"I don't think this is normal."

Your body sank deeper into the commodious bed, the mattress basically swallowing your figure whole. Your eyes remained wide while your gaze fixated on the unfamiliar creamed coloured ceiling. A patch of silence suspended over the room aside from your occasional soft breaths and the faint sounds of birds chirping from a distance.

You slowly sat up and surveyed the room. Fingers tangling in your hair, your eyebrows creased in contemplation as a string of sighs escaped your lips. Closing your eyes then fluttering your eyes open again, you slumped in disappointment. Wonderful, so it wasn't your eyes playing tricks on you.

You slipped out of the bed, a part of you tempted to crawl back in it's comfortable embrace as you forced yourself to stand up. "I don't recognise this place...wait." You walked across the carpet, the softness of it felt like walking on cotton candy, and approached a tall mirror that displayed your entire figure.

You racked your brain as if digging through an abandoned memory box. "(Y/n) (L/n), that's my name," you said, clinging onto that information desperately. "And..." Your heart dropped, a foreboding feeling clutching your consciousness before a heavy realisation dawned onto you. "That's literally all I know."

Your childhood, your parents, friends, school life, hobbies; any information a regular human being would've accumulated through their years were empty from your mind. "This is definitely not normal." You glanced back at your mirror. "Did I get involved in some freak accident and got amnesia?" you inquired to yourself.

You paced around the room, delving through your mind to find any scraps of information regarding on your identity. Ultimately, you slammed your body against the wall and a groan of frustration parted your lips. "Currently experiencing an existential crisis. That's one way to live, I guess." Peeling yourself off the wall, you decided to take a look around the room.

From the lavish furnishing to the paint on the walls that looked as if it was given a new coating every other week, you allowed an impressed whistle to fly by your lips. "Wow," you commented. "This room spells out rich."

You felt like you were searching some stranger's room, nothing was clicking with you. No strange feelings of familiarities–– nothing. Any hopes of miraculously getting your memory back was now thrown out the window. Approaching a desk, you fumbled through the scattered items and picked out a student ID.

"(Y/n) (L/n), third year at Zeitaku highschool." Your head tilted to the side. This is written in Japanese and I can understand it. Well, at least you knew where in the world you were now. That established a small sense of relief in you. Shrugging, you placed the ID back onto the table and your eyes continued to search the room.

As you were walking around, your ears perked up at the sound of a notification bell. Of course, a phone! It didn't take long for you to locate the device. "I wonder if I have any friends," you hummed.

However, when you picked up the phone, your hopes of finding some information dispersed when you were faced with a passcode. About to undergo an intense game of 'put in random numbers and pray you don't disable it', a message suddenly popped up and a faint ring of a bell followed suit.

???

1789

6:34

You paused and spent a good minute staring at the text. Either the fact that an unknown number had ominously sent you a set of numbers with no context or the fact that it was done with such crazy timing unnerved you. Heck, it can even be an amalgamation of both.

Your eyebrows knitted together in perplexion. Was this the passcode? With nothing better to do, you entered in the numbers sent by the message. "It worked," you mumbled, more suspicious than joyful at the fact.

???

You seem confused

6:34

Your breath hitched at the message. Vigilantly, your eyes darted around the room, half expecting someone to appear right behind you. However, there was no one in the room and you weren't near any windows for anyone outside to spot you. An uneasy feeling tightened around your heart and an unsettling feeling churned inside your stomach.

Your fingers rapidly typed down a response. Even hitting the send button unnerved you as you waited with soft and irregular breaths.

(Y/n) (L/n)

Lame question, but I'll be straightforward. Who is this?

6:35

Obviously, there were a plethora of other questions piled behind that one message, but you supposed this was good enough for now.

???

Would you like me to get straight to the point?

6:35

(Y/n) (L/n)

Didn't answer my question, but okay

6:35

???

Hum....How should I put this...

6:35

???

So, basically, you died

6:36

Well, that's straight forward. You blinked owlishly at the text message, barely registering the information seriously. With a doubtful gaze and incredulous huff, you sent your next message.

(Y/n) (L/n)

Sure

6:36

???

Ah, I really didn't think this through...

6:36

???

Okay, new approach! Your memories, you currently don't have any recollection of them, right?

6:36

(Y/n) (L/n)

...How did you know?

6:37

???

Great, great. I now have your attention.

6:37

???

I'll explain it as bluntly as possible. Whether you believe it or not is your choice. Though, I'll be generous and give you some time to think it through for yourself ^^

6:37

???

You've died in the past and have been reincarnated. Simple to understand?

6:38

(Y/n) (L/n)

...

6:38

(Y/n) (L/n)

It's not April fools right now, is it?

6:38

???

Wouldn't this be a pretty pathetic joke? I can do so much better than that.

6:38

(Y/n) (L/n)

True. I would share what I've done in the past but I don't remember any of it

6:38

???

