Persona, I am the villain and I can do whatever I want

After completing the examination, he walked into the bathroom, tilted his head slightly to look at himself in the mirror, his eyes gradually becoming deep and distant.

"The most familiar stranger..."

This statement had once been just a slightly sad metaphor in his mind, but now it enveloped him with an inescapable truth.

In 2015, in Kanagawa, Japan, a 16-year-old high school student named Mitsui Tsubasa was just an ordinary nobleman in the eyes of the world.

But he hides a shocking secret in his heart - he is a reborn person!

Since childhood, he has often dreamed of completely different life trajectories. Those clear yet distant memories were once regarded by him as meaningless dreams.

But on the night of his 16th birthday, everything changed. He seemed to have uncovered the mystery of his infancy, and memories of his past lives flooded into his mind, interweaving with his present life consciousness.

After a brief period of panic and confusion, he was immersed in ecstasy.

A healthy body, a distinguished family background, and the ability to predict the future, these advantages combined are enough to allow him to reach heights that ordinary people cannot reach.

Bitcoin...investing in basic medical equipment...making money from the war...these were originally part of his plan.

However, a speech that he happened to see on TV changed everything.

The bald congressman who spoke passionately and denounced government corruption - Lion Boy Justice!

A certain fragment of his memory was awakened, and he anxiously traced it down, only to discover the truth...

Private Shujin Academy;

Beautiful prosecutor Sae Niijima;

Goro Akechi, the genius young detective;

A passerby school girl who has already gained some fame;

In a hurry, he found relevant information on the Internet for all the public figures he could think of.

He was reborn, but in a game world called 'Persona 5'.

His identity is just an NPC who can't even be found in the background. In two years, this world may face the end of "destruction".

The only hope is the Phantom Thieves of Hearts led by the original protagonist Amamiya Ren, or rather... a group of high school students.

"Stop joking!!!" He roared and punched the half-length mirror hard.

"Crack!"

A crisp cracking sound was heard, and the half-body mirror shattered instantly. The scattered fragments reflected his hideous and distorted face, as if he was an evil ghost struggling out of the abyss of hell.

Chapter 2 Impression Space

After a long silence, he ignored the scattered debris and slowly returned to the bedroom.

Standing quietly in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking out at Tokyo in the evening glow.

Looking down from the 25th floor, everything is shrouded in a soft halo, appearing hazy and mysterious.

The colorful neon lights, the tiny crowds, and the scattered scenery all make this real world seem so unreal.

Mitsui Tsubasa sometimes wonders, beneath those various bodies, are they living lives or cold data?

But the candy is so sweet. The cool water is refreshing. The past memories are as clear as yesterday. Is this world really just an illusion?

'Who can tell me which one is real...'

Putting away the occasional sadness in his heart, Mitsui Tsubasa took out his mobile phone, hesitated for a moment and made a call.

"Father, I successfully enrolled in school today. Everything is fine."

"Really? That's good." My father's unclear voice came from the other end of the phone, and there was also a faint female laughter. "Take care of yourself. Tell me if you need anything."

Mitsui Tsubasa sighed silently, knowing that his father must be socializing again. This is part of Japanese workplace culture, and even the company's president cannot completely avoid it.

"I understand. Father, you should also take care of your health. Also, you don't need bodyguards to pick me up from school. I just arrived at a new school and don't want to attract too much attention."

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while, as if he was thinking about something. Finally, his father agreed to his request: "Okay, I'll arrange it. You have to be careful too."

"Yeah, okay. I won't bother my father anymore."

After making a few polite remarks, Mitsui Tsubasa hung up the phone.

Mitsui Shigeki, his father in this life, was born into the prominent Mitsui family, with deep roots in Kanagawa Prefecture, and was a powerful backbone of the family.

Although his personal life became more and more indulgent after he and his mother separated in a foreign country, he was always kind to his only son.

When Mitsui Tsubasa unexpectedly requested to transfer to another school, his father supported it without hesitation and completed all the procedures in just a few days. He was extremely restrained and did not ask the reason.

The next morning.

Mitsui Tsubasa prepared the necessary textbooks according to the schedule and took the subway to school alone.

Math class was dull, English class was dull, and chemistry and political science classes were equally dull.

During lunch break, he had nothing to do and was absent-mindedly dealing with those curious new classmates.

The afternoon classes were equally uneventful...

More than once, he would suddenly lose his focus, and his mind would begin to ponder the philosophical problem that has troubled mankind for years:

'Who am I? Where am I? What am I supposed to do?'

'Why do I have to sit in a high school classroom and study hard when the world is about to be destroyed?'

The chair he was sitting on seemed to have turned into a red-hot iron plate, and he had the urge to jump up and save the world countless times. But in the end, he still waited until school was over with a look of despair on his face.

His father is a typical Japanese parent: conservative, stubborn, and a bit chauvinistic.

If he dared to skip school or show any bad tendencies, his father would not hesitate to take him back to Kanagawa for strict discipline.

In that case, he would just be at the mercy of fate.

Therefore, no matter how reluctant he was, he had to pretend to be a good student in the eyes of his teachers.

Just like that, Mitsui Tsubasa left the school listlessly and walked into the subway to go home. To him, a day was like a leaf drifting in the north wind, passing in a flash.

