"Kueh, ahaha...! That's it, finish them off. Kill them both!!"
Inside the control room—the station responsible for summoning practice targets and managing the weakening magic through the students' bracelets—a lone man wore a dark, twisted grin.
Unconscious teachers and student aides were scattered across the floor around him. He didn't spare them a single glance; his derisive laughter only highlighted the utter lack of sanity in his gaze.
"Serves you right! This is the heavenly punishment that falls upon any party foolish enough to kick out the protagonist! Those are the rules!!"
There was no need to explain who the man cackling like a lunatic was. It was Cyan Fail, the boy who had recently been left all alone after Peewee and the rest of his party members had abandoned him.
Naturally, he was the one who had summoned the Magic Armor Beast without Instructor Uno’s permission and applied the crushing debuffs to Yugo. His motives required no explanation, either. This was retribution against Neries and the others for betraying him, and revenge against Yugo’s group, whom he had despised for a long time.
Though his actions were nothing short of a psychotic rampage, in Cyan’s mind, they were perfectly justified. He was simply following the script of a Banished and Vindicated-style scenario. In his warped logic, it was only natural for the former party members who cast out the hero to suffer. Cyan was utterly convinced that his half-crazed delusions were reality.
"Crush every last one of them! Show them! Show them that generic game characters have no right to defy the protagonist!!"
Nothing but madness burned in Cyan's eyes as he screamed.
He wanted to vent his frustration by watching his hated rivals be destroyed and those who looked down on him be beaten into the dirt. It was a petty explosion of malice fueled by a fragile ego, but the fact that Cyan had spent so long preparing for this day made him dangerous.
(Even if things get dicey, I can dominate because I have the game knowledge! I can rewrite the story however I want, just like this!)
Investigating the details of Neries’s exam had been a simple task. Realizing he could sabotage her from the control room, Cyan had used his knowledge from his previous life to acquire a specific item: an Invisibility Potion.
The potion did exactly what the name implied, granting the user temporary but total invisibility. In the original game, it was used to dodge random encounters or land preemptive strikes on bosses. It was also a quest item for certain events, but that was irrelevant now. What mattered was that Cyan had used it to infiltrate the facility, incapacitate the staff, and hijack the room.
It was an expensive item, but he had managed to scrap together the funds by selling every piece of equipment Peewee’s group had returned to him. He had one bottle to get in and another to escape. He was flat broke now, but if he could slaughter the traitors and his rivals all at once, it was a steal.
"Hahaha! Look at Scum Yugo, how pathetic!! He's getting pulverized while he's blind as a bat—he must be terrified!! Gyahahahahahaha!!"
With his attack power, defense, and speed nerfed to the absolute limit and the Blindness status ailment active, Yugo couldn't possibly react to the Mail Beetle's movements.
Cyan laughed with sadistic glee as he watched Yugo take hit after hit without even understanding what was happening. It was a pity the safety overrides prevented him from stacking every single debuff in the database, but seeing the great Yugo Clay being thrashed was incredibly satisfying.
Cyan cheered on his summoned monster, his crazed smile widening as he whispered in a low voice.
"Die, Yugo. Just rot right here. And Neries... you’re finished, too. You’d look best crying and wetting yourself while you hide away in some backwater village."
He would never allow those beneath him—mere trash and game characters—to be happier than the protagonist. A shameful, miserable end was all they deserved. Incompetent villains in a Banished and Vindicated-style story were supposed to die regretting the day they ever crossed the hero.
"Kueh, kuhaha, kuhahahahahahahaha...!!"
Driven by the status, the title, and the very concept of being the protagonist, Cyan stared at the screens with bloodshot eyes. Just as he had done in his previous life, he treated the control panels like a gaming rig. Manually piloting the Mail Beetle, he pushed forward, fueled by nothing but his own selfish, unbridled desires.