Magicor, The Mimic of Convenience, roared. Its metallic chest hatch flew open. But instead of refreshing beverages, it revealed rows of rotating, serrated steel teeth. It was a garbage disposal unit from hell.
It lunged, aiming to turn Mordecai into a slurry of flesh, bone, and goth fabric.
Mordecai didn't retreat. He didn't cast Shadow Bolt. Instead, he stepped forward, his hand open, palm facing the machine's digestive gear. He didn't have a plan. He had a conditioned reflex.
"[SHORT CIRCUIT]!" he yelled.
It wasn't an incantation. It was an order. The kind of angry shout an electrician gives to a breaker box that keeps tripping on a Friday afternoon.
There was no skill with that name in his arsenal. But the System, sensing the sheer, unadulterated frustration of a tradesman forced to cosplay as an edgelord, decided to improvise.
ZZZZZZZZZ-KRACK!
His hand made contact with the exposed Mana coils. A flash of dirty, jagged energy—more like a power surge than magic—erupted from his palm. It slammed into the Mimic, reversing the flow of its animation core.
Magicor's LED eyes strobed wildly. A mechanical error message gargled from its speakers.
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE DETECTED] [SKILL CREATED VIA 'MALICIOUS INTENT' + 'PRIOR JOB EXPERIENCE'] [CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE FORGED A UNIQUE SKILL: SHORT CIRCUIT (MANA OVERLOAD)]
Description: Touching a magical construct or spell with the genuine intent to "fix/sabotage" it reverses its mana polarity, causing a massive feedback loop.
Requirement: You must explain aloud, in a boring monotone, why the "magical wiring" is faulty. Boredom reduces enemy resistances.
Effect: Heavy Damage to Constructs/Machines.
Magicor staggered back, smoke pouring from its coin slot. It tried to roar, but only static came out.
Mordecai looked at his smoking hand. Then he looked at the machine with a sneer of professional disdain.
"Ah," Mordecai said, his voice dropping into a flat, lecture-hall drone. "I see the problem."
He walked closer. The Mimic tried to back away, but it was paralyzed by the sudden reversal of its own mana.
"The mana flux capacitor is wired directly to the animation core without a safety fuse," Mordecai explained, pointing a finger at the sparking chest cavity. "It's a rookie mistake. Clearly done by an apprentice wizard who never read a Necrotechnical Safety Manual. You have a floating neutral on your ground line. That's a fire hazard."
As he spoke, his words physically materialized in the air. They weren't glowing runes of power. They were grey, boring blocks of text—terms and conditions, safety codes, wiring diagrams—that wrapped around Magicor like chains.
[DEBUFF APPLIED: 'TECHNICAL INDUCTION LECTURE'] [Target's Magical Resistance reduced by 30%. Target is falling asleep.]
The Mimic's roar died down to a whimper. It was literally bored to death.
"Let's decommission this unit," Mordecai muttered.
He placed his hand on the machine's forehead. "[SHORT CIRCUIT]."
BOOM.
The Mimic exploded from the inside out. Springs, gears, and soda cans rained down on the ceramic tiles.
[BOSS DEFEATED: MAGICOR] [XP Gained: MASSIVE.] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [...] [Current Level: 10]
Mordecai stood in the wreckage, dusting aluminum powder off his robe.
[UNASSIGNED STAT POINTS: 35]
"Intelligence," Mordecai commanded instantly. "All of it. If I have to give lectures to kill people, I need the brainpower to sound condescendingly accurate."
[STATS UPDATED]
Intelligence: 17 -> 52 (You are now smart enough to realize exactly how screwed you are).
He grabbed Larry, who was trying to drink a puddle of spilled mana-soda from the floor. "Leave it, Larry. We're leaving."
At the back of the room, a massive, ornate double door awaited. It wasn't a dungeon door. It was an exit.
Mordecai pushed it open.
Light. Blinding, natural, golden sunlight.
He stepped out, blinking.
He was standing on a high cliff edge.
Below him stretched a vast, verdant valley.
Green forests, sparkling rivers, and in the distance, a white castle city that looked like it was ripped straight from a JRPG cover art.
And there, flying in the distance against the blue sky, was a silhouette. Wings. Tail. Scales.
"A dragon," Mordecai sighed, squinting. "Of course. It's the standard JPEG of a dragon. 10/10 for originality."
He took a step forward, intending to find a road. Suddenly, his body froze. He couldn't move his legs. He couldn't turn his head.
[SYSTEM ALERT] [MANDATORY WORLD EVENT TRIGGERED] [INITIATING VISION...] [DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR CONSOLE.]
"What? No!" Mordecai shouted, struggling against the invisible paralysis. "I don't care! Let me skip! Where is the 'Skip Ad' button?!"
