The protagonist's friend is always ridden with misfortune.
The so-called friend would repeat his eccentric behavior and be treated like trash by the heroines. Sometimes he will have to intervene with the protagonist's two-timing or even three-timing and play a role to restore their relationship.
Above all, there's one common setting for a friend character which is the biggest reason for said friend's misfortune, "He's not popular"
Why?
If the girl that the protagonist (Player) liked is stuck with the protagonist's friend what do you think would happen? The developer would be flooded with complaints and their sales will drop.
I would most likely smash the screen with my fist if a cute girl I liked was taken by some trash that appears from a corner of the screen (I actually wouldn't). If that happened, I would immediately go to the support page to ask for a refund and write a bad review on their review page while choking on my own tears.
Well, the me that is currently reflected in the mirror is a character that doesn't exist in the game. Others who would transport into said games would often be either the protagonist or the friend character who is unpopular as I explained above.
And yet, the face in front of me doesn't exist at all in the said game.
Japan's number 1 Eroge that topped the charts for several months consecutively, Magical x Experience (Magiero or MEE for short).
It is a so-called battle simulation game. The player will go to school and study or encounter an event, then they can dive into the dungeon and fight to strengthen their character and their comrades.
In the game you can craft weapons, armor, magic spells and magic tools, then you can equip them as your special equipment or open a store to sell them and aim to become the number one alchemist or blacksmith in the city.
Of course, this is an Eroge, so the romance element also exists. Rather, the romance itself is the main feature of said game.
In the everyday life part, the protagonist will encounter with beautiful heroines that are also ability-users which they will proceed to get closer to each other (Protagonist only btw) and you would be able to witness a lot of erotic events happening as if you have been blessed by a god (Protagonist only).
As a friend of the protagonist, they can only look at the protagonist as he is flirting with the heroines while half-cryingly biting his handkerchief. The so-called third-wheel. That's his role.
Well, the face I am looking at right now didn't exist in the game. Sure enough, the clothes and build did resemble a certain character, but it can't be…
This flimsy body, this hairstyle… Could it be?
Starting from this point, everything about this world was wrong. In the first place, this character I have been reincarnated as isn't even the protagonist's friend.
That's right, this character 'Hatsume Haruhiro' is just another mob character that appears in the background for one or two panels. Even the so-called friend of the protagonist appears almost every episode.
Hatsume Haruhiro is well, a weak character that no one likes to use. Even amongst the male characters that are weaker than females (Besides the protagonist), he is extremely weak.
Why are male characters weaker than females? Well, it's an Eroge, of course, you would want to use cute girls in your party right?
He's lucky to even be a recruitable character in the game. At first, he wouldn't be in your party, but you can recruit him in various ways.
Now, why would you do such a thing? Of course, it's to complete the game with one hundred percent completion.
Though he did manage to land himself as a student in the Amaterasu magical academy, where students with special abilities called ability-users attend in order to become stronger and conquer the dungeon.
Now let's leave the dungeon talk and the academy stuff for later. It's time to continue what I was saying before.
Hatsume Haruhiro is an ability-user, however, his ability is extremely simple and pathetically weak. The only reason that anyone (Player) actually used him was because of his abnormal amount of magic that is greater than even the Demon King himself.
To put it simply, rather than for his ability itself, Hatsume Haruhiro was used as a battery. When someone ran out of magic, he would transfer his own immense magic into their body and allow them to continue fighting.
However, this was only at the beginning to mid-game. Toward the end of the game when players want to maximize the heroine's performance, there are only a few people who would put him into their party.
In those extremely rare cases that they do use him, it would only be because they wanted to make the game more challenging.
To put it simply, he was useless for anything else. It wasn't explained why but, Hatsume Haruhiro couldn't use more than a fraction of his own magical energy.
Even if he could use it, his magic would always leak even if he just sat there and did nothing. Though the very next day, it would be replenished magically.
Not only that, even if you were to max his level, he would only have two skills being [Magic Transfer] and [Body Strengthening] magic.
While he had only two skills despite being at the level cap, other characters would have over ten of them.
Even I myself didn't use Hatsume after mid-game.
Now here lies the problem.
Hatsume Haruhiro was a character with an extremely average face. In fact, everything about him was average, from his height to his grades. The only thing that wasn't average about him was his thin body and his abnormally large quantity of magic.
The person in front of me is clearly Hatsume Haruhiro, however, the face that is being reflected in the mirror is clearly an ikemen's (Handsome guy).
Everything else was exactly the same as in the game. Of course, having [Body Strengthening] magic, he would try to become stronger by going on runs and working out, thus increasing his body mass.
One would think that having a handsome face is a good thing right? Wrong! This person Hatsume Haruhiro (Now me) even with this face is completely useless.
Besides a few naive girls that would meet him for the first time, other women would steer clear of him. Let me say this again, he is just a mob character. But now, he would just be a mob character with a good face.
Well now that I have become Hatsume Haruhiro, I could only do my best in order to change his destiny.
In the game, Hatsume Haruhiro's parents had just died. The reason wasn't explained to him, but his blood relatives on his mother's side were still alive. Though that's what he just learned when he had inherited the body.
Since Hatsume Haruhiro is a mob character, the company didn't bother giving him any setting besides that explained above.
Damn this scriptwriter.
In some games, one would be able to choose from Easy mode, Normal mode or Hard mode. Some even have higher tiers of such modes. Well, it seemed like Hatsume Haruhiro's (Mine) life started at Very-hard mode since the beginning.
No, it would be better to say that his life started at Extremely-hard or even Lunatic mode. At this point, the story of the game hadn't even started yet. Though, this is pretty much comparable to the protagonist's life (Except for the beauties)
There are still a few weeks left until Hatsume Haruhiro would move to the dorms at the Amaterasu academy.
Now let's go back to explaining the world of the game. Magiero very much resembled Japan but also wasn't Japan. Things like smartphones and anime existed here like they do in Japan.
Whoops, I forgot about one extremely important topic. Why was I here? Why did I become Hatsume Haruhiro?
It seems my memories from my previous life were gone, all except for my knowledge of the game. I wonder why?
Anyways, it was good at least that I have a good face, I could at least get married and not be lonely even if I'm not surrounded by beauty like the protagonist.
Suddenly, as I was thinking about such stuff, I heard the doorbell ring. It seemed like I had a visitor, I don't feel like moving from my room though.
I wonder who it is, since Haruhiro as I recall didn't have many acquaintances. Though that may be due to him being a mob character.
Just as I finished having those thoughts, I heard a 'pinpon' sound. As I stood up and sighed, I headed out my room and towards the entrance.
"Yes, who is...… !?"
The Hatsume house is not that large and I arrived at the entrance in no time.
When I opened the door and saw the visitor's face, I unintentionally leaked out a weird noise.
A woman is standing there and I know her name.
"Good day, It's good to see you again, Haruhiro-kun."
I swallowed my saliva, Her face is a face I have seen many times in the game, her voice is also one that I already heard countless times before.
"H..Headmaster."
The person who is currently at my doorstep is the headmaster of "Amaterasu Magic Academy", the stage of Magiero. Kurokawa Futaba is standing there with a smile on her face.