Chapter 46
As always.
There was one reason Kim Yul was rushing to wrap things up.
[Title: Two Heroes: The Villain Hides His Ambition] [Currently serialized to chapter 127]
[Historical accuracy: consistent] [Quality assessment: fine work]
[Public reception: generally positive] [Daily readership: 4,734]
[To acquire the next skill: 5,266 more daily readers needed]
[Must be maintained for at least 30 days. (Currently 0 days)]
[Expected skill: [S-rank] Zhao■'s Pa■]
“This won't do.”
There is no such thing as an endless upward trend.
It's the same with stock charts, and the same with web novels' performance.
Nothing stays in bloom forever; if something rises, it is only natural for it to fall, and so the loyal readers of Two Heroes had slowly begun to disappear.
He had successfully kicked off a full-blown Three Kingdoms boom and even seized an A-rank skill in the process, but...
To obtain a higher-tier skill, it demanded an absurd number of readers, to the point where the scale of the newspaper company Truth Daily could no longer realistically keep up.
So Kim Yul worried over it.
In the long run, he needed a bold attempt that could broaden his readership base even further.
So he set up an entirely new stage.
Novelpia.
A print medium created solely for novels.
As its naming sense suggests, the one who first came up with the idea was naturally Kim Yul.
Duke Schnaisen, who received the proposal through Chloe, clapped like a seal and shouted, 'Get it moving right now!'
Naturally, it was an explosive hit!
“That novel-whatever, bring it here right now!”
“Kraaagh! Why is there an SR grade in the limited-edition cards!”
“Oh my... I obtained the SSR Young Strategist Zhuge Liang card in one go, though. But who is this?”
“Get that bastard! How dare he show off!”
“Why! Why won't an SSR come out for me! I was unlucky even with card packs!”
...Of course, that popularity did feel a bit more like it was piggybacking on the influence of Heroes Assemble.
Still, Novelpia sold well.
People who went crazy over the limited-edition cards bought multiple copies.
“Hmm, I don't really read novels. I'll take this.”
Since it was a bit awkward to use as firewood, people began giving away the Novelpia copies they didn't read for free here and there.
That was exactly the point Kim Yul had aimed for.
* * *
“Madness... my old friend...”
“Are you satisfied?”
“Of course I am.”
I don't know who he takes after, but I dragged Historie—who likes holing up in a little room even more than I do—out for a long-overdue stroll.
“As always, I feel the air quality is poor.”
Historie, accustomed to the pleasant, clear artificial air from an air purifier, grumbled, but I ignored it.
The sight of children running around the streets, proudly displaying holographic Guan Yu with bright smiles.
I walked along the street, listening to the game-addled voices from taverns with their doors flung wide open even in broad daylight—“It's a duel!”, “You'd play that card there?!”
......
“You're making a face that says, 'I didn't think it would get this popular,' Kim Yul.”
“Yeah. Honestly.”
Would Chris Metzen have predicted that the game he developed would evolve into a folk pastime on the distant land of Korea?
I didn't think so.
I felt the same way.
When I did the market research beforehand, I had definitely expected it to be a hit, but I never imagined it would boom this much.
Honestly, if we're talking contribution, it wasn't me—it was our UR-rank Tin Can, puffing its lips out just a little and toddling along behind me.
It made the rules, the illustrations, and the card effects.
...Of course, it had rummaged through big data to pull it all out, but if I were an ordinary person, there was no way I'd have even thought of it.
“We’re here.”
“Oh...!”
Maybe I should treat them to a very expensive meal.
The place we arrived at was a fancy restaurant that had three Michelin stars despite not even having Michelin tires.
“Let's eat whatever we want today.”
“Ki, Kim Yuuuul...!”
Tin Can's eyes, which had been in power-saving mode, shimmered in LED colors.
It had quite the appetite, so ordinarily this would have been a place it couldn't even dream of.
“Why are you so late?”
“That can happen.”
I had already secured a dependable patron, so there was nothing to worry about.
Chloe was today's wallet.
We'd gotten a little closer while working together on Heroes Assemble, and honestly, she seemed like too pathetic a scrub elf to keep speaking politely to, so we decided to drop the formality and be friends.
Of course, if you thought about Chloe's actual age, she was a bit on the old side to be making friends with, but still.
- Converted to human age, I'm only just over twenty!
- Then call me oppa.
- ?
Well, she was putting forward logic like 'if a dog is ten years old, that's seventy in human years,' so I decided to make use of that.
Chloe's gaze eventually turned to my side.
“Who is that person carrying such a vulgar, gigantic mass of fat?”
The elf, about as big as the hill behind the neighborhood, growled at Mount Tai.
So transparent. So very transparent.
Before the furious Tin Can fired a Hitori Beam from its eyes.
“The illustrator. You said you wanted to meet them.”
“Ah.”
The rude elf realized her rudeness, but
her gaze was still indecently fixed on our Tin Can's magnificent chest.
Tin Can's response to having 'Your tits are vulgar' shoved right in its face was
“Pleased to meet you. My name is Historie.”
Unexpectedly polite.
Is it a law that even in this world, you can't spit at a smiling face?