[ERROR: 'Skip' button is broken. Narrative exposition is mandatory for character development.]
The world around him blurred.
His consciousness was yanked away from the cliff and thrown across the continent, zooming into the Throne Room of the White Castle.
It was a cinematic cutscene.
High definition.
Dolby Surround.
In the center of a glowing summoning circle stood two figures.
They looked confused, heroic, and annoyingly clean.
The first was a tall, blonde man with broad shoulders.
He held a shining sword that hummed with holy energy.
The camera zoomed in on his face.
A face Mordecai knew better than his own.
[HERO DETECTED: NICK - The Chosen One]
Class: Paladin of Light.
Previous Status: The "Other Guy". The one found in your bed.
Cause of Death: Blunt force trauma (Truck-kun).
The second figure was a woman.
Beautiful, with long flowing hair and white priestly robes.
She held a staff of pure ivory.
Her eyes were filled with tears of "innocence."
[HEROINE DETECTED: LUCY - The Saintess]
Class: High Cleric / White Mage.
Previous Status: Your Fiancée. The Cheater.
Cause of Death: Collateral Damage (You pushed her).
Mordecai's Astral Projection froze.
The cold feeling in his chest wasn't from the spell.
It was a memory.
Rain.
Blinding headlights.
The screech of tires on wet asphalt.
He remembered gripping Nick's expensive collar.
He remembered Lucy screaming, "WHAT?! KAITO! NO-"
He remembered the impact.
The silence.
"No..." Mordecai whispered, his ghostly voice shaking. "It's them."
It wasn't just a random casting.
The System had reincarnated his victims.
Nick, the man who stolen his girlfriend.
Lucy, the woman who broke his heart.
They were the Heroes.
THE FUCKING HEROES!
Because in the eyes of the story, they were the victims of a crazy ex-boyfriend.
In the vision, the King stepped forward, looking grave.
"Welcome, Heroes from another world!" the King boomed. "You have been summoned for a grave purpose. The ancient evil has returned. The Dark Lord has been reincarnated."
Nick stepped forward, flexing his pectoral muscles.
He looked righteous.
He didn't remember the fear in his eyes when Kaito dragged him into the street.
"Fear not, Your Majesty. We will slay this evil. We died once unjustly... we will not fail this time. What is his name?"
The King unfurled a scroll.
"He is the Scourge of Life. The Monarch of Shadows. The Mad Soul from Another World."
The camera zoomed in on the King's face for dramatic effect.
"His name is ALDMAX."
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION] [IDENTITY SYNC COMPLETE]
The System window popped up right in front of Mordecai's ghostly face. It drew a red arrow pointing from the name "ALDMAX" to Mordecai's own status screen.
Current User: Mordecai von Ravenloft (Kaito).
Role: Reincarnation of Aldmax, The Demon Necromancer.
Narrative Logic: You were the villain in your previous life (Murderer). Therefore, you must be the villain in this one (Demon King).
Current Objective: SURVIVE, DEFEAT THE HEROES, DOMINATE THE WORLD!. (Nick and Lucy have massive plot armor and they really want to kill you).
The vision ended. SNAP.
Mordecai was back on the cliff.
The paralysis vanished.
He fell to his knees.
He didn't laugh this time.
There was no manic cackle.
He stared at his hands—the hands that had dragged two people to their deaths.
"I see," Mordecai whispered.
His voice was cold.
Dead.
He looked at the distant white castle.
He could almost feel the "Holy Energy" radiating from it.
The irony was suffocating.
The Universe—or the Admin—had a twisted sense of justice.
Kaito was the bad guy. He was the murderer. So, naturally, he had to be the final boss for the people he killed.
"System, do you want a redemption arc?" he asked the sky. "Or do you want a tragedy?"
[SYSTEM RESPONSE: We want Entertainment.]
Mordecai stood up slowly.
His blue eyes darkened, losing their human shine and becoming something closer to the abyssal mana of a true Lich.
The guilt of the past flickered, but then he remembered Lucy's betrayal.
He remembered Nick's smug smile before the confrontation.
"They are the Heroes," Mordecai muttered. "And I am the Monster."
He turned to Larry, who was obliviously trying to catch a butterfly.
"Change of plans, Larry. We aren't just surviving."
Mordecai looked back at the castle, a grim, terrifying smile stretching across his face.
"If they want to play the 'Good vs Evil' game again... I'm going to make sure the ending is different this time. I took them down with me once."
He clenched his fist, sparks of his [Short Circuit] skill dancing between his fingers.
"I can do it again, but in the most embarassing and sadistic way possible. I'm gonna humiliate every single living being, in this world, and in the other one."
After that, Mordecai finally had a goal: Total humiliation.