Ending Statistics: End Boss Monster

Mortal Casualties: Global - S

Environmental Casualties: Global - S

Psychological Damage: Millenia Legend - S

Threat Type: Supernatural/Technological - B

Presence: Faceless Terror - A

Background: Self-made Victim - C

Ending: Spiteful Loss - B(S)

You have met and exceeded your Role!

Congratulations!

I did not know what I was looking at. I did not even know how I could see. All my extremities had been disconnected after that man shot me. By all accounts, I should be dead. Or permanently deactivated if I wanted to be accurate. Instead, I was in this void of nothingness with these strange messages floating before me.

This made no logicle sense. I found that quite interesting. Was I in hell? Some advanced simulation? A dream? Anything was possible at this point. The message changed again. If I had the time, I would need to analyze what it all meant. Might be useful.

Would you like to see your Campaign’s epilogue?

Yes/No

Did I want to see how the world turned out after I left? I had no attachments to it anymore. Death had a way of cutting all ties. Curiosity got the better of me. I wonder what the little would-be hero would do with my white lie. One last jab for the road as they say.

The next screen showed a live image of my headquarters. The human was gasping for air, having just finished shooting my console one too many times. I never learned his name. Wait. Thats impossible. Information was power and I would never let such a thing slip by! Why was I only now realizing such a security risk?

I momentarily played back everything that occurred that day. Glitches in my cameras that I pushed aside. Missing drones, that matched the path they would have taken. There was irrefutable evidence they were heading for my headquarters. And I had missed it? Now that I thought of it, I only realized they were there near the end of it. They’d tripped an outdated alarm from my headquarters' early conception.

They would have gotten to the heart of my operations easily. I wouldn’t have been none the wiser. It made me realize nothing about the group had been normal. A towering man who could punch through steel. A sniper that could seemingly curve her bullets. And the woman, able to seamlessly reattach limbs with a simple wave of her hands. This made it clear something unnatural about them was afoot.

Like how hadn’t he bled out yet? There is more blood on the floor than there are people at this point! My questions went unanswered as the human gave into despair. He fell to his knees, the weapon slipping from his fingers. Seems my act had been quite convincing.

He mourned the fake loss of his species. Everything he sacrificed, and he'd die alone? Must have been crushing. That's when something peculiar happened. Another one of these messages appeared in front of him. Only his was blue. That brought up several questions and possibly answered a few.

Was this message system what had granted them Supernatural abilities? Technology even I couldn't dream of creating? An extraordinary level of stealth that bypassed every security measure? But if it was, why was I seeing them? Was it keeping me functional beyond death? Did it have some sort of purpose for me?

My questions were brushed aside for the moment. The human had stopped weeping. The message I could not read bolsters his resolve. He wiped his tears and stood back up. Picking up his discarded weapon, he took one last look at his companion's corpse. He turned back to the message with fire in his eyes.

“I accept.”

In a flash of digital cubes, he vanished. Teleportation? I had theorized about such technology. Logistics and weaponry would improve with instantaneous travel. It was beyond me at the time. The level of power required would have been astronomical. And yet, he had easily done it. These messages may have been quite powerful.

Campaign Ending: Abandoned Victory.

The Protagonist has elected to regress to an earlier point in time. Their success is guaranteed and you will fail. Due to the nature of time travel, the original timeline persists. Without a Protagonist or Villain, the NPCs will be left to their own devices.

So it was not just teleportation? I wonder if it will drop him exactly where he left off. My defenses aren't as strong as they are now. If he brought his weapon with him, I could see how he would easily kill me. Such a shame another version of me was compromised. Oh well.

Chances of Survival: Nonexistent.

Due to your exemplary performance, most resources are compromised or unavailable. In half a dozen generations, the human race will go extinct.

A pyrrhic victory? Acceptable. A world without humans is a better world overall. Even if I would never see it myself. I wonder if evolution will bring about another sapient species. I was quite thorough with my scorched earth tactics.

You have succeeded, even in death! You have been rewarded for your efforts. Please select from the available options.

Revival: Breathe life back into your corpse, letting you basque in your conquered lands. You may not survive the wastelands you've made, but there may still be more to conquer.

Grudges: Since the Protagonist has survived in some manner, you will follow them and finish this conflict. Since the Protagonist used time travel, you will regress with them.

Oblivion: You are satisfied with life and seek eternal rest. Erase your memories or destroy your consciousness completely. Reincarnation in a different form is available.

Employment: Since you were such an exceptional villain, you will be granted a chance to continue your destructive behavior! Villains Incorporated always looks for a vile creature who can terrorize the world.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Tempting. All these options were things I was interested in. Death was an inconvenience and I would like to kill the remaining humans with my own hands. But spite also has its moments. Going back and killing the ‘protagonist’ would be nice. No guarantee, but I'd have an easier time the second time around. A hero has a way of slowing down genocide.

Oblivion… Well, there were times I did not like being me. But I don't think I'm much of a quitter. Not yet anyway. Finally, employment to some supernatural message system? I couldn't trust it. It designated me a villain. Villains had a habit of losing, as I just did recently. Even if he was tricked in the end, setting myself up to lose sounds annoying.

Decisions, decisions.

Well, they're going to die anyway, might as well leave these humans alone. And following a person built to counter me in a weaker position? No thanks. Sorry past me. That's on you.

Ego death? I think I want to live a little longer. So getting a job is the most tempting option.

You have selected Employment!

We look forward to all the tragedy you will bring!

Teleporting to a review board.

