Maybe I really am a Villian

After confirming the results, Dr. Samuel left the room to organize his notes and think about the next stage of the experiment. Before leaving, he instructed Asher to remove the parasite from the test subject.

Soon, Asher was the only person left inside the room, aside from the female Empath demon, who remained standing silently in the corner, watching him without blinking. It was obvious why she had been left behind. There was no way the Church would allow him to remain alone in such an important laboratory without someone keeping an eye on him.

Asher calmly began removing the parasite from the subject’s body.

Then a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

’That sick scientist... should I just kill him now... and commit suicide afterward?’

The moment the thought appeared, Asher’s hands froze.

His brows furrowed.

’...What?,Why am I even thinking of such a foolish idea?’

Asher remained silent for a few moments before narrowing his eyes.

’Is something influencing my emotions?’

He immediately examined his own mind, searching for any sign of an external influence.

But he found nothing.

After what he had accomplished on the Grimwood Continent, the possibility of an outside force influencing his mind was almost nonexistent. Even before that, his mental fortitude had already reached a level where ordinary methods of emotional manipulation could hardly affect his judgment, let alone alter his decisions.

After thinking for a while, Asher finally understood what had happened.

It wasn’t an external influence at all.

Instead, it was the fragments of Loser that had momentarily influenced his judgment. Although Asher had absorbed those fragments, they had not yet fully merged with his own consciousness. Some of Loser’s lingering emotions and instincts still remained, and for that brief moment, they had surfaced as if they were his own thoughts.

After that, Asher quietly finished his work before leaving the laboratory. He returned to his room, took a bath to wash away the exhaustion of the day, and later went to the cafeteria for dinner. Once he had finished eating, he returned to his room once again.

Closing the door behind him, Asher sat down in silence and slowly closed his eyes.

Then he focused his attention on the fragments of Loser within his consciousness. The incident that had occurred earlier in the laboratory had made him realize that, although he had absorbed those fragments, they had not yet fully become a part of him.

After some time, Asher slowly opened his eyes. He had finally finished assimilating the remaining fragments of Loser. There hadn’t been much to absorb in the first place. They were only scattered fragments of memories and emotions, not an entire lifetime.

Asher quietly reflected on those memories before a faint smile appeared on his face.

’...That was one hell of a life I lived.’

He let out a quiet breath.

’I could probably write an entire novel about it.’

After a brief moment of silence, he shook his head.

’But the past is the past. There’s no point dwelling on it.’

His gaze gradually became calmer.

’I’d rather focus on the future.’

12:00 AM.

Silvermere Company Headquarters.

The entire office remained brightly lit despite it being well past midnight. Employees hurried through the corridors, engineers monitored countless screens, customer support teams stood by, and every department was working at full capacity.

No one had gone home.

Tonight was the official launch of Silvermere Company’s newest virtual reality gaming device—a system capable of providing an almost real-life experience while containing a vast library of games. Months of research, development, and cooperation had led to this very moment.

Everyone present understood the importance of tonight.

They worked tirelessly to ensure that nothing went wrong during the launch while simultaneously monitoring the performance, sales, and public reception of the device in real time.

After the countdown reached zero, the device officially went live. Everyone inside the office immediately turned their attention to the screens displaying the real-time statistics.

The online player count began rising rapidly.

Ten thousand...

Twenty thousand...

Fifty thousand...

Before long, it had already surpassed one hundred thousand players online.

For a brief moment, the entire office fell silent before cheers erupted throughout the headquarters. Months of hard work had finally paid off, while the engineers and managers quickly continued monitoring the servers and analyzing the incoming data to ensure everything remained stable.

One of the engineers was carefully monitoring the locations of the online players, trying to determine which regions had the highest player count so the corresponding servers could be upgraded if necessary. As he continued looking through the data, his expression gradually became confused.

The colleague working beside him noticed the change and asked, "What happened? Is something wrong?"

The engineer looked away from the screen for a moment before replying, "I was checking the players’ locations to see which server would need an upgrade first... but then I noticed something strange."

His colleague frowned.

"What strange thing?"

The engineer remained silent for a few seconds, seemingly wondering how to explain what he had just seen.

Finally, he pointed at the screen and said,

"...I think our game has become so popular... that even the beasts of the Southern Ocean are playing it."

His colleague stared at him for a few seconds before letting out a laugh.

"Did you stay awake for too many nights? Since when can beasts play games?"

The engineer immediately pointed at the screen.

"Look! Right there!" he said. "There were dozens of player signals coming from the middle of the Southern Ocean just a second ago."

His colleague leaned over to take a closer look. He stared at the screen for a few moments before turning back toward him with a strange expression.

"You need a break, I think." He shook his head. "There’s nothing there. What are you talking about?"

The engineer frowned and quickly looked back at the display.

His expression froze.

There was nothing left on the map except the endless blue sea, as though what he had seen only moments earlier had never existed at all.