Issei always thought that he would quickly accept any kind of confession from a girl, however, thinking and acting weren't the same, and so the current situation that Issei was in made him think of what to say carefully.
This girl, Yuuma Amano, had just confessed to him even though he knew nothing about her. He was incredibly skeptical of her words, thinking this was some kind of joke that she was asked to do by her friends as a dare.
In the end the words that came out of his mouth were "I'm sorry, but I don't know you well enough to really accept this confession, I will have to decline." Just like that he realized what he said and froze as he expected her to react in a negative way.
What he found instead was her moving her head to a side while in a thinking expression before responding "I understand, I wasn't expecting you to really accept, but sorry for asking you because of a dare".
Ah, he expected it to be the case, who would really want to be with such a perverted person without truly knowing him. He sighed as he looked at the girl leaving the scene as if nothing had happened, just then a thought went through his mind.
"Why did she look so confused?" Perhaps she expected him to accept, but just then as he kept walking towards his house something strange came into his vision.
Due to the achievement of changing the story's plot, you have activated the "Writer's System".
You have obtained new traits
You have lost the trait (Boosted Gear)
"Uh?" The only sound that came out of Issei's mouth was of confusion, he knew this was out of some kind of game interface. The thoughts went away as he had to get home quickly, he decided on checking on this later if it wasn't some kind of hallucination from the hits the Kendo Club gave him and his friends.
As Issei lumped into his bed he remembered the strange panel that showed up on his face, he thought a bit about it and it showed up yet again, however, instead of those notifications that he saw, what was in front of him was a menu.
Welcome to the Writer's System
Stats
Traits
Skills
Quests
(Locked)
(Locked)
(Locked)
Event Log
Gallery
Help
"This is... a pretty simple menu." As Issei looked through the few options to select he went straight to the Help button, and so another window appeared.
The Writer's System is a simplistic network meant for improvised story creation.
This system activates if the user does not meet the requirements to proceed to the next phase of the story.
The menu is divided in:
Stats are divided into 4 stats, Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance and Justice.
Fortitude is the stat that represents your Health, the amount of damage you can take before dying .
Prudence is the stat that represents your Sanity, the amount of psychological damage you can take before Panicking.
Temperance is the stat that represents your Probability, the chance of an action succeeding.
Justice is the stat that represents your Reputation, the only stat you are able to decrease, it allows you to talk to certain people.
"These stats are really weird." For a moment Issei expected a more RPG style of stats, heck, even those Visual Novels that had stats in them had much more sense to them. But the more he looked through the Help panel, the more he was confused.
Traits are passive abilities you have, but can also be abilities that automatically activate under certain situations.
Any traits that were meant to be used in said story will be removed once it ends, be it by normal means or prematurely.
That would explain the "Boosted Gear" Trait he had lost, he still didn't know what this Boosted Gear was, but it seemed incredibly important, on another note it made him question what it truly was, how long did he have that for and if it was completely erased from existence.
Skills are abilities that activate on the user's command, these can range from attacks to temporal increases.
Quests are given under the Writer's System's will, any quest you may have gained has been created by the system.
Event Log is a recompilation of all events and quests you have completed, you are able to review the knowledge you have gained and revisit any important plot.
These few explanations were pretty straight forward, from the looks of it, this was still very ambiguous to really tell if it was an RPG or a Dating Sim, either way the thought of this system completely controlling what he has to do next does make him a bit uncomfortable.
Gallery is a memento for every important moment you have lived through, these can include images or songs dedicated to that moment.
This option did make him a bit hopeful as he thought of possibly being able to revisit any erotic situation he might get himself in, but unfortunately the system was quick to immediately put a disclaimer in the bottom corner
(Sexual Content will not be added to the Gallery)
"Are you kidding me?! What's the point of having a gallery if it's not meant for seeing sexy women?!" As Issei was flabbergasted by this text, he slowly calmed himself down to see what his stats, traits and skills he had, hoping for the best he quickly opened to see his stats.
