I have a life simulator.

Post-mortem

Chapter One: The Story Is Not Over Yet

After the summer special exams, the Tokyo Advanced Educational High School thoughtfully provided the students with about two weeks to fully enjoy their vacation. They even refrained from announcing the results of the special exams immediately after the exams, explaining that the scoring and statistics were relatively complex and required more time to ensure fairness and rigor.

However, at this point, most of the students at Dongyu University were no longer concerned about the results of this special summer exam. Everyone's attention was drawn to the series of big news stories that occurred in the last few days of the exam.

The first issue is that Nan Yunya was expelled for violating school rules.

This kind of topic, which would have been enough to keep Dongyu students discussing it on the campus forum for more than a week in the past, can only be considered an appetizer now. After all, Nan Yunya did something that made it onto a news program on TV just a few days after dropping out of school.

The other party actually chose to assassinate a politician in the street on the last day of this special exam. Although most students at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School were not particularly familiar with political positions such as Minister or Senator, they could tell from the impressive prefixes in the news report on TV that the person being assassinated was definitely someone important.

According to official reports and videos and photos taken by other citizens nearby, Nan Yunya disguised her homemade gun as a camera. She deliberately approached the victim, deceived his bodyguard, and then fired at close range. In just one shot, the middle-aged man named Ayanokouji Atsuomi was overjoyed and collapsed to the ground.

It wasn't until then that several of his bodyguards finally arrived and pinned Nagumo Aya to the ground, restraining her. She seemed to have no intention of running away and was just standing there in a daze. By the time the ambulance arrived a dozen minutes later, both Ayanokouji Atsuomi and Nagumo Aya had already lost their vital signs.

The former died from gunshot wounds that damaged and caused bleeding in the heart's major arteries, while the latter died from cyanide that he had hidden in his mouth beforehand and chose to commit suicide by poisoning himself after being subdued by his bodyguards.

Frankly speaking, if the students of Tokyo Advanced Educational High School hadn't already returned to school by bus that day, they would probably have been surrounded by reporters asking about Nagumo Masahiro by now. However, some reporters did manage to contact the school, but the school decisively and solemnly cut them off, stating that the reporters had already been expelled for violating school rules before taking such actions, and even that Nagumo Masahiro herself had committed misconduct earlier this year.

Of course, the students at Dongyu University wouldn't pay attention to the details that the reporters uncovered later, such as the other party's movements over the past month and their political leanings. After all, that was something they were too lazy to understand and had no interest in, especially since the impact of this incident would have further repercussions.

In fact, after Ayanokouji Atsuomi's name was reported, some students at Dongyu University already thought of Ayanokouji Kiyotaka from Class 2-C, since the surname Ayanokouji is not very common. However, before they could even post about it, Dongyu University announced that Ayanokouji Kiyotaka had voluntarily submitted his withdrawal application due to family changes, which basically confirmed the relationship between the two.

In addition, Ishigami Kyo from Class 1-A also left the school in this incident. However, his fame in Dongyu was not as great as that of Nagumo Masaru or even Ayanokoji Kiyotaka. So apart from the first-year students, the second and third-year students didn't pay much attention to him.

In any case, for them who were still high school students, murder and politics were relatively distant concepts. The shock they felt upon suddenly hearing that a classmate they knew or were even familiar with had been involved in such a matter was unimaginable. After all, the worst outcome they could imagine for Nan Yunya was that she would be disgraced and expelled from school.

But the world never stops turning just because someone is missing. After all, in the eyes of most students at Dongyu University, the death of the politician named Ayanokouji Atsuomi would not have mattered at all if it weren't for the fact that the murderer was Nagumo Masaru and that he was suspected to be the father of Ayanokouji Kiyotaka.

As for Kitagawa Ryo and the girls around him, they were more concerned about the aftermath than the incident itself, especially after Ayanokoji Kiyotaka withdrew from Tokyo Advanced Educational High School.

After all, everyone knows about the bet between Kitagawa Ryo and Ayanokouji Kiyotaka. When one of them leaves first, people naturally start to worry that Kitagawa Ryo might also have to leave Dongyu University, thus ending what might be their last carefree student days together.

However, probably because most of the politicians with ulterior motives were taking advantage of the situation to make various moves and jump around, Kitagawa Ryo was not called back immediately. After all, it was someone with the surname Ayanokouji who died, not someone in his family. So he just settled down in Dongyu and began to adopt the same mentality as Kiryuin Fuka: take it one day at a time.

