"Wait… are they seriously pulling an eat-and-run with this?"
A public announcement floated on the monitor.
[NOTICE: Service Termination & Refund Policy]
Regarding the development of 'Spring of Gran Ark Academy'...
Kim Doha, who had been staring blankly at the screen, couldn't hold back his rage and slammed his desk—a full-blown shotgun strike.
"You sons of bi—! Just watch me fund a game ever again!"
The desk shook violently from a blow as intense as the anger and disappointment Kim Doha felt, and the display cabinet next to it even made an ominous rattling sound.
However, in his agitated state, Kim Doha didn't seem to notice it at all.
"Huu, huu…."
Getting angry is only my loss.
With that mindset, Kim Doha tried to take deep breaths to regain his composure, but…
"Thinking about it again, I'm pissed, aren't I? They sold merchandise like crazy during the funding phase, and now they're halting development?"
The more he thought about it, the more disgraceful it was. It wasn't easy to calm down.
Huffing and puffing, Kim Doha glared at the monitor with eyes full of fury.
At the end of his gaze lay the refund notice for the Romance Fantasy Dating Sim, Spring of Gran Ark Academy. After dragging out the launch for three years, the result was a "dine-and-dash" scam.
"You damn bastards! If you were going to cancel it, you should have at least implemented my bias's route first!"
Implementation.
A term commonly used in the Japanese mobile gaming scene.
It refers to a character that exists in the lore or game files finally being released as a playable character or having their specific content added via a pickup event.
In other words, the heroine Kim Doha cherished most had the game development canceled before she even got a route.
Reading the developer's message, Kim Doha screamed as if wailing in mourning and slammed his desk once more.
Tiramisu ~Chocolat First Brew~ or Wishes Upon That Blue Night Sky.
Kim Doha, who loved such charming dating sim games, had discovered 'Gran Ark,' which was being developed via crowdfunding by a Korean team, and became an ardent fan.
It was a dating sim that even inspired him to become a web novel author.
In a genre like this, it had been a long time since he saw a game that smelled like a masterpiece, and on top of that, it was by a Korean developer?
How could he not support it?
The illustrations were excellent, the worldview and story were interesting, and the characters were charming.
It was a game that would entice any dating sim fan, and Kim Doha had backed it enough to have his name listed at the very top of the supporters' list, waiting for the official release.
But… contrary to those expectations, the development speed became filthily slow as time went on.
They said they would release it once it was finished, then suddenly flipped their stance to release it on the store as Early Access without much of a story, patching it up with trivial events for a year.
It took another year just to barely get the Common Route out.
It took yet another year for just a single individual Heroine Route to be implemented.
The world is wide, and there are still many dating sim fans.
Even if people say the genre is dead, that just means the remaining fans are thirstier than ever. As such, they achieved their funding goal by exceeding the target amount.
And yet, in three years, only one heroine route was implemented!
Meanwhile, under the guise of covering development costs, they diligently sold merchandise for heroines who didn't even have routes yet.
Was that all?
Before selling that merch, they would update the game with "some" (flirting) events as if an individual route was about to be added any moment to lure customers in…
"And in the end, they bounce like this?"
We're going to make this, we're going to make that. They published a roadmap just last month, but it was all lies.
It was just media play to placate the public sentiment as the noise of complaints grew louder.
All talk, then a dine-and-dash.
Developed with crowdfunding, serviced via Early Access, maximized merchandise sales.
And at the end of it, the ending is: "We can't make the game anymore due to lack of funds, tee-hee!"
"What color is your blood, you bastards!"
If one could let this slide without getting angry, they wouldn't be a human; they'd be a living saint.
It pissed him off even more because the game's polish was good, and the parts that were developed were genuinely fun.
Fuming, Kim Doha felt his fan spirit turn into hatred. He fell out of love completely and decided to request a refund for everything possible.
But,
"You can't refund the funding money?"
Strictly speaking, funding wasn't a "purchase," so refunds weren't possible.
Soaring rage.
Deep annoyance.
In the end, all he could do was get a refund for the game itself, which was taking down its sign after servicing in Early Access.
"Sons of bitches."
The game company might have had their own circumstances, but whatever the reason, Kim Doha was angry in proportion to how big his expectations had been.
The director wrote a long-winded excuse on social media, but he didn't even want to know.
If they had at least implemented his favorite heroine's route, this anger would have been less severe….
To think development stopped after only implementing the Childhood Friend heroine route—the one fans called the least appealing.
"If you were going to do this, you shouldn't have scammed us with the roadmap announcement! You shouldn't have sold my bias's goods!"
How happy had he been seeing the updated event before the merch sale?
The next route implementation is my favorite character!
He had rejoiced so much, but reality was just a cash-collection time for one last score.
'Shit… can't I sue them for this? If this isn't fraud, what the hell is?'
