Being a reincarnator isn't complicated. Especially if you're a Korean whose childhood and youth were spent absorbing tons of content: dramas, manhwa, anime, and, of course, games. Thousands of hours spent in virtual worlds don't go to waste. The universe, it seems, decides that such an expert deserves a promotion—from a viewer to a participant. That's what happened to Kim Du.
One day, he fell asleep, exhausted after a twenty-hour marathon of the new mobile RPG "Crack Hunters," and woke up... in the creator's office. Not a metaphorical one, but the real deal, if the word "real" even applies here. He was greeted by a god-admin, shining like the sun from cheap graphics, in an Armani suit and holding a sign that said, "Welcome, Chosen One!"
The world of "Crack Hunters" was standard but a quality-assembled construct. Rifts in space, spewing monsters, guilds of hunters to fight them, and, of course, magic. But the main highlight of the project, as expected from a quality product, was the girls. A whole harem for every taste.
There was the warrior Alicia, with armor hiding a steel-core six-pack and a heart of gold, ready to throw herself on a grenade for a comrade at any moment. There was the cunning sorceress Yuri, whose intrigues were sharper than her ice spikes. There was the shy priestess Ellen, whose healing could bring even the most desperate cynic back to life. The player community was constantly at war, debating who was the best heroine.
But Kim Du's soul, rejecting all these flawless warriors and mages, unconditionally and forever belonged to Sicilia.
Sicilia wasn't the strongest. She didn't lead a guild and couldn't turn hordes of enemies to ash with a single spell. Her magic was modest, more utilitarian, and her role in the overall plot was reduced to a cute cameo—she was the owner of the cozy cafe "Purr-Purr," where tired hunters could drink a cup of hot chocolate and rest. Her powers and appearance were typical for magical girls: a frilly dress, playful mana swirls around her staff, and a serene smile.
But she had something that outweighed all the virtues of the others. Cat ears.
Not just clips or a headband, but real, velvety, twitching ears on the top of her head. And they came with a fluffy, graceful tail, which would gently wrap around her leg or twitch excitedly when she was interested in something. This detail warmed the old, lonely-evenings-in-front-of-the-monitor heart of the otaku named Kim Du so much that his choice fell on her. On his future cat-waifu.
Even before his arrival, Kim Du, like a true connoisseur, had studied the entire community dedicated to the game. And this community, regarding Sicilia, was divided into three camps.
The first—fans of moe aesthetics like him, who praised her cuteness and tried to draw as much fan art as possible of her wrapped in a cat blanket.
The second—those who couldn't stand her, considering her a useless decoration, a waste of code.
And the third, the loudest and most venomous—the camp of mockery and schadenfreude. Kim Du remembered the juiciest threads on the forum, which he used to scroll through with a smirk, considering the authors losers.
Thread: "Sicilia. Going for the record for the fastest divorce in history."
Author:xX_Shadow_Kill_Xx
Guys, this is just shameful. I invested a ton of resources in her, maxed out all her support skills, and in the end, she tells me her "boss" needs my bones for some ritual and subjects me to a night of torture in the basement. NO ROMANCE. ONLY PAIN. And the achievement "Gullible Fool."
· ►Fluffy_Bunny: LMAO! Welcome to the club! I'm still reeling from that ending. One of the cruelest in the game.
·►Alicia_Main: What did you expect? Go for normal girls. My Alicia gives +50% to party strength and bakes buns for breakfast.
·►Sisilia_Fan_01: You just don't know how to understand her! Her route is about accepting the dark side of love!
·►xX_Shadow_Kill_Xx (reply to Sisilia_Fan_01): Accepting the dark side? Dude, she might stab a knife in your kidney during a "romantic" walk if you guess the wrong gift. That's not acceptance, that's psychiatry.
The community spawned a whole culture of memes mocking both Sicilia herself and her hapless fans. Kim Du remembered the most viral ones:
Meme 1: A picture of a joyful, radiant player approaching Sicilia with a gift, captioned: "Me, going on a date with Sicilia (I didn't read the guides)." Next to it—a second picture of the same player, pale and crying, tied to a chair while Sicilia is doing something with a bloody knife in the background. Caption: "Me, after 5 minutes of dialogue with Sicilia (I learned her secret)."
