Chapter 1: The Long Black Straight Hair Turned Out to Be Mine

City of Grana, New Calendar 2021.

April 7th, a bright spring day.

National Explorers Academy—Building A, 3rd floor, men’s restroom.

“Too late! It’s way too late to just remember now after crossing over…”

Siloque washed his face and glared resentfully at his reflection in the mirror.

His black hair shimmered like silk, his face pure and innocent, and his moist, pitiful eyes shone with an obsidian hue, giving off a cold, abyssal silence.

But he was male.

Sorry, adorable and fragile as he looked, but he was definitely male!

“I am Siloque Dasvey.”

His memories fully awakened.

A flood of information surged in his mind as Siloque muttered and confirmed his own name.

To be precise, as this Siloque, he had completely recalled his past life, remembering who he was before.

I am still me.

Only now all knowledge and memories had returned to his mind.

“Except this character is a total loser.”

My god, his voice sounded so good.

It was hoarse yet androgynous, very pleasant to hear—delicate and soft.

Siloque was extremely familiar with this character.

It was one of the avatars he had played in his past life’s completed game.

A commoner, a simp, a girl-artist-insisting-he’s-a-boy, black long hair, childhood friend, Hideyoshi… all these tags, yet not the protagonist.

Just a background NPC and a tool used by the protagonist to look cool!

The game was called The Dungeon of Cass.

“But at least I’m not the protagonist…”

Because this game was an authentic Japanese modern fantasy NTR eroge!

In the first playthrough, the NTR plot was inevitable and unavoidable!

Only from the second playthrough onward was there a tiny chance to take the pure love route!

No matter how good your party, no matter how strong the characters, if it wasn’t a scripted loss, if you lost, you’d get NTR’d!

In short, it was the MMORPG system brought into a modern setting.

Concepts like Level, Debuff pulling aggro, death penalties—all these game terms were common knowledge in this world.

Most importantly, Level (Lv): the higher it was, the more you could do.

Dungeon fantasy creatures like dragons, demons, angels, elves—you could take them on if your Lv was high enough.

Too low?

Sorry, you’d just get wrecked.

“Slime battles JK” level stuff happened every day here.

In other words, this was a world very hostile to pure love warriors.

Wait, what does NTR have to do with Siloque?

In this modern world, if I just stay home and avoid everyone, wouldn’t NTR be impossible?

Heh, too late.

Because Siloque was the female lead’s childhood friend!

And also the female lead—Bried Taros’s—stalker!

His cute face was entirely thanks to the game’s artist sparing him from the usual otaku stereotype of a greasy, shabby loner.

After all, in the game world, everyone was good-looking; who would simp for a character whose art was ugly?

Actually, he played this game just for the exquisite, art-level CGs.

The first time he saw a masterpiece “serving” CG without using a walkthrough, this pure love warrior suffered a sleepless night.

“To be honest, the original Siloque in the main storyline was a disgusting stalker.”

According to the game description: “Collected Bried’s stockings as trophies; he’d rummage through her trash to polish the usable parts.”

He even got into school by following Bried’s lead…

Later in the story, when Siloque harassed Bried, the protagonist stopped him, leading to a duel, and Siloque was ultimately expelled… Outside the game, Siloque’s doujinshi were all heavy male-feminine content.

He was a disposable background NPC, like the female lead’s classmate, neighbor, acquaintance—nothing more.

“In other words, my actions can be very covert. That should be one of my few advantages?”

Finding advantages in disadvantage was Siloque’s optimistic instinct.

The original Siloque didn’t have even the protagonist’s screen time; he did nothing, and Bried and the protagonist happily loved each other, partying every night at the inn with heart icons above their heads.

Are you asking if he’s happy now?

Of course, he’s happy.

The in-game Siloque was Bried’s stalker, but the current him was not.

As a staunch pure love warrior, seeing two people in love together made Siloque cheer with both hands and feet!

The problem is—

“Remembering who I am now is just too late.”

He glanced at the LED clock in the mirror’s bottom right corner—9:21.

“Only 50 minutes left, how can this weak body beat that muscular blondie?!”

How he hated being so useless.

Knowing Bried’s impending fate but unable to do anything about it.

In 50 minutes,

The delinquents from Class C would come to Class F, pretending to pick teammates.

Though they said they were picking people, they actually just targeted the pretty girls.

The girl they would choose—Bried Taros.

If he couldn’t stop them, Bried would be taken away.

After that… the absolute humiliation scene that Siloque didn’t want to see would play out.

If he had woken up earlier, he would’ve kicked all those minotaur blonds and villainous bosses out ten years ago.

A sheer minotaur with thin veil, restoring the pure love glory was his solemn duty.

Pure love warriors never retreat!

The tragedy would arrive in less than an hour; he had to do something.

Just the CG alone had kept him awake all night; now it had become reality, just imagining the scene from the news would be a lifelong nightmare…

“Wait, who said this has to be the first playthrough?”

What if this was the second or third?

The first playthrough protagonist was that typical romantic comedy gentle male lead, a master who could fall right into the absolute territory.

But this was a strength-worshipping minotaur eroge.

Without power, you’re just a victim.

The first playthrough protagonist was too weak (thanks to the writer’s malice), unable to do anything or stop the tragedy.

From the second playthrough, it was different.

Options opened up, you could get resources early, prepare in advance, then deck yourself out and marry a rich and beautiful woman to reach life’s peak.

Eating through the first run without changing the world?

“No way.”

The game becoming reality—would it really let him restart a first playthrough loop?

Impossible to say.

Right now was the present.

No save files, no restarts.

He had to go pure love route.

Step one: survive this first incident.

Siloque was no match in combat; no background, no ancient power awakening, no mysterious beautiful girl’s radio waves received…

“The only thing left is, the power of capital.”

He pulled out his phone, tapped the Line app icon, checked the balance—

Three digits, none above five.

An apocalyptic start.

“Tch, a little tough.

My parents are just ordinary workers; living expenses are tight.

If only I had remembered earlier…!

This body is cute but useless!

Am I supposed to sell my ass?”

Siloque thought hard, looking for any way to avoid or survive the tragedy.

Thinking it over, who could help him?

After 20 playthroughs of game knowledge, there had to be some special methods…

“Beiren Gewina…”

A nostalgic name surfaced in his mind, and a faint smile curved his lips.

He stepped out of the men’s restroom, and a female staff member exited the women’s restroom, her expression surprised.

He already had a plan.

Although the money was little, it was worth a try. Not selling his ass.

Just then, he rounded the corner after the stairs.

“Wah!”

He collided with someone, and it was Siloque who stumbled backward first; the other person used her right hand to steady him before he fell.

“You okay?”

The girl held Siloque—like a romantic coincidence from a shoujo manga.

Ugh, not a shoujo manga!

Siloque gently pushed her away: “Thanks, I’m fine.”

“…Siloque?”

The girl was obviously more surprised than Siloque, then her face shifted through disgust, regret, nausea, embarrassment, and finally to an expressionless look as she said, “Why are you sneaking out during class meeting? Trying to skip and go back to sleep again?”

Bried Taros!

His childhood friend, the female lead’s official lover.

Her vivid orange hair was tied in a ponytail, her waist-length hair shining in the sunlight as if sprinkled with sugar.

Her sharp, angular features showed her strong will.

But what flashed through Siloque’s mind was a sealed dark memory—a muscular dark man struggling with Bried, a grinning brute massaging her muscles, putting a collar on her, Bried “serving” the crowd, too weak to resist…