Stats
Health 190/200 Sanity 100/100
Fortitude 2 Prudence 1
Temperance 3 Justice 0
Role: None
Issei expected his stats to be low, but was surprised to see his Temperance at 3 and his Fortitude at 2, after giving it a bit of a thought he realized that maybe taking chances to try looking at naked women and getting beaten by said women when they found out may have increased his stats. He wasn't surprised to see his Justice at a 0, after all he was known as a member of The Perverted Trio. He wondered what the Role section was, but decided to ignore it. He then switched the window to the traits one.
Traits
(Second Take): If the user has 0 Health or the story ends prematurely, activate this Trait. The user is sent back to the last checkpoint. Abusing this Trait will lead to a penalty.
(Deus Ex Machina): If the user has 1 Health or Sanity, activate this Trait. The user cannot lose Health or Sanity for an extended amount.
(Mystery Storage): Access to inventory with infinite capacity. If anyone notices, reduce health to 0.
"Woah, this seems really powerful!" Issei was excited about these traits, they seemed pretty powerful, especially Second Take, but was scared of what was going to be the penalty, Deus Ex Machina seemed too situational to really get any kind of advantage and Mystery Storage seemed more like a commodity. He then proceeded to check his skills.
Skills
(Feedback): Allows user to get suggestions and hints on certain choices. No Cooldown.
"Uh, that's it?" It felt a bit empty to him, but he couldn't really complain, especially because of his traits, he wondered how this whole situation would play out, he spent the whole night in his bed trying to stop thinking about it and get some sleep, but to no avail.
His day at Kuoh Academy was a bit lackluster compared to what happened yesterday, he spent the first few hours hanging out with his friends Motohama and Matsuda, as the clock kept ticking he went back to peaking at the Girls' Kendo Club, as soon as he got to the peep hole the system recognized this as an action that needed confirmation, which popped up in front of Issei.
You are attempting to peep on the Girls' Club unnoticed, would you like to proceed forward?
Chance of Success 5%
Yes/No
When the popup showed itself, it scared Issei as he didn't expect it, upon noticing the noise he made he looked around expecting his friends to comment on the weird action he had made, but instead found them not moving at all, he concluded that during these situations he could have the time paused for him to think of his actions, another thing that made him appreciate this system even more.
Looking at the chance he simply ignored it and proceeded to press Yes, he knew that they'd catch on to them peeping again, but seeing them naked was worth it to him.
Then as time resumed he went straight to the hole to appreciate the view, and unsurprisingly after they got beaten by them, his Health stat went down to 160, a total of 40 damage seems to have been done to him, but he noticed that none of the stats went up.
As he went out of the infirmary due to a splinter getting stuck on his arm, he let himself wander into his thoughts, there didn't seem to be any quest popping up or any hint. But then he realized he could just use Feedback to get an idea.
Wondering how to activate it he tried thinking about it just like he did with the menu of the system, and immediately after a window showed up.
Skill Feedback has been activated
Maybe you should join a club
Well that was at least some sort of hint, but truthfully he had no idea which one he should join. He then went to look around at the bulletin boards to see if there was any other hint it could give him. He went as quickly as he could since he didn't know if there was any sort of penalty for not getting a quest to a story. "I wonder what club will I join, I do hope it's the Occult Research Club, I remember hearing that many of the school's beauties are in tha-"
!
Upon turning a corner he bumped into someone, making both fall to the ground and having some papers fly around.
"Argh, my head... Wait, he-hey are you okay there?" Issei realized that he had just bumped into someone a bit to hard, upon looking at the person he had just bumped into he realized that she was a girl with pink hair, expecting it to be Katase, he realized she had less bust compared to her, in fact, he didn't know who she was, she seemed like a completely new face to the Academy.
"Yeah, um, I am fine, jus- wait the recruitment papers!" As soon as she noticed the papers scattered on the floor, she immediately went to try and pick them all back up, following her actions Issei decided on helping her, picking the first one up he noticed that these were indeed for club recruitment but something strange kept irking Issei.
There was never a Literature Club in the Academy.
Taking this as a way from the system to say this is the club he needed to join, he hesitantly said "Hey, uh, these are meant for recruiting people for your club right? Mind if I join the club?"
Upon listening to these words, the pink haired girl brimmed with joy and enthusiastically replied "Oh yes you can! You see, we've been looking for new members to join our club, since we need a few more members for it to be recognized as an actual one." As she finally finished picking up all the papers she continued "Also you can find the room on the Academy's map, it's a miracle the Council was generous enough to add us in it."
