The Villain is Too Good at Sniping

1. Zion (1)

“To sum it up, you’re dead.”

I never thought I’d say something like that with my own mouth, but it seemed I was indeed dead.

When I regained my senses, I found myself in a strange, dark space, with a woman standing in front of me, claiming to be an “angel”.

She said I was dead.

I have no idea why I died suddenly. My last memory was checking an empty refrigerator.

“It seems you have no memories. Then, I’ll show you your last appearance before you returned as a standby vessel.”

The woman smiled sweetly, as if she could read my thoughts.

“Please watch this screen.”

With a flick of her wrist, a massive wall-mounted monitor emerged from thin air. The screen flickered, and a video began to play.

I was taken aback.

The screen, resembling a black box, showed me crossing the road. I heard the sound of a car screeching to a halt, followed by a loud crash.

…Boom!

The video continued to play, showing the car accident. On the screen, I died instantly. The gruesome scene made my eyes twitch.

“As you can see, the cause of your death is a traffic accident. You probably lost your memories due to the impact on your head.”

…I get that I’m dead, but do you need to explain it in such detail?

Just as I thought that, the display in mid-air disappeared. The woman gazed at me with a gloomy expression.

“Actually, you weren’t supposed to die then.”

Her words made my thoughts freeze. I stuttered out a response.

“…What?”

“Your death was purely due to my mistake. That’s why I brought you here.”

The fact that I wasn’t supposed to die was shocking, but what came next was even more astonishing.

The angel had made a mistake, and a human life was lost so meaninglessly? Was that okay?

“Now I have two options for you. First, I can send you to hell. Since you didn’t live out your full life, you can’t be judged for heaven.”

The woman raised her index finger.

“Firstly, I can send you to hell. From my perspective, it’s the most convenient choice.”

Her words implied that she would erase the evidence.

“I think I lived a relatively good life, but going to hell seems a bit too harsh, don’t you think…?”

“Yes. That’s why I’ll give you a choice.”

Her folded pinky finger unfolded, forming a V shape.

“Secondly, I can send you to another world, where you can live out your original life span. Then, you can be judged after living a full life. You’ll probably live for at least 60 years or more.”

…Another world, meaning this world, where I’d live out my original life span and receive judgment afterwards.

I couldn’t just accept such a ridiculous proposition. The series of absurd events made my head spin.

“So, let me get this straight. You’re saying I have to choose between going to hell or being sent to another world?”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

“It seems like the answer is already decided, doesn’t it?”

“Yes. That’s correct.”

The woman smiled brightly, as if she had planned this from the beginning. I suppose that’s why they called me a standby vessel.

“If you say you want to go, you will go to one of the worlds I manage. You will become a specific person and live there. I will choose the one that adapts the fastest and is the most suitable, so don’t worry about that.”

My mind was complicated, but one thing was certain.

It’s better to go to this world than to hell. No one would give up the chance to live and choose to go to hell.

“I’ll give you time to think.”

After a brief silence, the lighting on the stage dimmed, and the surroundings grew darker. In that darkness, the life I had lived flashed before my eyes like a movie.

If my life had a genre, it would probably be a tragedy. The life I lived on earth, which I could hardly call good, was already over.

I saw myself in front of me.

At the age of 5, I went to an orphanage. I was weak and sickly from a young age, and because of that, I received a lot of criticism and bullying.

As an adult, I still had many illnesses and was overwhelmed with work. I was exhausted from overtime and weekend work, and it seemed like I would die from overwork. But ironically, my life ended in a traffic accident.

My life, which was full of hardships, ended in vain.

Wouldn’t it be better to start anew in this world rather than in my current life, which was twisted and tangled?

And even if reality was like hell, it couldn’t be compared to the daily life in real hell.

“Have you made your decision?”

The woman still maintained her smile and tilted her head to the side.

“Will you live out the rest of your life in this world?”

I nodded.

“I will go.”

“Good choice.”

As I replied, a light flashed in the sky. The white cityscape of the night sky unfolded like a mirage.

The woman in front of me didn’t say a word, but I knew that place was heaven.

As the woman took a step forward, I carefully asked a question I had been curious about.

“Um, I have a question. What do I need to do to get to heaven from now on?”

