Being a Light Novel Protagonist Was Hard, and He Still Had to Comfort His Groupmates

Lin Xiao went to enormous lengths, even signing a series of "humiliating and unequal club treaties" (such as taking responsibility for the club's premium desserts for the next month), before barely preserving his life from Yukino's dinner knife.

By evening, Lin Xiao was utterly exhausted in both body and mind. He slumped on the sofa in his apartment, stared at the ceiling, and let out a long sigh.

"Being a light novel protagonist is hard..."

He rubbed his brow and summoned the Myriad Worlds Chat Group interface. The atmosphere in the chat remained exceptionally gloomy.

Kaguya's dimension-breaking remark that "you're all two-dimensional characters from manga and games" had been derailed by the topic of doujinshi, but the aftereffects were severe.

[The Boy Who Wants to Be a Hero]: "If everything was a predetermined script... then what was the meaning of being saved from that fire? Were the ideals I had upheld all this time merely some ridiculous setting a manga artist deliberately forced onto me in pursuit of dramatic conflict?"

[The Underdog Who Wants to Be Hokage]: "I don't really understand either... but were the deaths of my dad and mom, and old man Third's death, all just there for everyone to watch as entertainment? That's too cruel!"

[Dark Knight of Gotham]: "Even 'existence' itself being false is more despairing than Darkseid."

Seeing that all his groupmates were now questioning their lives, Lin Xiao helplessly shook his head.

As the group owner, if he could not piece their worldviews back together now, this group would probably turn into a "depression support group."

[He Is Simply God]: "All right, stop right there. You actually got so thoroughly fooled by a shut-in girl who spent all day playing games in her room?"

[He Is Simply God]: "What Kaguya said does contain some truth. In my world, there really are manga and film adaptations about all of you. But you have misunderstood the most fundamental causal logic."

[Dark Knight of Gotham]: "What do you mean?"

[He Is Simply God]: "You think manga came first, and then you came into existence? Completely wrong."

[He Is Simply God]: "In the endless sea of the multiverse, every world is a real, existing entity. When an extraordinarily intense fluctuation of fate occurs within a universe—epic joys and sorrows—those events generate immense 'fate information waves.'"

[He Is Simply God]: "And the dimension I inhabit, high-dimensional Earth, occasionally catches the ripples of those information waves, like a gigantic receiver."

[He Is Simply God]: "Those so-called creators did not 'create' you. They merely received information waves emitted by your universe through dreams or their subconscious, gained 'inspiration,' and then 'recorded' the stories that truly happened to you in manga form!"

[He Is Simply God]: "So, Bruce, your struggle was real. Shirou, your ideals belonged to you. Naruto, your parents' love was real too."

[He Is Simply God]: "Manga did not create you. Rather, your exceptionally dazzling souls and destinies crossed the dimensions of the universe and were perceived by others."

[The Underdog Who Wants to Be Hokage]: "So that's how it is!! I knew it! The ramen I eat tastes so good—how could it possibly be drawn! Big Brother Lin Xiao is amazing! He even knows the principles of the universe!"

[The Boy Who Wants to Be a Hero]: "Information crossing dimensions... So I am not a puppet being controlled. My ideals are truly my own will!"

[Dark Knight of Gotham]: "I have learned much! Such rigorous dimensional logic—the so-called high-dimensional observation is merely information leakage!"

[Dark Knight of Gotham]: "Lin Xiao, if the 'fate information waves' of our universe are passively emitted, does that mean there is an 'information leak vulnerability' at the dimensional level?"

[Dark Knight of Gotham]: "It seems that, besides guarding against Darkseid, my foremost task must be to begin researching the construction of a [Cosmic Anti-Information-Leak Shielding Network]!"

Seeing Batman's reply, Lin Xiao's mouth twitched wildly.

Good grief! He had just dragged him back from the brink of depression, and now the guy was going to build a firewall to block the "fourth wall"?!

Just as the mood in the group was improving and everyone was praising the greatness of their group owner, that internet-addicted princess who feared chaos would not reign jumped out again.

[The Shut-In Princess of Eientei]: "My, my, the group owner's explanation is truly flawless! I almost believed it~"

[The Shut-In Princess of Eientei]: "But then, how do you explain the doujinshi? Did Yukino really wear cat ears and a maid outfit in another world? Oh my, that would be so exciting..."

