ーESSENー

"I just want to see Hayun," you smile.

From your peripheral vision, you can see the said NPC's grip around the pencil tightens, and since you have no intention to turn your avatar into a blind woman, you quickly pull your hand away. Hayun glances at you indifferently, and you are pretty sure that he views you as some kind of bacteria polluting the air that he breathes.

Be patient, you assure yourself. After all, it won't be long until you replace Zwen in his heart.

"You have seen him," the art teacher speaks. "Shouldn't you take your leave by now?"

"Ah yes," you nod, turning to the apple of your eye with your phone in your hands. "Hayun, I want to give you a gift."

You show him the number of coins you possess, hoping it would melt his heart a little, but the man averts his eyes away, not even wanting to look at you. His hands clench into a fist.

"I don't need it."

『-5% ー> -4%』

"Oh well, what a shame," you would have believed him if it were not for the rise of his love meter. "Then I guess I will see you in two more days?"

After all, it won't be long until you forget.

"You-!" Knowing what you were insinuating, Hayun raises from his seat. His cyan eyes are terrifyingly murderous. His jaw clenches and you can see the bulging veins.

This man won't kill someone who is not his lover; that is what makes it addictive to tease him. You chuckle.

"Then I will be leaving," you finally relent.

However, you can't help but feel what a pity it would be to leave just like this. Your eyes linger on Hayun's lips. The urge to plant a kiss there is strong, but the chance he would be stabbing your eyes after that is also high. You sigh and reluctantly press the log-out button.

You didn't log back in after that, preferring to spend more time in the real world lest you might get your VR headset confiscated. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do in reality. You have low stamina and you often get headaches whenever you're under the sun for like ten minutes. Also, walking would only tire you out and you feel sick whenever you are in a car. That's why you like virtual better than reality. Fortunately, your brothers understand and let you go back into your room after feeding you your medicines.

That night, instead of logging in, you choose to sleep.

The next day, you woke up early, and instead of attending class, you choose to spend the day in the garden; the place where you first met Hayun. Surprisingly, there is a hedge maze there, and you find yourself searching for a map on your phone to get to the center of the maze.

Sure enough, there is one.

You hum some random song as you get into the maze, following the map. You know that there is a teleport button on the screen of your phone, but where's the fun in that? So you decide to use it when you eventually get sick of this maze, but not even halfway there, you stumble upon a sleeping man. Judging by how empty the top of his head is, you're sure that he is an NPC.

He's probably sunbathing here, you think. You have no interest in those who aren't Hayun so you decide to walk away quietly, but who would have ever thought that the man would suddenly move, resulting in you tripping over his hand. You hear the NPC groans in pain, and glancing back, you see him cradling his hand to his chest.

His droopy brown eyes that remind you of Helios's met yours and at that moment, you see something unbelievable floating on top of his head.

『0% ー> 8%』

『8% ー> 14%』

Despite not doing anything, his love meter steadily rises, what is worse is that this man's face is so expressionless that you would never believe that he feels something for you were it not for the love meter floating above his head. Eventually, his love for you stops at 18%, and the man lowers his head at his hand.

"... Hurt," it was as if he was reading a script by how passive he sounded.

You frown, not knowing what to do.

A minute passes and not a sound have the two of you utter. Seeing that you have no intention to help him, his brown eyes turn dim and the man gets up from the grassy ground. You watch as the man turns around, but a second later, he turns back to you. The tips of his ears were bright red.

He points to himself, "Essen."

You didn't answer. Too surprised to react.

Essen obviously takes this as a sign of rejection because he suddenly takes a step back. His whole body quivers and he looks as if he's in tears.

"You-" finally, you manage to cry out. "Do you have an older brother name Oz?"

Essen's finger twitches at your question.

『18% ー> 17%』

"My brother's name is Helios."

You exhale at the familiar name. Sure enough, no wonder you feel so comfortable being around Helios and this man, turns out, they are part of your previous harem that your brother mentioned. Except, unlike Hayun who has his name and face remain the same, Helios got his name and face changed while Essen got his face adjusted.

You then hear the sound of notification, and looking up, you realize that Essen is in a daze staring at you, and steadily, his love meter starts to rise again.