Meme 2: A screenshot of in-game statistics showing Sicilia has a hidden "???" strength parameter exceeding all bosses. In the picture, she's sitting in a bar with a glass of cognac, wearing lace stockings, with a city being destroyed by monsters outside the window. Caption: "When you're the strongest character in the universe, but drinking cognac and wearing stockings is more interesting than saving the world."
Meme 3: A collage of two images. On the left—an evil and powerful wizard in a billowing cloak. On the right—Sicilia in an elegant maid outfit with an open back and shoulders, seductively sweeping the floor. Caption: "When you were forcibly transformed, but you didn't panic and realized selling the cute cat-girl image is more profitable than being a villain. Then decided to drink yourself to death out of boredom."
Meme 4: A serious programmer looking at the game's code. In a thought bubble: "Complex mana mechanics, detailed lore, class balance..." Next to him, Sicilia, looking directly at the camera with a languid look, in an outfit emphasizing all her "assets." Caption: "When you realize the whole world is a game for pubescent otaku, and you put on an exclusive maid outfit with an open lower back and shoulders to boost cafe sales."
Stubborn rumors circulated about a hidden route, the "True Path of Devotion," which wouldn't just avoid the bad ending but would turn Sicilia from a helpless sorceress into an S-class combat unit. They said her hidden potential was off the charts, but to unlock it, you had to perform a series of illogical, absurd, and often humiliating actions: reject all other heroines in the harshest way, give her all rare resources, including those needed to level up the main character, and in every dialogue choice, obey her strangest and most alarming requests.
Thread: "Theory: Sicilia's Hidden S-Class Route. Truth or Fiction?"
Author:Lore_Seeker
Guys, I was digging through the game files. There are unused audio files where Sicilia casts spells of such power that it blows Alicia's helmet off. There are animations where she isn't drinking tea but tearing out gorgons' throats with her own tail. I'm sure the route exists! But the conditions... They're devilish.
· ►Min-Max_God: Oh come on, that's cut content. The developers realized making her a combat unit would break the whole lore. According to the story, she's a "weak sorceress with a dark past."
·►Yuri_Best: I heard that to activate the route, the main character has to die in her arms exactly 7 times and then be resurrected with the "Phoenix Tear" artifact. Total nonsense.
·►Sisilia_Fan_01: IT'S TRUE! I almost did it! She made a level 5 boss run away with just one look! But then... then "that" event happened, and my save file went to hell. It wasn't worth it.
Kim Du read all this and smirked condescendingly. "Low-skill players," he thought. They just didn't see the depth, the hidden tragedy lurking behind her smile. They were scared by the hints of yandere? But that's wonderful! A slight obsession with the object of love is a sure sign of passion. Her strange phrases scared them? That's mystery! And he, Kim Du, was a genius at solving mysteries. He would play the perfect route, unlock this S-class, get both a cute cat-waifu and an incredibly powerful ally, and prove his genius to everyone.
And so, finding himself in this new world not as an avatar on a screen but for real, Kim Du first summoned the interface of his system—"Love Interest Capture." A shining holographic panel, filled with portraits of beauties, was his main weapon and compass. He poked his finger at Sicilia's smiling face, and the system beeped affirmatively: "Target selected: Sicilia. Starting mission 'Fateful Encounter'."
Being a true Korean and a perfectionist, Kim Du strictly, like a holy grail, followed the unwritten instruction manual for isekai protagonists, honed by generations like him:
Point 1. Choose your favorite girl.
Completed.Sicilia. Cat-waifu.
Point 2. Start showering her with attention and support.
Kim Du set to work with a zeal worthy of a better cause.He was the first in line at her cafe, ordering the most expensive and complex dessert, which he only touched with the tip of his tongue, never forgetting to leave generous tips under the cup. He listened with delight to her simple stories about tea varieties and the whims of the cats living in the kitchen, nodding with an obsequious expression. He would "accidentally" be nearby when she needed to carry a heavy box of provisions, or "timely" jump up to shoo away a pesky customer.
But the real test of his devotion became their evening chats after the cafe closed. It was then that Sicilia showed her second, less cute side. She would sprawl in an armchair, her ears drooping helplessly, her tail dragging on the floor. She'd pull an exquisite cognac from a hidden cabinet and pour it into porcelain tea cups.
"Oh, Kim Du..." she would begin, and her voice would lose all its sweet notes, becoming hoarse and tired. "That boss... has new demands again. I need to 'accidentally' slip a tear-gas powder into the Guild Master of 'Steel Claw's cocktail. Why? 'None of your business, Sicilia, just do it.' What if I get caught? I'll be torn apart!"
