Chapter 104: Villain Simulator, Ch 103
Chapter 104: Villain Simulator, Ch 103
[Alice was pregnant, which explained why she had begun to emerge from the shadows of her recent despair. She had once told you that it was incredibly difficult for the Elf Race to conceive, especially with someone from another race.]
[At that moment, you felt a mix of happiness and deep conflict. Abandoning Alice was no longer an easy decision, especially now that she was carrying your child.]
[Klee seemed even happier than the two of you, already imagining the joy of having a little brother or sister to play with.]
[Alice told you that during pregnancy, the Elf Race becomes very weak. She had already made arrangements to stay in a hospital to avoid any complications. You agreed with her plan and took her to the best hospital in Mondstadt.]
[After returning home, your emotions were more conflicted than ever. You suddenly remembered that this year marked the twentieth anniversary of your daughter's birth. You decided to secretly return to your hometown—perhaps visiting the graves of your deceased wife and daughter would help renew your resolve for revenge.]
[You returned to the village where you had once lived. Years ago, a landslide had forced the entire village to relocate. You had been gone for so long, and with your altered appearance, no one would recognize you.]
[You expected that finding the graves from over a decade ago would be difficult, but to your surprise, you quickly located the graves of your wife and daughter. The site had been renovated, and the tombstone was polished and well-maintained. You wondered who, besides you, still remembered them.]
[You pretended to be a lost traveler and asked an old man passing by about the origins of this solitary grave. The old man told you that years ago, a landslide nearly destroyed the village. A witch had appeared and blown up the mountainside to stop it, saving the village, but accidentally killed a family of three in the process. To express their remorse, the villagers regularly visit the grave to pay their respects.]
[You couldn't help but sneer internally. What's the point of alleviating guilt in this way?]
[Perhaps because he hadn't spoken to an outsider in some time, the old man continued chatting. Just as you were about to leave, he sighed and murmured, "It was such a tragedy. When they were found, the wife and daughter were holding each other tightly. The husband's body wasn't discovered until a month later, but his head was missing."]
[His words hit you like a bolt of lightning. You were alive,
so how could your body have been dug up? Was it possible that someone else's remains had been mistaken for yours and buried in the grave?][You couldn't let such a thing go unresolved. Under the cover of night, you returned to the grave and opened it. Inside, you found three coffins. You pried open the largest one.]
[Inside lay the skeleton of a man—without a skull. As you examined the remains, you were shocked to see clear breakage marks on the arm bones, right where your own arm had been severed.]
[Your heart filled with confusion. You took this skeleton, along with a fragment of your daughter's bones, and rushed back to your laboratory in Mondstadt for genetic analysis.]
[Though biological alchemy wasn't your specialty, the task wasn't difficult. Soon, you had the results—indeed, the two skeletons were genetically related.]
[A wave of breathlessness overwhelmed you. If this skeleton was you, then who were you?]
[This revelation far exceeded your understanding. You thought it might just be a nightmare—that a good night's sleep would help you forget everything by morning.]
[You returned home in a daze, but as soon as you opened the door, you heard a familiar yet strange voice say, "Nice to meet you for the first time."]
[Entering immersive mode]
[Mission objective: End all of this]
Standing before you was a man who looked exactly like you. He was sitting on the sofa, casually munching on snacks from the table, flipping through an old picture book—the same book you made for Klee, The Hero Klee vs. The Demon King.
"Who are you?" Lucas asked, his voice filled with confusion and disbelief.
"Why are you pretending to be me?"
"Pretending to be you?" The man smiled and shook his head. "No. To be precise, I created you in my image."
"Now that you know the truth, this 'experiment' can finally come to an end."
Lucas didn't fully grasp the man's words, but he felt a dangerous presence emanating from him. Without a second thought, Lucas grabbed a fruit knife from the dining table and hurled it at the man.
To his shock, the knife shattered upon impact with a sharp crack, scattering in pieces across the room.
"You can't hurt me," the man said calmly. "Because I am Perfect Work."
He nodded, seemingly pleased with the name. "Yes, Perfect Work. It suits me well. After all, I am the most perfect creation."
Lucas realized this person was far more powerful than he appeared. With a cold expression, Lucas asked, "What do you mean by 'experiment'?"
"Don't rush. It's quite an interesting story," Perfect Work said, taking a leisurely sip of red tea.
"Five hundred years ago, in a country called Khaenri'ah, there was a powerful alchemist named Rhinedottir. Her greatest achievement was the ability to create life through alchemy."
"And I am Rhinedottir's most perfect creation. Without exception. Unfortunately, my 'mother' was too blind to see my true value and treated me as a defective product. She destroyed me and fed my remains to another of her experiments—Shadow Dragon Durin."
"Later, Durin perished in battle on the snowy mountains. I seized that moment to escape from its body. I fled, stumbling my way through the snow until I found refuge in a forest."
"I spent time recovering there, but I couldn't stop thinking about why I was considered defective. As an artificial life, I should have been perfect. Logically, there was no reason for me to be discarded."
"So, I began observing humans. There was a village near the forest, and I would hide in the shadows, watching them, trying to understand what I lacked."
"But I could not find the answer. So, I devised an experiment. I took a part of my own body as the foundation and created a new alchemical being—one that would live among humans and see if it could evolve."
"To help it blend into human society, I caused a landslide by destroying the mountains and vegetation, triggering heavy rains that would wipe out the village. My plan was to disguise you as one of the victims, allowing you to infiltrate human society unnoticed."
"But that damned witch ruined everything. Still, the landslide managed to kill a family. So, I severed the man's head and transplanted his memories into the alchemical being I had created—You."
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Author's Note: Sorry for delay.. I was sleeping.. Here's the extra chap
You know the goal for next one :)