The Reincarnation Stream Player

The Reincarnation Stream Player, by Shara Twin Trees

After being reborn, you discovered:

This world was full of the aura of youthful everyday life. A happy life surrounded by beautiful girls was slowly unfolding before you, and you would use your foresight to play the game of life.

Then someone sent you a game invitation:

[Welcome to the Reincarnation Game]

[You will witness the Bloodthirsty Red Moon, escape the Demon Hospital, experience the Six Paths of Reincarnation...]

[You will connect with countless players from across the heavens, see Frieren's elegant catwalk, face the Origin of Shiki Ryougi, and experience Aizen's terrifying schemes...]

Hold on.

Which one of us got the wrong script!?

Volume: Bloodthirsty Red Moon

Chapter One: Welcome to the Reincarnation Game!

Whoosh, whoosh—

The white gauze curtains fluttered as a sea breeze carrying a faint fishy smell poured into the room, like an invisible hand brushing over everything.

A whiteboard covered in photos and crisscrossed with countless red lines. A cluttered desk. On top of it, a black-covered ID card flipped in the breeze, revealing a photo stamped with an official seal and the information below it:

Izu University School of Medicine, First Year, Yuki Sorajima.

Tap.

A hand pressed down on the student ID. The young man, with short black hair and crimson eyes just like the person in the photo, opened a drawer and tossed it inside. He rubbed his head, then picked up a pen again and hurriedly scribbled on a piece of paper he had torn off:

"My eighteenth birthday has passed, and nothing unusual happened. Did I really just get lucky and end up in the world of my dreams? Was the sentence I saw back then just a hallucination caused by my recent transmigration?"

The pen paused. He turned to look at the mirror on the wall of his rented apartment. The boy reflected there had black hair and red eyes, with sharply defined features. By any measure, he was quite handsome.

But there was little excitement in the boy's eyes. He had been looking at this handsome face for almost ten years, after all. Any thrill he might have felt had long since faded.

Ten years ago, he had taken over the body of the sole survivor of a car accident. Handsome, with some savings, and orphaned—a classic protagonist template. After a brief shock, he had been ready to enjoy his new life to the fullest. But while reading Yuki Sorajima's diary, he came across a sentence that had left him drenched in a cold sweat.

He still remembered it vividly. It had been written in simplified Chinese, in a line of blood-red characters:

[Survive!!]

"So I spent ages waiting for a monster invasion, the end of the world, spiritual energy returning, a system activating, or some kind of rules-based horror."

The boy rubbed his chin and turned his gaze toward the photo-covered blackboard. It was plastered with pictures of men and women, military bases and strange buildings, as well as all kinds of urban legends. At the center was a huge red question mark.

"Did I draw that question mark? I don't remember." Yuki clutched his head and racked his brain, but came up empty. He simply fetched a metal bucket, set fire to the paper he had just scribbled on, then threw the photos and documents from the blackboard into the bucket to burn.

The weak flames swayed in the sea breeze coming through the window, illuminating Yuki's profile. He stared blankly at the photos as they burned. One showed a cool-looking girl with black hair; another, a boy with naturally dead fish eyes. Their lifeless expressions grew more vivid in his mind.

"There hasn't been any inexplicable gas explosion, no Avengers, and I haven't found any mysterious organization in black. There are conflicts and wars in the world, but overall, it's very peaceful—more or less like Earth in my previous life. If there is a difference—"

He glanced at the photos almost reduced to ash, and a series of names flashed through his mind.

Grand Blue, Kaguya-sama: Love Is War, Hyouka, The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, and some other people and events he hadn't managed to investigate yet. They all had one thing in common:

This was a normal world of youthful everyday life, centered on the school lives of boys and girls. The worst injury anyone could expect was a stomachache. At the very least, there was no need to solve problems with violence.

"Then I never found that diary again. Maybe I read too many web novels in my previous life and developed paranoid delusions." Yuki's mouth twitched. That sentence had made him suspicious of everything for years, and living like that had been exhausting.

Waiting for the apocalypse had been the most agonizing part. Gradually, he had begun to slack off, especially over the past two years, when he had focused more on his life in the real world.

"So I decided to cover both bases: keep preparing while choosing Izu University."

At the thought, Yuki couldn't help smiling.

There was easygoing senpai Azusa, and Nanaka with her incredible figure. He could start a youthful romance whenever he wanted.

He could enjoy the happiest days of campus life, become a ghostwriter after graduation to build up his wealth, start a family with the person he loved, and have a few terrible friends who would stick with him for life.

