Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Chapter 451: My Masochistic Army

The Simulation Isle was one of the many smaller islands orbiting slow circles around the mainland.

Normally, it was reserved for class evaluation drills. Our batch had been here once, brought for a Team Test by Instructor Selene.

That day, it was made to resemble a jungle of skeletal black trees with a blinding white sun that stripped the world of its colors and bleached everything white.

Today, its outer shell was shimmering with holographic sponsor logos and real-time betting odds.

Funnily enough, I had defeated Thalia here once already.

I made a cave collapse on her and won the Team Test, proving to the world that I was better than my twin for the first time in my life.

This time, I had a feeling, was going to be no different.

I was in an Airbus, peering down at the scenery from behind a reinforced glass window.

From my vantage point, it looked like a massive, floating landmass of lush greenery rimmed by neon holograms hanging in the clouds.

My clock read exactly [5:00 AM]. From this moment on, we had about twenty-four hours to prepare until we were required to put on the Crowns and start the war.

As we descended further, an impossibly wide silver line cutting through the canopy of towering trees became visible on the verdant land.

It was a river. A raging white stream of torrential water splitting the entire island in half. I understood why they called it The Great Divide now.

Several smaller and thinner rivers branched off it, snaking through the dense rainforest as though silver veins painted across a dark green and brown canvas.

Those tributaries were the territorial borders, dividing each side of the river into six distinct zones.

Observing closely, I could see the faint glow of rippling energy barriers rising from the riverbeds and climbing into the sky, enclosing large stretches of jungle into a series of dome-shaped forcefields.

They looked like massive terrariums made from panes of tinted glass, each in pairs of different colors. Sapphire for the Knights, Ruby for the Rooks, and Emerald for the Bishops.

Lastly, on the far north and south ends, there were two imposing towers erected on the rocky peaks of lofty stone cliffs.

Those were the Castles.

Our drop zone was the Ebony Castle in the south of The Great Divide, an obsidian monolith that looked as though it had been plucked straight out of a gothic fantasy.

Far to the north, perched on an equally daunting cliff, stood a tall spire that was the Ivory Castle. It seemed to gleam even under the bleak, rain-heavy clouds of the early morning.

Two thoughts struck me then.

First, I wanted the white side.

Second, this was going to be fun.

My breath was accompanied by a silent chuckle as it fogged up the glass. I could barely contain the toxic thrill bubbling in my chest.

Yes, I know, I know. I said this game was going to suck. And I still stood by my words. There were going to be far too many fucking headaches, I was sure of it.

But…

It was still going to be fun.

•••

The Airbus dropped me off at the base of the Ebony Castle. No one was here yet. I was alone on this side of the river for now. Thalia would be as well on her side.

Our troops were going to arrive via separate transports over the next few hours.

So, to pass time, I went inside and found the entire tower to be a single hollow structure.

Only a lonely throne, carved seamlessly from matte black marble, occupied the center of the cavernous space, raised on a couple of shallow steps.

Above the grand throne, suspended in mid-air, floated an ornate Crown made from the same matte black material. Runes of glowing crimson were etched along its surface.

I ignored it and decided to explore the premises.

No supplies anywhere.

Vereshia did explain when we were leaving that every day at exactly noon, a plane would drop three supply crates in the middle of the three causeways connecting mine and Thalia’s territories.

Basically, the bridges would be neutral ground. To get food and healing potions, we’d have to fight for them right over the raging waters of The Great Divide.

Every. Single. Day.

Vereshia really was a sadist. A sadist who knew how to keep a broadcast engaging, but a sadist nonetheless.

After mapping the interior of the tower, I walked back outside and took the spiralling stairs that wrapped around the outer wall of the obsidian monolith.

The stone was slick beneath my boots, the biting, high-altitude wind whipping at my hair and carrying the giddy scent of wet soil.

When I reached the top of the ramparts, the view was dizzying.

I could see the entire jungle sprawled out from here, all the sectors and their colorful barriers. I could see as far as the central river, in fact. But anything beyond that was obscured by a veil of thick distortion.

Even when I tried to focus, even when I poured Essence directly into my eyes to enhance my sight, the entirety of the northern hemisphere seemed like a watercolor painting left out in the rain.

Because of course Vereshia wasn’t going to let us scout our opponents before the game even started.

I leaned my forearms against the damp parapet just in time to spot a moving black dot breaking through the low-hanging rain clouds, leaving behind a smoky trail.

