Role Playing the Dark Horse Character

Chapter 77: Is This a Hidden Plotline Too?

The manga updated at midnight, and the first character popularity poll closed simultaneously.

The results would be revealed at noon the next day, so Li Li decided to wait until the poll results were out to read the manga.

After class, back in her dorm, Li Li quickly ate lunch and timed it to start reading the manga.

The manga was from Yiming’s perspective, so this chapter focused on their experiences in Zhusheng City.

Since leaving Four-Way City, An Huyu’s sleep quality had plummeted, his face often showing fatigue.

This chapter focused on his mental stress and the shonen-style plot of Yiming and the others helping An Huyu cope.

Believing his brother was dead, and haunted by their last unpleasant encounter, An Huyu suppressed his emotions, forcing himself to grow.

Tang noticed his stress, and together with Yiming and Yu Xiao, they organized a birthday for An Huyu.

The other world also had birthdays.

The manga depicted An Huyu’s past birthdays through his memories—spending them with his parents, then with his older brother preparing a cake after their parents’ death.

So, after losing his brother, An Huyu locked himself in his room, planning to spend the night quietly alone.

When the candlelight flickered, and three newfound friends brought him a birthday cake, An Huyu couldn’t hold back, sobbing as he ate the cake.

Only to get a mouthful of lion pepper, a super-spicy specialty of Zhusheng City.

Zhusheng City’s cuisine leaned spicy.

Yu Xiao, who bought the cake, had mistakenly chosen "extra spicy" instead of "extra sweet."

The heartwarming scene ended with all four chugging ice water, faces streaming with tears from the spice.

Though crying, they couldn’t help but laugh when they saw each other’s red, tear-streaked faces.

Looking at the black-and-white panels, where An Huyu was crying but laughing brightly, Li Li thought if An Heyu saw this, he’d surely be delighted.

The boys’ bond grew through their playful chaos, a friendship parents couldn’t replace.

The manga didn’t end there.

After this arc, the group continued their coliseum life.

But before the chapter closed, they spotted a familiar face—someone memorable to all but Yu Xiao.

The battle maniac Yan Changxiao, who once mistook Yiming for Heige and fought them.

This man was challenging the largest, wildest coliseum in Zhusheng City, run by the Sang clan nobles.

"Looks like he’s the one getting knifed in the Zhusheng arc," Li Li speculated, drawing on her vast experience.

In 《Extreme Black and White》, every arc had someone "knifed."

The manga artist had been restrained before, but after Li Li’s divine touch in the Jiao Huang arc, it was like their creative veins were unclogged, barreling down the path of tragedy.

In the Four-Way arc, it was Momo; Youyou nearly died.

In the Illusory Reality arc, it was An Huyu—without Li Li’s involvement, An Heyu would’ve been doomed.

Li Li summarized her experience: if someone new appeared with a mysterious background, congratulations, either they got stabbed or someone close to them did.

She flipped through the manga, turning to the chapter where Yan Changxiao first appeared, and her gaze settled on a line he said during his conversation with Li Baige.

‘We are the same kind of people. For a single belief, we chose to abandon everything else, stepping alone into hell, burning our lives as firewood.’

It seemed the knife would fall on his ‘belief.’

Li Li pondered for a while before exiting the manga interface.

For now, she didn’t think Yiming and the others would encounter anything unsolvable.

They weren’t like her, specifically targeting nobles, so the chance of facing high-rank ability users was low.

“The manga protagonist won’t die anyway.” Li Li stretched her arms, rolling her neck and shoulders.

Then she clicked into the manga’s details page, entering the popularity poll results.

It was past midnight, and the page had refreshed with a long graphic, complete with a barrage comment function.

The page displayed results starting from the tenth place in the popularity poll.

As soon as Li Li clicked in, she saw what took tenth.

It was the white doves at Four-Way City’s ‘Heart’ Square.

Nomination reason: At least give Four-Way City’s professional background actors some recognition!

[Hahahahaha, what a shocking start!]

[What’s wrong with you guys!]

[Now that I think about it, I do see those white doves a lot. Hold on, let me flip through the manga and count how many times they appeared.]

[First glance, I thought you guys voted for Li Baige. Second glance... what the hell?!]

Since a serialized manga’s current popularity often tied to a character’s recent appearance, only one character from before the Jiao Huang Arc managed to break into the top ten, but they only reached ninth.

Meanwhile, the outdated character Hua Yizhi, relying on his looks, somehow ranked eighth.

Li Li scrolled down.

Seventh was An Huyu, who had recently joined the protagonist group.

Sixth was a picture of a blue-eyed corgi, with the nomination reason: What Yiming? Isn’t the manga’s real protagonist the corgi?

[Hahahahaha, perfect, no issues here!]

[Feels completely natural.]

[You guys are so weird, what are you even voting for!]

