The Fourth Calamity's One and Only Designated Dad

[Preorder: The Extra Comic Artist Has Lost His Mind] at the bottom of the blurb

[Extra chapters coming at the end of the month! I've been a little busy lately]

"I live in a game."

By the time Sang Qiu fully realized this, the game had already entered its open beta.

Before that, during the game's closed beta, all the players had appeared at a school in Sang Qiu's world. When the school was forcibly sealed off, a game of survival and combat began.

Back then, he was a passerby NPC lost in the crowd, a handy guide whom players trusted. After the closed beta, he became a god-tier fan favorite, the beloved leader everyone liked most and felt closest to.

Discussion threads about him flooded the forums outside the game.

Fanworks on creative platforms soared, marked with bright red popularity badges.

His merchandise sold out so fast that you had to pay several times the price to get any.

During the closed beta, Sang Qiu was an NPC no one chose to pursue. He led everyone in trying to find a path toward the light.

But before they could claim victory, he met a tragic end, becoming the beloved fan favorite and "mommy" in the hearts of everyone who had participated in the closed beta or watched the livestreams.

Sang Qiu: Huh?

Before he could fully piece everything together, a player came to find him again.

The player standing before him had been one of the top players in the closed beta.

He had once tried to pursue both the career path and the romance path, fighting side by side with Sang Qiu on the front lines.

The hem of his long, black utility coat fluttered. He stood ramrod straight.

His gaze beneath the goggles was complicated.

Sang Qiu vaguely remembered how they had gone from strangers to friends. He remembered the way the man had passionately pursued another junior student, and the eager fighting spirit in his eyes when they had faced each other.

"...Go out with me."

Just as Sang Qiu recalled all this, the player said those words to him.

Sang Qiu thought for a moment. Hadn't he decided not to "pursue" this guy during the closed beta?

**

Closed Campus is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

Its premise sounds ordinary enough: a school-based survival RPG.

But even so, as a brain-computer game that let players enter a world that felt real, it attracted enormous attention.

Many people who hadn't managed to get a closed-beta slot watched through livestreams.

Their curious gazes shifted from the lifelike settings, the NPCs' vivid emotions, and the steadily advancing story to Sang Qiu, the novice-guide NPC who appeared alongside the various streamers.

He was a utility NPC, a player guide, the "grandpa" who showed them the ropes.

Although he was strikingly handsome, his personality was ordinary, and he hadn't even appeared in the promotional video.

Too harmless.

Too unremarkable, like a glass of bland, cold water.

So the players let their guard down completely.

They racked their brains to gain experience, pursued important NPCs, and raced toward game achievements.

They grumbled about the absurdity of the various quests.

They thought they would use the novice guide, the "white-bearded grandpa," and then leave him behind. They thought he was nothing special.

But, without even realizing it, they all gradually fell for Sang Qiu's consistently warm leadership and his endlessly warm, powerful "mom" energy.

They began shipping all kinds of couples, were genuinely moved by the story as it progressed, and even started imagining meeting him again after the open beta.

Until they saw the red liquid splatter from the high platform, and the familiar figure crumple helplessly to the ground with a heavy thud.

The warm words were gone. The NPC they loved would never see another beautiful new chapter.

The trending topics exploded.

The gaming community and fanwork platforms exploded, too.

When the open beta officially began, countless people entered the game, eager to experience its incredible world and bizarre monsters for themselves...

and to save the NPC, Sang Qiu.

**

Notes:

1. Yan never successfully pursued anyone at the start. The person he wanted to pursue had always liked Qiu.

2. Yan Chuanbai is a stubborn, clueless puppy who gets deeply immersed in the game and only realizes things belatedly x Sang Qiu is an NPC who starts out as an ordinary person and later becomes a nurturing, motherly beacon of hope.

3. This blurb was screenshotted at 3 p.m. on January 27.

4. The blurb has gone through several revisions because of the subject matter and outline. Please forgive me! (bows) The core premise hasn't changed, though.

5. The story starts with the closed-beta plot and proceeds chronologically.

6. I really like genderbending fanworks...

[The Extra Has Lost His Mind]

Before the new term began, Tang Ning became so engrossed in drawing comics that he took a fall and hit his head on the corner of his desk.

His childhood friend and neighbor thought he was about to die and rushed him to the hospital.

The doctors examined him for half an hour but couldn't find anything wrong.

While everyone was baffled, Tang Ning woke up.

He looked at the doctor and saw limp black tentacles and suction cups growing out of him. Horrified, he cried, "A clay octopus monster! Stay away from me!"

Doctor: ?

The doctor pulled out a notebook. "I see. He's lost his mind."

Back home, Tang Ning went back to his hobby: drawing comics.

But he knew there was no going back to his peaceful everyday life.

After a serious illness, he discovered that he was actually living in a world where the protagonists of all sorts of comics and novels had been thrown together. Sweet, naive boys, cold and domineering CEOs, and top students who were either the seme or the uke in mecha stories all appeared in his world.

And he was just an extra whose comics couldn't sell...

Still, there was one thing that made this world different.

Although it was a mashup of novels and comics starring all kinds of protagonists, the roles were actually reversed. In other words, those familiar characters from novels and comics weren't human. They were monsters with tentacles, who spat slime and occasionally grew tails.

Tang Ning: I'm shocked. No wonder nobody reads my comics. Turns out I'm the only human here. (Suddenly sees the light.)

He decided to change the direction of his comics.

Before, his comics were bland and boring because he drew inspiration from the everyday lives of the people around him.

The rich kid was ordinary rich, the janitor practiced tai chi day after day, and the overworked office drone trudged to work with his head hanging.

But after he came back from the hospital, his fans who followed the serial noticed their favorite artist had changed!

The understated everyday art style vanished overnight, replaced by enormous creatures that made your sanity drop just from looking at them, incomprehensible gods in the highest heavens, and colorful black lacquer clinging to people's bodies.

Even the wholesome plots became deeply sanity-destroying under this terrifying art style.

Fans: ?

Fans: Where's our adorable favorite artist? Please don't do anything drastic!!!

Tang Ning didn't react.

Every day, after drawing the latest chapter, he'd fret to himself: Everyone around me turned into monsters overnight, and I'm the only one who doesn't fit in.

That's not important.

But how do I convince my roommates not to put their black-mud tentacles on my shoulders right after I've showered?

Urgent. Answers wanted online.

But the people around him were worried, too.

Childhood friend: ...Did Tang Ning forget to take his meds again today? Is he still having mental problems?

(A world where Tang Ning is the only one with something wrong in his head.)

Notes:

1. This blurb was posted on December 30, 2023. Please don't copy or plagiarize it. It's been archived.

2. I'm not sure what else to add yet. I'll think about it.

Theme: Cherish every day and trust in the power of friendship.