The World of Romancia

As I attempted to leave the classroom, Svet-sensei intercepted me. We waited until the entire classroom emptied before he spoke.

“Hey, dude, I remember you. You didn’t open the text book when I instructed you to do so. How are you able to remember your real-world name?”

“I should be asking why all the others can’t remember.”

“Hmmm… was there a bug?”

“Are you able to remember your real life name?”

“Yes, I am. Oooh, wait a sec! I touched your book! That must be it! The game is programmed for the teachers to retain their memories so it probably confused the transfer when I was the one touching your book while you were being transported!”

“That makes sense… So what about Saku-… Laska. She’s my ex-girlfriend, will I be able to make her remember me?”

“Hmm so you even remember your real world love. You see… the game temporarily erases your memories of your real name and your current or past romantic relationships so that you can present the true self here, unfazed by your feelings. But if it failed with you… I made a big mistake… Please, don’t tell anybody! Please, please, please, I’m begging you!! They’ll fire me if they know I made such a terrible mistake!”

The teacher pleaded, pulling at my clothes while kneeling before me.

“It’s okay, I won’t tell anybody! But how can I make Sakur… Laska… remember me?”

“You’re such a good boy, thank you!” He stood up swiftly. “Well… I can’t say, this is the first time we are testing this. Maybe there is a way but only your gameplay will tell, hehe.”

He appeared very relieved after I assured him I wouldn’t expose his error. Despite his strange attire, I couldn't help but feel like he was a genuinely good person.

With the game's introduction behind us, I ascended the stairs to reorganize my thoughts. I wasn’t sure how I would recognize my room, but each door had a nameplate. And there it was. ‘Kiss’.

I tried to open the door, but it appeared locked. With no key in my pocket, I thought that this was the right time to use the command.

“Menu!”

I awkwardly made the hand sign to access my profile. A pinkish air screen appeared before my eyes, illuminated by an electronic glow. Navigating through the profile with my hands, I discovered multiple tabs, including ‘personal info,’ ‘stats,’ ‘skills,’ ‘inventory,’ ‘achievements,’ and some others that remained blurry.

Inventory?

As I opened the inventory, there it was. ‘Room key.’

I activated it, and the door unlocked.

The room turned out to be quite spacious for a single person. Unlike the half-broken rooms in our world's dorms, this place had a small kitchen corner, a table with two chairs, a sofa, bathroom, and another room behind the door. As I opened it, the sight of the enormous heart-shaped bed in the middle with an electronic-looking blue 'C' in a circle caught my attention.

So this must be the bedroom but… why is the bed so ridiculously huge?

Oh my god, it’s for sex!!

This game is so sly, forbidding us to engage sexually and then provide us with perfect environment!

Though it was still noon, fatigue washed over me. I decided to rest on the comfortable bed for a while, exploring my profile.

In the 'personal info' tab, there were only my new name, gender, HP, EP, experience points, and level.

The exp was shown as a small blue bar, its length signified the amount of experience points I needed to gather in order to reach next level.

I could already see a little of gained exp, probably from attending the introductory lesson.

Come to think of it, Svet-sensei didn't provide much information about this world—how to gain experience, level up, and the kind of exams we'll face. I suppose they want us to discover these things for ourselves.

I didn’t mind the hands-on approach, but given that the government aims to produce more caring partners, I hoped they could offer more guidance.

As I switched to the 'stats' tab, five categories with ratings out of ten were displayed.

“That computer idiot…”

Charm – 10/10

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) – 7/10

Communication – 8/10

Physical Attraction – 3/10

Intelligence (IQ) – 6/10

So these are the stats I’ve been assigned by her. Guess I am stuck with those values for the rest of the game…

“What’s this?”

As I entered the ‘Skills’ tab, there were five slots, four of them were spelling ‘empty’. The first one was occupied by, presumably, a skill name.

‘Conversational Joke’.

That skill really didn’t speak volumes about my fighting prowess.

I wondered what kinds of challenges were awaiting us.

***

After taking a quick nap in my room, I decided to venture outside and familiarize myself with the environment.

I realized I hadn’t drunk a single drop of water since morning, so I checked the fridge in the kitchen. Inside, I found nothing but a single alchemist-looking bottle containing a green substance. As soon as I picked it up, a voice in my head said:

[Fresh Potion acquired.]

“Bohyňa, is that you?!”

I let my voice resonate loudly throughout my room but nobody was there to answer. Probably just a pre-recorded system message.

Subsequently, the potion disappeared in my hands. I opened the menu and I found one piece of the bottle in my inventory next to my room key.

I poured water from the sink into a glass I found in one of the kitchen units, but the water had no taste or refreshing effect on my body. There was no food either.

However, I soon realized that this world did not consider a concept of ‘hunger’ or ‘thirst’. How convenient. For six months, I didn’t have to worry about securing food or beverages.

I remembered there was this weird ‘C’ icon hanging above my bed so I decided to come back and touch it. When I did, the system announced:

[Checkpoint!]

***

When I finally got a breath of fresh air outside, I noticed that all the birds in the sky were flying in pairs. In the distance, there were two bears walking lazily next to each other, there was literally a huge red heart above them.

Wait.

Bears?!

Oh my god!

I instantly dashed inside the school building to hide. I felt my heart rate rising and not dropping even after I had been breathing steadily for thirty seconds.

Svet-sensei was just passing by, seeing my nervous self leaning against the main entrance door.

“What’s the matter, dude?”

“Sensei! There are wild bears outside walking casually!”

“So?”

“What do you mean, ‘so’? They’re dangerous beasts for a human!”

“And why would they be dangerous? You strike me as someone who doesn’t know anything about this world. Were you listening to the introduction by our system AI?”

Introduction?

Don’t tell me… that because of my running mouth, I missed some crucial information… maybe that’s why all the other students in the class were so calm, not finding anything ridiculous like me.

“Let’s say I… didn’t really pay attention…” I confessed, looking at the floor below me.

“Those bears, as well as any other living things besides the teachers and students, are just NPC’s. Granted, they can engage in a fight with you, lowering your HP, but that should be extremely rare. You don’t have to worry about them, dude!”

After Svet-sensei reassured me that I had nothing to fear in the outside world, I stepped to the unknown yet again.

Walking through the picturesque scenery full of beautiful greenery, I wandered into a nearby forest.

Various pleasant smells wafted into my nose, improving my mood.

This sensation was something I didn’t really feel in the real world.

The world of Romancia truly offered an exceptional experience, urging me to forget the weight of my burdens and focus on what was most important: love.

As I strolled deeper into the forest, I came across a familiar figure crouching down on the ground.

“S-Sakura?!”

The girl turned her head towards me and revealed tears in her scarlet eyes.

“Please, help me!!” She pleaded heart-wrenchingly.

I moved my feet swiftly and found out she was leaning over a wounded, collapsed fox. Blood seeped from its stomach, while another fox was desperately poking its nose to it, attempting to wake up the partner.

CHAPTER 3: END