"The map? But it didn't sho-"
Just as Issei asked in his head the map of the Academy showed up. It wasn't what Issei was asking for but this also worked, one of the rooms seems to have been replaced with the Literature Club for some mysterious reason and he could only think of this as the system's doing.
"But then... How powerful is the Writer's System?"
He then realized he forgot to ask the girl's name but she was already gone from the crash scene. As soon as he got to the bulletin, an ad for the Literature Club was already there.
Just as Issei was about to go to the direction of the club, the system seems to have recognized it as the requirement for the quest to activate.
Quest #1
Racing Heartbeat
Condition: Join the Literature Club
Failure: You don't join the Literature Club
Accept
"Uh, this is a bit disappointing" The Quest screen looked pretty simplistic, there was no reward or anything, he noticed that there was no way of declining, just like that, he seemed to be stuck in accepting or being in a time stopped world, he tried to move around but there seemed to be an invisible wall around him to impede him from wandering in this state. After some time he stopped testing and accepted.
Another screen then popped up, but this time it showed information on the story.
A new story has been created
Information: The Literature Club is looking for new members to finally start to be known as a proper one, the protagonist joins the club after being convinced by his childhood friend. Embark on an experience where you'll find your creativity blossom.
Genre: Romance
Role: Secondary Character
"This seems nice, but I am not sure how my creativity will be allowed there" Issei seemed surprised by the simple premise, pausing a bit he then realized. "Wait, I'm a secondary character?"
As Issei made his way through the Third Year hall, he found himself in front of the Literature Club's door, he breathed deeply before knocking on the door and making his way in, "Is this the Literature Club?" When he peeked his head in while asking he noticed the same pink haired girl, which assured him this was the place, alongside another pink haired one who was shorter, a purple haired girl, a pretty brown haired girl and the only other guy in the room who also had brown hair as him.
"Why yes this is the place" The brown haired girl responded with a smile, there wasn't any tension but it seemed like they were in the middle of introducing themselves, "Are you perhaps also interested in joining?"
"Yeah uhm... I am Issei Hyoudou, nice to meet you all" Issei was a bit nervous, the thought of failing was the reason, he didn't know what Second Take would count as abusing the trait.
"Wait Issei Hyoudou as the member of the Perverted Trio?" The short girl with pink hair seemed a bit cautious of him, it was obvious honestly, what girl hasn't heard of him and his perverted actions?
"Yeah the very same, look I am not here to check you girls out, I came because I am genuinely interested in the club" It seemed as his entrance into the club was going to be much more complicated than he thought.
"Guys? Please stop before this escalates, we should hear Issei out before we decide on accepting him or not" the girl I met before seemed to take care of the situation, it seemed to work fine for now.
The situation was a bit awkward now, but then the pretty student decided to move on with the issue "Now then Issei, I should introduce myself, I am Monika, I am the president of the Literature Club, with me are Sayori, the Vice President" the girl that I bumped into waved at me, "Natsuki" the short girl still looked a bit annoyed with my presence and looked away, "and Yuri" the tall girl fiddled with her hair while she awkwardly stared at me.
"It's nice to meet you all, uhm, and what about him?" I looked at the other only boy in this room, he silently was standing up looking at us, he then proceed to introduce himself "I'm just someone who also wants to join, don't mind me much, I am Cordis"
"What a strange name" Issei thought as this name seemed too different to the other names he's heard that were from foreign countries, truthfully Monika seemed a bit odd, but it was common enough of a name to really not think much about it.
"Now then, since it seems these two are joining the club, how about we have some more time to introduce ourselves" Monika suggested with quite the calm expression.
"Oh oh, I'll get the cupcakes!" Sayori enthusiastically declares, but before she could do anything Natsuki interjected "Hey! I made them, I'll go get them!
As they all chatted away while joining the tables around, time passed as they all seemed to get along, the cupcakes were pretty good, but Issei was a bit jealous of Cordis. "Romance, 4 girls in a club, only one guy, this bastard is a Harem protagonist!
Cordis and Monika talked about other matters while Issei sat still, he decided to try and make some connections, he decided to start with Sayori.
