The Return of the Condor Heroes - Chapter 12 – Great banquet for heroes, Part 8

A Lovecraft- inspired darker, grittier One piece fanfic. A fanfic based on emotion and madness. A fanfic not for the faint hearted.----------------Regret. I have been drowning in it for far too long. I’ve regretted every choice I’ve made, every mistake I’ve carried, every moment of my past. I’ve regretted the present I live, the path I walk. Even my future, uncertain as it may be, has been tainted by regret.But not anymore. I refuse to live under its shadow. Yet, I know the truth—I don’t have the power to escape it completely.Am I not like a flicker of flame? So fragile, so fleeting—one puff, and I’m gone.Regret has burdened me, weighed me down to make me climb the towering wall of greatness. But I press on.It was all I could do. All I ever wanted to do.

Honjou Kaede was invited by her friend, Shiromine Risa to play a VRMMO.

I don’t hate games, but painful things are a little……no, I hate it very, very much.

Eh!…the pain would be reduced if I placed stats on defense power?

Then, the only place where I can place it, is there right? Right?

Solidly fortify everything into defense, now here I come!

A useless prince, yet brimming with kindness and compassion—his smile as warm as sunlight, illuminating this darkened era.But that was merely a mask, hiding the poisonous and mad nature beneath.A monster lurking behind a gentle shell.A system that feeds on stolen Heroines.He will outplay destiny—and rise as the world’s ultimate villain.

I’m a high school student who became an author after debuting at Dengeki Bunko. After taking a year of hiatus from school to write my work, I transferred out to another high school to study, and met a girl called Eri Nitadori in school, a rookie voice actress cast as a character in the anime adaptation of my work.

In school, we treat our professions as a secret. However, Nitadori’s very popular in class, and I’m a loner…the only chance we get to talk to each other is when we take the Limited Express train together every Thursday, seated side by side as we head off for an anime, After Recording.

To improve her skills, she asked me questions regarding the profession. While I was answering the questions regarding the process–how did it end up like this.

This is what I last remembered before I lost consciousness, and the story of my near-death experience.