Kidnapped (1)
The laughter echoed through the chamber like something from a bad melodrama.
Kuhahaha! Welcome to my laboratory! From now on, you two will become 'perfect' through my experiments!
Hic… Hiccup?! Yuri, what are we going to do now?
Don't worry. I will definitely… definitely kill that bastard and get us all out of here!
It was so cliché it hurt. Cliché. Was this really their true feelings? Even for an indie game studio that had spent five whole years hyping up their new title with every possible marketing trick, was this the story they were going with?
"Is this where they twist the cliché?"
No? The studio's specialty was lulling players into thinking it was all predictable before smacking them upside the head with a shocking twist. Maybe this wasn't the end after all. The more worn-out clichés they piled on, the more my expectations actually grew. Just what kind of insane plot twist were they building up to with all this setup?
By now my playtime was pushing past two hours, but I refused to quit. Once you crossed two hours, refunds were off the table. But that was fine. The moment this first episode ended, they were clearly going to blow up all the boring buildup they'd stacked until now in one glorious explosion.
Kraaa! Kraaaagh! This can't be! How did you escape?! You were definitely trapped by my dark magic binding spell and shouldn't have been able to use mana!
You idiot… I tore it apart with raw strength! While listening to my friends scream! I've been training my body relentlessly for the past three years!
This is impossible! I never imagined anyone could destroy my magic orb with brute force! That abnormal power! Don't tell me your true identity is…?
None of your business! Just die quietly!
Kwaaang! Kwagwagwang!
And so, with my newly awakened mysterious power, I defeated the dark sorcerer Aslan Belmont. Finally, I escaped that hellish place together with my friends…
"Wow…"
It was a 'wow' packed with a whole cocktail of complex emotions. This was the ending of Chapter 1? The young protagonist and her friends get kidnapped by a crazy dark mage, tortured, awaken their powers, smash everything, and it's over? For real? And the power they awakened wasn't even something cool. Just super strength. My hype died so fast it practically made a sound.
"Zero stars. Wait, you can't give zero? Then one star. Selling something like this for money? As a pioneer, it's time to exercise some positive influence."
I immediately hammered out a review. For the question 'How far did you play the game?' I naturally selected 'I have seen all endings.' That way my review would carry more weight. It was a benevolent white lie born from the kind desire to help as many people as possible save their money.
After I finished, it turned into a massive 5,800-character review. The moment I uploaded it to the review board—bam—comments flooded in instantly. 'Is this real?', 'How did you see the ending only three hours after launch?', 'Did this guy already speedrun it?' and so on. I deleted every single one and blocked the users. Soon after, comments like 'Played for an hour then immediately refunded lol', 'Wow, this trash plot really continues all the way to the ending?', and 'Thank you for saving my money, bro' started pouring in, completely flipping the public opinion.
Yes. This was it. The more likes my review got, the wider my grin grew.
"You guys are going to take a hit in Korean sales. Alright. What's the next piece of garbage I should try? Huh? What's this?"
A notification dinged and an email arrived. It was from the game company. What the hell? How did these bastards get my email address? Kinda creepy.
Hey you damn review terrorist, I checked the logs and you only played up to Chapter 1. What the hell do you mean you saw the ending? You worthless—
Okay, that's enough. They're straight-up confessing to misusing collected personal information? You guys better get ready to eat prison food. Do you think the Personal Information Protection Act is a joke? You've messed with the wrong person. I've been dragged to court so many times from keyboard battles that I now know every law inside and out.
"Huh? Why is the monitor glowing?"
At that moment, the monitor flooded with blue light.
This is a special gift for the first user to clear all endings.
"Hey. I didn't see the ending though…?"
You said you did.
The light pouring from the monitor wrapped around my body. A chill ran down my spine. Oh. Is this what I think it is?
Belmont Manor.
The fortress-like building rising from the barren land was bustling even in the dead of night. Maids hurried back and forth through the kitchen preparing food, then moved toward the study with soft, quiet footsteps. All of this was because of the eldest son of Count Belmont—Aslan Belmont.
Recently, Aslan had become obsessed with some strange magic and had shut himself away in the archive, refusing to come out. It wasn't that his sleep schedule had flipped. He simply wasn't sleeping at all.
