Chapter 1: I Survived the Death Ending
You might not believe this, but I was reincarnated as a mob character in a game.
This world is from a dating sim called [Love or Dead]. I was reincarnated as a mob in that world—Iriya Satoshi.
That said, I didn’t realize this world was from [LoD] until I entered high school. I knew I’d been reincarnated the moment I was born, but this world is no different from reality. There are entrance exams, elections, but no magic.
So I quietly lived my life, secretly leveraging my past life’s knowledge through studying, sports, and investments like stocks.
Then why did I realize this world was from [LoD]?
It’s because I remembered that the group in front of me were characters from [LoD].
“What am I to you, Yuuto-kun? What are we to you? I want you to make it clear already.”
“W-wait. Calm down, Satsuki.”
The winter air felt somehow light, and the cold had begun to fade. The branches of the roadside trees still had tight buds, but within them, I could gradually sense the signs of spring.
In that setting, four girls surrounded a high school boy. You might think “harem” and feel envious, but there was no sense of that sweet and sour youth. Rather, it would be better to call this a scene of carnage.
The guy being cornered is named Sano Yuuto. He’s the protagonist of [LoD]. His appearance and personality are ordinary—he’s just a “kind” person. A character whose setting is that he’ll extend a hand to anyone in trouble, no matter who they are.
Supposedly…
And the one interrogating him with a demonic expression is Saionji Satsuki. Long, beautiful pink hair and a smile that attracts anyone and everyone are her trademarks. She’s also a gravure idol with an outstanding figure and is the number one girl guys want to date at school. And she’s one of the heroines of [LoD].
Because she smiles at everyone, many guys misunderstand, and confessions never stop coming. That same Satsuki was now grilling Sano with a terrifying expression she’d never show to others.
The three other beautiful girls watching silently are also heroines from [LoD]. They’re sending Sano the same kind of looks as Satsuki.
“You said it, Yuuto-kun. Once exams were over, you’d choose who to date from among us.”
“W-well, yeah.”
“Graduation is over too, you know? We can’t wait any longer…”
Satsuki’s eyebrows drew together slightly, and her lips trembled subtly.
“I know.”
“Really…?”
“…Yeah. I’ve decided to stop running away. I’ll face this honestly.”
“…! I see. Then will you tell us? Who will you choose from among us?”
When Sano’s straightforward gaze pierced through them, I heard the sound of someone catching their breath. Hands gripping skirts tightened, gazes swam busily—anxiety and expectation showed in their attitudes.
“—Everyone, become my fuck buddies.”
Sano said it with a smile. As if this were the best plan to settle everything smoothly.
“What are you saying…?”
Satsuki’s voice trembled at such an outrageous statement.
“What? I’m saying let’s all have sex together.”
“Don’t be ridiculous…! There’s no way we could accept such a proposal!”
Sano sighed and scratched his head in an annoyed manner.
“Listen, Satsuki. I don’t want to choose just one person in the first place.”
“Huh…?”
Sano said it completely seriously. Then he smiled.
“Each of you has good points. I tried really hard to think about choosing one person, but I can’t give up any of you. So first, let’s all get physically intimate. Then everyone will get along better, and it might not be so bad, you know?”
At such a terrible argument, Satsuki and the others were left speechless.
“That’s enough… That’s enough. So that’s all I meant to you, Yuuto. I understand now. —Goodbye.”
“Ah, Satsuki!? And everyone else!?”
Satsuki quietly hung her head, left Sano behind, and hurried away from the scene. Then, as if following Satsuki, the other three also hung their heads and started walking.
There was a traffic signal in the direction they were heading, but it was already flashing. It was right on the edge of whether they could cross or not, but they couldn’t see ahead because of their tears.
—Good. With this, I might be able to save them.
“Sorry. I can’t let you go any further.”
“Huh?”
I was positioned in front of the signal and pushed Satsuki, who was in the lead, with all my strength. Then I got caught up with the other heroines coming from behind. They looked up at me in a daze, not understanding what had happened, so I gave them the best smile I could.
“Goodbye. Live long.”
A piercing brake sound rang out right by my ear, and before I could turn around, my body flew through the air and immediately collided with the ground. Heat gathered all over my body, and liquid caressed me. There was a slight time lag before I realized it was my own blood.