"Sayori, may I ask how you got Cordis to join?" Issei was a bit curious about the relationship between Sayori and Cordis, since he didn't seem the kind of guy to really join this club.
"Oh! Cordis and I are childhood friends! He promised to join a club this year so I made him come here in exchange for Natsuki's cupcakes! Sayori seemed quite happy while talking.
The mention of a childhood friend did make him remember his childhood friend, "mmm, I wonder how he's doing, hope he's doing great."
The talks went on, as they all finished eating and drinking, Cordis and Monika seem to have ended their conversation. It seemed as if they were looking forward to the festival. "Did we actually have a festival?"
As time went on they continued to talk to Cordis, Issei started to feel more like a minor character than a secondary one at this point, but didn't want to risk getting on the bad side of the club members, he decided to wait out till they decided to talk to him.
Even then, the talk about literature did end up getting his attention, if he had to start writing, taking notes on what the other girls thought of could give him an advantage.
Just then Monika suggested going home to create our own poem, thankfully it seemed that they hadn't forgotten that Issei was with them. While Cordis was about to say something about not wanting to join the club, he abstained, Issei felt that the reason why was because he would have felt the same, getting to hang out with beautiful girls was something that would make Motohama and Matsuda incredibly jealous.
"I'll join the Literature Club'' Just as those words left Cordis' mouth, the room seemed to light up again, then Monika looked at Issei and asked "I assume you came just to join the club right? I don't see a reason to ask you about it then." She then lightly let out a laugh, it seemed a bit too easy for Issei to get into the club, especially with his reputation, but it seemed like a small club would not be picky on its members.
As we were about to leave the room Cordis and I were stopped by Monika's words "I look forward to seeing how both of you express yourselves." Just then Issei's heart started beating faster, Monika was indeed a charismatic person, he wouldn't be surprised that, if she wasn't a creation of the system, she would be regarded in the same level as Rias Gremory or Akeno Himejima by the Academy.
Again on his way home the window showed up, but this time he expected it.
Quest #1
Racing Heartbeat
Condition: Join the Literature Club
Failure: You don't join the Literature Club
Completed!
Rewards: Skill (Epistemophobic's Nightmare), Skill (Artistic Appraisal)
Well that was a name for a skill that did not seem nice, but the other one seems useful for the story.
Before Issei could do anything, another window opened with the next quest.
Quest #2
Work of Art
Condition: Show a Good grade poem at the Club
Failure: You are unable to show a Good grade poem
Accept
A Good grade? Maybe checking out the Help menu for more information would come great now. Swiftly, Issei went to check on the new stuff he had gained and the new terms he needed to know of.
Items are divided in different grades, Defective Strange Normal Good Great Magnum Opus. Appraisal skills allow you to differentiate grades of certain objects and gain other information.
"This system is indeed strange", saying to himself, Issei still had many questions about the system, many of which were still a mystery, maybe one day those questions would be answered, but now he wanted to see the new skills.
Skills:
(Feedback): Allows User to get suggestions and hints on certain choices. No Cooldown.
(Epistemophobic's Nightmare): Increases knowledge on a specific field chosen by the user. Depletes 10 Sanity per minute. 1 Hour Cooldown.
(Artistic Appraisal): Allows User to differentiate grades of artistic work and gain other information. No Cooldown.
Epistemophobic's Nightmare seems pretty powerful, however, the thought of losing sanity did make Issei nervous. As he finished thinking about it, he finally got home and went immediately to his room to get a notebook and pencil to start what he needed to do.
"Fuck, what am I supposed to write about?" Just minutes in and Issei was already out of ideas, he didn't know what to do, a poem? He doesn't remember ever creating one, be it haiku, a normal rhyme or anything of that style.
What showed in front of him was a selection of chances that he could slide to select one.
A Defective poem had a 100% chance, a Strange one a 35%, but when it got to Normal, the chances plummeted to 1%, just looking at the Magnum Opus selection showed his chances were literally 0%.
Issei decided that the only way of doing one was to use his skills. Nervously looking at the paper, he silently thinks of activating Epistemophobic's Nightmare waiting to see what would happen. Choosing to know everything about Literature, he immediately noticed the side effects kick in.
