Team villains except me

Chapter 560 Extra Chapter: Plagiarism Announcement

Hello everyone, I am Ruan Qingruan.

I didn't sleep last night, I was working on the color palette the whole time. By the time the announcement was released, I should have already reported the plagiarized work to the authorities.

Since I started writing in 2022, I have personally handled four plagiarism cases, each one leaving me feeling disgusted and weary. Each one has left me exhausted and unable to sleep due to internal conflict.

I would like to share my personal journey with you.

Before writing this novel, I had been writing historical romance novels on other platforms. This is my first attempt at writing Western fantasy. When I first started writing, I was preparing for an exam that was very important to me, and I was under a lot of pressure. Writing was my way of relieving stress.

I never imagined that this novel would be seen by so many readers. The first few chapters were written haphazardly, without an outline, just as thoughts came to mind, and the writing style was immature. You might find the reading experience just so-so, and I'm truly sorry.

Later, the pressure of exams was immense, and my update frequency decreased. After the exams, I picked up my pen again, by which time I had already resolved to finish this novel. However, I hadn't yet transitioned into my new role. I spent a lot of time online, replying to comments, like I had prepared a dish and wanted to share it with everyone. Of course, negative comments were normal. However, I was also writing a thesis during that period.

Anyone who has written a thesis knows how terrifying the sense of urgency is when a task is not completed.

At the same time, I saw many comments accusing me of using a ghostwriter, having poor writing skills, and portraying characters as untrue, virtuous, and beautiful. There were also threats.

"If you don't write it this way, I'll report you!"

I've remembered this comment for a long time.

That was the first time I had the thought of "maybe I should just stop writing here".

I think I'm quite inexperienced as an author. I don't really understand what people want to read, but I insist on writing what I want to read and what ideas I want to express. However, in some of the courses I've taken, online novels are actually considered a commodity. As a businessman, I'm clearly incompetent.

But I was lucky.

I've always felt I'm a lucky person. If my writing can be seen by people and bring them some joy and warmth, then I feel I've succeeded.

I love my readers very much.

I feel our thoughts converge in the book, and I feel that my writing has received feedback. This happiness urges me not to be lazy, not to give up. Even with the immense pressure of reality, I must continue and give this article a good ending.

This kind of happiness can ward off pain.

I first found out I had been plagiarized in July 2023. At that time, I had submitted my paper and was in a great mood.

A reader sent me a screenshot saying, "Ruan Ruan, it seems like you've been plagiarized."

I was very angry. I was also at a loss, as it was the first time I'd encountered something like this.

I registered an account on that platform overnight and negotiated with the other party through private messages.

They are a fanfiction writer. They write fanfiction about a boy band. They used my worldview and replaced my Nolvia and Hugh with two male protagonists.

I don't even need to create a color palette, because it's basically identical. I know my own writing best, and I can tell which chapter and which sentence someone copied.

The other person's attitude was terrible. They explained that this was something they had thought of beforehand, not that they were copying me, that they had their own ideas, and even sent me some strange mind maps.

But there is no time magic in reality.

The other person started writing late, used the same sentence structure, and had a series of overlapping plot developments. There was absolutely nothing original about it. I gave them two options: delete the post and issue a public apology, or I reported them to the authorities and had their account deleted.

They chose to apologize.

I wish that one day they can write their own story.

That was the end of it. I didn't log into that software for a long time.

When I logged back in later, the apology had been deleted, leaving no trace. The other party also claimed that the original account owner was dead and a new owner was continuing to operate the account.

Why should I argue with a kid like that?

And so, I continued writing my story.

Exam preparation, review, interview...

I have to stop updating whenever I reach a major milestone in my life. But when I'm really tired, I'll jot down some thoughts in my notes. That's my form of entertainment.

By 2024, my life was very busy.

One winter night, as I was about to fall asleep, I opened the app. I intended to reply to everyone's comments, but as I clicked, my hands and feet suddenly turned ice cold, and I became extremely angry.

Yes, I've been plagiarized again.

The plagiarist started a novel with two female protagonists on a certain Jianghu platform.

Yes, it has two female leads.

