Transmigrating as an Extra Third-Rate Villain

Mid-air, Ren continued his dive into the gap, ignoring the peculiarities with both Lily and the appearance of the water bubble.

Worst comes to worst, he could stop time with his ability and find a solution; however, if he didn't get through that gap right now, he might never be able to enter the vault again.

Sliding head-first through the gap, Ren immediately manifested a pile of physical corruption in his hands before turning around.

Cocking back his hand with the physical corruption, Ren aimed at the gap, intending to completely close it off.

As Ren's feet slid through the gaps and his entire body was now in the vault, Ren rushed his hand forward, ready to release the ball of physical corruption he made to block off the gap.

However, before Ren could even let the corruption fly out of his hand, he suddenly saw something filling the gap.

Coming right after Ren, Lily was ducking and down, attempting to pass through the gap into the vault as well.

"What happens if my corruption hits another person...?"

Raising his right hand to his eye, Ren paused time for a split second, attempting to discern if he could block off the hole before Lily got through.

Unfortunately, after calculating for a moment, Ren came to the conclusion that it would be impossible for him to block Lily from entering despite his time-slowing ability.

Lowering his hand from his eye, Ren allowed time to speed back to normal as he patiently waited for Lily to finish getting through the gap.

Then, as Lily's feet finally entered the vault and her entire body was inside, Ren let the ball of physical corruption fly out of his hand.

In a perfect arc, the ball of physical corruption flew upwards before descending exactly where the gap was located.

Then, upon impact with the obsidian material of the door, the corruption immediately spread out, covering every single inch of the gap and preventing anyone else from entering.

Not yet looking around the vault, Ren glanced at Lily, who was only a few steps away from him.

The obvious thing to do here was to take her hostage and use her to escape from the main cast and the two recruiters.

Yet, Ren... was starting to have second thoughts about that idea.

Lily had stopped Liam from reaching Ren initially, and then she had also created a massive water bubble that surrounded them two, giving Ren the perfect amount of time to escape into the vault.

And now, she had even entered the vault right after him.

It was hard for Ren to believe that Lily had done all this by accident.

So, then, what was Lily's goal?

Was she finally turning to the dark side like Ren?

Had she finally given up on that naive wish of hers to save as many people as possible, no matter the impact it may have on the rest of the world?

Did something make her realize that, maybe, what she was doing right now with the main cast wasn't the right way to go about saving the world?

"If only..."

Putting the breaks on his wishful thinking, Ren manifested a dagger before staring at Lily, who also had her wand out.

*DRIP*

*DROP*

Breaking the silence inside the vault, the sound of water droplets from Lily's clothing hitting the floor echoed through the massive space.

In fact, it wasn't just her clothes; Lily's hair was completely drenched, losing its normal texture and becoming completely straight.

Showing no reaction to the water covering her body, Lily sighed before turning around and staring at the now-filled gap.

Hesitating for a moment, Ren manifested a corrupted sweatshirt before throwing it over to her.

Right now, as far as Ren could see, they weren't completely enemies.

Actually, if Ren only considered the last few minutes, they would actually be considered allies, as Lily had helped Ren get into the vault.

There was also the bond of origin that the two of them shared; however, Ren didn't pay too much mind to that part.

Liam would be really pissed if Lily came back from the vault with a cold...and Ren had no intentions of testing Liam's power as the protagonist.

What if he saw Lily coughing and suddenly got an insane power-up that allowed him to completely destroy Ren within a second!?

Laughing at his own thoughts, Ren threw the sweatshirt at Lily, allowing it to land flat on her wet hair.

Ren had already pissed off Liam more than humanly possible, so it honestly didn't matter what he did to him anymore.

As Lily turned around, the sweatshirt suddenly fell even further, completely blocking Lily's vision.

"...why am I blind!? What kind of ability is this!? MAKE M-"

Chuckling, Ren coughed before replying.

"on your head."

Silently, Lily raised her hand to her hair, feeling the cold and hard surface of the corrupted sweater.

Yanking the sweat off her head, Lily stared at it for a moment before not putting it on but using it to wipe her regular clothes.

As Lily dried her clothes with the corrupted sweater, Ren stood still and glanced around, taking in and memorizing everything.

"It seems like the principal is a minimalist..."

In all honesty, Ren had expected one of the vaults where it was filled to the brim with gold coins and magical artifacts just lying around randomly.

"Oh, is that a stat-boosting potion lying around? Don't mind if I do! Oh, a perfect emerald gemstone; I can't wait to make a magical artifact with this!"

One where you could quite literally swim in the pool of gold coins and treasures!

Unfortunately, Ren's cartoon vision of the vault is broken when he realizes that it is quite the opposite.

There were shelves all over the place, with labels marking them and various tools lying on them.

Everything was so well... organized.

But that also meant that the massive space was almost completely empty besides the few shelves lined up against the wall.