I had a similar feeling, but then I replayed the game opening and the feeling quickly went away. Not only did this "friend" do what is probably the most disckish move towards a buddy, but he felt zero remorse about it and played it off like it's no big deal. And let's not forget that the reason he has a harem in the first place is because the MC did all the heavy lifting for him, Naoki was just coasting on the MCs effort. Basically, he and Tokuko created a monster that will be the cause of their own destruction.I have to say I do feel bad (a bit) for the guy, of course he was a scumbag in the beginning taking everything even the only girl mc actually wanted after mc helped that idiot with the other girls, but the latest updates were real fucking cruel to him and him just being so pathetic is kinda sad. my empathic self just can't ignore that even though at the beginning I would have loved to just strangle him straight away. and dont get me wrong all the process of stealing and the game itself, as I said a couple of times already, I really like it. just saying that I do be feeling kind of bad for Naoki as we get into his final moments of getting broken completely. same way I felt bad for Emma getting bullied hard by mc even though, once again, she did deserve it. but I have to say I am pleased of how things turned out for Emma in current phase, I'd like to see every ending anyway (if there are options) but will be interesting to see how it plays out for Emma specifically, she was also the only one I didn't give points in the first 2/3 of the game only gave her the last one.
In other news, the pacing is feeling kind of bad in the last several updates.Events feel like they are being stretched too thin and dragged out.