Prologue: So, Where Was I?
A building that never saw a single ray of sunlight.
A man dressed in a luxurious black uniform, his upper face hidden behind a half-mask, smiled brightly as he tapped his fingers against his thigh.
“......”
“You’re really going to keep ignoring me like this?”
“......”
“I’m bored.”
Even with the man’s prodding, his conversation partner continued to sweat bullets in complete silence.
“Hmm.”
Click.
“Y-Yes! You said you were possessed after reading a novel! And that the world you’re living in now is actually the world from inside that novel! A world where it’s brutal for ordinary citizens to survive!”
The moment the heavy weight of the gun barrel pressed against his head, the conversation partner screamed at the top of his lungs.
The masked man seemed satisfied. He placed the gun on the desk and resumed tapping his thigh with his fingers.
“That’s right. A world inside a novel. Isn’t it ridiculous? They kidnapped someone living a perfectly fine life, turned them into a newborn baby, and then possessed them into a place like this of all things…”
The conversation partner broke out in another cold sweat as he thought about the half-masked man currently straddling his back, his arms and legs completely restrained.
“Villains cause a scene several times a day, and the heroes who are supposed to stop them are chronically negligent. The message is clear: let the citizens bear all the pain.”
Slurp.
The man picked up the teacup resting on the desk and took a sip. Crimson liquid dripped from the bottom of the cup, but since none had gotten inside, he paid it no mind and set the cup back down.
“Ha… Citizens really have no way to live. If you’re just unlucky enough to run into some random villain with a grudge, that’s it. Game over.”
“......”
“Heroes always show up late, the body count for citizens only gets worse the further you get into the story, and then there’s the latter half… ugh.”
The tired expression he’d worn just moments ago vanished in an instant. The man smiled brightly again and crossed his legs.
“The reason I became a villain? It was because of that. If I lived on as an ordinary citizen, I’d be nothing more than a shrimp crushed in a fight between whales.”
“…D-Did you ever consider working with the heroes?”
“I did think about it once. But there were… circumstances.”
Riiiiing!
An alarm suddenly cut through their long conversation.
The man let out a regretful sigh and rose from the young man who had served as both his chair and his conversation partner.
“Ah, it looks like it’s time for me to go.”
“R-Really? What a shame! But if you have to leave, I understand. I’ll just—”
The young man, still face-down, brightened instantly at those words. The moment he lifted his head to look at the man—
Click.
“…Huh?”
“I’m quite disappointed myself.”
At some point the man had pressed the barrel of his gun against the young man.
“W-Why…”
“It’s just… after finally getting to talk about myself like this, I really started to like you.”
For a moment, time seemed to stop. The young man’s trembling pupils met the man’s eyes, which had now been dyed a golden hue.
“Why, you son of a bitch…! I listened to everything! I listened to all your bullshit and you said you’d let me live! You said you’d let me live!!!”
Seeing the young man shaking violently and screaming in extreme agitation, the masked man scratched his cheek with an awkward expression.
“I’m sorry, Blue Scope. B-class villain. But I have to survive too, so I don’t have a choice.”
“What the hell does my death have to do with you surviving?! Tell me!!!”
“Well…”
The man paused for a moment, then smiled as he answered.
“You, a B-class villain, are destined to accidentally consume an S-class elixir in the near future. It’s a miraculous medicine that explosively increases the amount of mana your body can hold… You can imagine how valuable that is for someone who used to be B-class, right?”
“You… you bastard, then—”
“Yes. I want that elixir too badly. A weak villain like me has to eat stuff like that if I want to survive.”
The man spoke with a bright, casual smile. Blue Scope’s face flushed bright red with rage.
“Bullshit! You fucking—! You’re the one who killed all my subordinates! What the hell do you mean, weak?! How are you weak?!”
“The ones I killed after wringing out every last drop of my mana were only C-class at best. There were a few who might have been considered C+ if you were generous. If I had to use up all my mana just to clean up that level of trash, doesn’t that prove I’m weak?”
“Bullshit! Stop talking bullshit, you son of a bitch!!!”
As the man’s finger slowly moved toward the trigger, Blue Scope began twisting his body desperately.
Perhaps because he finally realized he was truly facing death, the rage that had burned in his eyes vanished. When he met the man’s inorganic gaze, his face turned pale and he began begging again.
“S-Spare me. If it’s the elixir… I’ll give it to you…”
“Goodbye, Blue Scope. Thanks to you, I got to reveal my secrets for the first time in a while. It felt good.”
“…You crazy son of a—”
BANG!!
A loud gunshot echoed through the empty building. Blue Scope collapsed, blooming a red flower across the floor. The man stared at him for a moment, then turned and pulled out his smartphone to make a call.
“This is Maker, Boss. The Blue Scope drug trafficking ring has been successfully eradicated. I’ll burn everything except for a few pieces of evidence I’ve set aside.”
A quiet, formal voice answered from the other end.
“...You’ve worked hard, Maker.”
“I’d do anything for you, Boss.”
“...Nonsense again.”
“Nonsense? Boss, you know how much I—”
The call ended with a click, cutting him off mid-sentence. The man who called himself Maker clicked his tongue in disappointment.
“It would be so much easier if I could win Boss over. Don’t you think, Scope?”
“......”
“Ah, you’re already dead.”
The man rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and slowly walked forward.
“I’m sorry, Scope. Like I said, I had no choice if I wanted to survive.”
In the glittering world of hero comics, the sacrifice of citizens was always a necessary backdrop. And the man, who had been fated to become one of those citizens, hated that fate with every fiber of his being.
“Sigh. There’s nothing I won’t do to survive. Even if it means becoming trash, if it keeps me alive, I’ll do it.”
That was why the man had chosen the path of a villain. In the world he knew, it was simply the best route to staying alive.
“Ah, found the elixir.”
His only goal was to live as long as possible. The man would do anything to achieve it—seduce women, commit terrorism, seize every opportunity the novel had to offer.
No matter what it took.
The man walked forward.