It was a very tense situation, so much so that he was sweating bullets, as he concentrated his mind to its absolute limits, to come up with the right answer for his predicament, carefully thinking about all of his options before making the final decision that would decide the very fate of his future! After countless mental calculations and simulations, he was ready to commit to the final answer, and so!...

Masaru pressed the go button of the arcade machine, and with great intensity, he looked at the machine's arm move towards his target, a card that allowed him to get any game edition for free from the arcade store. He held his breath as he opened his eyes to the point that they appeared they would pop out at any second now. After all, this was his last chance to get that card, because he had already spent all his money on all the previous failed attempts.

He watched the arm stretch towards the prize card hole, and then it began to scrap on its rightmost edge, seeing it caused Masaru to feel a chill running down his spine down to his feet, as he feared for the worst. But the arm continued going, and then it spun followed by it retracting as the prize card slowly moved forward alongside it...

And then it fell to the bottom of the machine.

"YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!! UWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!"

Seeing his efforts paying off, Masaru commemorated his victory, which came at a very literal and high price, which arguably could have bought him a game had he gone to the store part of the arcade, instead of spending it in a single arcade machine. But undeterred by his poor financial decisions, Masaru picked the prize card and dashed to the prize counter.

"*Slaps the card on the counter* Yoh, boss, I want your most expensive game edition... For free"

"Alright"

The owner of the arcade answered in a very laidback manner to Masaru's comically serious and overconfident tone of superiority, and then he got up and went to the storage room to see what he had. After just a few minutes, the owner returned with a rather sizable box, for a video game, with a rather cutesy pink color.

"Okay, boy. This is the most expensive game edition I have"

"..."

Masaru looked at the box with a scrunched face as he picked it up and read the name of the game edition.

"...Doki Doki Magical Love... DX Deluxe-Plus Edition... ... ... Isn't DX, deluxe, plus, all synonyms for the same shit?"

"I think so, yes"

"Then why does this thing have all three at the same time?"

"Like I would know, boy"

"Fair... Now let's see what it has..."

Masaru then began reading all the things that came inside the box.

"Blah, blah, blah...Official guide... Exclusive DLCs... Exclusive items... Blah, blah, blah... Revamped story... Blah, blah, blah... Exclusive hot and steamy... R-18+ CGs and animations... ... ... I'll be taking this, owner. Thank you very much!"

And so, for definitely, absolutely, no suspicious or unholy reasons or motivations, Masaru decided to take home the definitely not an adult eroge version of an otome game, that he had the vague feeling that he saw somewhere before.

.

.

.

A few minutes later

"Sir? Can you help me with finding a certain game?"

"Hm? Of course, madam. What do you need?"

"Hmm... Would you by any chance have... *Deeply breaths in* DokiDokiMagicalLoveDXDeluxe-plusedition?"

"... ... ... Sorry, madam. Someone else just took the last copy I had of it"

Hearing the news, the office worker lady fell to her knees with a despairing face, before screaming...

"GODFU-"

.

.

.

Sometime later

"I'm back!"

"Welcome back, Nii-san!"

Masaru announced his arrival as he took off his shoes at the front entrance of his house, and he was immediately greeted back by his sister, but... There was no one standing at the front to receive him. So after he changed into his slippers, Masaru went to the living room, where he found his little sister Arisu, sitting on the sofa in a serious gamer position as she intently looked at the TV screen, while moving her fingers on the controller non-stop.

On the TV, Masaru could see the scene of a certain boss from a very familiar game, along with his sister's character dodging all of the boss attacks as if her life depended on it, and it very much did, because her character was literally hanging on by a hair's thread and she had no more heals left to use, but so was the boss, meaning that either one would lose if they were to receive one more hit.

"..."

Seeing that he wouldn't be able to talk to his sister, Masaru left the DDML DX Deluxe-plus edition box on top of the dinner table and went to his room upstairs to prepare himself for a bath, and as he went up he heard his sister's voice once again.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"

As she began screaming and wailing in despair and rage from losing to the boss.

Some minutes

"Hello, my dear imouto. Have you gotten any better at Malden Ring?"

"Shut up"

"I guess not"

Masaru looked at his sister lying on the floor with tears of rage flowing from her eyes at being killed by the boss multiple times already. Seeing that this was the perfect opportunity, Masaru went to pick the game he had brought with him earlier.

"Here, my dear imouto, a very expensive game that I managed to win at the arcade"

*Gets up in a jump* "Ooooooh! New game!"

