The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System | Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong Vol. 1

This series was recommended to me when I asked for recs after finishing the Lord of Mysteries donghua, by my friend/mutual Geraineon, who also runs the Chinese Novels Dreamwidth community. I'm a lurker there, but my friend kindly gave me quite a few series to check out (which will probably end up on this blog if I'm being honest). 

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (SVSSS) was the first one that I was intrigued by, simply because the premise seems more light-hearted (which I needed after Lord of Mysteries). I've seen some fan content for this series, but due to the fact that I didn't really understand who the characters were, I don't think I'm really spoiled on plot from that perspective. My general impression was that this was quite the popular series, given that MXTX has three series on the NY Bestseller List. 

Right from the beginning, this is a series laden with in-jokes and self-deprecating humor when it comes to webnovels as a medium. The tropes it's referencing are well established. Even though I'm new to the xianxia genre, there were enough footnotes and context to get the gist of the jokes. It helps that I'm already well versed in light novel and fanfic communities, so I had equivalent tropes to compare to. 

Shen Yuan is an avid reader of the Proud Immortal Demon Way webnovel, except that he's quite the toxic fan. As soon as he finishes reading the series, he curses the author and series for it's ending, and ends up kicking the bucket because of it. Did he literally have an aneurysm from his hatred of the series? We don't really get specifics on that front, but it sets the tone for how ridiculous this main character is. 

Shen Yuan becomes Shen Qingqiu, the loser villain at the beginning of the series. The whole plot is about him desperately trying to ingratiate himself to Luo Binghe (the main protagonist) so he doesn't get horrifically killed for his misdeeds. He spends the entire time trying to go along with the "System", which is basically telling him to fix the novel himself, at "gunpoint" lol. 

This must be a trope in webnovels, since "reincarnating into a book as a villain" has been done in several series that I've read, most notably Lout of Count's Family (which is Korean), and even Despicable Duke Settles His Affairs (a BL light novel). 

This book was so funny, there were several scenes that had me laughing (and even giggling) at how unobservant Shen Yuan is. He does everything he can to look good in front of Luo Binghe, and then doesn't understand why Binghe naturally comes to have a crush on him. It's heartwarming and sweet, and it's painful to read when you realize that Shen Qingqiu has to betray Binghe at a critical juncture because it's a canon event. 

Shen Qingqiu also seems to not understand that he might have feelings for Luo Binghe as well. He harps on about how the ladies in Binghe's harem are abject beauties, but you can tell that he admires Binghe's looks the most, that he's going to grow up to be handsome for sure. He even talks about how much he didn't even like the fanservice in the original Proud Immortal Demon Way, and cared much more about the monster fights. Seems like the poor dude hasn't realized that he isn't straight yet haha. 

I had an excellent time reading this (you can read my liveblog of the series here). I'll also update my liveblog when I read future volumes, since I'm already grasping for the next one (eagerly waiting for my library hold to come up!). It feels weird to say that I'm glad this is a short series, at only 4 volumes. It's fully complete, which means I will be bingeing it!