Netizens on the internet are like microscopic invertebrates in the sea. It doesn't take too much for them to be overturned by the tide.
After only a few days of water armies, photos, and the sleepless nights of the Zheng group's PR and law departments, most people on the web have finally woken up from the previous brainwashing conducted by the rebels previously and realised something was amiss.
It helped quite a bit that their group had people working with them from the inside, purposely over-blackening Prince Farrell online until it became very obvious even to any passersby that there was a big force behind all this sudden influx of scandals and even leaking evidence of hiring water armies.
Once the tides began to turn it was Jia Hyson's turn to shine. When Prince Farrell showed up online to broadcast a live stream video announcing the truth, the facts and what's happening right now people listened. In general, people's memories weren't great but they also weren't too bad, only a few months have passed since the whole fiasco started so most still recalled their good feelings toward this handsome prince. 70-80% of the public therefore already became more inclined to support him just looking at his solemn but still sexy face.
Face value, it really was the biggest cheat in any story.
"It's amazing," Jia Hyson sighs as he scrolls down the screen, reading the comments to his live stream idly, "In my reality, attractiveness means a lot but it's not enough to stop people from condemning an awful person. But in the story world, it really can change people's thoughts so easily. I suppose having some of Song Chutao's halo helped too ah."
"...Who said host didn't come from a story world?"
Jia Hyson's finger on the mouse shook and accidentally clicked on an advertisement on some probably bullshit site that claims it helps people study better. However, he didn't really care, too busy looking at his silver bangle in shock. "Bebe, can you please repeat that?"
Bebe makes a sighing sound, "Honestly host, is it so hard to believe? Bebe thought you would have thought about this sooner."
Jia Hyson frowns but after some thought he supposes Bebe was correct. After all, he already knows that by fixing a story he is essentially stabilizing the world the story resides in. A story creates a world and a world would have stories, it's an infinite cycle that never stops. He just never thought too deeply on it since he, himself always viewed his world as the Reality and other worlds as a Story. But if every world relies upon around a story then how can his own be the exception?
But it was still a little difficult to comprehend nonetheless.
"Was I, was I a character?" He struggles to say. If it turns out that little girl that killed him was dictated to by the pen of another human being... Well, how can Jia Hyson feel comfortable about that?
"Negative," Bebe quickly denies, then hesitates, "Well... from the story Little Miss CEO is a Harem Master! There is an 81.8% chance you were briefly mentioned as one of the protagonist's favourite authors. The protagonist and her secretly masochistic cash pig third male lead initially bonded over this and other books."
Jia Hyson: '...What sort of messy novel is 'Little Miss CEO is a Harem Master!'?'
Jia Hyson sighs with relief, "That, that's okay then." Personally, Jia Hyson felt like it would be far more unnerving if he was a real character. As hypocritical as it was, he isn't too fond of knowing that he was dealt with all his personality traits and cards in life by some random author he didn't know. He rather believes it was the mystery of the heavens and fate ah. Humans are selfish like that, even though he has sentenced the fates of numerous characters both in the past and present when it comes to himself being dealt with the same blow he would feel bad all over. "Am I allowed to read the story?"
Now that his existential crisis was more or less appeased he was a little curious about his original world. After all, the stories residing there would on some level affect all the inhabitants living there, he would have been no exception.
"Of course," Bebe agrees, relieved at how easy it's host took the information, some hosts take quite a while to adjust their world views while others refuse to accept their fate was specifically dictated by someone else, especially if their fate was especially tragic.
It's why most hosts are almost never important story characters ah. Supporting leads though may get picked for counterattacking type systems since they had good viciousness and their previously suppressed IQ has room to grow, making them very good host candidates. Of course, they're also more likely to rebel ah.
"Host's original world actually has multiple small world stories," it continues, "I will proceed to download them for you to browse."
After a moment Jia Hyson's new phone lit up with a bunch of notifications of new downloads. Glancing at it interestedly Jia Hyson immediately felt the taste of blood in his mouth.
