Xian is just an undergrad who liked to play games. A certain type of game that involved a lot of pretty girls with both good and big personalities.
Recently he's been obsessed with playing an academy themed dating sim game with a dash of fantasy and action, a popular genre among his age.
He just liked they way characters were drawn, those perfect plethora of curves, vibrant colors of their hair and beautiful design. In short, he's just a hardcore fan who would scream with enthusiasm that his favorite character is his woman. In his eyes they looked incomparably better than the stale reality he lived in.
These days, a particular game caught his attention and he'd been repeatedly 'conquering' it again and again for only one reason. A flexible dating sim game where you can choose plenty of heroine routes to live an academy life with while witnessing their own stories. Grow strong, interact, catch their interest and then the story progresses. He eventually finished the routes of every heroine he liked but one character.
A potential heroine he's trying to find a sub route of. In hopes of finding an easter egg and a hidden route, he wanted to save an antagonist who never lived till the end of the story or either met a bad end despite surviving. So, he chose to undergo a 'route less' run repeatedly, a mode unlocked after finishing the game for the first time where the player has the freedom to make the connections themselves without the routes guidance.
And that character is a famous villainess of the game.
She wasn't the major villain per se, but one of the many hurdles the player eventually has to go through, and most of the time, a rival and enemy of the heroine in the protagonists chosen route.
Sometimes, she dies early depending on the choices the player makes, caused by another character in the game. Sometimes she gets defeated for a heroine's development in the story. Sometimes she's an enemy of the academy and betrayer of humanity who appears as a strong boss in the late game.
He wanted to ask the developers why they made a villainess like her suffer a bad end on all known routes and ending? There's only one reason for the injustice he felt, when he saw the said character for the first time. It was her unmatched beauty that hit all the right spot of his type and attractiveness eclipsing most of the heroines.
At first, he thought that there's a route set for her somewhere. After all, with her appearance, long and silky dark crimson hair, a gothic black dress and pale skin with matching sharp pretty face, she was drop dead gorgeous. She was a heroine who instantly carved a place inside his heart at first sight.
Just like how a wise man once asked, 'If evil, why hot?' she was the epitome of that question. And to Xian's fixation towards beauty, she more than met his tastes.
But contrary to that, she was discarded in more ways than one, sometimes vain and sometimes dramatic without really playing a significant role.
There was even a route where she got married to a random old noble after being stripped of her position as an heiress. A route he absolutely couldn't forgive! Such a goddess-level beauty meeting an end like that... it was too much for his heart to take.
So like a true connoisseur and gamer of this genre, he dedicated himself into somehow getting involved with her and to be the first one in finding any route's that can save her.
But… His patience was really being tested by the game.
"Damn this bitch!" He would involuntarily fume at her for appearing at a very crucial moment as a hard boss instead, with a chance of team wiping the party when his members are already exhausted. Or died in vain due to some aftereffects on an event.
'What an unfortunate character.'
His first dozen attempts that ended in failure soon turned to twenty and then he counted no more.
Until finally, a strange event led to him applying as her butler in the very beginning of the game, she finally had a new and unseen interaction.
"Finally! Is this her prelude route?" He was overjoyed to find that he was finally able to open her route.
His character stood, facing the said villainess, flanked by two swordmaidens clad in tight black armor and helmed with sharp visors.
[You're my new butler?] Said the very girl he'd been trying to romance countless times.
Unfortunately, the game ended at that. The credits rolled and her visage were slowly fading into darkness.
"What!? Are you kidding me?" Angered with the unexpectedly lackluster ending, he almost smashed his laptop.
The first thing he thought of was to send a complaint to the elusive developers with an anonymous email, until a notification with the game company logo appeared on the screen. A black rose of falling petals surrounded by thorns. It was so sudden and unexpected that he felt scared. Under the logo, read congratulations followed by his player name, 'Xian'. If that was the only thing, he would brush it off, but it felt ominous and too coincidental to also have his 'real name' in there.
Xian was familiar with this development. He'd never been one to believe in god or whatever fiction he ever read, but at that moment, his heart trembled. It's either a spam, a scam, or the thing he was thinking of.
He felt ridiculous for expecting something like that.
'Gulp'
But, if there's a sliver of chance that it is... Maybe he can live his life differently.
'It can't be, right?'
He clicked the notification open, and the screen turned white. Then, the white light kept expanding beyond the screen as it swallowed him and the surroundings.
Xian found himself in an empty white space, only with his laptop placed in the table.
'It seems we have a dedicated one here.' A voice that came from all directions echoed in his ears.
"… Is this what I think it is?"
'Yes.' Another voice answered.
Xian inhaled a sharp breath. Had he finally died after all those sleepless nights of trying to find a way in that game characters route? Or is he just dreaming right now? After fiddling with the choices, he finally found where the route could be hidden.
It the route less option of the game where the player is free to explore the game as they please and a surefire bad end route.
The route where the protagonist chooses no route, nor heroine but instead goes to the academy without prior starting point that leads to a heroine. At first release, the game was famous for a Harem route theory and many fans tried to accomplish it, but to this day no one was able to do it. Thus, despite the freedom it gave, all it did was open the sub heroines routes and not a harem ending.
And in one of the very early starting points, he took the protagonist to the high level area estate where the character he was trying to save resides. After several attempts, he was found by a faceless NPC attendant, and it lead into the cutscene where he stood before her.
Thus, the game ends. Turns out, there was this kind of surprise for the one who will discover it.
"So? What now? Do I have some sort of reward?" Knowing that he might only get vague answers, he didn't bother questioning the entity talking in his head. Instead, he went straight to the matter of this meeting. For all he knew, he might just be hallucinating and dreaming.
'You do. But it's more of a punishment.'
"A punishment huh? But why?"
'It is also a sin to die, unable to take care of your body. And therefore here we are.'
He was stunned for a moment. He really did die?
"How ridiculous." Xian let out a wry laugh, finding his death very amusing. But he wasn't that disappointed. He was already living like a dead person for quite a while anyways.
'But, since you died doing what you love with dedication, you have reached our hearts and we have prepared a special punishment just for you.'
Xian tilted his head with an incredulous expression. 'Special Punishment?'
'From now on, you'll be punished by reliving what you love, over and over again. Until you reach the end. The proper end. We will be watching you then, O dedicated one.'
"What I love? What do you mean? Hey!"
Alas, he didn't get any further answers, and for the second time, everything went white.
***
He found himself standing in front of a familiar woman. Cascading black hair with crimson tinged ends freely flowing from her shoulders, she sat like an empress in her throne. Her breathtaking beauty was reflected in the face he knew very well and is just as beautiful.
"You're my new butler?" Guarded by two women wearing the signature tight black armor, she looked down upon him with an ever uninterested gaze.
"So, why is a thing like you just standing there?" She spoke in a heavenly flat tone he always adored. A voice he fantasized of in various reactions and pitch.
Stunned, Xian could only open wide his mouth in shock. He was really in the games world.
What now?
"Tsk, unpleasant thing."
But before he could even process anything.
She beckoned for one of her guards who nodded and took a stance as if drawing a blade. Then his vision spun as the color of read burst, blocking his view.
He realized that he'd been beheaded.
That was his first death and regression.