so it stabilized at number one! The Green River Comic website has also increased its fame because of this!”

Hearing this, Bai Xuechao curled his lips into a silent smile, but there was no smile in his eyes, more like a faint mockery.

He thought that Bai Guzi was indeed quite unlucky.

Since both works were from the Green River Comic website, it meant that the first-prize manga was also bound to a Green River system. The so-called bland daily life and the good luck of not encountering bad random settings that the readers saw were all the results of the system having the host participate in the repairs.

In comparison, Bai Guzi was much more unlucky. He remembered Xiao 6 once said that her work only had one “bug” and the repair failed.

If both of these works got rid of the Green River system, it would be uncertain who would emerge victorious.

But could the system be gotten rid of? No, it couldn’t.

Without Green River, there would be Red River, Blue River, and Purple River. All crows under the sun are black. Manga websites with the conditions and ability were probably secretly developing this kind of system.

If there was a way to produce more good works to attract readers, why not do it?

It was like an unspoken rule of the entire industry. Every beneficiary would not speak up and dig their own grave, unless a warrior recklessly exposed the matter, only then would outsiders know. But correspondingly, that warrior would also become the target of public criticism and would definitely not be able to make it in this industry in the future.

Moreover, he was still unclear about the laws of the high-dimensional world and didn’t know if developing such a system was illegal. If it wasn’t illegal, then it was legal but immoral.

What a joke. If it was moral, they wouldn’t have signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Bai Xuechao didn’t think too deeply about it. It had nothing to do with him, and it wasn’t something he could worry about. He was just a background character originally planned for the simulated world.

Bai Xuechao continued to read.

9L: What LZ said is right… Even though I really like the first-prize work, I have to admit that the later stage was indeed a bit bland. But I also love the daily life parts, the peace and stability after the great war is very beautiful~

10L: If the author of the first-prize work is said to prioritize plot over logic, then Bai Guzi is too focused on logic…

Because the settings were written too rigorously and logically, the final effect was very bland and rigid, without that feeling of unexpected surprise.

11L: Since when did being rigorous become a flaw? =.=

I really like Bai old scoundrel’s plots. Most things have foreshadowing and won’t suddenly happen without warning like in the first-prize winner. Sometimes it even feels like an unexpected plot twist.

12L: I’ve also played the simulated world. The way the first-prize winner writes settings is definitely not as difficult as Bai Guzi’s. The settings written by the first-prize winner are obviously straightforward, similar to “a fire broke out at a certain place on a certain day of a certain month.” The simulated world’s main system doesn’t care how the fire started, as long as it happened, so it happens rather suddenly and the fire is uncontrollable.

13L: Is the name of the first-prize manga unspeakable hahaha, are you afraid that the fans will come out and scold you for pulling them down?

14L: The person above didn’t say it either, are you scared? (doge emoji)

15L: Thinking about it this way, the first-prize winner really has good luck. With so many settings randomly filled in by the system, not a single one hit a landmine.

Although Bai Guzi’s plot wasn’t as exciting as the beginning of the first-prize winner’s, it’s not bad, and it’s better than the later plot of the first-prize winner. It was stable from beginning to end, only the ending had a “stroke of genius.” To put it bluntly, the setting collapsed. I believe that her original ending was really a perfect HE.

Someone analyzed that it should be a certain setting that was randomly generated when the simulated world was filling in the settings, and it happened to hit a loophole in Bai Guzi’s settings, causing that scene (:з」∠)

16L: (quietly bb) Then isn’t it still Bai Guzi’s fault for not having rigorous enough settings?

17L: Haha, when Bai old scoundrel’s settings are rigorous, some people say the plot is too bland. When there’s a little loophole in the settings, they say it’s not rigorous enough. You guys have said all the good and bad things.

18L: In the early stage of the first-prize winner, big and small incidents kept coming one after another. The male lead never got a break, and the readers were also on the edge of their seats. I felt terrible if I didn’t read it every day, it was really exciting. (thumbs up) Although looking back now, these incidents don’t have much of a connection, but at that time, the rhythm was fast, satisfying, and great!

The problem is that after defeating a big boss in the middle stage, the pace instantly slowed down, as if all the plot settings the author wrote had been used up in the early stage. So the daily interaction plots increased greatly, and the main storyline crawled like a turtle. It was really the first time I saw a manga that could be padded… Oh right, and in the middle, a popular supporting character was even on the verge of being written off but was saved.

19L: +1 to the one above, it’s the first time I’ve encountered a padded manga.

20L: So in short, each has its own problems?

I’ll be bold and say it. It would be great if Bai Guzi and the first-prize winner collaborated. One would be responsible for writing the settings, and the other for thinking of the plot. If these two combined, they would definitely sweep the globe.

21L: The person above really dares to think!!

22L[OP]: After explaining the situation to you darlings, I will start my analysis.

The keywords for the successful attributes of the first-prize work that I summarized are: hot-blooded shonen manga, male lead with no cp, a breakout character, multiple shippable CPs, (early stage) fast-paced plot, and has explosive points.

Let’s review Bai old scoundrel’s configuration this time:

Hot-blooded shonen manga and male lead with no cp need no explanation. A breakout character doesn’t seem to have emerged yet, but I feel it will probably be Bai Xuechao.

