Disclaimer: This novel is a work of fiction intended for entertainment only. It features an anti-hero protagonist in a stylized, fantasy setting.
Characters may behave irrationally, illogically, or downright stupidly at times—because that's how life (and plot progression) works. Please do not project real-world morals onto a story about a magical confetti cannon.
Thanks for the read. Please Continue.
***
"Uwah…" I groaned, stretching my arms high. Waking up this early has become totally habit. I can't even sleep in late like I did in high school anymore.
'Man, I miss those days.' Sleeping until 11 AM used to be my specialty. Setting that aside, I felt weirdly heavy today. And somewhat Sluggish.
"Must be sleep deprivation." I really wanted to stop doing unpaid overtime, but that bastard of a manager kept dumping his workload on me. Is it just because I'm the newbie?
'Does he think I'm blind? Like I don't notice him simping over the other new employees. Give me a break. Thanks to him, I barely have time to log in.
'The new DLC is coming out soon, too.' I still need to buy it. Hopefully, I won't be too dead inside to actually play it.
I headed to the bathroom to wash the sleep out of my eyes. Despite the annoyance, I felt weirdly fulfilled today.
"Ah… yeah! It's payday!" A grin spread across my face. 'My first paycheck. How could I forget?'
I turned the tap and splashed freezing water onto my face.
Splash.
SPLASH
As I looked up, dripping wet, I froze.
Splash, splash, splash.
I threw water on my face a few more times just to be sure. My jaw hit the floor as I stared into the mirror.
"Who is this fatty? What the heck?!"
I couldn't help but shout. Staring back at me wasn't me. It was a boy—a huge one, not in height but mostly in the stomach area.
But the weirdest part was that I felt like I'd seen him somewhere before.
He looked just as dumbfounded as I did. I snapped my jaw shut. The boy in the mirror did too.
"Wait… that stupid haircut and that puffed-up hamster face… where have I seen—?"
And then…
[Warning: Synchronization in progress.]
"What the…"
A headache smashed into my skull out of nowhere. It brought painful, jagged memories with it.
My knees gave out.
I fell headfirst toward the tap, barely dodging it, and for a few seconds, I felt like I was drowning in deep water before I slid down to the ground.
Thud.
…
An Eroge... This world was definitely based on
It's a total classic.
The flow is simple: you go through a long common route, raising flags with the heroines until you get locked into a specific girl's ending.
You can even aim for the Harem route, though the difficulty level is insane.
But let's be real—just romance is boring, and so is meaningless smut.
That's why this game was cool—it added Dungeons and Magic to the mix.
Since it is an Eroge, it comes with all the standard service packs.
You know the ones. The "Lucky Skebe"—tripping and accidentally grabbing a girl, or the classic walk-in-while-changing event.
Then there's "Mana Transfer," where you have to get intimate to "share life force." And the dreaded aphrodisiac events that leave the characters with "no choice."
It's full of that stuff. But it's not just a nukige focused on the lewd parts. It actually has a touching story and, best of all, some serious action.
I won't deny it. I came for the eroge stuff.
But I stayed because the dungeon crawling and action were actually top-tier.
I looked in the mirror. Yep, that's him alright. Kurogane Aoi.
He's not the MC.
He's not the best friend character who helps the MC get the girl.
He was an Extra—specifically, a punching bag designed to fill the "Ugly Bastard" archetype.
His original role in the trailer was to harass the female cast, trying to trap them in his schemes.
But he was a failure.
The heroines were always too strong for him, so he'd just get beaten up.
Eventually, the players got sick of him.
They hated the archetype and how useless he was. He had a massive mana pool but zero elemental affinity, meaning he couldn't cast a single spell.
Just a fat, powerless creep.
Totally useless. The devs realized nobody liked the trope, so they patched the story.
In the new version, he barely shows up.
He survives in the background until the very end, where he finally becomes useful... to the villains.
He ends up as a living battery powering the Final Boss.
The Main Character's job? Kill the battery to weaken the boss.
That is the sum of his life. And now, staring at this face, wondering what kind of bad karma landed me in this body.
++++
A/N: Thanks, I guess. I'm skipping a lot of Generic Stuff, the usual trauma, and mental breakdown, MC's Past. I might reveal them in future or never, dunno it depends on my mood. Anyways IMMA make a lot of mistakes in storytelling but please guide me.
Thanks for the read.