Hearing the news, Arisu immediately abandoned her rage-filled despair mode for an excited one, until she saw the game that Masaru was handing to her.

"... ... ... Doki Doki Magical Love... DX Deluxe-Plus edition... Don't DX, Deluxe, plus, all mean the same shit?"

"I think they do, yes"

"Why did you pick this thing, instead of a better game?"

At Arisu's perfectly reasonable question, Masaru simply turned the box, and pointed at the list of content, more specifically to the very end of the list, where Arisu read the content.

"Exclusive hot and steamy... R-18+ CGs and animations..."

"..."

"..."

Arisu looked at her brother in silence with a serious face, as he responded in kind with an equally serious face.

"..."

"..."

"You made the perfect choice, Nii-san!"

"You're goddamn right! I did!"

"Now what are we waiting for, Dear brother? Let's start playing the game since Mom and Dad won't be coming back today, and tomorrow is also Saturday!"

"Of course, dear sister! Let us play and totally enjoy the great story of a visual novel that neither of us remembers playing!"

"Yes!"

Like a true brother and sister, they both shared a single brain cell when it came to this kind of stuff. And so, they began opening the box, taking off everything inside, and booting the game into their gaming console, which led to the game beginning its download, as they waited, Masaru began reading the official guide.

"... *Flips page*... ... ... *Flips page*... ... ...

<The player character also known as the heroine is the reincarnation of the saint, and the long lost... blah blah blah...>

... ... ... *Flips page* ... ... ...

<Lysette Neville, a key blah blah blah... She's the main rival for the crown prince route and the reincarnation of the de-blah blah blah...>

*Flips page*... ... ... *Flips page*

<Atsuko Shimizu, a pre-order DLC exclusive character... She replaces Jade as the second prince's fiancé... ... ... Who's Jade again?>

*Flips page back* ... ... ...

<Ah, that's Jade, got it> *Flips page* <Blah blah blah... She's the current vessel of the blah blah blah...>

... ... ... *Flips page*... *Flips page*... ... ... *Flips Page*

<Edward Harding, originally blah blah blah... Revamped backstory blah blah blah... A key side character that serves as the stand-in for all the background characters and as a gauge meter for the player about their reputation in the school blah blah blah...

The player is recommended to keep the friendship bar at a minimum of 60 to prevent a successful accusation by Lysette in act... Blah blah blah... And at a maximum friendship level, the player also receives special discounts at the coffee and clothes stores... Blah blah blah... He also provides useful hints and recommendations on how to handle the capture targets on certain days blah blah...

Overall, a side character that one should occasionally talk to, but not mandatory or required to progress the story, but recommended for facilitating most of the game progress blah...>

After reading that entry, Masaru raised his head to look at the progress of the game download, only to see a loading screen while his sister was using the phone while waiting for the download to finish

"... Isn't the download finished yet?"

"It was, but now the previous version of the game we had is being upgraded to this super version, and the saves converted, as well as downloading all the DLCs and updates"

"Ah, I see"

Realizing that they're gonna be waiting for a little longer, Masaru went back on flipping through the pages of the official game guide, which was mostly breakdowns and profiles of the main and side characters, but he eventually got to the other sections about the places the player could visit, as well as all the areas were one could find collectibles or rare equipment, then the combat guide, and finally the relationship system breakdown, and a step by step guide of getting all the characters.

Which consisted of three different but related gauges, one for affection, another for friendship, and the last one being the relationship gauge between NPCs.

The first one was self-explanatory as that was simply the gauge that let one see how much it would take for a capture target to confess to the heroine.

The second was the gauge that allowed the player to get access to unique missions and help from the capture targets without having to trigger their date and confession events if it was above 50 points. While the third one was very similar to the second one, it was in-between NPCs, and mandatory to have at 100 between all Capture targets if the player was attempting to get the harem ending.

How did it work? Let me explain by using one of the capture characters' routes.

In the crown prince route, be it for the harem ending or not, one of the fastest ways to increase his affection is by having the player character talk to the other capture targets, which leads to a significant boost in his affection gauge.

This is because different from the other characters, where the player can use gifts and everyday conversations to give boosts in the affection gauge, on the crown prince it does the opposite, instead the player has to give a timer of usually one week in-game for presents, while conversations need to be done once in every three days, to properly raise the crown prince's affection. But this, of course, leads to a slow increase of his affection, which can mess with one's attempt for the harem ending if they mess something up during his route until the final act.

