It's Actually Not Easy Wanting to be a Supporting Male Lead

Translated by Eve

Edited by Wuxian, Cat, Juurensha

Zhao Xihe put in a lot of effort in playing [Hua Xinlei]. Ever since Sui Yuan had tacitly approved of his self-appointed position as ’Guild Leader’s wife’, he had immediately begun to win people over and had started his plan to drive a wedge between them and [Wind-Like High Official].

Although the feelings of online friendship could not be said to be cheap, it was however, very easily gained. As long as you avoided a conflict of interest, put some effort into giving others small favours, and went along with the general mood, it was enough.

[Hua Xinlei], who was a ’soft and cute little sister’ in other people’s eyes, easily infiltrated the female group. He only had to happily chat with them to be considered their friend. Help them a few times, and they’d consider you their best friend. Once you became their best friend, if you encountered any issues, whether it be for the sake of your friendship or for the sake of avoiding criticism, the girls would all present a united front against your enemy. Even if they have a strong sense of justice and feel that their own side is completely unreasonable, at most, they would just watch on the sidelines, not helping either side.

As for the male players, they were even easier to settle. All he had to do was throw a tantrum, sell meng, and act wronged, and the male players who ’have tender, protective feelings for the fairer sex’ would practically all stand up and speak out for ’her’. Moreover, behind [Hua Xinlei] was [Disdaining the King of Hell].

Perhaps it was because he was wearing a ’little sister skin’ that his work was rather effortless, or perhaps it was because he was enveloped in a protagonist halo regardless of whether he played a villainous cannon fodder supporting male lead role, but Zhao Xihe very quickly gained a large following who faintly exuded an aura that said, if called, they would come and respond en masse. Meanwhile, [Disdaining the King of Hell] got through the ’low point in his life’ after having broken up with [Wind-Like High Official] and gradually began to act affectionate with [Hua Xinlei] in the guild’s channel.

As for how one would go about PDAing in a game, Sui Yuan actually did not really understand how to go about it. Moreover, the description of this plot from [Wind-Like-High Official]’s perspective was not detailed. Therefore, Sui Yuan could only endure and work hard to cooperate with the increasingly happy and hyperactive Zhao Xihe. Unfortunately, it may have been because he didn’t have enough experience or because he wan’t clever enough, but eight to nine times out of ten, he’d end up going along with the other’s ideas. It really gave Sui Yuan a headache.

Gradually, [Disdaining the King of Hell] who had always been called ’Guild Leader’ was secretly given a new nickname: ’Cute Leader’ — Yes, this ’meng’ and not the other ’meng’. In the beginning, Sui Yuan had thought that since the guild was named {Heaven’s Alliance}, it wasn’t wrong to be called ’Alliance Leader’ and that the members were just occasionally making typos which was why ’alliance’ became ’cute’.

However, with his tacit approval, the guild members became more and more unrestrained and began to call him ’Cute Leader’, ’Cute Leader’ here, there, and everywhere! It was only then that Sui Yuan realized that it wasn’t a typo at all! If it was a typo, then they had never typed it right to begin with!

Sui Yuan, who deeply felt that his glorious image had been tarnished, immediately expressed his disapproval.

【Guild Member A】：So it turns out that it wasn’t a tacit approval before, but that you didn’t realize what was happening?! The fact that you thought that it was a typo is funny to death! 【roaring laughter】【roaring laughter】

【Guild Member B】：Indeed, Cute Leader is very befitting. Cute Leader daren, you should just resign yourself to your fate!

【Guild Member C】：I simply can’t bear it...where’s my domineering Guild Leader daren from before! Cute Leader simply can’t be any more terrible! 【roaring laughter】

【Guild Member D】：It must be a case of being influenced by those close to yourself, huh? When he was with the noble, cool, and elegant Vice Guild Leader High Official, Guild Leader exuded a domineering and calm air. Now that he’s with the cheerful Huahua, he immediately became silly-cute!

【Disdaining the King of Hell】：..................

【Hua Xinlei】：【smiles】【rubs head】【rubs head】

【Guild Member E】：Suddenly, it feels like I can see a scene of Cute Leader daren crouching in the corner sulking while being gently comforted by Huahua. Am I the only one who sees this?