A transport ship.

The first of many.

My army had started arriving.

•••

About five hours later, the last of the massive aircraft carriers had departed, leaving the muddy clearing at the base of the Ebony Castle packed with hundreds upon hundreds of Cadets.

I stood before them all at the edge of the stone steps, looking down at the sea of rain-slicked tactical gear and nervous, upturned faces.

I had seen some of them around. Many were familiar figures. None of them were significant enough for me to commit their names to memory, though.

Dressed in all black, my hands covered in dark leather gloves and a flowy robe draped loosely over one shoulder, I knew I looked every bit the villain they had all been whispering about since forever.

I didn’t mind.

In fact, I was entirely content to play the part.

“You’re all worthless little maggots,” I said, my voice booming to make the already tense atmosphere plummet further into a breathless hush. “Unwitting lambs waiting for a slaughter. Weak and scared, some of you think this is going to be your chance to secure a wealthy future. You’d impress a few scouts from some big-name Guilds and live happily ever after. Others think they’ll prove to their pretentious families that they aren’t a lost cause.”

I scoffed. “Fools. Every single one of you is a fool. Why? Because out of the two choices you were given, you chose to align yourselves with the disgraced fifth son of House Theosbane over the Golden Angel and the Central Royals. If I were in your shoes, I’d have questioned my own sanity!”

They all stayed silent.

But it wasn’t the disciplined silence of a seasoned military unit. It was the heavy quiet of people who knew they were standing in the presence of a live explosive.

“You have already shown me I can’t trust your judgment. I also can’t trust combat prowess. Most of you would trip over your own laces in front of someone like my sister or Princess Alice,” I let my lips curl into a dark grin. “But that’s fine. I’ll use you all for what you are good at — as meat shields and distraction fodder! You will not be heroes! I already have enough of those!

“No, you will be my pawns! You will do exactly as I say, and I will lead you to victory! I’ll speak your names in the press and sing your praises to the scouts if you make yourself useful to me! I’ll grant you glory and give you riches! So when I ask you to jump, you’ll ask ‘how high,’ and when I tell you to sacrifice yourself, you’ll do so with a smile on your filthy faces! Any sign of even the slightest of insubordination, and I’ll personally throw you off the fucking island!” I spat the last few words out with unconcealed disdain. “Am I clear, maggots?!”

I expected them to rage, throw a riot and curse themselves for choosing me. My plan was to weed out the spineless cowards right now.

But instead, the silence stretched.

It stretched and stretched and stretched until a girl somewhere in the crowd whispered, “He cares.”

“…What?” I frowned. “Wh-What? Who said that?!”

“Yeah, he does. He said personally!” someone answered.

Another chipped in, “He won’t delegate punishment! He values us!”

“T-That is not what that means!” I stuttered, utterly taken aback as the sea of teenagers began to murmur and nod in earnest agreement. I had to force the menace back into my voice. “Do not follow me because I am kind. Cast away such false notions this instant!”

But it only seemed to have the opposite effect on the Cadets. “Wow.”

My irritation flared. “What now?”

“He doesn’t want blind loyalty!” a boy screamed from the front.

I almost threw up my hands. “No, I just mean I’m not kind!”

The Cadets weren’t even trying to understand me anymore. “He is humble too!”

“STOP!” I shouted before they could start applauding.

They applauded anyway. Thunderous and deafening.

“We are, Lord Samael! We are indeed worthless maggots before you!” a young man in the third row hollered, his eyes practically shining with tears of adoration. “But we’re your maggots!”

“Hell yeah!” another yelled. “We’ll show the Royals we can crawl!”

What the fuck?! Are these people mentally ill?!

“He calls us useless, but he accepts us despite our flaws!”

“He has confidence we’ll survive being his meat shields because he’ll lead us! A sign of a true leader!”

“I’ll be your meat shield, my Tyrant!”

“Me too! Use my lowly body however you like!”

“Please don’t use those words in that context!” I roared, but my voice was completely swallowed by an unending wave of fanatical cheering that would have made a cult leader blush.

It continued for a while. I asked them to stop over and over, I tried to make my intentions clear, I even threatened to start breaking bones right then and there.

But apparently, the more I insulted these lunatics, the more they seemed to think I was either giving them some sort of tough love or simply testing their resolve.

In the end, I reached a horrifying conclusion.

My army was full of zealous masochists.

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•••