“You need to achieve a feat worthy of heaven. However, you need to fulfill the rest of your life first.”

The woman, who turned back with a solemn expression, said.

“What kind of feat is that?”

“For example, accumulating good deeds or saving the world.”

“Isn’t the scale too big…?”

“I’ve only answered your question.”

The woman turned away, as if there was nothing more to say. Then, she began to chant an unintelligible spell.

But.

It’s not my problem how annoying she is; I have my own problems. I’m going to fall into this unknown world without anything, so it’s not like I can go empty-handed.

Besides, I had a good excuse.

“Um, you said I died by mistake earlier, right?”

The woman, who was chanting the spell, glanced at me. Her piercing gaze sent shivers down my spine.

But it was her mistake from the start, not mine. The one who made the mistake was this woman. I have the right to receive compensation.

“Don’t you have any special privileges for going to this world?”

If I’m going to fall into this world, I should at least have some kind of cheat or special privilege. That’s how it works in these kinds of stories.

“What did you say…?”

The woman looked at me with an incredulous expression, as if she was saying, “What kind of guy are you?” with her face.

“Yes, I’ll give you one. I have to give you one, so…”

Fortunately, the story seemed to have passed through.

“You can rest easy; I’ll make sure to give you something you’re familiar with. Don’t worry, just focus, and don’t say anything more.”

To be honest, I had a strong desire to receive a clear answer by being more pushy.

However, as the old saying goes, “excessiveness leads to failure.” If I pushed too hard, I might end up with nothing, so it was better to be content with this much.

If this woman was the kind of person who would lie, she would have admitted her mistake from the start and moved on.

“Let me give you one last warning.”

Possession occurred in an instant. As the woman snapped her fingers, I felt a floating sensation wash over my entire body.

In this strange, dreamlike state, my vision became distant, and the woman’s figure in the distance suddenly shrunk to a tiny dot.

“Live your best life in that place, no matter what. You might even be able to go to heaven, who knows?”

The woman’s voice echoed in my mind one last time.

……!

My vision went dark.

***

A stormy night. A mansion in a mountain valley.

A maid with her hair neatly tied up held a tray and knocked on the door.

Ding-dong-

There was no response from the other side of the tightly closed door.

As usual, the maid spoke to the door.

“Do you not plan on participating in the training again? The mistress has sent a letter with a message.”

It was a message from none other than the mistress of the household, Diana Esperanza. Although I didn’t know what it said, if this continued, I couldn’t just ignore it.

The maid took a deep breath and spoke quietly.

“The mistress said that if you don’t come out after seeing this, she will drag you out by force.”

Although she spoke with determination, there was still no response.

It was clear that the person who received attention from the household members was now in this state. It seemed they still hadn’t recovered from the shock of being defeated by Camille Esperanza.

“The message is strange. Then, I’ll just go—”

As the maid let out a sigh and turned to leave.

“…Alright, you can go.”

A voice that seemed like it would never come finally responded from the other side of the door.

The maid let out a dry laugh at the response. The tray in her hand rattled, making a soft clinking sound.

“Ah, yes, yes! Then, I’ll just go.”

After the maid left the letter on the tray and retreated.

“Heh—”

On the other side of the closed door, a man who had just gotten out of bed stood in front of the mirror.

Black hair, green eyes. Flawless skin without a single scar.

The face reflected in the mirror was like that of a noble. It was a handsome face, and this unfamiliar face had become familiar to me.

I roughly tidied up my messy hair with my hand. Two weeks had passed since I came to this world. I had to accept it slowly.

“Am I really trapped in a game……?”

I had been possessed by a game character.

A noble from a prestigious family, Esperanza. I was ‘Shion Esperanza.’

During the two weeks I spent hiding, I gathered information about this world and observed my surroundings. And I realized that this was a world inside a game.

The key word that stuck in my mind was ‘Eisperand’.

Eisperand was one of the core families that appeared in the game ‘Grimoire Tales’ I played in my previous life.

Grimoire Tales was an RPG game that combined fantasy, hunter, and gate genres. It was a typical story where the player joined forces with the main characters to fight against evil.

And in that game, the Eisperand family held a significant weight. They were set to be a family that participated in various businesses, receiving requests from VIPs and making a lot of money.

If they were just an ordinary noble family with that setting, I would have been living a happy life, whether in the game or not.

