If I Am Deemed a Villain, I Will Gladly Become One
Arjun, a tall, dark-haired, brown-eyed man from the nation of Aryava. Lived by a simple creed: the strong survive, the weak perish. He feared neither bloodshed nor death, believing every choice he made was his own and every consequence deserved.
Until he died.
Cut down by Han Seo-Jun, a prodigy three years his junior from the country of Baekjin, Arjun’s life ended at the peak of his downfall. Having only recently reconstructed his body after falling from Tier Four to Tier Two, his strength had yet to stabilize. He believed his death was nothing more than cruel timing, an unfortunate loss against a weaker version of himself.
But death did not bring silence.
Instead, Arjun found himself suspended in an eternal void, an endless expanse of shadow, nothingness, and cold stillness. There, disembodied voices echoed from beyond reality itself. Not gods. Not judges. But spectators.
“Why did the author drag so many chapters just to kill this weak villain?”
“A space-attribute villain with that much potential, yet he dared oppose the MC, of course he deserved to die.”
“Just another second-rate murderer.”
“Boring.”
“A perfect stepping stone.”
“Now Han Seo-Jun is the top ranker of the Tier Two Realm.”
Each word pierced deeper than the blade that ended his life.
Stepping stone?
Me?
For the first time, Arjun’s world collapsed.
If these voices spoke the truth, then his life, his struggles, his choices, his death, were never his own. He was not defeated because he was weak. He was defeated because the story demanded it. Because Han Seo-Jun was favored. Because fate itself bent to protect its chosen protagonist.
What enraged him most was not death, but laughter.
Why were they smiling?
Why was his death entertaining?
By what right did these unseen beings mock his end?
As rage, regret, and hatred consumed him in the void, fate twisted once more.
Arjun was granted another chance.
He regressed to his youth, long before his fall, long before his defeat, and this time, his power awakened far earlier than it ever should have. Armed with knowledge of the future and the truth behind the world’s cruel design, Arjun made a vow not to fate, not to gods, but to himself.
He would no longer be a stepping stone.
He would no longer exist to glorify another.
If gods truly existed beyond the veil, those who watched, judged, and laughed, then he would rise high enough to kill them all.
And this time, he would prove that he was not merely stronger than Han Seo-Jun…
but greater than the story itself.