Kim Du, trying to ignore the screaming red flags, nodded with an understanding look, taking a sip of the "tea." The hot, strong drink burned his throat, and the cognac fumes hit his head. He listened to her endless complaints about the demon-boss, about the stupid hunters, about the cost of elite tea, about how her lazy cat sleeping on the cash register annoyed her.
"You're the only one who understands me," she sighed, pouring him more. Her eyes, shiny from alcohol, looked at him with such melancholy that his heart bled. "Everyone else just sees the ears and tail. Cute Sicilia. They don't know what it's like to be a pawn in someone else's game, to always wear a mask... to be trapped in this... this circus for stunted adolescents."
In these moments, he caught himself thinking that her obsession with him, her gratitude, had a somewhat... unhealthy character. Once, when he left with the guild on a mission for a couple of days, he returned to find her close to hysterics.
"Where were you?" she hissed, grabbing his arm so hard his fingers turned white. Her ears were flat against her head, and her pupils narrowed to slits. "I thought you were killed. I thought you abandoned me, like all the others. I would have found you. I would have found you anywhere."
She realized her outburst and instantly switched to the cute and vulnerable one, apologizing and pressing against his shoulder. "Sorry, sorry, I was just so worried... You won't leave me, right? Never?"
The yandere notes were obvious. But Kim Du, already heavily invested in this route and intoxicated not only by cognac but by his own exceptionalism, saw this only as confirmation of his theory. Yes, she was obsessed. Yes, it was dangerous. But this was the very "True Path of Devotion"! He had to go through it, prove his loyalty, and then she would reveal her true potential and become his faithful, powerful partner. He was like an alchemist who, mixing poisons, hopes to obtain the elixir of immortality.
The system showed the affection level rising. Everything was going according to plan. All those stupid forum warnings were just envy and an inability to handle difficult content.
He ignored her most blatant phrases, like: "You know, my boss is a real demon, her plans go further than you can imagine. Sometimes I feel like I'm becoming too much like her." He chalked it up to metaphors and alcohol. He brushed off her questions: "Are you sure you're ready to accept the real me? I wasn't always... like this. I mean, in this body." He was ready to accept everything! As long as those ears continued to delight his gaze, and as long as the reward at the end was an S-class heroine.
Finally, the moment of truth arrived. The affection level reached a critical point. The system issued a new mission: "Final Push: Night of Revelations."
Point 3. End up tied to the bed in her room.
This was a classic,almost mandatory trope in such scenarios. A bit of extremism, a bit of submission, a pinch of danger—and the barrier between lovers collapses, giving way to passion. At least, that's how it always happened in his games. Perhaps this was the initiation ceremony, the final test before unlocking the hidden route.
That evening, Sicilia invited him to her place "for a special, private dinner to celebrate our... bond." The room was bathed in soft light, smelling of expensive scented candles. Everything was perfect. They chatted cutely, she was especially tender and attentive, pouring him his favorite "tea" with a triple shot of cognac. And then... then there was something very relaxing in his tea, much stronger than usual. The last thing he remembered before his consciousness swam was her eyes shining in the semi-darkness, devoid of all pretended tenderness, and her voice, sounding surprisingly low: "At last, my patient admirer... It's time to drop the masks."
He came to, lying on her huge, soft bed. His hands and feet were elegantly but firmly tied to the bedposts with silk ribbons. Panic began to rise in his throat, but he immediately suppressed it. "This is part of the scenario," he assured himself, though the voice in his head sounded less confident now. "The final test. She'll come over now, the ceremony will begin..."
Sicilia entered the room. Her walk wasn't the previous light and airy one, but commanding and confident, the walk of a predator who knows its prey is trapped. Her serene smile was replaced by a predatory, smug grin. Her cat ears were alertly tilted forward, and her tail writhed behind her back like a whip.
"Well, my dear, persistent admirer," her voice was low and sweet, like spoiled honey. It was definitely lower than usual. "The long-awaited moment has come. You waited so long for this. Tried so hard."
She slowly approached the bed, her fingers sliding over his cheek, making him flinch. "You 'supported' me so diligently," she uttered the word with poisonous mockery. "Listened to my whining, drank my poisoned tea, looked at me with such loving eyes... A true gift from fate. Much more compliant than my previous... admirers."
"S-Sicilia... what's happening?" he squeezed out, his voice cracking into a falsetto. "This is... the test, right? Part of the hidden route?"