Anger boiled and bubbled inside him.
He logged into the community to commiserate with users who shared his feelings, trying to soothe his anger… but a problem arose.
[Community Forum: Gran Ark Leak] Anonymous User: I ripped the client and dug through the dummy data. It looks like the next heroine scheduled for route implementation was 'Pink'.
Contrary to his expectations, they had been developing the route for the heroine Kim Doha considered the second worst.
Noel Grace.
A Viscount's daughter. Because of her impressive pink hair, she was known among fans by the nicknames "Lewd Pink" or simply "Pink."
Her appearance was quite pretty… the problem was that her character was extremely polarizing.
If the Childhood Friend, the only character with a currently implemented route, was the "least charming," then 'Pink' was the character with the strongest "love-it-or-hate-it" factor.
It was due to her character design being too classic, too cliché pink-haired.
Pink is lewd.
Therefore, the one in charge of sex appeal.
Yet, on top of that, she was clumsy and a bit of an airhead.
A hodgepodge character.
Noel Grace, created by clumping together existing images of pink characters, often showed strange developments that made her status as a Viscount's daughter feel like a lie.
She would ruin her own image while having lewd delusions….
Some people might like that, but at least for Kim Doha, it wasn't good.
It was really, incredibly bad.
He would rather have the boring Childhood Friend character, who was too standard to be fun but at least tasted like familiar food, as the main heroine from the common route.
"A character like Pink was the candidate for the next implementation? That's truly absurd."
Kim Doha was simply dumbfounded by the fact that his favorite character, the Elf Professor—who had the best firepower in merchandise purchasing among fans—was pushed aside for the likes of Pink.
"You know what? It's good that you failed, you rotten bastards."
Flipping the bird toward the 'Gran Ark' developer beyond the monitor, Kim Doha stood in front of his display cabinet.
They say when a fan turns into an anti, they are truly terrifying. He intended to erase the record of the fact that he ever stan'd Gran Ark.
The moment he reached out to the display cabinet to dispose of every single piece of merchandise he had bought—
"Uh?"
There was an ominous sound. Did it love its owner too much?
The display cabinet requested a passionate hug from Kim Doha.
"Ack!"
Crushed instantly by the cabinet, Kim Doha collapsed to the floor, slamming his head hard.
'Ah, this is dangerous.'
Amidst the sensation of the back of his head becoming warm and wet, Kim Doha felt his vision fading into darkness.
His consciousness blurred as if swept away by an irresistible waterfall.
At that moment, there was something that caught Kim Doha's eye.
'Why… why Pink of all things….'
Coincidentally, it was the Noel Grace figure that had rolled onto the floor and was looking right at him.
Not his favorite character, not his second favorite, but why did the thing he saw right before dying have to be you?
Amidst that annoyance, Kim Doha's eyes closed.
That was the last memory of the South Korean web novel author, Kim Doha.
He thought he had died helplessly like that—no, he actually did die, but a second life was waiting for him.
"Sister."
A life not as him, but as her.
The new life as the precious jade-like daughter of the Grace Viscount family, Noel Grace.
The shock of being reborn as a character inside a dating sim, and a disliked character at that, happened a long time ago.
He had already finished adapting to living as the noble young lady Noel Grace, and to becoming a woman from a man.
Living like that for over ten years, you end up adapting whether you like it or not.
Currently, before leaving for the setting of the story—the Gran Ark Academy, the Empire's representative educational institution where every noble enrolls—she was busy receiving basic home education.
And as with all studying, the education provided in the Viscount's household was quite tedious and boring.
History, liberal arts, manners, arts, flower arrangement, dancing, etc., etc.
The various teachings befitting a noble sparked a brief interest at first, but now they were nothing but tiresome.
"Sister Noel!"
"You startled me."
Because of that, Noel, who was barely taking a break after enduring another boring class today, wanted to pretend not to notice the uninvited guest, but she failed.
Her younger sister, Noah Grace.
This year she turned 12. A 'Little Lady' who had just successfully debuted in society and was busily showing her face at parties and whatnot.
A homeb—no, different from her homebody sister in many ways.
A character who was only mentioned by name in the dating sim and never actually appeared.
In reality, that girl came looking for her sister Noel, clutching a book in her arms.
"What is it, Noah?"
As Noel spoke as if asking when she had ever ignored her, Noah made a pouty face.
"What were you thinking about so deeply that you could ignore your cute little sister?"
'I was looking back on my life, wondering how I, who used to greet the morning with a morning glory, ended up becoming the Pink I hated so much, piling up the virtues of a tiresome noble lady.'
Swallowing those words that rose to her throat, Noel forced a smile.
"Just, this and that. Maybe because admission to the Academy isn't far off, I'm having a lot of distracting thoughts."
"I see."
She asked, but her reaction was lukewarm.
