The Story You Absolutely Need to Know to Survive

Tap, tap, tap.

Quick footsteps echoed.

The screen turned red.

Someone must have died.

The sound of blades slicing through the air and weapons clashing rang loudly.

Soon, the screen brightened again.

[○○!]

A character appeared on the screen.

He was smiling.

Thank goodness.

Looks like things worked out.

And yet even now my name still isn’t being recognized properly.

What a trash game of all trash games.

At the very least, shouldn’t the player’s name show up during the climax?

[It’s the exit.]

As I read the text, I clenched my fist.

I raised both arms high and mouthed silently—

Victory!

[We’re alive now.]

“Tell me about it.”

How many tries had it taken to finally get a happy ending?

“Fifty-three bad endings so far.”

This trash game should rename itself Landmine Finder.

One tiny mistake and—boom—landmine here, boom—landmine there.

What kind of landmines?

“Burned at the stake, hanged at the gallows, decapitated, taxidermied and put on display.”

And just because you survived didn’t mean it wasn’t a landmine.

“Limbs cut off and displayed while barely alive, or soul ripped out and trapped in a glass jar.”

And that’s not even counting when it wasn’t the enemy doing it.

[Here.]

The landmine on screen—no, the romanceable character—held out his hand.

One wrong sidestep and he’d turn into a mine that would drag my life—my life in the game, important!—into the gutter.

But this time, I had won.

“Hah.”

I took off my glasses and rubbed my tired eyes.

What a journey.

What does a trash game like this even matter?

“Damn hardcore gamer pride.”

The need to see things through once I start them—that was the problem.

Damn it, I shouldn’t have picked it up in the first place.

How did I even start this game anyway?

I don’t even remember.

But that wasn’t what mattered.

“Once I see the ending, I’m tossing this thing straight into recycling.”

Grinding my teeth, I selected the choice.

【Take his hand】

“…Huh?”

And then I saw it.

The 54th bad ending.

[It’s safe here, ○○.]

Beyond the exit was not the outside world—

But a sealed room.

Excuse me?

[We’ll stay here forever.]

What the hell?

[You don’t need sunlight, do you? Forever. Yes, you don’t need it. The blazing sun, the moonlight, the rain, the wind—they’re all worthless. What matters is survival. Survival alone. Here, it’s possible, ○○. So—]

“You son of a—!”

Pretending it’s a happy ending and then stabbing me in the back?

[Live here with me.]

“Why is it another confinement ending?!”

[Until the last day of the world.]

The smiling character’s face filled the screen.

The screen slowly faded to black.

Then another character appeared.

A familiar face.

An NPC who shows up after every bad ending to give “advice”—which is really just flipping the situation upside down.

[Hey there! Long time no see!]

A bright greeting.

If I could enter the screen, I would have grabbed him by the collar.

[Ah, you just swore, didn’t you? That’s harsh. I’m not the one who made the choice. Player, please don’t bully this poor administrator!]

Don’t pretend to be pitiful.

[So.]

The self-proclaimed “Administrator” poked at the air and flipped through something only he could see.

Ridiculous.

I can’t even see his face under that hood.

[This ending is… yes, this one. No. 3945858. Romance target: OZ. As a service, I’ll even tell you what happens afterward.]

Don’t need it.

[In this worldline, after OZ confined the player in the sealed room, the player never saw the outside world again. They lived happily until the day the world roughly collapsed.]

Happily? Who?

[OZ?]

What about me?

The Administrator shrugged dramatically.

My fingers twitched again.

[Want to hear what went wrong this time?]

I waved him off.

I’m tired.

Skip the interview.

A few lines of script flashed by.

[Anyway, what now? Restart immediately?]

“…Hah.”

I had thought, “This time for sure!”

Only to get smacked in the back of the head again.

“I’ll sleep and try again.”

My head still throbbed.

[Alright.]

The Administrator nodded, though I hadn’t selected anything.

[Then tomorrow.]

I exited the game indifferently.

[Maybe tomorrow you’ll fall in love with me?]

Even as the screen shut off, he spouted nonsense.

I ignored him.

He wasn’t even a romance target, and canonically he only lusted after non-humans—why was he flirting?

Not just with the player character, either.

Just before the screen went dark, the ending OST played and the ending number I’d seen appeared.

[NO.3945858. 54th Worldline

End]

I didn’t read the text beneath it.

[Prologue: The Story You Don’t Actually Need to Know to Survive]

Screeeech!

A car stopped abruptly with an awful sound.

The driver leaned out the window and shouted,

“Watch where you’re going!”

At me.

“You’re the one speeding in a school zone, why are you yelling at me?”

I muttered, but the car was already gone.

Of course, I wouldn’t have said that if it had still been there.

“Damn it. Hope your tire blows out. Hope all four wheels pop diagonally. Hope you step into a sewer wearing new shoes—”

Still grumbling, I picked up what I’d dropped.

The honk had startled me and I’d dropped the bag.

“Ah, damn.”

My mood worsened instantly.

“They’re all cracked.”

I stuffed the broken soft-boiled eggs back into the bag.

The sun beat down.

My already aching head throbbed worse.

“Shouldn’t have gamed so late.”

Regret came too late.

It usually does.

“If I really think about it, the biggest mistake was starting that trash game.”

〈WORLD WE CREATED〉

WWC for short.

The game I’d been playing.

I’ve always liked games.

My only rule: it has to be playable solo.

Not because I don’t have friends.

Anyway, as long as it wasn’t mandatory party play, I didn’t care about genre.

Once I started, I finished.

“I should’ve cared about genre.”

I should’ve at least searched it.

WWC was set in a world where modern civilization had collapsed.

Survivors formed new cities, but grotesque new creatures constantly attacked them.

Then one day, the “Selector” appeared.

Cloaked in a massive robe, holding a sword as tall as himself.

[Humans need a king to survive.]

He was called the Selector because he chose the “King” of humanity.

Candidates gathered from every city.

The player was one of them.

I thought it was some SRPG or TRPG where becoming king was the true ending.

“Honestly, who would think that’s a dating sim?”

But it was.

WWC was a romance game.

“Can you even call that romance?”

Fifty-four bad endings.

When I realized the genre twist, I was shocked.

But I’m a hardcore gamer.

You don’t quit halfway.

However—

It wasn’t even romance.

It was a psycho collection game.

The romance targets were all insane.

Just when you thought you’d succeeded in courting them, they’d snap and do something insane.

“Murder because they didn’t want others to know you. Taxidermy because you glanced at someone else. Kidnapping before you became king so the world wouldn’t take you.”

And countless variations of murder, mutilation, mind control, confinement.

“Did I cater to those bastards just to end up like that?”

It felt less like dating and more like becoming the greatest sycophant in history.

And all the romance targets were men.

There’s a term for that genre.

I don’t remember it.

“Today I’m getting a happy ending.”

I stood up, determined.

“At least one survival ending.”

Then—

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

A thunderous sound echoed repeatedly.

I froze.

Inappropriately, WWC’s prologue surfaced in my mind.

The blue sky distorted.

A blue screen filled the sky.

🙁

A problem has occurred in the current world. Restart required.

98% complete.

99%.

100%.

Restarting.

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

People screamed.

Restarting…

And thus, the world ended.

My vision went white.

I lost consciousness.