The glowing blue screen flickered, displaying the triumphant words: "CONGRATULATIONS! ALL ROUTES CLEARED! YOU ARE TRULY AVAMPIRE'S EMBRACE MASTER!" i stretched my back on my chair, "Nghgggg~~!" Now that felt good. Who would have thought? Me, Kenji, the guy who usually stuck to FPS and strategy games, had just sunk hundreds of hours into a vampire otome, unexpected right~~😌.
"Hah~this is the first and last romance game I'm playing, well even though it's done, hah~~ that was a roller coaster ride" I sigh in satisfaction.
It all started, as these things often do, with my sister, Hana. "Kenji, pleeeease! Just try it! Everyone's playing 'Vampire's Embrace'! It's a national sensation!" Hana was obsessed with the game, a saccharine-sweet romance where the heroine, Yukka, found herself entangled with five brooding, beautiful, and deeply disordered vampires in a mysterious mansion. Each vampire had a unique ailment – a compulsive liar, a melancholic artist, an insatiable glutton, a paranoid strategist, and a violent sadist – and each route involved Yukka charming and curing them through the power of love, and, of course, letting them suck her blood. *I just hope she won't end up with a boy with ailments*.
I'd scoffed at first. Cliches galore, yeah cringe , I'd thought. But Hana was persistent, and eventually, I played it. What started as a grudging playthrough turned into a binging obsession. The character development, the hidden lore, the sheer audacity of some of the plot twists… I found myself genuinely hooked. I completed the 'Easy' mode, then the 'Normal' mode, pouring over guides, perfecting dialogue choices, and unlocking every single CG. I became a VIP player, then, impossibly, the top 1 player nationwide.
That's when the email came. A personal invitation from the game's developer. "Mr. Kenji, as our most dedicated player❤️, we'd like to offer you an exclusive preview of our upcoming 'Hard Mode' update. This isn't just a difficulty bump; it's an entirely new perspective."
"Hmm....so I'm gonna be a game tester?", I thought for a while then smirk "hehehe~~~ Hanna's gonna be jealous of this" I happily accepted. The update downloaded, and I launched the game. While drinking my lemon juice.A new character portrait, shadowed and intense, appeared on the title screen alongside Yukka's cheerful face. The name below it sent a chill down my spine: Yuuki Sato.
"Damn~~ isn't he gonna die in the later story?... interesting~" I slightly tilted my head.
Yuuki. Yukka's older brother. The polar opposite of his sweet, naive sister. He is harsh, overprotective to the point of being tyrannical, and often made choices that seemed selfish or cruel. Fans of the game largely disliked him, seeing him as an obstacle to Yukka's happiness. But I knew the truth, a truth only revealed in fragments across every route: Yuuki wasn't a villain. He was a good brother who sacrificed everything. In every single ending, regardless of who Yukka ended up with amongst the vampires, Yuuki died. Always. A brutal, tragic, and often misunderstood death, usually at the hands of the encroaching 'Circus of the Sun Organization' that threatened the mansion. He died protecting Yukka, his actions misinterpreted, leaving him a villain in the eyes of the public and, sometimes, even his own sister.
I remembered starting the Hard Mode. The opening cutscene had begun, a familiar scene of Yukka and Yuuki preparing to move into the mansion… and then nothing. Just darkness.
"....ngh, ugh....I swear i didn't even stay up that late" I muttered in pain while massaging my scalp, "sssss....".
My head throbbed, a dull ache behind my eyes. The sunlight streaming through the ornate, gothic window was too bright, cutting sharp diagonals across a room I knew intimately, yet had never seen outside of a screen. Dark, heavy curtains, a four-poster bed draped in crimson velvet, an antique desk laden with scrolls and quills. "Huh? Where am I?" Looking in my surroundings, This wasn't my apartment, it is most definitely not, it's too fancy to be my room. Getting deja Vu. "Wait...I feel like I've seen this room....Ahh!!?". This was the west wing guest room of the Von Alucard Mansion.
