[Translator - Helga ]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]
Chapter 2
"Ugh..."
I must have blacked out for a moment.
When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in the deep, cavernous lair of the High Society where I had died.
A blue light faintly illuminated the ceiling.
Scalpels, knives, saws, and blood samples lined the shelves.
The stench of rotting flesh and blood assaulted my senses.
This place, surrounded by cold metal walls, was a laboratory. My body was suspended from a pillar in the center, my hands bound by iron chains.
"...This place again."
The first time this happened, I was completely taken aback, but now I felt nothing. I'd been through this so many times it felt like home.
Beep-
A familiar notification sounded in my head. And as usual, a message appeared before my eyes.
[Your soul has been possessed by the villainous 'Blood Demon' body.]
[Due to the Blood Demon's characteristics, you have awakened the 'Bloodsucking' spell.]
[The 'Bloodsucking' spell allows you to absorb life force and essence from your target's blood.]
[Due to the Blood Demon's characteristics, you have awakened the 'Polymorph' spell.]
[The wild instincts latent in your blood react to the 'Polymorph' spell.]
[‘Bat’ has been added to your Polymorph spell list.]
[A main quest has arrived.]
[Main Quest: Survive until the end of the story.]
"...Dreadful."
I closed my eyes tightly.
This endless restart was no longer just tiresome; it was torture.
Survive until the end of the story, huh? How?
Even after becoming the highest-ranking member of the world's largest villain organization, I still died.
"Just kill me already! You damn game!"
I looked up at the ceiling of the empty laboratory and shouted in rage.
I hoped that if there was a god who had thrown me into this abyss, they would listen.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"...No, not a god. The one who brought me here..."
I looked down at the magic circle drawn beneath me.
This magic circle, emitting a soft glow, was a summoning circle.
It was created to place a soul from another dimension into the empty body of a 'Blood Demon' villain.
Unlike other villains, the 'Blood Demon' had a unique origin. While ordinary villains suddenly developed villainous traits, the 'Blood Demon' was an artificially created villain born in a laboratory.
"He'll be here soon..."
I unconsciously started counting. Exactly two minutes after I regained consciousness in this laboratory, he would appear.
The damned bastard who made me a villain.
5, 4, 3, 2...
CLANG-
The laboratory door creaked open, and he entered.
He was over six feet tall and slender.
He wore a crisp black lab coat.
His hair was slicked back.
His deep-set eyes under his prominent cheekbones had a compulsive look.
He wore an unusual monocle...
He was probably in his mid-twenties.
The moment he saw me, he frowned, startled. I'd seen that expression so many times I could practically recite the wrinkles on his forehead.
His first words would be... 'Finally, you're here.'
"Finally, you're here. What a troublesome soul you are."
As if reading my mind, the man spat out those words. His eyes, fixed on me, held a mix of relief and mockery.
“You have no idea how much time I wasted trying to put you in that body. You should have been summoned obediently. Why were you so difficult, just a wandering soul?”
The man, who looked like a mad scientist with his monocular glasses, seemed quite stressed from all the trial and error. As soon as he saw me, he started to sneer.
When I first arrived here, I had no idea what he was talking about, but now I understood why he was so irritable.
His name was Do Jin-hak.
Known as Professor D, he was a scientist and a professor at the Masterclass, the world's top military academy that produced the Seven Heroes.
‘A professor in name only, he's really a psychopath who kidnaps villains and conducts all sorts of experiments on them.’
In ‘Military Chronicle,’ Professor D plays a crucial role in the story by significantly increasing the average abilities of the military units through various chimera research projects.
He's the reason why the Seven Heroes become so overwhelmingly powerful.
‘So at first, I thought things would be easier if I killed him early on...’
But even after killing Professor D, the story didn’t unfold as I had expected. No matter what I did, another psychopathic scientist would appear to take his place. This game must have some kind of protagonist buff.
‘At this point, it’s like the villains are just meant to die.’
No matter what I did, the outcome was always the same. The world was overwhelmingly biased against the villains.
How could I possibly escape from a world like this...?
“Hmm, your eyes look like a rotten fish's. Can’t understand your situation, can you?”
He spoke to me as if I were a worthless toy.
‘I’m not surprised.’
Do Jin-hak pulled a cloth from his pocket, covered his nose, and took a few steps back, his expression twisted in disgust.