In truth, that wasn't very important to Noah, so she glossed over her sister's answer and got straight to the point.
"Sister, this."
"Hm?"
Noah held out the book she was hugging.
Reflexively accepting the book, Noel examined the cover.
「The Promise of the Spring Breeze」
It was a romance novel with that kind of title.
"Read it to me."
Seeing her sister Noah speak confidently, as if declaring it, Noel made a face that said, 'Again?'
Her little sister Noah loved stories.
However, since she didn't actually like reading, she would often act like a baby to her close relatives like this and ask them to mimic a bard.
"Alright."
Noel, who happened to be in the mood to empty her head, accepted her sister's request even though it was bothersome.
In front of her sister, who had entered 'enjoyment mode' by lying on her stomach on the carpet and propping up her chin, Noel began the recitation.
"It was a story that happened in a spring when a warm wind blew…."
And as the recitation continued, emotions disappeared from Noel's voice, and she turned into a reading machine.
Sensing Noel's vibe, Noah tilted her head.
"Sister? Why do you have such a bored look on your face?"
Well… because it's actually boring.
"It just feels a bit below expectations."
Instead of being direct, Noel gave a vague excuse.
"Whaaat?"
It was the most popular and trendy romance novel these days.
Noah, who had managed to acquire it with difficulty, assumed her sister would naturally like it as much as she did.
But seeing Noel react like this, she made a face that said this makes no sense.
Still, it couldn't be helped.
It would have been nice if she could enjoy it as much as her sister, but,
'It's a snoozefest.'
Boring was boring.
If asked whether it was well-written or poorly written, to be blunt, it was well-written.
It was said to be hugely popular among noble young ladies these days, and it was certainly a love story where one could feel delicate descriptions, deep emotional expression, and careful attention to detail.
However,
'Ah, the plot is freaking boring. Zero plot twists. It lacks dopamine.'
To Noel, it was blander than watered-down alcohol.
It meant there was no killing blow.
Should she call it a novel like a neatly made Pyongyang Cold Noodle?
Just cold water.
Clearly a dish with depth that people who love it go crazy for, but people who dislike it wonder what flavor they are supposed to be eating.
Right now, this novel called 「The Promise of the Spring Breeze」 was exactly that kind of novel to Noel, who was tamed by stimulation.
"I admit it's a well-written novel but… if you ask me if it's fun, I don't know. There are no twists, no dramatic developments, it's just bland and flat."
"No way!"
Noah raised her voice as if asking what kind of nonsense that was.
Since her sister was criticizing a novel she was deeply moved by—no, was listening to—it seemed her young heart was quite upset.
Realizing she made a mistake at her sister's reaction, Noel tried to patch things up, but it was too late.
She was young.
Her young sister, who didn't even know what 'respecting preferences' meant, seemed unable to tolerate that her sister didn't praise the work she liked.
"That's because you didn't immerse yourself properly, Sister! The love between the two is so touching! And also—."
Noah, who was still young and lacked expressive power, wanted to shoot back something more at Noel, but she couldn't fully capture all her fan spirit.
The result was,
"Che! When you can't even write a story like this, Sister."
She ended up scratching 'Kim Doha's' pride while making such a childish remark.
"Hoh?"
She probably didn't intend it on purpose and just blabbered whatever came out of her mouth, but this was a remark that couldn't just be let in one ear and out the other.
At her sister's provocative remark, Noel felt the ego of web novel author Kim Doha, which had been dormant for a long time while steeped in the life of a noble lady, awakening.
The desire to have others like and recognize the work you like—it's not that she didn't understand it, but… she couldn't let this slide.
"Okay, okay, I get it. If our Noah says that much, this sister has no choice but to teach you."
「The Promise of the Spring Breeze」 or whatever. A thrilling, spicy, and intense romance novel that will make you forget such a bland novel in an instant.
She decided to show her sister the world of that stimulation.
In exchange, her sister's brain would become pickled in dopamine, unable to ever be satisfied with a plain novel like 「The Promise of the Spring Breeze」 again, but it couldn't be helped.
Even if she didn't mean it, she had to pay the price for scratching an author's pride head-on.
"Right, coincidentally, tomorrow's liberal arts class subject was Composition."
Noel smiled brightly at her sister.
"I'll prove to you definitively whether your sister can write or not."
Seeing her sister smiling brightly as if saying 'I was bored anyway, you messed with the wrong person,' Noah felt, even in her young mind, that something was going strangely awry.
But by the time she felt that, as always, it was already too late.
"Falling in love isn't a sin, you say? Wh-what on earth is this man talking about right now?!"
"E-Elise was… Rina's daughter?! Then the female lead and the male lead are actually siblings—?! Aaaah…."
It wasn't just her sister Noah.
A forbidden work that would completely destroy the brains of the innocent noble young ladies of the social circle had ended up being born.