Chapter 1: Sinner.
My life wasn’t particularly tragic, but it wasn’t a good one either.
At twenty-four years old, I had somehow managed to end up in a situation where every day felt exactly the same. The degree I spent years earning was practically useless, my savings were disappearing faster than I could replace them, and every job application I sent seemed to vanish into a black hole. At some point, I stopped expecting replies. Checking my email became less about hope and more about habit.
The apartment I lived in reflected my situation perfectly.
Empty noodle cups occupied half of my desk. Dirty dishes were piled in the sink. A mountain of laundry sat on a chair that had long ago stopped serving its intended purpose. Looking around, it was difficult to believe that a functioning adult lived here.
A few years ago, I had plans.
Everyone does.
I thought I would graduate, get a stable job, save some money, and eventually build a decent life for myself. Instead, reality hit me with a series of disappointments until my ambitions slowly shrank into something much smaller.
These days, my biggest accomplishment was clearing difficult video games.
Pathetic.
But it was what I had.
Gaming was the only thing that allowed me to forget reality for a few hours. Inside a game, there were objectives, rewards, and a clear path forward. Real life didn’t offer any of those things.
That was how I discovered Sinners Academy.
The game had exploded in popularity over the last year. It was impossible to avoid. Advertisements appeared everywhere, social media was filled with fan discussions, and every gaming forum seemed obsessed with it.
At first glance, it looked like a typical adult eroge.
A prestigious academy.
Beautiful heroines.
Romantic routes.
Drama.
Secrets.
The promotional artwork heavily focused on the heroines, each designed to attract a different audience. Some were elegant, some playful, some mysterious, and some intimidating. Combined with the academy setting and countless romance routes, it looked exactly like the kind of wish-fulfillment game that dominated the genre.
That image was complete bullshit.
The deeper you progressed into the story, the more obvious it became that something was seriously wrong with the academy.
The students were obsessed with things they shouldn’t be obsessed with.
Relationships became toxic.
Secrets ruined lives.
Friendships collapsed.
People betrayed each other.
And in many routes, somebody ended up dead.
Players often joked that Sinners Academy wasn’t actually an eroge.
It was a psychological horror game pretending to be one.
After finishing every route, I completely agreed.
The game’s biggest challenge was Nightmare Mode.
Unlike normal gameplay, Nightmare Mode changed events, hid information, and punished mistakes much more severely. Routes became unpredictable. Characters acted differently. One wrong decision could destroy hours of progress.
Most players never finished it.
I was stupid enough to try.
Several weeks later, after more failed attempts than I cared to remember, I finally completed the hardest route in the entire game.
The ending cutscene began playing.
A familiar melody filled the room as the credits slowly rolled across the screen.
I leaned back in my chair and released a long sigh.
"Finally."
My eyes burned from exhaustion.
The clock displayed 3:07 AM.
I should have been asleep hours ago.
Instead, I had spent the entire night trying to clear a difficulty mode that existed solely to make players suffer.
A notification suddenly appeared.
______
[NIGHTMARE MODE CLEARED]
Thank you for playing Sinners Academy.
Please leave your feedback.
★★★★★
______
I selected four stars.
The game was amazing.
It was also responsible for at least fifty percent of my current stress.
Another window appeared.
______
What did you enjoy most about the game?
[•_______•]
______
"The story."
I typed the answer and pressed enter.
The screen loaded for several seconds.
Then a new message appeared.
______
SPECIAL UNLOCK DETECTED
Would you like to start Hell Mode?
[▶ Yes] [▷ No]
______
I frowned.
"Hell Mode?"
I had never heard of it before.
There were no announcements.
No trailers.
No forum posts.
Nothing.
As far as I knew, Nightmare Mode was supposed to be the highest difficulty available.
The entire thing felt suspicious.
Naturally, I selected yes.
Curiosity had always been one of my worst qualities.
The moment I clicked the button, the screen turned black.
A few seconds passed.
Then white text appeared.
______
[HELL MODE INITIALIZING...]
[WARNING]
[SURVIVAL IS NOT GUARANTEED]
______
"What kind of warning is that?"
The message disappeared.
A final line appeared.
______
[THANK YOU FOR YOUR PARTICIPATION]
______
The room suddenly spun.
A sharp pain exploded behind my eyes.
My vision blurred.
The monitor.
The desk.
The apartment.
Everything slowly faded away.
I tried to stand, but my legs gave out before I could fully rise from my chair.
"What the hell—"
Darkness swallowed everything.
The next thing I knew, I was lying on a cold floor.
For several seconds, I simply stared upward.
A white ceiling.
Fluorescent lights.
Not my apartment.
Not my room.
Not anywhere I recognized.
Slowly, I sat up.
Rows of desks filled the room. Large windows overlooked a beautiful campus. Sunlight illuminated the classroom, creating a scene that should have felt peaceful.
Instead, it made me nervous.
A sudden headache nearly knocked me back onto the floor.
Memories flooded my mind.
Names.
Faces.
Places.
Experiences.
Years of memories that didn’t belong to me crashed into my consciousness all at once.
I grabbed the nearest desk and waited for the pain to pass.
Several minutes later, it finally subsided.
I remained completely still.
"No way."
A terrible realization was beginning to form.
I knew this classroom.
Slowly, I walked toward the nearest window.
The reflection staring back at me wasn’t mine.
Silver hair.
Blue eyes.
Pale skin.
Delicate features.
The appearance of that reflection alone would make most people jealous.
I recognized him immediately.
Adrian Cross.
A side character from Sinners Academy.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t an important side character.
He wasn’t rich.
He wasn’t powerful.
He wasn’t exactly anything special.
He existed primarily to suffer.
The more memories I sorted through, the worse the situation became.
Adrian attended Sinners Academy.
One of only six male students in the entire school.
He was a constant target for bullying.
In short he was a character that existed to suffer.
Then I remembered the most important detail.
My stomach dropped.
Adrian had died on every single route.
Sometimes he was framed.
Sometimes he disappeared.
Sometimes he became collateral damage.
The circumstances changed.
But the outcome didn’t.
A character with one hundred percent mortality, that was Adrian
Out of every character in the game, I had somehow become the one with the worst possible survival rate.
I stared at my reflection and laughed.
Not because anything was funny.
Because I knew that i fucked up.
Before I could continue questioning my terrible luck, a translucent window appeared in front of me.
______
Host: Adrian Cross
Story Position: Prologue
Known Routes: 0 / ???
Known Sins: 0 / ???
Survival Probability: 0.4%
______
I blinked.
Then blinked again.
The number remained unchanged.
"Zero point four?"
Another screen appeared.
______
Main Objective: Reach Graduation
Bonus Objective: Collect Sin Points
Failure Condition: Death
______
"Very encouraging."
A third notification immediately appeared.
______
Route Alert
Unknown Route Detected
Estimated Activation:
00:02:00
______
My face twitched.
I had been reincarnated for less than ten minutes.
How was I already about to die?
Before I could investigate further, the classroom door suddenly opened.
Several girls walked inside.
The moment they noticed me, their expressions brightened.
Not with kindness.
Not with friendliness.
With excitement.
The kind of excitement people showed when they found a toy they hadn’t played with in a while.
One of them carried a neatly folded uniform.
A female uniform.
The memories of Adrian Cross immediately informed me what was about to happen.
The girls began approaching.
At the same moment, the system displayed another notification.
______
Route Alert
The Broken Doll
Danger Level: E
Recommended Action:
Survive
______
I looked at the approaching girls.
Then at the system.
Then back at the girls.
My new life started less than ten minutes ago.
And it was already trying to kill me.
