Is This… Me?
Is This... Me?
What if there was a game that perfectly suited your tastes?
The flow of a story where you write everything from the genre, playstyle, and world-building, down to the ending.
What if everything unfolded beyond the screen exactly as I wanted?
What else would I do? Obviously, I'd rush straight to the ending.
Chiiik-!
I brought a can of beer and some potato chips for a snack and sat down in front of the computer.
An intro screen with white font displayed against a black-and-white background.
It was nothing more than calm BGM that made me think of windmills in a fantasy-style rural village and barley fields stretching beyond the hills, but the anticipation swelling in my heart was already soaring to the sky.
Because ever since the demo for [Utopia Academy], or 'Utoaka' for short, was released, it had been driving me crazy.
A custom open-world game where the story, characters, and background are woven based on every setting the player chooses.
The developers confidently advertised that you could create your own game, so how could I not be excited?
Depending on the genre and difficulty selected, even the dry intro changes colorfully.
For example, a hope-filled Hero story changes to a scene with a holy sword stuck in a rock under a blue sky, or fist-bumping with various companions,
while conversely, a dark fantasy with a gloomy background shows a city turned to ash and the back of a knight pulling out a blood-soaked iron sword.
Besides that, there were dozens of intro screens that flashed by in the PV, so how could my heart stop pounding?
"It's time for the heroes to shine!"
I moved the mouse and clicked the Start Game button.
The BGM stopped, and the black-and-white screen remained, but a moment later, a new font greeted me.
[Welcome to Utopia Academy.]
[Please set the world.]
The difficulty of clearing increases as you go down from the options above... but.
[A Piece of Hope].
There's a new difficulty level that wasn't visible in the demo.
"Well, this isn't too bad."
I figured options would be added when it transitioned to the main game, so I actually welcome it.
The world setting I chose, the second from the bottom, presented a difficulty level that was practically impossible to clear, just as the name 'Despair' implied.
While raising a hero, the holy sword would break and they'd get their limbs severed by the Demon King's Army, or in a mecha genre powered by the heroine's magic, you'd get NTR'd—it was notorious in the community for all sorts of unfairness and depressing elements.
In that sense, I suspect [A Piece of Hope] was made by reflecting the users' opinions.
It's like it's saying, "It's hard enough to die, but there's a happy ending!"
Yeah, games are meant to be enjoyed. Good job, good job, Utoaka developers.
▶A Piece of Hope
After setting the difficulty, a page opened where I could choose the specific genre.
I had originally intended to choose the hardest, 'Despair', and play it like a gloomy Soulslike, but I changed my mind.
A modern urban fantasy that fits an academy.
If you're aiming for a happy ending, obviously a story where the protagonist is reborn as a hero and protects humanity is the best.
So what if it's extremely cliché and predictable? As long as it's fun, that's all that matters.
Besides, Utoaka is a game where you create your own world.
Now it's time to insert things into this predictable genre that other players wouldn't think of.
[Please set yourself.]
"The protagonist... will be like this, and for the heroine, let's try this... Alright, all done."
I finished customizing and smiled with satisfaction.
A tall delinquent and a small girl.
A flower in the garden that is as gentle as can be, contrasting with a sharp-looking face.
When I set the heroine's height to around the protagonist's chest level, I wondered if it was too small, but the height difference, to the point of feeling a sense of incongruity, doesn't seem bad.
I'm not some heinous lolicon, but there's a reason why I made the heroine a loli.
What position does a delinquent have in an academy story?
They carry around big-breasted sluts, and swapping girlfriends like eating meals is just the basics.
They are always involved with a Circle or the mastermind, and are delinquents with a notorious reputation among those around them.
A guy like that tries to corrupt a heroine who is barely 140cm tall, only to end up being reformed and corrupted in reverse?
The way people around him see him might have evolved—no, fallen—from trash to pedophile trash, but his inner self would have become a hero.
A combination that is socially absolute death itself. That's gourmet, too.
[Once you complete the decision, you cannot turn back.]
[Do you want to complete it?]
▶[Yes] [No]
[Implementing world setting]
[All glory to you, who stands before despair.]
"Let's go~~!!"
Since it switched to the loading screen, I got up from my chair to go to the bathroom.
Then I checked the Utoaka gallery on my phone.
Since there were no spoilers, being able to browse the gallery freely was also a plus.
—
[General] Made a furry harem with a hypnosis guy
[General] Oh!+My!Oh!+!My Utopia!
[General] Thought there would be a difficulty after Despair, damn
[General] You can have up to 6 nipples
[General] Excuse me! You just saw my chest, right?!
[General] If you make a hyena female, it has it on the lower body
—
Are these people or animals, what the fuck.
But what is this? There's nothing after Despair.
I searched for other posts just in case, but I couldn't find any information about 'A Piece of Hope' anywhere.
"Is it a bug...?"
Or maybe the DLC version was uploaded for a very short time.
Whatever it was, it was definitely a huge win. It meant there was a clear difference between my Utoaka and other players'.
I decided to verify it on the gallery later, and I hurriedly opened the bathroom door.
