Reborn As The Villain In A Game-Like World-Chapter 6: Not A Game Anymore

"It’s not a game anymore after all," Jack muttered while staring at the gold-plated pocket watch in his hand. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"What’s not a game, Master?" Melinda asked as she shakily attempted to dress Jack. She had to perch on a stool to reach Jack’s shoulders, and due to blood loss, she was struggling to stand. She was tempted to use Jack’s shoulder as support but quickly suppressed the idea as she didn’t want to die yet. She knew her master despised any type of physical contact.

"Don’t talk to me," Jack responded coldly. "From today, you will always stay in my sight. If you leave my sight for even a moment, I will be left with no choice other than to lock you in a cage. Understand?"

Melinda’s hand, adjusting Jack’s tie, froze in place.

’Does he know I’ve escaped his mind control?’

she thought, her mind racing with scenarios, trying to justify how she was found out. Jack just gave a toothy grin, revealing his sharp fangs as if he could read Melinda’s thoughts. Melinda was terrified but quickly nodded in acknowledgment. She then continued dressing Jack, but with haste in her actions, wishing to run away from the monster in front of her as soon as possible.

As Melinda went to tie his shoes, Jack snapped open the pocket watch and looked at the little mirror inside the lid.

Psychokinesis [C] - Also known as telekinesis, the ability to influence a physical system without physical interaction, typically manifesting as being able to exert force, control objects, and move matter with one’s mind. Psychokinesis is an essential skill from the Psychic school of magic.

(New) Telepathy [F] - The ability to transmit or receive thoughts and memories supernaturally.

’Telepathy, nice. I believe with it at the F grade, I can only read surface thoughts of one person at a time within a meter range. However, thoughts and memories can also be transmitted to one person within five meters. What a useful skill.’

’Thankfully, it looks like leveling up functions the same as in the game. Whenever the player leveled a skill from a school of magic above the D grade, they would receive a new skill. Since I upgraded my Psychic Magic and Psychokinesis skills to C grade, I received Telepathy as a reward, but it starts at the F grade. However, it seems the way to level an ability has changed. In the game, to level an ability, the only way was through combat with monsters or practice in a training field to gain exp. What does EXP stand for? Experience. In a game world, the developers will give players certain ways to gain experience, but since this is no longer a game world, why would I have to go to a practice field to gain exp? Why couldn’t I practice in the bath? But even then... why did I level up so fast? Did the world decide my usage of Psychokinesis was equal to C grade and decide to promote me? Did I do anything special?’

Jack thought long and hard if he had done anything special compared to the first time he used Psychokinesis when he woke up in his bed.

’When I moved the pocket watch from the desk to my bed, I was concentrating incredibly hard on the pocket watch and manipulating it in the air... but when I was in the bath, I was focused on my death flags and controlling the pocket watch subconsciously? Was the requirement to advance to C-grade to be able to control something subconsciously with Psychokinesis? This is annoying. In the game I simply had to use the ability in exp-giving activities, but now it has changed. Mhm, then how can I advance to the B rank? Maybe I should use Psychokinesis as much as possible to try and advance as soon as possible?’

"Master? Are you spaced out in thought again?"

Jack realized a lot of time had passed while he was deep in thought; Melinda had finished dressing him. The girl seemed exhausted.

"It looks like you want to say something," Jack said. "Spit it out."

"Master, I’m sorry to trouble you, but I have not eaten all day, and since you drank so much blood, I’m feeling frail now."

Jack did feel a little bad about that, so he nodded. "That’s understandable. Go and make food. You’re dismissed."

"But Master, you said I cannot leave your sight."

Jack smacked himself mentally.

’Maybe locking her in a cage was the right move?’

He turned to tell Melinda to get in a cage, but the words refused to come out. A voice seemed to whisper from his soul, "A noble never goes back on their word, at least to the person’s face."

’Ah, of course, my traits have to make everything difficult for me. This must be a toxic combination of [Noble Aura] and my race [Noble Vampire] working together to force me to act like a noble. Whatever that means.’

"Fine, I will come with you. Lead the way," Jack said while gesturing with his hand toward the bathroom door.

"I apologize, Master, but we don’t have any food left. I need to go and buy some more," Melinda said with a shaking voice.

Jack’s nails slightly elongated without his thinking, ready to stab this annoying woman in the neck. How could a human speak back to a noble vampire? It was inconceivable. He blinked and managed to regain control over his body with great effort and calmed down.

’There was a good reason vampires were feared. I’m stuck in the body of a blood-sucking, crazy psychopath. Damn it.’

"I needed to visit the university library anyway before school starts on Monday. You can get lunch from a food stall on campus," he said with a cold tone, trying to mask his lack of control.

"Understood, Master." Melinda nodded as her eyes lingered on his nails before leaving the room.

As Jack was about to follow her out of the room, he noticed his gloves laid neatly on the table and had a genius idea. This body hated touching things, and he needed to practice Psychokinesis. So why not kill two birds with one stone?

Jack put his hands in the pockets of his wine-colored chinos that were perfectly tailored. He then called out with his mind and magic to take control of the two white gloves. It took a bit more concentration to manipulate two objects simultaneously, but he quickly got used to it as they orbited him.

’Yeah, this could work. I’ll command these gloves to interact with the world. That way I can avoid triggering my [Germaphobe] as I don’t have to touch anything.’

Melinda seemed surprised at the sight of him walking out of the room after her with two white gloves floating before him. Her reaction was understandable. Psychokinesis was one of the most challenging schools of magic, so seeing this level of manipulation was somewhat surprising even to him.

Jack spent the next few minutes practicing. He managed to make the gloves open and close in a fist, though he couldn’t entirely manipulate each individual finger yet, but he felt that he would get the hang of it with some more practice.

"Lead me to the study," he commanded.

Melinda nodded and walked down the room’s corridor. Since Jack moved in, the vampire had converted the guest room into a study. But, since he was so lazy, he preferred to look over the documents from the magic academy he had to review while lying in the guest bed. Honestly, he was impressed by the vampire’s laziness. Jack had placed a desk across the bed’s width so he could sit up with the assistance of a pillow mountain and study documents.

Jack stood at the doorway to this supposed "study" and didn’t enter the room entirely. Instead, he sent his two glove hands into the room with Psychokinesis. He used his right one to open a small drawer next to the desk, and the left grabbed a handful of coins from within.

’Jack knew this was the money Melinda used to purchase the silver-coated dagger in the game. The old Jack had foolishly left this money in an unlocked drawer, as he was far too arrogant. Never in the previous Jack’s wildest dreams would he suspect his blood slave had broken the control of his Blood Magic and stolen this money to purchase a silver-coated dagger to murder him.’

Jack watched Melinda’s reaction to him retrieving these coins. To his surprise, she showed no response to him taking away the money. He had expected to see despair, but she seemed calm. Making sure to stand close to her, he used telepathy but couldn’t read any alarming surface thoughts. She was utterly indifferent to the funds. The only thing on her mind was food.

’Does she have money hidden somewhere else and therefore doesn’t care that I use this money? Or is my telepathy level too low, and she’s too good at acting? Something to be investigated.’

With the money now secured to pay for lunch and some other necessities while they were in town, it was time to leave.

"All right, follow me closely, Melinda. Keep your head down, and if you try anything funny, I won’t hesitate to kill you."