Right! Forgot to talk about that.

Here's an explanation: I've purposefully erased memories of your past life. No whining about wanting to go home or crying about your death if you don't remember it in the first place.

6:39

And at that, you promptly shut off the phone and threw it onto the bed. "Nope, can't handle this."

An onslaught of profound confliction contorted your mind. Just what was going on? Did you seriously get amnesia and someone decided to take advantage of it to play some sick prank? But, at the same time, it wasn't the fact that the message was unbelievable that made you apprehensive, but the fact that you found aspects of it believable that made you begin to question your own sanity.

Your gaze drifted towards your phone cautiously before picking up the device, gaze fixated on the black screen. Well, it's not like I have any clue what's going on. Should I just play along?

???

Well, that was a little rude.

6:40

(Y/n) (L/n)

Hand slipped

6:40

???

You clearly threw your phone.

6:40

(Y/n) (L/n)

That's how things slip from my hands

6:40

(Y/n) (L/n)

Okay, let's say I believe you. I died and reincarnated with no recollection of my previous life. Why are you texting me in the first place?

6:41

???

Well, someone needs to keep an eye on you.

6:41

???

Though, I guess it'll be pretty entertaining to watch what you would do without my help

6:41

(Y/n) (L/n)

Yeah, let's not go there. How would you help me?

6:41

???

Well, you'll need to first participate in a game I've prepared.

6:41

A game? Your eyebrows knitted in perplexion. The situation barely felt like real life at this point. "No point denying things, this person is technically my only lead in figuring out what happened to me."

???

Excellent! You're very compliant, makes my job so much easier.

6:42

Your faced morphed into one of heavy discomfort and you couldn't help but look over your shoulder. You'll never get used to the eerie fact that they can hear you. Once you were met with no one again, you sighed despondently. Were there cameras in your room? You quickly dropped the question, deciding that looking into this too deeply will only reward you with a headache and no answers.

(Y/n) (L/n)

Alright, if we're playing a game, I'd expect there to be rules?

6:42

???

I'll get to explaining then.

6:42

???

Basically, this world is centered around a story with an already established plotline.

There's a heroine and, of course, a selected number of male leads working their hardest to win her over.

Regarding the male leads, the thing is, they have no problem taking an innocent life or two (maybe even a few hundred) in order to achieve the heroine's love. This is where you'll come in; your main objective is to make sure that no one dies by their hands throughout the year.

You can view it as disrupting the plot line, but in a good way.

This will be settled in chapters, like a novel, each one focusing on a specific male lead. For every chapter cleared, you'll receive a reward. You can request for anything reasonable. Whether it'll be increments of your memories from the past or insight on how to manage the next stage is up to you!

6:43

Confusion didn't even begin to describe how you were feeling. You were tempted to dismiss it all as some cruel joke, however there were too many uncertainties that kept your attention on this mysterious person.

(Y/n) (L/n)

What if I don't want to participate in the game?

6:44

???

I don't recommend that.

Let's see...So, you're in an unfamiliar world with no memories of your previous life and no information about the current life you are living. I supposed you can always fake amnesia or find an alternative path to explain to the people around you your lack of knowledge about yourself, but the burden would be something that would hinder you from living a normal life.

Oh, I forgot to mention. The story is carried out with the assumption that there is a player. So, even without your participation, the game will proceed. There will just be no one playing. I'll be gone from your life and the rules of the game won't be able to protect you if you happened to be a target of the male leads. And I can assure you, you'll need more than just luck and scattered knowledge to avoid death.

You get, don't you?

This isn't exactly a situation where you have a choice.

6:46

Paralysed, you felt your heart thundered against your ribcage. A nefarious feeling latched onto the last line of text as if it were a knife pointed towards you, the sharp edge facing your back as an indicator that you'll be guaranteed death if you walked away.

Thickly swallowing, you struggled to come up with a response. They made valid points, you didn't have any other choice than to oblige by their rules. You were the one at a disadvantage with nothing to guide you in this unfamiliar world. Plus, if what they say is true, then if you partake in the game then you'll have a chance to recover your memories.

You were basing your hopes on some stranger, accepting to participate in the game felt equivalent to making a deal with the devil. However, if you turned them down, what would you do next? Live the rest of your life not knowing your past? The feeling would erode your sanity. Not to mention, the idea of knowing that a 'game' was set in motion and that you could potentially die only screamed living your life in anxiety.

You chuckled to yourself, bitterness and fear mixed in it. "Seriously, I can't believe this is actually real."

???

So, will you participate?

6:49

Biting down on your lip, your fingers hovered over the keyboard before you sighed defeatedly. "What other choice do I have?"

(Y/n) (L/n)

Yes

6:50





A/n: Crossposting this book from quotev! Wrote this in 2020 HAHA