BJ Villainess Chapter 299

* * *

Damian was dead. In a way, it was the natural course of events. The Damian in the dungeon was much more self-destructive than the Damian in reality. He wasn’t afraid of death; in fact, he wielded it as a weapon. But ironically, a lack of fear often means a diminished will to survive. Thus, Damian in the dungeon ended up destroying himself. It was the result of his delusion that he was special, based on a brief moment of affection.

 

The real Damian thought he was pathetic. To take over his body and then do something like that… But at the same time, a chill ran through his chest. Though Damian in the dungeon had destroyed himself quickly, would he have been any different?

 

He, too, had tried to cut off everyone around Theresa, isolating her so they could be lovers who only looked at each other. He didn’t want to share her with anyone else.

 

Damian in the dungeon had died because of that desire, and if he could empathize with it, he might have met the same fate. How foolish.

 

At that moment, a voice suddenly rang out. “If you’ve come to your senses, get up, you idiot.”

 

It was one thing to criticize himself, but having someone else grab him by the collar and hurl insults was something he couldn’t tolerate. He opened his eyes wide and swung his fist, only to be countered. Splash!

 

“Puf!”

 

Damian found himself dunked into a bathtub, humiliated, and only then did he manage to sit up and look around.

 

“Where is this…?”

 

Soaking wet, he scanned his surroundings in a daze. This was definitely not hell. Moreover, the person staring down at him arrogantly was someone he knew all too well.

 

“Clyde?”

 

Come to think of it, he was sitting in a bathtub filled with a suspicious green liquid that looked like poison.

 

Clyde grabbed a large towel from the wall and tossed it to Damian. Though confused, Damian quickly dried himself with the towel and stepped out of the tub.

 

“Where am I? I thought I was dead.”

 

“You were. I brought you back.” Clyde spoke as if it were nothing, then left the bathroom. “We don’t have much time, so hurry up.”

 

Though Damian didn’t fully understand the situation, he followed him outside.

 

The house wasn’t large, but everything seemed crammed together like puzzle pieces. As Damian passed by a black butterfly mask hanging on the wall, he entered the living room. There, a man was elegantly sipping coffee.

 

“It looks like you’ve finally recovered.”

 

It was Professor Ilya. But the professor had large black wings on his back.

 

“A fallen angel…”

 

Damian had always thought the professor was suspicious, but he never expected him to be anything other than human.

 

“Come, sit down.” Ilya, openly revealing his identity as a fallen angel, calmly gestured for him to sit. Not only that, but he even kindly dried off Damian, who was still soaking wet.

 

Damian instinctively realized that the force surrounding him wasn’t ‘magic.’ Do angels use a different kind of power? Or is he actually a demon?

 

Still confused, a steaming cup of coffee was placed in front of him. The person who served it was Clyde.

 

This was also strange. The antisocial, eccentric, genius student council president wasn’t the type to personally serve tea to anyone. Moreover, the two of them secretly disliked each other, making it even more surprising.

 

“Thanks.”

 

Clyde set his own cup of coffee on the table and took a seat. A strange three-way meeting had begun.

 

Feeling slightly calmer, Damian asked, “Where are we?”

 

Ilya answered, “The Pantheon. A higher dimension than the one we lived in.”

 

He had come back to life only to find himself in a dimension that was neither heaven nor hell? But why was he meeting Professor Ilya and Clyde here?

 

Wait a minute. Wasn’t Clyde’s existence supposed to be forgotten by the world? But since he shared the memories and senses of the ‘Dungeon Damian,’ he remembered Clyde.

 

“It’ll be faster to understand this dimension if you watch this.”

 

Ilya gestured, and a rectangular screen nearby lit up.

 

[“I love you, Jiwoo.”

“…Me too.”

“What did you say?”

“I said I love you too!”]

 

Damian was taken aback when he saw two people he knew, albeit looking somewhat different. The man, though much younger than he remembered, was Ozworld. And the woman…

 

“Theresa?”

 

Though her appearance was quite different, her aura and impression were so similar that he immediately recognized her as Theresa.

 

Clyde watched the two confirm their feelings for each other with a blank expression, then pinched his temple. He muttered a very obscene curse under his breath. Meanwhile, Ilya remained silent, but his gaze on the screen was chilling.

 

Damian, still struggling to grasp the situation, felt a strong sense of unease before understanding anything.

 

Clyde, after muttering a short curse, regained his composure. “As expected, Ozworld has drastically altered time again. As a result, the dungeon has become so unstable that it’s created an environment open to external intervention.”

 

Ilya asked, “Theresa hasn’t accepted his proposal yet, has she?”

 

“No, not yet. But according to the analysis by the alliance, there’s a 99% chance she’ll accept if he proposes this time, so we need to act quickly.”

 

As the conversation became more confusing, Damian couldn’t help but interrupt. “What is all this about?”

 

Clyde explained, “Our creator, Theresa, was kidnapped by that b*stard Ozworld. Unfortunately, he’s a monster unmatched across dimensions.”

 

Damian sighed. “I don’t understand any of this.”

 

“Don’t worry. You will soon.”

 

“How?”

 

Without further explanation, Clyde placed his hand on Damian’s forehead.

 

“-!”

 

A flood of memories surged into him. At the same time, the numbness he had felt since waking up in the bathtub began to dissolve as if breaking free from a cocoon. A shiver ran through him at the strange sensation of connecting with the world. He understood why Ilya had called this place a higher dimension. This was no place for humans to live.

