“I hate this shitty game. Will this really make a difference?” He couldn't help but question himself as he eyed the flash drive in his fingers.

He had recently completed the game with the 100% completion for the reverse harem ending. He even had to spend his money to do it! On hindsight, he probably could have just hired a hacker or something since he was forced to spend money in the end. It would have saved him his weekends.

And after completing it and achieving his sister’s goals, he had only one thing to ask:

“Who in their right mind would enjoy this game, why the heck am I even considering this?” He couldn’t help but ask himself bitterly.

And yet here he was, filled with contemplations of giving the game another go.

A couple of days ago, a coworker had accidentally read a text he got from his bitch of a sister. That coworker had mistaken his conversation for enthusiasm towards the otome game instead of the blackmail that it was.

He was then given a flash drive and was told that it would show him a hint of the “true game” as the developers intended it to be.

Apparently his coworker was cousins with the developer who would complain about how the investors wanted the game to be made with skeevy practices to increase their ROI.

“Sadly, the story is mostly the same since these edits were made after the game was published. Not to mention, using this pretty much removes all the paid items. You might wanna play this on a pc instead of a console if you want to keep those items for future playthroughs. But it is balanced and the gameplay is surprisingly good.” –Or so his coworker had said.

“A glimpse of how the game was supposed to be, huh? I guess that overpriced spaceship was something the investors forced the developers to include. They must've really wanted a huge return on their investment desperately. Well whatever, let's just get this over with. At the very least I can tell them I gave it a fair shake.”

He didn’t care about replaying the game at all, he just didn’t want to cause conflict at the workplace. So he figured he should just be done and over with it.

The game booted up with a different start up screen. Some thankyou for being a close friend/relative, or whatever, and apologies for the game not being polished as they liked and all that crap. Also to keep an eye out for future (illegal) mods. And then the game started.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“...hm…starts the same. Jeez, this is gonna be rough without Luxion….”

…

“Oh you can find destroyed ships-wait does that mean I have to put one together myself-eh? There’s even customization, like real ones and not just skin color? Why wasn't this in the main game? Jeez, a bit more polish and they could have made money alone with this,” he griped.

…

“…I’m going for the harem ending again, but the main guys still suck balls. At least I can skip all their crap this time. Still…should I tap out and settle for Brad again?”

…

“Thats…thats a really good puzzle…were all dungeons like this? This is almost zelda like.”

…

“The hell? Was clearing a dungeon supposed to be this rewarding? It felt exactly-what? That was just a tutorial! What!?”

…

“Wha-what’s with this detailed resource management! This was complete trash in the game! Not only that, the party system actually works in a meaningful way! I kinda wish turn-based games copied this!”

…

“H-how is turn-based combat so addicting?! What is this?! Why wasn’t this balance in the game?! Every decision has rippling effects in combat! Not only that you can move different unit classes to their logical advantages. Seriously, I can’t believe you could have used terrain like this! And this difficulty, it's similar to xcom!”

Before he realized it, he got to the harem ending in record time and he was smiling!

“What the heck? So the game’s actually supposed to be this good? It’s no dark souls or xcom or anything, but damn was that combat addicting. The male leads still suck worse than Mass Effect 3’s ending, but I can definitely put up with them with this game play! Stupid investors, can’t they see the potential in this! Man, to think this was only a glimpse of how the game was supposed to be, and there were other things in this version too!”

He couldn’t believe it! The game was genuinely fun! He didn’t care that he had to seduce a bunch of crappy dudes, so long as he got to play the game!

“There were even npcs that competed for wreckage and treasure! Actual competition! It made plotting courses and battles more nerve wracking. One npc even hinted how you could make airships autonomous and require less crew members to operate with Lost Items! Is this what they mean by replayability, cause I ignored everything in favor of finishing the game quickly, but I want to go back and try different options. That one mini game was awesome. I wonder what other stuff was hidden!”

At that point his stomach grumbled.

“Whelp, can't game on zero sleep and an empty stomach. I should probably sleep first, but papa needs some grub before and after a well deserved siesta.”

He walked out, intent on heading to the minimart, but days of sleep deprivation and malnutrition got the better of him. He slipped down his stairs in a daze.

His head hit the floor hard.

He died.