Matsuda's Diary of Keeping Everyone Happy

[Writing is hard. Please respect the author and don’t bring up other novels in the comments.]

[No derivative works involving crossovers or watch-along scenarios.]

Police Officer Matsuda was on his way to the Ferris wheel when the will of the world chose him to become the only quest-giving NPC in a full-dive game that had overlapped with his own world.

Back in reality, he tried posting the first world quest in the game.

[Please help me catch the bomber.]

Second Life was a full-dive game so realistic it was practically virtual reality. But there were no quests or events, and there was nothing to do except experience a life of your own.

The little over a thousand players who remained stuck around out of love for the game.

Then a special NPC appeared.

It gives quests! Rewards skill points! You can even enter a lottery!

The world chat exploded as players rushed to spread the news.

Three minutes later, the quest description changed automatically:

[A courageous police officer... three seconds before the explosion...]

[Countdown: 4:59]

[If the NPC dies, the game will shut down permanently]

A genuine liquor-factory player was locked in a tense standoff with Bourbon when he heard the news. His face turned terrifyingly grim, and he grabbed his gun and ran, wailing in world chat:

“Anyone in Tokyo!! Help, help, help our NPC!”

A player from a conglomerate panicked: “We’re looking, we’re looking! When I find that bomber, I’ll skin him alive, chop him up, and feed him to the dogs!”

A player from the yakuza said ominously, “I’ve sent people to seal off every road. Not even a bird’s getting out.”

In the end, after Matsuda came down from the Ferris wheel, he received greetings from more than a thousand people from all walks of life, delivered through every means imaginable.

“Mr. Matsuda, is there anything I can do for you?”

That day, Matsuda’s hand cramped from posting quests.

After gathering enough energy to rewrite fate, his childhood friend went from having sacrificed his life to being in a coma, then miraculously woke up. Everything was looking up.

But there was just one problem: how was he supposed to explain to his childhood friend and his fellow officers that

he really hadn’t gone astray and joined the yakuza while his friend was unconscious, and he had absolutely no unspeakable relationship with the uncrowned king of the underworld!!!

P.S.

1. No romantic pairings and no unrequited crushes, but there will be lethal amounts of misunderstandings, including mistaken romantic pairings, regardless of gender.

2. I hope everyone enjoys the story. Please don’t spoil too much, excessively treat characters like cats or dogs, or go overboard in any other way... In short, enjoy the memes in moderation and keep the comments friendly!

Coming soon: Hello, My Friend Has Died

When you’re out in the world, you get to choose who you are.

Xu Zhan has no scruples.

When fighting over discounted vegetables at the supermarket, he says he’s a young widower raising two kids.

When quitting his job, he tells his boss he’s terminally ill and doesn’t have long to live.

Even when a rideshare driver tries to pry into his salary, he generously shares his tips on being a kept man.

So, when a group of tourists surrounded him at a scenic spot famous for its unspoiled natural beauty, chattering as they asked what he was doing there, he said:

“I came to collect my friend’s corpse.”

Then Xu Zhan saw their frozen expressions, and the fresh corpse behind them, its blood not yet dried.

Xu Zhan: Okay, fine.

Xu Huai’s body was dead, and only a wisp of his soul remained, peacefully fading away.

Then a stranger came along, took his bloodwood doll, stole the token of the [God], and slandered him out of nowhere:

“How did I end up with such an idiot for a friend?”

“He didn’t even dare see me before he died.”

“What happened to your ambition? You just died and left a whole mess behind.”

“I should never have let you out.”

Xu Huai jolted awake.

You rotten bastard, insulting the dead and stealing their things!

He crept into Xu Zhan’s dreams and said,

“Do you want to be revered and followed? To have people watch your every move with admiration? I can lend you my power...”

He wanted Xu Zhan to taste what it was like to be pushed to the top, only to be betrayed in the cruelest way.

But the cunning liar rolled over and mumbled in his sleep:

“No. If it were real, it wouldn’t be a lie.”

When Xu Huai came to again, he found Xu Zhan sitting at the hideout of another group of liars: his enemies, [Remnant Night].

The handsome young man wore a light gray down jacket and sat listlessly at the end of a long table, fiddling with the bloodwood doll carved with Xu Huai’s name.

“Before you kill someone, don’t you check who they are?”

Then, with a bored sigh, he said,

“Forget it. Since he dared to die, I’ll take over his enemies.”

Many years later, the era before the spiritual qi revival had become a topic in history textbooks, and everyone knew the name of Xu Zhan, the savior.

One of Mr. Xu’s followers said:

“Mr. Xu is always right, except for one thing.”

“We generally don’t call a relationship where someone topples an apocalyptic organization to fulfill the other person’s last wish, reads their notes and plays with their keepsakes year after year, and even insists on carving their names together on a divine stele, a...”

Someone else clapped a hand over his mouth and said through tears:

“Mr. Xu’s friends have all passed away. Don’t remind him.”

#SatisfyingStoryWithSlightCharacterDistortion

#MisunderstandingsAboutFeelings

#TheProtagonistAndHisLoveInterestAreOneMeetingAwayFromMarriage

Theme: Love means meeting each other halfway