After learning that Kitagawa Ryo would not be leaving anytime soon, the girls around him were relieved. After all, except for a couple of them, most of them had already decided to study at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School until graduation.

This isn't a choice between love and studies; it's simply a consideration for the future. After all, their relationship with Kitagawa Ryo doesn't need to be demonstrated in this way. The truly responsible approach and attitude towards their relationship is to steadily improve themselves and make their future path smoother.

Thanks to Tokyo Advanced Educational High School's fully enclosed management model and the fact that it is still just a high school, many of the storms outside did not reach it, and those that did were basically blocked by the school. However, this does not mean that this incident had no impact on Tokyo Advanced Educational High School other than being a topic of conversation, at least not for the current student council president, Suzune Horikita.

Looking at all the student council presidents since the founding of Dongyu School, Horikita Suzune is probably the one who has experienced the most ups and downs.

The problem the student union is currently facing is simple: it is short of people again.

With Ayanokouji Kiyotaka and Ishigami Kyo dropping out of school one after another, the student council, which already had few members, suddenly lost two more. Leaving aside the latter, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka was, after all, the official vice president of the student council. With such a vacancy suddenly opened up, someone definitely needed to fill the position.

Theoretically, this spot should be filled by a second-year student, but apart from Horikita Suzune, there are only three second-year students left in the student council: Sakayanagi Arisu, who is already the vice president, Katsuragi Kohei, and Amasawa Ichika.

However, both Katsuragi Kohei and Amasawa Ichika clearly stated that they had no interest in the position.

The latter is mainly due to her carefree personality, or to put it bluntly, her laziness. She has always been the kind of person who acts unconventionally. Unless she is really needed to take the lead, she will definitely slack off whenever she can. For Tianze Yixia, becoming the vice president of the student council would not bring any benefits other than having to do more work, so she immediately declined the offer with a smile.

Katsuragi Kohei was still reeling from the Ayanokouji Kiyotaka incident. In fact, he was the one who knew the least about the whole thing but was also the most hurt. After all, he genuinely wanted Ayanokouji Kiyotaka to take over as the class leader and lead the class forward. But unfortunately, Ayanokouji Kiyotaka's focus had long since shifted away from Touyu.

It was precisely because neither of the two second-year students was willing to take on the position of vice president that the candidates were forced to be moved down to the first-year students, and in the end, the more proactive Yuki snatched the position.

There was nothing they could do. The other two students were also wondering what had happened. After a special exam, their leader and one of their teammates had both run away, leaving them in a state of confusion.

But Yuki is different. If Kitagawa Ryo had already left Tokyo Advanced Educational High School with Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, that would be fine. But since she hasn't left yet, she will definitely take the opportunity to accept the position she has long coveted. Why did she specifically look for the materials related to Kitagawa Ryo's Valentine's Day celebration before the club special exam in May? Wasn't it just so that she could have a chance to replicate it later?

Now is the perfect time.

And so, after a rather chaotic series of departures and transfers, Yuki finally took office as the vice president of the student council, and on her very first day in office, she immediately presented her ideas and applications to the student council president, Horikita Suzune.

"Want to hold one more large event at the end of this summer vacation?"

Looking at the documents Xue handed over, Horikita Suzune rested her chin on her hand and tilted her head, sensing a familiar feeling. Amasawa Ichika, standing beside her, leaned over and casually remarked:

"I think this event was held once before?"

After saying that, she recalled for a moment and added:

"It wasn't the one on Valentine's Day this year, but some timeline from the past. I heard Hiyori and Megumi talk about it."

As someone who gets along well with everyone in the entire circle, Tianze Yixia has also specifically collected the information that is currently available. After all, apart from those few bad ending world lines, the few people who have had simulation experience will not deliberately hide the story of the world line in which they won. After all, this can also be regarded as another form of 'what kind of champion are you?'

According to the information released by Shiina Hiyori and Karuizawa Megumi, that time it was a win-win situation for them, and both of them won!

However, only the four people and the cat know the truth. Anyway, neither Kitagawa Ryo nor Hotaru will actively expose this lie. A mental victory is still a victory. As the saying goes, when you're out in the world, your identity and experiences are what you give yourself. So everyone can enjoy writing history and start creating their own stories.