As such, one of the most consistent methods of capturing the crown prince within a shorter time frame, is by using his possessive trait and his inherent interest in the heroine to give oneself an affection boost, by having the player character flirt with the other targets, but this comes with a drawback, due to his possessive trait, the crown prince's friendship gauge with the other capture targets will decrease by the same amount that his affection gauge increases. (Side note: The player must regularly talk to the crown prince to maintain the traits and keep the strategy viable) 

One of the most common methods of dealing with this problem is by going on quests with the crown prince and the other capture character that most recently lost friendship points with him. Unique and special quests give higher friendship points between characters, but their single means that they must be used strategically.

Due to these reasons, the community also knows the crown prince as the "Progress Staller" or as the "NTR-fans bait."

"... ... ..." <Why does an otome game have such an unnecessarily difficult relationship system? And man, that crown prince is one pain in the butt of a capture target>

That was all that Masaru could think of as he read the game guide, and passing the main game and mechanics guide, he reached the special edition and DLCs guide section.

"... ... ... *Flips page*... ... ... *Flips page*... ... ... *Flips page*" <Heh... Spirkly Sparkly Paradise Beach... *Flips page*... !!!>

When Masaru looked at the page showcasing all the contents, he made an expression that he had his neurons activated at seeing some of the summer-like CGs and costumes, which intrigued him.

<Okay, okay, I bought into that, now let's see the other DLCs... ... ... *Nodding* Very interesting... ... ... Pretty hot... ... ... Would... ... ... Wowzies... ... ... Pyon-Pyon Bnuy Adventure... ... ... *Flips page* Hot damn! Why are the antagonists always this hot? And those are some delicious bnuys as well>

Then just as Masaru had finished checking the last DLC which was exclusive to this edition he had just brought home, he heard music coming from the TV and saw the game starting.

"Alright, imouto-chan. We'll double team this, you'll be the driver while I'll be the map guide"

"Got it, Nii-san!"

Deciding on their roles, the two siblings prepared themselves to have a rather chill session of watching R-1... I mean playing a visual novel game. The game started normally, and so did the main menu, so far so good, but this changed when they went to the start new game, where they could see the save slots available, with two already being occupied, however...

"Hm? Nii-san, why is one of the saves filled with corrupted words?"

"Probably some quirk problem of the conversion, maybe because the save wasn't completed yet, or something"

"Makes sense... Hm?... Nii-san, is it just me, or is the second save timer still ongoing?"

"... ... ... It's ongoing"

"..."

"..."

"Nii-san... Are we in one of those creepypasta video scenarios type of situation?"

"... Maybe"

"What do we do then? Usually, bad stuff happens whatever we do to the corrupted save or start playing the game"

"My dear imouto, I'll show you how exactly what do we do in these types of situations"

Masaru showed a confident smile to his sister, as he began making a call.

.

.

.

"Masaru-chan! I came as you asked!"

"Thank you, and sorry for calling you here so suddenly, Chika-chan"

"Ah! I-I-It's n-not a-a problem a-at all, Masaru-chan! I-I-I glad y-you c-c-called m-me t-t-o v-v-visit you"

"Welcome, Chika-chan"

"Thank you, Arisu-chan!"

After Arisu greeted Chika, the childhood friend of the two, Masaru sent her a glance that sent her a message, which Arisu completely understood, and that message was...

<My dear imouto, in these types of creepypasta situations... You just have to find yourself a sacrificial lamb>

<Sasuga, Nii-sama!>

That's right! The two were going to have Chika be the one playing the corrupted save file, and watch what would happen to her. Truly, a foolproof plan.

"Erm... S-So, Masaru-chan, w-what d-did you call me here f-for?"

"Ah! We just wanted to have a chill gaming session with you!"

"That's right! That's right!"

"Ah! I see" < Yes! A chance to spend time close to Masaru-chan!"

"Now, now, Chika-chan. You can go start the game by clicking on the second box going from top to bottom, while I and Arisu will prepare some drinks for us three"

"That's right! That's right!"

"Got it! I just have to click on the second topmost box!"

"Yup, yup, that's all you need to do"

And with that, Masaru and Arisu both suspiciously moved themselves to the kitchen, as they almost looked like they were sidling sideways, while Chika without any suspicion of the two, went to the living and picked up the controller to start the game.

This was one of the reasons for Masaru picking Chika out of everyone that he knew, the other one was that she was his childhood friend and lived nearby, while this one was that Chika was completely illiterate when it came to games and media related to it, making her the perfect sacrificial lamb for this kind of stuff! Because she would never suspect anything since she had no idea that something was wrong!

