[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-am-a-villain-so-what":3,"chapter-i-am-a-villain-so-what-i-am-a-villain-so-what-chapter-1":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","I Am a Villain, So What?",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":18,"prevChapterSlug":19,"totalChapters":20,"novelImage":21},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":12,"translator":16,"content_hash":17},1506326,1956,"Chapter 1: Prologue","i-am-a-villain-so-what-chapter-1",1,"\u003Cp>\"Hey! What’s that scum doing here?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How can he still be in the academy after committing such vile acts?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So much for everyone being equal, huh?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yeah. If he were a commoner, he’d have been expelled already.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hah. If he were a commoner, he wouldn’t have even dared to pull something like that.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You’re right. But it’s still unfair.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As I walked through the corridor, their voices followed me like a swarm of flies—whispers filled with disgust, scorn, and contempt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every step echoed louder than it should have, like the building itself wanted me gone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And honestly?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I couldn’t even blame them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This body—Lucien Ashborne—had done enough to deserve their hatred.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pushed open the door to the dorm room and collapsed onto the bed with a long exhale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My thoughts drifted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How long had it been now?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two hours.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s how long it’s been since I arrived in this world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since I died.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It happened so stupidly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was in my room, playing Asteria Online, drinking cola while grinding for the nth time. Then—fizz,spark,pop.I spilled the can on the tangled mess of cables beside me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next thing I knew, there was blinding light... and pain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When I opened my eyes again, I was here—inside this world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Insidehim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lucien Ashborne.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Heir to the Ashborne County.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A villain through and through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the game, he only existed for a few scenes—a throwaway character.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He strutted onto the stage, acted arrogant, picked a fight with the protagonist... and got crushed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Humiliated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A perfect punching bag for players to hate and for the protagonist to \"grow stronger\" by defeating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was it. His entire role—an experience booster with legs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A villain so pathetic he didn’t even deserve a proper death cutscene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And now, thatvillain... was me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From what I remember, at sixteen, Lucien enrolled in the Imperial Academy, supposedly to \"live an ordinary school life.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Except his version of \"ordinary\" meant delinquency, arrogance, and violence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He gathered a bunch of like-minded noble heirs and formed asocial club—which was really just a fancy name for a gang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They extorted weaker students, bullied commoners, and threw their weight around because of their noble blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He even had ties to black-market merchants and underground rackets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because it wasfun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He loved watching people flinch when he walked by, loved seeing their fear, their helplessness. Crushing anything that annoyed him gave him a twisted sense of satisfaction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then came the protagonist—a commoner with absurd talent and charisma.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stole all the attention, won the nobles’ respect, and even caught the eyes of the academy’s higher-ups.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lucien couldn’t handle that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he targeted him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His little circle of thugs tormented the protagonist daily—mocking his origins, vandalizing his things, insulting his dead parents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They even planned to corner him one night for a beating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It went about as well as you’d expect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The protagonist and his allies crushed them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lucien’s crimes came to light, and the academy handed down punishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Public humiliation, disciplinary action, and absolute ruin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, everywhere I went, people whispered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looked at me like I was something rotten.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was stuck living with the consequences of someone else’s idiocy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My punishments so far?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Expelled from the main dorms\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stripped of free access to academy facilities\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forced to pay for things every other cadet gets for free\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Honestly, it’s a miracle they didn’t kick him out entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he’s a noble heir.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are limits to how far they can punish me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I glanced toward the clock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Six more hours until even this temporary room is taken away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’ll have to pack up and find somewhere else to sleep before the day ends.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I dragged a hand down my face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sigh... why him?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why did I have to become the worst trash in the game?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of all the thousands of characters in Asteria...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why couldn’t I have transmigrated asanyother extra?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>*****\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The game Asteria Online.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once praised as thehope of domestically produced console RPGs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A game that captured the world by storm—rich lore, deep combat mechanics, breathtaking world-building.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And me?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I was one of those players who never missed a single day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For two whole years, I logged in daily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From start to finish, I’d cleared the main storydozens of times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every route, every ending, every character quest—I’d done it all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And yet...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even now, standing inside the world I loved so much, I didn’t feel joy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No excitement, no awe—just a cold, sinking dread.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why?\" I muttered to myself, staring blankly at the morning light spilling through the stable window.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because despite all the choices I made, all the different routes I took in this game—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>it always ended the same way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Doom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter what path the player chose, the result was always the destruction of the world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Asteria was destined to fall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’d seen it happen too many times to count.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So even if I wanted to fade into the background and live quietly...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How could I, knowing that the end was inevitable?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The story ofAsteria Onlinesounded simple on the surface—like every other fantasy RPG.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The world invaded by demons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The hero rises to defeat the Demon Lord.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gods remain silent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And in the end, the player fights to save humanity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the overline.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But what madeAsteriastand out was its depth—the way itfelt alive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its characters weren’t just archetypes; they had dreams, flaws, and motives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its world wasn’t just a setting; it was a living tragedy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Asteria — a dying world caught between divine neglect and infernal invasion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a land of swords and magic, of kingdoms and empires, of faith and despair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Above it lay the Celestial Realm, home of the gods.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Below, the Infernal Abyss, the realm of demons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For centuries, these three worlds coexisted, separated by the fabric of reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until the demons grew desperate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To escape their decaying realm, they tore open space itself—distorting reality to descend upon Asteria.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And with each distortion, the very air of this world became unstable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rifts opened across the land, connecting to Hell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They became Dungeons—gateways spewing out monsters, curses, and death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first, humanity resisted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But when a dungeon wasn’t cleared in time, it began to devour the land around it, twisting everything into an extension of itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This phenomenon was called Dungeonification—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>a spreading corruption that turned forests into wastelands, towns into labyrinths, and people into monsters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time the game’s main story began, half the world had already fallen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cities swallowed. Kingdoms erased. Entire continents rotting away into demonic wastelands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only one empire remained—the Aurelian Empire, the last bastion of mankind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Aurelian Empire stood as humanity’s final shield against annihilation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Its soldiers fought every day to reclaim dungeons, while its nobles schemed to maintain power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And at its heart stood the Imperial Academy—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the cradle of humanity’s future heroes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t a school in the ordinary sense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was a military institution, a forge wherecadetswere trained to become knights, mages, strategists, and exorcists—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the empire’s weapons against the demonic tide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The academy produced the elite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The best of the best.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And among them, the game’s protagonist—a commoner who rose from nothing, destined to become the world’s savior.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While I...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I wasLucien Ashborne, the stepping stone meant to highlight his greatness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fool who mocked the wrong man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The villain whose defeat marked the beginning of the hero’s journey.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And now, somehow, I’d become him.\u003C\u002Fp>",1233,"2026-06-06T04:52:01.856Z","novelbin.me","518b00ede2a7f37adc737ccee24f8a2171f3404c38148a82561e099fe93c3ca9","i-am-a-villain-so-what-chapter-2","i-am-a-villain-so-what-chapter-230",230,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-am-a-villain-so-what-cover.jpg"]