The last thing I remember is the thud.
It wasn't dramatic. There were no car accidents, no assassins, no divine interventions. Just... a vending machine. A cheap, rusted, top-heavy vending machine that decided gravity was more interesting than physics that day.
I was trying to get a can of grape soda. I didn't even like grape soda. It was just the only thing left.
One second, I was kicking the base of the machine. The next, I was staring at the cold, uncaring sky as five hundred pounds of metal crashed into my ribs.
And then? Darkness.
I wish I could say I woke up in a field of flowers, or some beautiful goddess told me I was destined to save the world.
Instead, I woke up to this:
"System Message: NPC Mode Activated. Welcome to Love Hearts Academy."
At first, I thought it was a joke. Maybe a coma dream. But the room around me was way too vivid to be fake.
Bookshelves. Hundreds of them. Old, dusty, and way too neat to be natural. Sunlight poured through stained glass windows like some holy anime scene. I stood behind a large wooden desk. There was even a feather quill.
I looked down at myself and froze.
A school uniform? But not just any uniform. The blue vest, white shirt, striped tie—it was exactly the NPC outfit of Sera, the school librarian in Love Hearts Academy. A side character so irrelevant, most players forgot he existed.
Oh, and did I mention?
Sera was supposed to be mute.
I remember because, in the game, his only dialogue box was:
"..."
That's it. Just one line. A literal human loading screen.
"Okay," I muttered, testing my voice. "Not mute. That's something."
The door creaked open. I tensed. Reflexively, I reached under the desk—not sure what I expected to find. A weapon? A baseball bat?
Nope. Just a roll of toilet paper and a cup of instant noodles.
Footsteps echoed through the wooden floor. Then came a voice.
"Excuse me... I was told to return this book here."
I recognized that voice instantly.
High-pitched. Slightly shy. A sprinkle of tsundere spice.
It was Airi Fujikawa, the student council president and one of the main heroines of Love Hearts Academy. She was the classic "cold outside, soft inside" type. If you picked all the right options, she'd fall head over heels for you by Chapter 4.
But that wasn't what shocked me.
What shocked me was how real she looked. Not in a hyper-realistic CG way. She looked... alive. Her auburn hair bounced as she walked. Her blue eyes actually moved. Not some AI puppet—they had focus. They had depth.
She walked up to me and placed a book on the desk.
"Advanced Leadership and Discipline: Volume II"
Ugh. Even her taste in books was cliché.
"Uh... thanks," I muttered, unsure how to respond. NPC Sera was never supposed to speak, let alone hold a conversation.
She blinked. "You can talk?"
I raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't I?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Weird. You were always just... quiet."
Right. Because in her reality, I've always been Sera. The quiet librarian. The backdrop to her scripted little love story.
But something was off. Her behavior didn't feel "scripted." In the game, she was supposed to bump into Reiji—our glorious protagonist—outside the library in Scene 1. That was supposed to be her first event flag. She wasn't supposed to be here yet.
Which meant... I just interrupted the game's natural flow.
Interesting.
She gave me a short nod. "Well, thank you, Sera-senpai."
Senpai? That wasn't in the game. In the script, she always called the MC "Reiji-kun," never addressed me at all.
I watched her leave, her silhouette disappearing into the hallway. The second the door shut, I sat back down, heart pounding.
Okay. Okay.
Let's think this through logically.
I just died in the real world—tragically, hilariously, by vending machine.
Now I'm inside Love Hearts Academy, an eroge I spent 20 hours mocking before uninstalling in frustration.
I'm not the protagonist. I'm not even a supporting character. I'm an NPC with a single line of dialogue in the original game.
But I have full awareness. Free will. And apparently, the ability to mess with the flow of the story.
And here's the kicker:
I remember every route.
Every confession point.
Every kiss scene.
Every overused beach episode.
If I wanted to, I could guide the main character to a perfect 100% harem route without lifting a finger.
But then again...
Why should I?
Why should he—Reiji, the bland, self-insert protagonist with plot armor and the personality of white bread—get all the girls?
Why should I play by their rules?
This isn't his story anymore.
I stood up from the desk, cracked my knuckles, and looked out the library window at the idyllic anime sky.
"You know what?" I said aloud.
"If I'm stuck in this game... I'm rewriting the script."