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

Translated by Eve

Edited by Cat, Wuxian, Juurensha

Game World

Total chapters in arc: 13

Welcome Wuxian as our new editor~

When Sui Yuan awoke in the new world, his mind was still focused on figuring out Zhao Xihe’s identity. Sui Yuan felt himself faintly grasping onto something, but it was fuzzy. He held his head, sitting on the bed for a long while until he finally gave up on thinking about it.

...Indeed, his IQ was a bit lacking. QAQ He should wait awhile until he gets a couple more hints before trying again....

Throwing the matter of Zhao Xihe’s identity aside, Sui Yuan began to browse his identity and assignment for this world. He couldn’t help but feel deeply moved — unexpectedly, 5237 had not dug a pit for him this time! (5237:..Hey!") It had truly helped him choose a normal and leisurely world.

This world was another ’Modern’ one and most of the plot’s developments took place within an online game. In other words, he could stay at home all day and could leisurely play the game while completing the plot. It couldn’t get any better than this!

After looking at his settings, Sui Yuan was so moved that tears were streaming down his face.

But to be honest, after after skimming the plot, Sui Yuan really couldn’t sympathize with the feelings of love and hate that existed within the game. To Sui Yuan, none of the worlds felt real to him. Furthermore, this was a game within these fake worlds, so it was even more difficult for him to conjure up any real emotions towards it.

——Why would you get mad if your game character got killed? Why would you feel indignant while fighting over a piece of equipment? Why would you like someone based on their game character when you don’t even know what the person behind it is like in real life? Why would you worry and labour over a power struggle in the game, fighting and scheming against other players? He completely could not understand any of this, what to do?!

Fortunately, the plot didn’t demand much from him this time. Sui Yuan only needed to type out lines in accordance with the plot. Who cared if you were laughing or crying while typing those words?

Sui Yuan felt no pressure at all. ╮(╯▽╰)╭

Standing up, he walked over to the computer. Following what he recalled from the plot and his settings, he clicked on the icon for <Jianghu Online>, inputted his password, and then saw his in-game character.

The character with the ID [Disdaining the King of Hell] followed the righteous path. According to his in game-character’s settings, he was a tank Of course, Sui Yuan didn’t quite understand the game’s terminology and needed to familiarize himself with it a bit more. [Disdaining the King of Hell] had white hair, a righteous and majestic face, a healthy, lightly tanned complexion, and a tall and sturdy body. In addition, with the halo effect that came from his top-notch outfit that had been refined and embedded with gems to the max, he was domineering to the point of blinding people’s eyes!

It could be said that Sui Yuan’s appearance had always been on the pretty, slim, and even delicate side. Even his real life appearance in this world was that of a small, handsome, ordinary man. It was his first time controlling a character that was as manly as this, and Sui Yuan secretly felt a little bit happy. It was clear that he also had the yearning to be powerful and domineering like any other guy.

Although Sui Yuan was very satisfied with [Disdaining the King of Hell]’s external appearance, unfortunately, [Disdaining Kind of Hell] was a villain role...and a cannon fodder gong at that.

According to 5237, the plot of this world was a cliche in gaming stories. It was so cliche, it couldn’t get any more cliche: cannon fodder gong [Disdaining the King of Hell] and the protagonist shou [Wind-Like High Official] met in the beginner’s village. One a main tank, whilst the other a healer — they were very well-matched and even their cooperation was not bad. Therefore, they decided to become a team and level up together. They went from being normal friends to close friends and then became inseparable. In the end, they even dated — [Wind-Like High Official] was 100% gay, while [Disdaining the King of Hell] was bisexual. For the two people to get together was the work of the golden finger given by the plot.

