Japanese Twitter user @Ayairo_Mariage was pretty shocked to receive this scary message out of the blue.

The worrying text message reads, ‘are you still living?’ followed by the word ‘die’ forty-one times.

Although most people would probably ignore such a message, or maybe even go to the police if they were particularly worried, @Ayairo_Mariage decided to try a different strategy.

He replied with some venting of his own.

‘Recently my superiors at work have been power harassing me so I pretty much do want to die.’

‘Power harassment’ is a well-documented problem in Japanese work culture. As Japan is a traditionally hierarchical society, it’s easy for people to use their status to bully those who work under them with no recourse. The stark confession must have elicited sympathy from the prankster who replied,

‘You don’t have to work like that, quit the company and find a new place.’

This abrupt change in attitude is pretty astonishing, so he carried the conversation on further.

The threatener turned life coach suggested,

‘Isn’t there some kind of career advice centre? You should discuss it with them’

‘I went to my shitty boss’ superior about it and he said he’ll see if I can change departments, so I’m just waiting on that.’

‘Just hang in a bit longer. You can do this…’

‘Thanks. I’ll try my best.’

After posting the exchange on Twitter, @Ayairo_Mariage concluded that this messenger was probably a really nice person after all.

Although it seems like the fastest redemption arc in history, some people may not find it so easy to forgive being told to die over forty times. But @Ayairo_Mariage managed to look past the tsundere outer layer and into the mysterious death-threatening messenger’s kind heart.