It was Yuuki's room. Suddenly a tab appeared in front of me "whoa~~" amazed by the floating tab, this is similar to the manhwas I've read.
'Welcome to Vampire's Embrace (Hard Mode)'
(Main Quest)
'Save the female lead from the sickening leads, lead her to her happy ending'
"huh? Didn't she already had a happy ending with each male leads?"
'yes, but no'
"Yes, but no?"
'The endings you played and know is isn't the true ending of Vampire's Embrace, and the information you've obtained is not the entire truth, you have to complete three main quest of you fail one of them you die'
"And what are the three quests?"
'First quest is to protect the female lead '
"Mnh, got it"
'Second don't die'
".... Obviously "
'And three, defeat the Circus of the Sun Organization'
Hearing the third quest, made my blood cold "......heh....Great..."
'Great'
".....great!? Do you even know how powerful they are!? Even the vampire diari- I mean brothers and other organizations had trouble dealing with them, and your saying I alone have to defeat them!?"
'I didn't say you have to do it alone'
"....you- ugh~~ this sucks~~ I grumble looking up"
'.....'
Moment of silence...
My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic drumbeat against the sudden. "Oh...hell naw...." Out of all games I've played, this is the one they decided to throw me into!? It was a mixed feelings of dream come true and take me back. I carefully got out of bed, my limbs feeling gangly and unfamiliar.I stumbled to a polished mahogany dresser and stared at my reflection.
It wasn't me, the Kenji. My hair was darker, my eyes a sharper, more intense shade of green. My jawline was more defined, my expression already set in a subtle frown. It was Yuuki. The very pixelated character I had just started to play in the 'Hard Mode' update.
'Ding! Also you're playing as yuuki'
"..... Aren't you a bit too late?!" irritated of the system.
"Shit.....atleast this body and face is as handsome like mine,... but still🥲"
Panic, cold and visceral, seized me. This wasn't a dream. The air was thick with the scent of old wood and faint, metallic tang I instantly recognized from the game's descriptions as 'vampire musk.' my nose scrunched "mhn!....I should clean up this room thoroughly. The slight chill in the air, the way the light fell – it was all too real.
Moment of silence.
"Anggggnagha!!!" I screamed while biting my teeth.
"This can't be happening" I whispered, my voice, light, rough, a bit of softness, than my own. "This is happening." I went weak on my knees, having no choice but to accept. with my hands on my hair. "Hanna.....is this your revenge for teasing you🥹🥹"
I was inside 'Vampire's Embrace.' I was Yuuki. And Yuuki was slated to die. Soon. 'die soon ,soon, soon, die, die~~' the words echoed through my head.
The timeline flashed through my mind with sickening clarity. The arrival at the mansion, the initial encounters with the vampires, their endless bullying and blood-sucking. Yuuki's attempts to protect Yukka, often through clumsy, aggressive means that only pushed her closer to the very creatures he feared. And then, the inevitable climax, the appearance of the Darkness Tribe, and his death. In some routes, a heroic last stand. In others, a tragic misunderstanding leading to accidental sacrifice. But always, death. And always, the fans despising him for trying to control Yukka's destiny even as he saved her.
My chest lightened up bit, since I knew the routes inside out. I knew the vulnerabilities of each vampire, the triggers for their disorders, the best dialogue choices to raise affection points. But I wasn't playing on a screen anymore. This was real. My life, Yuuki's life, was on the line.
"Well, I'm fucked " 😃😀.
"!?" A soft knock echoed from the door. "Brother? Are you awake yet? Breakfast is ready!"
Yukka. Her voice, sweet and innocent, vibrated through the wood. She was here. Yuuki's little sister, the female lead, completely oblivious to the monstrous world she was about to step into, and the tragic fate awaiting her brother.
"Sigh~~ poor yukka😀🥲"
Hana, my sister in the real world, had pestered me into this game. Now, standing here, facing the very real threat of becoming a historical footnote, a villain on the path to a noble but misunderstood demise, "well he kinda got it comin for not acting right😑" I knew one thing with absolute certainty.
