"Why are they bouncing?"
Among the countless reasons I thought being a woman was a chore, I never expected this to be the main one that affected me.
I stared at the twin balls bouncing on me as I moved. They weren't bigger, but they were uncomfortably, annoyingly enough, the right size for a bounce.
Looking around, I was in a large room decorated with expensive gems. The curtains seemed to be embroidered with gold threads.
A large king-size bed took nearly one-third of the room. Opposite it was a wardrobe that opened to a connected room filled with expensive costumes.
I walked into it, choosing to wear one of the silky white fabrics. Covering my nakedness somehow calmed me.
"They weren't bouncing anymore," I thought, breathing a sigh of relief.
I looked into the mirror in my wardrobe, stunned to see the reflection staring back at me with a gaping mouth.
The reflection, or rather, I in the reflection, had golden threads cascading down my back. A few strands curled around my ears. I had a pair of golden eyes that shone with the sharpness of a predator and skin that combined every color in the visible light spectrum.
"So beautiful..." I mumbled in awe. My eyes darted towards my chest, towards the slight cleavage, and my throat went dry.
"If I knew there was someone this pretty, I should've chosen to be her boy toy rather than her..."
Alas, regrets had no medicine, in my world or this new one. I rubbed my chin, staring at the complex patterns shimmering before me. They followed me as I moved, and I could see some text forming between the patterns.
[Binding completed]
[Role: Villainess]
Despite knowing it beforehand, I couldn't help but take a deep breath as I read it.
Tara Sinclair, the owner of the Space Stone and the antagonist of the book "Infinite Stones." The one abandoned by every star and chosen by the endless space.
The only daughter of Gareth Sinclair, the Lord of Dragon Fire, and Amanda Brighton, the Lady of Imaginations.
I sighed, rubbing my brows to ease the headache that pulsed with the recollection of the future awaiting me.
In the book, Tara appeared in the second volume, after the protagonist swallowed the essence of a fallen angel. She tried to cook the protagonist to steal that essence, obviously failing as his hermit tutor revealed his hidden power.
That created an animosity that led her to challenge the protagonist at every turn, and finally, after countless failures, forcing her to become a monster the world dreaded.
The author hadn't had a chance to write the end as the apocalypse of novels started before it.
The Web Novel Apocalypse...
One day, the sun in the sky disappeared, a winter that turned oceans into an ice continent covered the whole earth. For a little warmth, some people even burned themselves to death.
When humanity was on the verge of extinction, a mechanical voice magically appeared in every corner of the world. No one knew its origin, but it was understood by all, regardless of it being alien to all.
We were given two options: die in the cold or choose to transmigrate. Not everyone could transmigrate, only those who had read Web Novels could select a book to enter. The rest were doomed.
As someone who had only read one Web Novel, and that novel had only one reader—me—I had limited choices.
Somehow I couldn't be the protagonist, I hated that but I had no other options. So I chose the second-best option: the antagonist.
Ironically, I hadn't considered changing my gender to match the villainess role. I thought I would transmigrate as myself or the gender of antagonist change as per me.
Perhaps the fear of death clouded my judgment. Still, it was better than the fate of those who couldn't transmigrate at all.
"Haha," I laughed, my laughter turning hysterical. I quickly stifled it, fearing the guards outside might mistake me for a fool.
Being a villainess and becoming a villainess were two entirely different things. I could possess all the attributes of a villainess, but I wasn't obligated to act like one.
Simply put, I could easily change my fate by avoiding the actions that made the original villainess the antagonist.
I frowned. The foolish author hadn't provided any backstory for me in the first volume. Why would the daughter of two of the most powerful beings stoop to stealing the corpse of a fallen angel?
Again, I frowned. It seemed my mind was involuntarily adopting some of Tara's characteristics. The mere thought of stealing the corpse filled me with disgust.
The original Tara Sinclair, whether past or present, would never stoop so low. She could obtain anything in the world by a mere command.
So why did she, in the book, engage in such a lowly act?
I rubbed my palms. I needed to find the reason for this drastic change in her character in volume two.
And so, my first quest began.