I Became the King of Villains in the Game, by Radish Ball
Chen Lun transmigrated a year before the game's public beta and became an NPC in its world.
And so, a new version was born...
Steampunk, anomalous objects, churches, containment facilities, the seven sequence pathways of the orthodox gods...
He put on his black top hat and stood atop the ruins.
Behind him stood the villain bosses from the major versions he had played in his previous life: Froy, the Nun of Deathly Silence; Noah, the Bloody Painter; Antonio, the Sword Duelist; Alexis, the Delusional Clown...
Chen Lun: "Players farm monsters, and I farm players. Makes perfect sense..."
Also known as "Making Sensible Use of the Sustainable Resource Known as Players," "These Bosses Are Really Strong, but They're All My Underlings," and "Seriously?! I Can Become a God Too?!"
Emerald
Chapter 1: I Am a Sacrifice
Cold. Damp.
The squeaking of rodents echoed in his ears, sharp and grating.
Chen Lun struggled to open his eyes. A scene tilted ninety degrees appeared in his blurry vision, leaving him with a profound sense of unreality and detachment.
"Hey, buddy, what do we do with these guys?"
"Heh... the priest wants them sacrificed tonight."
Clutching his stomach, Chen Lun struggled to get up from the floor.
He braced himself against the slick, disgusting wall beside him, enduring the hunger that burned like fire in his stomach.
As his vision slowly returned to normal, Chen Lun gradually regained his sense of reality.
In the dim light, he focused on the source of the voices. Beyond the cell's iron bars, two tall, thin figures in leather coats stood with their backs to him at the entrance.
They were two men, leaning casually against the corridor wall beneath a torch, casting two indistinct shadows. Chen Lun noticed that both wore short swords at their waists.
"Where... am I?"
Chen Lun was bewildered.
He vaguely remembered grinding in a fully immersive online game called Age of Mysteries. It was the greatest masterpiece of the new generation, without exception. Countless players around the world spent their sleeping hours in the game.
Making efficient use of sleeping hours had long been an accepted principle of the new generation, and fully immersive games were one of the main ways to do so. Age of Mysteries had pioneered the field and was indisputably regarded as the most popular game world.
Chen Lun's memories stopped at that final moment, when he lay down in his sleep pod and its lid slowly closed, connecting him to the game world...
"What happened at the end...?"
As he tried to remember, a sharp pain suddenly shot through the back of his head. Chen Lun hissed and reached back to touch it, only to feel something warm and sticky against his palm.
In the faint torchlight, he saw traces of blood on his hand that had not fully dried.
Chen Lun cursed inwardly.
"Fuck! Someone cracked my skull?!"
A scene he had once seen while scrolling through short videos immediately surfaced in his mind. At a barbecue stall, a burly guy had swung a beer bottle down with all his might. The bottle shattered against another man's head, and the man toppled over stiffly. The comments were full of people saying good night.
Chen Lun shook his head slightly and stopped letting his imagination run wild.
He had no idea what had happened to him. Perhaps his sleep pod had malfunctioned, and he had peacefully kicked the bucket in his sleep.
Then what about now?
Am I still in the game? Or...
"Brother Will's team hasn't produced any results in months. Let's hope this batch gives us a nice surprise tonight."
"Ha, I think you're just craving booze. You're already dreaming of that two-hundred-copper-kro reward..."
The tall, thin figure could not help coughing, as though phlegm had lodged in his throat. He moistened his throat with saliva, exhaled deeply, then said with a sinister chuckle:
"With that damned thing our team has, throwing a few hundred more lives into it would still be pointless!"
"What does it matter...? These people are all orphans the church took in as children. It's about time they gave their lives for it!"
The two guards slowly turned their heads and looked into the cell, their faces against the light.
"If they die, they die. If we actually get results and the priest's pleased, we get paid too..."
"Heh, hahahaha..."
Two pairs of cold eyes swept over Chen Lun, who hurriedly lowered his head to avoid meeting their gazes.
Before long, their footsteps receded. Chen Lun only faintly heard the two guards agree to go drinking together; someone else would come to take over their shift shortly.
But Chen Lun kept his head lowered.
If someone had looked up at his face from below, they would have seen his expression of shock.
Just now, when the two guards turned around, Chen Lun had caught a fleeting glimpse of the emblems on the sides of their brimmed hats. In the torchlight, the red apple symbols gleamed.
"The Red Apple Church..."
Chen Lun murmured the name.
How was that possible?!
Hadn't the Red Apple Church in Age of Mysteries been completely wiped out two years ago? Why had it appeared again now?!
Had I traveled back into the past?!
No!
"Log out!"
Chen Lun raised his head and silently issued the command.
He waited a full two minutes, barely daring to breathe, but nothing happened.
The translucent interface he remembered did not appear in his vision, and his heart sank.
At the same time, he noticed that seven or eight other young men and women were imprisoned in the cell.
In the dark, damp surroundings, they huddled together against the wall. Most wore nothing but thin, ragged hemp clothing and were barefoot, dumped here like livestock awaiting slaughter.
They trembled without a word.
Chen Lun shakily got to his feet. He was now fairly certain of one thing.
He had most likely really transmigrated-not just into the past, but into the game world of Age of Mysteries!
And what awaited him was the sacrifice those two guards had mentioned.
"Tonight..."
On the verge of breaking down, Chen Lun rubbed his face, completely unaware that the hand he had braced against the wall was covered in moss and grime, smearing dirt all over his face.
Enduring his intense hunger, he dragged his feet weakly toward the cell door.
His movements were slow and quiet, but they still attracted the attention of the others in the cell. A trace of confusion appeared in their frightened eyes. They did not understand what this fellow prisoner intended to do.
Chen Lun ran his hands over the cold iron bars, then gripped them tightly.
He craned his head to look in both directions. The corridor, with torches mounted every few meters, was empty.
Chen Lun drew a deep breath, then put strength into his hands and tried shaking the bars. They did not budge. He tried pushing the door next, but the iron door was even heavier and sturdier than the bars.
"Don't waste your strength."
The sudden voice startled Chen Lun. He looked toward a woman in the cell opposite his.
In the torchlight, the woman's filthy face was expressionless, with a hint of mockery at the corner of her mouth.
"No one brought here has ever escaped."
The woman sat by her cell door with her head wedged between two iron bars, staring straight at Chen Lun.
"Even if you escape from here, there are countless guards outside... and those monsters!"
At that, Chen Lun saw extreme unease and terror in her eyes.
"Everyone dies. Horribly, horribly... heh..."
The woman extended her hand out of the cell. Her arm was fair, but the squirming eyeballs covering it destroyed any beauty it might have possessed, leaving only a twisted, grotesque ugliness.
"Look! I'm going to die too, just like them! Heh, hahahaha!"
Chen Lun immediately felt a wave of nausea and retched. His head felt as though someone had smashed it repeatedly with a hammer.
In his daze, the world seemed to spin, and he toppled stiffly backward.
The people in the cell cried out.
In the last instant before he lost consciousness, a voice seemed to sound in Chen Lun's mind:
[You have witnessed mystical corruption! Sanity decreased by 1 point!] [Warning! When Sanity reaches 0, you will enter an instant-death state! Current Sanity: 4/5!] [Character panel activated!]
Chapter 2: The Panel
Name: Chen Lun Race: Human (Eastern Continent) Template: NPC (Countdown to version 1.0 public beta: 407 days, 5 hours, 18 minutes, 07 seconds) Level: 3
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