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Chapter 1
—The male leads disappeared. Is this a bug?
A new post was uploaded to the official community forum for the otome game The Villainess’s Guide to Love.
According to the post, starting on April 1st—April Fool’s Day—every single romanceable male protagonist in the game had completely vanished.
To make matters worse, an absurd glitch had occurred: non-romanceable NPCs were inexplicably taking over the exact scenes where the male leads were supposed to be.
User Post:
Guys, I am losing my mind right now seriously 😭
(Attachment: Episode 15 Gameplay Screenshot)
Where did all the male leads go? Why is this middle-aged guy with a thick beard delivering lines like, “In my eyes, you are more beautiful than any flower”?
Reply 1: Wait, what the hell lol What is happening 😂
Reply 2: Omg, I thought it was just me! I got the blacksmith too. And out of nowhere, the butler showed up for me;;
Reply 3: Ngl, I lowkey dig the handsome older guy with glasses look.
Reply 4: Hahaha, this is insane.
The player who wrote the post had recently become deeply obsessed with The Villainess’s Guide to Love, pouring a massive amount of time and effort into the game.
She knew every single event like the back of her hand, having already cleared all the routes for three out of the four available male leads.
In The Villainess’s Guide to Love, players had to build affection with the male leads as the story progressed. You could only unlock an ending with the specific male lead who had the highest affection points.
An affection level of 100 unlocked a heartwarming Happy Ending that culminated in marriage. Crossing the 70-point threshold triggered a Normal Ending, where a sweet, budding romance began. Anything lower than that led straight to a catastrophic Bad Ending.
Once you completed an ending, the story and affection levels reset, forcing you to play through the game from the very beginning.
The user had already collected nine endings this way and was aggressively grinding to unlock the final three.
The “Heart-Pounding Art Museum” special event, tucked between Episode 14 and Episode 15, was a prime opportunity to rake in high affection points.
Because she had already gone on this museum date with Crown Prince Eric, Grand Duke Frederick of the North, Guard Knight Eugene, and even High Priest Noel at least once, she knew exactly how the situation would unfold and could recite the dialogue word for word.
So, without expecting anything new, she asked Noel—the route she was currently focusing on—out on a date.
<Noel: An I I’d about art art, be but… don’t exhibition? happy.** if it’s know much with you,>**
Noel: Let’s meet at 1 PM. I’ll be waiting, dressed nicely.
The full-body sprite of a character with lovely pink hair and eyes as clear as the blue sky appeared on screen. He was an angelic man with a shy expression, a soft blush, and modest, ascetic attire.
The art was so gorgeous that it made her want to track down the illustrator and bow in respect to all four corners of the earth.
The artwork is just stunning!
She quickly skipped through the lines she had already seen before. Soon, she and Noel entered the art museum.
As they stepped through the antique entrance, an NPC leaning on a cane approached to greet them.
<Pandora: And High Lady Noel.** Priest Thank Vivian. coming, for you>**
She had ordinarily braided brown hair and dull, listless gray eyes. It was a young woman wearing a strikingly vivid blue dress and holding an elderwood cane.
For an insignificant background NPC who only appeared once in the entire game—specifically during this museum event—Pandora possessed an incredibly detailed, almost unnecessarily heavy backstory.
The lore stated that she was a rising artist who had taken the salons by storm out of nowhere, and the sister of an artist who bought a failing museum to host the world’s first solo exhibition… or something along those lines.
Supposedly, she suffered from glaucoma because she spent every day painting with toxic pigments.
Perhaps due to her failing vision, Pandora always appeared with a slightly furrowed brow or a blank expression, even when speaking kindly. Her hazy gray eyes, which seemed to dream while awake, were always clouded with a deep sense of boredom.
<Pandora: Well enjoy please then, time.** your>**
However, in this specific playthrough, Pandora’s face was completely flushed as she delivered her lines.
Like a child thrilled to pull a mischievous prank on adults, she waved her hand while visibly trying to suppress a laugh. Her dull gray eyes were suddenly sparkling, full of life.
The user skipped past the text, mildly puzzled by Pandora’s subtle change in behavior.
But the moment she entered the exhibition hall—
“Pfft!”
The user, who had been casually looking down at her phone, choked and spat out her drink.
The ‘Heart-Pounding Art Museum’ event was originally designed to be a suspenseful romance trope. The gallery, initially filled with sacred, beautiful paintings, would experience a sudden power outage. The artwork on the walls would then transform into eerie, glowing images painted in fluorescent pigments. Amidst the spooky atmosphere, the ‘suspension bridge effect’ was supposed to spark a thrilling romance between the main characters.