"He's getting stranger and more eccentric with each passing day…"
"Shh! Shhh! He'll hear you…"
If he felt even slightly hungry in the middle of the night, he would roar and summon the maids. The moment anyone made even the tiniest sound while entering the archive, he would fly into a rage about being disturbed. On top of that, the magic he was researching gave off an extremely ominous aura, so the employees' anxiety only grew worse by the day.
"It's definitely dark magic, right?"
"Obviously. Sigh. What if the imperial family finds out and we all get wiped out? I'm scared. So scared."
"Shouldn't we try to stop Lord Aslan before that happens…?"
"Hey. You're the new girl, right? Stop Lord Aslan? Hah. Go ahead and try it. We're curious how it'll turn out."
As the veterans began betting—'I bet he'll whip her until she's a bloody pulp' and 'I bet she'll be used as a sacrifice for dark magic'—the new maid's face turned deathly pale. She'd heard he was ruthless, but this much? She'd come because they hired commoners without education and paid decent wages, but the difficulty of the job was through the roof.
"Here, newbie. Take the tea tray."
"Yes?"
"He's been muttering spells especially often today, so his throat will get dry quickly. The moment we hear him cough, we'll all get slapped. So hurry and go before that happens. But if you run and make noise or slam the door, you might get beaten until something breaks, so be careful."
"H-Hieeek. Y-Yes…!"
The new maid took the tray with the teacup and teapot, her whole body trembling. Let's go. Just go. All she had to do was quietly open the door, place the teapot and cup on the side table, and quietly leave. It was that simple. Brainwashing herself with those thoughts, the newbie approached the archive door on shaking legs.
"Status window! Status window! Status window! Status wiiiiiindow!!!"
Ah. The crazy person is at it again. He's reciting some incomprehensible spell today too.
When I opened my eyes, I saw an unfamiliar ceiling. A dark room filled with bookshelves. The floor was covered in unknown hieroglyphs and drawings. And my hands… What the hell? Why are they so slender and pale?
"Huh?"
The ridiculously light and frivolous voice that came out of my mouth startled even me. An unfamiliar place and an unfamiliar body. This is what I think it is, right? In times like this, stay calm and don't panic.
"Status window! Status window! Status window! Status wiiiiiindow!!!"
I immediately shouted for the status window. If this was what I thought it was, it should come with the basic perk of a status window.
Name: Aslan Belmont
Age: 21
Fate: You were born with the destiny of becoming a villain. Everything around you is leading you down the path of evil.
"They really do say 'never say never'…"
I'd roughly expected to be possessed the moment the monitor started glowing blue. But instead of the protagonist, I ended up as Aslan—the Chapter 1 villain? That was completely outside my expectations.
"Khhhhhuuuuuh…"
Wow, this guy's laugh is seriously creepy. Just laughing already makes him seem like a villain. What the hell did the protagonist and her friends trust to follow this guy all the way back to his house? Oh.
"Right. That was the root of all evil."
Thinking back, the reason Aslan got screwed over was entirely because he messed with the protagonist and her friends. The protagonist was an orphan who hadn't awakened her power yet, along with the other kids from the same orphanage. When the orphanage went under, they were sold to slave traders. The one who picked them up was none other than Aslan.
If Aslan hadn't done terrible things to the protagonist and her friends—or better yet, if he had never picked them up in the first place—he wouldn't have been split in half and killed by the protagonist. The whole family gave off a suspicious vibe that felt ominous, but if I could just eliminate anything that would get me killed by the protagonist, my survival rate would skyrocket. I could just burn all the dark magic books and erase any trace of them.
'This is actually pretty doable?'
For a possession where the original owner gets utterly screwed, this was surprisingly generous. If they really wanted to screw me over properly, they could've made me possess a late-game villain instead of one who appears and dies in Chapter 1. The fact that they specifically made me possess a villain who only shows up in the part I played and then dies… does that mean they want me to survive?
"Hm?"
Thud. Thud. Thud. Footsteps loud enough to echo all the way into the archive. And not just one set—two, three… I don't know. A lot. Who the hell—
Before I could finish the thought, the door burst open violently and a booming voice exploded out.
"Aslan! Your big sister has specially procured materials for your experiments! I was passing by the slave market and saw some perfectly suitable kids, so I bought them right away!"
"…?"
What?