"Now you see?" she shouted in a tone that was somewhere between annoyance and disappointment. "You can’t outsmart Scrients! They’re the most intelligent beings across the two realms!"

"You’re right," I muttered, averting my gaze with a solemn sigh. "I made a mistake. I was arrogant to think a mere human like me could fool them."

—BOOM!!

"...Wh-What was that?"

"Hmm? I’m not sure. Maybe you should go and ask the most intelligent beings across the two realms. Oh wait! You can’t. I killed them all."

---

My name is Samael Kaizer Theosbane.

On the last day of high school, I got into a fight with a kid I used to bully.

It was a stupid and pointless scuffle. And in the middle of it, I tripped and smacked my head on a rock.

That’s when the memories came flooding in…

Memories of a different life.

Memories of another world.

Suddenly, everything made a twisted kind of sense.

I realized two things.

First: I was inside a game I used to play in my past life.

Second: I was a villain. A villain!

Not the cool, mysterious, tragic kind either!

No, I was the worst kind of cliché — a spoiled, insufferable, and arrogant young master. The sort you'd find in those poorly written fantasy stories.

You know the type!

The one everyone hates.

The one the hero would beat into the ground to show everyone just how strong and righteous he is.

Yeah. I was that guy!

My fate was to be a stepping stone for the main characters, be manipulated by a Demon Prince, and die a dog's death.

And the hero? The hero was the same kid I’d been bullying all this time.

The one I just got into a fight with.

He was supposed to be the savior of this damned world.

A world teetering on the edge of destruction, beset by wars, calamities, and a grim future that only I knew.

And waiting at the end of it all was the final antagonist.

The unbeatable nightmare.

…The Spirit King.

But could I even make it to the end?

Could I really survive in a game where defeat was the only certainty?

A game that had now become my reality?

“Ah, fuck it.”

I had no idea if I could. But I sure as hell was going to try.

Extorting extras, manipulating main characters, altering the story to my advantage, stealing the hero’s cheat items, killing villains long before they could become threats — nothing was beneath me.

Would the main characters be affected by my actions? Excellent!

Would the story change? Even better!

All I cared about was me.

My survival. My life. My choices.

“I’ll live this life with no regrets.”

...But as I soon discovered, fate wasn't so easily changed.

And the price of rewriting your destiny was steep.

==========

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The_One_Who_Was Novels

young master's pov: woke up as a villain in a game one day