Reverse Strategy

The more I drown in a sea of review books, the more ideas pop into my head.

How can this be?

Original blurb

You are a player.

You're trapped in a dating sim and can't get out.

You can only return to your own reality after reaching a 100% completion rate.

You chose the white-haired divine son you liked best, and spent years by his side in an old-fashioned, traditional mansion.

You failed.

You chose the frailest bandaged boy, reaching out to him time and time again amid a kaleidoscope of colored lights.

You failed.

You chose...

You failed.

So you decided, whatever, living in the game wasn't so bad.

*

POV shift

*

I'm trapped in some incomprehensible game.

Anyone would be unhappy, right?

And romance is just too difficult.

So it's perfectly normal that I can't win over that [NPC] with the [player] setting, who seems to care for you in every way but whose heart is set only on his own affection score, right?

"Being attracted to a virtual game character is absurd."

"But it's true."

"I've come 99% of the way toward him, but he won't feel even 1% of a spark."

"He doesn't love me... No, he doesn't even like me."

A thousand words came down to one sentence:

"Kirishima Eda, you have no heart!!!"

End of blurb

This is my first time writing a dating sim story.

The characters will definitely be OOC, but this nested setup is so delicious to imagine.

Eda is lovely too, my favorite kind of gloomy beauty.

As for all the toxic obsession and stuff, I'll try to tone it down...

I don't even know when I'll get around to writing it.

Sigh, time to go read.

2021.7.12

Theme: "I thought I was the player, but it turns out I'm the NPC, so I can't fall for an NPC, which means the actual players can't clear the game."