"Argh."
A sharp pain pulsed behind my eyes. I tried to move, but every muscle protested.
Was I dead?
It made sense; that fall was no joke. Still, if I was dead, why did everything hurt so much?
I forced my eyes open, expecting darkness, maybe an empty void or hell.
Instead, all I saw was gold.
Pillars of light stretched endlessly into a hazy horizon. Trees with too-green leaves and too-brown bark swayed in an unseen breeze. It felt wrong, like the world had been painted by someone obsessed with high saturation.
"Is this… heaven?"
No way, right? I wasn't exactly saint material. I didn't even have a religion.
I turned my head, taking everything in. Rivers ran along both sides of me, their crystalline blue glow reflecting against the golden landscape.
"Welcome, traveler!"
I jerked at the sound of the soft voice, snapping my head toward it.
Floating before the nearest golden pillar was a woman.
She was breathtaking, so much so that it almost hurt to look directly at her. She wore a white gown with a slit down the side, and her long blonde hair shimmered with the same golden hue as the world.
Anyone who's seen enough anime or read a manhwa wouldn't need further explanation.
You die. You're an otaku. You wake up in a glowing fantasy realm. A blonde woman floats in the sky.
I covered my face with a hand, stifling a laugh. 'God, what have I gotten myself into?'
I was about to get isekai'd, wasn't I?
"Great human, how did you like my novel?"
I barely registered the goddess's words and chose to counter instead; there was no way I was getting isekai'd as some hero in a world that didn't even have toilets where everyone smelled awful.
"Goddess, could you make an exception this time and—" My words caught in my throat as her earlier question echoed in my mind.
How did you like my novel?
No way.
I raised a trembling finger and pointed at her. "Are you by any chance—"
I didn't even finish before she nodded. "I am," she said brightly. "I'm the author of the novel you beta read, and I've called you here to give me a review."
'You've got to be kidding me. She killed me just so I could give her a review?'
I felt my chest tighten. "Goddess, did you seriously kill me just to ask that?"
The goddess tilted her head, then her face lit up. "Yes, I did. I'm amazing, right?"
Amazing? I wanted to scream so loud my nonexistent lungs would burn, but that would just be a waste of effort.
Besides, it wasn't like I'd gain anything except the chance to be obliterated by a deity whose strength I couldn't even comprehend.
I exhaled slowly. "It was good. And the quality was good too."
Her expression brightened even more, making me squint. 'It hurts.'
"I'm glad you liked it. Actually," she continued, "this is the story of my world."
With a graceful motion, she descended to the ground, the grass beneath her feet standing tall as if untouched.
"Last week in human time," she said, stepping closer, "the gods went on their once-in-ten-thousand-year trip to the Endless Spring, where we're granted divine energy and allowed to glimpse the future of our worlds."
'This is new.' Still, I wanted nothing to do with it. 'Best to listen, then ask her to send me back.'
Oblivious to my thoughts, the goddess went on. "After I saw my world's future, I tried to find a way to stop it, but found nothing."
"Excuse me, goddess, I don't even know the ending of your story since you killed me before I finished it, so I don't exactly have a solution to your—"
Before I could finish, she appeared right in front of me and clasped my hands. "Don't worry, I'll give you a summary. Humans were made to be like gods, but because your lives are so short, your imagination stays fresh. That's why I need your input."
I nodded as she began her tale.
In her world, there was a being known as the Devil King, a being who came without an army, unlike what they showed in isekai. He wasn't some mysterious, world-ending villain. He was a mechanism created by the world itself to balance creation and destruction.
Each world had its own version of this being, determined by the difference between creation and destruction energy.
If the difference was large, then the Devil King wouldn't just be more powerful but stronger as well. If it was small, then he would be weaker and appear less frequently, maybe once in a thousand or more years. But if destruction naturally balanced creation, like on Earth, then no Devil King would exist.
According to her, creation energy didn't directly relate to any specific power system, but rather to the normal and mundane things people did that didn't cause destruction, chaos, or evil.
Since her world had little difference between creation and destruction energy, its Devil King appeared every thousand years.
Usually, he had no army, but some humans joined hands with him. These humans, or any race to whom he gave his fragment when he died, if he did die, became what we know as demonkin.
Luckily, her world didn't have any of that.
