Chapter Four: Damn It, It's the Minotaur Simulator!
【Of course, choose to forgive her】
When only this one large option appeared on the screen, Gou Tong felt an overwhelming sense of disgust.
Selecting it would lead to a hidden ending.
There would be a new wedding scene, with the male lead still smiling—his smile even more “pure” than in the better ending.
At the same time, there would be a close-up of the vast group of male admirers behind the female lead.
It was also a happy ending, a “complete” life.
But it required pushing various versions of the “Happy Sheep.”
Unlocking a hidden achievement: “Knight Charging for Love.”
Aminos!
What kind of knight charging for love is this? This is nothing but the green-haired knight of Boiling Sheep.
This game shouldn’t be called “Pure Love Warrior Simulator” anymore; it should be “The Bull-Headed Man’s Suffering Simulator.”
In this game, the male and female leads cannot interact beyond a “kiss” before marriage; the male lead must save all such moments for that sacred wedding day.
But if he doesn’t act, others will step in.
Suppressing the urge to slam the keyboard, Gou Tong reloaded his save and continued to try. He discovered that if he resisted choosing “Forgive her” when the option appeared, the game still continued.
After a brief pause, the screen shifted to an uncontrollable simulation of the protagonist’s actions.
The male lead’s faith collapsed within the screen, unable to accept such an ending despite giving everything.
He left the school, found a corner unseen by the female lead, and committed suicide.
Another bad ending was added: “Don’t scare her.”
Insane!
...
“Ugh, is there really no other ending? If the female lead is such a person, then there’s no good ending at all.”
Gou Tong felt that Maodou had ultimately gone astray. Isn’t a harem game more appealing?
Pure love is one thing, but these hidden plots are just disgusting to players.
At first, he thought the female lead was just being difficult—adding trivial events like “testing how fast you’d save me” or suddenly sending the male lead to the hospital, and the later stages were too expensive...
He could tolerate it, just ignoring those parts.
After all, the game’s strengths were abundant, with high playability that could overshadow some flaws.
But now that it had come to this, how could anyone keep playing? What was the point of all the previous effort?
Thinking about how he had tried every means to earn money, how the devoted male lead endured hardships to support the female lead...
Yet she spent his hard-earned money partying with her friends. Gou Tong felt utterly sickened.
Throwing parties would be one thing, but spending his money without even inviting him?!
Gou Tong started a new save. This time, with many achievement points early on, there was more room for development and more money in the early stages, so he didn’t have to operate so frugally.
---
He tried to go on more dates in Youth City early on to raise the female lead’s affection.
But after repeated attempts, he found that the female lead always “awakened” in the second semester of freshman year, revealing in subtle details that she had a new love interest.
Before freshman year ended, this event inevitably occurred. The old saying went: the heavens change nine times but one cannot escape; minor fates can be altered, but major ones cannot.
The male lead could not interfere with the female lead’s “free will,” nor could he always follow her at university. Her natural downfall was an inevitable event in the game.
Playing the first run focused solely on career, he hadn’t noticed how promiscuous the female lead was. There were too many like-minded people at this school.
No, those NPCs were like-minded; only the male lead wasn’t.
He was the clown. Ugh!
Sigh... this contract can’t be accepted anymore.
Though fun, the pace would only get worse. After release, he could join in the criticism.
Finally, he glanced at the game credits. The producer’s name was Gu Meng.
“Well, all your dirty deeds, Gu Meng? How did I never realize before that you’re so twisted?”
Yes, Gu Meng had long held a position at the company and often came by when free. He was well known among Maodou’s longtime fans.
Besides being the company’s vice president and a shareholder who originally held twenty percent and now owned one hundred, he was also the head of the company’s performance department.
He had been the perennial winner of Maodou’s internal annual “Best Actor” award and, in recent years, a heavyweight “Maodou Movie Emperor” in the entire entertainment industry, nicknamed “Dou Di.”
The “Dou Di Award” was always his, every year, unanimously.
The “Maodou Best Actress” award changed hands annually, with some actresses moving to other companies.
But the “Maodou Best Actress” title still remained an esteemed credential in the encyclopedia.
Those unfamiliar with Maodou’s works might suspect foul play, my dear CEO father.
But it wasn’t like that. The company only had one male lead.
