Villain Life Simulator

Hogwarts, Gryffindor Common Room.

"Why do other people who get transported to the magical world become once-in-a-century geniuses, with professors vying to mentor them and House Cups piling up in their hands...

But I made it into Hogwarts, and I'm a genuine bottom-of-the-class student. What am I even doing here? Just sitting in on lessons and watching?!"

Caesar stared at the latest Charms grades posted on the noticeboard, his chest tight with frustration.

They weren't just ordinary grades. They were proof of how much effort he'd poured in, only to get such dismal results.

In his previous life, Caesar had been an ordinary man named Lin Yuan. He'd lived a quiet but complete twenty-five years.

Until 2025, when a fire swallowed everything in an instant...

Nearly half a year had passed since he'd been transported here and entered Hogwarts. He was currently Harry Potter's cousin.

He was a special case, admitted only because of his barely detectable magical fluctuations and Dumbledore's meaningful, hard-to-read approval.

When the acceptance letter arrived, he'd been overjoyed. His dreams had been golden, full of grand and beautiful fantasies.

Maybe Professor McGonagall would soon announce, with satisfaction, that he had a remarkable talent in some area and merely needed special guidance.

Or perhaps some ancient tome in the Restricted Section would resonate with him, allowing him to master magic that was uniquely his.

Or maybe an extraordinary system would suddenly awaken in his mind and tell him that, from that day on, it was his job to uphold his House's honor and make history.

But as the days went by, reality ground his hopes into sand that slipped through his fingers.

By now, he wasn't asking for any other miracle. He only hoped he could manage a basic spell, avoid embarrassing himself in class again, and maybe just quietly sit in on lessons.

But today, the Charms grades had been announced.

It was Professor Flitwick's strictest subject, and Hermione Granger's best one.

The grades were posted in a long list, packed with names.

And his, as ever, hung miserably at the bottom.

Beside every high mark and glowing comment, one name stood out painfully: Hermione Granger.

How did Caesar know so well?

Because every time he was corrected in front of everyone, every time he was mocked by comparison, it was because of her!

Now, all his efforts had been doused by this latest public, silent comparison.

"The protagonist? I guess... I really am not."

Caesar tugged at the corner of his mouth, unsure whether he was smiling or sighing.

"Merlin's beard, Caesar, you've messed up again!"

A lowered voice rang out beside him, clear enough to hear and full of undisguised reproach.

Hermione Granger's brows knitted together. Her gaze, sharp as a scalpel behind her glasses, fixed on him.

"I copied out the seven precise wrist movements and pronunciation tips for the Cheering Charm for you last week! Did you even look at them?"

Caesar's lips moved. He wanted to explain that the magic simply wouldn't hold steady at his wand tip. He wanted to say that he'd memorized the movements, but whenever he tried the spell, its light was weak and scattered.

But every word caught in his throat. Under Hermione's gaze—the kind that asked how he could fail to learn something so simple—any explanation felt feeble.

"I did," he finally said, his voice dry.

"You did?" Hermione's voice rose despite herself, drawing mocking glances from a few Slytherin students in the row ahead.

"Then how did you end up like this? You've cost Gryffindor twenty points this week!"

Ron and Harry looked over anxiously from nearby, but neither dared to speak.

Humiliated in front of so many people, Caesar's face slowly darkened. None of this was what he wanted.

His pitifully thin magic worked only intermittently, and his control was a disaster. This was a problem with his talent.

But to Hermione, who went on and on, it was all proof that he "didn't prepare, didn't practice, and didn't take things seriously."

"I don't want this either!" Caesar finally snapped back. "Do you think I don't want to get the spell right? Do you think I want every flick of my wand to do nothing?"

"Then put in the effort!" Hermione shot back without giving an inch.

Then she strode over and pointed at her neat notes. "Look at this! This is where the difference lies! Magic doesn't favor the lazy or those who rely on luck, Caesar!

"Hogwarts isn't a place for you to 'experience life'! If you're here, you have to follow the rules. The way you're acting now is dragging all of Gryffindor down!"

The words "dragging us down" pierced Caesar's heart like icicles.

He jerked his head up and met Hermione's eyes, filled with furious disappointment.

Behind her, Harry awkwardly lowered his head and pretended to read. Ron gave Caesar a helpless grimace.

"So, in your eyes, people like me have no place at Hogwarts except to drag everyone down?"

Caesar's voice turned cold. This wasn't a question of effort; it was a question of talent.

Hermione flushed red, as if his words and retort had stung her. But her pride and her firm belief in "rules and effort above all" wouldn't let her back down.

"That's not what I meant! But you should at least—at least show some sign of improvement! Instead of making the same mistakes over and over, then putting on this...

This 'there's nothing I can do' act! Do you know that every time you make us lose House Points, the rest of us have to work twice as hard to earn them back? Is that fair to us?"

"Fair? Of course it isn't!" Caesar sprang to his feet.

He ignored Hermione's face, first frozen in shock and then growing even angrier. He paid no attention to the surprised look Professor Flitwick sent him from across the classroom, either.

He simply grabbed his bag—which held practically nothing to pack up—knocked his chair aside, and charged out of the gloomy, oppressive third-floor classroom as whispers and startled stares followed him.

The streets around the school shifted in color as the afternoon wore on.

At some point, leaden clouds swallowed the last sliver of sunlight. The air grew so heavy it felt as if you could wring water from it. Just as Caesar wandered past the third intersection, raindrops began to fall without warning.

A steady patter—

At first, they fell sparsely. Then they joined into streams, and in the blink of an eye, a downpour poured from the sky like a waterfall.

Students on the road cried out and scattered, hurrying to find shelter. Caesar alone didn't quicken his pace.

Nothing was worse than a heart that had died.

The icy rain beat down on him, soaking his thick brown hair until it clung to his forehead in damp locks.

His thin black uniform was drenched in an instant, clinging tightly to him and outlining his lean but already sturdy frame.

Water streamed along his sharply defined jaw, ran down his neck, and disappeared into his collar.

"What's going on?"

Suddenly, Caesar no longer felt cold or miserable.

Instead, a strange, almost pleasant calm settled over him.

All the noise and turmoil outside—the panic, the damp, the cold—seemed to be shut away behind an invisible barrier.

Right there on the deserted, rain-drenched street, beneath Hogwarts' leaden sky,

a clear, icy voice appeared directly in his consciousness. At last, it tore through the hazy barrier that had held it back for so long and came into full view before him:

[Protagonist conditions met... Resonance confirmed...]

[Cognitive threshold breached... Host's mental state stable...]

[Villain Life Simulator binding complete.]

[World loaded: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]

[Identity loaded: Caesar Dursley]

[Core rules: Experience, choose, shape. Every simulation will accumulate traits and affect the world in reality.]

[Beginner tutorial simulation starting soon...]

[Enjoy the game, future "villain."]

Caesar stopped dead in the rain. The system's message flooded into his mind, and the light that had lain dormant for years finally burned sharp and bright in the depths of his eyes.