[Fake protagonist: Yiming. Real protagonist: Corgi dog.]

[So I choose corgi (dog)]

From tenth to sixth, the rankings were revealed.

Aside from the two oddballs, the rankings mostly depended on looks.

Of course, An Huyu, being part of the protagonist group but having debuted recently, was at a slight disadvantage in popularity compared to others.

Then came the top five, where the background of the images switched to red.

Before the fifth-place image fully loaded, Li Li spotted a distinctive ahoge.

[Recognize the person by the ahoge.]

[It’s you! Our perfect white moonlight!]

[Aaaaah, my male god’s merch is coming!]

[Merch merch merch!!]

Scrolling further, as expected, it was ‘Li.’

On the red background, the rectangular frame showed a scene of Li and Yiming making a promise in a hallway, with Li saying, “Alright.”

In the black-and-white original image, the background seemed blurred, and the black-haired youth’s face appeared both sorrowful and faintly smiling.

[This image, of all things!]

[Happy about the merch but also stabbed by the official art. My Li!]

[Wuwuwu, who picked this image! Who!]

Li Li kept scrolling. Fourth was the manga’s idiot beauty, Yu Xiao.

The selected image showed Yu Xiao staring at a white dove, his round eyes seemingly lost in thought.

In the background, white doves flapped their wings and flew, while the boy in the foreground looked like the purest, most beautiful angel in the whiteness.

[Aaaah, Yu Xiao, my baby!]

[This face is too perfect not to have merch!]

[Baby, let mommy pinch your cheeks!]

Further down was third place.

When Li Li scrolled, she first saw a black head of hair.

In the manga, only two characters with black hair could possibly break into the top three: it was either her or Tang, who still hadn’t appeared.

Li Li didn’t think for long.

Her finger swiped down.

Before the results were out, she could still feel nervous, but now that they were revealed, there was no point in stressing.

Better to see the results quickly.

The image gradually completed: a black-haired girl looked down, gazing at the candy in her palm.

The girl’s black hair fell obediently, her eyes shimmering with tears, staring entranced at the candy wrapper that seemed to glow.

[Cat Tang!]

[Wuwu, my daughter is too adorable!]

[As expected, this image. Tang’s crying melts my heart.]

[Don’t cry, don’t cry, let’s go to Floating City together!]

“Looks like I can make it to the top two.” Li Li felt confident, unless Heige wasn’t in the race.

After the manga artist revealed that Li Baige equaled Heige, Li Baige was assumed to be Heige, so he wasn’t nominated.

But since Heige equaling Li hadn’t been revealed yet, Li Li didn’t think the manga artist would spoil it early by not nominating Heige.

She scrolled down, and the next image still showed black hair.

“Second, huh.” Li Li nodded, already satisfied with this result.

In the image, black crows flew by the side, and the black-haired youth at the center smirked, his brows exuding reckless audacity.

A closer look at those pupils revealed an overflowing madness.

It was the scene where Li Li first faced off against the S-rank Yue Qing.

[Aaaaah, so cool, my Ge!]

[As expected, everyone loves beauty and strength hahaha!]

[!! I remember this part! This is where I became a fan! So badass, Heige!]

[Hahaha, I’m not pretending anymore! I’m all about strength!]

[My favorite character is, of course, the coolest Heige!]

[Merch merch! I want to hug a life-sized Heige pillow to sleep!]

[The person above, me too!]

[+10086!!! Hurry up and make it happen!]

Li Li: Why’s there no “mommy hug” for me?

She thought about it and chalked it up to the difference between adults and minors.

“Phew.” Li Li leaned back in her chair a bit, continuing to scroll down. “So, first place is Little Corgi, right?”

Sure enough, first place was the manga’s protagonist, Yiming.

[After much thought, gotta give Yiming some face (dog)]

[Poor Little Corgi, just got beaten up, and now it’s back to getting beaten up every day.]

[Struggled between Corgi and Yiming but gritted my teeth and picked Yiming. Still want both!]

[You’re the only light in this dark world! You’re the unextinguished little sun!]

[Extreme Black forever! Little Corgi forever!]

For the first popularity poll, many voted for the manga’s protagonist, partly because Yiming’s highlight moment had just passed.

But more than that, manga readers recognized Yiming’s protagonist status and loved his charismatic personality.

Back when Li Li followed the manga purely as a reader, she didn’t dislike this Little Corgi either.

She looked at the image selected for first place.

It was an ordinary afternoon, with the youth beaming a sunny smile at the people outside the frame.

No trace of gloom, just the spirited air of youth.

And Li Li’s goal was to surpass this manga protagonist, to outshine this flawless hero in the eyes of Extreme Black readers.

So, did she lose this poll?

Li Li propped her cheek, scrolling the page back up.

