Chapter 0
[I like you, Tetsuya.]
[Miyuki...]
[What do you think of me, Tetsuya?]
A beautiful woman looked up at the tall man with tear-filled eyes.
Her sanpaku eyes, with just a sliver of white visible beneath the irises, were incredibly alluring.
She looked at the man with bright brown eyes that seemed innocent yet somehow sensual.
As if urging him to hurry up and tell her what was in his heart.
Only after a long while did the red-faced man finally open his mouth.
[.... I'm sorry, Miyuki. I still don't really know how I feel...]
The moment I saw those words, I shot to my feet in front of the computer.
‘Is this asshole brain-dead?’
No, the world's most beautiful girl had confessed to him, and among all the heroines, Miyuki—his childhood friend—was the one he cared about most, so why the hell...
Even now, at the very end of the game, he kept wavering over his feelings. It was ridiculous.
I was practically desperate to climb inside the scenario writer's head and see what the hell was in there.
I let out a hollow laugh and clicked the mouse.
I did so, hoping the protagonist would say it was all a joke and that he had feelings for her too.
But,
[Thank you for playing Doki Doki Academy.]
The next screen had an utterly unexpected sentence splashed across it in huge letters, without even a generic background image.
Dumbfounded, I let out a shout before I knew it.
“What the fuck, you son of a bitch?”
What? It thanked me for playing? Didn't that mean it was over?
No, it hadn't ended by sweetly melting the player's heart,
but by making my blood boil before calling it quits?
What was going to happen to Miyuki, who'd confessed?
She'd go home clutching the pain of heartbreak and cry her eyes out for days on end.
What about the other heroines, Renka and Hiyori? Were they just going to abandon them?
This was a sweet romantic comedy.
Conflicts aside, it was the kind of genre where the protagonist and the main heroine ultimately ended up together.
So what the hell was this insane ending? Even the most frustrating rom-com wouldn't pull something like this...
Did they do this because they wanted to watch the player spit blood?
Was the writer some kind of psychopath?
Unless the writer had serious mental problems, there was no way anyone could have released the final DLC like this.
“Wasn't this guy a complete fucking lunatic?”
If the writer wanted to leave things open-ended, they could at least have kept Tetsuya's mouth shut.
If they'd done that, I could have let my imagination run wild in a positive direction, but this... all it does is leave me with negative thoughts.
Did they think I endured that bastard of a protagonist, even more frustrating than those in other dating sims, just to get this...
Though the game wasn't popular, its art style was right up my alley, and I liked the way it teased romance by walking a fine line, so I grew attached to it.
I even projected myself onto Tetsuya and immersed myself emotionally, spending day after day eagerly waiting for more DLC to come out.
I even bought a bromide for the first time in my life.
And this is how they stab me in the back? Don't they feel even a little sorry?
If they were going to put the heroines through tragedies like this, they might as well have turned it into an adult game and stuffed it full of fanservice scenes.
Then I could have given up on emotional investment and at least gotten myself off.
Still dumbfounded, I quit ‘Doki Doki Academy’, or ‘DokiAka’ for short, which I'd been playing until just moments earlier.
After that, I went to the website of the studio that had developed the game and wrote a lengthy critical post.
It was the first time in my life I'd ever expressed such intense anger or written a critical post.
That was how deeply I'd immersed myself in the game, and how furious I was at the studio and writer for wasting my time with that garbage ending.
I played romantic comedies to enjoy their sweetness, but this only left me feeling miserable.
I must have just played the worst piece-of-shit game in history.
By the time I finished everything and looked out the window, it was deep into the night.
I must have lost track of time while getting swept up in the release of the DLC containing the ending and immersing myself in every line and illustration.
Whoosh-!
I irritably yanked the blackout curtains shut and buried my head in my pillow.
‘Fuck.’
Playing this game had been the biggest regret of my life.
But what could I do? I never expected things to unfold like this.
‘Still, it was sweet...’
If only they'd given it a proper ending, it would've been a certified masterpiece... you fucking bastards...
Struggling to calm my racing heart, I looked at the three heroines' bromides hanging on the wall.
Miyuki, Renka, and Hiyori.
They really were incredibly beautiful heroines.
If only they hadn't fallen for an idiot like Tetsuya... they could have been happy...
It had been a game I'd loved for such a long time, yet one ending had turned it into a shitty game in an instant.
The sense of betrayal was overwhelming. Now I finally understood why this game had never been popular.
It was because the developers had no idea what they were doing.
I let out a deep, heartfelt sigh and tried to fall asleep.
I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep because I was so angry, but surprisingly, a wave of drowsiness was overtaking me.
I must have completely exhausted myself mentally by violently venting my emotions.
Yeah, this was for the best. I'd forget the shitty game as quickly as possible.
With that thought, I soon drifted off to sleep.
‘Miyuki... Renka... Hiyori... They're so pitiful...’
All the while, I desperately called out the names of the three heroines who were certain to meet such a tragic end.