The Broken System Chose the Antagonist
Chapter 1: It begins Wrong

Chapter 1: It begins Wrong

"Thank you for your purchase. Please come again!"

After paying the store clerk, a woman with long brown hair, dark eyes, and glasses stepped out of the store. She looked to be no older than 18 and had an extremely joyful look on her face.

’I finally have it!’

Clutching onto a plastic bag that bulged outwards in the shape of a box, Emma looked for the nearest bench to sit on. And when she did, she hastily opened the plastic bag and pulled out a box with colourful, endearing illustrations of characters and monsters all around its sides.

To "cultured" passerbyers, they would recognise the box she was holding to be the collector edition of an incredibly popular visual novel called Good of Humanity, praised for its beautiful storytelling and incredible illustration.

And Emma was, without a doubt, one of its biggest fans.

’Good of Humanity, a somewhat political fantasy story set in a post-apocalyptic version of the real world.’

In the setting, after Germany surrendered in 1945, six mysterious rifts popped up around the globe; one of each located on every continent. And with them, a massive invasion of alien monsters called Predicaments.

These monsters had claws capable of ripping through iron, jaws that could crush stone, and supernatural abilities seen in fantasy stories. It was unlike anything humanity had ever seen before.

In 1946, the Predicaments managed to usurp 70-80 per cent of Earth’s landmass and reduced the total number of humans down to a measly 8 million; the people that managed to survive this near-extinction event called it The Fall.

Later, in that same year, a small percentage of young children began to show miraculous signs of strength, on par with teenagers, and supernatural abilities that defied science.

These children would then later grow on to become something known as a Vitalist; special soldiers trained by the Good of Humanity Government (GOHG)—a global organisation created after The Fall to help keep humanity alive—against the Predicaments.

Emma stared excitedly at the cover of the box, her eyes inevitably falling onto the face of the heroine of the story, Nadia Crane.

On the cover of the box, Nadia was displayed as a gorgeous woman with long, luscious blonde hair and unwavering blue eyes as she faced off against Predicaments and other antagonists in the story.

’Nadia Crane, a heroine that managed to rise from her impoverished life to get revenge on both government officials and Predicaments alike, in hopes of creating a better world for the lower-class.’

Emma was a massive fan of the female protagonist, but she was even more of a fan of the man who stood beside her!

’Callum Ashby, the male lead...’

The male lead had short black hair that was neatly styled and charming amber eyes. It was also safe to say that Callum Ashby had the most dashing face out of every male fictional character Emma had ever known.

It was safe to say that she, embarrassingly, had a small crush on the man.

’With the two of them combined, they would go on to face every adversity that came in their way. From harsh Predicaments, to pompous antagonists of the higher social class, nothing that stood in their path had a good ending!’ Emma fangirled inside, her expressions attracting odd looks.

Emma then slowly moved her gaze towards the antagonist closest to Nadia, ’Although... there was one antagonist that seemed to survive almost every route in this game...’

The antagonist was a woman with bright red eyes and long brown hair. She wore a German-inspired black military attire and cap, an armband with black heart-shaped insignia, and a pair of black latex gloves, which she was never seen without.

This woman was Nadia’s antagonistic rival, Hilda Hertel, a soldier for the GOHG—or specifically—the Land-Reclamation Military (LRM).

Throughout the story, Hilda was shown to be a capable strategist and also a fighter, especially at the start, and because of her idealistic standing, she constantly bumped heads with Nadia throughout.

And she hated her for that!

’Although... In one of the Routes, there was a lot of shipping between the two in the community... They do have some level of synergy between them...’

Realising how inappropriate her thoughts were, she shook her head violently, clearing her mind.

Despite the visual novel being praised for its amazing storytelling, the game only ever had four routes Nadia could go down: Cowardice, Justice, Pragmatist, and Power.

And strangely, there was no "True" ending.

This was one of the two main complaints surrounding the game, as other players were dissatisfied with the visual novel’s lack of content. The other complaint was about how all four Routes never actually led to a good ending for the world.

"But those complaints ends today!" Emma shouted under her breath.

Shooting up to her feet, she hastily began to run back home.

This collector’s edition of the game, which she had bought using a day’s worth of pay, included another route players could go down; a route that all players looked forward to for as long as they could remember.

The True route!

’Since it’s going to be the last ever Route, it has to lead to a happy ending! And since the collector’s edition only came out today, no-one should’ve completed it just yet... But .’

Although Emma didn’t really know why the developers only made it so it’s in the collector’s edition, she didn’t really care.

While the woman was tangled up in her thoughts...

"H-hey, look where you’re going!"

She soon snapped out of it when someone across the street called out to her.

"Huh?"

And before she knew it, she had already taken a step inside an unnaturally large manhole.

With no time to process what happened, she was immediately sucked into the deep abyss and into a free fall.

Her eyes instantly went wide with shock.

"Huh?"

When she eventually realised what was going on—

"HUH!?"

—She instinctively pulled Good of Humanity tightly over her heart.

Then, with fear-stricken eyes and voice, she shouted:

"WAIT, WAIT WAIT, WAIT, WAAAIT!"

Eventually, in the fall that seemingly lasted for eternity...

THUD!

She hit the ground.

...

...

...

[Congratulations on your successful transmigration, Emma Smith!]

Inside a dark room, illuminated only by a small stream of silver moonlight coming through a slit in the curtain, a translucent, rectangular blue screen flickered in the air.

[Now beginning process of connection with host and System...]

It hovered in the air, just a few inches away from a person who was seated in a cushioned wooden chair.

Despite the majority of their features being masked by the darkness, an observer could tell they were in a resting position with half of their face leaning against their fist.

Eventually, though, awoken by the voice of the System, the person opened their eyes—revealing a pair of bright red pupils that seemingly pierced through the darkness.

Then, the sound of a woman’s voice rang out, slow and steeped in a German accent.

"Emma Smith... mein Freund, it seems you’ve got the wrong person."1

The woman then raised her hand and waved it, causing the curtains that were barely shut to fly open, allowing the rest of the moon’s light to infiltrate the room that had a very militaristic look to it.

And with the moonlight now completely revealing the insides of the room...

[Error.]

[Story Context failed to be downloaded from the host’s memories. Identification of the Host is in order...]

She, too, was revealed.

[System has identified the host to be: Hilda Hertel]

Sitting on the cushioned wooden throne was a regal beauty with long brown hair, piercing red eyes, a German-inspired black military uniform with a red armband, and a pair of latex black gloves.

A small smile tugged at her lips as she reached over to a chairside table and grabbed a black military cap.

[Detecting the host to be the wrong target. Rerouting... rerouting... Error—! Detecting further issues with the search for the intended target.]

"Now~ now~ no need to leave so soon~" Hilda cooed, placing the cap onto her head before folding her legs calmly; still unfazed by the thing in front of her.

She then tilted her head with interlocked fingers; her eyes filled with curiosity. "How about you stay for a little while und answer a couple of questions of mine?"

[...]

[Hilda Hertel has been approved to become the new host. Altering the original purpose of the System.]

[Congratulations, Hilda Hertel, on acquiring the ███████ System.]

Mein Freund = My Friend