『17% ー> 22%』

『22% ー> 29%』

It doesn't take long for it to stop though, because once Essen realizes that you were staring, he immediately averts his eyes away, ears red. He then walks away, though his speed could rival those who are running.

You stare at his figure as it slowly disappears from your sight. You take out your phone, and tap on the ||Conquer|| app to see several names there including; Iara, Hayun, Helios, Muyang, and Essen.

You click on Essen.

Name: essen.

Age: 18.

Status: npc.

Date of Birth: 8th july.

Room: h103 (hydrangea dorm)

University Building: Iberis

Places Often Seen: [Recess]; click here to teleport. School Hours]; click here to teleport. [After School];『LOCKED』[Weekends];『LOCKED』

Department:『LOCKED』

Favorite Gift:『LOCKED』

Hobby:『LOCKED』

Favorite Food:『LOCKED』

Love Interest: none.

Yandere type:『LOCKED』

Love Meter: 29%

Backstory:『LOCKED』

18? And yet Helios is his older brother? You frown.

Name: helios.

Age: 19.

Status: npc.

Date of Birth: 16th august.

Room: h103 (hydrangea dorm)

University Building: Iberis [currently pretending as a high school student]

Places Often Seen: [Recess];『LOCKED』School Hours]; click here to teleport. [After School]; click here to teleport. [Weekends];『LOCKED』

Department:『LOCKED』

Favorite Gift:『LOCKED』

Hobby:『LOCKED』

Favorite Food:『LOCKED』

Love Interest: none.

Yandere type:『LOCKED』

Love Meter: 37%

Backstory:『LOCKED』

Your eyebrows furrow at the information you gain. Was Helios that attracted to you that night that he would even disguise himself as a student just to get closer to you? And the teachers didn't even care? Realizing that this is a game world and logic can't be used here, you sigh.

No wonder despite being a low-level player, it feels so easy to raise Helios's and Essen's love meters, you're quite sure that they are programmed to be like that. After all, if what your brother told you isn't a lie, they were created in this game so that you can have fun pursuing them again, right? Then again, why was Hayun so hard to capture?

You roll your eyes as you suddenly realize the reason. Oh yeah, it's because of that player name Zwen that he is so adamant to stay loyal.

You look at the time on your phone.

Tomorrow at the same time Zwen's logged out, it will be three days and Hayun will forget about him. At that time, I will have my chance to pursue him and if I succeed, Hayun will end up killing me out of love.

You smile. But what will happen if he had a lover that he can't kill? You can't wait to find out.

But first...

You try to recall back to the previous game that you played. If you weren't mistaken, it's a virtual dating simulation much like this one except the game isn't an open world like how it is here. If you remember correctly, unlike this game which has no plot whatsoever, the genre of that game is horror and the player's background setting in that game is that they couldn't remember anything after waking up in a school building.

When the player check their phone, they then were given a piece of information that they had actually traveled back to the past, and all of the students in this building were destined to die in various ways. The player then can save NPCs that they fancy and those who are saved ended up falling for the player.

Now that you think about it, because the only NPC that you fancy is Hayun, you ignored the rest, but Hayun being a saint in that game, ended up convincing you to save his classmates and friends just like how you save him, but as it required meticulous planning, time, and effort, you only manage to save four of them and amongst the four are Essen and Oz(Helios).

Despite wanting Hayun to be your one and only, you ended up with a harem of five in that game, and possibly more if only you put more effort into saving others.

Anyway, what sucks about that game is that just because you didn't reach the quota of NPCs you should save to gain a good ending, you ended up getting a bad ending, in which the player went back to their original timeline and wasn't able to meet their significant others in that timeline anymore.

Of course there is more to that ending but things happened and you were too depressed to explore so you never get to know whether it was possible to see previous-game-Hayun again or not.

Still, I've met three of them, will I be able to recognize the other two? Mulling over it for a while, you then conclude that you don't care enough to bother about them.

ーAfter all, the one that you love the most is undoubtedly Hayun.

You close your eyes, feeling the breeze. "I can't wait for tomorrow."

ーhints of their yandere typesー

hayun: "my greatest wish is for you to die so i could own all of you."

helios: "i will mold you into my type."

essen: "i want to die in front of you so i could leave a long-lasting impression."

