The Outcast Writer of a Martial Arts Visual Novel

“Senior, you said you were going to write novels after getting a job. I just made a romance visual novel. Can you check the story for me?”

I found myself in this absurd situation because of a request from my university junior.

“I’m busy preparing for a new novel after work. What story review?”

“Please, hyung. I’ll put your name in the credits if this game is released. You write novels while working a company job, not because you want to do it for life, right? If you have your name in such places, who knows, you might use it someday?”

No, I just got a job because it was hard to make a living writing formulaic novels. But life was unpredictable, and I accepted the offer since I just finished a project and had some time.

And that was the biggest mistake of my life.

The start was good.

“Wow. Why is the heroine so pretty?”

As soon as I started the game, two heroines greeted me. One was a lively heroine with blond hair and a Western appearance. The other had a sorrowful expression and exuded an Oriental beauty with her brown hair.

They looked like beautifully designed characters who would earn a high salary even if they joined a game company in real life.

How well could the game be made if the illustrations were this pretty?

“The background seems to be martial arts.”

Why martial arts, of all things? It had a high entry barrier.

I wrote formulaic web novels, but not martial arts ones. The genre had a high entry barrier for readers and for writers as well.

With such illustrations, it seems like it could be a hit, even if it were just fantasy or a modern setting.

“I like it, being a fan of martial arts.”

I was not a martial arts writer, but a hardcore martial arts reader. My first genre novel was martial arts, and I still read any good martial arts stories.

So what if there was an entry barrier to martial arts? I was a hardcore fan who could always rocket-jump into it.

And now, a martial arts romance game.

Mount Hua Sect. North Sea Ice Palace. Namgung Clan. Tang Family. South Sea Temple. Emei Sect. A genre where heroines filled with various cliches could appear.

A heroine not belonging to any sect or clan was also good. The romance with heroines in martial arts stories I imagined with these beautiful illustrations was more exciting than I thought.

The game started with such excitement.

But as soon as the game began, it dashed my excitement.

The first scene where one of the heroines meets the protagonist.

[That red hair. You must be from the Mount Hua Sect.]

[Brilliant blonde hair. How can someone from the royal family be here?]

“What?”

Why did the Mount Hua Sect have red hair and the royal family blonde?

There were settings like red hair from extreme mastery of fire techniques or silver hair from extreme ice techniques, like in the North Sea Ice Palace, but blonde royals and red-haired Mount Hua Sect members?

I couldn’t believe that they interpreted the ‘Hua’ of Mount Hua Sect as the character for fire.

It must be a setting to give characters personality in a romance game. But it was a martial arts game. They’d stick to the genre, right? I continued playing with uneasy expectations.

[How much for a bowl of noodles here, Jomsoi?]

[A bowl of noodles is 5 coppers!]

“???????”

It didn’t take long for my expectations to crumble.

Was this some popular martial arts joke? Qi cultivation breakfast. Qi cultivation brunch. Qi cultivation dinner. Please use the kiosk for Qi cultivation brunch time. Like that? Why not carbonara, then?

[Young Master. When treating a lady, you should at least order carbonara instead of noodles.]

[Ah! Was the noodles not good?]

“…… A comedy?”

I couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief. What kind of content would unfold next? The content was so out of the ordinary that I decided to continue.

A flashback scene of the princess heroine appeared as I progressed the story.

[I don’t want to have a political marriage with the man Father chose. I’m going to the martial world to marry the most famous man!]

[Miss! You’re talking about something dangerous! The outside world is full of dangerous martial artists!]

[Then I’ll become a martial artist too! I’ve brought a few roots of Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng from the imperial secret vault.]

[Miss! It will be big trouble if His Majesty the Emperor finds out!]

[Forget it. Just keep watch for me. I’m going to eat this and become a martial artist.]

[I don’t want any part of this……]

[I’ve absorbed all 5 roots of the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng. Now, no one can beat me. I’ll go to the martial world and marry the most famous man.]

She absorbed all 5 roots of the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng and became the undisputed strongest in the martial world. That was why she ventured into the world to marry the most famous man in the martial world.

[SYSTEM: To see the ending with the Princess Heroine, the most important thing is the Fame value.]

“…… What?”

No training. No actual combat. No enlightenment. Just by eating some elixir, she became the strongest in the martial world?

“I’m not a fool. I’m not a fool.”

Hold on. My left hand’s foolishness, no, I must resist.

I played the game for a day, two days while suppressing the nature of my foolishness. And then, a week later.

“Damn it!! This isn’t martial arts!! And it’s not a romance game either!!”

