After the Cannon-Fodder Villain Faked His Death - Chapter 1

Seven years after I faked my death and escaped, the story finally reached its end.

I learned that I lived inside an epic action comic starring the beastkin slave I had once owned while I was trying a new herb in yesterday’s failed potion formula.

Half an hour later, the system that had appeared out of nowhere finished explaining the entire plot.

The protagonist, Wu Si, had lost his parents as a child and wandered as an orphan. He suffered constant abuse for being beastkin and was even captured and sold into slavery.

But with peerless gifts for combat and command, he soon built a force of his own in secret. After taking revenge on everyone who had humiliated him, he began his campaign as the leader of the beastkin.

He survived countless dangers and trials, ultimately leading an army that drove back the demon invasion, reunited the fractured territories, and founded a new empire.

The system took the form of a stone tablet and showed me the comic’s latest update. Wu Si, dressed in formal robes with a crown tilted across his head, strode down a red carpet toward the throne without a trace of expression. Everyone he passed dropped to their knees in submission.

The comments flooded the screen with cries of [I’M DEAD—!!!!!!!!]

It looked like a perfectly satisfying ending. I turned to the system, unable to see why it had come to me.

“Here’s the problem,” the system said. “He defeated the final villain too quickly. The story is short on material, so we need you to play the real final villain.”

I froze, pointed at myself, and tilted my head. “…Me?”

A mage who had lost most of his magical essence, against an endgame hero at maximum level. Crushing me would be as easy as crushing an ant.

“I checked,” the system said. “Of every living being in the world, he hates you the most.”

“You were his first villain, and you’re the only villain still alive.”

According to the system, I had been Wu Si’s vicious master during his years as a slave, beating and humiliating him at every turn. After he retaliated and left me gravely wounded, the people of my territory had cast me out for my many crimes, and wandering monsters beyond its borders had killed me.

I blinked slowly. “He… shouldn’t know I’m alive, should he?”

“He does now.”

The image on the system’s stone tablet scrolled down. After the panel of Wu Si approaching the throne came a lively street. A swordsman on his way home from the coronation stared in shock at one corner of the market. Following his gaze revealed a blurred figure.

Ink-black hair fell to the figure’s ankles. His skin was deathly pale, and his face was identical to Bai Xi’s—the “Saint” of the hero’s party. The comments identified me at once.

[????????????]

[Isn’t that Bai Xi’s evil twin brother? Holy crap, wasn’t he dead?]

[AAAH I remember him! He abused the male lead AND stole credit for Bai Xi saving his life. I wanted to jump into the comic and slap him so badly!]

[That’s not all. Didn’t he get a ton of people killed? Everyone voted to drive him out of the territory.]

[So we’re settling accounts with the old villains next? I’m ready.]