Little Miss CEO is a Harem Master!, Domineering Tyrant's Cute Little Fairy Wife, Reborn Movie Queen's Three Dogs, Butterfly Garden: A Tale of Two Brothers, Snow White and the Seven Gongs, Diamond Dynasty, Transmigrating into the Devil's Plaything, Teaching My Little Aunt About Love, White Lotus Deflowered, Begging GeGe To Push Me Down, Bloodfallen, Catching the White Moonlight, The Stallion's Revenge, Toppling Down the School Beauties, Reborn Playboy, A Sordid School Tale, Taking Apart the Harem, Defiling the Underground Boss's-
Jia Hyson's face was extremely ugly. So many messy titles were now on his phone. Also, Reborn Movie Queen's Three Dogs? Was that talking about that famous movie empress Xu Meifan who was rumoured to have three gold masters behind her? Fuck he had even hit on her once when he was younger!
Also, he recalls learning about the Diamond Dynasty at school- he only remembers it because that time was one of the messiest dogblooded periods of Chinese history he had ever had to be lectured about ah. One woman turned all the great men of China's heads, she had even dazzled a neighbouring empire and nearly set off a war but discovered a vein of diamonds and gems which... Jia Hyson doesn't exactly remember the specifics but he totally aced that test back then.
So it turns out he was a by-product of a world more or less based on many perverted, dog blooded and revenge based stories. Upon reflection it really does show in his personality- he's sexually open, his mindset is oddly twisted and his very vengeful and petty. Not to mention his own messy love life and wide range of kinks.
While some of this can't be attributed to the world's genres alone- after all, not all people in a gay romance will themselves be gay ah- he could definitely have said to be quite influenced by it. Jia Hyson always figured his psychosis was just an example of nature over nurture, now he knows exactly what the 'nature' of the world is, he can't help but feel a little complicated.
Nonetheless, Jia Hyson felt that, despite how shocking the information was, his three views needed only some slight changes. It wasn't like this sort of thing affected him now after all. He was his own person and now that he was no longer bound to the invisible shackles of the world, this fact couldn't be any truer.
With that mental adjustment, Jia Hyson pushes away that odd unnerving feeling that happens when he thinks too hard on the topic and checks out Reborn Movie Queen's Three Dogs with some interest. After all, this was clearly someone that he himself has met, how could he not be curious? He also bookmarks Snow White and the Seven Gongs while lamenting how unfair it was as he reads through the synopsis. They were both from the same worlds, why was the difference between slags so big?
Bebe: 'The protagonist from Snow White and the Seven Gongs is a very pure white lotus, where on earth does host read 'slag' from this?'
Jia Hyson: 'Darling, if they can juggle seven men at the same time their name can only be spelt out as SLAG MAN. Even if it's accidental, it's still very slag ah.' ╮(╯∀╰)╭
Not to mention, how difficult it is to find men so willing to wear green hats while dating? Not to mention for six other men? Even if he knows it's beyond his own capabilities who hasn't imagined being pampered by a harem of beauties that devote themselves solely to you? How can one not be jealous knowing that it's not only possible, some white lotus bitch managed it in the same realm of reality he was living in at the same time?
In his lifetime the closest thing to multiple boyfriends was multiple friends with benefits and two guys really into cuckolding. The difference in emotional investments and returns was too wide.
Bebe: '…You're the expert ba.'
As he becomes immersed in the Reborn Movie Queen's story of rising to fame and taming three big dogs with thick golden thighs, Jia Hyson couldn't help but taste the unique flavour of reading a real person fanfiction of people you personally know. No, it should be considered more like an autobiography ah. And sure, there were quite a bit of people mentioned who were only passing acquaintances at best to him, to the point it was difficult to even recall who they were but he still knew them okay?
It's quite strange to find out Celebrity A who had been so polite and elegant when he had seen them was actually such a depraved piece of shit cannon fodder. And Businessman B was in this! He was one of his sex friends but ended up dying without an intact corpse after all his dirty laundry was aired online, Jia Hyson was always wondering who exactly he had offended. Oh my, this was really a little more exciting to read than he expected ah.
With so many world plots with so much face slapping, drama, murder and so on Jia Hyson suddenly had the feeling that if he could ever go back to his original world, he may become the next Sherlock Holmes, solving the unsolved murders and kidnapping cases left and right.
Actually... that's not a bad story idea hehe.
When Song Chuntao visits later on, Jia Hyson had already stopped reading the Reborn Movie Queen's story in favour of writing down his plot ideas for his newest story- a young rich third generation who suddenly finds a bunch of messy stories that he soon realizes correlates with reality and tries to... hmm... fight crime? Change the destiny of the cannon fodder because he's acquainted with them and he can't in good consciousness let such an unfair tragedy play out in front of him? Prevents an abusive love story from unfolding and accidentally seduces the female lead instead?
