Chapter 1: The Dungeon's Blessing

The Glory Kael Magic Academy dungeon.

A surging dark river flowed along the edge of the rocky bank, and flickering firelight dyed the surrounding stone walls a warm orange.

[Because of your willful debauchery, which has tarnished the honor of the family, the House of Duke Sass has decided to expel you from the family, effective immediately. You'd best repent thoroughly, you good-for-nothing!]

"Tch, they expelled me just because I skipped a few days of class? Looks like I really am a nuisance."

If this had been the former Greg Sass, then after reading this letter he would surely have sunk into deep despair, for he had lost his greatest backing.

But the Greg of now was different—because he was a transmigrator.

After reading the letter, Greg crumpled the envelope into a ball without a care, tossed it into the dark river beside him, and while he was at it, washed off the bloodstains he'd gotten from hunting the monsters near his camp just now.

"Whatever. This family's going to be destroyed in the mid-game anyway, so whether you acknowledge me or not doesn't matter one damn bit. Besides... whether I can even live to see the mid-game is still a huge question!"

Greg was breaking down inside.

He didn't understand why, while playing his 81st run of *Do You Like a World Where Even Girls Can Happily Squad Up Together Like This?*—a game centered on girls getting cozy with one another—he had suddenly transmigrated.

And of all things, he'd transmigrated into the one and only male character in the original work who had a character portrait: Greg Sass.

Now, please don't misunderstand—the only reason the dev team gave him a portrait wasn't out of favoritism. On the contrary, it was full of malice!

Though his looks were incomparably handsome, it seemed that because of the dev team's settings, every important female character in the original work, upon laying eyes on him for the first time, would not be charmed by his appearance at all. Instead, they would inexplicably feel a heartfelt revulsion toward him.

So although he was the only male character in the original work with a portrait, there was absolutely no possibility of him winning the heroines' hearts.

And the dev team's malice didn't stop there.

In this world brimming with all sorts of possibilities, Greg Sass alone was a villain character destined to die.

In this game, he possessed the most CGs of any single character—1,386 of them—and of those, 1,380 were his various death CGs, which made the players who wanted to collect them all back in the day suffer no end of misery.

Had a newbie been the one to transmigrate here, they would surely have already met an inexplicable demise by now.

But fortunately, the current Greg was a veteran.

After playing through the original work 81 times, he knew the one place where Greg Sass had no death CG.

And that was the dungeon.

Because in this world, every dungeon was an extremely dangerous place. Although they contained gems and items that could enhance magic, even so, very few people would willingly enter a dungeon.

And as for Greg Sass, the classic aristocratic-villain antagonist, it goes without saying—on any route, at any time, he had never once entered a dungeon. Therefore the dungeon was the one place where he had no death CG.

So upon realizing he'd transmigrated into Greg Sass, he had immediately bolted out of the classroom where the lesson was still in session, and didn't stop until he'd entered the dungeon.

"Still, it's a good thing that, as a transmigrator, I've got cheats too—otherwise the moment I set foot on the first floor, I'd have become death CG number 1,387."

After tossing the inedible monster corpse into the dark river beside him, Greg opened his basic stat panel and took a look:

[Name: Greg Sass]

[Race: Human]

[Level: LV15]

[Constitution: 2→3]

[Agility: 2→3]

[Intelligence: 1→7]

[Charisma: 10 (?)]

[Willpower: 1→6]

[Luck: 10 (Black)]

"Hmm, sure enough, aside from charisma, the original base panel is completely a small-fry's panel—and in terms of luck, it's even worse than a small fry's."

What made Greg feel fortunate were the following talents.

[Dungeon Explorer (can be advanced): While you are within a dungeon, the damage you deal to any existence is increased by twenty percent]

[Praise the Dungeon (can be advanced): While you are within a dungeon, your actual luck value will not drop below 0]

[The Dungeon's Alms (can be advanced): While you are within a dungeon, the experience you gain is slightly increased]

[Digestive Bacteria (fixed): When you kill an enemy while within a dungeon, there is a chance to obtain the enemy's random skill or skill fragment]

[? (to be activated)]

"The kindness of Lord Dungeon is simply impossible to ever repay!"

Greg couldn't help but sigh in admiration once again.