I wasn't dying. Not gonna, not ever.
What was I afraid of?, I, Kenji, the top 1 player of 'Vampire's Embrace,' had navigated every trap, exploited every mechanic, and uncovered every secret of this game. And now, as Yuuki, I was going to rewrite the 'Hard Mode' script. The Darkness Tribe wouldn't just take me out. The vampires wouldn't just bully my sister. This wasn't just a game anymore; it was survival. And I was going to survive, protecting Yukka, and perhaps, just perhaps, proving that Yuuki was never a villain, after all, I don't wanna di*.
A week later.
A high-pitched, cheerful voice chirped from behind me. "Yuuki! Are you ready? We need to go!"
Now, I was Yuuki Sato.
It had been a week since I woke up in this body, in this extravagant, gothic mansion that was eerily familiar from my countless hours staring at my laptop screen. The first few days were a blur of panic and denial, but the cold reality of this new existence quickly set in. Yukka – the actual Yukka, not the pixelated avatar – was even bubblier in person, a walking ray of sunshine that contrasted sharply with my new character's perpetual scowl.
The five male leads, the gorgeous, dysfunctional vampires with their equally gorgeous disorders, were all present and accounted for. There was the sadistic one who loved to toy with his prey, the yandere who wanted to keep Yukka locked away, the melancholic one who saw no purpose in his eternal life, the arrogant one who believed himself a god, and the childish one who was prone to violent tantrums. And true to the game, they all despised Yuuki.
They would sneer at me, dismiss me, give me withering glares whenever I dared to question their motives or Yukka's safety. They found my presence irritating, my protectiveness a nuisance. And I found myself, oddly enough, a little offended.
Because while I might not be a cynical recluse in real life, Yuuki and I did share a few similarities. A tendency towards bluntness. A low tolerance for bullshit. A quiet protectiveness over those I cared about, even if I expressed it poorly. Seeing their disdain for him felt like a personal insult to me.
Yukka, the naive, pure-hearted heroine, could change them with her boundless empathy and unwavering kindness. She could turn their cruelty into affection, their bloodlust into devotion. She could tame them with love.
But I wasn't Yukka. I was now Yuuki.The one who died. The one everyone hated.
A slow, dangerous smirk spread across my face as I looked out the window at the moonlit grounds of Crimson Manor. If Yukka could change them with love, then I, as Yuuki, would change them through sheer, fuck you force of will.
Whether they liked it or not, these damned vampires were about to learn what it meant to face the top 1 player. I wasn't just here to survive; I was here to rewrite the damn game. And this time, Yuuki wasn't dying as the villain. He was going to live as the one who finally put these dysfunctional, bloodsucking bastards in their place.
The slow, dangerous smirk tightened on my face. The moon outside cast long, skeletal shadows across the polished floor of my room. Yuuki. The character everyone rooted against, the guy whose death was practically a triumph for the fandom. But I wasn't just Yuuki anymore; I was Yuuki with a player's guide to their entire pathetic existence.
A week later.
"Yuuki! Are you ready? We need to go!" Yukka chirped again, her voice a little closer this time, accompanied by the light patter of her quick footsteps. She was probably right outside the door, practically bouncing with impatience.
"I'm coming, Coming" I called back, my voice, Yuuki's voice, a deeper, more resonant baritone than my own had been. It still felt strange, like wearing someone else's well-worn coat. I ran a hand through the perpetually messy brown hair, feeling the unfamiliar texture, before turning away from the window. My reflection in the mirror was still Yuuki, sharp-boned and perpetually annoyed, "now that's a resting bitch face" but there was a new gleam in those eyes now. Not annoyance, but confidence.
When I opened the door, Yukka was indeed there, a vision in delicate lace and ruffles, her bright blonde hair bouncing with her enthusiasm. She was the picture of an otome game heroine come to life, utterly guileless and radiating ear
nest goodwill. It was almost painful to look at, knowing what dangers lurked around her.
"Sigh~ my advance condolences. Wait that is supposed to be mine?"
"Brother? "