The manga’s vote percentages were public, and because of that, when Li Li added the votes for fifth-place Li and second-place Heige, the final result completely surpassed first-place Yiming, even exceeding by ten percent of the votes.

Even if you included the sixth-place blue-eyed corgi, which was voted for as a joke, her votes still led.

“Is this the hidden storyline?” Li Li couldn’t help but say.

This déjà vu made it hard for her not to think so.

In short, Li Li felt the next issue would reveal the manga artist’s intentions.

If she didn’t appear, she’d remain a supporting character.

If she did, it’d be a clear split between main and hidden storylines, elevating her from side character to protagonist.

She was thrilled with anticipation.

...

After checking the popularity rankings, Li Li glanced at the time and browsed the forum.

The forum was buzzing with discussion, centered on the just-announced first character popularity poll.

As the apparent second-place finisher, Heige had a lot of attention.

[Confession: My bestie promised to vote for Ahoge Li but turned around and voted for Heige. I’m so mad at this traitor!]

[Sorry, Heige, I badmouthed you before due to a misunderstanding, so I voted for you this time!]

[Kinda feel bad for him. By the time I realized, my finger had already voted for him uncontrollably.]

[Power-scaling fans, do we need to hesitate? No! Tell me loud and clear, who’s the top fighter in this manga!]

[Merch merch, time to save up for merch! Life-sized pillows are coming, right?]

...

[Look at the top five—only Heige doesn’t have a nickname. Forum folks, you’re slacking!]

1L Original Poster

Ahoge Li, Flipping Fish, Cat Tang, Little Corgi—only Heige got left out. What are you guys doing!

Just because he’s not in the protagonist group? That’s favoritism!

So, what should we call him?

2L

Good question. I’ll start.

Boss Ge!

3L

The one above is too lazy. I say Kicker Ge!

4L

Something nicer—how about Versatile Ge?

5L

Listen to me: All-Around Ge!

6L

Hahahaha, I’m gonna die laughing in this thread.

7L

They’re all animals, so how about Black Crow Ge?

8L

Are you looking down on our Black Cat Ge?

9L

I’m just watching you guys argue hahahaha.

That said, I think it should be Clucky Ge.

10L

Is the one above clucking like a chicken?

Cluck cluck cluck!

11L

Cluck cluck cluck cluck cluck!

...

By the time Li Li scrolled to the end, she could barely recognize the characters for ‘cluck’ and ‘Ge.’

Glancing at the group chat, the besties who were bickering over canvassing votes a few days ago had already made up.

Because they all got merch.

“Should I buy some when the merch comes out?” Li Li started to wonder.

But wondering was just that. She checked the time—afternoon classes were about to start.

“Probably something for after finals.” She shook her head, pushed the chair back, stood up, and packed her bag.

Her top priority in the real world right now was next week’s final exams.

What’s that saying?

Manga popularity won’t help her pass exams.

And neither would the system playing dead.

...

Back in the manga world, Li Li donned her squinting-eye girl disguise, strolling openly down the street.

All squinting-eye characters are monsters, so Li Li had to become a monster!

Of course, it also suited her personal aesthetic.

Since it was her real face, she only needed a bit of makeup to tweak it—simple and highly deceptive.

After parting ways with An Heyu as usual, she walked down the streets of District 1, eventually arriving at Ranmu City’s public library.

Maybe she’d gone crazy from studying lately, but when she saw the rows of bookshelves through the glass, her first thought was: I’ll go in and look for practice questions and textbooks.

Then, maintaining her squinting-eye look, she stepped in with her high heels.

Of course, she wasn’t there for textbooks.

Visiting a library to learn about the other world’s history was perfectly normal.

Ranmu City’s public library had no entry requirements, so it was filled with all sorts of people: adults browsing books, children flipping through picture books, and elderly folks reading newspapers.

Signs on the walls marked silent zones and discussion areas, separated to avoid interference.

Li Li strolled past the history and humanities section of the bookshelves, searching for a suitable book to learn about the manga world and uncover any useful information.

As she reached for a book, a faintly familiar voice spoke beside her, seemingly addressing her: “If you’re interested in this, I can recommend a travelogue. It’s better for quick reading and understanding the Empire.”

Li Li turned her head and saw a woman who, to her, was a stranger.

The one she had saved twice.

Her face carried a sense of numbness, as if she were merely a shell.

But when she looked at Li Li, it was as though her weary hands had grasped something.

She held a book, extending it toward Li Li.

“I’m often here. You can trust my recommendation,” she said.

Li Li noticed she didn’t mention anything about the night’s events, unsure if it was because it was daytime or if she simply wanted to recommend a book.

The squinting-eyed, black-haired girl maintained her smile, the lines at the corners of her eyes mostly hidden by her short black hair.

Looking at the woman’s outstretched hand and the book, Li Li tilted her head and quickly accepted it.

“Alright,” Li Li took the recommendation.