Am I being simulated by their love affair?

To this day, he still thinks that the system is a dating matching software that came out of nowhere—it does whatever it takes to achieve its goals. Isn't this just like the fantasy of future technology in science fiction movies?

“Then…” Tomatsu Yuka looked at his face, which was covered with dappled light and shadow.

"It left now because it felt Tsunuk was happy enough, right?"

The boy looked away and met the eyes of the girls sitting opposite him.

After several days of investigation, discussions with his senior, Youhua, and Xiaoyao, and confirmation from Yangshi and Xiashi, he was basically certain that the system had indeed left.

As for where he's going after leaving, Jun Matsue doesn't know—he might be leaving this world, or he might be going to find the next "official user".

But what does this have to do with him? Jun Matsue shook his head, pulling himself out of his thoughts.

"That's not quite accurate." The boy stretched his neck and took a bite of the snack that the senior student offered him.

“We are happy enough,” he said vaguely.

"Is this enough happiness?" Kurusu Yosei blinked in surprise and suddenly stood up.

"I haven't become number one in Tokyo yet, and I haven't driven all over Japan with Matsue!"

"Then you should work harder yourself." Mochizuki Haruka rolled her eyes at her. "Hurry up and do a national tour, stop running around to Matsueda every day."

Miss Idol shook her head decisively.

"I'm going to run with Pine Branch in tow—just like in Maki-chan's simulation!"

"What are you dreaming about..."

Listening to the girls bickering around him, Jun Matsue smiled silently.

He leaned back onto the lawn, bracing himself with his arms, and looked up at the half-sky beyond the shade of the trees.

A sudden gust of wind blew from the direction of the flowerbed, making the cherry grove rustle.

The boy should have smelled the fragrance of flowers and plants, but when he sniffed hard, he could only recognize the scent of girls.

Jun Matsue sighed softly.

"In the end, we still lost to the system."

"How can you call it a loss?" The senior's cheerful voice came from the half of the sky he was looking up at.

"Isn't our story only possible because Chun rejected the system?"

“Senior is right,” Tomatsu Yuka chimed in.

"If Jun-kun hadn't rejected the system back then, we certainly wouldn't be sitting in Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden admiring the flowers like this now, would we?"

“…That makes a lot of sense.” The boy sat up and looked at the girl who was listening attentively beside him.

What does Xia Shi think of this story?

Imokawa Natsumi nodded firmly, took out her notepad from her pocket, and started writing.

"I feel like this could become an incredible source of inspiration..."

"Don't sit there!" Yosei Kurusu was the first to stand up and bounce around a couple of times.

"Didn't we agree to admire the flowers? I can already smell the roses!"

“That’s Tomatsu’s perfume…” Mochizuki Haruka also stood up and looked at her boyfriend.

"Let's go."

Taking the girls' hands and standing up, Jun Matsue smiled, patted the grass off his clothes, and followed them towards the distant sea of ​​flowers.

"Speaking of which, do you remember how to write the formula for a rose?"

"How could I forget?" the boy said with a smile. "We memorized it together back then."

He may forget many things in the future, but the memories of the girls will be completely preserved in his mind, forever as clear as yesterday.

A breeze swept across the lawn, lifting a corner of the red and white checkered picnic blanket, which chased their silhouettes into the distance in the sunlight.

This was an ordinary, blissful afternoon before summer arrived, a day so peaceful it made one drowsy.

It was also the day that Jun Matsuoka became an ordinary person.

Let's leave the ending remarks here for now.

Actually, I don't think I should put my closing remarks here.

Because after the May Day holiday, I still need to continue writing epilogues focusing on a certain character and some side stories, so releasing the ending statement now would make it seem like the book is over.

Just like the title I gave to this volume at the end—"Their story, to be continued."

Actually, I originally wanted to echo the title of the first volume, "The First Three Years Began," but after thinking of several volume titles, I felt that a formal echo wasn't quite rigorous enough. In the end, I used the volume title that I had thought of long ago but hadn't added yet.

Because although it's not artistic enough, it's the most fitting and comfortable one.

As the name suggests, the story of Songzhi and the girls is not over yet—

Their university life has just begun, and they have a long road ahead of them, which will obviously not always be smooth sailing.

After all, Mochizuki is still willful, Tomatsu is still scheming, and Kurusu is still self-centered—but with Matsue, Senpai, and Imokawa around, future conflicts shouldn't be too intense.

But who knows... perhaps the more members there are, the more acute the hidden dangers will become when they erupt?

In short, this is a story beyond what's on paper; feel free to use your imagination. It would be even better if it could be written as a fanfiction and posted in the book review section!

As for why I, the author, don't write about it...

First, I have limited energy; second, there are problems with the concept.

This book has already taken nine hundred chapters to cover the three years in the main storyline. If it takes another four years, I don't even want to imagine how long it would be...

Many readers might clamor to "read as soon as it's written," but according to backend data, fewer and fewer people are willing to read the later parts of the story.

This involves my conception of the entire book—

This is a story about change.

Whether it's Jun Matsueda or the girls, they all had their own principles and personalities at the beginning of the story. Then, through long and increasingly deeper contact and friction, they changed some parts and retained some parts, eventually becoming who they are today.

I don't really like calling this kind of story "growth"—as if the younger version of myself was immature, and the mature version of myself now is a better version.

The so-called "better human beings," you know.

For me, the author, it's not like that; everyone has simply changed.

