[Hahaha! Welcome to my laboratory! From now on, you will all become 'complete' through my experiments!] [Sob, sob...?! Yuri, what are we going to do now?] [Don’t worry. I will... I will kill that bastard and get us all out of here!]

So cliché. It's all so cliché. Is this really how they feel? They’ve been hyping this new indie game for five years, and this is what they deliver?

"Are they going to put a twist on this trope?"

Or maybe not? This game company is known for giving players a shocking plot twist just when things start to feel stale. Maybe this isn’t the end. Sure, it’s filled with outdated clichés, but that only makes my anticipation grow. What kind of amazing twist are they building up to with this long setup?

Two hours had passed since I started playing, but I kept going. After two hours, I wouldn't be able to get a refund, but I didn't care. I was certain that by the time this first episode ended, the monotonous buildup would pay off in a spectacular way.

[Aaaargh! How could this be? How did you escape? You were supposed to be under the binding spell, unable to use mana!] [You fool... I broke out with brute strength! Listening to my friends' screams! I’ve been training my body for the past three years!] [Impossible! I never imagined anyone could break my magic orb with raw power! That insane strength... Who are you?] [You don’t need to know! Just die already!]

[Crash! Crash!]

[And with that, I defeated the dark sorcerer, Aslan Vermont, using my newly awakened powers. Finally, I escaped this hellish place with my friends...]

"Wow..."

A "wow" filled with mixed emotions. This is the end of Chapter 1? The young protagonist and his friends get captured by a crazed dark sorcerer, then awaken their powers, beat him up, and that’s it? Seriously? And the power he awakens isn’t even some cool ability—it's just brute strength. This is so disappointing.

"Rating: zero stars. Wait, zero isn’t an option? Fine, one star. They actually charged money for this. It’s time to put my influence to good use."

I immediately left a review. When asked how far I'd played, I chose "completed all endings," of course. This would lend credibility to my review, and I wanted as many people as possible to see it and save their money—a little white lie born out of altruism.

[I thought it couldn’t get worse, but the final ending was... wow, haha. Only play this if you’re filthy rich and don’t care about wasting money.]

Before I knew it, my review was a wall of text, almost 5,800 characters long. I posted it immediately. Comments started flooding in, like "Is this for real?", "How’d you finish it within three hours of release?", and "Did this guy speedrun it or what?" I ignored them all and blocked the users. Soon, comments like "I quit and refunded after an hour, haha," "This terrible plot continues to the end?", and "Thanks for saving me money, bro," started to pop up, and public opinion shifted. Yeah, this is what I wanted.

As the likes on my review grew, so did my grin.

"Looks like you’re going to take a hit in sales, game company. Now, which crap game should I try next? Huh? What’s this?"

A notification chimed, and I saw an email. It was from the game company. What the heck? How did they get my email address? That’s creepy.

[Hey, you fraud! According to our logs, you only played up to Chapter 1, so don’t act like you saw the whole ending. You know what? For you, I’ll give something special—]

Alright, that’s enough. Admitting to illegally accessing personal information, huh? They’re in for a surprise. Do they think the Personal Information Protection Act is a joke? They messed with the wrong person. After being dragged to court so often over online arguments, I know more laws than I ever wanted to.

"Huh? Why is the monitor glowing?"

Suddenly, the monitor filled with a bright blue light.

[This is a special bonus for the first user to complete all endings.]

"Hey, I didn’t actually finish the ending..."

[You said you did.]

The light from the monitor wrapped around my body, and a chill ran down my spine. Oh no. This feels like...

The Vermont Estate. A towering fortress-like building rose out of barren land, bustling even in the dead of night. Maids hurried in and out of the kitchen, preparing food, their footsteps soft as they headed toward the library.

All of this was because of Count Vermont's eldest son, Aslan Vermont. Recently obsessed with strange magic, Aslan had locked himself in the library, emerging only rarely. He didn't just reverse day and night; he stopped sleeping altogether.

"It seems like he’s getting more twisted by the day..." "Shh! Quiet! He might hear you..."

