1 Chapter 1: Echoes of a Dark Past: A System for Change
A terrible dream was what he thought upon waking.
Looking at his smartphone and seeing it was only 5:55 in the morning, he got up and went to the bathroom.
Washing his face, when he looked in the mirror, he was startled.
"Wasn't it a dream?" He murmured as he touched his face.
In the mirror's reflection, he saw a boy with slightly tanned skin, blue eyes, and dyed blond hair.
"Did I really become the playboy who stole the protagonist's girlfriend from a hentai anime?" He was incredulous.
As he stood dumbfounded, a terrible headache afflicted his head, and memories of Reiji Matsuoka began to invade his mind.
In his memories, he saw that Reiji Matsuoka had a turbulent life. His father was an alcoholic, addicted to gambling and drugs, and his mother was turned by his father into a drug-addicted prostitute who worked in a brothel to support her own addiction and that of her husband, who became her pimp. And whenever something went wrong, both his father and mother would beat him. Especially his mother; because of this, he developed a certain aversion towards women, thinking all women in the world were promiscuous and deserved to be used by men.
Of course, it wasn't always like this, in fact, this seems to be a different version than what he saw in the hentai, since the 'Reiji' from the hentai came from a very wealthy family. Whereas the boy Reiji he replaced had a good life until the age of 11, before his father lost almost all his fortune (the reason for which he did not know). But, it didn't take long for his father to lose what remained on gambling and betting. Soon after, he started using drugs and, when he became completely penniless, he used his wife, Reiji's mother, as an ATM, turning her, who was a decent woman before, with a good appearance, into a high-class prostitute at first, until she fell into working at the cheap brothel where she was forced to support her own drug addiction and that of her husband.
As for Reiji himself, when he turned 14, he started living on his own, initially working part-time in a coffee shop, where, incidentally, he has remained to this day.
However, it didn't mean that this alternate version of Reiji was a good person; he simply didn't have much of a choice. He couldn't even contemplate doing what the other Reiji did, since he lacked resources and means.
However, as he aged, he started to notice the looks from girls, even 'dated' some (although it never went all the way...), until he began to have strange ideas about doing something similar to what his father did.
He wished to become a pimp. However, how could he do that? He had no wife, nor a girlfriend who would be willing to do something like that...
However, at the age of 17, he lost his virginity and his mind 'cleared'...
Indeed, it was. He just needed some time and encouragement until he slept with a college student for the first time.
However, making her become submissive to him, to the point of becoming a call girl, was a different story, but... He still had that dream; he wanted an easy life!
Not only that, he had an uncontrollable desire to 'break' a girl, making her fall deeply in love with him and, after 'using' her until he got bored, simply throwing her away and moving on to the next.
"Fortunately, although 'he' had slept with some college students, nothing beyond that happened..." Reiji sighed, relieved.
Not for lack of trying, the previous Reiji had insinuated some things, however, although the college students he 'dated' did not have high standards when it came to sleeping with someone, they were not necessarily fools or would simply submit to him just because he was well-endowed. Such a thought was simply laughable.
It was then that he thought of easier targets; targets who had just reached adulthood. Girls aged 18-20, preferably still virgins.
And, perhaps by fate, one of his targets now listed in his notebook, was a girl named Kanade Amakawa, the heroine of the hentai he saw in the other Reiji's version.
Besides her, there was also a naive and innocent girl he had saved twice and, because she began to show interest in him, the previous Reiji had also marked her, but she was marked as a target to be groomed...
Another girl was one he had saved...
Honestly, how many girls had he ended up saving out there?
Again, it wasn't that he was a good person, but he wanted to explore the effect of saving the damsel in distress, so he would go to specific places where the chances of girls being harassed were high, and then gradually make them fall in love with him, eventually turning them into what he desired until they broke...
Of course, for this to work, he himself needed to have some strength to 'save' the girls, which is why he trained at home regularly and sometimes ran.
"Tsk! Seriously, out of all the people I could have transmigrated into, it had to be someone like this?" He murmured, frustrated.
Deep down, he was really relieved that the Ex-Reiji hadn't put his plans into action...
Disgusted, he went to the sink, poured some alcohol on the notebook, then set it on fire, slowly turning the notebook into ashes.
As the fire burned, he remembered something: "By the way, what was that?"