Then his mind went haywire as he grasped his head while the information poured inside of it like a stream of a cascade attempting to fill a mere cup. He learned certain things about authors he didn't even know existed, the mere existence of an unknown author became known to him as he also learned what despicable actions some of them made. The knowledge of all related to Literature was too much for Issei as he attempted to click on the board and slide to the Good grade poem section he noticed that the chances went up to 100%, however, curiosity got the better of him and he went to the Great and Magnum Opus sections, only to see that the chances were surprising.
You are attempting to create a Great grade poem, would you like to proceed forward?
Chance of Success 75%
Yes/No
You are attempting to create a Magnum Opus grade poem, would you like to proceed forward?
Chance of Success 5%
Yes/No
Looking at the chances, he decided to go for a Great grade poem, creating a Magnum Opus seemed too farfetched to him to actually succeed, clicking yes on the option he felt as the pain stopped, but when he looked down to his notebook all he saw was a ripped piece of paper.
It seemed like he had failed to create the poem, he tried to activate the skill only to be met with a message from the system.
You cannot activate the skill (Epistemophobic's Nightmare)
Time Remaining: 0:59:32
Issei sighed in disappointment but also relieved, as the pain was no longer there he realized that he needed to check on his sanity to see how much he had left.
Stats
Health 195/200 Sanity 96/100
Fortitude 2 Prudence 1
Temperance 3 Justice 0
Role: Secondary Character
What? Had only 4 minutes passed since he activated the skill? Or did the skill deactivate when he confirmed the creation of the Great grade poem? Either way it meant that he could try many times to create that poem.
But rather than wait and see what to do, he noticed that there was no cooldown on doing actions, this meant that he could create as many poems as he wanted. Due to this exploit, Issei decided on going for that 1%.
This continued until the cooldown wore off on his skill, thankfully, he still had a few old notebooks he kept from past years, but he did cringe on some of the stuff he wrote on them. Issei found out that his chance to make a Normal grade poem went up to 2%, it seems like the system does take in account practicing if you could even call what he was doing that.
When the cooldown finally ended, he braced himself for the pain as he quickly went to the screen to select the Great grade yet again, while the chances didn't change, Issei knew that he could get it this time.
You are attempting to create a Great grade poem, would you like to proceed forward?
Chance of Success 75%
Yes/No
Issei was confident that it would succeed this time, and his expectations were met, when he came back to his senses, a page in the notebook was full of words, this time however, it was structured much better than the other poems of lower grades he decided on using Artistic Appraisal to confirm it.
Item
Well Written Poem
Grade: Great
Description: A poem using an exotic language to express the depraved feelings of the author. This work of art uses a sensual tone to move the reader while forming erotic fantasies over long lost civilizations from foreign countries.
"Well it seems it does take into account my personality over what I write I guess" Issei didn't really understand what it was trying to say, but had an idea of what it was hinting at. However, Issei became curious over what a Magnum Opus grade poem would look like, he then proceeded to continue this constant routine created today of creating terrible poems and then gambling for the big one.
Many hours past as Issei continued to try for the highest graded poem, surprisingly enough he realized that he spent so little time using Epistemophobic's Nightmare that his Sanity bar didn't decrease much, but what he felt was strange was the fact that his Prudence was not leveling up, unlike his Temperance that went from a 3 to a 5, it seems like the reason why the Normal grade went up to 2% was not because of his hard work, but because his Temperance leveled up at that time and he didn't notice.
Just a few hours after when he was supposed to go to sleep he was trying to get this high grade poem to show it off instead of the Great graded one, he made a Good grade poem just in case the other two didn't count.
"Ok, maybe this time it will work" Issei, still playing with chance, activated his skill to quickly try for the Magnum Opus.
You are attempting to create a Magnum Opus grade poem, would you like to proceed forward?
Chance of Success 5%
Yes/No
The moment Issei pressed Yes, instead of simply having the pain go away, he found himself out of control of his body.
"Argh, why isn't the pain going away?" Issei started to worry, he saw as his hands started moving, they started writing while Issei could only look at the letters slowly forming while his hand moved the pencil.
