Chapter 1 – Kidnapping (1)

[Translator – Peptobismol]Chapter 1 – Kidnapping (1)

[Kahahaha! Welcome to my laboratory! From now on, you will become ‘complete’ through my experiments!]

[Ugh, Y-Yuri, what are we going to do?]

[Don’t worry. I will definitely… definitely kill that bastard and we’ll all escape together!]

This is so cliche.

So cliche.

Is this really your best effort?

Even if you are an indie game developer, is this the story you spent five years hyping up and preparing for?

“Maybe there’s a twist coming?”

No? This studio is known for shocking developments just when you start to feel bored.

This might not be the end.

Though the story keeps leaning into worn-out cliches, my anticipation only grew.

What kind of epic twist are they building up to with all this?

The playtime was nearing two hours, but I continued.

If I go over two hours, I can’t get a refund, but that’s fine.

When this first episode ends, they’ll surely break all the tedious buildup in a spectacular way.

[Argh! Aaargh! How could this happen? How did you escape? You were bound by dark magic and couldn’t use mana!]

[You fool… I used brute strength! Hearing my friends’ screams, I trained my body for the past three years!]

[Impossible! I never imagined my magic orb could be destroyed by sheer force! That unnatural strength… could it be…!]

[No need to know! Just die quietly!]

[Boom! Boom!]

[With my newly awakened, unknown power, I defeated the dark magician, Aslan Vermont. Finally, I escaped this hellish place with my friends…]

“Wow…”

It was a “wow” filled with mixed emotions.

Is this the end of Chapter 1?

The young protagonist and his friends get kidnapped and tortured by a mad dark magician, then awaken his powers, destroy everything, and escape? Is this for real?

And the power he awakens isn’t some cool ability, but just brute strength.

This is so disappointing.

“Rating 0 stars. What? I can’t give 0 stars? Then 1 star. How dare they sell this crap for money. Time to exercise some good influence as the advance team.”

I immediately wrote a review.

For the “How far did you play?” section, I of course selected “Saw all endings.”

That way, my review’s credibility would increase.

My lie was a well-intentioned one, meant to save others from wasting their money.

[…I thought it couldn’t get worse, but the final ending is truly something else. Only play this if you’re rich and can afford to waste money.]

By the time I finished writing, the review was 5800 characters long.

First upload to the review board, done.

Almost immediately, comments like “Is this for real?”, “How did you finish the game in just three hours after release?”, “Did this guy speedrun it?” flooded in, but I deleted and blocked them all.

Soon, comments like “Quit after one hour and got a refund LOL”, “Wow, the plot stays crap until the end?”, and “Thanks for saving us money, bro” started to appear, reversing the public opinion.

Yeah, this is it.

As the number of likes on my review increased, so did my satisfaction.

“You guys are going to take a hit in Korean sales. Now, what other trash game should I try next? Huh? What’s this?”

A notification dinged. It was an email.

It was from the game company.

How did these guys get my email address? Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ ɴøvᴇl_Firᴇ.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Creepy.

[Hey, you ignorant brat. Our logs show you only played up to Chapter 1. What do you mean you saw the ending? You’re not getting away with this. For you, a special-]

Alright, that’s enough.

They just confessed to illegally using my personal information.

They’re in for a rude awakening.

Do they think privacy laws are a joke?

They messed with the wrong person.

I’ve been to court so many times over online fights that I know all kinds of laws inside and out.

“What? Why is my monitor glowing?”

At that moment, the screen was filled with a bright blue light.

[This is a special reward for the first user to clear all endings.]

“Hey, I didn’t see all the endings…”

[You said you did.]

The light from the monitor enveloped my body, sending chills down my spine.

Oh no, is this what I think it is?

***

Vermont Mansion.

The building, like a fortress rising from barren land, was bustling even in the dead of night.

Maids rushed through the kitchen preparing food, and with quiet steps, headed to the library.