Setting aside the one question mark, those other four activated talents, in his eyes, were not only outrageously broken but also perfectly suited to his current needs!

Especially that fourth talent, which had let him pick up some decent skills on the side while surviving and hunting monsters in the dungeon during this period.

[Skills obtained: Whimpering LV3, Blunt Resistance LV2, Earth Diving LV1, Earth Magic Resistance LV2, Earth Mana Affinity LV1, Underwater Adaptation LV3, Water Magic Resistance LV2, Water Mana Affinity LV1, Cold Resistance LV1]

These skills made Greg even more confident that he could survive in the dungeon.

Even though the living conditions here really were far too harsh.

But as long as he could hold out until the heroine cleared the grand finale, then when he returned to the surface afterward, no more death CGs would appear, and he'd be able to live freely and at ease!

So his main goal right now was to find a way to keep on surviving in the dungeon.

"Though I've no idea how far the plot has progressed by now."

Because he'd been in such a rush to get out of harm's way, beyond confirming that he was now Greg Sass, he knew almost nothing about the current state of the plot.

The only thing he could be sure of, however, was that the original work's storyline had definitely already begun—because as he ran out of the classroom he'd caught a glimpse of it being a second-year classroom, so the story had certainly already opened.

"And it's quite impressive that the people in the family actually knew I was in the dungeon and even managed to get a letter delivered to me. As expected of a villain boss who lives until the mid-game—those means really are formidable."

After roughly tidying up the camp, Greg got to his feet and walked over to the bonfire. While waiting for his meat to roast, he continued recording his Academy Dungeon Survival Guide (diary).

His gaze swept over the first few lines.

Day 1: Hungry and in the dark, my whole body aching terribly. Good thing I've got cheats backing me up—I've finally managed to barely scrape by in the shallow region of the dungeon's first floor. I absolutely must keep working hard to stay alive, hehe.

Day 2: Today I found a natural cave—an absolutely superb camp! No monsters spawn here, the ground is solid, and I don't have to worry about being ambushed from below by horned rabbits burrowing through the earth. The only thing to watch out for is the monsters lurking in the dark river nearby. I'll just make this my permanent camp.

Day 3: I cautiously explored the devil flowers' territory, and sure enough, just as recorded in the original work, I figured out their weaknesses. Even I can easily defeat these monsters, and I even found salt blocks in their nest—the flower buds can actually secrete a powder similar to Sichuan pepper. Now I've got even more to fall back on for survival!

Day 4: While clearing out the monsters around the camp, I noticed a squad of three upperclassmen pass by on the main road, and I happened to overhear them gloating as they gossiped about me. It seems the news of my sudden disappearance has long since spread throughout the academy—but from the way they talked, the person spreading the rumors clearly has nothing good in mind.

"Time really does fly. Today's already the fifth day."

Greg let out a soft sigh. The hand holding the pen came down, and he began recording today's experiences.

Day 5: Today I received the letter expelling me from the family, but to me that's not such a bad thing. What I need to watch out for today is that at the entrance leading from the shallow region to the middle layer, I discovered a group of goblins. By all logic they should never appear in the shallow region—this situation is truly abnormal. I don't know whether it's connected to that upperclassman squad that passed by earlier. In any case, to avoid unnecessary risk, it's best to completely steer clear of this area for the time being.

Having finished writing, he picked up a skewer of horned-rabbit meat that was just about roasted, and just as he was about to take a bite, he suddenly heard a somewhat familiar female voice come from not far away:

"Sylvia! Quick, grab my hand!"

"Pfft—?!"

Greg choked, his head snapping around, and two beautiful figures immediately appeared in his line of sight.

In the narrow passageway, a girl with long gray hair was lying flat on the ground, desperately reaching out her hand toward the dark river beside her.

And in the surging dark river, there was a girl with lovely pink hair. Her foot seemed to be entangled by something, and she was gradually drifting away from the bank and sinking downward.

"...Haah?!"

Greg's mind went blank for an instant.

If his memory wasn't mistaken, the gray-haired girl not far ahead was Victoria, the game's protagonist.

And the pink-haired girl was Sylvia, the game's second-position heroine.

But why would they appear here?

And what in the world was this scene of Sylvia about to die on the spot?!

There was no such plot point in the game at all!!