“Ahem, cough! I apologize for my rudeness. I am Chloe von Wisperaud, hawawayo.”
What even is this 'hawawayo'?
The elf's busted language module had reached a realm even I couldn't understand.
“I understand. It is the inevitable course of history for the have-nots who covet other people's rice cakes to evolve into red proletarians.”
“What did you say, desuwa?”
Hmm.
So the polite greeting was just to gain momentum for the initiation.
I pinched the bridge of my nose as I watched the two bratty troublemakers growling and barking at each other.
There wasn't a normal person around me.
Except me.
.
.
.
By cheerfully tugging the ears of the two brats who kept using 'e' as their refrain, I ended the catfight over the bust-size gap.
“This one, and this one, and this one, and this one.”
“Kim Yul, order that one too, please.”
“Yes, that too. And this one, and also this one—”
“N-no, no meat...!”
“Do it!”
I shot a sharp rebuke at the cheeky vegetarian elf who, despite being the one treating us, dared to ignore the tastes of the person she was feeding.
Well done, Historie.
Go ahead and destroy Chloe's wallet...!
And then.
Gluttony.
“H-how are you putting all of that into your stomach...?”
“It's tasty.”
“Mm, mm.”
Like children who had survived a winter of turnips, Tin Can and I slaughtered everything on the table.
People around us kept glancing over, but it didn't matter.
Only those among this bourgeois lot who have ever eaten bread soaked with tears may cast a stone at me. I shall gladly take the hit.
“How can you butcher meat so mercilessly...!”
“Wipe the drool off your mouth.”
“Hngh!”
“But if you're an elf, shouldn't you cherish and love plants more? Why are you a vegetarian then? In that case, can you eat something like marinated World Tree roots?”
“What the...! That's so elf-hateful...!”
Ignoring Chloe, who was so shocked by my jab that her mouth hung open in a daze, I focused on eating again.
* * *
After Kim Yul and Historie finally finished their spirited battle meal.
The three of us got down to business.
“Hmm, I get that Zhuge Liang was already covered in Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage, but who is Sima Yi? Why did he suddenly become the protagonist?”
“Curious? It’s a spoiler, though.”
“Ugh...! S-still, I have the right to know! He has absolutely no connection to Cao Cao at all, after all, so as a reader I just don't understand it very well!”
In fact, Chloe's opinion was no different from speaking for the existing die-hard readers of Two Heroes.
Zhuge Liang I could understand, but why was some unfamiliar character named Sima Yi suddenly stepping up as the protagonist?
Kim Yul knew that as well, so he let the mischief at the corners of his mouth fade and began explaining seriously.
“The reason I changed the protagonist is because I wanted to clearly show how Cao Cao and Liu Bei's deeds changed the world.”
Since he couldn't blurt out a heaven's secret like 'Cao Cao falls and the Sima clan unifies everything in the future,' Kim Yul had no choice but to persuade her using the logic he had built up during the writing process.
“He’s still in his youth right now... but Zhuge Liang will soon get caught up in the great filial piety of Xuzhou... no, the massacre. Sima Yi, meanwhile, seems to be growing up peacefully in a noble family, but he’ll become a major figure while watching the shifts in power balance caused by Cao Cao.”
“Hmm...”
“Even though we covered a lot of politics and diplomacy in the Cao Cao arc, that's still the perspective of a ruler. Through Sima Yi's arc, I want to capture the feeling of looking up at those in power from below.”
“Gaoping Tombs...”
“Stahp.”
Having easily shut down Tin Can's interjection.
Kim Yul once again ran his mouth at length and kneaded Chloe's brain.
Of course, Kim Yul was well aware that the current performance still fell short of his previous work.
But.
Both in the sense of completing Part 1 and moving on to Part 2.
And in the sense of refocusing the story, he thought changing the protagonist was inevitable.
Even for the ending he had in mind.
“Although the protagonist has changed, in the end Sima Yi will enter Cao Cao's service, and I'll also adjust the perspective so Cao Cao's situation comes through sufficiently, so you don't need to worry too much.”
“If that's the case...”
Chloe, having been convinced, nodded.
* * *
He had succeeded in persuading the majority shareholder, but
in the end, Kim Yul had trouble winning over the readers' hearts.
It was only natural.
For the protagonist to suddenly be replaced in the middle of a well-running novel—it was practically as outrageous as recasting Headmaster Dumble■ore!
So in the end, the early run had no choice but to rely on Novelpia and a card-bundling strategy.
Fortunately.
Just before the canvas tore from trying to paint such a grand picture.
Kim Yul seized an opportunity to rebound.
By once again borrowing the power of the Romance.
Pathetically, even for a former protagonist.
As Liu Bei, after getting utterly wrecked yet again, fled, Cao Cao's great army chased after him in high spirits.
- There's no way Zilong would leave me behind and run!
- That's right. If it is General Zhao Yun...
Even in a life-or-death situation, the strong faith of the first protagonist and the second protagonist's near-miraculous strategy created synergy.
In front of the Cao Cao army, which was chasing with all its might to gleefully cut off Liu Bei's ears and mount them as trophies,
at Changbanpo,
two gigantic Mount Tais appeared.