One step, two steps...
And on the third, he turned his back.
‘Now's my chance.’
Enduring the electric shock as long as I could, I took advantage of the moment he turned and flung the chains binding my wrists.
ZAP-!
"Oof!"
The chain, still attached to my wrist, wrapped around Do Jin-hak's ankle, and the electric current surged through his body.
Do Jin-hak let out a horrible scream.
"Ughh, ughh! How, how did you... the chains...?"
He couldn't understand how the chains that bound my hands had come loose.
‘He’ll never guess. I’ve restarted this part so many times to figure out how to break these chains.’
Thanks to that, I had learned how to twist my fingers and wrists to slip out of the chains.
I had used this exact method to escape the lab and join the High Society in previous playthroughs.
"Cough, cough... So, cough...! That means I've used this tried-and-true escape method over a hundred times."
"Ugh..."
Do Jin-hak, lying on the floor, finally realized that what I was saying wasn't a lie.
But it was too late.
Even though his AI assistant had quickly cut off the power, the brief shock had paralyzed Do Jin-hak's body.
"Since even I, a villain, can barely withstand that level of electricity, it's only natural for a human body to be paralyzed like that."
Do Jin-hak glared at me, his eyes wild.
But he was powerless.
The situation had completely reversed in an instant.
Crack, crack-
I popped the joints in my fingers and wrists, lost in thought.
‘Now... what do I do now?’
So far, I had simply followed the escape route I'd perfected through countless repetitions. In the past, I would escape the lab as soon as I could, afraid of being caught.
‘But just escaping won’t solve anything.’
Even after escaping hundreds of times and trying to stop the Seven Heroes, I had always failed. Maybe escaping wasn't the answer.
Perhaps I should stay in the lab and find a way to prevent the birth of the Seven Heroes.
But how could I do that?
Just then, I heard a knock on the lab door.
"Professor Do? Are you in there?"
A strange voice I had never heard before.
It seemed that one of Do Jin-hak's assistants had come to the lab while I was deep in thought.
‘I guess I got lost in thought.’
Usually, I would escape as soon as I freed myself, but this time was different.
Do Jin-hak was struggling to make some kind of distress call with his immobile mouth.
I locked eyes with Do Jin-hak and held my breath, ready to kill anyone who dared to enter.
But instead of opening the door, the assistant called out from outside in an urgent voice.
"Professor Do? Is everything alright? The Masterclass faculty just contacted me. They've finalized the date for the final interview for the new professor position that they offered you. They sent the details in an email, so you should take a look at it sometime today..."
A new professor at the Masterclass?
That thought sparked something in my mind.
According to the timeline of 'Military Chronicle', Do Jin-hak was about to take up a teaching position at the Masterclass around the time the Blood Demon was summoned.
‘That means no one at the academy knows Professor D personally.’
Moreover, Do Jin-hak was known as a quirky psychopath with terrible social skills.
Even if someone impersonated him, there would be no close acquaintances who would notice.
Even if that someone was a villain, an enemy of the military.
‘If I impersonate Do Jin-hak and take up the teaching position... I might be able to prevent the students from becoming the Seven Heroes.’
It was a new plan that had suddenly popped into my head.
It was a dangerous and absurd idea that I hadn't considered before.
Infiltrating the enemy's territory and posing as a professor wouldn't be easy.
It might even be more difficult than becoming one of the 'Four Evils' of the High Society.
‘But I have no other choice right now.’
I couldn't think of any other brilliant solutions, no matter how hard I tried.
After dying 138 times, I needed to grasp at any straw.
"Ugh... Uuugh..."
I glared at Do Jin-hak.
He seemed to understand the meaning in my eyes and tried desperately to move.
But his paralyzed body couldn't move a millimeter. I slowly approached him and said, "I don't know what you've done in the past. But I know exactly what you're going to do."
As a farewell, I opened my mouth and sank my fangs into his neck.
[Casting 'Bloodsucking' spell.]
[Absorbing 'Essence of Do Jin-hak' through the blood you've sucked.]
[You have acquired 5% of 'Essence of Do Jin-hak'.]
['Do Jin-hak' has been added to your Polymorph spell list.]
[Translator - Helga ]
[Proofreader - Starfall ]