Maybe start with the destiny change arc first, then the protagonist can gain a loyal follower that is aware of these books and helps out with future arcs? Tch, tch so hard to decide.
...
Outside the apartment, the world begins to shift and so does Samotrelis' power balance.
Many countries were interested in this small golden thigh island however because of Samotrelis' reclusive nature, xenophobia and distinct physiques it was incredibly difficult and dangerous to insert spies inside.
America was the most successful country currently in espionage, managing to pass off six incredibly physically endowed African-American men as Samotrelians, however during the civil war, four had already been found out by rebels and killed off. These were top agents but due to a lack of cultural understanding, it was difficult to hold up against intense scrutiny and suspicion.
Still, America wasn't happy with this outcome and also decided to lend some help underneath the table to the anti-rebels. The Zheng group was big and the influence was large but when compared to the will of a whole country, it's like a firehose next to a waterfall in terms of the resources it can give. Once others caught word of it, they also joined in to help a little in order to gain some benefits and gratitude from the royal family afterwards.
Yesterday they threw mud and today they throw gold. It was the same as pushing a man off a cliff and acting innocent and kind after the man miraculously is saved. Politics was truly a place with no vegetarians.
With all this support, unless the anti-rebels were filled with the biggest pig teammates in the world, their victory was inevitable. Nevertheless, wars, even small ones, cannot end in a day and the rebels had already gotten so close to tasting power it was also difficult for them to let go.
Still, Jia Hyson doesn't know what this anti-rebel leader ate as a child but he was incredibly quick and efficient in sweeping up the mess. Like a bird watching a piece of decomposing wood, every time an insect would pop up it would immediately peck down and swallow them whole. The insects were also fearless and would keep popping up but the bird would only let them meet the same end with barely a struggle.
Even Third Prince Jaleel and First Prince Asafa, one famed for wit and the other, intelligence, both thought the art of war, reconnaissance and strategy- may not necessarily accomplish such a feat so quickly even working together much less by themselves. Despite their abilities and potential they were born in peacetimes and have not experienced any big conflicts other than verbal ones nowadays. Jia Hyson couldn't help but believe that this anti-rebel leader definitely came from the previous generations.
These sort of decisive and ruthless actions... He's probably an old friend of Farrell's father or grandfather. Or just a staunch imperialist.
After all, even if his grandfather did various bad things that caused a lot of hate for some he did fight for a good reason. Overall he wasn't a hated ruler, especially when the outcome of opening their borders was so good.
The current King Kro is also popular as he's considered benevolent and generous in nature, satisfying most commoners. And his sons and daughters have good potential and personalities. To say there was no dissatisfaction with the rebels for breaking the balance is a complete and utter lie and there are many people that are steadfast in supporting the imperial faction. It wouldn't be hard to believe a retired master would take charge of the anti-rebel group.
It doesn't really matter though. What matters is the anti-rebels are winning, and winning quickly. It was clear to everyone involved that the rebels were being backed into a corner.
Unfortunately, desperate people take desperate measures.
A few weeks after Jia Hyson's live stream, a new video appeared when the internet was at peak activity that threw the public into a frenzy.
"Prince Farrell, surrender and come back to Samotrelis or your family dies." Sefu Karamoy rasps, his heterochromatic eyes shining under the light just like the blade he has up against the king's neck. He looks every inch an evil villain.
Jia Hyson: '...'
Child, you really know how to dig pits for yourself ah?
Bebe: 'Host... Bebe regrets to inform you that it turns out your type of man seems to be stupid ones that like to self-abuse.'
Jia Hyson thinks of Drake who was an idiot, Monroe who gave up immediately after a kiss, Li Guiren who could only see but not touch, Tian Shun who was just a huge ball of angst and possibly PTSD really, and finally Sefu Karamoy the pit-digger.
He sighs. Unfortunately, it seems his system was not wrong.
Idiot Drake, Loser Monroe, Untouchable Li Guiren, Angsty Teen Tian Shun, Pit-Digger Sefu: '…' Must. Not. Cry.
(QwQ) (TAT) (⋟﹏⋞) (T⌓T) (πーπ)