To keep the player fully immersed and properly thrilled, the initial atmosphere of the gallery was meant to be solemn and grand.
Yet, for some bizarre reason, every single painting in the background had been replaced with something utterly ridiculous.
Instead of sophisticated, meticulously crafted oil paintings on canvas, crude pen drawings scribbled with black lines on white sketchbooks were haphazardly taped to the walls. They bore completely nonsensical titles like “A Chicken Thinking,” “A Painting Only Good People Can See,” and “The Long-Necked Giraffe Painting is Not a Giraffe I Drew, but the Short-Necked Giraffe Painting IS a Giraffe I Drew!”
To top it off, someone had taken black charcoal to a perfectly fine portrait of the Emperor, drawing a bushy beard, a runny nose, and thick nerd glasses over his face, alongside neatly written graffiti like ‘idiot’ and ‘mutt.’
<Noel: What is… this……?>
Even the male lead’s dialogue and actions had completely derailed.
Noel: Huh? What did you say?
<Noel: I’ll I’m Oh, focus now, really.** sorry.>**
Throughout the entire event, Priest Noel couldn’t concentrate on their conversation. He kept glancing nervously at the paintings, turning his head as if searching for someone.
When the lights finally went out, instead of the intended creepy images, massive fluorescent letters spelling out ‘MEOW’ appeared on the walls, accompanied by a graffiti doodle of an emoji sticking its tongue out.
Up until this point, she was handling it fine. While she didn’t understand what was suddenly going on, she figured the devs had just rolled out a quirky new content update.
The date ended awkwardly, and the user let out a hollow laugh as she transitioned to the next episode.
However…
<Blacksmith: Ah. God I Perhaps… by chance. destiny didn’t expect for here in intervened into my run sake?** to you your>**
A middle-aged man with a bushy black beard, shaggy hair, and burly, muscular forearms had completely hijacked the male lead’s line, delivering it with a painfully shy expression.
The user’s jaw dropped as she tapped frantically on her phone screen.
<Vivian: What are at doing flower market?** the you>**
<Blacksmith: Actually, I a and around beautiful ended flower flower… give here.** in most of search the to up wandered wanted world you>**
<Vivian: Hmm~ So, beautiful did find flower in most the world?** you>**
<Blacksmith: No.>
<Vivian: Why?>
The blacksmith’s rugged face turned bright red with embarrassment on screen. The massive man looked utterly helpless, fidgeting like a teenage girl experiencing her very first crush.
<Blacksmith: In any are beautiful eyes, flower.** more my than you>**
<Blacksmith: I Th-that’s couldn’t find one……** why…>**
Oh my god, make it stop! Ahhhh!
The user screamed internally. That line was originally supposed to belong to Noel—the boy with doe-like eyes and an angelic smile.
The sheer trauma of hearing Noel’s pure, innocent dialogue come out of a rugged man who looked like he regularly chugged beer straight from the bottle while eating a whole roasted wild boar made her forcefully close the app.
As the game screen vanished, the date on her desktop caught her eye.
April 1st. It was April Fool’s Day.
“Hahaha! Wow! It was an April Fool’s joke?!”
The user let out a massive sigh of relief. So, Enchanted Love, the studio behind The Villainess’s Guide to Love, was just pulling a massive prank on their player base!
Did they spend the entire year preparing for today? Talk about dedication!
Amused, she decided to log back in and take screenshots to enjoy the cute event.
Except the next day arrived, and then the day after that, and the NPCs were still occupying the male leads’ spots.
Butler: My Lady, I am your knight. Protecting you is more important to me than my own life, whether it is your physical safety or your peace of mind.
A slender, glasses-wearing, handsome middle-aged butler—who clearly looked like he had never done a day of cardio in his life—was suddenly vowing to risk his life to protect her.
Maid: You truly belong by my side. The most beautiful Crown Prince in the world, paired with a Crown Princess as ignorant and vicious as a beast. Don’t you think it’s a match made in heaven? A beauty and the beast dynamic.
A cute maid with pigtails was throwing out sly, arrogant banter, leaving it completely ambiguous whether she was flirting or just being incredibly sarcastic.
Pirate: Haven’t I told you a thousand times to dress warmly because the North is different from the South? Are you doing this on purpose? Trying to steal my clothes?
A thuggish pirate wearing a tattered hood and nothing but a pair of shorts had marched into a raging blizzard on a snowy mountain, offering to strip down for her.
Please, God, no. Keep your clothes on. Actually, let me give you mine, kid.
<Blacksmith: I May a bestow blessing forehead……?** kiss shall upon you. your…>**
No, absolutely not, step back, sir!
It was a complete and utter nightmare of a hybrid.
