Marvel: Emotion Farming System

John had chosen to drop Your Name into the Marvel world to complete his mission. And he was determined to make these unsuspecting readers go through the same anxiety he went through.

“Huhu, this’ll be fun.”

Leaving his misplaced enthusiasm aside, John now had to translate the visually pleasing scenes on a page. He had no skills for drawing, so that was out of the question. Words were his only weapon.

If he spent too much time on the details of the surroundings, it would kill the flow and become a word soup. There were disadvantages in converting a movie into a novel, but that was standard stuff.

And since there were disadvantages, advantages followed too.

Unlike in a movie where one would look at the scene from the camera’s perspective, a novel allowed the audience to look at the world through the character’s eyes. It allowed them to peek deep into the character’s state of mind.

That deep and personal connection was a huge advantage that movies didn’t have.

So, John made sure to lean into it.

The first chapter started in the future, the point where the adult Taki and Mitsuha live in Tokyo, both following their routine while pondering over the vague feeling in their hearts as they are looking for someone. He made it clear that two people took turns with their lines, completing each other’s statements with the use of bold and italics.

He didn’t change their names, nor the place where it was set. If he chose to Americanise the plot, it would leave quite a mess regarding the supernatural and traditional elements of the work.

Sure, it might increase the chances of the work being ignored, with the Japanese names and setting, but John believed that the readers connected with the stories, not the names.

The Japanese names might make readers hesitate at first, but the cream always rose to the top. The very fact that he knew of this movie, having seen it enough times to memorize the plot despite living halfway across the globe in a country where watching anime would get you bullied until COVID, was enough of an answer.

‘And if it doesn’t work well, I have other options.’ John could’ve started with them, but he chose Your Name because it held a special place in his heart.

It was the first work that got him into romance; he was never able to look at that genre the same way again.

And it also served as the perfect opportunity to test if Japanese works would survive from the get-go or he’d need to shelve them for a while.

By evening, he had written three chapters and uploaded them on a writing site that was this world’s equivalent of Fictionpress, Rivulta. From the moment he had hit upload, John sat at his seat till midnight, fidgeting nervously at each increase in the number as he refreshed the page every minute, only leaving for the bathroom when it became unbearable.

As the minute hand went past twelve and a new day started, John looked at the webpage with a twitching left eye.

After 7 hours, he had a whopping 70 views and 5 EP. Unlike his expectations, all types of works were being posted on this site. Star Wars fanfics, fantasy originals, Lord of the Rings spinoffs–it was a festival. It didn’t even take a minute before his post was pushed off the first page of recently uploaded, getting lost in the sea of obscurity.

He would’ve gone to a publishing house with a fantasy that would work, but he didn’t have enough time for the screening process and nowhere near enough money to get a ticket to Japan. Not that they’d readily accept a work written in English.

Online writing platforms were his only choice, and this was the biggest one he could find.

The only thing keeping him from full-on panic was a quiet comment left on chapter 3.

@nahagh–This is interesting, can’t wait for the next chapter!

Seemed like this reader was a veteran of the site and read many romances; seeing their enthusiasm took some of his anxiety. If his reactions and emotions counter, John would’ve gone past a 1000 EP by now.

“This isn’t gonna be easy.” Letting out a dead chuckle, he leaned back into the creaking chair.

Even though he knew that nothing as convenient as the post going viral on some forum would happen the moment he released the chapters. Still, a man could dream.

He was already in the world of Marvel, something he had only seen in fiction; what stopped another miracle like this?

‘Is this what they call copium? Taste’s wonderful.’ Letting out a tired sigh from the building tension, John decided to crash on the mess of a lumpy bed in his room.

The moment his head crashed on the cheap detergent-smelling pillow, worries he had been keeping at bay poured in.

Who owned this place? Did he have any family here? What would he do about the utility bills? Food? Rent? How was he supposed to survive?

‘Why couldn’t this fucking system give me access to the bank account from the start? Stirring up unnecessary drama like this is some NovelFire.’ The weight on his head increased as he rolled over, focusing on the stains that marred the ceiling for some much-needed focus.

He was probably in a world where he had no one, knew no one. Honestly, he had nothing to lose here.

“It’ll be okay.” He reassured himself, his hand gently patting his chest. “Tomorrow will be a great day.”

If the readers weren’t coming to him, he would find them.

With his resolve hardening into stone, John went back to the computer. Clacking away like he had a grudge against the keyboard.

***

By the time morning arrived, John had created a dozen burner accounts and posted about the novel in all active reader forums and blogs he could find.

Since he had started doing this after midnight, not a lot of people had seen his posts, but the EP had reached 15 somehow. When considering the 100 EP goal within 5 days, he had another 6-7 hours to get 5 more EP to fill the day’s quota.

John crashed on the bed with heavy eyelids, but before he could sleep, his phone rang. As he opened the tacky blue flip phone and answered, a heavy voice came from the other side.

It wasn’t a call from any editor that happened to see potential in what he posted; it was a professor from the university he attended. Seemed like he really had no relatives or guardians here, so the professor could only call him directly after he had skipped classes for three days.

John wondered how he got into a university, and not just any university; he had become a freshman at Empire State University. On scholarship too.

Looking at his bare-bones flat, not a book or pen in sight, no one would believe it. Even he didn’t believe it.

“Must be the almighty system.” Showing the system his gratefulness with a salute, he let out a sigh.

The system had given him a clean identity and even access to education, but the task had given him tunnel vision. He hadn’t even left the room yesterday and hadn’t bothered to look into his bag to find more information.

‘I don’t got any cash either.’ John placed his books and university ID into the bag, drinking instant coffee for breakfast after digging his pants for some crumpled notes.

The small fridge had some food; it would last him for a few days if he rationed carefully. But anything beyond that would give him a headache and an extreme case of hunger.

The University provided lunch; that was a silver lining at least.

The idea of microtransactions and crowdfunding for digital content hadn’t formed yet either, and he had no computer skills to create something like that himself.

‘The shop should have something like that, right?’ If the skill shop didn’t sell skills, he’ll take the damned thing to court!

Regardless, he might need to look for the big J. Still, he was more excited to reach the university.

It wasn’t anything innocent like excitement to learn, to hell with that. Empire State University was home to important figures in Marvel.

And the thing with important figures in such a plot was that they gave more points when interacted with.

‘If I can get even one of them to read, heh.’