In a small, cold room, two girls with golden hair and red eyes face each other.
Girls who look so identical that they cannot be distinguished from one another.
What could their identity be, are they twins?
The answer is simply 'me'.
They're both me!
In a plain white room, I held onto myself and lamented.
"...I'm bored!"
In this boring and suffocating space, I had no one to vent to except the clone I created.
"Uweeng..."
The cute whining that unconsciously came out of my mouth made me realize reality once again.
I had become a beautiful girl.
My life of over twenty years as a male came to a forced end one day when an air conditioner's outdoor unit fell on me while walking down the street.
I thought everything had ended there, but when I came to my senses, I had become a little girl.
When I happened to look in the mirror, I was startled.
In it was a beautiful girl with golden hair, rabbit-like red eyes, and fair skin, wearing only a flowing dress-like hospital gown.
She was like a beautiful porcelain doll with the perfect blend of youthful innocence and incomplete maturity of someone not yet a woman. There was a bridge between child and adult.
"This is me? This is amazing!"
When I first realized I had become a girl, I was truly amazed. Because 'I' was pretty enough to amaze even myself.
The face is soft and flawless, and while the figure is slim, it holds the maturity that should rightfully be there.
It was such a cute and lovely appearance that it could easily overshadow any sudden confusion about gender identity.
It seems like my thinking ability has decreased slightly since becoming a girl, but I'm not sure. Anyway, isn't becoming pretty all that matters?
Goodbye boring life! I'm going to become a happy internet idol star!... I dreamed briefly.
"...What's the use when I'm trapped?"
However, I couldn't be happy.
First, I was possessed in a game. And in the body of a villain who dies by the protagonist's hand.
"Deep Crimson Scholar," global service name "Crimson Scholar."
A notorious copycat gacha game made by a Chinese rich second-generation otaku who poured money into it.
It's a dystopian open-world action game where you lead students and colleagues from an academy city in a world falling to invasion from another dimension.
As a side note, it's a game that was terminated early after completing only Part 1 of the story, typical of Chinese games.
'Of all the characters, to think I'd become Witch Violet!'
Witch Violet of the Infinite, an executive of a terrorist organization and a sadistic murderer. After accumulating all possible karma, she dies at the hands of the enraged protagonist.
'This is a bit troublesome'
To think I'd become an evil villain, it's a bit difficult.
However, I still had one chance.
'This is before the main story!'
In the game's main story timeline, Witch Violet who committed various evil acts was a decadent and mature woman.
However, the girl before my eyes, while looking similar to that villainess, is younger and shorter.
In other words, I had fallen into the past of the game's main story, into the villain's childhood. If I live without doing bad things, I won't become a villain, and I won't die.
However, there was still a second problem.
Currently, I'm trapped in a secret laboratory of an evil pharmaceutical company, Laflaxia.
This company monitors us and other people 24 hours a day, calling us test subjects, and conducts strange experiments. If we don't listen, they beat us up.
Not only that, they put a stiff, thick collar on my thin neck.
"It's suffocating."
Unfortunately, I can't remove it. This collar has an electric shock function. When I got shocked once, it was incredibly painful.
Therefore, resolutions like not becoming a villain are meaningless no matter how many times I make them. If I'm not careful, this laboratory, this company might use me like a slave.
I got goosebumps thinking about the possibility of being brainwashed or having a chip implanted in my head and becoming a slave or living weapon.
Having become a beautiful girl at the cost of losing my lower body's familiarity, I wanted to live comfortably for myself. To achieve this modest dream, I'm thinking of escaping this place somehow.
If I had been in the body of an ordinary girl, I would have given up, but I had one secret weapon.
To check the situation, I called out the word of omnipotence.
"Status window."
A sparkly translucent screen appeared before my eyes.
──────────────
Name: Violet Dunhind Rugilinn
Alias: Test Subject 10-6-8
Status: Laboratory Test Subject
Health: 1000
Magic Power: 1500
Unique Ability:
■■■■:???
Lv1 Clone Technique
...
