If You Make the Shy NPC Angry, They'll Quit the Game!

Due to real-life circumstances, this novel will now update weekly, every Sunday night. (bows)

As an extreme introvert, Komatsu Nanako has found herself in an urgent social crisis: she has one week to figure out how to make friends! At the suggestion of her popular seaweed-haired desk mate, the only person she can really talk to, Nanako decides to look for a solution in the dating game Mafia Star.

But is something wrong with this game?!

Komatsu Nanako can understand failing the first time. She has no experience.

After failing the second time, Nanako thinks it over, researches, reviews what went wrong, and prepares thoroughly before confidently entering her third playthrough.

In the third playthrough, everything seems to be going well. Her boss gradually goes from prickly to considerate, her colleagues go from strangers to familiar faces, and even her subordinate is her favorite white-haired guy. Her social life is practically perfect, yet she still gets a disastrous bad ending.

Watching her love interest leap from the company building, Nanako’s heart sinks halfway to her stomach.

Fine, so that’s how you want to play it

In the fourth playthrough, Nanako maxes out her combat stats and beats the stuffing out of everyone. The black-haired bandage freak wants to get himself killed? Take this, her invincible iron fist! The King of Assassins is looking for trouble? She’ll beat you so badly your partner won’t recognize you! You don’t think an introvert’s feelings count as real feelings? Then come and experience the “weight” of those feelings! Boss, you’ve been watching for ages. Don’t you have something to say?

Mori Ougai, pale-faced, says, “Executive Komatsu, you can’t beat me up after you’ve beaten up Mimic, you know, ”

The fourth playthrough ends perfectly. Nanako smoothly quits the game and deletes her save, then returns to real life armed with her friendship manual, where she successfully becomes a hugely popular school beauty. She thinks her happy school life is about to begin, but that night she gets a mission call from an NPC?

“NA-chan, the boss says a bunch of old Mafia families have suddenly appeared in Italy. He wants me to go there with you and investigate. Where are you now? I didn’t find you at your apartment.”

“Dazai seems to be looking for you too. Call him back later. He sounds pretty worried, ”

Just then, her guardian, who is far away in Italy, sends her a message: Nanako, if you’re tired from working hard out there, come home for a visit. The family business is doing quite well, too.

Nanako: God, are you there? This is urgent. Please save me

Oh, I forgot. I’m God myself. Maybe this world should just end :) despair.jpg

*Please believe me, this is a delightfully offbeat comedy. (peace sign)

*As for the pairings, I’m planning different endings so everyone gets a chance. (thumbs up)

Here’s a preview of an upcoming story, "Me, a Yokohama Mail Carrier, and My Former Coworkers"

I’m Yukimura Ryota, an employee of the post offices serving Yokohama’s black, white, and gray worlds.

That’s right, I have three jobs at once, and they’re all as a mail carrier. The main thing is, they’re all along the way. For example, I can deliver a letter to the Special Division for Unusual Powers and pick up a job placing a bomb at the division while I’m there. One trip, two tasks. Making money is a piece of cake.

But lately, I’ve run into some serious trouble at work:

The Yokohama Postal Service hired a new coworker. He’s not only terrible with directions, he also throws mail around carelessly, which has suddenly increased my workload. But what can I do? The new guy still seems like a kid fresh out of school! I have to guide him through the routes over and over, help him sort the mail, and track down the letters he throws away so I can apologize to their recipients.

“Ryota, I’m so useless…” he asks, head bowed, on the verge of tears.

I think it over, patting his head as I answer, “I don’t think so… Maybe you’re just not suited to this job?” He seems more suited to studying. With a brain like his, wouldn’t it be better to work on inventions or something?

I don’t think he understood what I meant! I’d already saved up the money to send him to university!!! But then I was away for a few days, and the guy quit to become a detective!?

All I could do was smile, give the university gift I’d prepared for him to Mr. Fukuzawa as a gift for his new job, and ask him to look after the kid.

I’d actually run into some trouble myself around that time, so I felt a little more at ease knowing Ranpo could stay with him.

For some reason, the former number-one hitman had become a mail carrier for the underworld! And he’d been assigned to me as a junior colleague!

I watched him cross a battlefield to deliver a bomb to the enemy boss, then innocently pull out a receipt clipboard and ask the man to sign for it. I covered my face in agony. This guy is even harder to teach than Ranpo!

Thanks to him, the number of people chasing me has been steadily increasing lately.

Fortunately, I can deliver my regular orders using my ability, so it hasn’t kept me from earning my three paychecks.

“What does Senior Yukimura plan to do with all that money?”

“I want to save up a few billion as soon as I can, retire, and buy a little house in the countryside. Then I can live a quiet life with someone I love,” I replied.

He nodded thoughtfully.

Just when I thought he’d learned to read the room well enough to work on his own, he quit without warning too, and went to work for the Mafia!!!

While drinking with my former employer, I couldn’t help complaining that my junior had been talked into joining the Mafia. He enthusiastically offered to look into it, so I immediately gave him the name of the organization my junior had joined.

My former employer, one eye wrapped in bandages, perked up at once. “What a coincidence, that’s the organization I’m in. What’s your junior’s name, Ryota?”

“Funny coincidence. His name is Oda Sakunosuke. Dazai, do you know him?”

Maybe I imagined it, but I thought Dazai Osamu froze for a moment. He quickly changed the subject, though, so I didn’t think much of it. People come and go, after all. That’s just how it is.

Days passed. One perfectly ordinary afternoon, I finally saved up enough money to quit all three jobs, bought a train ticket, and prepared to move to the countryside. Then three people suddenly blocked my doorway.

“Ryota! You can’t leave Ranpo behind! The great Ranpo can support you now!”

“Senior Yukimura, I found a place and bought a little house by the sea. We can live together.”

I clutched my head, unable to understand how this had happened. Did I really look like someone who couldn’t support himself?

I looked at the bandage freak sprawled across my doorway and asked weakly, “What are you here for?”

He obediently took a small suitcase from behind his back and said shyly, “I quit my job. I want Ryota to support me.”

Theme: Everyone deserves to be loved.