"It seems that Ryo applied to host that event as well. Ryo must have referred to his own experience back then for this year's Valentine's Day celebration. After all, I remember Hui saying that Ryo also used a drone to confess his love that time. It's a kind of path dependence."

Upon hearing Tianze Yixia's words, Xue breathed a sigh of relief and immediately replied confidently again:

"It's because Liang took the initiative to carefully organize both of these events that I wanted to give him a surprise from me as well."

"That's a good idea. This year, Liang has done a three-pronged approach for Valentine's Day. He arranged everything perfectly for Fanbo at the school celebration, and he also gave Arisu a performance that generated a lot of buzz outside of school. He even responded to Hiyori's feelings. He really should be able to relax and simply be a kid waiting to open his Christmas presents and see what everyone gave him. So, what's our next step?"

"...Why is it just 'us'? This was my idea first, okay?"

Faced with Tianze Yixia, who started saying "we, we" with unparalleled smoothness, Xue also twitched the corners of her mouth in protest.

"Isn't it because I was worried that Xue wouldn't be able to prepare and wouldn't have thought things through enough on her own? Don't worry, this matter will at most fall on the two of us, no, also on Suzune. I definitely won't tell Arisu. In the end, you're still thinking about what happened at Tokyo Tower on Valentine's Day, right? I bet you were there before you even enrolled, right?"

"Tch... Say whatever you want, I've already gotten my revenge on Arisu. But if you want to get involved, then get involved too, along with Suzune. But it won't just be the three of us; Sakura will help too."

As she spoke, Xue raised a thumb again to emphasize:

"Alright, that's the limit. Don't tell anyone else, especially you big mouth, Yixia."

"Where am I a big mouth? If I were, I wouldn't have to work so hard in front of the cold noodles in the morning... um."

Reaching out, she covered Amasawa Ichika's mouth as he started spouting nonsense again in the student council president's office. Horikita Suzune also looked up at Yuki with a serious expression and waved the letter in her hand. Just as Yuki thought she was about to say something serious, she suddenly heard Horikita Suzune declare with a solemn face:

"Actually, Liang was with me the whole time from the second half of Valentine's Day until the next day, which was my birthday."

"...I don't know anything about this. I wasn't even enrolled at that time."

"But it's important. After all, if we only look at the result, I should be the ultimate winner of that day's celebration. By the way, do you want to see the (championship) ring that Liang gave me that day...?"

"Sigh, it's a pity that Lingyin didn't wear the decisive attack speed set I gave you that day, otherwise it should be credited to me for one-third of the credit."

"I'm saying... why don't you approve this application first and then submit it to the school for final approval, Mr./Ms.?"

In short, with someone's somewhat frantic suggestion and without Kitagawa Ryo's knowledge, preparations for a celebration that was completely different from before, a gift from the girls to him alone, began.

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: To briefly explain the upcoming updates, first, there will be a short epilogue, roughly a flashback and recap, following the timeline shortly after the main storyline. Then, there will be personal side stories with a larger time span, jumping to graduation and even later. Finally, there will be various previous simulations and "what if" scenarios from the main storyline as side stories. That's all.

Chapter Two: The Reason Why Hotaru Likes Rinne the Most

Ying has been very busy lately.

In a sense, even Kitako herself didn't expect that she would start living a strange life with Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and resting on Sundays earlier than Kitagawa Ryo. Although she felt that her brother should divide it into even more detailed periods, with the time intervals broken down into daily estimates, and that he probably wouldn't be able to rest on Sundays either.

In fact, during the year or so that Hotaru spent at Tokyo Advanced Educational High School, she spent most of her daily life in Kitagawa Ryo's dormitory room. Occasionally, when Kitagawa Ryo needed to go out to compete, she would stay at other people's dormitories, such as those of Asahina Nazuna, Chabashira Sae, and Sakayanagi Arisu.

But being "welcomed" to their dorm room for a short rest by various pet owners like this is indeed a first for Ying.

After all, even though she prides herself on being a kind, cute cat who never hisses, Hotaru is well aware that in her brother's and the heroines' simulated lives, she is at best a reader watching the story from a VIP spectator seat, and her fate will be forced to change as the story unfolds, or rather, as her brother's fate unfolds, such as being treated as someone's heirloom and having some kind of substitute literature written about her.

To be honest, of the four heroines, Horikita Suzune is probably the best to her, this harmless little cat. Otherwise, she wouldn't have thought of helping her take the initiative on Valentine's Day. Hotaru still feels that she is fine when it comes to repaying her cat's kindness.

