The_One_Who_Was

"Now you see?" she shouted in a mix of 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 heavy sigh. "I made a mistake. I was too arrogant to think that a mere human like me could fool them."

—BOOM!!

"Heik! 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, pointless scuffle, and in the middle of it, I tripped and hit my head on a rock.

That’s when the memories came flooding in - the memories of another life, of a different world.

Suddenly, everything made a twisted kind of sense. I realized two things.

First, I was in a game I used to play in my past life.

Second, I was a villain. A villain!

Not the cool and mysterious kind, either.

No, my destiny was to be manipulated and die a dog's death!

I was the worst type of cliché: an ungrateful, privileged, insufferable young master. The sort you'd find in those poorly written fantasy stories.

The kind everyone hates — a snobby brat from a powerful noble family who thinks he owns the world just because he was born with a silver spoon lodged in his mouth.

You know the type. The one the hero beats to a pulp to prove his worth.
 Yeah, I was that guy.

And the hero? The hero was the kid I’d been bullying all this time. The same one I got into a fight with.

He was the supposed 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 at the end of it all, the final antagonist of the game, the undefeatable boss… the Spirit King, was waiting.

But could I even make it to the end?

Could I conquer a game where defeat was the only certainty?

A game that was now 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, twisting the story to my advantage, stealing the hero’s cheat items, killing villains before they could become threats - nothing was beneath me.

Would the main characters be affected? Who cares!

Would the story change? Even better!

All I cared about was me—my survival, my life, my choices.

“I will live this life with no regrets.”

…But as I soon discovered, fate was not easily changed.

And the price of altering one's destiny was steep.

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Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Name: Samael Kaizer Theosbane

Spirit Essence: 953/953

Soul Rank: C (Absorb 47 Essence to level up)

Soul Potential: SS

Origin Card: Materiokinesis

Acquired Cards: Quickstrike (Common) || Piercing Bolt (Common) || Battle Reflex (Common) || Flame Lash (Common) || Bleeding Edge (Common) || Fire Arrow (Common) || Barrier Breaker (Common) || Vortex Pull (Common)

I used the Appraisal Card I had stolen— ahem, I meant to say taken— from Rexerd's collection.

A holographic display hovered in front of my eyes, visible only to me, listing my stats and Cards.

Nothing fancy. It didn't look much different from a normal Appraisal Card layout.

Study Session