Maybe I really am a Villian

For the past several weeks, while traveling toward the Grimwood Continent, they had been continuously researching a way to reduce the time required for long-distance travel. Although they had made some progress, it had never been enough to produce a practical result.

However, after Asher absorbed the few fragments of the God of Slaughter and Loser, everything changed.

The countless insights he gained from those memories allowed him to complete the remaining part of the technique in a remarkably short time, turning what had once been an unfinished idea into a fully functioning spatial network shared among every vessel.

There were countless things Asher had learned from the few remaining fragments of the God of Slaughter’s and Loser’s memories. Many of those insights were far more valuable than the completed spatial technique itself. However, there was no point dwelling on them right now. There would be plenty of time to sort through those memories later.

Just then, one of the vessels who had been staying on the island raised his hand and casually said, "By the way... this new ability has a flaw."

The other vessels immediately turned toward him with confused expressions.

"A flaw?" one of them asked. "What is it?"

The vessel let out a helpless sigh before replying,

"Since all of our personal spatial domains are connected now, everything stored inside them has also become accessible to every other vessel."

He rubbed his forehead before continuing in an annoyed tone.

"In other words... some idiots have already started stealing the snacks that other vessels were secretly hiding inside their subspaces."

For a brief moment, the room became completely silent.

Then—

"...What?"

Almost every vessel immediately checked their personal subspaces. A second later, one vessel froze. "...My ice cream is gone." Another hurriedly inspected his own storage before shouting, "Who stole my potato chips? I was saving those!" A third vessel’s expression darkened. "Forget the chips... someone drank all my mango juice!"

Within moments, every vessel began checking their own subspaces, and the result was a complete disaster. "My chocolate is missing!" "Who took my cookies?" "Where are my instant noodles?" "Someone even stole my emergency snacks!" The peaceful atmosphere inside the house instantly turned into complete chaos.

Meanwhile, one vessel quietly sat in the corner, casually eating a bag of potato chips as if none of this had anything to do with him. Another vessel noticed him, stared at the chips for a moment, and then narrowed his eyes. "...Those are my chips." The vessel chewing on them didn’t even bother looking up. He simply replied, "Our chips."

The room became silent once again.

Then—

"GET HIM!"

The next moment, dozens of vessels rushed toward him at the same time.

Meanwhile, inside the cafeteria of the Church facility...

It was breakfast time, and the cafeteria was filled with healers quietly eating their morning meals before beginning another day of work.

Among them sat Lucifer, one of Asher’s vessels, calmly eating his usual bland breakfast.

Suddenly—

Crack.

The plate beneath his meal instantly shattered, a hole appearing right through its center. At the same time, the metal spoon in his hand bent under the overwhelming force he had unconsciously applied to it. Although the force had been insignificant by the standards of a Master-rank cultivator, the ordinary plate and spoon were never meant to withstand such strength.

The sharp sound echoed throughout the otherwise quiet cafeteria.

Every healer seated nearby immediately turned toward Lucifer, their attention drawn by the sudden noise.

Every healer nearby looked at Lucifer with confused expressions.

For a brief moment, the entire cafeteria became unusually quiet.

Lucifer looked down at the broken plate before letting out a helpless sigh.

"...Seriously?" he muttered under his breath.

One of the healers sitting beside him couldn’t help but ask,

"Are... are you alright?"

Lucifer immediately realized what had happened. The moment the Master-rank vessels had connected all of their personal spatial domains, every vessel had instinctively begun checking their own storage.

And apparently...

So had he.

Unfortunately, he had forgotten that unlike the others, he was currently eating among ordinary people.

Lucifer calmly put the bent spoon onto the table before forcing an awkward smile.

"Sorry."

He scratched the back of his head.

"I guess... the food was a little harder than I expected."

The surrounding healers looked at the shattered ceramic plate, then at the spoon that had somehow been bent into an almost right angle.

None of them said anything further. After all, he was Dr. Samuel’s assistant. In their minds, anyone who worked that closely with Dr. Samuel was bound to lose a few screws sooner or later. Looking at the broken plate and the bent spoon, they simply concluded that Lucifer had finally started acting a little strange as well.

Asher quietly stood up and left the cafeteria. As he walked outside, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

’Here I am, trapped in this place, eating this bland food,while the other me are probably eating my snacks.’

His expression became slightly more complicated.

He glanced back at the healers who were peacefully enjoying their breakfast before thinking,

’I guess it’s about time I started planning my escape from this place.’

With that thought in mind, Asher changed direction and headed toward Dr. Samuel’s office. After meeting with him, he planned to return to the laboratory and continue their experiments as usual.

Meanwhile, at the same time, inside the cafeteria of the Aetherium Academy...

Asher and Aria were quietly having breakfast together. Unlike his usual calm expression, Asher had a faint smile on his face the entire time.

Noticing this, Aria looked at him curiously.

"Why are you smiling today?" she asked. "Did something good happen?" She tilted her head slightly before adding, "You’ve been acting a little weird these last two days."

Asher looked at her with the same smile still on his face.

"Nothing good happened I’m just smiling because..." he paused for a moment before continuing,"I’m not at the Master Rank ".