Chapter 1: A World Update I Never Ordered

A few hours before the world decided to lose its collective mind, a light drizzle fell outside the window of the old apartment inherited from my late grandmother.

Inside the cramped room, lit only by the bluish glow of the monitor, the words The End were displayed prominently on the screen. Beside me, Tomoka Shiraishi had just fallen fast asleep on the fluffy rug, a console controller still gripped tightly in her hand. The long-haired brunette had forced me to pull an all-nighter just to finish the save file of her newest dating sim.

"What a chatterbox... She's the one who insisted on seeing the ending, yet she passed out first," I muttered, pulling a thin blanket up to cover her shoulders.

I turned my gaze back to the ending screen depicting a happy wedding scene. Strangely enough, instead of feeling entertained, my chest felt tight.

The screen replayed wounds I had worked so hard to bury. The sound of my parents arguing before they finally divorced. A cold farewell letter left on the dining table. And the part that stung the most—the string of rejections I suffered back in middle school. Every time I tried to open my heart and genuinely care for someone, all I got in return were pitying glances and the exact same rejection lines.

The breaking point came when I got caught in a painful love triangle—one where I was merely used as a temporary rebound before being tossed aside for my own best friend. Even today, I still vividly remember my best friend's awkward smile as the two of them stood side by side in front of the classroom, along with the girl's cold confession that her heart had never belonged to me from the start, and that she had always felt far more comfortable by his side.

Ever since that day, I stopped believing in love. To me, romance is nothing more than a cruel game that always leaves someone broken in the end. Living alone in my grandmother's apartment with a cold wall built high around myself was far safer than ever having to go through that kind of pain again.

I turned off the monitor, walked over to the window, and stared out at the pitch-black night sky with a hollow feeling in my chest. Whether it was from the exhaustion of staying up all night or the pent-up disgust weighing me down, I muttered carelessly toward the glass pane.

"If love in the real world is really this rotten, you might as well rewrite the laws of nature to work like that rom-com game. Force everyone to date and let this whole world rot from sugar overload."

It was a bitter joke before I collapsed onto my bed and drifted off to sleep—never once imagining that the universe had actually taken notes on my stupid remark that night.

And that is the exact reason why, this morning, I am standing frozen in the exterior corridor of my apartment, staring at a translucent, pastel-pink window hovering right in front of my face while the city streets below have turned into a sea of couples.

Tomoka had already headed home before dawn so she wouldn't get scolded by her mother. Now, standing all alone outside my front door, I reread every single line of warning on this infuriating interface for the umpteenth time.

The screen displayed a world system update notification, heralding the dawn of the romantic comedy era. A new law of nature had been unilaterally established, forcing every individual to secure a partner before the designated time limit expired. Right in the center, my name was listed under the status of an acute-stage absolute loner, accompanied by a glowing red warning that failing to find a partner would automatically trigger a bad ending penalty.

At the bottom of the status window, the details of the curse were laid out with crystal-clear cruelty: luck reduced to zero, sudden bankruptcy, total failure in all aspects of life, and permanent social isolation. As the sole way out, the interface advised me to immediately establish a romantic bond with one of the female lead candidates in my vicinity to lift the curse.

My golden eyes widened as a crucial realization hit me.

The interface design, the font, even the phrasing "female lead candidates"—it was completely identical to Tomoka's dating sim that I had just beaten last night! Even worse, the characters in that cheap game shared the exact same names, faces, and personalities as the girls attending my own school—Seiza High!

"You've got to be kidding me... My wish from last night actually came true?!"

The exact second the words left my mouth, the coffee can in my hand suddenly caved inward from some inexplicable air pressure. Black coffee splashed straight onto the tip of my loose red necktie, leaving a stubborn brown stain across my clean uniform.

Damn it. My luck was already beginning its slow descent.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, which was starting to throb, and looked toward the gates of Seiza High School visible at the end of the street. If this world had truly been overwritten by the system of the game I played last night, I only had one major problem on my hands right now.

Which girl's route is going to trigger today?!