Just like me now, I also miss the version of myself that was exceptionally stubborn in many ways.

As for "growth," whether the outcome of this change is good or bad varies from person to person.

For most people, it's impossible to categorize it simply as "good" or "bad." But since things have come to this, let's try to accept it as we are.

I've digressed a bit. Let's get back to the book, "Were I Dating Simulated by Them?". Here's how I envisioned it—

Jun Matsueda's character is portrayed as perfect, rational, and restrained, while the girls' characters are relatively morbid, or rather, each has their own flaws.

The story then unfolds as the young men and women gradually deepen their relationship, and after various twists and turns, Matsugi becomes a "mortal" on a spiritual level.

Imperfect, irrational, and no longer restrained, they choose to indulge their greed.

The girls, on the other hand, made up for some of their shortcomings, became less obsessive, and pursued their interests in a more wholesome way.

So logically speaking, Jun Matsueda is "demoted," while the girls are "promoted." After this promotion and demotion, they become suitable to be together.

So where did the problem lie? Why are fewer people looking ahead?

The problem is change itself.

In fact, readers don't really like changes to a character's image, especially their underlying nature. This is because, as I shared above, change doesn't necessarily mean "good," and the standard for good or bad is subjective and varies from person to person.

For example, some people like the willful and unruly Mochizuki Haruka in the early part of the story, while others prefer the more spoiled and willful Mochizuki Haruka in the later part, as she learns to become more human.

So for these two types of readers, there will always be a part of my story that you don't like or are "unmoved" by.

The same applies to other characters, such as Tomatsu, the senior student, and even Matsueda.

So I later realized that writing the male protagonist in this kind of demotion process was bound to be disliked by many people.

I'm not trying to criticize or belittle this phenomenon, because as an author, I certainly have my own preferences—I'll definitely have differences in what I'm interested in and what I'm not interested in at different stages of a character's life.

Or to put it another way, humans are such creatures—they hate change, yet they are always trapped in the cage of change.

That's why humans cherish time so much, and that's why we've invented so many things to freeze moments, record memories, and imagine...

Of course, this is also a problem with my writing skills. There is still a lot I need to learn. In terms of the later part, if there are some important plot points other than the romance that can be connected, the overall viewing experience should be greatly improved.

But this is the basic tone of the book. No matter how it's embellished, it's a story I wrote, and its most essential form will never change.

It's not a "morbid and heavy love," but a story about changing teenagers.

Starting from a twisted beginning and ending with a promised happy ending—within that scope, this is the best story I could write.

Actually, I don't like "change," but I have to realize and acknowledge the infinite charm of "change," which is probably why this book came into being.

As for the ending of the main text, just as I mentioned earlier, it freezes on this relatively beautiful moment, but the story will not end here. As for whether their future will be good or bad, and what other twists and turns there will be, I leave that to your imagination.

Thank you for your support, dear readers.

That concludes my thoughts on this book. What follows is my personal journey in creating it. Readers who are not interested can skip ahead and wait for the subsequent side stories.

—Nine hundred chapters.

By the time the main text was finished, I had written exactly nine hundred chapters—I skipped the count of three hundred and fifty chapters due to oversight, which made the number of chapters appear to be one more.

This is my first book, with exactly nine hundred chapters. It's so perfect that it evokes a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi - mixed feelings of emotion and reflection).

When I first started writing this book, I never imagined it would take this long—it was just because there weren't many twisted or romance novels to read at the time, and I had a lot of free time, so I wrote the first three chapters and submitted it to an editor's email address.

As for the later plot, outline, and character design, they were all gradually conceived after the beginning was written.

I'm very proud that my first book has come to a relatively smooth end and that I've written such a long one. But I'm even more proud that the characters and stories I created are loved by everyone.

Thank you to the editors at Canaan for accepting this book. It has been a part of everyone's lives for almost two years, and it has also allowed me to rediscover the joy of writing.

I'm someone who lacks enthusiasm for anything and has never had any goals growing up. So I used to envy those who had firm goals and were making great strides in life, and I even felt a little ashamed of myself.

I never expected that this goal would ultimately be given to me by online literature.

I really enjoy the feeling of writing; to be precise, it's the pleasure of filling my own fantasies with content, having it read by more and more people, and receiving feedback.

Although there are many unpleasant moments in the actual writing process, such as designing the plot, imagining the characters' words and actions, and thinking about how to make the story more appealing to readers... sometimes it can really be painful.

But overall, writing books is definitely a joyful experience, so I will continue to write.

To borrow a phrase from my own book—I won't talk about forever, but I need to finish writing another book first.

As for when I'll start writing the new book, I plan to take a two- or three-month break first, so it should be back in the summer.

Writing and producing content continuously is a very energy-consuming and creative endeavor.

Towards the end of this serialization, I often had periods of poor performance, so I need to take advantage of this time to rest and recharge. My plan is to watch at least one movie every day, and then read more books, listen to more music, and exercise more until inspiration for the new book comes in.

So I don't know what I'll write about in my next book yet, but it will still have the romance and twisted plot that I love. Please wait patiently with me, dear readers.

Don't forget me, okay...?

Last but not least, thank you all for your understanding and support.

This book even has many long-time readers who have voted since its release, as well as various patrons, and every reader who has voted, commented, rewarded, and read it until now. There are too many names to thank them all individually, but in short, I'm bowing my head in gratitude.

See you in the next book!

No, see you in the book's epilogue—