If he felt the slightest bit hungry, he would summon the maids in the middle of the night with a shout. If they made the slightest noise entering the library, he would rage, saying they were disrupting him. The black aura surrounding his magical studies seemed increasingly ominous, filling the staff with growing unease.

"It’s definitely black magic, isn’t it?" "Obviously. Oh man, what if the royal family finds out and exterminates us all? It’s terrifying." "Shouldn’t someone try to stop Lord Aslan before it comes to that...?" "Hey, newbie. Are you thinking of stopping him? Go ahead; we’re curious to see what’ll happen."

"I bet I get whipped until I’m a bloody pulp," or "I bet he’ll sacrifice me for his dark magic," the bets started flying, and the new maid went pale. Sure, she’d heard rumors about his ruthlessness, but to this extent? She had joined because they hired even uneducated commoners and paid well, but the job’s difficulty level was sky-high.

"Alright, newbie. Take this tea." "Huh?" "Today, he’s been chanting spells more often than usual, so he’ll probably be thirsty. If he starts coughing, we all get slapped. So go take it to him before that happens. But remember, don’t make a sound, or he’ll beat you until you’re half-dead." "Eep... Yes, ma’am..."

The new maid took the tray with the teapot and teacup, trembling. Come on, you can do this. All she had to do was silently open the door, set the teapot and teacup on the side table, and leave. Easy. Trying to psych herself up, she took a shaky step toward the library door.

"Status window! Status window! STATUS WINDOW!"

Ah. The strange man. He’s chanting incomprehensible spells again.

I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. A dark room filled with bookshelves. The floor was covered with strange symbols and drawings. And my hands... Why are they so thin and pale?

"Huh?"

I gasped at the ridiculous sound of my own voice, even I was surprised. A strange place and a strange body. This was exactly what I thought it was, wasn’t it? Time to stay calm and collected.

"Status window! Status window! STATUS WINDOW!"

I shouted, hoping for the familiar status screen to appear. If this was what I thought it was, a status window was a basic feature.

[Status Window]

[Name: Aslan Vermont] [Age: 21] [Destined to become a villain. Everything around you leads you down the path of evil.]

"So, the worst-case scenario came true..."

I had suspected I might get transported here when the monitor began to glow, but I thought I’d end up as the protagonist, not as the villain of Chapter 1, Aslan. This was not what I’d expected at all.

"Heh, heheheh..."

Wow, even my laugh sounds sinister. Just laughing makes me feel like a villain already. How did the protagonist and his friends think it was a good idea to follow someone like this all the way home?

Oh.

"Right, that was the root of all evil."

Looking back, Aslan’s downfall was entirely because he messed with the protagonist and his friends. The protagonist was an orphan, along with the other kids from the same orphanage. When the orphanage fell, they were sold to slave traders, and Aslan was the one who picked them up.

If Aslan hadn’t done those horrible things to them—or better yet, if he hadn’t taken them in at all—he wouldn't have been killed, split in two by the protagonist. Even though this house reeks of danger, as long as I avoid dying by the protagonist's hand, my survival odds should increase significantly. I’ll just burn all the black magic books and erase every trace of them.

"This might actually be doable."

For a reincarnation gone wrong, this wasn’t bad. They could have dumped me as a major villain who appears at the end of the story. But they specifically put me in the shoes of a villain who only appears in the part I played and then dies. Does that mean they want me to survive?

"Hm?"

Thud, thud, thud. Heavy footsteps loud enough to echo through the library. Not just one, but two, three... I couldn’t tell how many. It was a lot. Who could that be? Just then, the door burst open, and a loud voice filled the room.

"Aslan! Your sister’s got you some special materials for your experiments! I spotted some perfect specimens at the slave market, so I bought them right away!" "...?"

Huh?
___________________________________

TL note:

Thank you for diving into the first chapter! I hope Aslan's story has caught your interest. If you're eager to see where this tale leads, let me know by leaving a like or dropping a comment. Your feedback means a lot and helps me decide whether to continue bringing you more chapters. Did the start pull you in? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

[SataBog]