A sudden fog came over my head, and my vision gradually narrowed. My consciousness would probably fade soon.
“Are they…?”
Ignoring my body that was about to pass out from pain, I moved my neck. The notebooks and reference books I’d been using for exams until recently were scattered everywhere, but I didn’t care about that.
Beyond them, my eyes met with Satsuki’s, who was standing there dumbfounded but completely unharmed, and relief dominated my body.
“Haha, thank good…ness.”
As long as Satsuki and the others were safe, that was enough. Then, lying on my back, I could see the hatefully beautiful blue sky. I raised my fist and put on a nihilistic smile.
—How does it feel to have your scenario overturned?
Giving the middle finger to heaven in my heart, my consciousness fell into the abyss.
Serves you right, you piece of shit.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
Why did I take such action?
To explain that, I need to talk about [Love or Dead], commonly called [LoD], and about myself.
[Love or Dead] is a dating sim.
It’s a typical dating sim where the protagonist, Sano Yuuto, raises the affection levels of four heroines, including Saionji Satsuki, and ends up with one of them.
Because they had a famous artist draw the characters, it was treated as a reasonably popular game when it was first released.
However, it was soon branded as a kusoge—a shitty game.
The reason was the scenario.
In [LoD], heroines who don’t end up with the protagonist definitely die. They commit suicide from the sadness of not being with Sano, become self-destructive and sell their bodies, get sexually assaulted, have unfortunate accidents…
Really not a decent thing at all…
Still, because the heroines’ art was cute and the psychological portrayal of the characters was detailed, it was popular with a core audience. There was a certain addictiveness to the scenario, so I thoroughly completed all the individual heroine routes. The fact that I soaked my pillow each time is a bitter memory.
That’s enough about [LoD]—let me talk about myself.
In my past life, I was a NEET. It would be cool if I could say I died a tragic death in my previous life, but I failed my university entrance exams, repeated ronin years, and my heart broke after failing the tests over and over. After that, I lived off my parents, but I felt pathetic for causing trouble for my family, so I overdosed on sleeping pills and committed suicide.
When I woke up, I was living a second life as Iriya Satoshi.
I started working hard from birth so I wouldn’t cause trouble for anyone like in my past life. Thanks to that, I think I succeeded enough to be called a genius.
I also cheated a little using my past life’s knowledge. Since this world closely mirrors reality, the names and events were almost the same as my previous life. In other words, I knew what would be profitable in stocks and FX, so I went all out earning money from elementary school. By the time I graduated middle school, I probably had tens of millions of yen.
My parents found me creepy. There’s no way such a prodigy could be born from ordinary parents, so they even made me take a DNA test. When that happened, I decided to leave this house. And I left home when I entered high school.
Just like in my past life, my existence seemed to bring discord to my family.
The turning point for me came when I entered high school. I chose an ordinary high school. Why did I end up enrolling in this school? With my current deviation value, there’s no way I would have chosen such an ordinary high school.
That question was answered when I saw Sano Yuuto, who entered the same year as me, along with Saionji Satsuki and the other heroines, and I remembered. I—Iriya Satoshi—am a mob character in the world of [LoD].
No, even I was shocked that I remembered such an unremarkable mob, but it cleared up why I enrolled in this school.
In that case, I thought I’d enjoy the world of [LoD] and watch Sano and the heroines’ romcom from the closest position, but the Sano Yuuto before my eyes was a piece of shit.
He was a womanizer, indecisive, completely unable to act when it mattered, with an other-blaming mindset. And yet his pride was high. Because of that, there was absolutely no prospect of raising the heroines’ affection levels.
I decided to write him off as a shitty protagonist and ignore the romance where no flags were being raised, but then I suddenly remembered a terrible fact.
That fact is that heroines die if they don’t end up with the protagonist. And most importantly—for some reason, the mob character Iriya Satoshi, meaning me, also gets caught up in it and dies.
No wonder I remembered “Iriya Satoshi” as a mob. There were pictures of him dying every time, and although I forget which route, he had a name, so I must have remembered it.
