I've Become the King of Villains in the Game

Resurrected from the dead?

Or is there a twin brother?

"Ah!"

The blond young man was tackled to the ground.

The mad dog, saliva dripping from its wide open jaws, fiercely bit towards his neck.

"Rotten Persimmon, big brother…"

Companions from God's Love Guild looked towards Rotten Persimmon.

But this time, Rotten Persimmon just furrowed his brows, stood still in his spot, and observed with folded arms, not rushing to the rescue as before.

"Ahh!!"

A gruesome scream ensued as the blond young man's throat was pierced by the feral dog, blood splattering everywhere, his limbs twitching in struggle for a while before he fell still.

Rotten Persimmon, leading his teammates, approached and with a bang, shot the mad dog dead as it was feasting on the corpse.

Then they gathered around the blond young man's body, inspecting it for a while.

"This… Is that the same bard who was called 'Alec' before? Why has he appeared again?"

"Is it possible that he just looks very alike, but is not the same person?"

"No, it's definitely him. I just used 'Scout'… It's 'Alec'."

Rotten Persimmon frowned and spoke.

Upon hearing this, everyone instantly felt a chill run down their spines.

They had clearly witnessed the guy being killed by a teammate slitting his throat, even received the kill notification and distributed the Experience Points. Why had he appeared again?!

This totally defied common sense!

Rotten Persimmon stepped forward, picked up the harmonica that had fallen next to Alec's hand, and wiped off the blood beads.

[Trash Item - Harmonica]

Item description: An ordinary wooden harmonica, a small wind instrument. Its previous owner seemed to be a wandering bard, who unfortunately was bitten to death by a rabid dog carrying the plague during his journey.

After a moment of thought, Rotten Persimmon tucked the harmonica into his pocket, then turned around and took the lead.

"Let's go! Let's leave this place at once!"

He ordered in a low voice.

"We need to hurry to the train station; this is too weird!"

The others exchanged glances, each detecting a hint of panic in the other's eyes.

"It's indeed very strange. Let's get out of here fast!"

"Go!"

Rotten Persimmon led the way, starting to run forward, and his teammates all clenched their teeth and followed suit, breaking into a run.

They had only just logged into the game, and their first impression of this world was one of gloom and oppression.

For the past two days, they had been constantly farming monsters in the "Disease-Ridden Area" map, and their nerves were already frayed. They had only just left, and now they had come across this even more bizarre and horrifying incident.

It was truly terrifying.

The afternoon sun grew increasingly harsh, and the temperature rose even more.

They hadn't been running for a few minutes when they all stopped.

Following Rotten Persimmon's gaze, the teammates looked towards a small hill ahead on the right, only to see a blond young man hanging upside down from a tree.

They silently watched him, and he, hanging upside down, watched them, making eye contact.

In this searing summer, a cold sweat broke out over Rotten Persimmon and his companions!

"Is that… is that guy a ghost?!"

Someone said with a trembling voice.

"I'm done playing! I feel like my sleep chamber just moved!"

They were several dozen meters apart.

Alec seemed to have stepped into a trap or been captured by someone, which led to his being hung from the tree.

He didn't seem frightened at all; swaying in midair, he waved at Rotten Persimmon and his party.

"Hey! Greetings, travelers passing by!"

Alec seemed pleased to see the players, twisting and turning in the air.

"Did you come to save me? Hah! Thank you very much! But there's really no need!

I, Alec, am a great bard, an adventurer who travels the world, and such danger cannot stump me!"

He fumbled on his person for a moment, then pulled out a harmonica, and, while hanging upside down, he began to play a beautiful melody.

Rotten Persimmon's eyes widened as he reached into his pocket, but suddenly shuddered.

He discovered that the harmonica he had picked up before was gone!

"Go, go, go! Hurry up and go!"

Rotten Persimmon couldn't care less; amidst the lively harmonica music, he turned and ran like mad.

Seeing this, his teammates also buried their heads and ran wildly.

Half an hour later.

Rotten Persimmon and his party finally made it to the train station, where they collapsed at the entrance, utterly exhausted, drenched, and in a sorry state.

The bizarre incidents they encountered on the way were still lingering in their minds, chilling to think about even now.

They rested for a long while.

Rotten Persimmon stood up first, trembling in his legs.

"Brothers, we've made it to the train station! Don't waste time, let's go now!"

Among wailing sounds, the group reluctantly dragged their tired bodies, followed Rotten Persimmon to buy train tickets, and then boarded the train to Amber City.

No sooner had they found their seats and sat down than they all leaned on the chairs and fell deeply asleep.

There's sleep in the game too; this kind of nested deep sleep could be seen as a negative state resulting from exhaustion, or as a "cheap method" to recover Physical Strength and Life.

At times, it could also be used by players as a way to skip boring time.

The specific experience is... not much different from logging off and sleeping normally, but with an added option to set a timer.

God knows how long had passed.

Rotten Persimmon suddenly woke up in shock.

He looked around, and in the moving train carriage, his comrades from the God's Love Guild were still sleeping against the chairs, while other passengers were silently doing their own thing.

Clang clang clang...

The shake was accompanied by the rhythmic sound of wheels on tracks.

The scenery outside the window swept past.

A strange unease spread through Rotten Persimmon's mind, and he opened his panel to look, his previously indifferent expression suddenly stiffening.

"My Level dropped to 9...?!"

He stared at the panel, disbelief written all over his face.

"Resurrection count also reduced by one?! When did it happen...?"

Rotten Persimmon was completely baffled because he couldn't remember dying even once. Continue your adventure with My Virtual Library Empire

In a bit of a panic, he shook the others awake, and amidst their groggy gazes, he asked urgently,

"Quickly check your panels, did your Levels drop? Did your Resurrection counts decrease?"

"Level drop? Resurrection counts... decreased?"

The other teammates looked puzzled, but promptly checked their panels under the urging of their boss, Rotten Persimmon.

"!!"

Soon, their expressions mirrored each other, showing incredible surprise.

"It's true... Our Levels really did drop! The Resurrection count has decreased by one as well!"

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Why have we all died once? I have absolutely no memory of when that happened!"

Their unease grew slightly.

Rotten Persimmon took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He remembered something, opened the panel again, and carefully started scrolling through the previous notification records.

It didn't take long for his pupils to contract.

The newest notification in the prompt box read—

"You were killed by the bard Alec in your sleep!"