Harem Mode - ON Ch. 04

He went through the usual sequence of screens. He rushed past his progress reports and didn't bother spending any of his accumulated points into anything, as everything would just reset when he loaded up the earlier save anyway.

29-16-11-4-57-36, 29-16-11-4-57-36, 29-16-11-4-57-36, come on come on hurry the fuck up

LOAD/SAVE GAME

Finally! Load up last night's save!

ERROR! ALL AUTO-SAVES ARE OVERWRITTEN EVERY 24 HOURS

What the fuck?! This can't be! That means time only moves forward! But what's the point of even saving my progress then?!

...

Wait, I distinctly remember I had a choice to pick the date. When I... When I died the first time. Well, the only time. The game let me choose when to get, uh... reincarnated, I guess? Start over again?

But now...

But now I can only move forward from this point on. All of my actions have consequences again.

I...

I only had one chance to go back in time, and it could have been to any date I was alive.

I wasn't thinking about it too hard at the time, so I just chose to start the day over the day I died.

I guess it was the natural thing to do. But if I could have chosen any day...

...

I could have gone back in time.

And.

...

Saved my dad from dying.

===+===+===

"Fuck! All that power, and I could have used it to do anything!" Yelled a teenage boy angrily, slamming a fist onto his bike handle.

"But all I did was put myself first, even when I believed that's not who I was."

He pedaled faster into the distance, not wanting to be alone with his thoughts anymore. As far as he knew, he was alone.

No one could possibly understand what was going on in his head, or guide him in the days to come. He could only race forward, blindly, with his own two feet.

Two pairs of eyes watched him from a bench as he trailed away, over the tops of newspapers they pretended to read.

"Do you think he knows, now?"

"Yes. There is still more for him to learn, but he's pieced much of it together by now."

"Then the time is coming soon. When what he chooses to do from that point forward will be the final testament of his character."

"Do you think he'll make the right choice?"

"God only knows."

=======

A/N: Merry Christmas! Boy that took a while to come out, didn't it? I hope it was worth the wait. I actually went through several drafts of this, but by the end I just wanted to get it out to you as a surprise holiday gift. So, the second half of the story might have more typos and misspellings. I really appreciate those of you who stuck through the long hiatus, and cared enough about the story to check up on it every now and then.

Now go enjoy the New Year. Happy 2020, everyone!