1 Prologue: Rants of a Visual Novel Protagonist Suffering From The MC Syndrome

I suppose I should start with a self-introduction?

Of how it all began? Of the Phenomenon that came forth? Of how my gentle meander of a life slipstreamed into a rushing waterfall and eventually thrusted me into the cold depths of the ocean?

Well, screw that. And screw this life too.

And as for a self-intro, well...

You could call me Anon. Or any shitty self-insert MC you'd see in any generic cultural drivel they call weeb stuff these days. You know what I mean. Light novels, manga, anime, and God-forbid, live action adaptations of those.

Hmm? What are you saying?

You don't like self-inserts? Too bland?

Too bad.

Well what about those Gary Stu types and overpowered bastards who are entitled to be the protagonist by simply existing? Get a load of their egos and abilities straight out of a chuunibyou's wet dream of being the world's  strongest and becoming the owner of a harem that has more odalisques than King Solomon himself.

The higher you go, the louder the fall.

It sounds like an escape from reality, no? But the best selling shit these days and the only template that gets on my nerves is the isekai genre. Google it up if you haven't heard of it. It's a literal embodiment of escapism, and it's mass-produced in the dozens. An entire season could come and go without missing the whole transfer from this reality to another.

But most of all, I really hate this current reality so much that I would love to try being hit by a truck and transported to world where I could be the overpowered guy and live a rose colored life.

I was content to be a simple romcom protagonist living out my youth inside a computer screen, while my real youth is being wasted on desiring and emulating. Now that that the pixels and chibis are floating within the deadzones of my eyes and the existential horrors they possess, I realized that wishes weren't something you returned nor exchanged.

That's rich considering I haven't had such thoughts before the Phenomenon came forth. I would have welcomed a reality diving into a delusion, but a delusion going out into reality? I would learn that this question is correctly answered by: "Hell, no", at the cost of my lifestyle.

Prior to that, I didn't had a life noteworthy of being well... noteworthy. I'm an average student living with my average family with an average lifestyle. You could take millions of people like me and put us side by side and you wouldn't spare me a sideways glance. A drop of individuality is easily swallowed by a gallon of collective identity. Some, especially like me, lose color just as quick even just by entering a classroom, a pseudo-microcosm of society.

But that hardly matters for me back then. I was a bit obsessed with playing visual novels. It was the only thing that mattered for me. It was the epitome of culture; the ultimate blessing of man's wisdom. It transcends identity issues and whatnot by providing me with:

Art!

Plot!

Music!

Voice Acting!

And best of all, the myriad of choices that came with it. How I love the alternate endings and debating which one was canon! It was far more satisfying than my unsatisfying life.

But the Murphy's Law and the laws of causality ensured that my life of free-falling in a kinetic novel-esque direction would take a rather abrupt turn and give me the choices that I would use to change my life.

Note to self: choice is but an illusion in a pre-determined path. Is it really a set of choices when the other choice is an undesirable one and 10/10 instances that no one would choose it? Leave it to the philosphers to debacle that and I'll always pick the easy way out.

I wasn't sure how this happened. For the record, there was no dream, no magical books, no angered gods, no magical devices, no scientific event and definitely no catalyst were used, disturbed, immersed or even thought of when it began or even before that.

Nothing grandiose; just waking up one day that everything had gone wrong.

The moment I woke up on a random day... no, even before that, the choices began to flitter in front of my eyes.

The lack of nightmares probably made it clear.

That it made its way into my reality...

And thus my life as a visual novel protagonist began.

Choices

1.) Play (and silently accept your fate).

2.) Play (while screaming internally).