Cassian was seventeen years old, with shapeless brown hair and the remarkable ability to stand out at absolutely nothing.
He wasn't the best in his class, but he wasn't the worst either. He wasn't funny or serious. He wasn't shy, but he wasn't outgoing either.
He was... in the purest definition of the word, normal. The kind of person you could forget five minutes after meeting him, even if he had been talking to you that entire time.
He didn't have a girlfriend. He never had.
He didn't have close friends. Acquaintances, yes. The kind of people you exchange a "hi" with in the hallway and then neither of you knows how to end the conversation.
His family barely consisted of three members: his parents and him.
They worked all day and he went to school.
No one asked anything more of him, and it wasn't like anyone expected anything more from him either.
It was a perfect balance built on low expectations.
The only thing that broke his boring routine was reading novels online.
✶ ✶ ✶
That same afternoon, Cassian was walking back home after spending the afternoon at school.
He had his phone in hand, his eyes glued to the screen, completely unaware of what was happening around him.
The novel he was reading was titled: Destined for Greatness Alongside the Heroines.
A ridiculous name, in his opinion.
But it was interesting. To such a degree that he had been reading it for three weeks, and that particular chapter, 347, was one he had been waiting for since chapter 200.
The secondary villain, Marek Nightrend, had spent the entire story manipulating the heroines so they would abandon the protagonist and thus bring about his downfall.
He was arrogant, calculating, and had that typical smile that made you want to wipe it off his face.
And now, finally, the bastard had suffered the consequences of his actions.
Cassian read the last line of the chapter, involuntarily letting out a:
"HA."
That was it. A short laugh, the kind that slips out on its own when something satisfies you.
Then he simply turned off his phone to put it in his pants pocket.
'No one would feel sorry for someone like you, idiot.' A thought directed solely at Marek.
Right at that moment he realized something. He was in the middle of the street, with several vehicles speeding past beside him.
He hadn't paid attention to the traffic light.
The only thing he managed to see, to his horror, was a massive truck just a few feet away from him.
He tried to move, but his body didn't react at all.
He only heard the driver's desperate attempt to brake the truck.
But it was useless.
In one second he was several meters in the air, after being struck by the truck.
He didn't even have time to think of anything.
He only felt an enormous pain throughout his entire body.
Then he crashed against the ground so violently that his blood splattered in all directions.
He only managed to hear the horrified screams of the pedestrians who witnessed the accident.
Then nothing.
✶ ✶ ✶
An absolute darkness filled everything.
It wasn't cold or hot, and the pain he had felt just moments ago had completely disappeared.
Cassian was floating in some kind of dark void, in which he didn't know how long he had been there.
Seconds? Hours? Days?
'Am I dead?' was his only thought.
For some strange reason, he was in total calm, as if he hadn't been hit by a truck just moments ago.
He didn't feel fear about where he was, he didn't feel anything in particular.
'Is this the afterlife? Or will I be reborn as a baby? If it's the latter, that would mean I'd have to learn to speak and walk again. That would be a hassle...'
Just as he began imagining the most uncomfortable scenario possible, something appeared in the darkness.
A screen.
Rectangular and bright, a blue color floating in front of him.
[Villain System]
[Initializing... 50%... 70%... 100%]
[Hello!, new user. Everything good?]
[Well... assuming you're dead, I don't think you're doing that well. Anyway.]
[Status: Dead.]
[Cause: Severe distraction in vehicle-trafficked area.]
[System diagnosis: Stupidity...]
Cassian read the message more than once, unable to believe that a system had just mocked him.
'Did I just get insulted by a system screen?'
The screen blinked several times as the message changed.
[But don't worry, we have a plan...]
[Or well, I do. Since you're... dead.]
[Anyway.]
[The Villain System's function is to send souls to other fictional worlds where your potential can...]
[How do I put it?... where your potential can be exploited more efficiently.]
[In short: I'm going to send you inside one of those novels you used to read.]
Cassian took several seconds to truly understand what that meant.
'Wait.'
'Wait, wait, wait!'
'Are you telling me you're going to transmigrate me? Like in the novels? Am I going to wake up in another world with an op system, abilities, and all that stuff?'
[More or less... the "more" is that yes, there is a system.]
[The "less" is what comes next...]
The screen changed again, this time taking much longer than before.
[Selected world: "Destined for Greatness Alongside the Heroines"]
[Assigned body: Marek Nightrend.]
[Secondary villain from chapter 1-347.]
[Current character status: Recently publicly humiliated.]
The silence that followed was longer than what the system had taken to display that message.
Cassian went blank, not understanding—or not really wanting to.
Even as he thought about it again and again, he wanted to believe it was a tasteless joke.
'Marek?'
He thought, in disbelief, as if wanting to be told he had read it wrong.
'Are you telling me you're going to send me into the body of the guy I was literally mocking two minutes before dying?'
[Exactly! The system detected optimal narrative compatibility.]
[He was also the only one available. But the compatibility thing sounds better, right?]
'This has to be a joke...'
[No.]
'It has to be a joke.'
[It's not! You're already dead and will be transmigrated.]
Cassian was going to say something, but then he regretted it. But in the end, he did say what he wanted to say.
'What if I don't want to? What if I refuse?'
[It's a valid option...]
[Available alternative: spend eternity in this infinite void with NOTHING.]
[You decide.]
[Do you wish to proceed with transmigration?]
[ Yes / No ]
Cassian thought about the two options he had.
Accept being transmigrated as the secondary villain of that novel.
Or spend eternity in that place.
'You son of a...'
[Transmigration initiated!]
[Good luck, Cassian.]
Out of nowhere, all that darkness transformed into a massive spiral of lights through which Cassian began to fall.
He never imagined he would be dragged into one of the many novels he had read.
Much less that he would do so as a secondary villain...