The man was engrossed in the monitor screen.
It was the only source of light in his dark room.
An image awash in flesh tones appeared on the screen.
“To have stayed up all night for this utterly worthless, garbage game.”
In the center of the image, stained with various shades of flesh, the word “END” was prominently displayed.
Its blue glow only served to irritate him further.
It was the man who had immediately splurged on it, simply based on the advertising blurb: “VR-supported open-world RPG adult game.”
And only after more than 958 hours of gameplay had he finally reached what he assumed was the proper ending.
“There’s no other choice. At this point, I’ll just have to call the game developers ‘Grandma’ and ‘Grandpa’ (TL Note: Derogatory terms used here to imply incompetence or outdated sensibilities on the part of the game developers) in my email.”
After all, the ending the man had anticipated featured not a full 3D VR eroscene, but merely a single, paltry drawing.
This was enough to ignite the fury simmering within his chest.
Naturally, the drawing not only fell far short of his expectations, but for some inexplicable reason, the character’s face was so distorted that it was utterly unrecognizable.
From his isolated room, he shouted at the monitor, his voice seething with rage.
“This is a K-Tactical Nuke (TL Note: A Korean internet slang term for a devastating, overwhelming attack or criticism, often used humorously)! Don’t mess with me!”
A distorted smile spread across his face, filled with exhilaration as he pressed the Enter key.
In his ugly desire to make others feel the same utter disgust he had experienced, there was even a hint of wretchedness.
‘Ding!’
“Huh, a reply within a second of sending? Is it a macro? These damn bastards?”
As if possessed, the man clicked on the reply to check its contents.
[Aaaargh! I will find you. I will find you and kill you. So, try to run away well from there. P.S. Congratulations on the first clear.]
Surprisingly, it did not appear to be a generic macro message that a typical game developer would send.
Instead, it was a meticulously crafted reply, imbued with a desperate pain and hatred, as if the sender had personally been hit by a tactical nuke.
However, there was one phrase the man simply could not comprehend.
“What on earth does this mean? ‘Try to run away well from there’? What am I supposed to do?”
“Huh? Is the monitor broken? Why is it suddenly flickering and acting up on its own? Wh-what?”
“Uwaaaaaaah!”
With a final, desperate scream, the man was sucked into the monitor.
****
In the hallway of a dormitory.
Two women were conversing with each other.
One was a cute girl, caught between the appearance of youth and maturity.
The other was a woman who exuded a strict yet elegant grace.
The girl spoke with a tearful expression.
“That’s just exactly how it happened, you see. It’s truly a story that cannot be told without tears. *Sob, sob*.”
“Miss Lily, that… that adult game? Story does not constitute a valid reason for your tardiness. I will be assigning you two demerit points.”
“Why!”
‘When I opened my eyes, I had become a super kawaii (TL Note: Japanese for ‘cute’) middle school girl. Hawawa.’
‘In front of me was a super kowaii (TL Note: Japanese for ‘scary’) dorm supervisor. Hawawawawa.’
However, the dormitory also housed both the girl’s natural enemy and her staunch supporter.
“Wait, has Lily returned to the dormitory already?”
A slender girl in a flamboyant dress suddenly appeared from somewhere and greeted Lily.
Lily stared at her, an expression of utter shock and alarm on her face.
“H-Heeek! Princess! Why are you coming out from there?!”
“Because I’ve been behind Lily since you left the dormitory. As a princess, shouldn’t I know what my retainers are up to?”
“I am not your retainer! That’s just the Princess’s unilateral assertion!”
Lily attempted a logical rebuttal, but unfortunately, it was an ineffective approach.
The girl, seemingly completely unharmed as if a ground-type attack had been used against a flying-type, replied quite naturally.
“Lily is my retainer. Therefore, everything from your fingertips to your toes belongs to me. I cannot even forgive a single strand of your hair falling to the floor.”
Lily frantically scanned her surroundings for an escape route, but there was nowhere to go.
The dorm supervisor, who had been observing cautiously, had vanished the moment the Princess appeared.
In other words, only the Princess and the girl remained in the vicinity.
‘If this world is an adult game, what would happen next?’
The girl immediately grasped the question that had flashed through her mind.
And she also realized that she was about to face “polar bear extinction crisis action (TL Note: A humorous, metaphorical term implying a dire, unavoidable situation, often involving a character being cornered or ‘eliminated’ in a playful or suggestive way).”
“Oh, no! No more global warming!”
“Lily. Come in here.”
‘->Run away’
[Lily successfully escaped!]
The girl, having escaped alone, muttered to herself.
“How did it come to this? I only wanted to create a yuri (TL Note: A Japanese genre focusing on romantic relationships between female characters) harem after being transmigrated (TL Note: Often abbreviated as ‘TS,’ referring to a character being gender-swapped and transported into a new world) into an adult game.”
At some point, the Princess had begun to obsess over her every aspect.
Initially, it was with minor gestures, such as inviting her to tea parties or lending her a handkerchief.
However, it gradually intensified, and she began to try and possess everything about her.
Of course, if it were simply a yandere (TL Note: A Japanese term for a character who is initially loving and caring, but whose affection turns into an obsessive, often violent, possessive devotion) situation, it would have been fine, but there was one crucial problem.
“If things continue like this, I won’t reach a happy ending!”
For the fate of this adult game world hinged on it.
She could not enjoy herself without worry.
