"Victor, you've really outdone yourself this time!"
A woman's furious voice blasted out of the study.
A stunning woman with short black hair stormed in, a newspaper in hand. She jabbed a finger at the monochrome mage-print portrait on the front page, her anger practically sparking.
"Do you have any idea how much you've disgraced the Kreivener name?!"
Smack!
The newspaper hit the man square in the face.
Expressionless, he peeled it off and glanced down at the content.
The man in the photo had crisp features, and even in a crude black-and-white mage print, his looks were unfairly handsome—easily the type of face that could make a thousand girls swoon.
Just… not the girl yelling at him.
In the photo, the man extended a hand toward a noble young lady—yet the girl was smiling politely as she declined, a hint of disgust hidden behind her graceful expression.
Bang!
The woman in front of him—Lia Kreivener—slammed the desk, snapping his mind back to reality.
"I told you to represent the family at a banquet, and you actually confessed to the Duke's daughter in public!?"
"She's still underage! Are you insane?!"
Indeed, the headline said it all:
[Shock! Viscount Kreivener Causes Scandal at the Duke's Daughter's Banquet!]
He had to admit—the paper knew how to grab attention.
If he'd seen the headline himself, he might've tossed a few coins at it just for afternoon entertainment.
Too bad the "entertainment" plastered across the headline… was him.
Victor Kreivener.
He glanced at the mirror on the desk. The reflection matched the handsome face in the paper perfectly.
But as someone who had just transmigrated today—without inheriting a single memory—Victor absolutely refused to carry this blame.
Still, in the face of the woman's tirade, silence was the only weapon he had.
Could a murderer claim insanity and escape the death penalty simply by insisting they weren't in their right mind?
Actually… yes.
Assuming they had the paperwork to prove it.
Victor did not.
So he lowered his head and listened to the scolding, which only made Lia angrier—as if his silence was him deliberately tuning her out.
Finally, with a furious, "I must've lost my mind thinking you'd listen to anything," she ended her one-sided verbal assault.
At least during those several long minutes, Victor managed to piece together a few facts.
Everything in this study—Lia herself included—matched perfectly with an MMORPG he had played religiously in his past life.
A fantasy game set in a world of swords and magic. Players customized their avatars, chose races and classes, experienced storylines, cleared dungeons.
And his profession?
A booster.
The game required levels and materials. If you weren't a whale, you had to grind endlessly. Players without time but without money? They hired boosters.
Same for PvP climbing—when people wanted a rank far above their skill, they hired people like him.
Victor had been a small-time celebrity in the boosting world.
Just yesterday, after seven days of non-stop grinding—no food, no sleep—he finally finished his seventeenth order of the month.
Right as he was about to get paid?
He dropped dead.
His transmigration was as simple and brutal as that.
Back to the present: the role he had possessed was Victor Kreivener, a Viscount. In the rank-based hierarchy of the Carencia Kingdom, a viscount was more symbolic than powerful. Aside from owning a piece of land, he had no significant privileges.
To commoners, he was a bigshot.
But provoke the Duke's daughter?
A viscount couldn't compare to a duke in a thousand lifetimes.
"No wonder he was a villain boss. Starting point: hell difficulty."
Victor muttered under his breath.
"What did you say?"
Lia's voice shot up, equal parts suspicious and offended.
Victor's gaze shifted to his nominal younger sister.
Lia Kreivener.
In the game, she was the villain's little sister—one of the few female NPCs so popular that players chased her around shouting "Wife!"
Her popularity was inseparable from having a notorious villain brother.
Victor Kreivener was a major mid-game boss the players had to defeat. Thanks to his actions, the Carencia Kingdom was thrown into chaos. The reigning Empress issued a public quest, begging players to help subjugate him.
Thus the villain became infamous—high attack, high speed, annoyingly hard to kill, too handsome, scumbag mage—and somehow… his fanbase only grew.
Normally, transmigrating into a familiar game should've been fun.