Yesterday, he was too tired, full of pains, etc., and ended up sleeping as soon as he transmigrated. However, thinking about it now, he recalls seeing some kind of floating holographic page.
It was something that seemed to contain statistical information about his character or something like that.
━━━━━━━━
[Academics: 18
Physical Capacity: 22
Art: 15
Music: 19
Communication: 21
Charisma: 25
Luck: 10]
━━━━━━━━
Seeing this, for now, he put all the previous thoughts about Ex-Reiji aside.
'Oh?' Reiji raised an eyebrow and murmured: "So that's what appeared before... Huh, let me see... The highest is my charisma and..." Upon clicking, he noticed that the average level of a normal adult in each of them was about 20, so his charisma was above average, while the rest were at an acceptable level.
As he clicked, the information expanded, and he began to explore what this meant.
Along with the statistics, came the ability to increase them. For example, studies could be boosted with options like [go to prep school], [study at home], [hire a tutor], etc., while physical capacity had options like [exercise at home], [run in the morning], [train at the gym], etc.
Additionally, there were also CGs and video playbacks, which allowed replaying some scenes of him interacting with girls; almost like a kind of album.
But all that was mentioned above wasn't so special.
The last function was what Reiji found most surprising and most innovative - even without any of the above abilities, he could subvert the entire world just with this ability!
And it was no joke!
Because the final capability of the dating simulation system was...
Save and Load!!!
This game function was the most common of all; after all, all dating simulation games come with this function.
But, for such an ability to appear in real life, heavens... This cheat was truly powerful!
If it were Ex-Reiji, one could already imagine what kind of absurdities he would do with this ability...
"Wait..."
In Reiji Matsuoka's memories, he saw a beautiful red-haired woman from the Third Year...
"Is that Rias Gremory from High School DxD?"
This revelation shocked him quite a bit. Then, he thought of the student council president, and it was indeed Souna Shitori, of course, that must be a fake name she used in the human world like in the anime, and her real name must be Sona Sitri.
Moreover, the school he was attending was Kuoh Academy...
"...Does this mean that this world is extremely dangerous?" If before he was only worried about becoming Reiji Matsuoka, now he finds out he's in a world where even beings like demons, angels, etc., existed... His concerns doubled.
'Wait, why should I worry so much?' He thought, 'I mean, so far, 'Reiji' doesn't have enemies, nor has he had direct contact with the supernatural that could put his life at risk...'
Thinking this way, he felt more at ease. Not to mention, he had his ability to save and load.
Although he had no enemies so far; you never know when you might become a target or even end up in the crossfire of supernatural beings, thus ending his new chance to live again.
///
For the next few hours, Reiji spent experimenting with the system's functions, trying to discover something new, and experimented with using his final ability; to save and load the saved file.
He saved at 6:11, and it was 10:35 when he made the first test to return.
The sky, which had been clear before, began to darken again. At that moment, he glanced at the clock on his smartphone and realized it was showing 6:11. It was then that he breathed with some difficulty.
"It worked... I actually went back in time..." It seemed surreal, something so out of the ordinary that, even experiencing things like transmigration among other things, still left him incredulous.
This became the first saved record right after his transmigration.
From this point, a new existence begins: a life renewed after transmigration.
One of the first actions of Reiji was to return his hair to its original color, gradually letting the Ex-Reiji fall into oblivion. He already considered the memories of Ex-Reiji as part of an unpleasant plot of a series he felt obliged to follow...
With all this in mind, he started to act, but as it was still early, going out at this time wasn't ideal; for now, he chose the option to [exercise at home] when opening the system window.
Then, his mind was suddenly filled with the need to do warm-up exercises, and his brain automatically heard a quick "one, two, three, and four..." His body then instinctively began to move, and his mind was fully focused on the exercise...
///
Plop! Reiji made a sound as if he was coming out of a pool, and indeed, his entire body was completely soaked. Every pore exuded sweat, and his clothes, saturated, released an unpleasant odor.
After breathing heavily, he looked at the time.
Wow, he really exercised without breaks for four whole hours!
What madness, this option could kill him someday!
He was so exhausted that he could barely move at that moment, completely paralyzed by fatigue.
Despite having been extremely taxing on his body, the effect was noticeable; his [Physical Capacity] attribute had instantly increased by three points.
By eleven in the morning, he left the house.
///
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