Triggering the First Death Flag

"Haa~♡ Haa~♡"

While Kim Seulgi stood before the full-length mirror, savoring the sight of his newly transformed custom body, Kim Arin—who had just kicked his door open and scrambled back to her own room in a breathless panic—was in a completely different state. She was now his cousin, living right next door.

"Big brother... Big brother... He answered me!"

Her face burned with a fierce flush, her eyes swimming in pure ecstasy. Her lips glistened wetly with saliva, just like Seulgi’s had the moment he woke up. Seulgi had no idea, but there was a very specific reason his lips looked so glossy every morning.

So defenseless... To be that beautiful, that seductive, and yet leave his door unlocked like this. Isn’t this basically an invitation? Doesn’t he secretly want me to come inside?

It’s not my fault. Every morning when I claim his lips, it’s only to scold him for being so careless and to protect him. Of course...

"Does that mean big brother loves me too?!"

If he feels the same way I do, then it wouldn’t be protection at all. It would be an act of love!

Ever since she was a child, living beside her breathtakingly beautiful cousin, she had made a vow: she would protect that exquisite flower so no filthy flies could swarm around it. And she had kept that vow. From a young age she had threatened, blackmailed, and crippled every girl who dared linger near him. The result was that her big brother had become a social outcast without ever understanding why.

"But it’s okay~ Because big brother has me, right? All he needs is me by his side♡ Other girls—no, those worthless scraps—aren’t necessary at all!"

Even though her actions had left him traumatized. After graduating high school he had spent an entire year refusing to leave his room or speak to her—or any other woman.

"Hehehee~ And now that same big brother has finally given me an answer!"

All he had done was respond in startled confusion, as if seeing her for the first time, but to her the important thing was that he had answered her and no one else.

"At last, big brother understands. He understands that everything I’ve done since we were children—crushing every girl who approached him, leaving my mark on those beautiful sleeping lips every single morning—was all because I love him♡"

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Ding!

"Huh?"

It happened the moment I stepped out of my room, just as the system had suggested.

The usual alarm that felt like it was being hammered straight into my skull, accompanied by a random tip floating across my vision.

"Is it because we’re still in the early stages? Why are there so many damn tips?"

Back when I was called the Capture King, the system had thrown every possible threat at me, saying even I would struggle to reach a happy ending and promising a hundred billion won if I ever cleared it. Now it was suddenly being this generous with helpful advice?

"Maybe clearing this thing is actually easy?"

Perhaps this hyper-realistic, suspiciously advanced dating sim was using me—the undefeated emperor of the otome game community—to generate hype before its official release. They might even be filming me from somewhere I can’t see right now...

Augmented reality technology these days is no joke. I should probably start watching my behavior more carefully. The moment I started wondering whether the hundred billion was actually just an advertising fee and thinking maybe I should pretend this is harder than it looks, the door beside mine creaked open.

"Eh? B-Big... brother?"

The girl who had caused the earlier incident and then fled in a hurry stepped out, and our eyes met.

Whoa~ As expected of a capturable heroine, her looks are absolutely lethal!

Earlier I had been too busy panicking after nearly being framed as a rapist to get a proper look. Now that I saw her clearly, Kim Arin’s beauty was everything you’d expect from a heroine the developers had poured more than a hundred billion won into promoting. Shoulder-length brown hair, twenty years old and freshly an adult, she radiated the fresh, vibrant charm of someone caught perfectly between girlhood and womanhood. The main appeal of a heroine labeled as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a younger cousin seemed to be that youthful, innocent appearance. If there was one flaw, it was that the charm pouches on her chest were on the smaller side.

If she weren’t positioned as my cousin, she’d be a solid first capture target.

The system marked her as a capturable heroine, but as a veteran of these games I knew better. The cousin route was absolutely off-limits for a first capture. On the surface it looked easy—living under the same roof meant favorability would rise quickly, and events like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the one that happened when I woke up would trigger often. But for the first reason, the second reason, and the final reason...

Cousins. In other words, blood-related kin on the collateral line make happy endings nearly impossible!

Laws differ by country, but the term “cousin” means shared blood. Based on the diary my previous selves had left behind, this dating sim’s world was set in modern-day Korea, where marriage between relatives was forbidden. In short, the cousin position—Kim Arin—was a hardcore route if you wanted to see a happy ending, let alone a marriage ending.

