"Grrr... Damn that Yugo! Flirting with Melt and the others right in front of me like he’s putting on a show... I’ll never forgive him!"
Later that night, in a room at the hotel housing the Luminous Academy party, Woz Star—one of the Hero Candidates—fumed with a burning hatred for Yugo.
His grievance was simple: he had seen how they acted at the beach earlier that day. Being on good terms with beauties like Melt was enviable enough, but flirting with them while they were all in swimsuits? That was beyond the pale.
Woz was consumed by a green-eyed monster as he watched Yugo and the rest revel in their youth. In his mind, he was the true Protagonist; he was the one who should have been in that position.
The Sahagin attack had cut their fun short, limiting the damage... but there was no telling how much more PDA he would have been forced to witness if they’d just spent a normal day at the seaside.
He felt a shred of gratitude toward the monsters for the interruption, yet he was equally bitter that the chaos had robbed him of a chance to ogle Anhel’s "high-destruction" figure or Sakura’s nearly bare backside in her fundoshi. As those thoughts swirled, Woz let out a thunderous sneeze.
"Achoo! Dammit... Why is this happening to me!?"
He spat the words into the empty room as the echo of his sneeze faded. There was a pathetic, lonely quality to his voice—a hollow ring that matched his current isolation. It was only natural, given that he was completely alone.
While the other Luminous Academy students were off enjoying the school trip with their friends, he sat in solitary confinement, avoided by everyone.
He had gone off the rails during a recent incident, and his reckless behavior—which Yugo and the Security Force ultimately had to fix—had caused his party members to abandon him in disgust.
One bad rumor led to another. Then Cyan, who was in the same boat, got himself expelled, dragging Woz’s reputation even further into the gutter.
Since the Reincarnators had been busy squabbling over key characters, Woz hadn't made any friends outside his initial party. Now, those same Reincarnators were too preoccupied with their own schemes to lift a finger for a fallen rival. He watched the other students’ excitement with nothing but bitter jealousy.
The only person who might have understood his pain was Torin, who had also been dumped by his party and was suffering the same contempt-by-association thanks to Cyan’s mess. But commiserating with him would only make things more pathetic.
What was the point of two losers licking each other's wounds? It wouldn’t make him feel better; it would only intensify the sting of his failure.
Besides, Torin was almost certainly going to get in his way. Their goals were identical, meaning they viewed each other as nothing more than obstacles.
On this wretched school trip where he had neither friends nor a girlfriend, there was only one way to hit a walk-off home run. He had to find a specific character, trigger her flag, and recruit her.
Elena Soleil—the monster tamer girl living on an island just off the coast of Wind Island.
She was a specialized unit who summoned her "monster family" in combat, making her a bit tricky to use. More importantly, she was a stunning beauty with an incredible body.
To Woz and Torin, both of whom had been abandoned by their allies, she was a prize they were desperate to claim, in more ways than one.
Luckily, the other Reincarnators were too focused on grinding with their current party members to notice her.
His only competition was Torin. If he could win Elena over while sabotaging Torin’s flags, he could claim her as his new teammate—or better yet, his girlfriend.
His chances of winning the Hero Candidate race were looking grim, but he could still find happiness in this world. If he could score a dark-skinned beauty with a killer figure—one who was aggressively affectionate, no less—he wouldn't even care about being a hero.
Naturally, it would be even better if he could use her to trample the other Reincarnators and climb back to the top. He needed her combat power for that.
"It's not over yet! A true Protagonist, a real Hero, is someone who makes a comeback from the brink...!"
Woz pumped himself up, clenching his fists. Refusing to yield, he went over the game’s script in his head, planning his pursuit of Elena as the first step of his grand return.
"Tomorrow, I head to Elena's island as planned. I'll build up her affection, prepare for the night event... and as long as I follow the original game’s events, Elena will be mine!"
Torin was his only rival. The other man was surely thinking the same thing, but Woz refused to lose. For the sake of his future... he would have Elena.
Driven by his insatiable greed, Woz went to bed early to prepare for the day ahead. The fact that he was actually sleeping early because he had no friends to socialize with was a detail he chose to ignore. In a way, it was lucky he’d found a delusional goal to distract himself from his pathetic reality.
Though, this would almost certainly be the last bit of luck he’d ever see.