And so, Chika clicked on the corrupted save file!... ... ... And then nothing happened, instead what appeared was a seemingly normal game screen, with two characters inside a room.

One of the characters was a very cute and beautiful black-haired girl making an embarrassed face, while the other was a dark brown-haired boy with a rather plain face making a smiling troubled face. And then lower on the screen, a box appeared lying the following.

//What answer do you want to suggest to Edward?

>Yes

>No

>Pass

"?"

Not understanding what the options were about, Chika simply looked in confusion at the choices, before simply doing the only thing she knew about video games... Pressing the X button. Which meant that the Yes option was clicked.

The male character made an even more troubled expression as he began sweating even more, as the box below showed three dots repeating three times before it was cleared.

Edward: S-Sure...

Nanako: !... ... ... P-Please b-b-be gentle with me..."

"???"

Seeing the conversation between the two characters, Chika became even more confused as she couldn't understand what they were talking about, but she had the vague impression that it was about something shameless, however before she could think more about it.

"Hol' up! We're already having a spicy scene? !"

"I'm taking back the controller! Because I'm the driver!"

"Hyaaahh!!!"

Chika let out a surprised and embarrassed voice at the two siblings sitting closely next to her on both sides especially because of how close Masaru was sitting next to her.

Edward: *Sits down on the bed*

Nanako: *Sits on Edward's lap*

Edward: ...

Nanako: ...

//Edward is struggling with what to do, would you like to suggest something?

>Pat her head

>Rub her chest

>Pass

" " ". . ." " "

" "!" "

"!?"

Seeing the options available, Masaru and Arisu's eyes began to sparkle at the chance of seeing a naughty CG just a few minutes after starting the game, while Chika made a flustered expression. And of course, Arisu chose the second choice without even consulting her brother.

Edward once again frowned his face as if he was getting a headache, and then the scene changed to a very detailed one of him rubbing Nanako's breasts from behind. Which was enough to get the two stupid siblings very excited about what would be coming next.

Nanako: Hyaahn!?

Edward: *Groping Nanako's breasts*

Nanako: H-Hyanh! E-Edward-sama. Ahn! P-P-Please b-be more-

Then the CG changed to a similar one, but this time with the two characters kissing. Making the two dumb siblings even more anticipated at what would come next, to the point that they appeared to be waving their arms wildly, while Chika on the other hand was blushing at seeing the CGs.

//*Kissing SFX*

Nanako: MMMMNNN!!! E-Edward... Mnnnpphhhh!!! S-Sama... MMMMPPPHHHH!!!

Again, the CG changed to a completely different one, this time where the girl appeared to be pinned down on the bed, as he shirt was completely open, revealing her light pink bra, and bountiful chest. The two degenerate siblings were now sounding even like monkeys as they were hipping themselves for the R-18 CG. As for Chika, she was on the verge of reaching her limit when it came to this type of stuff.

//*Door crashing open SFX*

Nanako & Edward: ?!

???: Edward-sama... Nanako-san... What do you two think you're doing?

However, instead of an R-18 CG, the scene changed to the CG of a beautiful blonde-haired girl making a really angry and enraged expression.

Edward: Ah! L-Lysette-sama, erm you see...

Lysette: Edward-sama, were you thinking of committing fornication with Nanako-san without my permission as your first fiancée?

Edward: I-It's not like that, Lysette-sama!

Lysette: Then how is it then?

Edward: ... Erm... ... ... You see... Hmm... N-Nanako wanted to... Do naughty stuff with me...

Nanako: /// *Blushing sfx*

Lysette: Then what do you have to say about your current position, and intentions without including my opinion, Edward-sama?

Edward: Erm... ... ...

//Edward is in a pinch, would you like to suggest something?

>Be honest

>Try to find an excuse

>Pass

>Insert custom answer

" "..." "

The two siblings, seeing this course of events, looked at the screen with serious expressions, as they weighed their options from years of experience reading romcoms and definitely very wholesome stuff, whose term started with an H, and they knew exactly what to answer. So they looked at each other and nodded in agreement with confident expressions.

>Insert custom answer: Threesome

And Arisu slammed the X button on the send box without any hint of regret or shame.

Edward began cold sweating even more as if his mind was being filled with a very stupid idea, but he couldn't think of anything else, and so...

Edward: T-Then h-how about y-you join u-us for a t-threesome, Lysette-sama?