If things continued like this, I would die. Panicking, I had no choice but to make Sano reach the harem ending—the only happy ending in [LoD] where no one dies.
So I secretly helped the protagonist and heroines’ romance from the shadows. I really worked hard on all sorts of things. I even spent a lot of money because it was to survive.
However, that shitty protagonist kept choosing the worst options at crucial moments, raised the heroines’ affection halfway, and we were heading toward the total annihilation ending where not a single person would be saved.
Once we entered the total annihilation route, there was nothing more I could do. I thought about running away many times along the way. But no matter what I tried, I couldn’t escape this world’s scenario.
In that case, I thought I’d rewrite the scenario and intervene directly, but the world’s coercive force kept nullifying my actions.
In the web novels from my past life, stories where mobs surpass the protagonist were increasing, but mobs don’t have that kind of authority. Mobs have the role of being mobs in this world, so there’s no way they can exceed that scope.
This world revolves around Sano Yuuto. I can’t overturn that. I was fated as a mob to die the moment we reached the bad ending.
I’m scared of dying. I struggled until the very end to somehow avoid it, but I couldn’t stop this flow once we entered the total annihilation ending route.
Every day I kept remembering the footage of my death. Before I knew it, I came to hate the world of [LoD] itself. I cursed the original creator of [LoD] for why I had to die.
My fear of my own death and my hatred for this world were in equilibrium, but at some point, my hatred surpassed my fear of death.
After that, I accepted that I would die, and started thinking about how I could somehow get revenge on the creator of [LoD].
But no matter how I thought about it, there was no way to get revenge. I don’t even remember the original creator’s name in the first place, and they’re not in this world.
Still, when I thought about whether there was a way to land at least one blow, I suddenly remembered that only in the total annihilation ending, there were no pictures of all the heroines dead.
There was a picture right before the heroines get hit by a car. And after the blackout, what was drawn in the picture with the bad ending notation was only Iriya Satoshi lying on the ground bleeding, with text that read: “A high school student was hit by a truck that ran a red light. BAD END.”
This original creator must be the type of piece of shit who gets excited about killing girls. This single sentence must have been written assuming all the heroines were hit by a car and died. I interpreted it that way too when I reached the total annihilation ending.
But it’s not clearly depicted that the heroines died.
I bet on this possibility.
I sacrifice my life to save the heroines. I die, but it would be an unsatisfactory ending for that shitty original creator.
Right before dying, I confirmed that Satsuki and the others were safe.
Serves you right, you piece of shit.
I still had things I wanted to live to do, but just being able to strike back felt refreshing. If possible, I want the heroines who supported me in my past life to be happy.
“Guh!?”
Still, my whole body hurts like hell. Having pain even after death really sucks. Don’t tell me my destination is hell…?
When I timidly opened my eyes, I gradually started to see light. Thinking I might see the fires of hell, I was trembling when I saw an inorganic white tiled ceiling.
“S-Sensei! Satoshi-sama… I mean, Iriya-kun opened his eyes!”
A voice resembling a scream echoed in my ears. It was noisy but somehow nostalgic. I tried to sit up to see the face, but my body wouldn’t move at all. Actually, I couldn’t feel my right hand at all. While my other three limbs and entire body hurt like they were burning, only my right hand was as calm as a still sea.
“Iriya-kun, can you recognize me…?”
“Satsuki…?”
For some reason, Satsuki was right in front of me, looking at me with an anguished expression. At that moment, my entire body went cold.
Don’t tell me that scene I saw before dying was a lie? Did I fail?
I tried to speak but couldn’t get my voice out properly—it got stuck. While my thoughts were in chaos, a single tear ran down my face.
“Thank goodness… I’m really glad.”
While hearing Satsuki’s sobbing words, an impossible possibility came to mind.
“You were hit by a car protecting us. Don’t you remember?”
I remember that. I intended to save the heroines in exchange for my life to strike back at that shitty original creator.
“The bleeding wouldn’t stop, and you were covered in injuries. You’ve been hovering between life and death for a whole week, you know?”
—At some point, it had become an option I’d abandoned. Something I’d given up on.
“Let me say it again—thank you for saving me, savior-sama. I’m really glad you’re alive…”
It seems I survived after all…
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