Falling through a kaleidoscope of blinding light and crackling mana was not how Han-eol expected his Tuesday to go. One moment he was clicking 'Accept' on a sketchy beta-test pop-up for a new RPG, and the next, his stomach was in his throat as gravity became a very personal enemy.
As the wind whipped past his ears, a translucent screen flickered into his field of vision. It was minimalist, cold, and entirely unwelcome.
Character Profile Initialized
Name: Han-eol (Varkas)
Class: The Ruinous Overlord (Main Villain)
Trait: Fate-Breaker, Chaos Origin Current Level: 150 (Sealed)
'Varkas? The Ruinous Overlord?' Han-eol's mind raced. He knew that name. It was the final boss of the lore he'd just read a monster destined to be slain by the Hero to usher in a thousand years of peace. He looked down at his hands. They were encased in jagged, obsidian armor that hummed with a sickly red energy.
Then, he saw him.
A few meters away, falling at the same terminal velocity, was a teenager with hair so blonde it practically glowed. He was wearing pristine white armor that looked like it cost more than Han-eol's entire life. This was Leonidas. The Child of Prophecy. The Hero.
"You!" the blonde kid screamed over the roar of the wind, his face contorting into a look of pure, unadulterated arrogance. "I see the heavens have delivered the Great Evil directly to my blade before we even touch the soil of Aethelgard! Prepare to—"
"Shut the hell up!" Han-eol barked.
The stress of the fall, the confusion of the transmigration, and the sheer bratty tone of the kid's voice snapped something inside him. Leonidas reached for a glowing hilt at his waist, but Han-eol was faster. Instinct, fueled by the 'Varkas' character stats, took over.
Han-eol swung a heavy, gauntleted fist. He didn't mean to kill him. He just wanted the kid to stop talking so he could think.
There was a sickening crack.
Because Han-eol was currently a level 150 end-game boss and Leonidas was a level 1 "Chosen One" who hadn't even finished his tutorial, the result was catastrophic. The Hero's head snapped back at an impossible angle. The light in the kid's eyes vanished instantly, replaced by a dull, glazed stare.
Leonidas's body went limp, tumbling through the sky like a broken doll.
[Alert: Main Hero 'Leonidas' has been slain.]
[Experience Gained: Error.]
[World Quest 'The Great Prophecy' has failed.]
"Oh, you have got to be shitting me," Han-eol muttered, his heart hammering against his ribs. "Wait! No! Come back!"
He lunged through the air, grabbing the Hero's cloak and pulling the corpse toward him. He shook the boy's shoulders, but the neck was like jelly. The "Chosen One" was dead before the story even started.
'Fuck. Fuck! I killed him. I actually killed the Hero!'
He looked down. The ground was rushing up a sprawling kingdom of white spires and green fields. He could see thousands of tiny dots gathered in the central plaza of a massive cathedral. They were waiting. They were waiting for their savior to descend from the heavens in a beam of light.
Instead, they were going to get a dead body and a demon king.
'If I land like this, they'll execute me on the spot. Or worse, the world just ends because there's no one to stop the monsters.'
A frantic thought struck him. He looked at the Hero's body, then at his own dark, terrifying reflection in the black armor.
'The Hero was supposed to be the only one with the 'Holy Grail' skill. If the world sees the Hero is dead, they'll lose their minds. But they don't know what Leonidas looks like yet. They only know the light.'
He looked at the Hero's shimmering white cloak and the legendary sword still strapped to the dead boy's waist.
'I have to do it. I have to be him.'
He reached out, his Varkas skills reacting to his will. A dark, misty aura began to swirl around him, not to destroy, but to conceal. He stripped the white cloak off the corpse and wrapped it over his obsidian pauldrons. He grabbed the legendary sword, feeling it sizzle against his "Villain" skin.
"Shit... why did I do that?" he hissed, gritting his teeth against the sting of the holy weapon.
He kicked the Hero's body away, letting it fall into the distant forest where it would never be found. Then, he forced his dark mana to glow, mimicry being a sub-skill of his Overlord class. He forced the red lightning of his aura to turn a bright, deceptive gold.
The teleportation circle below flared to life. The suction was immense.
'Okay. I'm the Hero now. And I'm the Villain. I'll just... fight myself? Yeah. I'll burn the villages at night and save them by breakfast. It's the only way I don't get lynched.'
As the light swallowed him and he prepared to hit the stone floor of the cathedral, Han-eol had one final, clear thought.
'I am so fucked!'