Welcome Readers! this first chapter will also serve as the Prologue, and If you want to watch how high he can climb and how low he can fall just to survive, add this novel to your collection.
__________________________
The sword went through my chest again....
Still Eighteen years old and I'd already died seventy four times now. The kid who pierced my chest-couldn't have been older than sixteen—twisting the blade with this look of pure determination on his face like he was saving the world or something....
"For the poor, innocent lives you've taken, Crimson Blade Zhao!"
I coughed up blood, more out of habit now. What innocent lives? I was just a low-level bandit boss with three caves and twelve drunk idiots who could barely swing a sword. We robbed merchants sometimes. That was it.
But sure, kid, you're the hero.
The feeling of a familiar coldness crept in me as my vision darkened. Here we go again.
I died.
And then I woke up in the void. It wasn't black or white—it was just... nothing. Empty space where I floated, while blue text started to appear right in front of my face.
[RESPAWN PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
[TUTORIAL VILLAIN #463 - ZHAO YANG]
[DEATH COUNT: 74]
[NEXT CHOSEN ONE ARRIVAL: 6 cycles remaining]
This was real. Not a game. Not a simulation. I knew because I'd tested it, for here pain felt real, hunger felt real, and when I died it hurt every single time, the pain of death...felt real.
This was an actual world where people lived, cities and empires existed, and cultivation was real, yet it also had its own rules, system rules, like someone had built game mechanics into reality itself.
When I first woke up in this world thirty years ago I was confused as hell. One moment I was in my college dorm back on Earth and the next I was here, in the body of Zhao Yang, some bandit leader I'd never heard of, and at first I thought maybe I'd reincarnated, like in those web novels I used to read.
I was WRONG.
I wasn't reincarnated for the greatest heights but assigned for the people who will reach the heavens above me.
This world which I had never explored somehow created Fated children, or what I called them, heroes. Every six months, Heaven itself would designate someone as a "Chosen One" and give them a system, quests, cultivation boosts, all of it, and their job was to grow stronger, defeat evil, and save the world or whatever.
And my job? Being their first quest, which I figured out around when I died the seventh time.
I started paying attention to patterns. Every single Chosen One who came to kill me was between fifteen and eighteen years old. Every single one was at the Foundation establishment peak stage and when they arrived—weak, but with some kind of dog shit luck. Every single one killed me.
And why they came here was because of the quest notification that led them straight to Crimson Blade Mountain.
[Quest: Defeat the Crimson Blade Bandit Lord]
[Reward: Legendary Sword Technique, 1000 Spirit Stones]
I'd seen the quest screen myself once, that reflected in a Chosen One's eyes before he killed me.
I was the Tutorial Villain.
The system needed to exist so heroes had someone to defeat, which was why I respawned again then again then again then agai...
That was why I couldn't escape, for I was part of this world's system, tutorial content that resets every six months, and I was losing my mind every single time, or maybe I already had….
[RESPAWN COMPLETE]
I gasped, sitting up in my chair, back in the cave and back in my body, eighteen years old in the appearance of Zhao Yang after thirty years and seventy four deaths.
I stood up, my legs shaky, and my bandits were outside, probably drinking around the fire, and they always reset too, their memories completely removed like NPCs following their script.
I walked to the cave entrance and stared out at Crimson Blade Mountain. They say a hundred years ago, blood flowed like rivers on its peak. And to this day, you can still find the rusted blades of fallen warriors buried in the red earth.
Then I turned to my strong hold. Six months until the next Chosen One arrived. Six months of knowing exactly how it would end.
But suddenly—I was about to turn back when something caught my eye. A small blue indicator in the corner of my vision was blinking.
That had never been there before.
I focused on it, and right then a new text appeared.
[SYSTEM ANOMALY DETECTED]
[TUTORIAL VILLAIN #463 has exceeded death threshold]
[Mortality loop creating instability in Chosen One generation cycle]
[New options available]
[Would you like to view ALTERNATIVE PROTOCOLS?]
My heart actually started pounding, for in all that time the system had never offered me anything except death and respawn.
"Y..es," I said with a rough voice. "Show me."
The blue screen instantly expanded.
[ALTERNATIVE PROTOCOL UNLOCKED: CORRUPTION PATH]
[Instead of being defeated, Tutorial Villains may attempt to CORRUPT the Chosen Ones]
[Successfully corrupted Chosen Ones will become your subordinates or you can exchange them as fate points.]
[Warning: Half failed corruption attempts will result in permanent death]
[Accept the new role?]
I read it three times. They were giving me a choice, fight and die like always, or try something different, where the risk was permanent death but the chance was to actually win. I thought about those seventy four kids with their righteous speeches running through me.
"I accept." The screen flashed.
[ROLE UPDATED: CORRUPTION-TYPE TUTORIAL VILLAIN]
[New skills unlocked]
[Time until next Chosen One: 6 months]
The text faded, leaving me standing at the cave entrance with a smile spreading across my face. "Six months to figure out how to corrupt a chosen one. I could work with that."