Transmigrating as an Extra Third-Rate Villain

No longer was I standing on the obsidian door with Ruby, but now, I was on the floor of the vault with a pile of magical artifacts next to me.

"Ah...I guess I'm the thrower now."

Taking a peek over my right shoulder, I spotted everyone continuing to mindlessly collect the magical artifacts.

Every so often, though, one person would suddenly stop working and move around, searching for any traces of the intruders.

Normally, my strategy would have just been to let my corrupted figure function, as everybody would just ignore it as long as the job was getting done.

However, with everyone so paranoid due to the lack of information about the intruder, the main cast was much more cautious and observant.

Simply turning around to face that wall so that the main cast, student council president, and two recruiters wouldn't be able to see my face wouldn't work anymore.

So...instead, I decided to call in a favor.

Glancing to my right, I spotted two familiar figures taking magical artifacts off their designated shelf.

Holding up my hand to cover the side profile of the corrupted figure, I slowly walked towards the two girls.

After only a couple of footsteps toward them, the two had already noticed my approach.

Turning around simultaneously, both Lily and Alya stared at the distorted and poorly detailed face of the corrupted figure.

It was pitch-black except for two holes for the ear, a hole for the nose and mouth, and two ears from the edge.

Immediately, Alya pulled out her magic sword, covering it with a layer of pitch-blue ice, and opened her mouth, ready to scream.

However, before Alya could fire off her ice sword and scream out, Lily stepped forward, placing a hand over Alya's mouth.

Staring at Alya, Lily simply sighed before whispering.

"Calm down; let me take care of this."

Since I had already shown my ability to clone when I had made replicas of Liam, Lily had probably made the connection and assumed that I was able to make any figure...even this monstrosity.

Shifting her gaze away from Alya and towards me, Lily examined the corrupted figure before shaking her head and asking.

"A simple 'I need help with something' would suffice."

"...?"

"Imagine you're playing a fantasy video game at 3 in the morning, and all of a sudden, you get jump-scared."

"..."

Waving my hand up and down, I bowed before responding.

If I were in Lily's shoes and turned around to see a random corrupted figure walking towards me, I would piss myself.

I wasn't very good with jump scares...

Nodding her head, Lily ignored Alya's confused expression and trembling body before asking.

"So, what is it?"

Pointing at the gap that led outside into the grounds space, I replied.

"The intruder doesn't necessarily have to be in the vault...he could just be in the underground space and be using sound magic to project his voice into the vault, making it seem like he's everywhere at the same time."

Pausing, I pointed at Liam, Kevin, and the two recruiters specifically before continuing.

"So, I want to search the outside. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be able to just go off on my own and start searching."

Interrupting me mid-explanation, Lily glanced around at the others before interjecting.

"If you suddenly run off right now, you'd break the fragile unity between us. So when the intruders attacks, we'll be a worse position to fight back and defend."

Breaking free from Lily's grasp, Alya removed the hand covering her mouth before immediately saying.

"Lily...who the hell is this!?"

Through the conversation, it seemed that Alya had been able to determine that I was on the same side as them as I stated my objective to take down the intruder, so she had calmed down.

However, that still didn't stop her reasonable suspicion from rising.

Ignoring Alya's words, Lily glanced at me, prompting me to nod my head while staring at Alya.

Seeing my gesture, Lily turned to face Alya, pointed at my corrupted figure, and replied.

"That is Ren; you should know him, right? It's hard to explain right now, but he's on the same side as us."

Shocked, Astrid stared at the corrupted figure, which did not resemble me in the slightest, with a confused expression.

"That's...Ren? And he's on our team?"

Seeing Lily nod her head, Alya seemed to ponder for a moment before continuing.

"Alright..."

Now, it was Lily's turn to act surprised and confused.

Grabbing Alya by the shoulders, Lily forced her into eye contact before asking in a serious voice.

"Aren't you accepting this a bit too quickly? Our arch-enemy, who we've been scheming and fighting against since the beginning of time, is suddenly on our side? What Ren really was the intruder, and he just brainwashed me!?"

Hearing Lily's frantic words and shocked by the eye contact and sudden contact, Alya glanced away with fear, meeting gazes with me.

However, for whatever reason, Alya simply remained silent and continued staring at me.

Pushing Alya's head so that it faced her again, Lily maintained eye contact before muttering.

"...say something, please."

"..."

Taking her silence as a sign of admission, Lily let go of Alya's shoulders before immediately turning to and asking in a demanding voice.

"What did you do!? What have you done to her!?"

Honestly, I had no idea why Alya had kept silent upon hearing Lily's questions or why she had decided to trust me so fast...but it still felt good!

Shrugging my shoulders, I pretended to look up at the ceiling with a bold expression and replied.

"Maybe some people just recognize my heroism, and the fa-"

Stopping me mid-sentence, Lily looked around the room, ensuring that no one had noticed our prolonged talking where we were supposed to be working.

"That's enough."

Glancing at Alya, Lily quickly said.

"We'll discuss this later."

Gesturing for me to come closer, Lily whispered

"And as for you, I'll cover for whatever this is...but I can only do it for so long. You'll have ten minutes at the max before someone gets paranoid."

"Let me know what you find, even if it seems inconsequential."