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[INSTALLATION COMPLETE]
Grey exhaled, watching the final block fill in on his monitor. Three hours, he had waited for three goddamn hours of waiting for "Conquest of Hearts" to download while his friends kept on spamming his Discord about how "incredible" and "life-changing" this eroge was.
'It's just another dating sim with fantasy the paint,' he thought, double-clicking the icon.
The launcher opened to a sweeping orchestral theme. The title screen materialized displaying a sprawling fantasy landscape dotted with women who looked like they had never seen practical armor in their lives. A knight whose breastplate was very form-fitting. A mage whose robes defied physics. A shrine maiden dressed for everything except actual shrine work.
"Alright, let's see what the hype is about."
He clicked NEW GAME icon and the screen faded to black before transitioning into character creation. A featureless male template rotated in the center, bathed in soft blue light. Dozens of sliders and options lined the sides—height, build, hair, facial structure, voice type.
Grey had never been the type to spend hours making the perfect character so he just made quick adjustments: slightly above average height, dark hair, sharp enough features to be decent-looking without being a pretty boy.
[Name field: Grey]
"Real creative," he muttered to himself.
[SELECT CLASS]
Four options appeared with accompanying descriptions:
[WARRIOR] - Masters of physical combat and weaponry
[MAGE] - Wielders of arcane power and forbidden knowledge
[ROGUE] - Experts in stealth, deception, and critical strikes
[COMMONER] - No special abilities. Begin with nothing. (Hard Mode)
Grey's cursor hovered over Warrior, then paused.
"Commoner? Hard mode on a first playthrough?" He read the description again. 'Begin with nothing.'
His friends had said the game was challenging and something about meaningful choices and actual consequences. Maybe that's what made it different.
"Fuck it. Let's do hard mode."
He clicked COMMONER.
[ARE YOU SURE? THIS PATH OFFERS NO STARTING ADVANTAGES.]
"Yeah, I'm sure."
[COMMONER SELECTED]
STARTING LOCATION: OFERTON VILLAGE]
The screen went black, then a cinematic text appeared:
[In a world of magic and monsters, heroes rise to face impossible odds. Legends are born from humble beginnings. Your story starts now.]
[Welcome to conquest of hearts]
Grey yawned and checked the time. It was currently 11:47 PM. He would play for an hour or maybe two, then call it a night.
The screen brightened, revealing a first-person view of a small bedroom. It had ooden walls, a simple bed, a cracked mirror and sunlight streamed through a window.
"Okay, not bad graphics—"
A notification appeared:
[TUTORIAL BEGINNING. PRESS [SPACE] TO CONTINUE.]
Grey pressed space.
His character sat up in bed. The movement was smooth and seemed almost too realistic that even Grey was impressed. He tested the controls—WASD to move, mouse to look around. Everything was responsive working.
Another notification:
[OBJECTIVE: EXPLORE THE VILLAGE AND MEET THE LOCALS]
"The standard tutorial stuff." He stood, navigating his character toward the door.
Suddenly his vision blurred.
Grey blinked. The screen seemed... brighter? He rubbed his eyes. Maybe he had been staring at the monitor too long. He should probably—
His vision blurred again, harder this time making the room spin in his sight.
"What the—"
Then everything went black before he could complete his sentence.
---
[GREY'S BEDROOM - REAL WORLD]
His body slumped forward in his chair, head hitting the keyboard with a soft thunk. The monitor displayed his character standing in the tutorial room, perfectly still.
Then the screen glitched and seemed a bit static.
A single line of text appeared:
[TRANSFER COMPLETE]
---
[ERTON VILLAGE - FANTASY WORLD]
Grey's eyes snapped open.
He was staring at a wooden ceiling. Not his ceiling had a water stain shaped like Italy. This ceiling was made rough timber with hand-hewn beams crossed overhead.
'Did I pass out?'
He sat up.
Wrong. Everything looked wrong.
This wasn't his room. The bed beneath him was scratchy straw and cloth, not his memory foam mattress. The air smelled like wood smoke and dirt, not the usual combination of energy drinks and instant ramen. Sunlight poured through a window that definitely wasn't his blackout curtains.
"Okay. Okay, this is..." He looked down at his hands.
They weren't his hands.
These hands were younger and rougher. He touched his face but it had a different structure and different skin. He scrambled toward the cracked mirror mounted on the wall.
The reflection staring back at him was the character he had just created.
Grey. Dark hair. Sharp features. Younger than his real twenty-four years, maybe sixteen or seventeen.
"No. No, no, no—" He touched the mirror. The reflection mimicked him perfectly. "This is a dream. Just a really vivid dream. I fell asleep at my desk and—"
[DING]
A translucent blue screen materialized in front of his face.
---
[SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
Welcome, Grey.
You have been selected as a Player of the system in the world of Eralith.
[Objective: Survive. Grow Stronger. Conquer Hearts.]
---
Grey stumbled backward, passing his hand through the floating screen but It stayed fixed in his vision like it was following his gaze.
"What the fuck is this?!"
[SYSTEM TUTORIAL INITIATED]
As a Player, you possess abilities beyond normal inhabitants of this world. Your path to power is unique:
• Complete Quests to gain EXP and Skills
• Form Bonds with Heroines to unlock Special Abilities
• Each Heroine conquered grants permanent stat bonuses and unique traits
Current Level: 1
Current Skills: None
Current Heroines: 0
---
Grey read it twice. Then a third time.
"Heroines. Conquer hearts." He laughed, a slightly hysterical edge to it. "This is the eroge. I'm in the eroge."
[CORRECT]
"Oh god." He sat down hard on the bed. "I'm in a porn game."
[TECHNICALLY, AN ADULT FANTASY ROMANCE VISUAL NOVEL WITH—]
"I didn't ask for clarification!" Grey shouted at the floating screen.
[NEW QUEST AVAILABLE]
QUEST: TUTORIAL - Explore the Village
Reward: 50 EXP, Basic Sword
Failure: None
Grey stared at the quest notification. Then at his unfamiliar hands. Then at the door leading to a world that shouldn't exist.
"This can't be real. This is insane. I'm going insane."
[You are not insane. You have been transmigrated. Would you like tips on—]
"NO!" He took a deep breath. "No tips. Just... just give me a second."
He had two options: either he'd completely lost his mind, or this was actually happening. And if it was actually happening...
Grey looked at the quest again. [Explore the Village.]
"Fine. FINE." He stood up, legs shaky. "I'll play along. I'll go outside, I'll wake up in my real bed, and I'll never touch another eroge again."
He walked to the door, hand trembling as he reached for the handle.
He opened it.
Erton village sprawled before him—thatched roofs, dirt roads, people in medieval clothing going about their morning routines. The smell of baking bread mixed with livestock and morning dew.
"Oh," Grey whispered. "Oh, I am so screwed."
[QUEST STARTED: TUTORIAL - Explore the Village]