After I Tore Up the Cards, the Game Characters Turned Dark

[Check out the author's column for a direct link to the currently ongoing The Figure Skating Prodigy System!] [Blurb] Red and Black Showdown is a newly released immersive RPG. Asuna got a spot in the closed beta. Her identity card made her an ordinary student at the police academy. Other players got cards for detectives or undercover agents. She was the only one with a student card. You couldn't change your identity card during the closed beta, so Asuna tearfully maxed out all her skills and, along the way, raised the affinity levels of several fellow students. She didn't understand why a faction-based game had character affinity meters, but Asuna dutifully maxed them out anyway. Mazda: She loves me so much, but I can handle beating up the superintendent general myself. Hagi: She loves me so much, but if you get carsick, you don't have to force yourself to learn to drive fast with me. Hiro: She loves me so much, she even rushed into a burning building to save me. Zero: She loves me so much, she even declared her love for me in public at the graduation ceremony... (blushing) But... why does every character whose affinity she maxes out end up getting killed off? To keep all the affinity she worked so hard to raise from going to waste, she had no choice but to keep grinding levels and save each of these max-affinity characters one by one. By the time she had finally saved everyone, the closed beta was over. Asuna: ... The open beta launched, and Asuna carefully chose an identity card for an undercover agent on the Black side. This card inherited all the skills she'd gained in the closed beta, though it came with a less-than-ideal frail-body debuff. But it was fine. Its strengths outweighed its weaknesses. Everyone knows the beautiful and powerful have to be tragic, too. Before Asuna could make a name for herself with her new identity card, she ran into the characters whose affinity she'd worked so hard to raise. As she watched familiar faces appear before her, all glaring at her, Asuna got a faint sense that something was wrong. Why were they looking at her so strangely... And why was the open beta set so much later in the timeline than the closed beta??? [Topic: What do you do when you turn a faction-based game into an otome game??] [Wow, I'd never even thought of playing the game this way] [Start over] [In a way, this is pretty impressive] [How did the OP manage to win them over? I tried to win over a handsome silver-haired man in black, but he shot me as soon as I showed up. Instant game over] [Don't even get me started. I don't have an affinity meter at all!] Kazami Yuya: I will protect the cutest little sister in the world. Even if it's my superior... you still can't!!!! [Important Content Notes] 1. No one gets killed off. The police academy group's death flags are all removed. 2. The female lead is Yuya's younger sister. She skipped grades to attend university and was in the same cohort as the police academy group. 3. Closed beta ending = deleting your card (faking your death) 4. All cases are fictional. Please don't confuse them with real-life events. 5. The cover is an authorized image purchased for use. [Spin-Off Coming Next] How Can a Nonhuman Secret Identity Save the Day with Science? Blurb: Sakurai Rin died. Sakurai Rin came back to life. Sakurai Rin died again. Sakurai Rin came back to life again. Don't misunderstand. It's all because of System missions. Sakurai Rin was an ordinary high school student. One day, he was suddenly bound to a savior app, which ordered him to use secret identities to save popular characters in a manga, or else the world would end. Who knew Sakurai Rin would accept this without the slightest hesitation? After all, the idea of a high school student becoming a savior is a cliché that's been used to death in novels and anime. His childhood friend was even called the Sherlock Holmes of the Heisei Era. Why would it be strange for him to become a savior? His first secret identity was a microwave. Before he could be surprised for long, he got disassembled into a pile of parts and GG'd. Sakurai Rin remembered the scene of the mop-haired little brat gutting him with a screwdriver and was too stunned to speak. But people on the forum were laughing their heads off, pointing at the mop-haired little brat and yelling, "Mommy loves you!" Sakurai Rin: Fine. If I can't beat them, I'll avoid them. Not one to give up, he tried a second secret identity, this time a fruit knife. Before he could react, its owner tried to plunge him into someone else's stomach. He panicked, snapped himself in half, and GG'd again. People on the forum: Waaaaah, the kitty angel's daddy. Good thing the knife broke! Sakurai Rin: Have you ever considered how the knife feels when you say that? The third, the fourth... A doorbell, a bandage, a phone, a remote control... Sakurai Rin tried all kinds of bizarre ways to die (his secret identities getting destroyed). At his most absurd, he found himself as a bomb with only three seconds left on the countdown. And the mop-haired police officer in front of him, supposedly someone's one true love, was the very brat who had dismantled several of his secret identities! Sakurai Rin: I'm falling apart. Secret identities are fine, and being a savior is fine, but couldn't I at least be a person? Also, can you make my secret identities last a little longer, please?! System: As you wish. When Sakurai Rin finally got his wish and took on a secret identity that was human, he found that being human