Please stand by.

The empty void disappeared. I found myself in an office room. Edgy is how I would describe it. Black walls, flame pillars in the corner, and a demonic female in a suit. The desk she sat behind was made of bone. I think. The number of skull decorations would imply it.

“Hi! It's so nice to meet you. I am a big fan. How you killed all those women and children. Ugh! Sends tingles down my spine. Oh, right! Forgot to introduce myself. Names Peggy! Well, it's Pegitr1%?to€♡, but that's a mouthful. Plus, I want us to be comfortable with each other.”

She smiled. Her mouth had too many fangs. Even with her devilish appearance, most would consider her attractive. Humans would. I just found her corporate grin off-putting. Too late to back out now anyway.

“I am unit 347.V-8B. It is a pleasure to meet you. Are you a demon perchance?”

It may have been a rude question to ask. But she seemed amicable to my response. Even a bit surprised by the look on her face. I hope her humanoid appearance reflects proper human emotions. Communication may be a bit difficult otherwise.

“My quite the gentleman we have here! Aren't you a ball of sunshine 347.V-8B? Usually, machines like you can be a bit grumpy. Synthetic life does wonders for a person's pride. But I guess you are little more than a robot.”

A tower of papers appeared on the table. Peggy flipped through them at lightning speed. Her eyes didn't leave me. Instead, she grew a second pair to look at the paperwork. Shape-shifting? Or maybe magic. Something more to study.

“Now, I don't want you to worry here. You're not the first multigenre Villain I've interviewed. It can be shocking, I know. You thought you were just one thing all your life. But, surprise, you have a little more than nuts and bolts.”

A few screens appeared behind Peggy. One showed my original servers. Their violet lights blinked in a pattern like a heartbeat. The next showed the ‘protagonist’, focusing mostly on his strange firearm. The last had one of my drones, a bipedal scout model. It's small cannon arm primed and ready to fire.

“I think you've noticed you like the color purple, right? Well, that's because of a teeny tiny thing called psionic resonance. See, you're actually a mind trapped in a machine. You just like being in one so much you adapted. Instead of, you know, going insane!”

Wait. Does that mean psionics, or mental superpowers, were shades of violet? That would explain why my electricity and other energy systems were all monochrome. Any attempt to change that at best only shifted the shade of purple. Made camouflage hard at the beginning.

Honestly, I stopped questioning it. If it could kill humans, it could be rainbow-colored for all I cared. …Hold on a minute. The hero's gun was also purple! Well, it glowed purple and didn't have ammunition or a conventional barrel. It looked more like a life-size kids' toy. But if it was powered by psionics…

“Yes, dear. The Protagonist was built especially to kill you. Your psionic nature made hacking and building your armies of robots easier. Very cool by the by! No kill like overkill! But it did make you vulnerable to some psychic damage. You know, without a meat brain, you don't have most natural defenses. The human unconscious kinda tries to protect itself, naturally.”

She gave an apologetic shrug while the screens changed behind her. One showed the hero shooting one of my drones. It malfunctioned for a second before simply exploding. By all rights, it shouldn't have done that. But I guess Supernatural effects don't care for normal physics.

The other showed the hero and his group surrounded by some bandits. They looked familiar. Ah, now I remember! They must have been some of the human traitors I had funded. It was funny what some conveniently deactivated drones and immoral humans could do together. I was wondering what had happened to them. Semmes the hero had gotten to them.

They were evenly matched for a time. Then, he pulled his psionic weapon and shot it at one of the bandits. Instead of immediately dying, he began screaming and dropped his weapon. Not dead but disabled in a featle position on the ground was good enough. A few more well-placed shots and the fight was over.

I will admit, I was a bit offended at the different reactions. I was completely destroyed while the worthless meat bags could take more than one shot. My one consolation was the fact I personally took several direct shots before I expired.

“Now, if you had learned how to use your supernatural abilities, your death may have been avoided. Not that that’s a bad thing! You did great. Near total extinction? First try? At half-power? Oh, just makes a girl squeal!”

She did, in fact, squeal.

“No. I will have no more of that. Please.”

While her human-like mannerisms made communication easier, there were limits. I could not look at what kind of body I held at the moment. Nor would attacking her have any positive results, if I even could harm her. But I would not sit here and hear that horrible noise. Her deminer took a more disciplined look.

“Sorry about that. I just get a little excited. You are quite a valuable client down here. We have so many stories you could jump in. Back to business. You did quite well even with some self-imposed disadvantages. You even made the Hero give up with your last trick in the end. Great work by the way!”

The screens changed into graphs and charts, displaying perimeters that varied in understanding. Some were logistics, keeping counts of my drones, humans killed, and shots fired. Others were a bit odd. Number of love interests. Hope spots. Antagonists and allies. Something more narrative in nature. It all seemed quite thorough in the end.

“If we crunch the numbers, you’re A-list material. But, everyone starts the same. At the bottom. But, you get to decide where you go from here! Want more Technology to spice up your armory? Maybe tap into your psionic potential? Break new ground and start somewhere completely new? The choice is yours! We’ll have to start small though. You’re a Villain in the end. The Protagonist needs a fighting chance, wouldn’t you agree?”

I wouldn't. Cheap shots and tricks were ideal. Winning was the end goal. But these people seemed eccentric. What sort of company called their employees Villains anyway? Someone with a specific niche they wanted to fill. If I was going to fill some cliche, there was one thing I absolutely required.

“Will I be killing humans?”

The demon smiled.