My New Life as a Mob Prologue

Inside a room with the curtains drawn tight, I stared at the sole source of light: my computer screen.

Displayed before me was the 18+ game Soshite Sekai wa Aiiro ni (And the World Turned Indigo). Since its release, it had shot up the rankings in the blink of an eye—a popular title highly rated by players. The premise was your bog-standard youth rom-com: a dull high school boy lives his school life while beautiful girls start fawning over him. However, it had garnered a reputation for being a tear-jerker—a game so moving it could make you cry.

I’d secretly bought a copy and was in the middle of a playthrough. Just like the reviews said, while it was a "royal road" classic setup, the story was undeniably dense and compelling. I hadn't cried yet, but there were plenty of emotional scenes.

I felt that way especially about this heroine’s route—the last one I had saved for the end. It wasn’t just her cute looks; her personality and the way she treated the protagonist were charming, and the story was genuinely interesting. I’d become so absorbed that I’d stayed up practically all night playing it.

I hit the Enter key, and the heroine on the screen turned around. Her hair fluttered in the wind, backlit by the glow of the sunset. This was a scene on the school rooftop after classes, where the protagonist was consulting the heroine about his worries.

Apparently, he was anxious about how to handle himself in the Student Council, where he worked alongside her.

The art was gorgeous and the mood was emotional, but this wasn't the narrative climax yet. Wanting to get to the sex scene as fast as possible, I was tapping Enter to skim through the dialogue. I was only half-reading, figuring as long as I grasped the flow of the conversation, that was enough.

"...I also lose sight of things sometimes."

Scanning the text casually, my eyes snagged on that line. My hand stopped hovering over the keyboard. Unlike before, the heroine's voice suddenly rang out clearly in the room.

It was just a throwaway line. But coming from such a perfect, superhuman heroine, it was a little unexpected.

"I never know what I should do, or how I should act... I’m always lost. But, well, since I’m the only one who always has to watch me, I decided I wanted to be the kind of person I don’t hate."

It felt like I’d been whacked over the head.

I have no friends even after entering university. I just buy light novels or eroge and shut myself in at home after school and on weekends. The other day, I felt like the girl sitting next to me called me "gross" or something, but I’m past the point of getting hurt. I just accept it as the way things are.

I don't know what to do anymore. Or rather, my life has always been like this, so I don't feel like I can change anything.

It’s not that I’m not trying—it’s more that I can’t even summon the energy to try.

It’s not like I’m suffering terribly. I’ve just convinced myself that this constant feeling of something missing is simply how life is supposed to be.

'I thought that was true, but thinking back, was it really?'

If I look at my past, maybe I never actually tried hard enough at anything to gain even a little confidence in myself.

On the screen, bathed in the sunset, the heroine gave a soft, gentle smile.

"But, you know... I think you’ll be okay."

It was just a throwaway line in an eroge I started to kill time.

Yet for some reason, those words pierced right through my heart.

"Morning already, huh..."

I hadn't noticed the morning sun peeking through the gap in the curtains. I stretched my stiff body.

For example, maybe today I could try saying hello to that guy in my circle I’ve wanted to talk to for a while.

My heart felt far lighter than usual. It was just self-projection and intoxication from a fictional work, but for this morning alone, I felt like a protagonist. I even started thinking I wanted to live like her. To live in a way that would let me say lines like that.

—Feeling strangely refreshed, I had no idea at that moment.

That I would end up reincarnating into the world of Soshite Sekai wa Aiiro ni as the villain.

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