Kaguya had not even finished sending her message.

[Ding! Group member "The Shut-In Princess of Eientei" has been muted by the group owner for 24 hours!]

The Myriad Worlds Chat Group instantly became peaceful.

[He Is Simply God]: "Everyone, carry on chatting. I'll clean up this internet trash first. The world is finally at peace."

Sitting at the desk in her upscale apartment, Yukino Yukinoshita looked at the notification that Kaguya had been muted. An unusually relaxed curve appeared at the corner of her lips.

[Snow Queen of the Service Club]: "Well done. The group owner's authority should indeed be used on the cutting edge of stopping harmful information from spreading."

After hearing Lin Xiao's rigorous "information projection theory," Yukino's worldview, which had been destroyed by the "cat-eared maid doujinshi," was finally perfectly reconstructed.

"If all derivative works are merely 'inspiration processing' after the outside world receives information waves..."

Yukino silently consoled herself. That means those utterly obscene drawings were not things that truly happened in parallel universes. They were merely garbage that certain perverted artists from another world twisted and fabricated on their own using my name and appearance.

At that thought, the sense of shame that had plagued the Ice Queen for the entire afternoon finally vanished completely.

[The Boy Who Wants to Be a Hero]: "Agreed. This princess's personality really does need to calm down a little."

[Smile Under the Wisteria Flowers]: "Ara, Mr. Lin Xiao's methods for maintaining order in the group are truly decisive."

The group members expressed extremely high praise for this wave of "muting."

Meanwhile, inside Eientei in Gensokyo.

Kaguya Houraisan looked at the dialog box before her that displayed [You Have Been Muted], and angrily hugged a pillow as she rolled wildly around on the tatami!

"Damn group owner! You were the one who wanted to see Yukino's doujinshi!! And now you're silencing the witness!!! Let me out so I can chat in the group!!!"

Outside the paper door, Eirin Yagokoro passed by carrying a tray of hot tea. She quietly watched her princess cry and make a fuss on the floor like a spoiled child who had been denied a toy.

The Lunar Sage rubbed her temples with a terrible headache and let out a long, helpless sigh.

"It's over. Her Highness's internet addiction... looks like it's completely beyond saving."

At the same time, at the luxurious Sawamura Household villa.

Eriri, who had just returned from Akihabara, plunged headfirst into her exceptionally spacious bedroom. Hugging a huge life-sized body pillow, she excitedly rolled back and forth twice across her soft bed.

Although she had suffered an exceptionally brutal social death today, the thought that her childhood friend—the obnoxious chuuni who had vanished for ten years—not only had returned, but had truly become an exceptionally dazzling God, made her tsundere maiden's heart sweet as honey.

Knock, knock.

The door was gently knocked on. A graceful, elegant noblewoman in a traditional kimono, whose appearance resembled Eriri's by seventy or eighty percent, entered carrying some exquisite tea and snacks.

"Eriri, did something good happen when you went out today? Ever since you came through the door, that smile has not left your face." Sayuri Sawamura looked at her daughter with a smiling gaze full of appraisal.

"...Huh?! N-no, nothing!"

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Eriri abruptly sat up from the bed. Her fair cheeks instantly flushed crimson. She turned her head away with immense tsundere pride and loudly denied it, stubbornly refusing to admit anything.

"Nothing happened!... I-I just bought some out-of-print art supplies today. I'm only normally happy, that's all!"

Seeing her daughter's textbook attempt at covering something up, Sayuri Sawamura did not expose her. Instead, she smiled gently and reached out to stroke her soft golden twin tails.

"That's wonderful, Eriri." Sayuri sighed softly. "Mom hasn't seen you this genuinely happy in a very long time."

At her mother's words, Eriri's face became even redder. She could only bury half her head in the body pillow and play dead.

The moment Sayuri turned and left the bedroom, gently closing the door behind her.

The mistress of the Sawamura Household, who usually appeared so gentle and dignified, suddenly had an intense flame of gossip ignite in those azure eyes identical to her daughter's!

"Normally happy? Hehe."

A smile curled across Sayuri's lips. "It seems necessary to conduct a proper investigation at school."

"Who exactly plucked the fresh little cabbage of our Sawamura Household?"