However, if while alive the Devil King blessed a human, they became a villain, a being that was still human but possessed all the perks of a demon, gaining the best of both worlds without bearing the usual traits of demons.
These villains, in order to live, had to cause chaos and fear in the world, even their descendants. If they didn't, their lifespan would start to decrease.
This didn't mean that villains were totally evil, since a world that had villains rarely experienced a world-ending Devil King, because villains naturally balanced out the energy before his coming. This was why Devil Kings almost never blessed humans.
Like in every cliché story, she, the goddess, chose a hero to save humanity. He would defeat many villains and grow stronger until, when the Devil King appeared, he would slay him and bring peace.
To do this, he had to enroll in a Magic and Knight Academy, find his future companions, train, defeat villains in and outside the academy during missions, expose injustice, destroy cultists, and finally slay the Devil King.
However, things in her vision went differently. When the Devil King was summoned in the hero's final year, he and his companions weren't strong enough to defeat him, and because the difference between creation and destruction energy wasn't small enough, the world ended.
"So you see, my world is in grave danger, and I really need someone's input."
'That's why you decided to kill me?' I sighed. "Even after all that, I still don't know much about your world itself, but…"
Fixing something like that wasn't too complicated. If there was enough destruction energy, the Devil King would be weaker, and if that destruction was directed toward the hero, it would make him stronger as well.
There was also the option to force all awakened beings, including villains, to help defeat the Devil King, but I doubted she had the power to do that either way.
"Goddess, what if instead of letting the villains run rampant, you used their special traits to both strengthen the hero and increase the destruction energy?"
She placed a hand under her chin. "That's certainly a good idea, but what if the villains get out of hand or the hero dies instead of growing stronger?"
That was true. Heroes only grow through challenges, but if they die, then it's all for nothing.
'Hmm…'
"Then… why not choose a villain to be your shadow of some kind?"
It was certainly a doable idea as long as the right person was given the task.
The goddess raised a brow in confusion, so I continued, "You see, just like in all those movies, why don't you pick a strong villain to be your other chosen one? Use him to keep all the villains in check, help the hero grow, increase the destruction energy, and keep the hero, his companions, and as many people as possible alive."
Her eyes widened. "Oh my goddess, that's genius."
I smirked, flicking my nose, then stopped immediately. Getting proud would only lead to more work.
She turned toward the clouds. "There are many villains in the world, but they all revolve around four main organizations that serve one family. I heard their only son is very handsome, even more so than the hero. The kind of face that tempts heroines."
Why was she telling me all this?
"So… great traveler," she murmured, turning to meet my eyes. Only then did I notice the emerald hue in them.
"No, no, no, I'm not—" My breath caught as she moved closer and cupped my cheeks.
"Why don't you help me, great traveler? You seem quite experienced with this."
I shook my head frantically, but she held it still with a firm grip, moving it slightly as if to nod for me. "See? You want to go, don't you?"
'No, please, God, no! I want to live a normal life at home, lazy, binge-reading novels and manhwas. Please send me back! Solo Leveling Season Three comes out next week, I can't miss it!'
The goddess only smiled wider. "Since you're so eager to go, I'll send you there."
She finally released me and floated upward. "I'll send you to my world as the final villain, the son of the head of the villains. Keep the other villains in line while fulfilling your role as a bad guy and helping the hero grow stronger. If you survive the Devil King's calamity—"
"I go back—"
She cut me off. "I'll reward you 'in my world.'"
Golden light shimmered around me as I began to rise too. "You shall be my shadow, not my hero. You shall… uh, do the dirty work. And don't even think about going back; you can't. You're one of my people now."
"Wait!" I protested. "If you're sending me, at least give me something so I can fit the title of the Shadow!"
I really, really didn't want to go, but right now, I had no choice. Best to go there, then take it easy. At least this world had technology, not some disgusting medieval setup, though it did look a bit medieval.
'Get an overpowered ability, have a handsome face, survive the apocalypse. Once it's over, freedom.'
The goddess gasped, clapping her hands. "Oh, that's right!" With a snap of her fingers, a bright blue screen appeared in front of me.
"You humans call this a system, right? Now choose one of the options displayed."
On the screen, written in bold letters, were three paths of power:
1. A system that rewards villainous deeds.
2. A system that rewards laziness.
3. Three wishes.