The Protagonist Protection Plan

[This novel will be available for purchase starting with Chapter 22 on the 24th. There'll be an extra 10,000 words that day. Thank you for your support.]

Do you know what a protagonist is?

That's right, the central character in a book or anime, the one whose perspective readers follow.

Then do you know what a growth-type protagonist is?

Exactly: a character who goes through endless hardship, trials, and setbacks, enduring pain and escaping death, before finally changing and growing stronger.

I was created by the consciousness of the universe to bring calamity upon protagonists.

Sometimes, I'm the enemy they believe they must kill at all costs. Sometimes, I'm the despicable villain who teaches them betrayal. Sometimes, I'm the big bad who manipulates events and tries to destroy the world. Sometimes, I'm a bastard who does every evil thing imaginable…

I have countless identities and countless ways of doing things, all enough to make protagonists hate me with all their hearts and give them the drive to grow stronger.

In my eyes, this is a noble profession.

Because this world's rule is that those who cannot transform without going through hardship cannot become worthy protagonists.

I have to teach them every kind of pain in this world: loss, betrayal, death, farewell, the past… Then they can draw nourishment from it, survive with greater strength, become leaders followed by countless people, heroes who command the world's attention, and the very best people in the world.

So I've always worked diligently at my job.

Or at least, I was supposed to.

That changed the day I played a monster, hoping to scare a child protagonist who could see monsters and was being bullied by others.

He certainly screamed and cried in terror, scrambling away as fast as he could.

But for some reason, he came running back in tears and hugged me. He said, “Don't be sad. I don't hate you.”

The warmth of that embrace addled my mind, leaving me standing there in a daze.

After that, my acting career took a strange turn.

I became a ghost and killed someone in front of the protagonist, provoking his anger. He understood something, cut off my head, and I was about to die.

But the protagonist who killed me cried for me. He said, “I'm sorry.”

I gradually stopped understanding why these things kept happening. They were supposed to hate me, supposed to kill me without a second thought, not... not treat me so gently.

I became the ringleader who bullied the protagonist before he had grown up. Every day, I came up with new ways to torment him: making him buy things for me, do my homework, and clean up after me.

I must have looked truly awful back then, like someone who deserved a beating.

But I looked forward to him growing stronger and getting his revenge. I looked forward to him fighting back against all of it and becoming someone different.

Day after day passed. The protagonist, who should have grown stronger by now according to the plot, was still being bullied by me, acting like a clueless errand boy.

Then, on the day I started to suspect something was wrong, the protagonist suddenly blocked my way. I thought he was about to beat me up for revenge, but instead he shouted, “Shen Cao, I like you!”

...I had failed in my duties.

I hadn't fulfilled my responsibility, so the world punished me. I would have to complete my mission again before I could return to where I was born.

I was thrown into a strange world.

The strange thing was, this world didn't have just one protagonist. It had countless protagonists.

Now I had to complete my mission.

[Reading Guide]

1. The main story is in third person. The protagonist is lovable without realizing it.

2. There are lots of one-sided crushes, but the protagonist doesn't reciprocate and sees them as friendship or family affection. (New rule: this is no-CP.)

3. The first world is Gintama! I'll fill in the rest of the blurb later.

Note from 2022/1/1: Screenshot saved.

Theme: The world is sustained by love; the only way to acknowledge life is to deny the self