Night lights flickered over the cracked pavement as I walked, my hood pulled low.
Everywhere I looked billboards, street screens, glowing holograms my name glared back at me.
Damien Blackwood.
The anonymous murderer.
"...Damn," I muttered under my breath. "This really is a mess."
I never planned for this.
One Month Ago
After years of sleepless nights, I was finally here the last scenario.
The blue mission panel glowed across my screen.
Mission Scenario: Final Summit.
Chaotic Villain.
An RPG so hard most players rage-quit years ago. But not me. I'd been streaming it for five years straight, grinding through every unfair boss and broken mechanic.
My character? Morbius a hero on a revenge path after the "hero" killed his parents. Now, the final villain had conquered nearly the whole world. The last remaining leaders were gathering for peace talks.
It was supposed to be the ultimate showdown. Security so tight it could crush an army. Nothing could go wrong.
Hours into the summit, the villain still hadn't shown. Then, the giant screen lit up and there he was. The real deal.
I ordered my control team to track him down. The trace led to a locked corridor. Inside...
He was just sitting there, talking to the summit on his laptop.
The moment he saw me, he tossed it aside and charged. I met him with a kick that sent him flying but he came back harder, throwing anything he could grab, until one solid hit left my vision swimming.
The fight was brutal. Five minutes later, I was bleeding, barely standing and then he lifted me and slammed me onto a metal rod. Pain exploded through my body.
"You're a good hero," he said, crouching to meet my eyes. "But in thirty seconds, the fire alarm goes off... and every inch of this building gets sprayed with acid."
And just like that, he walked away.
Three... two... one.
The alarms screamed. The sprinklers hissed. Screams filled my headset. Then — Game Over.
The screen taunted me with First Player to Reach Final Scenario.
I was still fuming when a message popped up from the game's creator.
Thanks for keeping my game alive. Here's a gift a new character to win with.
Curious, I checked my character menu.
New Character: Villain.
...The same one I'd just fought.
I hit Equip.
The blue light swallowed me whole. My body felt like it was being broken down and rewritten atom by atom.
When I opened my eyes, I was kneeling on the corpse of the game's hero a knife buried in his chest.
"What the? I just killed a man!" I told myself it wasn't real. Just a dream. Just my room and my console.
Then a bullet whizzed past my ear. Another tore into my thigh, dropping me to one knee.
Yeah. This was real.
The district chief of Nine stood in front of me with three armed guards. Guns were rare here only political leaders had them.
"Why'd you kill him?" the chief demanded.
When I didn't answer fast enough, one of the guards kicked me hard enough to knock the wind from my lungs.
"Forget it," the chief said coldly. "Kill him."
The gun came up.
Bam.
I'd already moved. My body was faster than my mind — snatching the gun, firing back, moving in a way I never could in real life. By the time I stopped, three guards were dead.
The chief limped for his limo, but I put two bullets into him thigh, chest before finishing him with one to the head.
When the smoke cleared, the horror hit me.
"What... have I done?"
Present Day.
Five district chiefs. Two governors. All dead. And now the President wanted to "negotiate."
But I wasn't going. Not this time.
I went home, bathed, and lay on my bed, staring at the stars.
I'm done playing the game.
I woke up in a different room. A laptop sat on a table.
The summit will begin in one minute.
"No... no, no, no"
Before I could process, I was standing in front of the laptop, the camera live, my face filling the summit's screen.
I tried to warn them — told them they needed to evacuate. They laughed.
Then the doors burst open. Police stormed in.
I tried to surrender. My body had other plans.
Within seconds, I had a gun in my hands and officers on the floor. A grenade ripped open the summit doors.
I stepped through with five more in my grip. The room erupted in chaos. Blood. Screams. Smoke.
The President ran for his secret office. I followed.
By the time I reached him, everyone in the corridor was dead. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.
That's when the blue panel appeared.
Skill Deactivated: Guarding Light — temporarily confuses hostile opponents, slowing their decisions.
No wonder I was still alive.
I opened the nearest window and crawled out into the night air.
"This is my life now," I whispered. "Whether I'm a fugitive or not... I'm gonna live it to the fullest."
Behind me, officers crashed into the room.
"He's gone!"