In the very beginning, the two husbands were very sweet and had a tacit understanding between them. Together, they rose to the top of the rankings, set up the guild {Heaven’s Alliance}, and developed and expanded said guild. [Wind-Like High Official] was reserved with his emotions. Although he wasn’t good at expressing them, he did his best. He worked hard without any complaints as he helped [Disdaining the King of Hell], willingly becoming the shadow behind his success. [Wind-Like High Official] drew up the rules for the guild and severely punished rule-breakers, not hesitating to provoke others’ complaints or hate. Meanwhile, with his help, [Disdaining the King of Hell] only had to appear magnanimous and bright, defend the rule-breaker, and emphasize the feelings of comradery. Therefore, the guild’s members had a very good impression of him.

——It had to be said, [Wind-Like High Official] was truly a good wife.

Men degenerate when they have money. Although it can’t be used as a generalization, it’s definitely not an isolated case. [Disdaining the King of Hell] who had ’won success and recognition’ began to gradually overlook the help that [Wind-Like High Official] gave him. Likewise, he also began to feel discontent towards [Wind-Like High Official]. Although they were in an online relationship, [Wind-Like High Official], who was solemn and old-fashioned, continuously refused to meet and even refused to video call. After all, as a gay person, if news of his orientation were to be leaked, it would cause severe repercussions on [Wind-Like High Official]’s real life. There were crooks mixed in with the honest folk. Swindlers who draped a sanctimonious mask over themselves were not uncommon. Before he decided that he could truly trust [Disdaining the King of Hell], [Wind-Like High Official] would not let their feelings in the 2D world expand into the 3D world.

Therefore, after being refused twice, [Disdaining the King of Hell] began to doubt [Wind-Like High Official] and guessed that he was ugly in real life and was afraid that their bubble would burst upon meeting in real life. The feelings that arose from an online game were weak after all. Furthermore, [Disdaining the King of Hell] wanted a physically beautiful partner. He didn’t act fickle, but he wasn’t devoted either. He gradually treated [Wind-Like High Official] with more indifference and went to fool around with another man he met in-game who was pretty in real life.

[Disdaining the King of Hell] and the guy he met in-game convened together in real life and tumbled in the sheets together. The guy was no push over either so the two of them eventually became lovers. This guy thought of himself as the Guild Leader’s wife and especially hated [Wind-Like High Official], who the majority of the guild viewed as the ’Guild Leader’s Wife’. The new lover jumped around all over, attracting quite a few other players who held complaints against him to vent their anger. He thrust the originally harmonious guild into disorder. When faced with [Wind-Like High Official]’s criticism, [Disdaining the King of Hell] continued to protect his new lover, causing [Wind-Like High Official] to feel bitterly disappointed.

When [Wind-Like High Official] found out that [Disdaining the King of Hell] was two-timing, he ’peacefully’ broke up with him. For the sake of {Heaven’s Alliance} which he had invested his heart and blood into, [Wind-Like High Official] was willing to endure [Disdaining the King of Hell]’s new flame’s provocation. However, the other person simply didn’t want to let him off. In the end, [Wind-Like High Official] was ousted from the guild and was then invited into the guild {Carefree} which belonged to [Elegant and Humble Autumn Leaves], a supporting male lead who had favourable feelings towards him.

{Carefree} was a guild of close friends. Although it wasn’t big, the levels of all the members were still high, their equipment was good, and their skills as players were also exceptional. Thus, they were also considered a well-known guild. Furthermore, there was [Lone Wind Wan Yi ], the number one god not only in their server, but across all servers.

...Basically, once you see a title like ’number one god’, you can be certain as to who the protagonist gong was. This time was no exception.

As for how the feelings developed between the protagonist shou, protagonist gong, and the supporting male lead, it had nothing to do with Sui Yuan, who was a cannon fodder gong. [Disdaining the King of Hell] became increasingly arrogant under the instigation and flattery of his new lover, causing {Heaven’s Alliance}’s conduct to become more and more pompous and bossy. They looked down on other guilds, suppressing the other guilds in every way, making all the other players angry although they didn’t dare to speak out. At the same time, the new lover still held onto [Wind-Like High Official] and wouldn’t let go. He came to provoke him many times. In the end, he provoked [Lone Wind Wan Yi] and the members of [Elegant and Humble Autumn Leaves]’s guild {Carefree}’s anger on behalf of [Wind-Like High Official], causing both sides to start an all-out war.