【Guild Member F】：wwwww you are definitely not the only one!

Thus, after the unsuccessful opposition, Sui Yuan learned how to conceal his own ignorance. Whenever he was faced with a subject he didn’t understand, he would straightforwardly respond with ’hehe’ or ’....’ Unfortunately, even though he tried his best, he was unable to regain his already collapsed image that was deteriorating day by day. In the end, even those that did not belong to {Heaven’s Alliance} began to teasingly call him by this nickname, expressing that this nickname, when compared to his appearance, gave a particularly strong ’gap moe’.

——What the heck was gap moe, this kind of messy thing! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

Aside from his rather unpleasant nickname, Sui Yuan’s life was going relatively smoothly. Under [Hua Xinlei]’s meticulous targeting, [Wind-Like High Official] began to feel a bit hard-pressed: when he acted fair and strict, [Hua Xinlei] said that he was being unreasonable; whenever he decided on what the guild should do next, [Hua Xinlei] would say that he wasn’t considerate of other people’s opinions; when he asked for other people’s opinions, [Hua Xinlei] said that he was indecisive...although [Hua Xinlei] covered it up well, [Wind-Like High Official] was very clever. After going through these kinds of situations more frequently, as the person involved, he naturally could see that he was being targeted.

[Wind-Like High Official] felt rather angry and couldn’t help but message [Disdaining the King of Hell] privately, asking him to restrain [Hua Xinlei]. Sui Yuan agreed but in the next moment, Zhao Xihe who liked to peep at his screen found out right away. As a result, [Hua Xinlei] immediately began to complain tearfully, feeling wronged. He said that [Wind-Like High Official] tattle-taled on him behind his back and wanted to incite disharmony between [Disdaining the King of Hell] and himself.

【Hua Xinlei】：I’ve always hated people who talk badly about someone else in private. If you disapprove of something, then you should confidently say it out loud. Although sometimes people’s words can get a little heated and evoke people’s disfavour, isn’t it better than saying it behind someone’s back and trying to drive a wedge between people? If Vice Guild Leader High Official is discontented with me then don’t hesitate to say it out loud. There’s no need to complain to Disdaining Gege. He’s not in charge of me!

Sui Yuan raised his head to look at Zhao Xihe beside him who was drinking coffee while looking at his computer, an elitist smile on his face, and could not help but comment, "How lowly...."

Zhao Xihe smiled and lifted his coffee mug, "You should praise my perfect acting. I mean, you aren’t even able to act this lowly, Cute Leader daren!"

Feeling personally attacked, Sui Yuan silently ended the conversation.

After realizing that going through [Disdaining the King of Hell] was useless, [Wind-Like High Official] learned his lesson. However, even though he tried to talk to [Hua Xinlei], nothing good came out of it. Instead, he was greatly annoyed by the other’s absurd logic. Soon after, he was attacked by [Hua Xinlei]’s followers, their rationale behind this was unclear. Gradually, [Wind-Like High Official] began to fade from sight. He participated less and less with the guild members. Instead, he became closer to [Elegant and Humble Autumn Leaves] and became acquainted with several members of {Carefree}.

Of course, [Hua Xinlei] naturally would not let go of such a good opportunity to criticize him. He expressed his discontent time and time again, saying that [Wind-Like High Official] spent all his time with outsiders. [Wind-Like High Official] was also too lazy to pay him any attention and thus completely allowed his complaints to flow in one ear and out of the other.

On one screen was [Hua Xinlei] going around targeting [Wind-Like High Official] everywhere. On another, was [Elegant and Humble Autumn Leaves] using his identity as a good friend to persuade him to straightforwardly quit the guild since he was unhappy. Zhao Xihe’s split personality made Sui Yuan feel quite amazed. He couldn’t help but admit that when this man worked earnestly, whether it was in acting skill or work ethic, he then left everyone else in the dust.

——In other words, if [Wind-Like High Official] knew the truth, he’d probably want to kill Zhao Xihe....