The protagonists are gender-swapped versions of Hugh and Fiana. The gender-swapped Hugh is a money-loving dragon, and Fiana is a petite, 1.9-meter-tall woman.

Nolvia transforms into a taciturn, bloodthirsty mermaid, only to be healed by a few comforting words from a gender-swapped version of Hugh. There's also a canine princess and an evil witch.

There are so many things to write about in Western fantasy, why do they have to pick on me and copy me, and why can't they even copy me properly no matter how they try?

I felt both amused and disgusted while watching it. If this plagiarist had used the "derivative" tag, I wouldn't have felt so disgusted.

I didn't sleep that night. I read the other person's plagiarized masterpiece, and by the end I felt like vomiting.

This story borrows from mine, but the ensemble cast is transformed into a harem novel with two female leads. The God of Life becomes the God of the Sky, Raphael becomes the Headmaster, even the guards become the Imperial Guard, and Norvia is obsessed with copying her part-time jobs—she copies everything she does at the bakery, and she even copies her parents' last wishes.

It's contradictory and illogical.

What impressed me most was a very small detail.

The gender-swapped Hugh had a part-time job at a laundromat, earning two silver coins. She always tore the clothes, resulting in constant customer complaints. The laundromat owner had two daughters, but the laundromat was taken back by her ex-husband. Unable to find a place to live, the owner left her last two silver coins to the gender-swapped Hugh as payment.

The gender-swapped Hughes refused the money and gritted his teeth to give the proprietress a bag of cash.

I know this plot point is meant to highlight the protagonist's kindness.

But it's so weird.

I ask you, which boss would hire an employee who tears clothes? A single mother with two daughters, only two silver coins left, and no place to live, how could she possibly give those two silver coins as payment to a gender-swapped version of Hugh?

It's ridiculous.

Women's mutual support isn't like this. Anti-domestic violence isn't like this. Especially since your protagonist was originally a man, and you've gender-swapped to become a woman, it's even more ridiculous.

I made a color palette.

Reporting a plagiarized work on Jinjiang Literature City is a huge hassle. I painstakingly picked out the plagiarized sentences chapter by chapter, sacrificing my sleep at night; it felt like I was being slowly tortured.

Because I know perfectly well that the characters I created were dissected. Then the plagiarist pieced them together, creating a monster like Frankenstein.

The plagiarist received praise without lifting a finger, while I, the victim of plagiarism, stayed up for two nights and put in a lot of effort to report the work that was copied from me.

Jinjiang's response time was very long. Before that, many readers had already contacted the other party and told the misled readers that this was a plagiarized work.

In the end, the other party deleted the article, destroyed their pen name, and disappeared without a trace.

The other party didn't lose anything. They're lurking in the shadows, waiting for someone to notice, ready to plagiarize me again at any time. They can change the name, change the location, and serve up their patchwork of scraps once more. And I, I have to watch their laughable creations again and again, becoming their palette, to prove myself.

How could I not be sad?

The work, painstakingly crafted night after night, was so easily altered and turned into someone else's.

I am angry.

In this state of mind, I wrote "Destroying Eden." I think that if the protagonists in those plagiarized works had any self-awareness, they would also feel that they were despicable and hateful. They themselves are a stain.

The year is now 2025.

At the time when I needed the most time, had the most tasks, and was the busiest, I was plagiarized again.

Even my early readers were members of my fan group.

A blow to the head.

Unbelievable.

At 2 a.m., a huge argument broke out in the fan group. The other party seemed completely out of their mind.

"Just because you guys started earlier, does that mean I plagiarized?"

"I accept borrowing! I accept similar plots too!"

"But I didn't plagiarize!"

"You think you're right just because you acted earlier? You still think you're right!"

Or else?

Am I wrong?

Your work was published in February of this year, while mine was published in 2022. I can tell from your work that it is completely plagiarized. As the one whose work was plagiarized, am I in the wrong?

Incredible.

The other party couldn't understand human language at all. Several readers in the group tried to reason with them, and screenshots were drawn to highlight all similarities.

My readers are really, really good.