{Heaven’s Alliance} had strength in their numbers, but the majority were not good players. Furthermore, they didn’t work as one. Although {Carefree} had few people, each person was formidable, and they were well-coordinated. At the very beginning, both sides were evenly matched. However, as more and more members of {Heaven’s Alliance} grew tired from the continuous guild war and from being killed, one by one, they withdrew from the guild. Veteran guild members also began to disapprove of the change in [Disdaining the King of Hell]. After an internal strife occurred, the guild split up. In summary, cannon fodder can never beat the protagonist.

After {Heaven’s Alliance}’s split, [Disdaining the King of Hell] fell silent, with his tail between his legs. He guarded the broken {Heaven’s Alliance}, annoyed at himself for his earlier mistake. He turned around and began to reminisce (...) about [Wind-Like High Official] who had worked so hard in silence for him. Unfortunately, at this time, [Wind-Like High Official] and [Lone Wind Wan Yi] had fallen in love, leaving no place for him to stick himself between them.

In the end, at the <Jianghu Online> offline player meeting, [Wind-Like High Official] and [Lone Wind Wan Yi] met in person for the first time. They finally transferred their feelings from the 2D world into the 3D world. Meanwhile, [Disdaining the King of Hell] finally saw [Wind-Like High Official]’s real appearance and discovered that he was a cultured, refined, delicate, and pretty person. He felt even more remorseful about his cheating. However, by then, it was already too late.

After going through the plot once and finding where he was in the timeline, Sui Yuan summarized his task into four steps:

Meet the new lover and have sex.Indulge the new lover and force [Wind-Like High Official] away.Expand {Heaven’s Alliance}, cause a disturbance, and then get slapped in the face like ’papapa’ by {Carefree}.Go look regretful about his past actions at the offline player’s meeting.

Out of the four steps, the one that was the thorniest problem was naturally, step number one.

To meet offline... was not an issue, but what should he do about getting into bed with him?! Not only could Sui Yuan not stand getting intimate with anyone other than Zhao Xihe, if Zhao Xihe found out about this matter — even if they just held hands — the consequences were too horrible to even contemplate!

Just thinking about it made him feel as scared as if heaven and earth fell apart, OK?! He would definitely be tormented in all kinds of ways. He might even directly end up dying in bed!

Therefore, he couldn’t have sex with the new lover. But if he didn’t, could the plot still be continued? Sui Yuan’s head hurt as he pondered over this thorny problem.

——In short, he’ll just think about this issue when it’s time to meet in person! Isn’t there a saying: When we get to the mountain, there’ll be a way through? Sui Yuan comforted himself in this manner and firmly tossed this worry to one side.

He clicked on the button under the character that said [Enter the game]. [Disdaining the King of Hell] wielded two broadswords and struck a formidable pose. Afterwards, the screen darkened. When the loading bar filled up, Sui Yuan’s character appeared in the safe area in the outskirts of the city. What he had to do now was familiarize himself with the game’s mechanics.

Although he’s never played a game before, Sui Yuan had learnt the basic mechanics from the settings. It wasn’t hard to familiarize himself with them. Therefore, the players watched their server’s celebrity, the number one MT [Disdaining the King of Hell] look like he was spazzing out: Gets off horse, gets on horse, gets off horse, sits down, stands up, waves his hands, hugs, dance, kicks... it was simply so stupid that people couldn’t bear to look at him!

——Where was the proper mighty and powerful great god?! Was he hacked?! Did someone specifically hack into his account to ruin his image? What hatred!

Therefore, many kinds of private messages were sent to Sui Yuan, giving him no choice but to pause his familiarization practice with the keys.

【Guild Member A】：Guild Leader! What’s wrong? Are you OK?!

【Disdaining the King of Hell】：Oh. Nothing’s wrong, I’m just bored.

【Guild Member A】：...Hehe, it’s rare to see Guild Leader play around like a child....

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

【Good Friend B】：Say! Who are you! You unexpectedly hacked into Disdaining’s account! Quickly give it back to him!

【Disdaining the King of Hell】：...It’s me. I’m just bored.

【Good Friend B】：...Why’d you give up on treatment!

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

【Lone Wind Wan Yi】：Hacked?

【Disdaining the King of Hell】：...It’s me —wait a minute! Sui Yuan quickly deleted the words that he typed and looked intently at the ID on the screen for a long time, ascertaining that this was indeed the protagonist gong’s ID, and not some imitation.

If Sui Yuan didn’t recall incorrectly, then shouldn’t [Lone Wind Wan Yi] be lowkey and very seldom chat with people aside from his close friends in {Carefree}? Whether it was in the plot, settings, or his memory, [Disdaining the King of Hell] and [Lone Wind Wan Yi] didn’t have any kind of relationship, right? Aside from the face slapping he’ll get later on, that is.

Faced with the sudden appearance of the protagonist gong, Sui Yuan felt great pressure. He couldn’t just randomly reply to him like he had done with the other passerbys. Then... how should he respond?

Sui Yuan fell silent for three seconds and resolutely decided to ignore it. He received so many messages, who would have the patience to reply to all of them? [Disdaining the King of Hell] was a great god after all! So he’ll just treat it as if he had never seen it before. ╮(╯▽╰)╭

He made his decision in this cheerful manner. In this way, Sui Yuan, ’playing God’, made [Lone Wind Wan Yi], who seldom reached out to other players, get a taste of the cold-shoulder treatment for the first time. It was truly gratifying, truly gratifying!

5237: ...You’re seeking death, ah! =皿=

As a qualified great god, not only did he have to be willing to spend money in-game, he also had to have great skills. Although it was Sui Yuan’s first time playing an online game, he had once been a remarkable Mecha Fighter. So, no matter if it was speed of hand, sound judgement, or calculation speed, he greatly outstripped all other people within this ’Modern’ world. Even professional e-sports players were left in the dust, least of all online great gods who just played this as a hobby.

Sui Yuan believed that practice was required to acquire knowledge. It was only when put to use that one could determine whether a skill was good or bad. Therefore, Sui Yuan operated his max level 100 character to fight against a couple of little monsters at the city outskirts, slowly familiarizing himself with all of his skills.

Firepower, critical hit rate, buffs and debuffs, range of action, cooldown time... Sui Yuan’s learning capability was first-rate and his memory was also incredible. Although the character had all kinds of skills and his skill shortcuts were numerous and complicated, at most, there were only 10-20 keys. It completely could not compare to the one hundred buttons he had to use as a Mecha Fighter. Basically, Sui Yuan treated his in-game character as a Mecha for babies to play with. The difference in difficulty between the two was simply too great.

Low level monsters would die in one normal hit. The higher level ones would die in two or three. The peak level monsters at the same level as his character would require the use of a skill and the top-notch, elite monsters required a combination of skills....

Sui Yuan killed his way through the lower level area to the higher level area. If Buddha got in his way, he’d kill Buddha. If a demon got in his way, he’d kill the demon. He simply could not be any more savage! Probably because he massacred too many mobs (?) but he ended up facing a field map BOSS monster.

Aside from the dungeon BOSSES, <Jianghu Online> had two kinds of field map bosses. One was a common field map BOSS which normally took a party of 5-10 people to kill it. The other was cordially called the World BOSS. All interested players in the server had to relentlessly chase after it. Only after repetitively being killed, resurrected, being killed, resurrected, would they be able to grind down its health bar — of course, the reward was particularly generous.

The World BOSS’ spawning was announced throughout the server. As soon as it appeared, it would be surrounded by powerful players. So, the one Sui Yuan encountered was just an ordinary field map BOSS. Usually, the only option when encountering an ordinary field map BOSS as a single player was escape or be killed.

If Sui Yuan was a normal (?) player with even a shred of common sense, then he would definitely choose to turn around and run. However, it was a pity that Sui Yuan lacked common sense and only looked at the BOSS’ level that was 100, thinking it was just an elite monster with a big head. Therefore, he heroically met it head on.

The stupefied 5237："......"

[Lone Wind Wan Yi] who was extremely bored and watched from the shadows, indicating that he couldn’t bear to watch this scene："........."

After the first skill hit the BOSS, Sui Yuan sensed that something wasn’t right. The other’s health bar was too great, its skin too thick, and its debuff resistance too formidable. Furthermore, its firepower was rather high. At this time, he suddenly recalled that there was something called a field map BOSS. However, Sui Yuan had no intention of retreating. Instead, he became even more resolute and fought even harder. His fighting spirit was roused as he had never met a worthy opponent before.

What happened next was that Sui Yuan thoroughly showed everyone what was called speed of hand and what was called combative awareness.

His keen foresight and speedy,nimble maneuvering allowed Sui Yuan to veer away from all dodgeable attacks. His series of skills were launched, wasting no time or MP. What was most important was that he wasn’t stingy with his character’s red potions. He replenished his health and inner force in a timely manner. He also increased his attack power, defense, speed, etc. Of course, his internet speed was also very impressive and there was little to no lag. There also wasn’t any sudden fraudulent slowing down of internet speed from the provider — that was probably 5237’s contribution.

Skill, potions, movement — every aspect worked in perfect tandem. Sui Yuan, who played better the stronger the enemy was, finally understood the joy of playing online video games. He was completely unaware that he had brought about a world-shaking, jaw-dropping miracle.

When he had nearly consumed all of his potions within his inventory, the field map BOSS finally let out a resigned howl before falling to the ground, exploding into a bunch of good items.

Slightly calming down his excited heart, Sui Yuan suddenly felt rather disappointed.

"What are you getting distracted for! Quickly go pick up the items! All of them are good things! Quick! If you don’t they’ll disappear!" 5237 who was also fired up promptly reminded him. Its fierce and boisterous appearance made it seem like, if Sui Yuan didn’t do it, then he’d face the wrath of god and the dissatisfaction of the people.

Therefore, the first game character Sui Yuan ever played bent his noble waist and began to pick up the scattered spoils of war.

"Also, you can peel off the BOSS’ skin. It’s also a good thing! Quickly peel it off!" 5237 continued to compel him.

As such, Sui Yuan obediently fished out a knife and squatted down before starting to skin the BOSS....

After Sui Yuan squeezed the BOSS’ carcass for all it was worth, it disappeared. Sui Yuan, who had become very familiar with playing his character during this battle, also became tired of killing monsters and planned to return to his guild {Heaven’s Alliance} to check out his base at this time.

Exiting battle mode, Sui Yuan looked for the [return to guild] button. His character began to rub its hand while preparing for the skill but just before the scene shifted to the loading screen, Sui Yuan thought he saw a dialogue box flash up on the screen.

After the screen loaded, [Disdaining the King of Hell] had already returned to his base. Sui Yuan also clearly saw what the dialogue box had said.

—- [Lone Wind Wan Yi] wants to add you as a friend. Do you accept?

Sui Yuan："........."

#The spirit of the protagonist gong has yet to disperse!

The author has something to say:

I discovered that every time I update daily, the comments are always a lot less...you guys are making me want to not update daily! QAQ This silly author has always been a klutz and am technologically handicapped. Therefore, the game world this time follows the fantasy route — what’s the fantasy route? It means that things that would be unreasonable in a game, is reasonable in this silly author’s work! [Enough! (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻] <Jianghu Online> is not based on anything. It’s a mish-mash of all the games that this silly author has played before. Don’t take this silly author seriously!

Eve: I hate their IDs. I swear half the word count is made up from the repeated mentions of all their names. Also, yay to badass! Sui Yuan. And lookie here, looks like he’s a "gong" this time.... Hehe. Also laughing at the thought of ZXH blowing a gasket reading the plot and finding out SY is supposed to jump in bed with another man.

Juurensha: They do pick really long usernames... And yes, hahahaha ZXH is probably cursing out 5237 and plotting revenge on him.

Cat: long names...harder to remember, aish.