Therefore, under the joint effort on ’both sides’, [Wind-Like High Official]’s determination to stay in {Heaven’s Alliance} wavered more and more. Eventually, it reached the critical point. Once the last straw that breaks the camel’s back appears, Sui Yuan and Zhao Xihe’s efforts would come to fruition.

And this last straw, was the field BOSS.

As more time passed, <Jianghu Online>’s leaderboards top players became max levelled one after another and graduated from playing instances. Soon after, the main focus of their gameplay was centered around facing all sorts of field bosses. The field BOSSES not only gave an ample amount of experience points and money — but most importantly, they also dropped rare materials that could be used to craft better equipment. Thus, a field BOSS would frequently be watched attentively by a few groups of people. Therefore, it was naturally common to see scenes of people KSing or PKing.

Among all the server’s guilds, the number one guilds were without a doubt {Heaven’s Alliance} and {Carefree}, that were full of max levelled players who killed BOSSes in an extremely savage way. The probability of these two guilds coming into contact was naturally high.

You KS me, I KS you, you kill me, I kill you — the relationship between these two guilds was naturally unfriendly. They could even be considered ’enemies’. Therefore, when [Wind-Like High Official] disregarded the members of {Heaven’s Alliance} and spent more time with {Carefree}, the public opinion within {Heaven’s Alliance} became rather discontented.

Under [Hua Xinlei] and [Elegant and Humble Autumn Leaves]’s — this double agent — meticulous guidance, {Heaven’s Alliance} and {Carefree}’s battle over the BOSSes became more and more intense. Furthermore, because the latter worked well together and their overall strength was slightly higher, it caused cries of complaint to arise all around from the members of {Heaven’s Alliance}, making them gnash their teeth in hatred. Thus, in order to vent their anger, the members of {Heaven’s Alliance} treated the matter of stealing the BOSS from {Carefree} as their daily mission, becoming very proactive.

Furthermore, [Wind-Like High Official] who was involved thought that it was {Heaven’s Alliance} that was indeed the unreasonable one. However, since it was all ’BOSS stealing’, who would care whether or not it was unreasonable? What was important was to be able to steal it for oneself.

When {Heaven’s Alliance} and {Carefree} clashed once again, Sui Yuan who had been notified by Zhao Xihe in advance had already gone offline to hide, leaving [Wind-Like High Official] to be the leader. [Wind-Like High Official] tried to reason with himself while also considering his own feelings. On one side, it was his own guild. On the other was his good friends. He didn’t want to offend either side. In the end, he decided that whoever took possession first of the BOSS would take the final ownership of the BOSS.

It was originally not a big matter. Although it made the guild members a bit dissatisfied, after speaking to the members and sending them some compensation, they would be appeased. Of course, this was under the premise that there wasn’t [Hua Xinlei] who was always waiting for an opportunity to fan the flames.

One important aspect that affected a guild’s growth was whether or not someone would stick up for the guild’s members at a crucial point, thereby giving the members a sense of belonging. This was always [Disdaining the King of Hell]’s job. Meanwhile, [Wind-Like High Official] was not as effective in this respect. Therefore, when [Wind-Like High Official] decided to give way, the discontent towards {Carefree} and [Wind-Like High Official] instantly exploded under the instigations of people with secret motives, catching [Wind-Like High Official] completely unprepared.

After such a long period of gestation and preparation, the final strike would naturally succeed. Therefore, when Sui Yuan logged on the next day, [Wind-Like High Official] had already left the guild. In his anger, he didn’t even give an explanation on why he had left.

Sui Yuan acted understanding and tried his best to appease the veteran players who were gloomy because of [Wind-Like High Official]’s departure as well as the new players who felt uneasy and remorseful for having participated in the event that had forced him out. After straightening out their feelings, he promised to have a good talk with [Wind-Like High Official] and settle this matter.

However, before he could fulfill his promise, the members of {Heaven’s Alliance} found out that their previous Vice Guild Leader had already thrown himself into the arms of their arch-enemy, {Carefree} without the slightest hint of reluctance. This extinguished the last bits of fondness in many of the members’ hearts.

The curtain fell on the perfectly executed second section of the plot. Sui Yuan’s next mission was to lead the members of {Heaven’s Alliance} to act ostentatious and bossy. Afterwards, he would be slapped in the face by {Carefree} once more. Furthermore, the first face-slapping scene would be during the Guild War.