“Ugh.”

Under the fluorescent light.

A dart casually thrown onto the world map stuck. The map was marked with the names and photos of influential people who controlled each region.

Some of them had an X marked on their names, indicating they were already dead.

Rattle-

The list spread out on the table was a death note. The names of people being watched by the family were densely written.

Most of them probably wouldn’t have imagined their names would be on such a list.

There were too many clues to uncover the true identity of this family, and they were too obvious.

So, the Eisperand family I belonged to was an assassin organization.

…One of the most notorious villain groups in this world.

“…How can I live my life normally with a villain’s spirit possessing me?”

I tried to comfort myself by thinking I was dropped into a world I knew, but it was truly an absurd situation.

The ‘Grimoire Tales’ I saw on the screen was a world that really existed, managed by that angel.

In the game, Eisperand was a villain I would gladly defeat, but the opposite was not possible. Eisperand always appeared as a formidable villain.

And now, I had become a member of the Eisperand family I used to defeat.

…The phrase “enemies are teachers” suddenly came to mind, but it was just a coincidence.

I had to do it.

I opened the door and picked up the letter the maid had left. My mother’s stern warning about training was written on it.

“Training…”.

I didn’t participate in the training because I was afraid of being involved in information gathering.

The training in an assassin family ultimately led to killing people. It wasn’t a place I could just go out and play.

Moreover, I wasn’t sure if I, who had been an ordinary person until now, could follow the training.

…And one more thing.

“It was sent by the butler.”

“I’ll leave it outside the door. Young Master Sion.”

Even the maids who went in and out of the mansion were not ordinary, so I couldn’t go outside.

The maids in this mansion served poison every day, even putting it in their tea. At first, I thought they were trying to kill the owner, but seeing their reactions, it seemed like a normal routine.

I eventually took a sip, and surprisingly, nothing happened to my body. I probably developed immunity from eating such things since I was young.

“Where should I go…?”

Besides my mother’s warning, there were many scribbles written by someone else on the letter.

For example, “coward”, “scaredy-cat”, or “You’re still an Eisperand?” – silly insults.

It seemed like my stepbrother, sisters, and other kids had added their own comments…

“…?”

Only a few question marks floated in my mind.

At first, I didn’t know their faces or names, and I didn’t feel any emotional response to their anger and criticism.

This was sent to Sion, who had been tied up from the beginning, not to me.

Still, the fact that they were cursing me behind my back like this meant that Sion, the esper I possessed, wasn’t a trivial character.

Whether I should take this as a good thing or a bad thing.

“…I don’t know. Maybe it’s just good.”

In any case, the important thing is one: I can’t stay holed up in this room anymore.

This is the other world I’ve chosen instead of hell. I have to fulfill the predetermined lifespan here.

The letter in my hand was crumpled. It was sent by my current mother, Diana Esperanza.

Diana, known for her kindness, had sent a direct warning. In reality, it was an ultimatum, and if I didn’t comply, I’d be in trouble.

Recalling the original setting, I’d likely be stripped of my family status and erased from the family registry with a high probability. The atmosphere in the mansion was saying as much.

I approached the window and stretched out my hand. The sky was filled with dark clouds, and thunder was rumbling.

Rumble- Boom!

The landscape outside the window was a dense forest.

The location of this mansion wasn’t specified in the original story. The only description was “a remote region in the mountains, inspired by Transylvania.”

If I continued to stay in this room, I’d be thrown into the forest as prey for the demonic beasts living there. So, I had to start training to survive.

Right now, my body was only at the level of an ordinary adult male, but since Sion had done something before, I could become an assassin if I received proper training.

I stood in front of the mirror and checked my attire. To live as Sion from now on, I had to get used to this environment. The clothes fit well, so I looked decent even when I wore them carelessly.

There were various perfumes placed under the mirror, but I didn’t need to use them now.

“Alright.”

I adjusted my clothes and grabbed the doorknob.

The moment I opened this door, there would be no turning back.

Still, I had to leave. It would be better than staying put and getting kicked out.

“…I can do it.”

Click-

I turned the doorknob.

…The grand, old-fashioned corridor I saw beyond the screen. The red carpet on the floor, the ceiling’s lighting shining brightly like a greeting.