However, things are indeed different now, especially after Kitagawa Ryo revealed the truth about their backgrounds and life simulations. After they returned to Dongyu after the summer special exams, Hotaru started being dragged back from Kitagawa Ryo's dormitory by various girls with their own ulterior motives.

First to appear are the student council trio, whose full name is "Don't Let Sakayanagi Arisu Know," also known as the "Festival Preparation Team," who have already reached a secret agreement. They are Horikita Suzune, Amasawa Ichika, and Yuki.

After all, everyone wants to replicate Kitagawa Ryo's actions towards Ichinose Honami on Valentine's Day, and set up a celebration full of commemorative significance from the past, present, and future. So, the first thing to do is naturally to dig out materials from memories.

In this respect, Yuki and Amaze Ichika are absolutely intimately familiar with each other. After all, the one who truly has an information gap with them is Sakayanagi Arisu, who is outside the room the whole time. For a long time, these two girls from the White Room could only stare at each other as spectators in the White Room.

The former may have left earlier, but from a belated perspective, Tianze Yixia doesn't think it's a good thing. After all, it's like watching a certain national CP's variety show drama from a closer angle, and the former is definitely the loser.

That's why the two of them became extremely interested in Horikita Suzune's love life.

After all, it is well known that unlike Sakayanagi Arisu, Ichinose Honami, and Karuizawa Megumi, Horikita Suzune is the same kind of person who only retained a part of the Sims' memories (Hotaru never mentioned that she only chose four chapter heroines at the beginning). However, unlike them and Shiina Hiyori, Suzune is the only one who successfully achieved a happy ending in that Sims' life.

Although Shiina Hiyori, Yuki, and Amasawa Ichika are all saying they've won big, that's only good for fooling their friends. The worst thing is that they'll fool themselves too. Everyone knows their own situation. Only Shiina Hiyori can salvage some dignity here, since the main heroine, Karuizawa Megumi, isn't progressing as well in the romance storyline. She's barely a runner-up in terms of raw talent, mainly because there wasn't a real champion in that simulation.

As everyone was preparing and making arrangements, their own little schemes were quite evident. In addition, Horikita Suzune didn't feel there was any need to hide her past experiences. After all, she wasn't like Karuizawa Megumi who suffered two consecutive defeats or Ichinose Honami who repeated the same mistake in the opposite direction before the finish line. She could just treat it as watching a documentary about True Vision's championship victory. It would also be a good opportunity for her to relive her championship performance and find some previously overlooked details to add to the preparations for this celebration.

And so, at the urging of Amazusa Ichika and Yuki, Horikita Suzune took the initiative to temporarily borrow a certain god's cat, who was currently working part-time as a director and projectionist, to her dormitory, planning a thrilling movie-watching event.

As for the invitation from its human, whom it liked the most besides its brother, the kitten certainly had no reason to refuse.

After a brief review of Rinne's simulation, Director Hotaru didn't find any scenes that needed special attention or editing. So, after thinking about it, he decided to directly upload this precious recording of his brother's perfect score and one-life playthrough.

The following is a casual conversation between one of the parties involved and two bystanders:

"Why is Arisu's scene in the very beginning?"

"She probably doesn't even know herself, and Rin has never mentioned it either."

Upon arriving, they immediately encountered a familiar face, and Tianze Yixia and Xue's interest quickly soared, feeling a sense of delightful surprise, as if they were eavesdropping on gossip that even the parties involved were unaware of.

Horikita Suzune, standing to the side, could only offer a somewhat helpless explanation:

"I didn't mention this because our real-life identities are a bit different from that time. You'll see as you continue reading."

As she spoke, she began to immerse herself completely in her memories of the past.

Although it was a scene etched in her memory, just like the difference between first-person and third-person perspectives, watching it again from Hotaru's observer's point of view allowed Horikita Suzune to discover many things she hadn't noticed before, not to mention there were two equally observant bystanders nearby.

"So, in Rin's life, Ryo is actually your cousin or cousin by blood? And they still managed to have a happy ending?"

"No, it's mainly because Liang's background hasn't been revealed yet. Saying too much would be spoiling the plot. Rather, if we didn't have this relationship in the first place, I wouldn't have ended up living with Liang by chance."

Looking at the familiar scene of herself living with Kitagawa Ryo and being ordered around to do various things by him with the excuse of "your brother did this and that back then", Horikita Suzune couldn't help but show a nostalgic smile.

