I'm a Villain in My Own Game?

[Viera POV]

The following day, the academy students began sailing toward the island where the first stage of the Survival Exam would take place.

”Hey, Viera, where’s Captain? I haven’t seen him at all today,” Eric, one of my fellow members of the Disciplinary Committee, asked.

”He’s sleeping in the ship’s cabin.”

Last night, Captain had invited me to destroy a pirate ship near Rocky Island.

I still couldn’t believe he had actually done it.

The Captain had effortlessly defeated half of the hundreds of pirates aboard the ship and even defeated their boss, who appeared to be far stronger than him.

It made me wonder...

How could someone like him possibly have lost to Brian, who was merely an academy student?

”Is that so? Well... Instructor Torun is looking for him to discuss security arrangements with the Student Council,” Eric said, pointing toward the instructor standing near the bow alongside several members of the Student Council.

”I’ll speak with them.”

I walked toward the group.

One of the Student Council members frowned as soon as he saw me, clearly dissatisfied.

”Where is your Captain? We want to discuss the security arrangements for this journey with him,” the man said.

”Captain Raul is resting. I’ll represent him in this discussion.”

The moment I said that, they all exchanged glances.

The man who had asked the question began to look irritated.

”Tch. How can he slack off when we’re facing such an important situation? We’re out at sea right now. There have been several pirate attacks in this area over the past few days!” the Student Council member complained.

If I remembered correctly, his name was Senior Ian.

Well... You don’t have to worry about pirate attacks today.

Captain Raul and I had already destroyed their fleet last night.

But why had the Captain specifically forbidden me from telling anyone about what we’d accomplished?

”You don’t have to worry about pirate attacks. If they do attack us, we’ll deal with them easily,” I said, even though I already knew this journey would be perfectly safe.

”Don’t joke around! How can you be one hundred percent certain that we won’t be attacked? Those pirates have already claimed many victims! Considering how large our convoy is, they’ll undoubtedly be tempted to attack us,” Senior Ian retorted.

He was quite stubborn.

”President, I’ve already told you that appointing a rotten noble like him as the head of the Disciplinary Committee was a terrible mistake! All he does is recruit useless students like these!”

Hearing him insult Captain Raul and the others made my blood boil.

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I wanted to beat him up.

I knew our group had originally consisted of problematic students. But we had been trying to change.

Thanks to the Captain’s guidance, we’d grown far stronger than we had been before.

We aren’t trash!

”Failures like you should—”

Before he could finish his sentence, a sheet of paper suddenly flew into his face.

I turned around.

Captain Raul was walking toward us.

”Damn it! Who the hell threw this thing at me!?” Senior Ian snapped, grabbing the paper that had covered his face.

I did my best to suppress my laughter.

Captain had treated Senior Ian like an idiot.

”You should probably update your information, Senior,” the Captain said, pointing at the sheet of paper in Senior Ian’s hand.

”Huh? What do you mean—”

Senior Ian’s voice trailed off as he read the contents.

It was a newspaper.

”The fleet of the pirate Zack the Brown Bread was destroyed last night by an unknown individual...”

”Hey, Raul! Is the information written in this newspaper actually true!?” Senior Ian asked after reading the article.

”You can check the publisher, Senior. It’s the Aragon Times, the most credible newspaper in the entire Empire. Isn’t your family affiliated with them as well?” the Captain explained.

Senior Ian fell silent, grinding his teeth in frustration.

It seemed that he was determined to undermine the Disciplinary Committee under the Captain’s leadership at every opportunity.

After the Captain explained the situation, our discussion shifted toward preparations for the first stage of the Survival Exam, which would take place on an uninhabited island and last for three days.

---

[Raul POV]

After traveling for seven hours, the ship carrying the academy students finally arrived at the island that would serve as the location for the first stage of the Survival Exam.

”Isn’t the beach beautiful!?”

”Look! The seawater is so clear! You can even see the bottom!”

Several students looked excited.

It seemed that some of them had never even gone to the beach for a vacation before.

Well... If you manage to pass the next stage, I suppose the academy might as well let you spend a day or two on this island.

”Attention!”

The students stopped talking when they heard the instructor’s voice.

”You will now begin the first stage of the Survival Exam,” the instructor announced before explaining the rules.

For the first stage, the students would form teams of three.

Their objective was to search the island for a crystal known as **Veremith** over the course of seven days and accumulate as many examination points as possible.

The twenty teams with the lowest scores would not be allowed to proceed to the next stage.

Students were also permitted to fight one another and steal the crystals obtained by other students.

To ensure that no one died, every participant would be equipped with a magical artifact called a Limiter in the form of a bracelet.

The artifact would teleport a student back to the ship once their body reached its physical limit or near death experience.

With this system in place, no student would die even if they fought with all their strength on the island.

”Do you understand the rules I just explained?” the instructor asked the students.

”Yes, you with the red hair.”

The instructor pointed toward a red-haired man standing alone at the back of the group.

”Are we allowed to bring swords or other artifacts onto the island?” the red-haired student asked.

That was Geralt de Jimena, the son of Duke Vasco de Jimena—the most powerful noble family in the southern region of the Empire.

Geralt was one of Brian the Hero’s rivals in the game Path of Destiny.

Players could control this character during several quests throughout the game.

”Students are not permitted to bring anything onto the island,” the instructor answered. ”Any other questions?”

This time, a female student wearing glasses raised her hand.

”Are we allowed to cooperate or form alliances with other teams?”

That character...

Ugh, I forgot her name.

I think she was one of the NPCs that players could summon for a certain fee to help them fight monsters or participate in Boss Fights.

”You may do so. How you divide the crystals you obtain will depend entirely on the agreement between your teams,” the instructor answered.

”Any other questions?”

This time, no one raised their hand.

”If there are no further questions, proceed to the box and draw a number,” the instructor said, pointing toward a box covered with a black cloth on top of the table.

”Students who draw the same number will be assigned to the same team.”

There were a total of 200 second-year students.

That meant there would be 66 teams consisting of three students each, with one final team consisting of only two students.

”Please take a number from the box one at a time!”

The students began taking turns reaching into the box and drawing their team numbers.

After some time, it was finally my turn.

I reached into the box and pulled out a small piece of paper.

The number 24 was written on it.

”Well... Hopefully, I won’t end up with any weirdos.”