Every week, there’s a guild war on <Jianghu Online>. Its purpose is for trying to take over other guild’s bases, stealing other guild’s money, stealing construction resources, and also for gaining guild experience points. {Heaven’s Alliance} and {Carefree} were enemies that would covet the other guild’s resources whenever they met. In addition, there was the matter of the intense BOSS snatching and [Wind-Like High Official]’s departure. Naturally, both sides declared that they intended to show off their strengths and teach the other guild a lesson.

As a cannon fodder supporting role, it was necessary for {Heaven’s Alliance} to lose. Therefore, Sui Yuan did not prepare for the guild war. He only continued to use the guild’s previous tactics. The only change was that [Wind-Like High Official], who was the original commander in guild wars, had changed into the newly appointed Vice Guild Leader veteran player. As for [Disdaining the King of Hell] who Sui Yuan controlled, he was the vanguard on the front lines who would charge forth and kill. He was the stabilizing force of {Heaven’s Alliance}’s front line.

During the guild war preparation period, after both sides had gathered, some members of {Heaven’s Alliance} with good eyes immediately noticed that the other camp included a glittering great god. Immediately, a commotion broke out within {Heaven’s Alliance}’s faction.

【Guild Member A】：WTF, am I seeing things?! Isn’t that Lone Wind Wan Yi?! That person is Lone Wind Wan Yi, right?! Quickly tell me that I’m seeing things!

【Guild Member B】：F*ck! Is that really him?! He’s never participated in guild wars before, right?!

【Guild Member C】：Don’t mess around! What about Lone Wind Wan Yi? We’ll attack him together! I don’t believe that we can’t kill him!

【Guild Member D】：I don’t know why but I have an ominous premonition....

【Guild Member E】：Crow’s beak, shut up!

{Heaven’s Alliance}’s guild channel was full of alarm because the number one great god of the server had appeared on the enemy’s side. After all, Lone Wind Wan Yi had long been famous. Normally, he kept a low-profile. Everyone only knew that he was amazing, unrivalled at PKing, but no one knew just how amazing he was.

And people were always afraid of the unknown.

Sui Yuan watched as everyone discussed spiritedly. He could guess the reason as to why [Lone Wind Wan Yi] had suddenly, inexplicably ran over to participate and make his presence known in the guild war. With a sense of superiority over the fact that ’no one but me knows what’s happening’ he thought this: Why did Lone Wind Wan Yi appear? Naturally it’s to vent anger on [Wind-Like High Official]’s behalf! However, face-slapping and what not, there was no need to do it so aggressively, oh!

——Now that he thought about it though, what stage in their relationship had [Wind-Like High Official] and [Lone Wind Wan Yi] reached? While watching the guild war countdown, Sui Yuan’s mind also wandered as he thought about this....

Actually, this so-called guild war, aside from the commander having to take stock of the situation, guide the guild appropriately, as well as have a shrewd mind, and be blunt and decisive, the large majority of the members did not have to think at all. Hundreds of players on both sides were crammed onto the same map. Getting disconnected was a regular thing. Wanting to play smoothly was but a pipe dream. Even great gods, if they were ganged up on by several — sometimes tens of people — would drop dead without a doubt.

Therefore, Sui Yuan was also disinclined to be as focused as he was when he had faced off against that field BOSS in the beginning. He yawned while activating skills in passing. Fortunately, 5237 supported his internet connection, keeping it fast and stable. Thus, even if Sui Yuan himself thought that he wasn’t using much brain power, to other people, he seemed rather methodical.

With the support of a fast and stable internet connection and good skills, Sui Yuan killed people very happily this time. When they saw the rapidly increasing kill count and the unmoving death count, the members of {Heaven’s Alliance} felt deeply moved that their ’Cute Leader’ finally had a bit of an ’Alliance Leader’s’ domineering air . It was simply so eye-catching it couldn’t be more eye-catching! At the same time, they endlessly envied his consistently fast internet connection.