Fortunately, he found an empty seat. Mitsui Tsubasa took out his math homework book with a troubled look on his face. His eyes fell on the inequality problems that he had not seen in many years, and he fell into deep thought.

It is known that the main storyline will begin in a year, and the world may be destroyed in two years. Please, what positive impact can serious study bring to the future?

It can have a hammer effect!

What a waste of time!

At this time, the subway train was entering a long curve. For some reason, the driver accelerated several times in a row, and the car began to shake slightly.

Mitsui Tsubasa put away his textbook helplessly and, like other passengers, looked at the front of the train in confusion.

When he looked up, he noticed a white-haired old man standing in front of him.

Although the old man looked in good spirits, he still felt pity for the convenience store work clothes he forgot to change.

Ordinary people in the world seem to be all the same. Even in their old age, they still have to work hard to make a living.

"I'm going to get off. Please sit here." Mitsui Tsubasa stood up and said to the old man with a smile.

Without waiting for the old man to respond, he took the initiative to give up his seat and moved to stand by the opposite door.

A faint voice of thanks came from the old man behind him, but Mitsui Tsubasa did not take it to heart.

Suddenly, there was a sharp brake sound and the car shook violently.

The railroad tracks diagonally ahead were cracking and sparks were flying due to the intense friction.

The air was filled with a pungent smell of sulphur.

In a moment of inexplicable dizziness, Mitsui Tsubasa felt his hand slipping and in panic he bumped into the handrail next to him.

Then, his world fell into darkness.

After an unknown amount of time, Mitsui Tsubasa slowly opened his eyes and found himself lying on the cold floor.

The carriage was dark and silent, without any sound.

He struggled to sit up and looked around, and the scene before him stunned him.

All the passengers in the subway disappeared...

The seats, handrails and other facilities in the carriage seem to have experienced hundreds of years of erosion and are in disrepair.

Blood-red hyphae spread on the walls, appearing even more eerie in the dim light, like the intricate capillaries in the human body.

This is -- Impression Space!

The thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

Mitsui Yi subconsciously touched his chest and felt the strong beating of his heart, which made him feel a little relieved. At least, he was still alive and had a chance to find a way out.

Although he didn't know why he was in this strange space, Mitsui Tsubasa understood that he needed to stay calm and find a way to escape as soon as possible.

On the bright side, this was part of his expected plan, even though everything happened too suddenly.

Forcibly suppressing his inner panic, Mitsui Tsubasa began searching around for any tools or items that might be useful.

However, he soon found that this was in vain. The carriage was empty and everything disappeared with the passengers.

In this dead silent and dim environment, Mitsui Tsubasa felt his hands and feet were cold, and breathing became extremely difficult.

He didn't dare to stay here for long, and hurriedly moved along the carriage, trying to find the exit to leave this strange subway.

After walking through several carriages, he found a twisted and broken door at a bend.

The sound of wind in the tunnel rushed into the carriage, breaking the long silence.

For some reason, he felt a little relieved. For the first time, he felt that noise was more soothing than silence.

I carefully stepped sideways out of the subway and saw a vague figure wandering in the distance under the dim tunnel lights.

He subconsciously wanted to shout for help, but suddenly covered his mouth with his hands. Those figures were probably not living people, but shadows in this strange space...

Mitsui Tsubasa frowned. Impression space, or the palace of "everyone" formed by the embodiment of collective subconsciousness.

The accumulated evil thoughts of mankind, the desires that corrode the mind, and the horrific or crazy memories deep in the soul together constitute this twisted realm.

Looking closely, one could see that the whistling wind was filled with black fragments, tumbling and breaking like the ashes of burnt leaves.

The tunnel beneath my feet also glowed with a strange reddish color, and if I stood there for a long time, a sticky liquid like blood would ooze out. The texture was neither cement nor steel, but more like the skin of some creature.

Not good.

Very bad.

There is no personality mask, no protagonist team, and not even a weapon for self-defense.

Under the influence of strong anxiety and fear, Mitsui Tsubasa was shocked to find that the corners of his mouth were rising wildly and uncontrollably, revealing a twisted smile.

'Calm down, stay calm... take a deep breath, keep breathing.'

He kept encouraging himself in his heart, and after a while, his tense nerves gradually relaxed.

Mitsui Tsubasa's eyebrows were tightly knitted together, and his face looked extremely ugly: "When did my mental quality become so fragile..."

He closed his eyes and carefully felt the changes in his surroundings. After a moment, he suddenly realized something.

It was pain, regret, despair, fatigue, anger... These negative emotions filled every corner of the impression space. Although invisible, they actually affected his emotions.

'Is suffering the true nature of life?'

"Roar--"

Suddenly, a low roar broke the silence, bringing his thoughts back to reality.

Mitsui Tsubasa suddenly opened his eyes and found a vague shadow approaching him quietly.

It was a dog-like shadow with an unclear face and a body size similar to that of a medium-sized dog.

To be honest, when Shadow pounced on him, he didn't feel really scared. After all, it was just a small dog...

"Ahhhh!"

The severe pain made him scream, and he tried his best to shake off the shadow that was biting his calf.