All because of Aslan Vermont, the eldest son of the Vermont Count.

Recently obsessed with strange magic, Aslan had shut himself in the library and hadn’t come out.

It wasn’t that his days and nights were reversed; he just didn’t sleep.

“He seems to be getting more eccentric by the day…”

“Shh! Quiet! He’ll hear you…”

If he felt even a bit hungry, he would summon the maids, scolding them if they took too long.

Entering the library with even the slightest noise would provoke his ire.

The magic he was researching emitted an ominous, dark aura, increasing the staff’s anxiety daily.

“It seems like dark magic, doesn’t it?”

“Of course it does. Are we going to be exterminated by the royal family if this gets out? I’m scared.”

“Shouldn’t we stop young master Aslan before it’s too late…?”

“Hey, you’re new, right? Stop young master Aslan? Ha. Give it a try. We’re curious to see what happens.”

As the senior maids started betting on whether the new maid would be whipped or sacrificed to the dark magic, her face turned pale.

She’d heard he was ruthless, but this was extreme.

She had taken the job because they hired uneducated commoners and paid well, but the work was insanely difficult.

“Here, newbie. Take this tea.”

“What?”

“He’s been chanting spells more often today, so he’ll be thirsty soon. If he coughs, we’ll all get slapped, so hurry. But don’t run and make noise or you’ll get beaten senseless.”

“Eek. Yes…”

The new maid took the tray with the teapot and cups, trembling.

Just go. Go quietly.

It’s just a simple task: open the door quietly, put the tray on the side table, and leave without a sound.

Repeating this to herself, she approached the library door, trembling.

“Status window! Status window! Status windooow!!!”

Oh. The young master is at it again.

Chanting incomprehensible spells.

***

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.

A dark room filled with bookshelves.

Strange symbols and drawings covered the floor.

My hands were…

Why were they so thin and pale?

“What?”

The high-pitched, ridiculous voice that came out of my mouth surprised even me.

An unfamiliar place and an unfamiliar body.

Is this what I think it is?

Stay calm.

“Status window! Status window! Status windooow!!!”

I immediately shouted for the status window.

If this is what I think it is, there should be a status window as a basic feature.

[Status Window]

[Name: Aslan Vermont]

[Age: 19]

[Destined to be a villain. Everything around you leads you down the path of evil.]

“So, the worst-case scenario came true…”

I had suspected I might be transmigrated when the monitor glowed.

But it wasn’t as the protagonist, but the Chapter 1 villain, Aslan.

This was totally unexpected.

“Heh heh heh heh…”

Wow, this guy has an eerie laugh.

Just laughing makes me sound like a villain.

What did the protagonist and his friends see in this guy to follow him home?

Oh.

“Right. That was the root of all evil.”

Thinking back, Aslan’s downfall was all because he messed with the protagonist and his friends.

The protagonist, an orphan who had not yet awakened his power, and his friends from the same orphanage.

When the orphanage went bankrupt, they were sold to a slave trader, and it was Aslan who picked them up.

If Aslan hadn’t mistreated the protagonist and his friends.

No, if he hadn’t picked them up in the first place, he wouldn’t have been split in half by the protagonist.

This whole household gives off a suspicious vibe, but if I can avoid being killed by the protagonist, my chances of survival skyrocket.

I can just burn all the dark magic books and erase the traces.

‘This might be easier than I thought.’

For a “fuck you” type of transmigration story, it’s quite friendly.

They could have transmigrated me as a later-stage villain, but they placed me in a part I played through, implying they want me to survive.

“Huh?”

Thud, thud, thud.

Heavy footsteps echoed into the library.

Not just one, but two, three… I couldn’t tell. There were many.

Who could it be? The door burst open with a loud voice.

“Aslan! This sister has brought you the perfect materials for your experiment! I saw the perfect candidates at the slave market and bought them right away!”

“…?”

What?

[Translator – Peptobismol]