Under Sui Yuan’s lively killing spree, the kill count climbed until it was just about to break the previous kill count record, then a glittering death god suddenly appeared before him. When he looked at the death god, Sui Yuan was gloomy and unprepared to discover that the other’s ID was [Lone Wind Wan Yi].

Since his PK scene with [Lone Wind Wan Yi] wasn’t supposed to take place here according to the plot, Sui Yuan did not want to involve himself with him at all. He turned around and planned to escape, only to discover that the other player seemed to have clearly identified him too and bit onto him tightly, unwilling to let him go. This was simply demented!

Trapped, Sui Yuan felt quite a bit of anger and straightforwardly met [Lone Wind Wan Yi] head on.

Sui Yuan had originally planned to causally fight him. After he died and returned to camp, he didn’t expect that after clashing swords over and over, he would gradually become serious. The number one great god and the number one MT across all the servers faced off in a duel. The surrounding players of their guilds all agreed to keep their distance as a sign of respect to the great gods. They felt that their marvelous PK should not be disturbed. In addition, they were also afraid of being dragged into the fight and being in the range of the two’s skill’s destructive power.

When the venue and scene were cleared, the onlookers who were fighting and watching the duel in secret were all dumbfounded. [Lone Wind Wan Yi] who they had all considered the number great god in their server was unexpectedly being pushed down by [Disdaining the King of Hell]!

——This was unscientific! What happened to being ’unrivalled in PKing’?!

Soon, [Lone Wind Wan Yi]’s HP was pushed very low, approaching a crisis. Meanwhile, [Disdaining the King of Hell], who was skilled at controlling his blood and blue bar, still had nearly half of his HP left. Just as Sui Yuan was about to kill [Lone Wind Wan Yi], a sudden thunderclap exploded by Sui Yuan’s ear — Zhao Xihe, leaning close to his ear, amused and laughed gently as he reminded him, "Did you forget that you were supposed to have your face-slapped?"

Sui Yuan’s hand that was about to press down on a skill trembled, and he instantly wanted to kneel! He had indeed forgotten that he was supposed to be slapped! In an online game and what not, people who don’t personally play them don’t understand how easy it is to get entranced while playing. He had unexpectedly forgotten such an important thing!

Sui Yuan who self-dubbed himself as someone who ’would recognize one’s mistakes and reform oneself’ immediately corrected his mistake. Not only did he press the wrong skills and not correct them in time, he also slowed down his reaction speed by half, turning himself from an ultra-first rate player to that of a third rate player. Soon after, he was very easily killed and sent back to his camp by [Lone Wind Wan Yi].

[Lone Wind Wan Yi]：".................."

{Carefree}’s Guild Members ：".................."

{Heaven’s Alliance}’s Guild Members ："...WTF, Cute Leader is acting silly again! So annoying that we don’t want to look at him! He could have killed him in one hit! Yet unexpectedly lost?!"

Sui Yuan who was resurrected at the camp turned to seek comfort from Zhao Xihe, "...Say, do you think this counts as getting my face-slapped?"

"What do you think?" Zhao Xihe raised a brow, "I actually think that you slapped [Lone Wind Wan Yi]’s face quite obviously...."

Sui Yuan："..................QAQ"

Just as Sui Yuan wanted to weep without tears and re-enter the scene, he saw [Lone Wind Wan Yi]’s private message.

【Lone Wind Wan Yi】：?? What happened? Lag?

Sui Yuan choked and really wanted to say ’I didn’t lag. I just couldn’t beat you.’ However, he knew that if he said that, anyone with any shred of common sense wouldn’t believe him and would think that he was making fun of them instead.

【Disdaining the King of Hell】：...En. I lagged. Hehe.

【Lone Wind Wan Yi】：Come out. We’ll go again.

Sui Yuan：".................."

——-Again, again, again! Again your sister! Laozi doesn’t want to play with you anymore! Go to hell!

Eve: Poor SY. You’ve become a battle addict and it’s coming to bite you in your cute lil bum.

Juurensha: Oh man SY, your competitive streak outweighs your desire to go with the plot...

Cat: Ahh, i really love it when characters’ uses the ’Laozi’ term it makes my heart jump in joy ^~^

Wuxian: when you’re competitive but plot demands that you be not u_u