 

“So, I’ve become a ‘constellation’ now?”

 

Clyde smirked. He didn’t like Damian personally, but he thought the guy had a decent level of understanding.

 

Anyway.,

 

“If you’ve understood everything, let’s go.”

 

“Where to?”

 

In response to Damian’s question, Clyde replied as if stating the obvious. “To bring back our creator.”

 

* * *

“Senior Jiwoo, is it true that you have a boyfriend?”

 

A male junior, who was fairly good-looking and stylish enough to be popular, had come to see me. I showed him my left ring finger without a word.

 

“I heard that’s just for show.”

 

I then showed him my phone screen.

 

“Your boyfriend is a foreigner? Then it must be a long-distance relationship.”

 

When he seemed to think he had found a loophole, I zoomed in on the screen to show him Ozworld wearing our school’s varsity jacket. Finally, the bold junior walked away, dejected.

 

 

Senior Seonga, who had been drinking coffee with me in the lounge, chuckled. “Oh, it seems our school’s tradition hasn’t disappeared.”

 

“Tradition?”

 

“A tradition where naive freshmen who don’t know what Shin Jiwoo’s boyfriend is like get rejected every new semester.” Senior Seonga laughed heartily, then suddenly turned serious. “Anyway, come to the studio this afternoon; we need to vote on the title for our game.”

 

Before my regression, Senior Seonga had gathered the seniors and started her own small game label. She did the same this time, but the difference now was that I was an experienced developer. As a result, the game production speed was quite fast, and we had started a large-scale project even before graduation. We were working on a reverse harem game.

 

“Let’s just do a video conference. Why bother meeting in person?”

 

“Well, it’s an important moment to name the game, so of course, we should combine it with a team dinner.”

 

I answered nonchalantly, saying I got it with a slightly annoyed expression, and then checked my phone. There were no messages from the constellations today either. Since I had left home, the frequency of their messages had gradually decreased, and now it had been a week with no word from them.

 

Am I going to drift away from the constellations forever like this?

 

Even though they had been with me for quite some time, their sudden silence left me feeling empty.

 

* * *

Pandora, Senior Seonga’s game label. The team consisted of only four members. We can handle most of the work by outsourcing.

 

The part of my memory related to games was fuzzy after the regression, so I had to create the scenario and characters from scratch.

 

I glanced through the characters displayed on the screen. The female lead, Libby, and the male leads Ilya, Euges, Damian, and Clyde. Looking at these beautifully designed characters, whose artwork had been painstakingly refined, filled me with satisfaction.

 

Then my gaze naturally fell on ‘Theresa.’ This character ended up bearing some resemblance to me. Even the team members often commented that Theresa looked like me.

 

Senior Seonga, who had been insisting I attend the meeting, arrived last at the studio and cheerfully announced, “Alright, let’s start the meeting!”

 

The studio was cramped, so I said I’d listen to the discussion while working.

 

“How about we name the game <Love Academy>?”

 

Senior Seonga’s suggestion was met with fierce opposition from the team.

 

“Senior doesn’t like games, do you?”

 

I quietly cast my vote against the title as well.

 

Then Bora, who was obsessed with whales and had filled her desk with whale figurines, suggested, “How about <God’s Play>?”

 

“<God’s Play>?”

 

“Yes. Since all the male leads are associated with divine beings, it implies that the player enjoys the world like a god.”

 

“Oh, that’s pretty good.”

 

“Also, it’s a play on Jiwoo’s last name ^[1] Jiwoo’s real name is 신지우, and the word 신 has the meaning of God. . Shin Jiwoo’s playground. That’s why it’s <God’s Play>. Honestly, this game wouldn’t exist without Jiwoo.”

 

I looked up in surprise. “What? Don’t involve me in this.”

 

“This game couldn’t have been made without you. Consider it a dedication.”

 

Then Jin Wonwoo chimed in. “<God’s Play> sounds good. It immediately conveys that it’s a fantasy genre, and calling the player a god is a cool concept.”

 

Without much hesitation, Senior Seonga brightly declared, “Then it’s decided! <God’s Play> it is! Now, let’s go for dinner!”

 

So, it turns out today’s gathering was really all about the team dinner. We all piled into Senior Seonga’s car to head out. Just then, I got a message from Ozworld.

 

[♥Honey♥: Is the meeting over?]

 

Since we went to different campuses, Ozworld insisted I needed a charm to ward off potential suitors. As a result, my left hand now sported a three-year-old couple ring, my phone’s screen displayed a couple photo, and his name in my contacts was saved as ♥Honey♥.

 

[Yeah, it looks like the whole point was to go out for dinner… We’re heading to a barbecue place now.]

 

[♥Honey♥: lol]

 

I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

 

Ozworld often amused me with actions that didn’t suit him at all, and that ‘lol’ was one of them. He was the type to laugh out loud in real life but never used such expressions in text, which made it even funnier.

 

[I’m still not used to you sending messages like that.]

 

[♥Honey♥: You told me to express it when I laugh.]

 

“Since when did you start listening to me?”

 

Hmm. Come to think of it, he had been listening well since he turned 18.

 

“Ugh, it’s so sickeningly sweet.” Bora teased me in a mocking tone. “It’s tough being single. Right?”

 

Feeling embarrassed, I turned my head to look out the window. I still wasn’t used to showing affection in front of others.

• 1. Jiwoo’s real name is 신지우, and the word 신 has the meaning of God.