Something's Definitely Wrong with My Superhero Simulation Game

Yumia is an utterly ordinary office worker in New York.

His daily routine never changes: clock in at work, slack off at his desk, clock out, go home and work overtime, then sit in front of his computer with a burger and see what the superheroes have been up to today, before getting into heated arguments with the internet's most shameless trolls.

That is, until an app called Superhero Simulator mysteriously appeared on his phone.

Worried it might be a scam, Yumia managed to keep his eager fingers in check, until the scam app could no longer hold back and sent him an incredibly flashy promotional video.

After watching the video, Yumia stayed up all night using his cheap older sister's ID to open an account and transfer the money, then squeezed his eyes shut and steeled himself to tap the app.

It wasn't like he wanted to get scammed, but come on!! It said I could wear Iron Man's armor, drive the Batmobile, and transform into Superman without any pain!!

Yumia told himself righteously that it was better for him to suffer than for a friend to suffer, and that whether or not he'd been scammed, he would be the one to experience the pain first.

And sure enough, he could put on the armor, drive the Batmobile, and transform into Superman. But the direction the game's story took scared him half to death.

What kind of horrifying plot is this, where I wear a symbiote suit and beat up Captain America, who's secretly a Hydra infiltrator?! Forget the fact that I've never even heard of a symbiote suit. Calling Captain America a Hydra infiltrator is way too darkly comedic!!

Yumia looked at the next scene with despair in his heart, trembling as he asked the System whether he absolutely had to play this game.

['Batman' tilted his head, spat out a mouthful of blood, and looked calmly up at the Injustice Superman towering over him.

"Do you want to kiss me?"

He asked provocatively.]

After the System answered that he did not have to, Yumia nearly cried. He kowtowed to Batman eight hundred times in his heart, thinking, I didn't mean to find out your true identity or what exactly happened between you and Superman. But for the sake of your virtue, brother, please forgive me. Then he broke free of his chains, turned around, and punched the Injustice Superman.

"I haven't even been in a relationship yet, so even if you're Superman, don't you dare get any improper ideas about me!!"

Every night, he opened the game with a pounding heart, only to be tormented over and over by the superheroes he used to love most. He even nearly developed PTSD, feeling as though he'd been killed several times. At work, he didn't dare look up, afraid he'd see his beloved boss, Tony Stark, smiling coldly before the symbiote suit took him over and punched him in the face.

Until he finally cleared the game.

He let out a long breath, hurriedly bought a new phone, and prepared to turn over a new leaf and become a better person. He swore to heaven that he would never tell anyone about this experience. He even stopped browsing forums and picking fights online, and got ready to work diligently.

Then one day, he noticed that several zeros had suddenly appeared at the end of his account balance.

The mustachioed billionaire from New York knocked on his door, the black card in his hand gleaming with the light of money in the sunshine.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Found you, Yumia."

The superheroes all had an experience they could never speak of. They never told anyone about those dreams, where their souls were imprisoned in another world as they slept, watching themselves become abandoned by everyone and die miserable deaths.

Until another soul, full of youthful energy and even a little eccentric, suddenly appeared inside their bodies.

Perhaps he didn't know that another soul was struggling inside the body he'd taken over. He simply stubbornly and tenaciously searched for an ideal ending.

He entered their nightmares and searched for a way out amid the devastation.

His name was Yumia.

PPS:

1. These are my versions of the superheroes, and the plot is all made up. Any OOC behavior is on me.

2. Contains Superbat elements.

3. The pairing is Iron Man and Sweetheart. I'll add the rest if I think of anything.

4. The synopsis was screenshotted on June 14, 2024.

Theme: Cross the thorns of nightmares, and let love and hope entwine to create a beautiful dream.