Episode 1 - I Became A Protagonist Of A Dating Sim (5)

Naoya jolted awake to the harsh, blaring sound of the alarm clock, his heart pounding from the sudden interruption. He reached out with a trembling arm, fumbling to silence the relentless beeping.

"Ugh... too fucking sleepy... I can't even fucking open my eyes..."

The words spilled from his lips with a mix of frustration and exhaustion. A jolt of realization surged through him. It felt eerily familiar, as if he had said them before. Was this déjà vu?

"Ah."

As he forced his eyes open, he saw it—hovering right in his line of sight. The sight before him seemed surreal.

"Yes... I did it..." he murmured to himself, his voice barely a whisper, as a profound sense of disbelief and relief washed over him.

This feature was standard in every dating sim: a way to track the progress with each heroine. But there was another crucial function. In these games, you could save your progress at any point, and if you made a mistake, you could rewind to that save point and try again. Without any save points in his current situation, Naoya had been sent back to the time when he first saw the Love Meter—or rather, when he first became the protagonist of a dating sim.

"What's the date?!"

He scrambled to check his phone, his fingers trembling. The date on the screen confirmed it: it was the exact day he had first realized he was inside a dating sim. Naoya's gaze shifted to his computer, and he saw something unsettling. The hole he had punched into the screen in a fit of frustration was now gone. It had been a vivid mark of his anger, but now the screen was pristine. This meant he had indeed returned to the starting point. He had come back from the future.

He bolted towards the door, his heart pounding with a mix of hope and desperation. He searched every corner of the apartment, his breath coming in shallow gasps. There was no sign of her anywhere. A wave of dread settled over him. What if he had the chance to redo everything, but the heroine would never come back? Just as that grim thought tightened its grip, a door creaked open.

"Oh, good morning, Naoya-kun~" came a drowsy, sing-song voice from the adjacent room. Hinako stepped out, her hair tousled and her clothes as rumpled as they had been on that day.

She was still wearing the same outfit she had on before—exactly as she had been.

Without a second thought, Naoya hurled himself toward Hinako, wrapping her in a tight, fervent embrace. His relief and joy surged through him, flooding him with the overwhelming sensation of having her back.

"N-Naoya-kun?!" Hinako blushed at his sudden, desperate embrace. "W-What's wrong?"

Her blush quickly shifted to concern as she noticed Naoya's shoulders trembling and his grip tightening around her.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

Naoya nodded, barely able to hold back his emotions. Hinako's expression softened into a gentle smile. She placed a reassuring hand on his back, rubbing it soothingly.

"There, there. You don't need to worry now, Naoya-kun... It's over. The nightmare is gone."

Naoya felt a profound sense of relief wash over him. Hinako's comforting presence made him believe, for the first time, that the nightmare was truly behind him.

***

Naoya stared intently at the shimmering Quest Panel floating in front of him, its glowing text flickering softly in the dim light of the bathroom.

---

✽Quest✽

✱Ask Hinako on a date

Reward:

﹡5 Hinako's affection points

﹡1 Attribute point 

﹡5 Gold Coins

Do you accept?

-Yes

-No

---

"So I guess I really did become one," he murmured, his gaze fixed on the panel. The warm bathwater swirled around him, the steam rising in delicate tendrils as he absently toyed with the bubbles. "The protagonist, I mean..."

It was deeply surreal to see these panels in real life, where they were only supposed to exist on a screen.

"Now that I think about it, if this really is like Love Odyssey, then I should have that feature too, right?" he mused aloud, his voice tinged with curiosity. "Why not try to open it with my mind?"

He concentrated, and with a mere thought, the panel sprang to life, its interface flickering into view effortlessly. It felt oddly familiar, as if it had always been a part of him.

"Oh... I guess this is another feature, huh?" he remarked, a mix of amazement and acceptance in his tone.

He stared at the attribute panel, the numbers glowing softly.

---

Attributes:

STR: 15

DEX: 28

CON: 30

INT: 41

WIS: 20

CHA: 8

---

"This looks like the typical side character stats..." he muttered with a hint of frustration, his eyes scanning the numbers. "If I want to actually make any progress in this game, I need to boost these attributes a lot, right?" He exhaled deeply, thinking aloud. "But to do that, I'll have to dive into Quests."

He had no idea where to start. The first time he tried a Quest, he failed miserably and ended up with a BAD END, which also caused Hinako, the girl he loved, to die. BAD ENDS happened for several reasons. Either you did something that messed up the route, made a mistake, or didn't follow the natural progression of the story. There was supposed to be a natural flow to the story that couldn't be slowed down or sped up.

If he had to guess why he ended up with a BAD END with Hinako, it was because he rushed things and went straight to her, leading to that disastrous scenario. Hinako must have gotten giddy at the fact that he asked her out, which distracted her and caused her not to notice the oncoming vehicle. That was a BAD END. He shouldn't have asked her out at that point in the story. It meant that pursuing Hinako first wasn't the right progression. He had to start somewhere else.

"Which means this story and the game it's pushing me into just led to Hinako-nee's death..." he said to himself. "I just need to play the game properly, right? Got it. I'll play."

He was determined not to make the same mistake as last time. This time, he was fully prepared to tackle this hell of a game called Love Odyssey.