Trust
Wu Shun may not be an avid manga reader, but the name “Su Li” was far from alien to him.
That person may be known as a deity in the world of manga and ill.u.s.trations, but the internet had raised her ident.i.ty as some form of power. The G.o.ddess of misfortune.
If her artworks did not suffer misfortune, their creators would.
Of course, Wu Shun started off as a skeptic. He thought that it was all baloney, but after much investigation and interviewing Su Li’s fans, he could not deny that everytime Su Li did something, adverse events occurred, supporting the misconception that Su Li’s power was real.
Wu Shun’s gut feeling a.s.sured that those rumors were all unfounded. He did play along, firing shots at Su Li’s fans during livestreams by saying “If this Su Li is really that ill.u.s.trator Su Li, she did a great job. That nameless maiden – Yan Qingmeng – Li Keyi trio all went through an awful lot. Nameless Swordswoman basically dies in every possible route, even if she’s the main character.”
Wu Shun was not convinced that this was the same Su Li as the mangaka. Mangakas don’t suddenly transition into 3D rendering for video games.
More than a few viewers also had such thoughts, but the slim possibility nagged at their thoughts. Wherever Su Li went, trouble followed.
A Su Li fan stood up for her, saying that she already had her hands full with, “The Strongest King” and “Himegoto.” She could not possibly have the time to design more characters for “Tales of Wuxia 3”. He deduced that it was an uncanny coincidence, nothing else. People needed to lay off her – it was all Old Thief Zha Feng’s fault.
Su Li would always feel bad for her fans – they would always try to protect her from verbal harm – just like how Zhao Youyue usually did. It was not easy being Su Li
Her loyal fans would always get blasted in the face by unpleasant truths.
This incident was no different. After Wu Shun’s lifestream, one of the viewers asked Su Li if she was in charge of “Tales of Wuxia 3’s” character design.
Being the primary ill.u.s.trator for this DLC, she had indeed played a huge role in its production. Because it was FengHuo Gaming Company, the pay was luxurious, and she had the added bonus of being in close proximity with Lady Zhao who clearly loved the game. All these factors were more than enough for her to take the job seriously.
Although Su Li already knew the extent of the nameless maiden’s tragic ending, she had a clear conscience, being its creator. When it came to Xu Jing, she had no qualms creating the worst case scenario for her, a fate that went beyond the realm of human rationale. You could say she did it to get readers hyped up.
That’s why the dreaded fate of the nameless maiden had been so sorry, so touching. Still, what could be done about it? She was a virtual character. She existed only to provide entertainment for the players.
In that vein, Su Li had created many abusive outlines for her ill.u.s.trations to hype up players, enhanced by the usage of CGs such as the nameless maiden’s CG ill.u.s.tration. Su Li had been on board this train the entire time
The only thing Su Li did not see coming was to have fans asking her about this so soon. Someone might have already beaten the game, or they had a wild guess based on the art style.
As Su Li only follow Lady Zhao’ stream, she would remain unaware of someone like “The King of Grinding” – Wu Shun, a creature who flung all of his free time into the game. When you only stop to sleep, you would surely overtake Zhao Youyue’s progress.
Su Li maintained her upright personality and admitted on Weibo that she had played a part in “Tales of Wuxia 3” DLC’s production. She proceeded to post the character arts and design, even advertising the game’s ill.u.s.tration book as merchandise. As long as they sold well, she would receive her ample, fair share.
The money-grubbing Su Li would bar no holds when it came to promoting anything that would increase her profit. The game had made shockwaves across the market. The DLC even more so. This was a great time to ride on its waves.
So what if more of those “the poisonous Su Li strikes again” or “G.o.ddess Su is at it again!” headlines made their way to the top of search engines. More attention on her, good or bad, it didn’t matter. If people wanted to paint her as a portrait of the devil, so be it. She would go with the flow, she would capitalize on it and reap more profit.
As expected, when Su Li revealed that she was in fact in charge of the DLC art for “Tales of Wuxia 3”, even going so far as to release original character ill.u.s.trations promote the game’s ill.u.s.tration books, her Weibo blew up.
“No wonder Ms. Nameless had such a terrible fate! It was all due to G.o.ddess Su’s curse!”
“I thought the ill.u.s.tration looked familiar, but I could not quite put my finger in it. 3D is vastly different from 2D, afterall. Curse you, G.o.ddess Su!!”
“G.o.ddess Su is truly unstoppable First the manga world, then the LN [1] world, and now the gaming world?! She was definitely done in by Zha Feng! I thought that old thief Zha Feng would get slammed for this, but G.o.ddess Su is here yet again.”
“What ‘Tales of Wuxia 3: Swords of the Future’? It’s ‘Tales of Wuxia 3: Upbringing of Misfortune’! I pity G.o.ddess Su She must have got done in by Zha Feng! Now, all the old thieves are pouncing on the G.o.ddess, since all they want to do is torture and lift death flags for the character, with Su Li there to act as their meats.h.i.+elds, what was there left to worry about?”
“Old Thief Zha Feng got a good eye. This DLC just turned his series into absolute gold. Sales and ratings have hit a record high. One does not need to guess how much G.o.ddess Su contributed to it”
“I’ve never heard of this game in the past, yet when I heard that G.o.ddess Su partic.i.p.ated in the creation in the ill.u.s.tration group, I got a copy of the game straight away! No mistake about that, I am a loyal fan of G.o.ddess Su! Follow me as we lead the fan community to the direction of revering G.o.ddess Su!”
Translation note:
[1] LN is Light Novels in short.