The one responsible for multiple CPs also seems to be Bai Xuechao at the moment, but the male lead also has quite a few CPs. As we all know, manga with more CP fans are more likely to break out of their circle, so authors will intentionally or unintentionally create many interactions between characters. Bai Guzi hasn’t created enough yet. I suggest she learn from the third-prize winner about what real selling is. (in a very quiet voice)

The plot is fast-paced. The early plot, from the male lead’s awakening to being packed off to the SAIDB and then the training camp arc, the plot was pushed forward like crazy, and characters were introduced like crazy, as if Bai Guzi was saying through gritted teeth: “Do you like this one? If not, there’s this one! And this one! You must fall in love with a character in my manga today!” (No offense, just kidding)

The explosive point, I think, is the 20% personality. Regardless of whether it was good or bad, the forum was full of posts about this food chain plot at that time, and everyone said the food chain fans were crazy. (crying laughing emoji) And to add an off-topic remark, Bai Xuechao really has the potential to be a hit supporting character. The last time this manga broke out of its circle was the day his popularity ranking entered the top 10. The fans sent him directly to the hot list.

So overall, doesn’t it look like a complete replica of the first-prize winner’s success case by Bai Guzi? (pondering)

Therefore, I suspect that Bai Guzi wants to replicate the success case, so that next year when she participates in the competition, she can also be like the first-prize author and start a second part of this manga.

The above is just my personal guess!

Bai Xuechao was a little dumbfounded when he saw this.

Sorry, you guessed wrong.

He was the one who created the 20% personality plot, it really had nothing to do with Bai Guzi.

…But what’s with that person in charge of multiple CPs? He couldn’t handle it at all! And what about the real selling, what were they selling?? Was it what he thought it meant?

Apart from the manga he was in, Bai Xuechao usually didn’t watch manga, anime, or similar works. He couldn’t quite understand some of the insider slang on the forums and could only guess the meaning or put it aside for the time being.

But after reading this post, he could be sure of one thing—

Bai Guzi’s own plot might not have any explosive points. The “explosive point” that the readers thought of so far was actually his own slick move.

According to the feedback from the previous floors, the readers generally thought that Bai Guzi’s plots were bland and rigid. As for his feeling about this manga, it was just average. The plot was not bad, but it wasn’t exciting either. It seemed that similar plot structures could be seen in novels, TV series, or movies, and there was no feeling of it being refreshingly new.

However, the popularity of this manga did not seem to be low.

He had an idea, but he didn’t know what appropriate words to use to express it.

He continued to read down, skipping some of the floors that agreed with the OP. Near the end, he actually saw a statement that fit his idea—selling character personas.

39L: The OP’s analysis has some truth to it, but I feel that Bai old scoundrel should know that she can’t replicate the first-prize winner’s success.

She is too focused on logic. I have followed all her simulated world works, and I can clearly see that the worldviews are more complete than those that randomly fill in details. There won’t be strange situations where you can tell at a glance that the settings were not well-defined and ended up with bizarre random settings. The settings for each important character are very detailed. How can I tell? All the character foreshadowing is perfectly resolved, with no loose ends.

You have to know that burying and resolving foreshadowing in the simulated world can’t be simply described with subtle hints. Sometimes I even suspect that she used AI assistance (。)

But there is also a problem with this.

She writes settings like knitting a sweater, locking the plot in place stitch by stitch. If there is even a small mistake, the foreshadowing cannot be resolved, which greatly reduces the possibility of the character personas developing on their own.

For example, this time Bai Xuechao was investigating the Apocalypse Society and ended up at the Dream Game City, where he happened to encounter Zhou Chenhao and Ling Feng playing games with Gong Ting. If any setting was not written well and he missed it by a little, this plot would be gone directly, which would then lead to the disappearance of the 20% personality plot, triggering a butterfly effect where the protagonist group would not turn back after leaving, and the subsequent plot would be completely chaotic. It’s really dangerous.

Here I really have to mention the third-prize winner. The settings are typically not well-written, and the plot is also average. It gained popularity entirely because of the complex relationships and interesting interactions between the characters. It can be said that there is nothing you can’t ship, and nothing they can’t think of. It’s a CP free-for-all for the entire cast. (facepalm)

But if you think about it carefully, it’s not impossible that Bai Guzi has thought of learning from the third-prize winner. All those characters she introduced in the training camp arc, and all the daily life scenes in the manga, isn’t that selling character personas?

Whatever kind of character you like, she has it here. (bushi)

Putting aside Zhou Chenhao, the absolute male lead, I think Bai Xuechao is the most successful character persona she has created so far. As long as the setting doesn’t collapse in the future, he will definitely be a hot character.

I’ve said a lot without realizing it. I wish her success, just don’t screw me over. My trauma from “The Great Ming Spirit Master” has not yet been healed. (covering face, crying laughing emoji)

40L: Such a heartfelt comment =A=

41L: It makes a lot of sense, I feel like there’s nothing more to say. Bai old scoundrel is clearly learning from the successful methods of other works. I wish her success.

42L: qwq I hope that while she is learning, she doesn’t lose her own unique style.

The rest were all replies wishing Bai Guzi success, with one or two floors scolding her occasionally interspersed. In the end, this post only had about sixty floors of replies for now.

After reading the post, an idea gradually formed in Bai Xuechao’s mind, and he also thought of how to have a good “talk” with Bai Guzi.

…So the “real selling” mentioned earlier refers to selling character personas, right?

They had better mean that 🙂

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep