Mythology Rebooted
Chapter 1162 - 402: Not Villainous Enough, Not Sinister Enough_2

Chapter 1162: Chapter 402: Not Villainous Enough, Not Sinister Enough_2

Viley from the Outer World doesn’t suffer much hardship and lacks the fighting spirit that the Inverted World forces upon its inhabitants. Wayne hopes that tough teachers produce top students and that Valkyrie can mold Viley well.

With that in mind, Wayne narrows his eyes slightly, his thoughts becoming a whispering thread by Valkyrie’s ear, sharing the profound mysteries of ’Gunmanship.’

Initially, Valkyrie didn’t catch on but then listened intently for a few moments and realized something was amiss, immediately boiling over with rage.

"Viley———"

"Yes!"

"Today’s training will increase tenfold! No, twentyfold!!"

"Please, no, teacher, I acknowledge my mistake, I won’t dare do it again."

The backyard is in chaos, with Viley being chased around by a whip-wielding Valkyrie, covering her butt and wailing.

"Interesting."

Wayne nods silently; this is the life Viley ought to be living.

"Teacher, stop staring over there, this student here needs your attention too."

Chris sits at the desk, clattering away at the typewriter, in the final throes of effort for her soon-to-be-published magnum opus.

"Student Chris, you must believe in your own talent..."

Wayne approaches the desk, intending to echo Valkyrie’s prior encouraging words to her student, but then decides against it - Chris’s writing talent is hard to describe.

Had it not been for her senior’s keen eye, catching the attention of a down-to-earth man in her second year after graduating, she’d have to work in a bar to supplement her income if she wanted to realize her writing dream.

Wayne picks up the manuscript on the desk and reads through it, line by line.

Chris watches breathlessly until Wayne catches up with the new additions, then cautiously asks, "Teacher, how does it feel?"

"Pretty good."

"What’s good about it?"

"The handwriting is very neat, and there are no typos." Wayne approves, impressed that he can’t even find a picky fault.

"..."

"Don’t be upset, you’re a newbie, and this is your first full-length novel."

"I’ve written a few before..."

"If no publishers are knocking on your door with big bucks, it doesn’t count."

"But the publisher is you..."

"Silence, I’m the only one allowed to talk here."

Wayne sits down, cradles Chris in his lap, and feeling her slender waist he ruminates on the bountiful harvest - tasty and cooling. No wonder she has Ronica head over heels, making him generously impart wisdom on the daily.

"Teacher, stop touching and look at the manuscript." Chris pushes down the mischievous hand on her body and plants a kiss on Wayne’s face.

"As a finished novel, this book is basically fine..."

"Teacher, if you have any kind words, save them. Tell me the key points, where it falls short."

During the two months Wayne was out, Chris had been tapping away at home, writing out the wish-fulfillment novel ’The Count of Monte Cristo’ based on Wayne’s ideas.

Someone once said, there’s a Harry Potter in the heart of a thousand readers.

Similarly, with the same theme and outline, a thousand authors have a thousand ways of writing; even with Wayne’s revisions, Chris’s elementary school prose just can’t nail the protagonist’s character.

Not villainous enough, not sinister enough.

"Your man is so evil, just copy him and you’re done. Why can’t you write a protagonist whose actions are on par with a villain?" Wayne wonders aloud.

"My man isn’t bad at all, although he’s fickle, shameless, and often forces me to do embarrassing things, but I know he’s a good person." Chris replies with a smile squinting her eyes.

It’s a hit, Wayne likes her even more now and goes in for a deep kiss, lifting her chin.

Smack kiss smack~~~

"Teacher, stop kissing, look at the manuscript."

Chris pushes Wayne away, jumps off the desk, straightens her slightly disheveled clothes, and sits on Wayne’s lap to listen to his writing techniques.

"First off, characters should stand firm, and a solid character design is essential. We’ve said from the start that the protagonist in the book is unscrupulous in his quest for revenge, doing many wrong things, with a modus operandi akin to a villain."

Wayne taps the desktop: "Your protagonist is too restrained, bad but with reservations, I only see passive helplessness, not proactive malice. This is bad, it fails to impress the readers, and my assessment is that it is neither here nor there."

Chris keeps nodding, asking Wayne to continue.

"Novels are not movies; readers can’t intuitively feel a character’s appearance. To let readers see a character clearly at first glance, we must depict them as an extreme figure..."

"Take the protagonist, is he extreme? Does he go all out for revenge?"

"Not there, right? Needs reworking."

"With how you write..."

Wayne types on the typewriter and says, "I’ll list a few characteristics of a villain you should include in the plot to establish the protagonist’s character."

"First, he’s someone who laughs a lot, very confident."

"Secondly, he has a strong personal charm that gathers a bunch of loyal underlings who would die for him, making an entrance with a crowd, never going it alone."

"Also, he has ambitious goals and lofty pursuits, speaking of the whole world, caring for all of humanity, tirelessly chasing his ideals every day, and not getting discouraged by setbacks, which only make him stronger."

"Lastly, he’s very rational, never blabbing about love or attachments, believing that one must rely on themselves, that praying to gods is useless, an atheist..."

Wayne goes on and on, and the more Chris listens, the more confused she gets, covering Wayne’s mouth: "Teacher, please allow me to interject here."

"Fine, but I want my turn to interject later."

"Teacher, based on the education I received, such a person as described above is generally known as a positive character, not a villain; it’s entirely the opposite of this book’s protagonist’s character."

"You’re still young and know nothing about positive characters."

Wayne speaks earnestly: "Positive characters, too, contrast with villains as heroes; they don’t have clear life goals, often spout high-sounding nonsense, get pushed along by others, don’t believe in teamwork and usually show up after the incident has occurred..."