"Viktor, you've really made a name for yourself!"
From within the study, the sound of a woman's furious scolding rang out.
A beautiful woman with short black hair held a newspaper, pointing at the portrait printed on it by a Magic Stone, her expression seething with rage.
"Are you trying to disgrace the 'Clavena' name entirely!"
Slap!
The newspaper was flung into the man's face.
He remained expressionless, peeling the newspaper off.
His bright, obsidian-like eyes quietly swept across the contents of the paper.
The man in the newspaper had refined features—even on paper that could only print in black and white, his strikingly handsome looks were unmistakable.
It was a face capable of moving the hearts of countless girls.
But that did not include the girl standing before him.
The man's gesture looked like an invitation, yet the girl in the image rejected him with a smile.
Within that smile, there seemed to be a hint of disdain.
Bang!
A sound pulled him back from his thoughts.
The woman before him—Leah Clavena—slammed her hand hard against the desk.
"I sent you to represent the family at the banquet, and you actually confessed your feelings to the Duke's daughter in front of everyone!?"
"She's still a minor! Have you gone mad?"
Indeed, the newspaper read:
【Shocking! The Viscount Clavena Actually Did This at the Duke's Daughter's Banquet!】
One had to admit, this newspaper outlet knew exactly how to grab eyeballs.
If he had come across a headline like this himself, he would probably have spent a few coins to buy a copy as light reading during afternoon tea.
Unfortunately, the subject of entertainment splashed across this front page was none other than himself.
Viktor Clavena.
He glanced at the mirror sitting on the desk—the reflection staring back was identical to the handsome fellow in the newspaper.
But as someone who had only just transmigrated today, with not even a single memory to his name—
Viktor had no intention of taking the blame for any of this.
Though, faced with the woman's furious shouting, all he could do was remain silent. Still silent.
If a mentally ill person killed someone and claimed they did it because they were mentally unsound, could they escape the death penalty?
They actually could.
Provided they had the proper certificate.
Viktor did not.
So he could only keep his head down and say nothing while listening to the stream of insults.
Yet his air of apparent indifference—like everything was going in 1 ear and out the other—only seemed to stoke the woman's anger further.
In the end, she concluded the one-sided tirade with: "I must have been out of my mind to ever think you'd actually listen," and with that, it was over.
Through those tens of minutes of verbal abuse, Viktor had managed to piece together as much information as he could.
Everything—from the layout of the study to the appearance of the short-haired beauty before him—matched 100% with a game he had played in his previous life.
It was an adventure-type Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game.
In this world of swords and magic, players could customize their character's appearance, play as different races, experience various classes, and work through all manner of storylines and challenges.
And his role?
Power Leveling.
This game also required leveling up, and for players who weren't Pay-to-Win types, grinding out all kinds of materials was unavoidable.
If a player didn't want to spend real money but lacked the time to farm levels and materials, that was where Power Leveling came in.
Similarly, in some Player versus Player ranked matches, players who needed to climb to a Rank beyond their actual skill level would also rely on Power Leveling services.
That had been his trade in his previous life—and he'd built up quite a reputation in the Power Leveling circle.
Then just yesterday, without eating or sleeping, he had spent 7 days grinding through the 17th job of the month.
Just as he was about to settle the payment.
Snap—sudden death.
His transmigration was just that plain and unremarkable.
Back to the matter at hand: the character he had transmigrated into was named 【Viktor Clavena】.
His status: Viscount.
In the Kingdom of Carencia—a country where the Peerage System governed the distribution of power and rank—the title of Viscount was more of a symbolic identity than anything else.
Beyond possession of a territory, it came with virtually no other privileges.
In the eyes of commoners, Viktor was naturally a figure of considerable power and influence.
But… he had gone and provoked the Duke's daughter?
A Viscount was no match for a Duke.
"Truly living up to being the Villain Boss—hell difficulty right from the start."
Viktor muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?"
Leah's voice rose several pitches—half in confusion, half in irritation at his seemingly indifferent attitude.
This naturally drew Viktor's gaze to the woman before him, his nominal younger sister.
Leah Clavena.
In the game, she was Viktor Clavena's younger sister.
Thanks to her exceptional looks, she was one of the rare female characters in the game that players chased around calling "wife."
Leah's high popularity was also inseparable from the fact that she had a "Villain older brother."
Viktor Clavena was the Boss character players were meant to hunt down during the early-to-mid stages of the game.
Due to a series of actions taken by Viktor Clavena, the political order of the Kingdom of Carencia was thrown into upheaval.
The reigning Empress issued a quest, calling upon players for help in hunting down Viktor Clavena.
And yet, this Villain character ended up inexplicably popular—branded with all manner of labels like 【High Attack, High Speed, Nearly Unbeatable】, 【Extremely Handsome】, and 【Scumbag Mage】.
All in all, transmigrating into a game he was familiar with should have been something to be happy about.
But his mood was far from good.
Because…
Viktor had a truly enormous number of enemies.
Perhaps it was a case of standing too tall in the wind, or perhaps it was the game's writers harboring some particular spite toward handsome characters.
In the game, virtually any NPC a player encountered could have a grudge against Viktor.