That kind of life was ordinary, but happy. It was the sort of life worthy of great words like "transmigration" and "rebirth," even if they sounded a little shabby. But what did that have to do with him?

Put simply, he hadn't wanted to end up here. He had already done remarkably well to stay cautious for so many years. If he'd been like most transmigrators, he would've followed his nose to Shuchiin at the age of eight, chasing girls and turning them all into childhood friends.

The scraps burned away. Yuki picked up the metal bucket and flushed all the ash down the drain, then grabbed a brush and wiped the writing off the whiteboard. He paused for a moment as he passed the blood-red question mark, then scrubbed it away with an annoyed sigh.

"What a waste of all the suffering I went through. But looking on the bright side, the things I learned can still help me protect my home. And if nothing else, a playboy needs to be in good shape."

He tossed the brush aside and rolled his shoulders. His mind was already making plans for his new life. His gaze fell on the coffee table in front of the armchair.

There lay an idol magazine. On its cover was a beautiful girl with long black hair falling to her waist and light purple eyes. A pink rabbit hairpin was clipped to her hair, and her smile was almost perfect.

Mai Sakurajima, a young idol who had taken Japan by storm. But besides being another "familiar face," there was something else Yuki cared about more:

As far as he knew, this was the only work with supernatural elements. And despite all his caution over the years, he had found nothing unusual during his many trips to Kanagawa Prefecture.

"The timing's about right. If nothing happens this time, I'll stop worrying about it for good. I'll join the Diving Club and spend every day blissfully drunk on oolong tea."

At the thought, Yuki felt his heart beating faster. It was as if the feelings he had repressed for so long were about to break through the shackles of reason, and he could finally enjoy life without restraint.

He hurriedly put on his coat and went to the entrance to change his shoes. As he opened the door, he hesitated, then turned around and pulled a few gleaming scalpels from a hidden compartment in the shoe cabinet. Their mirror-bright blades reflected his smile, bringing a flood of memories to mind.

The kendo dojo, the octagon, the gym, the racetrack, the dissection room...

"I can't believe I was this afraid of dying. I sweated and bled so much for a crisis that might never come, and all I got out of it was a well-developed body?"

Yuki sighed. He really did seem to have paranoia. Back then, he hadn't even thought about how, if he got into an accident while doing all those dangerous activities, he'd only die sooner.

"Whatever. It's all in the past. At least I can brag about it."

The blade slipped into his pocket, as if his ever-ready fighting spirit had returned to its sheath. With a click, Yuki turned the handle and stepped forward. His smile froze, and his red pupils contracted slightly.

There was no warm afternoon sunlight, no gentle sea breeze. Even the ground beneath his feet felt soft. In front of him was a corridor, one that had absolutely no place in an apartment building where the rent was twenty thousand yen a month.

The dim corridor had no sunlight at all, and thick gray carpeting covered the floor. The pale green walls gave off an ancient air. Yuki felt his excited heart stop in an instant, and his neck stiffened like rotting wood. Several seconds passed before he could slowly turn his head.

He still couldn't see the familiar staircase or the noisy little brats he usually encountered. Only the black wall lamps cast a faint glow. The corridor was plain and antique, stretching into the depths until he couldn't see where it ended.

Had I fallen asleep standing up?

Yuki first wondered if he was still dreaming. Then he spun around as if someone had stabbed him in the ass, and his hand quickly felt something cold. It was the shape of a doorknob.

What the—

He didn't turn it. His already constricted eyes blinked several times. What was reflected in them wasn't the apartment door, barely sixty centimeters wide and covered in ads. It had become a huge oak door, taller than a person and several meters wide.

The wooden door bore no extra decorations, but like the walls and carpet, it had the feel of an antique. The scent of aged wood drifted into his nose.

Yuki's hand rested on the doorknob. He didn't turn it even a fraction. Then, amid his confusion and uncertainty, he heard a strange voice.

It was impossible to tell whether the voice was male or female, and impossible to trace its source. It sounded more like countless men, women, old people, and children speaking at once—some laughing, some crying, some growling, some sighing. The voices were chaotic, yet every word was perfectly clear.

[Welcome to the 'Reincarnation Game.']

[You are one of the lucky ones who have risen above the masses. You will experience the supernatural and become supernatural.]

[Now, open the door.]

So it said.

Chapter Two: Miss, Your Head Has Blossomed

Gulp.

Yuki swallowed instinctively. His head was buzzing, and his expression changed several times in the span of a second.