Everyone else was either a beautiful actress or a supporting actor.
Every Maodou production’s male lead was him, so of course he was the best male actor. Gu Ritian had gone all out to promote his “son.”
This had been the case since the Maodou Media era.
Gu Meng’s previous incarnation began filming bold art films in high school, then transitioned to web movies and short videos before moving into film and gaming.
He had spent ten years playing roles like mentally ill patients, rural lads, henpecked husbands, dragon kings, war gods, elite soldiers, domineering CEOs, underdog youths, and overpowered students…
His wicked smile always skewed his mouth—a sort of occupational hazard.
The protagonist Tong Laoshi in “Pickup Master Simulator” was also played by Gu Meng, and the game’s NPC “Teacher Tong” bore a striking resemblance to him.
But the most classic role wasn’t Tong Laoshi.
It was probably Gu Meng’s portrayal in the films “Damn, I’m Surrounded by Older Women” and “Teachers, Please Don’t Distract My Studies.”
His role as the underperforming “High Schooler A Meng” in those two works was a classic that Maodou movie fans couldn’t miss.
Gou Tong had also heard about the recent car accident that tragically claimed the life of old CEO Gu.
It was probably not an accident—the killer was too professional. The dump truck rammed onto the sidewalk, making several turns and hitting Gu Ritian, but no other pedestrians were affected.
It was clearly intentional, likely part of a real business rivalry.
The driver hasn’t been found, nor has the truck. The power behind this was enormous; even neutral bystanders found it suspicious.
---
It was dark, too dark, almost unlike the country itself.
Ordinary people like us neither dared to speak nor ask.
As a ten-year Maodou fan, Gou Tong still held some sympathy for Maodou.
He had once hoped young CEO Gu would rise, perhaps enact a “Dragon King Returns” scenario, turning the tide to avenge his father and topple the conglomerate.
Tsk... wishful thinking. He originally thought Gu Meng must understand games well; how could he be a cuckold?
When the previous work “Single Choice” was released, Gu Ritian’s false advertising nevertheless presented female leads each with attractive traits, though you couldn’t have them all.
This time, with such a disgusting female lead so different from past characterizations, it had to be Gu Meng’s fault...
But that was unfair—it was actually Gu Ritian’s doing.
He listened to his subordinates’ advice and tried to pivot toward pure love from the victim’s perspective.
Adding politically correct rhetoric to simultaneously please two very different player types: perverts and lunatics.
But this kind of bull-headed artistry might be premature for the current world.
Gu Meng had never played such dating sims and didn’t care about the hidden character settings in the demo, only focusing on the simulation and money-making parts.
He treated giving money to the female lead as mere background. After a trial run and securing the full bride-price ending, he thought he was safe.
He hadn’t even discovered the hidden plot of the female lead having a new lover at university and was still dreaming of huge sales and rave reviews.
Meanwhile, Gou Tong muttered to himself, calling young CEO Gu an idiot.
His artistic sickness had twisted everything, utterly misunderstanding ordinary film-game players’ hearts.
He was just ruining his own meal ticket.
Just as he was about to quit the game, he accidentally opened the inventory.
He inadvertently noticed a rare golden legendary item: “Teacher Tong’s Diary,” and suddenly had a spark of inspiration.
“I remember this book... was a gift given when the protagonist in the previous game, Pickup Master Simulator, reached max affection.”
“In this game, all NPCs give gifts in return, and other NPCs often return large gifts, but the female lead never reciprocates. She’s like a pixiu—only taking, never giving.”
“Sigh... I should have realized this sooner.”
Gou Tong selected the book and started reading.
The content consisted of classic quotes from the previous protagonist, Teacher Tong, ending with a short fable: “The Happy Life of Boiling Sheep and Beautiful Sheep.”
“So that’s it. This book’s values clash with the current protagonist’s personality. The story even hints that the Boiling Sheep sycophant won’t be happy even if he marries the Beautiful Sheep. No wonder when it’s in the equipment slot, it has the attribute: [Lowers maximum mental state by 50 points, slightly reduces the rate of mental state decline].”
“The stats are so poor it hardly deserves to be a golden legendary item, so I never used it...”
“Wait, during the hidden ending, mental state drops to zero temporarily and the game doesn’t end. If I use this item then to push the mental state into the negatives, what would happen?”
...