──────────────
'Indeed, I am that Violet!'
In the world of "Deep Crimson Scholar," there exist superhumans called 'Awakened Ones.' They wield powerful physical strength, handle magic, and each individual can use unique superpowers.
The ability of this body I'm possessed in is quite unusual among them.
That is the Clone Technique.
Witch Violet, true to her name, could create and control multiple clones that looked exactly like her. And I can use the Clone Technique too.
Right now I can only make one, but if I become familiar with the ability, I might be able to create hundreds, no, thousands.
I plan to develop this ability and exploit gaps in the laboratory's security to escape somehow.
'What should I do after that?'
I don't know either.
I might live quietly in the outskirts avoiding the company's eyes, or if I'm lucky, I might be able to go to school.
Thinking for too long made my head hurt.
"Come here!"
I brought my clone, a girl who looks exactly like me, onto the bed and hugged her tightly.
Lying on the bed hugging my soft self made me feel at ease. There's also a subtly nice smell. The clone also hugged me with her arms, as if mimicking my movements.
Touching like this made me realize how truly soft I am. I should sleep like this from now on.
Having someone hug me makes me feel a bit more at ease. In this stifling world, the only one I can trust is myself.
While maintaining peace of mind like this for a while, I heard loud running footsteps coming from across the corridor beyond my room's door.
"Test Subject 10-6-8!"
Someone shouted from outside the door. They're banging on the door with something solid. I should pretend to be asleep.
"Test Subject 10-6-8! We know you're not sleeping! Get up right now!"
"Uweek!"
I jumped up in surprise.
I forgot that there are surveillance cameras in every room where test subjects sleep!
Click!
The door opened and armed guards rushed in. The guards pointed their guns at me and my clone.
"Hey! Stay still!"
"Don't move!"
A researcher in a white lab coat with slicked-back hair entered behind the guards. I immediately lowered my head with a frightened expression. The researchers here treat test subjects like animals, so it's best not to provoke them carelessly.
That way you get hit less.
"10-6-8! Are you going to dismiss that clone or not? Who told you to use your unique ability in your room without permission?"
"I'm sorryyyy..."
"You disobeyed instructions, so you need to be punished."
The slicked-back hair researcher took out a small switch about the size of a car key and manipulated the button.
Bzzzzt!
"Kyaang!"
My clone and I collapsed to the floor from the shocking pain that struck our entire bodies. We rolled around on the floor because it hurt so much.
"Uwaang..."
My clone and I teared up. Something I've noticed since becoming a girl is that it's harder to endure pain than before possession.
"We are always watching test subjects like you. If you disobey instructions, you'll be punished again. Understand?"
The mean researcher threatened me by holding the electric shock switch in front of my face. I nodded while sniffling.
With a snap of fingers, my clone who I was hugging until just before disappeared.
In the room after the guards and researcher left, I sobbed for a while. As I gradually calmed down, I wiped my tears and lay back down.
'Escape aside, I can't take this anymore!'
As I lay quietly swallowing my anger, murderous intent rose from within my heart.
'If I get the chance, I won't let any of them off!'
In this inhumane and rights-violating space, I tried to remember roughly all those who had done me wrong.
Though I'm not sure if I can, if I get the chance, I want to destroy all of them.
For a moment, I imagined myself commanding hundreds of clones and beating them all down. I snickered while imagining scenes of dragging out the survivors, tormenting them, and burning down the entire laboratory, but then suddenly felt empty.
'Sigh... first I need to develop my ability.'
It's all pointless thoughts since I haven't properly trained my ability yet. Above all, this laboratory has too many people watching. There are too many cameras too.
First priority is to understand the internal structure.
'And, I need to get tools.'
A hammer would be good if possible. Then I could smash in the heads of all those damn researchers and guards!
Tossing and turning with various thoughts, I couldn't fall asleep.
I turned over several times because my swollen chest was uncomfortable. It feels nice when touching because it's soft, but it's uncomfortable when lying down because it moves around.
For a moment, I wondered how I ended up falling into this world.