The creature before him laughed. It was a short, dry, utterly unfeminine laugh.
"The test? Oh, yes, of course. A test of idiocy. And you passed with flying colors. You wanted to be with me, didn't you? Wanted my love, my devotion? Wanted to unlock my 'hidden potential'?" She leaned close to his ear, and her whisper was scorchingly cold. "Well, congratulations. You unlocked it. I'm just fulfilling your wish. On my own terms, though."
She straightened up, and her hands reached for the fastening of her silk trousers. Kim Du's heart pounded with anticipation and fear. His brain feverishly tried to match what was happening to the tropes he knew. Maybe it's a metaphor? Now she'll pull out a magical artifact of incredible power...
But what he saw next didn't fit any trope, even the most perverted one. No magic. No artifacts.
The trousers fell to the floor. And not just the trousers. All his illusions, his ten-thousand-hour experience, his self-confidence, and his understanding of the world, harem romances, and the very nature of things came crashing down.
Where he expected to see something soft and feminine, his gaze was met with something else. Something majestic, frightening, and absolutely, categorically, undeniably male.
"STOP! IS THAT EXCALIBUR?!"
The mental scream tore through his consciousness. It wasn't a metaphorical blade of spirit or magic. It was the real deal, an impressive, even intimidatingly sized attribute of male strength and dignity. And its scale evoked in Kim Du not admiration, but a primal, animalistic horror of the mismatch between expectations and reality.
"IT'S BIGGER THAN MINE!"
In that moment, the puzzle pieces clicked together with a sinister, almost musical snap. All her strange phrases, all the forum warnings, that predatory glint in her eyes, her obsession, her low voice in the mornings, her complaints about the "demon boss" and about how she "wasn't always like this"... "I wasn't joking when I said I'm a guy."
It wasn't a joke. It wasn't part of a complex route. It was the cruel, merciless, mocking truth. The hidden route existed. And it led him straight into the arms of a cross-dressing demon with plans for world destruction and an "Excalibur" ready for battle.
Sicilia—or what was hidden beneath that cute appearance—looked at him with the same expression a cat has while playing with a caught mouse. Her ears twitched merrily.
"Oh, poor, unfortunate me," the creature said with a theatrical sigh, clearly enjoying the performance. "Being forcibly transformed into a sorceress, who could have guessed that I, a petty and mercenary bastard, would destroy my own planet out of sheer boredom and now want to destroy yours, just to see if the consequences will be any more interesting?"
It paused, savoring the absolute, all-consuming shock on his face. Tears of realization of his own colossal stupidity welled up in Kim Du's eyes.
"So why are you looking at me with such an offended expression, if from the very start, in our cute chats over a cup of 'tea', I only spoke the truth? Or are you hurt, 'darling'?~♡" it hissed with murderous sweetness.
The creature leaned over him, its "Excalibur" provocatively demonstrating its superiority.
"You know, I wasn't joking when I said my boss is a demon. And I certainly wasn't joking when I hinted that I'm not a girl. You think you're the first?" It gestured around its luxurious bedroom. "There were others before you. Many of them. In other times, in different dimensions... Sometimes knights, sometimes mages, sometimes otaku just like you. All so self-confident, all so... predictable. All were drawn by the mystery of 'cute Sicilia'. And they all, in the end, became part of my... collection. I remember everything. Every tear, every plea, every stupid hope. And they... they just get forgotten, reset, replaced. You are just the next specimen in a long line of losers."
Kim Du squeezed his eyes shut. Images flashed before his eyes: his cozy room in Seoul, cans of cola and bags of chips, endless dialogues on the monitor, the laughing faces of friends on the forum who turned out to be right... Mom... his Korean mother, who always said games would lead to no good...
"MOMMY! YOUR BOY WAS WRONG! KIM DU DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS!"
But his cry remained a silent moan in the luxurious trap he had so diligently and arrogantly built for himself. The "Love Interest Capture" system on his interface, which he saw through tear-filled eyes, blinked cheerfully: "Congratulations! Intimacy level with Sicilia has reached maximum! Hidden route unlocked: 'Eternal Prisoner'. Enjoy your union!"
Enjoyment, as it turned out, was a very, very flexible concept. And S-class, as it turned out, had a completely different meaning than he had hoped. He got his "cat-waifu" with S-class strength. Though, now he had to find out what lay behind the next, final door, onto the thre