Prologue

To understand why I did the things I did, you'll have to hear my story from my point of view.

If there's one fundamental rule of fiction, it's that the villain always has a bad ending. They usually die tragically, not accomplishing their final goal. And even when they stay alive, they go through some sort of tragedy.

So who, in their right mind, if given the choice, would choose to be the villain? Only narcissists who think they are special.

It's easy to change the world; you just have to be a bad person.

And this is one such story. A tragic tale about the greatest villain who ever lived.

This is the story of Zack Zephyr.

My story.

———————————————————————————————————————

"If I make this shot, I get your sister's number," I said, looking at my friend. He rolled his eyes as I ran up to the ball and kicked it.

As the ball reached its peak, it curved into the goal.

"YES! Give me her number now!" I exclaimed in excitement.

"I never agreed to that!" My friend, Jordan, protested. "And she's 18!"

"I'm into hot, older girls," I said with a smile. That comment led to me being punched in the arm. "It's a compliment!"

"She's my sister, weirdo," Jordan responded. "I swear, I'm going to jump you one day."

"Chill dude! I didn't mean it like that!" I said. The bell rang, signifying the end of school. We grabbed our backpacks and began our walk home.

I'd do anything to get these days back. But life has other plans.

My phone dinged as I took it out and looked at the notification.

"She graded the biology project," I said before looking at my grade. "How did I get an 80%?"

"What? How? Aren't you good at everything?" Jordan asked as he took out his phone and checked his grade. "Damn, sucks to be you. I got an 81%"

"Your grade is at a C-, 81% is a godsend to you," I commented as I looked at her comment. I looked over at my work.

"Oh, I didn't see the second page of the rubric," I said in a flustered voice. "My bad."

"You are blind," Jordan told me. "You better email her."

"No shit Sherlock," I said as I stopped and began typing out the email. It took me half a minute, but I wrote and sent it.

When I looked up, my heart dropped. Jordan was crossing the street, looking at his phone. But he didn't notice that there was a truck coming.

I began sprinting as fast as I could. "Jordan! There's a truck!" I screamed out, but he processed it too late. He turned and looked like a deer in headlights.

By some unfortunate miracle, I was able to get close enough to push him. But not close enough to push him out of the way.

So when I pushed him and jumped back, the only thing that changed was that I was hit as well. When the truck hit me, I felt my ribs crack and saw Jordan go flying. I was also airborne, and I felt myself land on the side.

'Double kill, huh.' I thought as my consciousness began fading. I could feel my brain starting to shut down, rational thoughts leaving me.

My final thought was, 'Hopefully Jordan makes it through, though I doubt it.'

And my eyes closed for what I thought was the final time of my life.

It was only a few seconds after my eyes closed that I felt a flick on my head.

"The fuck was that for?" I said softly as I opened my eyes.

'Wait? My eyes? Why can I open them?' I wondered before I processed the scene. I was in a black void that looked like space. In front of me were two chairs and a table in between with a chess set. Sitting in one of the chairs was a person who looked like they were in their late 20s or early 30s.

"I thought that you'd be out for much longer." The person said with a dry chuckle. "I guess I was wrong. Have a seat."

I hesitantly took the seat. "I'm going to assume that I died."

The person nodded with a smile as they moved the pawn on the chess piece.

"That you did." He said. I continued staring at him until he gestured to me to make my move.

I moved my pawn to g6. "I assume you have questions. Go ahead, ask them."

"Alright," I said slowly, narrowing my eyes as I moved my bishop. "Is it you that drives the truck or do you just kidnap people who get hit by it?"

"It seems like you have priorities." The man laughed. "Normally, people ask if they really died or start begging for another chance."

"I don't think that snorting any amount of drugs will make me hallucinate this," I responded as he made a tricky move.

"It's been a while since I met someone with a good sense of humor. To answer your question, I'm not the driver."

A silence followed as I looked at the board, realizing that I lost.

"The modern defense is difficult to play, requiring more positional knowledge. It can be hard to see where things went wrong." The man said moments after I realized it. "I think it rather suits you."

"Okay, I just wanna say that in my defense, you are God," I said, sighing and running my hand through my hair. "So my second question: Why am I here? You want something from me, otherwise why not just plop me into another world or send me to the afterlife."

God clapped. "Astute deduction. It looks like I made the right choice."

My eyes narrowed. When someone makes a vague statement like that, there are two possibilities. Either they want you to ask, or they're going to tell you.

I naturally did the power move and did not take the bait. He just stared at me as his smile grew wider.

He snapped his finger and a screen appeared. "Does this person look familiar?"

I watched as several short clips flashed through the screen of a person in various circumstances. Like an academy and the woods.

"Is that Jordan?" I asked.

"Yes, it's your friend," God said. "Although, I have to say I'm disappointed. Normally, people that I reincarnate are strong. But I guess he's an outlier. He's … quite weak."

The screen turned off as soon as he finished talking and I continued to look at him without speaking.

"Who are you trying to impress?" He asked.

"It's more a matter of principle," I said.

He gave a sigh and devious smile as he snapped his fingers and my mouth began moving against my will. "And this relates to me how?"

"Glad you asked!" He exclaimed cheerily. "I'm going to try something new. I'll let you help him become strong under two conditions."

"And those would be?" My mouth moved again.

He smiled. "The first of two conditions is that you'll have to be the villain. You'll have to carry the heavy burden that comes from it."

I nodded. "And the second?"

"The second is a choice; be the strongest mage in the new world, or carry over all the knowledge of a field from your world but have no magic."

I let out a breath, thinking about the options.

"You always have the choice of not accepting it and going into heaven," God said. "You lived a morally okay life. Not great, but good enough."

Was Jordan really worth it?

…

…

…

Yes. Yes, he was.

"I accept, but I just have one question," I said. God nodded his head.

"Based on the choices you gave me, is it correct to assume I'll be one of the big bads?"

God smirked. "That's entirely up to you. The more powerful you get, the stronger the impact you'll make. But you'll have to accept whatever fallout occurs, whether you succeed or not."

I was sitting, fidgeting with the pawn and twirling it around my fingers. Strongest mage or carrying over knowledge with no magic?

I could see both of them backfiring massively. All he said was the strongest mage, not the path to get there if I'm using my life force or some bullshit like that. Or I could be the strongest mage of some random thing like cheese *cough* Kane Chronicles *cough*.

But having no magic was a guaranteed death sentence, especially for a villain.

I spent five minutes deliberating before finally choosing. I closed my eyes.

"I choose knowledge with no magic." I opened my eyes, only to see him smiling.

"Interesting choice. I know not many would pick that." God said. "And what knowledge would you like to gain?"

It was my turn to smile. "STEM."

God stared at me for a while before laughing and started clapping. "Bravo! I didn't expect that."

STEM, or more specifically, the T for technology, is connected to everything else. For example, nanobots are heavily connected to engineering, science, and math as well. So if you're an expert at one area, you're pretty good at the other areas. Gaining all the knowledge in one area, that'll make you an expert in others. There is very little difference between gaining all the knowledge in technology then gaining all of STEM.

"It takes a special kind of person to find a loophole like that one," God said. Suddenly, his tone became colder and darker, "But will it be enough?"

When he said that, he snapped his fingers and I blacked out again. I felt myself enter into a sleep.

A peaceful sleep that lasted for a few seconds before my eyes fluttered open.