Issei realized that he may had screwed up, he knew that the Magnum Opus would be created, but it seemed like he would still have his skill active, starting to squirm from the pain, he knew that all he could do now was wait till he finished writing and pray that his Sanity wouldn't go to 0. But what scared him the most was the fact that he heard himself talk despite not moving nor saying anything. "No, this isn't enough" were the words that came from his mouth, he saw as his body moved as if it was controlled as a puppet, he saw as his other self flipped the page to continue writing, his voice was still the same but the anxiety that accompanied it while it mumbled incomprehensive words.
"Please just make it fucking stop" Issei felt his brain turn into mush from all the constant disturbing and loud streams of information kept entering his mind.
Just then a notification from the system came up. Looking at it while his controlled self continued writing he saw it as another factor for his fear to form.
Your Sanity is lower than 5%. Proceed with caution.
"Just how fucking long have I been writing for" As the pain was still unbearable the white noise that came kept getting louder while his brain felt like it was about to explode, all while his other self continued to laugh while writing at a faster pace. But thankfully one of his traits activated in an unexpected form.
Trait (Deus Ex Machina) has activated
Right, due to the fact his Sanity has fallen to 1 this trait had activated, this trait may have possibly saved his life for whatever could have happened had he entered a Panic state. He waited a bit more until finally, he stopped writing, and he immediately fell to the floor completely exhausted from all the pain he had felt.
Once he got up again he looked at the notebook only to see the words move while scribbled ones kept appearing and disappearing. He was now confused, "What the hell happened with this Magnum Opus?"
Just to make sure, he used Artistic Appraisal to confirm its grade. What he found was something he both expected but at the same time didn't.
Item
Poem of the Black Swan
Grade: Magnum Opus
Description: It is incomprehensible for the author to read as it suppresses the writer's traumas, but it is a gleaming pillar of inspiration in the face of others. The black swan will pretend to be a white swan, but it will one day accept itself as the other swans take flight to the sky.
Effects: +2 Justice, decreases psychological damage by 20% while in the user's inventory
That would explain why he couldn't read it, but he was still confused over the last part of the description, he paid no mind as he realized that this item had effects attached to it, not only that, it also gave him Justice, which was something he didn't have any of.
Overjoyed over the success of the creation of the item, he was satisfied over this feat and the sleepiness finally kicked in, he dropped on his bed as he dozed off into the dream world.
(A/N)
You know I should be updating The Grimm Emperor instead, but I ended up publishing another story, this time with Issei Hyoudou as the protagonist. As you can see this is a different "Gamer System" story from what you usually encounter, at least for me, since I do have an idea of where I want this story to go, truthfully I based myself on various games and animes to create this, I will recompile some of them right now, but they are mostly small parts, I will also be putting certain things that seem like they are based on something but they are not, they were basically coincidence or I wrote them before realizing it was similar to another thing.
First of all the Stats are based on the ones from Lobotomy Corporation (Highly recommended) the same goes for Poem of the Black Swan, that being Dream of a Black Swan, but the concept of it, is incredibly different to really be its own thing.
Next the Second Take, it may look like Subaru's Return to death, but it was either this or a scrapped version of it. Speaking of scrapped versions, I am thinking of adding removed content, scrapped parts and such for next chapter's A/N to make it as a "Behind the Scenes" kind of thing, to see why something feels familiar and such.
The Literature Club is OBVIOUSLY the DDLC one, this gets us to the main premise, Issei will be going through different stories that are basically other ones that aren't his original one, but that doesn't mean it will just be a "rewrite" of another game or whatever, no, I included original stories made by me.
Why was the Protagonist of DDLC called Cordis? Well that is because Cordis is Latin for "Heart", you know DOKI DOKI, the onomatopoeia for the heartbeat in Japan.
I think that is for this A/N. So I'll see you guys in whenever I decide to update this. (Oh also be prepared because Issei will suffer a fuck ton)
Oh and the cover of the fic is john/TOOBOE クエスチョンマーク (Question Mark)
(Extra A/N)
So yeah decided to bring this fic from wattpad here since... idk.
This fic actually contains images and links that would work in wattpad but do not here, so if you are wondering what they are, then you know where to check. Aside from that i screwed up the initial poste of the chapter lmao.