was even worse. Because he found that his secret identity seemed to be... a criminal. Or rather, the boss of a group of criminals. Sakurai Rin had always been a law-abiding citizen. His hand trembled as he held a gun and looked at the underlings, all of whom had code names based on types of liquor. Meanwhile, the forum's comments were shrieking: [AAAAAA, a new liquor! The Black side finally has a real liquor, not watered-down stuff!] [Holy crap, this liquor looks seriously potent. It's explosive!] [GIN, your long-awaited teammate is finally here!!!!] [Huh? How does this liquor know Conan's real identity?!!! Oh no, he won't survive a single movie!] Sakurai Rin tried to negotiate with System: How about I just stop being human? System: I'm afraid not, sweetie. We have a world to save! Sakurai Rin: Tell me, how is a criminal supposed to save the world?! And what do you mean he's so potent he won't survive a single movie? Stop cursing him with death, dammit! After running into a series of popular characters he'd saved using his secret identities, including the mop-haired brat, the long-haired police officer, the kitty-eyed angel, and the dark-skinned waiter, Sakurai Rin finally understood. Damn, the manga world is my world? And that terrifying being known as the "little shinigami detective" is his dear childhood friend?! Sakurai Rin thought for a moment, then earnestly said to the dark-skinned waiter and the mop-haired police officer who had come to test him, "This might sound unbelievable, but I've watched you grow up." The mop-haired police officer: ? The blond waiter: ? Seeing that neither of them believed him, Sakurai Rin added, "Actually, I'm also the one who saved your lives." The two of them: ... Sakurai Rin: "Touched? No need to thank me. It was only right." After all, if he hadn't saved you, the world would have ended! [Police Academy Mini-Skit] Blondie with dark skin: (proudly) I'll let you in on a secret. I've had a guardian spirit protecting me since I was a kid. Cat eyes: (eyes wide) What? You too, Zero? Blondie with dark skin: ...? Hiro, do you have one too? Cat eyes: (complicated expression) ...Yeah, I do. The long-haired playboy draped an arm around the black-haired guy with the perm. Actually, Matsuda and I have one too! It's been following us around all this time! Blondie with dark skin & Cat eyes: (fall silent) The squad leader, just back from a date: Hey, what are you talking about? All four, in unison: Guardian spirits. The squad leader laughed cheerfully: (thumbs up) So you all know now. That's right, I did have a guardian spirit when I was a kid. The four of them: ...? This guardian spirit sure gets around!!! [Original Novel Coming Next] Starting Today, I'm the Interstellar Demon King Blurb: Yan Yunqing played a nation-building game. In his chuunibyou phase, he gathered a bunch of crazies from across the Interstellar worlds as his subjects and built a vast empire. Then he quit the game. The game kept sending him messages now and then, saying his subjects were turning the entire Interstellar world upside down looking for him, and that they hated their king for leaving without explanation and wanted to kill him. Fed up with it all, Yan Yunqing changed his phone number, and the whole world finally went quiet. That is, until one day, he transmigrated into the game and became an undocumented Interstellar resident. The good news was that the game interface came with him. The bad news was that apart from his personal status screen, every other screen was locked, and none of the items in his inventory could be used. Worst of all, the empire he'd once built had fallen apart. His vassals and subjects had splintered into separate factions and rebelled. He seemed to have become the Interstellar world's most wanted criminal, too. · To protect himself, Yan Yunqing successfully infiltrated the new student cohort at the Federal Military Academy. But no matter how good the game interface looked, it was still just an interface. He himself was a modern college student, useless at lifting or carrying anything. He came last in every test and was known throughout First Military Academy as a hopeless weakling. Until [Federal Military Academy Joint Exercises Livestream] Amid a chorus of boos, Yan Yunqing stepped into the arena. The game interface suddenly malfunctioned, and his long-hidden appearance gradually came into view. Comments: [Who is that??? Why is he so strong?!] [Holy crap, am I seeing things? Aren't those the Necromancer King and the Sea Demon King, whose names are already written in the history books? What are they doing here?!] [AAAAAA, the Archangel is here this year, too! Are they taking the joint exercises to the next level this year?] [Wait, why are they all heading toward that new student???] The young man, fighting the Zerg in the exercise, sensed something and turned his face aside. Bright red blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, his exquisite features turning faintly cold as he looked at the sand and dust kicking up before him. The next second, without warning, six pairs of pure white wings wrapped around him in layers, locking him in place. The Archangel lowered his eyes. A fierce storm seemed to be brewing in his pale golden gaze, and he spoke in a dangerous tone: "I am truly grateful for your return, my supreme king." Yan Yunqing felt a little flustered, but kept his composure and replied coolly, "It's been a long time." "My subjects." Theme: Do what you want and love whom you want, instead of becoming the choice everyone else thinks is right.