A few days later, in a room decorated with a girlish flair, Akechi Ryuki rested beside a girl who appeared to be around his age—four years old in this new body. She was undeniably cute, with striking blue hair, and she slept peacefully, clutching an adorable teddy bear tightly in her arms. The sight of her brought a small sense of calm to Ryuki, though his mind buzzed with confusion and disbelief about his situation.
Ryuki possessed some memories of this body, but they didn't come to him all at once. His mind seemed unable to process everything fully, so fragments of this life trickled in slowly over time. At first, he struggled to make sense of where he was or who he had become. But then, a sudden wave of realization hit him like a punch to the gut. He wasn't just in some random world—he was inside the universe of a video game he had played countless times before: Scumbag of Depressing Game.
This game wasn't your average cheerful adventure. It revolved around a cast of characters—five main heroines and three sub-heroines—each burdened with their own struggles and hardships. The story followed a simple premise: the protagonist, Takeru Yuta, was a kindhearted but dense young man whose choices shaped the fates of these girls. Players guided Takeru through a series of decisions, and those choices determined whether the story ended in happiness or tragedy.
If the player chose wisely, Takeru could secure a happy ending with one of the heroines. But a wrong move could spell doom—sometimes even death—for the girls he failed to save. The rules of the game were brutal and unforgiving. For example, if Takeru picked just one heroine to romance, the other four would meet grim fates, though the chosen girl would live happily with him. If he tried to pursue two heroines, the remaining three would die, and the two he selected would suffer a terrible betrayal, losing their virginity to someone other than Takeru. Worst of all, if he went after all five heroines, they'd survive but at a horrific cost: they'd fall into the hands of other men, with one losing her legs, another her hands, and all of them left mentally shattered. In that scenario, Takeru would eventually step in, save them, and bring justice to those responsible, but the damage would already be done.
The mastermind behind the heroines' suffering—the one who corrupted them, raped them, blackmailed them, killed them, or mutilated them—was none other than Takeru's best friend, Akechi Ryuki. And now, to his utter shock, Ryuki realized that *he* was that Akechi Ryuki. He hadn't just reincarnated into this world—he'd become its villain.
For a while, Ryuki sat in stunned silence, wrestling with the weight of this discovery. What was he supposed to do now? Should he follow the path of the original Akechi Ryuki and bring misery to the heroines, just as the game dictated? Should he turn his back on the story entirely and avoid them? Or should he take a different approach—claim the girls for himself and rewrite the script?
After mulling it over, Ryuki made up his mind. He decided to pursue four of the main heroines and all three sub-heroines, leaving one heroine for Takeru. His reasoning was practical and rooted in the game's lore. That one heroine—the first—was head-over-heels in love with Takeru from the very beginning, and Takeru returned her feelings early on. Their bond was unshakable, a cornerstone of the story. Ryuki saw no point in interfering with that. But the other four heroines and three sub-heroines? Their feelings for Takeru developed much later, and his attachment to them only solidified near the end. To Ryuki, that left them fair game.
And so, his plan took shape. He would secure the four heroines and three sub-heroines for himself. It wasn't just about changing the story—it was about what he wanted out of this second life. Ryuki had a clear goal: he wanted a harem. In this world, such a thing was possible, unlike the reality he'd left behind. Why wouldn't he seize the chance? The idea of multiple girls devoted to him fueled his determination. If the opportunity existed, he reasoned, any man would work hard to make it happen. He certainly intended to.