Could You Just Let Me Die?

Wen Tuo is a top-tier role-player at the Otherworld Management Bureau. He's assigned to play various cannon fodder characters in small worlds and steer their plots back on track. His current record is 99 out of 100, open for inspection.

After failing to force himself on the protagonist, who was the receiving partner, he stood atop the Alliance Tower, "ruined" and disgraced. He was just about to leap to his death and finish the last task, when a battleship suddenly flew over and rescued him from his free fall.

A battleship?

Wen Tuo looked up and saw Shang Heng, the Alliance major general who should have been in the command room sending people to arrest him. Shang Heng was also the ultimate villain the protagonists would face in the later stages of this small world. Yet here he was, abandoning everything to save a wanted criminal in full view of the public.

Wen Tuo: I appreciate the kind gesture, buddy, but put me down first.

Question: How does the plot move forward if the cannon fodder doesn't die?

Who'll play the villain if Shang Heng runs off?

To finish his mission and leave the world, Wen Tuo tried every way he could to get himself killed: attempting suicide every three days, jumping off buildings every five, getting hit by a car while out for a stroll on Saturday, and being chased by soldiers during his Sunday outing.

Shang Heng rescued him every time, his face cold as ice.

Seeing the great villain abandon his career and watch his reputation plummet, following Wen Tuo around every day like a little tail, Wen Tuo feared his performance record was doomed. He had no choice but to stay and help Shang Heng:

When the beast tide arrived, Wen Tuo, whose psychic power was said to be zero, unleashed an S-rank psychic domain and single-handedly drove the beasts back. Then he babbled a few words at the Beast King, who wagged its tail and led the herd home;

When space pirates came to rob them, Wen Tuo, who supposedly couldn't even ride a bicycle, piloted the highest-grade battle mecha and fought the pirates for three days and three nights, saving the Alliance;

During an internal power struggle in the Alliance, Wen Tuo, who had no friends because everyone disliked him, suddenly produced a letter of recommendation from the founding marshal, helping Shang Heng secure the position he wanted;

Of course, he didn't forget to throw in a death attempt while he was at it. He shielded a young child when the beasts reached out with their claws; he tried to make a heroic sacrifice when the pirates threatened civilians; and when an assassin tried to kill Shang Heng, he rushed in to take the blade.

Gradually, not only did Shang Heng rise through Wen Tuo's support to become a general, but the public's eyes also shifted from contempt to admiration, even reverence.

Wait! All he wanted was to get himself killed!

As events took a more and more unexpected turn, Wen Tuo, desperate to die, turned to Shang Heng, who had saved him time and again, and finally asked outright, "What's so great about saving a cannon fodder like me? If there's something you want me to do, just say so, okay?"

Seated among the generals, Shang Heng slowly removed his gloves and looked at Wen Tuo with cool gray eyes.

That night, Wen Tuo did it.

After sleeping with Shang Heng, Wen Tuo suddenly wasn't all that eager to die anymore.

He traded the points from 50 missions for a chance to replace one of the protagonists. But when he looked back, Shang Heng had somehow turned evil.

Oh, right. Shang Heng was the villain, the kind who was destined to die horribly.

That night, Wen Tuo pinched the edge of Shang Heng's blanket and asked softly, "Do you want to be the protagonist, Shang Heng?"

Shang Heng didn't even look up. "No."

So Wen Tuo smiled and leaned down, speaking softly. "Then... do you want to be my wife?"

Shang Heng looked up, his gray eyes seeming to hold a river of stars. "Yes."

"Wen Tuo, your points have been reset to zero."

A seemingly mischievous, death-seeking cannon fodder with an irresistible charm as the aggressive partner x A seemingly cool and abstinent, but actually obsessive and unhinged general with a lover's brain as the receiving partner

Reader's Guide:

1. Don't ask. They're both completely in love.

2. The protagonist tries to get himself killed to complete his mission and leave the small world. He's a very positive, upstanding person, so please read in the context of the worldbuilding and don't misinterpret his actions.

Theme: Finding life in the face of death