Being an Extra in your own Story
I recently tried to read the Chinese web novel Being an Extra Actor in an Escape Game by Zhū jūn féi féi. I won’t be doing a full review of it. The translation I came across wasn’t great and this puts the book at a disadvantage. I also dropped it very early on, during chapter 23, and I don’t want to be unfair to the story. Instead I want to discuss why I found it so difficult to enjoy.
The novel lacks a sense of immersion and the beginning has no meaningful stakes or goals. Let me explain what I mean by breaking down the story.
Several people have found themselves trapped in a nightmare game. Some of them are assigned to be players who attempt to solve the mysteries of the game, while others are forced to be residents and play NPC (non player character) roles. Xu Beijin is a resident in the game which means that he’s supposed to be hosting his own nightmare scenarios for the players to solve. Instead he refuses to sleep and only acts as an “extra” in the nightmares of the other residents. He runs his bookshop, gives out information to the players and even pretends to be dead when necessary.
One day he ends up touching a strange light that’s left behind by a livestreamer who had entered the game as a player. This connects him to the world outside the game. He starts livestreaming the current nightmare where some people are investigating the disappearance of a little girl. He hopes to learn more about the outside world by interacting with the livestream’s audience.
When you're reading this novel you're watching a guy, that you know little about, as he watches other people, that he knows and cares little about, as they try to solve a mystery.
In a traditional mystery novel the characters often have good reasons for wanting to solve a case. Typically it’s to seek either revenge or justice. Perhaps the murder affected them or their loved ones. Maybe they’re a detective trying to do their job by catching criminals. On some rare occasions it’s due to the detective’s own curiosity regarding an intriguing case. However, there’s always a reason for them to work towards solving the case. Even in stories where the mystery isn’t treated as something real but as merely a riddle meant to be solved, the ones attempting to solve it are given a reason to do so. For example, they’re in a survival game and their failure will lead to their deaths. There is a sense of purpose and urgency in their actions.
What about in this story? The reason players need to solve the mystery is to move up to another floor in the game world. Does moving to a higher floor mean that they’re closer to escaping the game? No idea. It hasn’t been made clear yet.
The author focuses on world-building and trying to set up interesting skills and tools for the players. But I would have liked to know more about the characters themselves and their overall goals. As a reader it’s hard for me to care when the author hasn’t bothered to name most of the players.
The main character is even worse than the players in terms of motivation. He doesn’t need to solve this mystery. He has some mild curiosity towards the case but that’s it. He has been muddling along within the world of the game for a while now without any serious consequences for his inaction. He does very little to participate in the investigation. He acts like more of an observer than anything else. The members of his livestream audience spend more time trying to come up with theories about the case than he does.
Truthfully, I find many livestreams to be a waste of time. When the host is providing interesting commentary or reactions then it makes sense to watch them. However, there are streams where the host adds nothing useful to the content. In these cases I'd rather cut out the middleman and go directly to the source. Why watch someone else watch a video when I can simply watch it myself?
I feel the same way about Xu Beijin in this novel. He’s a boring livestream host who matters little to the story. Xu Beijin is an “extra” in his own story and is unimportant in every way. Perhaps this changes later down in the book. Perhaps I’m being too impatient, but it makes it difficult for me to get into the story. I would have preferred to directly follow the players, especially if they were given more personality, as they attempt to solve the mystery.
There are countless novels in which someone becomes a side character in another person's story. Transmigration novels often follow this pattern. When someone becomes a minor character or a villain, who’s destined to die soon, the focus shifts to follow them. They, of course become the main character of that story. As no one should ever be an “extra” in their own story the way Xu Beijin seems to be here.