I Became the Game's Biggest Villain, Chapter 1: A Twisted Awakening
The harsh glare of the fluorescent lights didn't bother me. In fact, nothing bothered me anymore. Not the sterile white walls of this…facility? Laboratory? Or the cold, metallic table I was strapped to. My mind, however, was a whirlwind of chaotic memories, fragments of a life I couldn’t quite grasp. One moment, I was a nameless nobody, the next, I was him. Cassian Thorne, the malevolent mastermind behind the catastrophic events that had shattered the world of "Aethelgard," the game I'd once obsessively played.
I, the player who'd spent countless hours strategizing, plotting, and ultimately failing to defeat him, was now inhabiting his very being. The irony was almost laughable, if my situation weren't so utterly terrifying.
How did this happen?
This question echoed in my mind, a constant, agonizing thrum. The last thing I remembered was finishing a particularly grueling late-night gaming session. The adrenaline still pulsed in my veins, mingled with the bitter taste of defeat. Then…nothing. Just the blinding white light and the cold steel.
The scientists—if that's what they were—bustled around me, their movements precise, clinical. Their whispers, though muffled, carried an unsettling tone, a mixture of awe and…fear? It was unnerving, this palpable sense of dread emanating from these people ostensibly in control.
What are they doing to me?
This wasn't some elaborate cosplay. This was real. I felt it in the icy grip of the restraints, in the metallic tang of something unfamiliar coursing through my veins. My reflection in a nearby polished surface showed not the slightly overweight, slightly disheveled gamer I’d been, but a man of striking beauty, his eyes cold and sharp, etched with the weight of untold atrocities. Cassian Thorne. The villain. Me.
Is this a dream?
No. The pain—a dull ache spreading from my chest—was too real. The memories flooding my mind, though fragmented and disjointed, were undeniably his. The chilling strategy meetings, the ruthlessly efficient executions, the calculated betrayals… they were all searingly vivid, as though I’d lived them myself. This wasn't just some immersive VR experience; this was something far more sinister, far more…permanent.
Will I ever be able to go back?
That was the question that haunted me most. Could I undo this horrific transformation? Could I escape the life I’d once condemned, the life I now inexplicably inhabited? The answer, I suspected, lay hidden somewhere within the depths of Cassian’s twisted, brilliant mind, a mind I was now forced to navigate. And the journey promised to be anything but pleasant. My first chapter as the game’s biggest villain had begun, and the stakes were higher than any game I'd ever played. The only question was, could I survive the consequences of my virtual victories, now brutally real?