Confusion, bewilderment, anger...

As the grating countdown continued, it felt as though someone had squeezed his heart hard. His blood rushed to his brain, and his thoughts became both chaotic and clear.

Why now of all times? Was there really something wrong with Mai Sakurajima? Could simply thinking about her cause unpredictable consequences?

Yuki had been ready to start a whole new life after more or less confirming that the world was safe. The sudden shock filled him with instinctive anger, but a second later, reason returned.

"So what I saw back then wasn't a hallucination?!"

Who wrote it?

Why warn me?

Why now?

Yuki's bewilderment was unlike that of an ordinary person. It wasn't the philosophical trio of "Who am I? Where am I?" but rather the shuddering sense of being cloaked in shadow.

His mind felt as if it had been soaked in the River of Life, washing away all his memories. Yuki could only force himself to forget those questions. And then...

He felt a little relieved.

Whatever the reason, hadn't he been preparing for this very moment for years?

All that patience, all that training, all the searching through his memories of his previous life—for this day, he didn't even know how many childhood friends he had missed out on. If it had all been a fantasy, wouldn't that have been an even bigger loss?

"How strange. I don't even know if I've lost out or come out ahead."

His heartbeat gradually steadied. At least that proved he hadn't been suffering from "paranoia" all these years. Like a top student constantly doing practice problems and mock exams, he might not know how to answer everything, but at least he was mentally prepared when the real test came.

[Please open the door, meet up with your teammates, and complete the beginner's tutorial.]

[After that, players will unlock their personal panels.]

[The countdown begins. Ten, nine, eight...]

The strange voice sounded again. Questions he had practiced answering kept flooding into his mind, and his once-stiff brain began working rapidly.

"The Reincarnation Game? Players? Is this something like an infinite-stream instance? But why isn't there a mission prompt?"

"Open the door and meet up with the team? Is this a newcomer's test? Will the real game only appear after I get through this stage? What happens if I don't open it?"

By the time the countdown reached "four," all sorts of questions had surfaced in Yuki's mind. But none of them could be answered, because the voice had already fallen silent. It had no intention of replying.

He looked down the bizarre, endless corridor, then turned the handle without hesitation and pushed the door inward.

Rule One: It's best to obey the system in a game.

Creeeak—

The wooden door let out a piercing groan. Yuki walked straight in, squinting slightly in the light of the wall lamps.

There was another corridor. It looked much the same as the last one, with gray carpeting and blue-green walls. But this time, there were other things in it.

There were no windows. Six wooden doors lined the corridor, and a wooden staircase in the middle led both upstairs and downstairs. When he turned around, the doorway through which he had entered was open, revealing the plain corridor from before.

A villa? A castle?

Yuki's eyelid twitched. With the countdown no longer audible, he felt a little relieved.

He was sure he had made the right choice, but the scene before him left him conflicted.

"This isn't quite what I imagined."

Besides the end of the world and strange invasions, Yuki had spent the last few years imagining what might happen if he were thrown into some kind of game. Thinking back to the bizarre events of the past minute, he realized there were problems with all his old fantasies.

"There's no source material. At least, it's not anything like Infinite Terror. Could it be a rules-based horror? I can't prepare for that."

His head was still buzzing. Yuki raised his leg without thinking, and when his foot touched the carpet and felt its soft texture, he finally came back to himself. His gaze turned resolute.

Once he took this step, there would be no going back. Whatever kind of game this was, whatever preparations he'd made over the years, his goal hadn't changed at all since the moment he'd first transmigrated—

I want to survive!

The corridor didn't show any supernatural features, at least not in terms of physical laws. Fully focused now, Yuki walked across the soft carpet and quickly reached the staircase in the middle.

"So there's upstairs or downstairs. There must be at least five rooms around the corner, and there are more than five floors. This is probably a castle or a large building."

After making his assessment, he glanced down into the dimness below, then abruptly looked up. He caught a glimpse of a crimson glow.

Amid the dim wall lamps, that faint crimson light stood out. Yuki's tense expression finally relaxed a little. Along with the light, the strange voice sounded again.

[Player, you have fifteen minutes left.]

"Phew. I thought I'd have to look around for it myself. So there is a prompt after all. But fifteen minutes? Does it really take that long to go upstairs?"

He raised his foot, but stopped just as it touched the wooden stairs.

Thump.

His leather shoe made a dull sound against the wood, but when it reached his ears, he heard two thumps. It stood out in the utterly silent corridor.