Unfortunately…
Victor had way too many enemies.
Maybe it was jealousy. Maybe the devs just hated handsome characters.
In the game, any NPC could have a grudge against Victor.
A professor from the Magic Academy. An old man in a village. A random stray dog he might've kicked once.
Even main story characters wanted him dead.
Including his fiancée, his sister, and the Duke's daughter.
Hence his title: Scumbag Mage.
Among the kingdom's most beautiful women, Victor had managed to offend almost all of them.
The fact he lived long enough to become a boss was a miracle.
Now he was Victor… and the original owner's hate-agro was enough to drown him.
I should figure out the timeline first.
He wisely kept this thought silent, though Lia misinterpreted his thoughtful look as mocking her.
Her rage spiked again.
"Enough! Victor, do you even understand the situation you're in?!"
She yanked a contract from her designer handbag and slapped it onto the desk.
"If I hadn't pulled strings with the Academy to issue you a temporary professor title, the Duke's private soldiers would already be surrounding the estate!"
"But here you are, sitting in your study drinking coffee! And now you can't even bother to say thank you?!"
"Thank you."
"I hate you lik— Huh?"
Lia froze. She blinked, her fury momentarily short-circuited.
Victor calmly took the contract, flipping through it. "Thank you for helping me handle this. I'll be more careful outside from now on."
"…"
Caught off guard by an apology from the man famous for being a menace, Lia fidgeted, twisting a strand of hair around her finger.
Her emotions were… complicated.
"A-anyway, I'm only doing this to protect the family's reputation. And this is temporary. You'll need to apologize to the Duke yourself."
"Also, don't thank only me—think about how you're going to deal with Lady Gwen."
"Gwen Delin?"
"Yes. My nomination alone wasn't enough for the Academy to approve the title. I asked Lady Gwen for help."
Her eyes cooled as she looked at him, like he was some disgusting insect.
"You already have a fiancée, but you're still chasing skirts."
"As expected of you, Victor."
He politely ignored the last part.
"I don't know what happened before, but I'll thank her properly."
Gwen Delin.
Second daughter of the northern border's knightly house. In the storyline, she was Victor's fiancée.
A true knight of justice—and a knight of justice would always stand opposite a villain mage.
Though she and Victor were engaged, the two never stood on the same side.
In the final "Subjugate Victor" storyline, it was Gwen who arrived and drove a lance through his heart.
Their relationship was nothing more than a forced political marriage.
Her killing him was almost proof of that.
The devs never released any prequel content explaining their past, so players were left guessing.
Great. Another dangerous character added to the list.
Victor sighed internally.
Gwen Delin was no small fry.
As the kingdom's strongest knight, she remained terrifyingly powerful even in the late-game era of gods and demons.
She eventually became a boss-level opponent herself—players remembered her strength vividly.
Victor knew one thing for certain:
This woman must never be provoked.
Or he would really die.
No cheats, no golden fingers… this transmigration was feeling more like a punishment.
Maybe sensing his distress, Lia actually looked somewhat satisfied.
She probably thought he was embarrassed by needing her help. In reality, Victor was busy calculating how not to die.
"Hmph. I have matters to handle on the territory. I'm leaving."
She grabbed her bag and headed for the door.
"Oh, right."
She turned back, eyes full of disdain.
"You're really keeping a crow as a pet. And a one-eyed crow at that."
"Your taste is as awful as ever."
Bang!
The study door slammed shut.
A maid's voice drifted from outside:
"Miss Lia, shall I prepare your carriage?"
But Victor wasn't listening.
His attention had shifted to the shadowy shape perched on the corner of the desk.
It looked like a crow—but larger.
And just as Lia had said…
It had only one eye.
That single eye gleamed with an eerie intelligence, swirling as if observing him.
Finally, the creature met Victor's gaze—
—and smiled.
A very human smile.
"Hello. I am the Evil God—Habika."