[Crossover] Marletinda: This Game Is Way Too Anime to Be Set in the 21st Century

Content warnings:

* The male lead is based on a real person: Bilibili million-follower UP creator Mou Huanjun, also known as Ma Le Ding Da, the Godfather of Qingdao, or Ma'er Jiaojiao.

His real-life works include Electronic Sheep, 2019, Flame Rose, Black Knight, and Ask the Heavens, among others.

This is my own anime-style version of Mou Huan, who has watched a lot of anime.

His appearance follows the fourth edition of the character design. He's the strongest and most tsundere of the five Mou Huans, and will dance to Paradise on Earth in public.

He plays the snarky top role, is very irritable, and especially irritable. Neutral good.

* The real-life and fictional versions are separate. In this story, he can speak Japanese.

* Crossover: anime include Bungo Stray Dogs, Jujutsu Kaisen, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Attack on Titan; games include The Death | Thần Chết and Danganronpa 2, among others.

* The timeline is a mess.

Synopsis:

*

One day, while browsing Steam for games to review, Mou Huan found an inconspicuous game called Long Time No See tucked away on the corner of the homepage. The eerie black cover had a line of large, blood-red English text. He clicked in to take a closer look: Welcome, Marletinda :)

A few seconds later, it hit him. Damn, that was his English name!

The down-to-earth Mou Huan went straight to the reviews. The brown “Mixed” rating caught his eye. The “About This Game” section showed a set of animated images, including a black-haired character with a beauty mark who looked very familiar. How could he not recognize himself? That was him in real life, wearing his concert outfit and singing with all his heart!

The developer and publisher were both a little-known company called None System, a name he’d never heard in all these years. The handful of user-defined tags were vague and unhelpful: “Role-Playing,” “Free to Play,” and “Indie.” They gave no real sense of what to expect.

Game description: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to really enter an anime or game? Join the protagonists on an exciting journey in Long Time No See! Explore more than one vast world, full of secrets and mysteries. The best or worst parts are up to you.

Further down was the overall user review section:

A user with a black avatar and a white question mark: I recommend the game developers kill themselves.

A user with a retro-style golden-haired man against a sky-blue background: Why can’t I customize my player name?! I want to change it to b#l#b#l#!

A user with a black-skinned, blue-haired, high-tech-looking avatar: I’ve been won over by Brother Ma’s charisma... but the scene transitions are terrible.

A user whose avatar was clearly a screenshot from the game: Great content, well-developed characters, and lots of playtime. It’s really good. The multiple endings were a little unexpected, but they changed my impression of this game being built on a pile of trash.

Mou Huan looked at the familiar avatars and fell into thought...

Wait, damn it, why do these guys look so much like his alternate selves?

In the end, he decided to spend a little money and buy this strange game.

*

After he clicked Start Game, a beam of white light from the computer flashed in his eyes. When he opened them again, he found himself inside the game.

What the hell, where am I?! Seeing a world that was clearly nothing like his own, Mou Huan cursed inwardly.

Had he entered the computer?

The familiar anime-style buildings made him stop and look around, deep in thought. Had he ended up in Detective Conan? Did this None System company even have the rights?

Before long, a ring of students in pale blue police academy uniforms had gathered around him. They looked at the blue-haired guy in a scarf, whose clothes didn’t fit in at all, as if he were an idiot. Someone was about to report a strange person to the instructor, a delinquent with dyed hair, or so it seemed.

Just then, he saw five handsome guys with very different styles walking over, chatting.

He ran straight toward them.

Damn, it’s the police academy squad, and they’re alive!

*

Mou Huan had barely escaped the eight-bombs-a-day special of Detective Conan when he suddenly stepped into empty air and fell into a storm drain with no manhole cover.

After five full minutes of free fall, Mou Huan finally landed on something: a bumpy, semicircular surface. He gave an exasperated half-lidded look he’d learned from the Detective Conan world, adjusted his red scarf, and looked up at the black ball in the sky.

Which anime was this now?

Then he saw a red-haired child falling from the sky. He ran over and caught him, silently freaking out inside.

Oh no, oh no, he didn’t have any spare clothes to put on this kid!

*

After that hateful little rabbit Dazai dragged him into the water again, Mou Huan climbed out completely drenched, only to discover he’d changed art styles once more.

When he saw the hideous Curses flying in the sky, crawling on the ground, and swimming in the water, he gave up.

“Domain Expansion: 2019.” After arriving in this world, he’d discovered he had some Cursed Techniques. All his songs except 2019 could be used as abilities.

“Hah, tch.” He wondered if Flame Rose could warm him up.

The next day, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government received a report that a river had been dried up by an unidentified arsonist.

*

It was pretty ridiculous to be killed by someone with no Cursed Energy, but traffic accidents were unpredictable. Mou Huan rubbed his buzzing head, feeling a little dizzy.

But when he saw three golden donuts, he instantly perked up. This was JOJO!

Luckily, he’d learned a little Italian while livestreaming. Otherwise, in an unfamiliar place like this, he’d be in serious trouble.

(Though it couldn’t be worse than having Giorno steal his money, then realize he was so poor that he gave some back. That was unlucky. (Laughs))

*

After countless worlds, he had no idea what had happened to his original world. He didn’t know how long his livestream had been running, either.

If time couldn’t stop, how was he supposed to explain his disappearance?

Mou Huan was at a loss, but he was still stuck in the cyber world, unable to return.

What was he supposed to do?

[None System: Long Time No See, Mou Huanjun :)]

*

When he opened his eyes again, he was back in a familiar yet unfamiliar office.

At first glance, he saw the warm smile of some tomato-faced guy, but he seemed to see an ominous black aura behind him.

“Old Ma, you’re back? It’s been a week, and you haven’t answered any of my calls. If I hadn’t come to find you, were you planning to stay submerged in the computer forever?”

Theme: Sit down and rest for a while, then keep running forward. Life is full of pain, but I don’t mind sharing some of it with you.