Players Think I’m a Demon God

(Complete. My novel next door, Raising Little Monsters, formerly titled The Little Monster Destroyed the World After I Logged Off, is also finished and ready to binge. (holding a rose in my mouth))

Lan En transmigrated into the body of another unlucky man with the same name, who had just escaped a fire. He gained a second life and inhuman beauty.

Sounds like an amazing start, just one step away from reaching the pinnacle of life, right?

Yes, Lan En thought so too, if only this weren't a world with eldritch evil gods.

#The monsters all seem to like him#

#Question: Can I be saved if I become the most popular person in a world like this?#

Lan En had already given up, quietly waiting for death in a terrifying hospital at night. Who could have guessed that someone would stumble into his world, willing to give up their life just so he could survive?

Lan En was deeply moved, until he got access to a gaming forum.

#I just died. Let me introduce you all to my new wife. I've already become the love of her life!#

#…Something's not right. Run! Your wife is obviously an evil god!#

Lan En: ?

…

By the 23rd century, full-dive technology had matured. With it, traditional tabletop role-playing games like CoC and DnD were enjoying a revival, and countless players entered games to experience a second life.

With so many platforms on the market, the player base was more fragmented than ever, until a new full-dive platform appeared without fanfare and took the internet by storm on its very first day.

There was one reason: the poster boy was incredibly beautiful!

“Just asking, is this level of beauty actually real?”

“This has to be app99, right? I'm gonna lick the screen! Wife, come here!”

“You shameless old dev! You used death to raise his affection! That's my wife!”

“Heh, beauty beyond human imagination can't be drawn. He's only average. (pulls up pants)”

As players gushed over the character model, debate raged over whether Lan En was an evil god or a special NPC.

“Look, look over there~ Look at that face, clearly above 99 app (appearance), then look at the players losing SAN just from being near him. Come on, it's obvious he's an evil god! (to a musical tune)”

Lan En: ?

Player B: We should be more cautious. Let's look at the NPCs around him before we decide.

His two-meter-tall roommate, a sheriff suspected of attending secret gatherings, the biggest gang boss in town, a fanatical believer with a split personality, a scummy florist with unusual tastes…

They all gazed at him fervently: “Our Lord.”

The players: Evil god. No doubt about it. He's one hundred percent an evil god!

Lan En: “…No, I'm really not!”

#Please, NPCs, stop stabbing me in the back#

#I'm really not an evil god!#

Reading guide:

1. The story won't strictly follow tabletop role-playing rules. Any rules that come up will be explained, so even readers who don't play tabletop games can give it a try.

2. It's not the extremely eldritch, hopeless kind of story. The players will step in, and there'll be plenty of troublemaking.

3. The CP should be set: his roommate, but mostly a background character. Early on, there'll be more one-sided devotion from followers and pursuit scenes. I haven't written romance in ages, but I'll do my best, orz.

A recommendation for my beloved wife's upcoming novel: Yue Du Hantang's Guide to Roleplaying Rule-Based Horror Stories (Infinite Flow): How to Explore an Unknown Space

Take a look at my upcoming novel, I'm a Capitalist in a Strange World

When Tang Guitan was ten, his parents died. The ritual master who came to perform rites at his home took one look at him and almost fainted, pointing at him and declaring that he was born under the fate of a lonely star. His maternal grandparents left him in their rented apartment and returned to the mountains that same night.

From then on, Tang Guitan was all alone. He had lived through the hardest of times, and money became an obsession. He made his living writing horror stories.

As thoughts during the day became dreams at night, he sometimes saw a pair of embroidered shoes at the foot of his bed. In his dreams, a gigantic “woman” sat with her back to him, combing her hair.

Sometimes he could sense a cold, twisted, greedy gaze on his back.

At eighteen, his guardian forced him into the worst high school in town. Not long after school began, Tang Guitan was caught up in a case of school bullying. The paranormal stories became real. The bullies died or were left crippled, and just as Tang Guitan was about to be killed by a vengeful ghost, a gigantic ghost bride appeared from his shadow.

With elegant, utterly savage grace, she tore the murderous ghost to shreds.

“Tantan, when are we getting married?”

The ghost bride reached out to him. Her enormous blue-green hand seemed to want to caress his face. The icy touch of a corpse and the stench of rotting flesh seeped through his skin and into his lungs.

Faced with the deadly question, Tang Guitan raised his face and asked in a trembling voice, “How much is the bride price?”

Ghost Bride: ?

Ghost Doll Mary, the immortal from the shrine, the red-clad senior, deceased relatives…

One ghost story after another came back to life through his writing. They remembered the settings etched into their souls:

[In love with Tang Guitan]

But love from inhuman beings could never be that simple.

…

The world was nowhere near as simple as people thought. A special department had been established to deal with all manner of paranormal incidents.

Recently, the situation in City B had taken a dramatic turn. An organization called the “House of the Strange” had appeared out of nowhere, and its bizarre activities were giving the investigators headaches.

The Immortal Pen sets up a fortune-telling stall beneath the overpass.

Mary's International Long-Distance Service: a few phone calls are all it takes to reach your home.

Gentle Breeze, Spirit Smoke: providing a way to talk with deceased family members.

What is all this supposed to be?!

A new recruit at the special department asked a senior, confused: “Weren't the strange beings supposed to be cold-blooded and cruel, always hurting people? Why aren't these ones like I imagined?”

The senior: “…” Why? They wanted to know too!

As the mastermind behind the House of the Strange, also known as a strange-being capitalist, Tang Guitan only smiled and said nothing.

“Tantan,” his ghost bride said softly, slowly leaning her enormous body against his back. “I've saved enough for the bride price. When are you coming home with me?”

Tang Guitan: “…”

Aspiration: Stay true to yourself.