Chapter 297: Writing Fanfiction, and It’s Even OOC
Aurora Donovan deliberately stressed the word "properly," and Julian Spencer suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, making him shiver involuntarily.
He felt that her gaze was incredibly sharp, as if she could see right through his dark little schemes with a single glance, leaving all his calculations nowhere to hide!
Derek Kensington, however, seemed oblivious to the subtle tension between them. He continued to console Julian Spencer with a smile, "You’ve just arrived at our research institute, so it’s normal not to be familiar with everything. But don’t be too nervous. Everyone here is very friendly. If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask us. We’ll definitely do our best to help you if we can."
Julian Spencer had far less patience for Derek Kensington than for Aurora Donovan, but he knew how to seize an opportunity. He turned to Aurora Donovan, his gaze fervent.
"Really? That’s wonderful."
Arabella Donovan watched his every move, a single eyebrow arching slightly.
’Julian Spencer must have been reborn recently. He knows Third Brother is likely the only person in the world who can save him, which is why he’s so eager to suck up to my Third Brother right after meeting her, but...’
Aurora Donovan and Caspian Rhodes grew tense again, belatedly recalling that Arabella Donovan had originally mentioned two books related to the man before them.
The first was from the perspective of a transmigrated female lead—the one she had just mentioned. As for the second...
’Huh? So that’s how it is. No wonder I kept feeling like something was off.’
Aurora Donovan and Caspian Rhodes were momentarily stunned, their ears perking up.
’What happened? Just tell us what’s wrong!’
It turned out that the two books chronicling Julian Spencer’s life weren’t, as Arabella Donovan had previously thought, a collaboration between two authors who knew each other and had agreed to use the same story background.
Instead, it was a piece of... fanfiction, written by a reader who couldn’t accept the original author’s ending. Without the author’s permission, they’d created it based on the original work, falsely claiming it was a sequel.
Fanfiction?! Caspian Rhodes and Aurora Donovan paused, their minds suddenly filled with questions. ’What in the world is that?’ they wondered in confusion.
Arabella Donovan, unaware of their inner turmoil, glanced imperceptibly at Julian Spencer—who was clearly in his 2.0 state—and felt a wave of grief and indignation.
’Writing fanfiction and passing it off as a sequel is one thing, but could you please not completely ruin the main characters? As everyone knows, making characters OOC is a cardinal sin in fanfiction!’
This all started with the ending where the author mercilessly killed off Julian Spencer. The very day the original novel was marked as "Completed," a reader went to the review section and launched a full-frontal attack, declaring they couldn’t accept the ending and demanding the author rewrite it to give the male and female leads a better outcome.
Arabella Donovan was speechless at this.
’The ending might not have been great for the male lead, but it couldn’t have been better for the female lead. Or do these people really think a ’good ending’ for her is marrying a chauvinistic murderer, living the life of a trophy wife where he gets jealous and violent at the drop of a hat, humiliates her with money, and she constantly has to fear for her life?’
’Some characters are fine as fictional characters, but in real life, you’d want to call the cops on them in a heartbeat, okay?’
The original author apparently thought the same way, as her replies to these comments radiated an air of unhinged apathy.
The gist was: she may have written the novel and created the characters, but at a certain point, they developed wills of their own. They would act according to their identities, personalities, and circumstances to drive the plot, no longer under her control as the author.
This ending was the natural result of their actions, and it was also the best possible outcome for them.
At the same time, she did some self-reflection. She admitted that she originally intended to write a clichéd, melodramatic novel with the "groveling for forgiveness" and "the substitute lover wins" tropes. But halfway through, she realized the male lead was a genuine piece of trash. Her "groveling for forgiveness" arc accidentally went overboard, and instead of just making him grovel, she basically pushed him right into the incinerator, killing him off instantly.
She said she would learn her lesson and never touch a genre she wasn’t good at again, to prevent things from going off the rails.
It all sounded sincere, but the real message between the lines was simple: The ending is great, the male lead deserved to die, take it or leave it!
Caspian Rhodes: "..." ’This author is quite a character.’
Aurora Donovan: "..." ’Even though you killed me off, I have to admit, I’m quite satisfied with that bastard’s ending.’
Unfortunately, while they were satisfied, the same couldn’t be said for the readers who identified with Julian Spencer. And that’s what led to the fanfiction Arabella Donovan was talking about.
This fanfiction began with Julian Spencer dying of liver cancer, filled with regret and indignation, only to be reborn before his Lover returned to the country. At that time, he hadn’t yet cut ties with Summer Vance and kicked her and her grandmother out, and Dr. Donovan was also still alive and well.
Julian Spencer was overjoyed. He quickly formulated a series of plans to PUA the female lead into unwavering devotion while also finding his uncle, the director, and having him arrange for him to enter the research institute. This would allow him to get close to Dr. Donovan, build a good relationship with him in advance, and make it easier to humbly beg for the cure later.
However, as everyone knows, rebirth only grants the "cheat" of foreknowledge. It doesn’t change a person’s personality, and it certainly doesn’t make them any smarter.
It was true that Julian Spencer used his connections to get access to Dr. Donovan, but with his limited abilities, he was just a burden in the lab. And the one thing Dr. Donovan hated most in his life was a useless nepotism hire who couldn’t help and only slowed down the research progress.
Therefore, even though Julian Spencer intentionally tried to suck up to him, their relationship inevitably devolved to a state of mutual disgust.
Seeing that the soft approach had failed, Julian Spencer began plotting to use more crooked methods. This is where the plot connected with that infinite-flow novel Arabella Donovan had mentioned before.
But since these events were just part of the background story for one of the mission worlds, that book only glossed over them, hiding many of the details.
But from Julian Spencer’s perspective, this story unexpectedly filled in many of the details that Arabella Donovan had never read.
After hitting a wall with Dr. Donovan himself, Julian Spencer decisively changed tactics. He used the female lead, whose attitude toward him had softened, to help him confirm the progress of Dr. Donovan’s experiments.
After confirming multiple times with the female lead that Dr. Donovan had indeed completed the miracle cure for cancer, Julian Spencer met Terence Lewis and his group.
With their help, Julian Spencer successfully smeared Dr. Donovan’s name, framing him for plagiarizing another’s paper in an attempt to seize the fruits of Dr. Donovan’s research.
At first, no one in the lab or even the university who knew of Dr. Donovan’s capabilities believed the accusation. But faced with the various pieces of evidence forged by Julian Spencer and the protagonist’s group, as well as accusations from certain people within the lab, they had no choice but to believe it.
This was where several old acquaintances played a crucial role in the conspiracy, ruthlessly backstabbing her Third Brother. And first and foremost among them was the man standing before them right now: Derek Kensington.