The moment I entered the bathroom, my body came to a dead stop.
"... Huh?"
Because I was flustered.
The space that should have been a bathroom had turned into a bedroom I'd never seen before.
A double room equipped with a closet, desk, bed, and private shower room.
Beyond the window used for ventilation, the scenery felt quite different from what I was used to.
Above all, there was something like a thin golden membrane spread across the sky.
What on earth is that?
'What the fuck...!'
I turned around, fearing the worst.
The bathroom door and my house were nowhere to be seen, and only a white iron door decorated with gold and a hallway with frequent murmurs were spread out.
I roughly grasped what had happened to me.
Because works of this kind are a dime a dozen.
From light novels to web novels, a genre that offers a common and stable flavor.
Possession, or transmigration.
"W-well, if I'm the protagonist, it's not too bad... right?"
Sarak-
Black hair touching my shoulder blades.
The light switch I was looking down at was roughly at eye level.
Above all, it's not a voice that would come out of a man's throat.
'Ah, damn it, it's possession.'
As I lowered my gaze, I saw a crazy sleeveless dress shirt with cutouts on the side of the chest.
Tak-tak-
"It's gone..."
A hollow, empty lower body.
The sight of me wearing high-waisted pants that cover the lower abdomen and make my legs look long is a spectacle.
Compared to my incredibly frail upper body, the way my pelvis is emphasized is just...
"... Fuck."
No. It can't be.
But the mirror placed before I headed to the shower room shattered the last bit of my denial.
"Is this... me?"
Dark golden eyes.
As if to prove that the girl in the mirror is me, even the way she brushes her cheek moves exactly the same.
I... I... became the heroine I was customizing just a few minutes ago.
"No... this really isn't it..."
I didn't even write a 5700-character long malicious comment, so why?
It doesn't matter that I've become a body without even peach fuzz below the head.
The problem is that I've been thrown into a world on the brink of destruction, where a world view with nothing but the protagonist as hope meets urban fantasy.
If it's a game, you just enjoy it.
If it's reality?
You just struggle until you die.
Because I've been good at that one thing since I was young.
"Sseup, huuu... hu."
Being excited won't help anything.
I took a deep breath to calm down, then looked around.
First, I poked my head out the door and looked left and right; women dressed similarly to me were passing by busily, carrying suitcases or luggage.
Judging by the occasional exclamation of "Wow~" or sighs like "What is this...", the building I'm in must be the Utopia Academy dormitory.
[Kwon Do-ah]
[Aisha Roselia]
The students' names on the nameplate in front of the door.
Using the characters for 'path' (Do) and 'pretty' (Ah), Do-ah.
It's the name I made.
'The name below must be the name of a randomly created character... is she a girl?'
Should I be glad I'm not in the same room as the protagonist? Or should I be worried that I'm the only man in a space full of women?
Putting my unsettled heart behind me, I investigated the inside of the room this time.
Kkiik-
"There's an outer garment too."
First, the closet. I opened it and found a blazer with a name tag attached.
[Kwon Do-ah]
To think this is the name I'll be using from now on... should I be glad I didn't make it weird?
'More than that... what kind of crazy person makes a uniform sleeveless?'
Let's just put it on. I wonder how women walk around in this kind of outfit.
I put on the blazer, which was still warm as if it had just been taken off.
The inner fabric of the blazer rubs against my armpits, which feels unpleasant, but I decided to wear it for now.
Except for the fact that there were five or six uniforms like the one I'm wearing in the closet, there was nothing informative in the left bedroom and furniture.
Conversely, the right side... was so neat and cute that I felt uncomfortable rummaging through it without asking the owner.
Stuffed animals filling the headboard, a blanket with pictures of cakes, snacks, and bread, and even the faint scent of cherry blossoms.
In the open closet, there were uniforms and animal pajamas hanging.
The cherry blossom scent was vibrating everywhere here too, but it wasn't particularly uncomfortable because it was a scent felt from shampoo or fabric softener rather than perfume.
"By any chance... this isn't my spot, is it?"
It smells different from my uniform, so it probably isn't.
I finished the investigation afterwards, but there were few things that would be helpful to me.
The only thing was that I found out the date from the calendar on the pink desk.
[3/9 Entrance Ceremony!! Day to meet friends!]
Since female students were carrying suitcases, today must be the entrance ceremony.
Possessed on the first day of the academy... is it better since I don't have to worry about Kwon Do-ah as others know her?
'Don't people usually take family photos when moving into a dorm or living independently? Or maybe she doesn't have any family...'
I don't know. Don't they usually give you memories when they possess you?
Anyway, for now, let's just think about how to live in this goddamn world.
Not "Can I do well...".
"Can I survive."
If I had known this would happen, I would have made the protagonist a great hero to make things easier.
"Haa..."
"Hi!"
While exhaling a sigh full of regret, I turned my head to where the lively voice came from.
A girl exuding the scent of cherry blossoms is waving at me as a sign of welcome.
"You must be my roommate! I'm Aisha! Aisha Roselia! Nice to meet you~"
Pink twin tails flapping like a puppy's tail.
She was a super soft strawberry mochi girl.