In my room, I screamed after seeing the ending of this utterly chaotic game.

The game’s scenario was simple.

The ‘Red-haired’ protagonist, trained in martial arts and ventured into the Jianghu.

Then the player increased the Fame value to connect with the Princess Heroine. Collect money to connect with the Moyong Clan Heroine.

The problem was that it failed as both a martial arts story and a romance game.

As a fan of martial arts, there were numerous points to criticize, but the biggest issue was its romance game aspect.

What was a romance game? The male protagonist developed himself while meeting female heroines. He then chose one for a poignant exchange or a rescue narrative. That was how it should proceed.

But this game was different.

Every event and narrative centered not on the protagonist but on the Princess Heroine.

‘Whaa! Protagonist-nim. I’m sad!’

‘Whaa! Protagonist-nim. I caused trouble. Solve it for me!’

Thus, the protagonist became an errand boy who cleaned up after the Princess Heroine.

‘Why are you so weak? I guess I have to solve everything!’

‘I ran away from the palace, so if I become famous, it’ll be a big problem. I solved it, but let’s say you did.’

The Princess took the credit in every cool scene, and the protagonist just received the glory.

Eventually, it seemed like the protagonist was just training in martial arts and raising his fame to become a trophy for the heroine.

Was this a romance game? It was just a female lead’s romance fantasy.

If you didn’t like this heroine, shouldn’t you just choose another? When I tried to switch routes, obstacles suddenly appeared to block that path.

“How can they put a widow villainess in a game with only two heroines?”

A widow and a villainess was the setting of the other heroine from the Moyong Clan.

[Huh. You seem to match well with that woman lately. Do you know? That woman killed her husband on their wedding night. Then, she devoured all the wealth of her husband’s family. It’s better to stay away, right?]

What kind of heroine was this?

In romance game clichés, it would turn out to be a misunderstanding revealed later. But proceeding with that thought, it was even more ridiculous.

[The Moyong Clan only wanted to marry me off for the wealth of that man’s family.]

[On the day we first met, he said he bought me with money and told me to prepare for a tantrum in bed.]

A typical story of an unwanted marriage where the heroine is blameless, and it’s all the man’s fault.

[Isn’t it too cruel to marry a man I don’t love? So, I sent fake evidence in advance to frame that man’s family for treason.]

What……?

[If only you could have seen his face when he heard about his family’s treason. His face distorted with despair was more gratifying than any other moment.]

[When I killed him, rushing into the bridal room thinking he might as well have me, the feeling was really refreshing. And as a reward for revealing the treason, all the wealth of the exterminated man’s family came to me, his wife.]

[Even after hearing this story, can you still love me?]

No. I couldn’t. Damn it.

No way. What kind of heroines are these?

Were they a nuisance heroine or a villainess heroine? In the end, the choice was a troublesome princess.

The conditions for the Moyong Family to follow the heroine route were also problematic. What the princess heroine needed was fame. The Moyong Family needed money.

Fame could be earned through good and righteous deeds, but making money required dirty work or cowardly choices.

“Handing over the sole surviving witness child of an annihilated village got you 100 gold. Protecting them increased your fame by 100. This was crossing the line.”

So, in the end, I went with the princess route. The conclusion was the protagonist, who became the most famous in the martial arts world, married the princess and became the prince consort.

When you see the ending of a dating sim, you should wish they live happily ever after, but I felt pity for the protagonist who gets sold into the chaotic princess grand strategy as the heroine.

What kind of martial arts dating sim was this? It was a female protagonist martial arts skin romance fantasy.

Krrr. I couldn’t stand it anymore.

“I need to give some angry feedback.”

I was originally going to do both routes, but now I think I’d just write about one.

I was worried about hurting my junior’s feelings with a strong tone, so I tried to approach it gently, but they said they were not in charge of the scenario. They asked me to write unreservedly since sharp feedback was needed.

“Receive the sharp feedback of an angry novelist, a martial arts enthusiast, and an otaku!”

So, I wrote more than 30 pages of criticism disguised as feedback and sent it to the scenario manager before falling asleep.

“Young Master, look, there’s the Moyong Family!”

The vast estate of the Moyong Family filled the horizon.

“……. Yes.”

“If someone going to their wedding looks so stern, people will talk.”

“……. I’ll be dead soon anyway.”

“What?”

“I just gave the feedback I was asked for… and now I’m possessed?”

Ha.

It was not like I wrote hate comments.

I just gave feedback.

And ended up possessed in a dating sim.

And on the very first night of marriage, I was a groom destined to die at the hands of the heroine.