The Basics

Return to the World! is a holiday-themed BL novella in 25 parts.

Basically, it’s a digital advent calendar!

After you subscribe to the newsletter, you’ll receive one chapter a day in your email inbox starting December 1st, 2024 and running until December 25th, 2024 (plus a few bonus chapters!)

It’s totally free, though you can send me a ko-fi if you happen to enjoy the story~

You might be wondering, ‘so what kind of story am I signing up to read, then?’

Genre: Comedy, BL (boy’s love)🌈

Rating: Mature (18+)

Tags: Fluff, entertainment industry, system, cold love-interest, dumb protagonist, HEA

Synopsis

On the 1st of December, spoiled rich kid Mikhail Li dies embarrassingly. To come back to life, he'll have to play a game of bingo with a man whose heart might be colder than winter itself. If he fails to win in 25 days, he’ll be deleted from the environment. Can the power of love help him return to the world?

System: 【INITIALIZING FLUFF… DOWNLOADING BL ROMANCE 1%—100%】

Mikhail: "I’m dead??? Who cares about the power of love!! Can we focus on the stakes, please? What the hell does 'deleted from the environment' even mean?!?!?"

System: 【WE’RE SORRY - ALL OF OUR OPERATORS ARE CURRENTLY ASSISTING OTHER CUSTOMERS… THERE ARE CURRENTLY (12,093,847,298,347) CALLERS AHEAD OF YOU - PLEASE HOLD—jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock~】

Mikhail: “…At least tell me I'm the top...”

(He's not.)

🎄🎅🎁

If you’d like a preview of the story, below is an excerpt of the chapter you’ll be receiving on Day One (December 1st)!

Chapter 1 - What do you mean I’m DEAD!?!?!!

December 1st. With temperatures dipping below freezing, winter had finally arrived in P— City. The roads leading to all major grocery stores were chock-full of drivers en route to stock up on toilet paper. Ever mindful of the hazards of black ice, cars carefully rolled forward. Luckily, adhering to all traffic laws in the name of public safety was something everyone could agree on— 

Honk! Honk! Beep! 

Everyone, that is, except the person now plowing his electric-yellow Verrari Convertible down the right shoulder lane, blowing through a stop light like a maniac.

From the view of the overhead traffic cams, the Verrari looked like a coked-up bumblebee weaving erratically between obstacles. Compared to the chaos of screeching and swerving happening outside, inside was much calmer. Mikhail, reclining into his heated seat, had just put his father on speaker.

“Mikhail, I want to say this to you,” came his father’s usual speech. “Next year, your nephew’s birthday—”

Hearing that word “nephew,” Mikhail spat out the cola he was chugging. “Ehh? Maiya has a kid? How come no one told me!”

“You were present for the delivery.”

The windshield was covered with a spray of cola; considering that Mikhail's vision was already being hindered by his over-the-top polarized sunglasses, he was hardly troubled. “You mean that time last March? I thought she was just getting her appendix out.” 

“Son, you… Ai, never mind. I’ll send you money. I hope you will stay out of trouble—”

“Ah, crap! Tunnel! Thanks, Dad~”

Mikhail jabbed the “end call” button. He hummed along to the energetic EDM tune blasting from his beloved car’s speakers. With one hand, he yanked the steering wheel, zipping from Portugal Street to Basil Street—heading the wrong way down a one-way—while, with his other hand, he checked his bank account.

Ding!

A few grand had just transferred to him. A gift for the holiday season!

Mikhail smiled. He didn’t care one lick about Christmas or the coming New Year or, for that matter, the cars directly ahead of him veering left and right to avoid a head-on collision. But he did have a special place in his heart for throwing cash at exclusive clubs in downtown P— City.

Club Lux in particular was one of Mikhail’s favorite haunts. The other boozed-up regulars there were happy to hang out with him all night long, provided he merely pick up their tab. A self-described “really cool guy” with a heart-stopping 188cm stature and a gym membership, it was no wonder everywhere he went, people wanted to be friends with him.

(So what if he was actually only 168cm! So what if he struggled lifting a jug of milk to top off his cereal in the mornings!)

Even if he was a good-for-nothing wastrel in the eyes of society, at least he had simple needs. As long as copious amounts of money kept pouring into his bank account, he would definitely live a long and happy life. 

Bwam bwam bwam bwam bwam-bwam-bwambwamwamwam…

The EDM tune was just winding up for “the drop,” when suddenly the station changed.

“—a holly jolly Christmas, it’s the best time of the year♪—”

Mikhail ripped off his sunglasses with one hand and bellowed, “What the fuck!”

No matter how many times he punched the Bluetooth button, the car refused to return to his phone’s playlist. The radio, which seemed to have been possessed by a ghost, bounced from one station to another, all blaring similarly grating Christmas tunes. One moment it was “Frosty the Snowman,” the next it was “Silver Bells.” Mikhail felt his displeasure rising, and his foot pressed the gas pedal harder. Even the damned volume button refused to shut off.

“—oh ho, the mistletoe, hung where you can see♪—”

Grinding his molars, Mikhail eyed the service sticker on the windshield, wondering when the last time he serviced his car was...

SCREEEEEEEEECH.

⌇ CRASH. ⌇

And that’s how it happened.

December 1st, 202X, the good-for-nothing wastrel Mikhail Li, only twenty-eight years old, unwittingly drove head-first into a telephone pole and died.

Want to find out what happens next?

Subscribe to receive new chapters starting December 1st! 🎄

Art credit: banner by misouppy, ornament by ohree, Mikhail chibi by quinii.