???: "for each time you speak to someone else, I will make sure to carve my mark on your skin."

???: ""̴̤̣̃̈́ị̴̫͋̓̐̆̓̀̀f̸̡̛͔͎͎̝̓͆̇͆̂͘̕ͅ ̷̛̘̫͑̏̃́̊͛̂̽̽y̶̫͎̪̺̠͔͕̤͎̅͋ô̶̡͕̦̳͑͜͝u̴͔̪̒̊̋͐́̋̋ ̶̝̮̗̟̯̦͐̀̚͝c̷̹͕̈́͌̿̑̅́̂̚ȁ̸̛̩̻̻̙̯̽̽̑͛͂̕͘͝n̷̨͕͍̙͕͎̼͚̞̙̑̔̒ ̶̡̛̦̹̿̀͋̿̑̉̾̕b̶̢̥̤̲͇̪̺̀͝ȩ̸͉͓͙͈͔̥̃̐ ̴̢̧̢͕͈̪̰͋̍̅̋̕m̴̦̻̱̹͛̈̌̚͝͝ỵ̶̟̹̙̫̱͛̋͋̽̌͜͠ ̶̡͓̰̙͇̻̲͙̀́̽̕*̵̡̧̮̤̦̩̖̑͋*̷̩͚̌̊̈́̌͛̄͠*̶̰̈́͛͝*̶̡̞̤͔̺̤͙̝̦͋͛̔͝,̶̛̛̙̤̫͚̭͍͉̋̿̿͒̂͜͜͝ ̶͎͚̭̩̲̦̪̍͋͋̎̚̚͜͝ţ̵̨̹̺̳̙̫́́̓͘h̶̢̗̜͕̯̉é̷̻̹̋͌͊̂̊n̸̡̯̆̈̂̆̃̅̕̚ ̵̦̏̀̈́Ĭ̵͙̞̣̈́́̇̌̐͝͝ ̷̼̜̲̍̅ẇ̶͈͍͔̻̖͓͊̒̀̆͜i̸̭͖̘̟̣͓͚̰̠̣̋̊̐l̵͙̊ļ̴͈̱̈́̉͑ͅ ̵̬̤̿̇b̸̧͍͖͚̺̹̜͇̞͑ę̷̛͕̰͗̈́̌ ̸̘̭̲́͐̑̀̀̍̚͝͠w̶͎̙͖̤̠͙͈̄̆͒ͅĥ̶͚̳̩̭̻̽̆͑̋̓̀̐ä̸̢̧̛̛͕̹̖͙̦̺́̀̿̎̌͗̌̇͜ͅț̶̺̪̺͙͎̊ͅͅͅȩ̸̗͖̘̳̹̫͍̺̲́͂̔͊v̷̨̔͑̒́͐e̷͉̓ŗ̵̛̻͔͚̫̥̝̤͕̇̓̒͋̐ ̴̢͍̱͍͈̤͔̹̀̃́̕͜ý̷͍͈̯̻͖̌́̉͘ͅơ̷̡̤͕̤͎̺͇̓̓̏̏̿̆̈́ư̶̧̙͓̯̫͉͑̂̒͆̇͑͝ ̵̡͇͎̥̄ẃ̴̯̙͇̺̬̻̤̙̃̽̑͜ͅḁ̷̛̭̗̳͉̓̅͗̀̾̂̾̐̕n̸̠̞̫̩̖̻̘̱̂͜ẗ̴̡̫̥̝̖̝̮̮́́̇̒̓̏̎̋̂ ̸͖̥̈̊̎́̕̚ṁ̴̘͂e̸̮͕̗̍̎̎͠ ̷̬̺̻̱͛̈́̈́͂t̷͈̿̉͂͒̈͆̿͜͠ó̸̖̆ ̷̦̥̰̥̇b̶̨̟̝̗̟̝̜̥̩͋̉́̄̿̋ẻ̶͔̯̘̗͓̝̙̏̐̀̉̽͝.̵̭̭̲̰͈̳͑̈"̶̯̺͔͗̊̍͛̋̅̕̕͘͝."