Dating Tomie

Seeking Pre-Readers for Today, I’m Still Trying to Survive in the New World I’m an ordinary high school student who had just taken the college entrance exam. The night after the exam, I stayed up late on my phone reading Junji Ito’s manga about Tomie. The next day, I discovered that I had transmigrated into Tomie. To make matters worse, this girl had gotten involved with a local rich heir. She had demanded a huge sum of money from him and humiliated him by saying he wasn’t good enough for her. Now, after humiliating him, she was on her way to a bar. The rich heir had already bought the bar. My first thought was to run, but I still got caught. After countless hardships, I finally escaped the rich heir, who was both a monster and absurdly controlling. After fighting him, I ended up in the hospital. The nurse told me I needed to choose an adoptive family. The rules of this world required anyone under twenty-two with no parents to be adopted. After going through round after round of screening, I chose a foreign couple. Compared with the many fanatical adoptive families, they were relatively normal. They seemed to know that my constitution was unusual. They hired private tutors to teach me all kinds of things about this world, and personally taught me various self-defense techniques. Only one god remained in this world. With the help of the authorities, this god established a religious academy to recruit people with relevant talents from around the world and eliminate the monsters left over from the old world. I was one of those recruited. * To understand this world better, I joined the religious academy. Every student in my class, just like me, was a monster. On the first day of school, I noticed the boy sitting in the most conspicuous seat in the front row. He looked exactly like me, even down to the beauty mark beneath his eye. He watched me with interest, without any hint of malice. “My name is Tomie,” I said. The other students all drew in a sharp breath, as if the name were forbidden. “What a coincidence. My name is Tomie, too.” The stunningly beautiful person looked at me, his mesmerizing eyes fixed on me as he said, “To tell us apart, can I call you Jiangjiang?” I didn’t care what people called me, so I nodded. * I thought he and I wouldn’t have much to do with each other, until the teacher assigned him as my partner for every task. When I asked Tomie about it, he smiled and explained, “Because I’m so popular, my classmates would fight each other to take my partner’s place. To keep that from happening, no one will team up with me. It’s an unspoken rule.” I knew firsthand how attractive Tomie was, so his explanation made sense. “Then why can I?” I asked, confused. “Because you’re Jiangjiang,” Tomie said earnestly. “You’re the same as me.” I understood what he meant: we were both monsters. Tomie had protected me many times, so I thought he would never hurt me. Then, during one class, a Tomie in our class suddenly shot at me. My instinct for danger let me dodge the bullet in time, and he immediately attacked me. No one dared rush in to help. It was easy to lose your mind under the spell of two Tomies. In the end, another Tomie appeared in the classroom and stopped him. He looked at me pitifully. “Jiangjiang, you’re so weak. I left you alone for just a little while, and you nearly died.” “What’s going on?” Every Tomie I’d met so far had been friendly to me, except this one. “Jiangjiang, even though I like you very much, there are always impostors who refuse to face their true feelings,” Tomie said helplessly. “What a coward.” “What? You like me?” I hadn’t heard anything else he said. “Of course. You’re the one I like most.” The beautiful boy smiled at me, his smile like that of a seductive demon. “I’ve liked you from the very beginning.” Finally, he added, “Jiangjiang, I’m yours.” (Updates before midnight every day. If there’s no update, there isn’t one.) 1. A touch of Lovecraftian horror. 2. A volatile, love-struck male lead × a timid, teary-eyed female lead who immediately gives in. 3. The male lead has multiple split-off versions; there is only one female lead. 4. First-person narration, with a female lead who grows over time. 5. Every male supporting character is messed up. Please don’t sympathize with them. They’re nonhuman, and the male supporting characters are all pretty bizarre. If that’s not your thing, feel free to skip this. 6. The writing and plot are very amateurish. If you’re okay with that, come on in. Theme: Distinguish reality from fiction, and stay away from people with warped values.