Still, it’s not every day you get a cute cousin like this. A simple greeting should be fine, right?

I wasn’t planning to make her my first target, but the sight of this adorable girl overflowing with charm I had once wanted to claim for myself brought a smile to my lips on its own.

"Hey~ Arin."

I flashed her a gentle smile, thinking such an ordinary greeting couldn’t possibly raise her favorability. Her reaction was anything but ordinary.

"B-Big brother came out of his room, which is already a miracle, and now he’s smiling at me and saying hello...?! Oh no, what do I do? I thought it was just my imagination and was about to go back in to check on you, but now I don’t have to~♡"

...Huh?

Her response was clearly far from normal. Along with the word “check,” she brought forward the hand she had been hiding behind her back and waved the object clutched in it. And in the hand of this girl who still carried a strong aura of youthful cuteness...

"A rope and... a spike?"

Even considering this was a world where gender roles were reversed, a thick rope and a sharply honed spike—the kind you’d normally see in a construction toolbox—looked extremely out of place in the hands of a twenty-year-old woman who had only just become an adult. And hadn’t she just used the word “check”?

It probably wasn’t an invitation to play cat’s cradle ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠with that massive rope. Besides, you couldn’t even play cat’s cradle with something that thick!

Anyone could see that rope was sized for restraining people or animals. I could just barely force a happy interpretation on the rope—Maybe she wants to practice tortoise-shell bondage with me? Who gets tied up? Me? You? Hahaha~—but that sharp spike completely changed the genre of this scene!

"Ah, these?"

She must have reacted to the words that slipped out of me. With a face that was rapidly turning an anxious shade of red, she lifted the rope and spike to eye level.

Shit. There’s something seriously wrong with her eyes... or is that just my imagination?

"It’s nothing special~ I just grabbed them this morning after your answer, to check whether my feelings and yours match. But now that I see you, it looks like I won’t need them! Hehehee~♡"

You need a rope and a spike to check if our feelings match?

"U-Um... If our feelings didn’t match, what exactly were you planning to do with those...?"

I asked just in case, since I couldn’t even imagine what kind of future that would lead to. The moment the question left my mouth—

A chill ran down my spine.

The lovely smile and faint blush that had made her look like a girl in love vanished instantly. Her expression went rigid, and her pupils became hollow voids staring straight at me.

"Why are you asking that? You don’t think the feelings I have in mind are different from yours, do you? YouansweredmewhenIlookedatyou! Youlookedatmeandsmiledatme! Youcameoutofyourroomforme! Yougreetedme! Ilikeyoubut you... a.re.n't.?"

A bright red warning siren screamed inside my head.

I’m fucked!

I had no idea when, where, how, or why, but I had clearly stepped on a massive landmine!

"N-No, that’s not it! I was just curious, that’s all! I like our Arin too, you know~ Ha. Ha. Ha..."

I somehow managed to answer with a smile, but cold sweat poured down my back. At my pathetic excuse, the frozen expression on Kim Arin’s face melted away as if it had never existed. She beamed at me with a bright, sunny smile.

"Hehe♡ Right? You were just curious, weren’t you? Since you’re curious, I’ll tell you. This rope is so that if another girl tries to trick you and steal your heart, I can tie you up tight and keep you safe. And this spike is..."

"Th-The spike is...?"

"So your eyes won’t wander toward other girls... Ehehe~ You can guess the rest, right♡ I brought all of this to protect you from those wolf-like women~♡"

Protect?! You call poking holes in my eyes protecting me?!

No, logically speaking, hadn’t this only been going on for less than thirty minutes? If you excluded the tutorial section labeled Chapter 0, barely five minutes had passed.

And she’s reacting like this already?!

All I had done was—

An upper-body nude show. But that was unavoidable, so disqualified.

Responding with “U-Um, just a moment...!” That was basically the same situation, so also disqu—

Wait a second.

What if simply giving her an answer at all had been the trigger?

What if I had only been surprised and hadn’t answered at all...?!

The instant I analyzed every mistake I had made based on all the dating sims I had played and identified the fatal flaw in my choices—

The world began to reverse...