Ryan, an unemployed game tester, gets trapped in an unreleased full-dive myth game. He wakes up not as the hero, but the **Demon Lord** doomed to be hunted by all players—with a ruined reputation and underlings plotting rebellion. If the server shuts down in the real world, his mind will be trapped in the game forever. Knowing all the game bugs by instinct, he decides to defy the rules. Labeled a villain, he seizes the protagonist’s fated opportunities and swallows all resources meant for the hero party. Starting from a crumbling dark castle, he recruits abandoned monster NPCs and defeated players to build an outrageous villain team. He seizes sacred relics, rewrites plotlines, tames mythical beasts, and outwits opponents live. Soon he becomes a revered Dark Lord. But he discovers the system is no mere game—it is an experiment to select rulers for the real world. The righteous hero fated to oppose him is the only one who can shut down the system. The more he wins, the farther he is from freedom. In the end, Ryan abandons defeating the hero. He joins forces with his former rival to take down the shadow company, granting the entire game world self-awareness. He becomes neither villain nor hero—instead, he overturns the whole game board. Waking up in reality, he loses all virtual wealth, yet gains true companions brought back from the virtual realm.