"Please don't evade the issue. You claim to have created it yourselves, but do you have the original manuscript? Speak up!"

"You said you and your friend put in a lot of effort, and Ruan Ruan has spent several years here. Hasn't she given a lot?"

……

They defended me, comforted me, and logically pointed out all the plagiarist's problems.

However, the other party produced chat logs, claiming that these were their evidence and that their chat logs proved they hadn't copied anything, but rather that they and their friends had painstakingly come up with the ideas.

However, your homepage shows that you were my reader in 23.

You are in my readership.

Then, in February of 2025, you and your friends painstakingly came up with a story that was the same as my work, one that you had seen and commented on before.

Then you say, "I don't know if one person can write this plot and another person can write it, I don't know if this counts as plagiarism."

Calculate.

The plot development of each chapter of your work is quite similar to that of my work; this is plagiarism.

Did you hear it?

This is plagiarism. Copying worldviews, character designs, plot developments, and borrowing ideas... all of these constitute plagiarism.

But you were lucky because I was too busy at the time.

I don't have time to make a color palette. My thesis is still blank. I'm anxious about reality. I don't even have time to carefully read the other person's masterpiece. I can only ask the fans in the group to make a color palette.

I thought at the time that if my work ended up being used as material for plagiarism, I would rather not write it at all.

I took a two-month break. Avoiding that plagiarized masterpiece was like avoiding a dismemberment case.

I said, please don't take my material library.

I can no longer handle this filthy stuff.

That's how it is; I've let it go.

Until yesterday.

I saw a reader's comment reminding me that another work suspected of plagiarism has been discovered.

I am exhausted, both physically and mentally. I pray that the plagiarist will be smarter this time and not let me find out even if they plagiarize.

But I was disappointed.

A plagiarism that looks convincing but is actually misplaced.

Several parts of the original sentence have been modified.

The only consolation is that the first half was heavily plagiarized, and it was clear that many of the authors were familiar with the work. I could even figure out how they combined the main character's personality, how they selected the plot, and how they found new angles in my work.

The second half of the plagiarized work doesn't seem to have been copied, but it's so boring that continuing to read it feels like being slowly sliced ​​to death—it's practically torture.

This cannot go on.

I will no longer tolerate this kind of plagiarism.

It seems my tolerance is a form of tacit approval. Shameless plagiarists will never realize that I will one day retaliate completely.

Is it something to be proud of copying other people's hard work? Why become an author if you can't write your own stuff? Will the bloodied and mangled protagonists in your stories resentfully hate you in the middle of the night?

No. Because you plagiarized. The moment you plagiarized, your conscience was swallowed, leaving only a despicable shell.

I didn't go to sleep until 6 a.m. this morning.

The sky was just beginning to brighten.

My heart was pounding as I lay down.

I think maybe I should just give up.

Plagiarists are like cockroaches; you can't kill them, they'll always come back. They have no dignity, no conscience, no writing skills, and no normal brain.

I really don't want to deal with these kinds of creatures.

But then I thought...

The characters I create, my readers—how innocent they are.

I've been writing this novel for a long time. There are many things waiting in this book. I know many readers are waiting for an ending, and now that I've reached the main plot, I'm unwilling to put it on hold.

Being plagiarized is not my fault, it's the plagiarist's fault. I shouldn't be fighting amongst myself either, because the plagiarists can't write their own stuff, so they come here to steal mine.

Love lasts longer than hate.

I love the stories I write, and I love my readers.

I will persevere. As long as I can still feel happiness, I can keep going.

and so.

Plagiarists, be prepared.

I will pursue cross-platform issues to the end, and I'll handle same-platform issues even better. The report against the plagiarist is in progress; even if you try to revise the text out of guilt, it won't work. I've already downloaded the original; I've preserved the evidence well. Even if you manage to evade official review, it doesn't change the fact that you're a plagiarist.

Even if you manage to escape, I will keep an eye on you. I know you are a plagiarist, you can't change, and you will always be thinking about when to make a comeback.

I will no longer care about saving face, because I know this thing will be of no practical use to you. Prepare to face judgment.

And my readers, welcome home.