Better Luck Next Time Party

Mahariku-san's "Congrats on Your Second Character Party" was rebranded into a "Better Luck Next Time Party" and carried out accordingly.

"Cheer up, President!"

"Mahariku-sama, we're here for you!"

"You'll get it next time! Mahariku-sama!"

"Let's do our best scouting a new girl!"

The four employees were each clinging to one of Mahariku-san's limbs as she sat slumped on the sofa, nuzzling against her.

They were making it look like a comforting harem, but they were clearly just prioritizing their own desires. It was nothing more than them recharging their Mahariku-san fix.

Should I be telling them to swap with me…? Actually, any of those spots would do. Hm? Miitei-chan wanted to swap with Mahariku-san and be surrounded by little sisters instead? Fair enough.

"Haah, I failed…"

"Good work out there, yo. For Mahariku-san of all people to go down, what on earth happened, yo?"

"Those bastards did lewd things to me while I was passed out from training, and I got dragged down the lewd route straight to a brothel. BAD END."

"Ahh. The lewd skip, huh."

"The game sure is harsh about the lewd stuff."

"It's not like I'm some naive, innocent virgin… I live in a world where Santa Claus doesn't exist, you know. Well, I did manage to take that grudge-match champion down with me in the final scene, at least."

When the champion came to mock her, she bit off a chunk of him and swallowed it, stabbed him repeatedly with a fruit knife, and drove an ice pick through his heart. All from the bed. Apparently, the bedroom had a suspiciously large number of weapons lying around.

However, he managed to break her neck with a dying counterattack, killing her.

Through her tilting vision, she barely managed to watch the champion spurt blood from his chest and die before everything went black, followed by a "Your character has been Lost" dialogue box.

She succeeded in killing her nemesis, but since she died too, it ended in failure.

"Wasn't taking a last attack like that a bit careless on your part, yo?"

"I used up all my strength ripping through the restraints. Only having one eye, being fitted with a magic seal so I couldn't use body enhancement… it was just too much. …Ugh, I can still feel having chunks torn from my body and my neck being snapped."

"If someone less skilled were playing, they'd end up with PTSD at minimum, and the sympathetic damage could genuinely cause real-world casualties," Mahariku-san remarked, cracking her neck.

No, that's the bad part. The neck cracking showed she'd taken serious damage and was near death during that final scene. If anything, she was the one delivering the last attack.

I could buy the theory that the gore elements exceeded a certain threshold and triggered a grotesque scene classification, which lifted the lewd skip. A brothel stocked with an unnatural number of weapons. Scary stuff.

"So, are you going to try a new second character right away, yo?"

"That's the question. I picked the 'Colosseum Gladiator Slave' scenario thinking it'd be combat-oriented, but it turned out to be magic-based. Well, I think I could've cleared it if I hadn't fallen for the lewd trap… The next second character selection is already available, so I'll take my time choosing. I did get a bit of SP out of it, at least."

Wait, you could get SP even without clearing?

"Maybe because I managed to take down the scenario's final boss? Only 5 SP, but I got something."

"That's about the same as clearing an SP Quest, yo."

"Exactly. Now that I know about SP Quests, I have no intention of wasting time with repeated near-miss failures on second characters just for 5 SP. I'll clear it next time."

A BAD END caused by exploiting the Spirit-Possessed's weakness: vulnerability to lewd scenes.

Honestly, the devs should be more lenient about lewd content. Lewdness is the key to human progress. Without it, children wouldn't even be born.

"While we're at it, I'll keep the name Go reserved for Tria's sake. The next one will be Roku."

"If I end up pretending to be your subordinate in a joint operation again, I'll use that name."

"Roku… Rock… Should I skip Roku too for Alto's sake?"

"Please don't worry about it, yo."

Looked like she'd stick with sequential numbered names to keep them easy to remember.

She might even match the new one's appearance to the other numbered girls. If they all looked the same but one was a combat specialist, the tactical misdirection potential would be through the roof. Scary.

"This is really good, by the way."

Mahariku-san said as Ichi-chan and Nii-chan fed her Boar steak with "say ahh～" and wiped her mouth.

Heh heh heh, of course it's good. Penpen's cooking is the best among all of us…!

And being hand-fed by cute girls on top of that? Peak bliss. Please swap with me, I'm begging you. Hm? Miitei-chan would feed me too? This game is the best!

"Penpen, why don't you open a shop with us? I'll fund it."

"I'm working on my ranch scenario right now, so I'll pass. And if I do open a shop someday, I'd probably get Merchant-san to fund it and set up in Tsudon. That's where my Home is."

"Mmm, too bad… Oh wait. But if we get a Home and connect it, I could come eat whenever I want, right? I'll pay, so let me eat there?"

"I'd rather have materials than money. I'm leveling my Crafting skill."

"I see. Rare lumber, maybe… Treant-type monsters don't pair well with handguns, though. Maybe animal pelts would work better?"

After some rest and relaxation, Mahariku-san apparently couldn't wait any longer and headed off to pick and challenge her next second character scenario.

She'd clear it this time. Probably.