"I feel like Ryo is just messing with Suzune. Isn't Suzune's brother the former student council president of Horikita? I've never heard of him being able to play the piano, cook, or do tea ceremony. All these reasons seem like he's just trying to fool Suzune."

However, Tianze Yixia quickly expressed her opinion first, mainly because Xue entered Dongyu University a year later and Horikita Gaku had just graduated when she entered, so she didn't know much about Horikita Suzune's older brother.

"...Just think of me back then as someone who simply got stuck in a rut, seeing my brother as some perfect being that I had to surpass."

After being told this by Tianze Yixia, Horikita Suzune felt a little embarrassed. After all, this was her embarrassing history. And as the other party said, from the perspective of hindsight or bystander, Kitagawa Ryo was indeed like a fool who was being amused by a silly relative during that time, except that she was the fool being amused.

"And it feels like Ryou has added a lot of his own ideas. Look, he insisted on teaching Rin to do some kind of tea ceremony, but after practicing it, he ended up using it all on himself. It feels a bit like Genji's plan in The Tale of Genji. He's practically shaping Rin into his preferred type in every sense of the word. If this were the other world, I feel like the next step would be to use the excuse of learning some kind of male-female connection technique to trick Rin into bed."

Yuki herself didn't know why everyone else came out of the white room, but Amasawa Ichika always seemed to learn these strange and inexplicable things from somewhere she didn't know. After this speech, Horikita Suzune blushed a little and quickly cleared her throat to change the subject:

"Actually, Liang was just deliberately using this method to fight fire with fire, to make me realize that I shouldn't put anyone on a pedestal in my heart without my consent. It seems to have been quite effective. It was probably after Liang had completely fooled me that I started to actively deny things that I had never questioned before."

"Moreover, the things and skills that Ryo taught me are still very helpful to me now. For example, in the tea ceremony, although Hiyori has been in the tea ceremony club for more than a year, her actual skills are still not as good as mine..."

Just as Horikita Suzune was about to add, "This matter is also recorded in the relevant topics of the special exam on the deserted island," Amasawa Ichika and Yuki had already been drawn to Sakayanagi Arisu, who had reappeared on screen.

"It seems that no matter which timeline Arisu is in, her personality and character are pretty much the same. It's that subtle sense of superiority and pride that makes her seem to look down on everyone else."

"Yes, yes, I actually had that feeling when I first saw her in the white room. At that time, Arisu was like a child visiting the zoo with her parents, and we were the animals she was observing. That's why she felt particularly upset when she didn't win the chess game that time."

As soon as Sakayanagi Arisu appeared, the two victims of the White Room reached a consensus, and then quickly noticed the cane that the other was carrying.

"Oh, so in your timeline, Arisu was still sick back then, right?"

"Yes, when I first met Arisu, she always carried a cane with her to help with her daily activities."

In response, Tianze Yixia, showing no mercy to the person involved, curled her lips into a smile:

"If Arisu were like that where I'm from, I would have insisted on having a race with her, no matter what I said. Hehe, I would have made sure to keep a slight lead while whispering in Arisu's ear, 'How can a real genius outrun a fake genius like me?'"

Compared to Amaze Ichika, who had already begun to transform into a chaotic evil little devil, Yuki stroked her chin and offered her own opinion:

"Actually, if you think about it that way, it should be Ryo who truly made Arisu a complete genius. Then I can understand her attitude towards Ryo a little better."

"...Is it possible that what's playing out right now is my life?"

"Ahem, sorry, it's mainly about Rin and Ryo. It feels like there's no dramatic conflict right now. I'm getting sleepy if I don't chat with Arisu. But it's good, peace and quiet is the best."

"Let me translate for Xue. It basically means 'Not bloody enough. I want to see rivers of blood!'"

Horikita Suzune simply shook her head upon hearing this:

"I'm getting more and more curious about just how chaotic or bloody your life was during that time."

"That's no problem. Next time, Ichika and I will ask Suzune to watch it. But to be honest, with the passing of Ayanokouji Atsuomi, isn't information about the White Room starting to be released? It just goes to show that when it comes to whitewashing, no matter which timeline it is, those people will always make the same choice."

After letting out a somewhat melancholy sigh, Xue rallied her spirits, refocused her attention on the image, and began to steer the conversation in a lighter direction: