A Game NPC's Humble Day Job in the World of Detective Fiction

[The upcoming novel on my profile, Close Your Eyes When It Gets Dark, Second-Year Kenji, Open Yours, is available to add to your favorites!] [Thanks to everyone supporting the official version. The extras are short, so buy as you go and cut your losses in time. Please don't contact me if you drop the story.] As a lazy NPC in a game, Ogura Kana's daily job is to play different characters in various virtual worlds, scare people, and collect the SAN points players lose in droves to exchange for points. Her life is easy and pleasant. Until one day, she steps out her door and lands in the Detective Conan world. Looking up, she sees a handsome blond man with dark skin smiling outside a cafe. Ogura Kana: Oh, the sun. Under the scrutiny of the detectives, the little NPC trembles. How is she supposed to pretend to be a ghost and scare people? They'd uncover her secret identity in no time! Then one day, dressed in black, she is wandering around Beika Town when she runs into a certain grade-schooler. A huge pile of points comes flying her way. Ogura Kana: ??? Ogura Kana: !!! Looks like she's found another secret to getting rich! From then on, she embarks on a new path to fortune by pretending to be a drink (not really)! Ogura Kana, caught in the eye of the storm: Don't panic. I can still work with this. Move 1: A girl with long black curls reflects the sky in her eyes. Her dark pupils gaze at an accident outside the cafe as she swirls her strawberry soda, her voice sweet as she says, [Such a lovely color, like strawberry jam.] A certain cafe employee: … Trash can! Trash can! Move 2: The girl narrows her eyes, her tone full of menace. [One secret is often connected to another. If you keep digging into other people's secrets, you might find your own are no longer safe, Mr. Detective~] Toru: !!! Move 3: Asked where she learned to perform autopsies, the black-clad girl gives a sinister smile beneath the pale lights of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. [There's no trick to it. I just have a lot of practice.] The grade-schooler: That's a threat, right? It definitely is, right? Move 4: The girl casually plucks a crimson rose through the garden fence and crushes it in her palm. [What a beautiful color. Too bad it's so annoying as a name, isn't it, Mr. Subaru?] Cat Bro: … A small request: If you drop the story, please don't contact me. I beg you. #Close your eyes when it gets dark, Second-Year Kenji, open yours. Who will you save tonight? A handsome police officer enters a battle royale game in the moment before his death. It's the same Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but everyone has become a stranger and gone mad. His gentle colleague sprays bullets from a machine gun. A beautiful policewoman chases him with a chainsaw. His understanding superior drags a blood-soaked bag through the records room... The game is a little scary, but luckily, he runs into someone he knows. A curly-haired police officer helps him escape danger time and again, teaches him the rules of the "Otherworld," and helps him find a way out of the game. "That's great! Jinpei is so reliable no matter where we are!" In all the chaos, he doesn't notice the twisted, unhinged gaze watching him from behind the sunglasses of the curly-haired police officer in the black suit. Just when he thinks they're about to win the game, the two of them sit in a swaying Ferris wheel car and slowly rise to the very top, where brilliant fireworks burst across the night sky. The curly-haired officer smiles for the first time since entering the game. Then he pulls a bomb from beneath the seat and puts it in his hand. The crimson countdown ticks down to zero. As white light bursts around him, he hears the other man say, "Idiot. Make sure you find me next time." The next second, he opens his eyes in a hospital bed. The familiar face of the curly-haired officer appears again, his voice filled with joy. "You're awake! How do you feel?" "...Not great." At last, after three years, he clears the game's first chapter. But the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department receives a new bomb threat. The gears of fate turn, and the curly-haired officer finds himself at the Ferris wheel once more. "Sorry, I might have to break my promise. The last location is..." That night, he opens his eyes and meets a pair of blue cat eyes he hasn't seen in a long time. "Good evening, Mead. Tonight, you can save only one person. Who will you choose?" Later, more and more familiar faces appear in the game. He also comes to understand what the game truly means. It's a game where he can save everyone. All he has to do is clear the game and survive. #Close your eyes when it gets dark, Second-Year Kenji, open yours. Who will you save tonight? Theme: Never give up on becoming a better version of yourself.