Maybe it was a teacher at the Magic Academy, or some elderly villager.
Even a stray dog by the roadside could have been kicked by Viktor at some point.
More absurdly still, even a string of main storyline characters wanted him dead.
Among them: Viktor's fiancée, Viktor's younger sister, and the Duke's daughter.
This was the origin of Viktor's title—Scumbag Mage.
The number of high-profile female characters with notable looks was limited, and Viktor had managed to antagonize more than half of them on his own.
The fact that he had survived this long was testament enough to Viktor's considerable scheming.
And now, having taken the place of the original Viktor, he had become the current Viktor…
Just the accumulated hatred from the original body alone was enough to give him a splitting headache.
He didn't even know what point in time this was.
After Leah's earlier questioning, this time he kept the thought to himself rather than muttering it aloud.
But Viktor's silence only made Leah assume he was deliberately ignoring her to humiliate her.
Her fury instantly maxed out.
"Enough! Viktor, do you have absolutely no idea what position you're in?!"
She furiously pulled a Contract from her designer handbag and slammed it onto the desk.
"If I hadn't pulled strings to contact the Academy and have them draw up a Professor title for you immediately, the Duke's private soldiers would already be at your manor gates!"
"And yet you sit calmly in your study, drinking coffee and reading! After all this, you can't even bring yourself to say a single word of thanks?!"
"Thank you."
"I hate you like—…hm?"
Leah's words faltered. She blinked, momentarily forgetting how to vent her anger.
Viktor remained seated, took the Contract, and said as he read through it, "Thank you for handling all of this on my behalf. In the future, I'll be more careful with what I say in public."
"…"
Seemingly caught off guard by a word of thanks from her notoriously disreputable brother, Leah fidgeted with a strand of hair, her mood growing somewhat complicated.
"In any case, I only did this because I didn't want to bring further shame upon the family. Besides, I can only fix things temporarily—on the Duke's side, you'll need to go apologize in person."
"Furthermore, it's not just me you need to thank. First figure out how you're going to deal with Miss Gwen."
"Gwen Delin?"
"Yes. My recommendation alone wouldn't be enough to get the Academy to agree, so I asked Miss Gwen to vouch for you as well."
At this, Leah's gaze cooled several degrees further. The way she looked at Viktor was like regarding an insect.
"You already have a fiancée, yet you still go around making trouble with other women."
"Truly worthy of you, Mr. Viktor."
Viktor mentally filtered out the last remark.
"Though I'm not sure what you may have misunderstood, I'll go thank her in person."
In his mind, he recalled this particular character.
Gwen Delin.
The second daughter of a knight family that guarded the northern border—and, within the game's storyline, Viktor's fiancée.
She was a true and righteous knight, and a righteous knight was destined to stand in opposition to a Villain mage.
In the game, though this upright knight was Viktor's fiancée, the 2 had never stood on the same side.
Even in the final arc where Viktor was hunted down, it was Gwen who arrived and ended Viktor's life with a single thrust of her spear.
The relationship between these 2 was more akin to a forced Arranged Marriage, with not a shred of genuine feeling between them.
The fact that the great Knight Gwen personally ran Viktor through seemed to offer sideways confirmation of what players had long speculated.
It was a shame the infernal writers had never touched upon the backstory between these characters—right up until the end, the true nature of their relationship remained unconfirmed.
Another dangerous character to add to the list.
Sighing quietly to himself, Viktor felt that life was going to be immensely difficult.
Gwen Delin was no minor character.
As the strongest knight in the Kingdom of Carencia, even during the game's late-stage era of divine and demonic chaos, her combat power remained staggeringly formidable.
In the later stages of the game, Gwen Delin would even become a Boss players had to face—and during that period, the great Knight Gwen's ferocity left a vivid impression on every player who encountered her.
Viktor had a very clear understanding of her combat ability.
That woman was absolutely not to be provoked.
Otherwise, he would genuinely die.
Despite having transmigrated, it didn't look like he had any Cheat Ability at his disposal.
As if sensing that Viktor had come up short, Leah felt an inexplicable flicker of satisfaction.
She had assumed it was his pride that refused to allow others to help—in reality, Viktor was simply thinking through how to protect himself in a storyline designed to end in his death.
"Hmph, there are still matters to handle back at the territory. I'm leaving."
Leah let out a cold laugh, picked up her handbag, and moved toward the door.
"Oh, one more thing."
Just before she left, Leah turned back and cast a pitying glance at Viktor.
"Keeping a Crow as a pet—and a one-eyed Crow, at that."
"Your taste really is just as terrible as it's always been."
Bang!
The study door slammed shut.
From outside came the voice of a maidservant.
"Miss Leah, shall I have a carriage prepared for you?"
But at that moment, Viktor's thoughts could not follow the departing Leah.
He turned his head and saw a mass of ink-black creature huddled in the corner of the desk.
It resembled a Crow, but was slightly larger.
And just as Leah had said—
It had only 1 eye.
That single eye rolled about with an almost human-like awareness.
At last, it met Viktor's gaze.
And then, it revealed a smile that was unsettlingly human.
"Hello, I am the Evil God—Habika."