Chapter 1: I Became the Evil Boss Halfway Through the Game
Five months.
Five months spent navigating ruined villages, blood-soaked dungeons, and increasingly absurd side quests. Legend of the Fallen Hero wasn't easy, but I completed every path. Every ending... every choice... I even earned the hidden heroine's ending, which only appears if you play the game upside down three times.
I laughed as I watched the final cutscene...
Then I felt dizzy.
Heavy. Dark. As if my brain had been emptied of air.
I fell.
Then I realized the bitter truth: I hadn't eaten anything in over two days.
Darkness... And then nothing.
...
...
The faint scent of perfume.
A soft pillow.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a gilded ceiling with dragons. No, this wasn't the ceiling of my room. Not even the ceiling of any hospital in my country.
I sat up slowly, looked around, and then walked over to the mirror mounted on the wall.
And I saw... his face.
A face I've never forgotten.
Silver-white hair, cold red eyes, and a majestic athletic body... Cassius von Greasey.
"Damn..." I muttered, a chill running down my spine.
Cassius. The mid-game enemy, the evil, elegant boss who shatters the hero's spirit, before being crushed later...
The Med-Boss.
And not just any Med-Boss, he's the most hated character among players for his ridiculous power, his sick thinking, and his miserable fate.
"I... became Cassius?!"
"I... have become Cassius?!"
Suddenly, my head felt like it was about to explode.
A wave of memories rushed in, as if there was an engine inside my skull spinning at the speed of light.
A sword. Blood. Fire. Screaming.
A stern teacher's voice said:
> "Cassius... I've never seen anyone more adept at using the Floating Sword Style than you before the age of ten."
An old witch's voice:
> "How can a child master spells that combine combat and defensive magic? You're a genius... terrifying."
Images followed —
Duels. An aristocratic academy. Rivals who looked up to him with fear and respect.
Sleepless nights, training in silence, staring into a candle flame and contemplating the movement of hidden mana.
Cassius von Grese wasn't just an "average boss" in the game.
He was a perfect monster, created by his family to be the best... but the author chose him to be the tragic barrier to the game's hero.
Other details flooded into my mind, ones that weren't even in the game.
Pain... bitterness... his father's cruelty... his mother's pressure... the eyes of people who saw him as nothing more than a tool.
And he always smiled arrogantly, hiding behind it a heart eaten away by emptiness.
But all of this... didn't matter.
Because I knew what was coming.
Cassius would defeat the hero halfway through the story, break his spirit, push him toward growth.
And then... the hero would return later, stronger, with the three heroines in tow, and he would crush Cassius mercilessly.
A pointless death. Meaningless. Just a crossing point.
"That's bullshit..." I muttered, clenching my fists.
All that genius, effort, pain, and skill... for Cassius's life to end halfway through? For me to be just fuel for another hero's journey?
"I am not Cassius von Grecian."
"I am the one who knows the story to its end."
"And I will not be a leader who can be defeated."