I got reincarnated as a villain!

chapter 13

A/N

chapter 12 and 13 are the new ones, don't read after this until 25th august, or until you don't see this ill post it when its done anyway

With a 'huff', Leige set down the stack of books he had collected.

He must have abs by now. At least a six-pack.

Wiping the sweat that had amassed on his forehead, he looked at the rather pathetic pile of books that seemed a lot larger in his head.

...And by pathetic, he meant three. Three books.

Moving on, he took a seat on the floor underneath a window. A particularly interesting title had caught his eye, so he took it first.

'The Use of Qi' was anonymous, and had been covered by layers upon layers of dust. If it was non-fiction, he didn't know, but it sounded really interesting, so he had picked it up.

It was a picture book, and he didn't know the reliability at all, but the art was well-drawn so he didn't particularly mind.

Skimming through the book, he stayed on particular pages for a while, appreciating the art that seemed to be hand-drawn.

The picture book was actually very interesting.

It was about a man who lived in a foreign country, one that used Qi, which was akin to 'magic flow'. His land was destroyed, and he was forced to move into this kingdom.

People deemed him to be worthless after sensing almost nothing from his soul, but he made his way up the ranks by using Qi.

After many adventures, he finally settled down. On a farm.

And so the story ended.

What Leige found to be most interesting was the idea of manipulating magic flow, or what the book deemed as 'Qi'.

He had heard of Qi before, knowing that it was the basis of traditional Chinese martial arts and medicine. However, it was his first time reading something about Qi being used for martial arts, since he had only been interested in how it worked in the medical aspect.

In traditional Chinese medicine, the concept of Qi had two branches, to put it simply.

First, there was the physical, or nourishing portion that made up the air, water and food taken into the body. This was what he had previously been interested about.

However, the other branch of Qi was what this picture book had been talking about. This branch was the energy itself that flowed through the body.

The energy flow was created along the pathways that connected acupuncture points on the body, called meridians.

The two branches were connected, intertwined.

He wasn't sure if the Qi that he knew was exactly the same as this Qi, but he was almost certain that they had the same concept.

The main problems were that the book didn't explain anything about the workings of Qi, only stating that the protagonist had mastered the art of the manipulation of energy, and that he himself had very limited knowledge on the subject.

Looking at the other two books lying pitifully on the table, he decided to give them a try as well, wanting to know if they would give him more information about Qi, and the new theory that was slowly forming in his head.

One novel was about soul manipulation, and how one was able to manipulate their soul to become even stronger. However, this one didn't make as much sense to him as the concept of using Qi did, since he had never heard of soul manipulation in his life. Also, turning souls into weapons simply seemed a little out of place in a world where the soul was essentially a bottle with magic in it, determining your rank in society and your abilities.

So that one was a no.

However, the last one was a bit more interesting, although the title had been fairly misleading.

See, it had been called, 'The history of the soul', but instead talked about different abilities such as enhanced senses and body control, never even mentioning anything about the history of how the soul was discovered and how it was researched.

Well, it was more helpful to him this way.

After all, he had not forgotten about the tournament thing happening in a few months.

If he was going to make a difference, then that would be his chance, where everybody would be watching.

He was not planning on suddenly making a huge breakthrough and being able to use magic and become a great magic user, no.

He was planning on taking the other route.

The albeit harder route, but it would be more accessible for everyone, since this would be something that required training rather than natural talent.

Luckily for him, this body was already sensitive to noises and smells, and he himself was very perceptive when he needed to be. So he had a head start on enhancing his senses.

What was he planning to do with enhanced senses?

Well, he wasn't just going to work on enhancing his senses. He was going to work with his magic flow, and other things that would help him.

If he couldn't fight with magic, he would have to learn actual martial arts.

Looking down at his lean body, he sighed.

Honestly, he really wasn't that short, more of the average height of a 16 year old, but the problem was that this body most likely had no actual training before.

So he got tired extremely easily, much like his old body.

However, he had found that this body wasn't so weak. The stamina was very low, but he had been able to lift the heroine, or whatever she was called.

...How much could he train his body in three months?

Well, he would need to become motivated.

After all, he only had two modes - work mode, where he didn't stop until he was dizzy from exhaustion, or normal mode, where he required 18+ hours of sleep every day, and had no shame in sleeping even more than that.

He would also need to start researching more, which meant living in the library.

The only thing in his way was school.

Well, if he could collect books at night, read them at school and then sleep, and then practice at home again, it could work out.

He may as well get started now, considering he had school tomorrow.

Before he went back to look for book again, he considered if all of this would be worth it.

After all, this was a lot of work and effort he was about to put in for three whole months.

How much sleep would he be missing?

Like 1000000000000 hours.

Since he had reincarnated, albeit as the villain in a game, wouldn't it be better to just relax?

Eh.

It was either that, or try and stop being the villain and somehow make everyone fall in love with him, and take the place of the heroine.

Yeah, this route sounded a lot less troublesome.

Looking out of the large window he was sitting by, he stifled a yawn.

One book would do for today.

He had to start small, you know?