I, the Villain, Beat Up the Entire Protagonist Squad

Lin Le is a freshly deceased corpse.

Bad news: Her parachute broke while she was skydiving, and she got herself a serving of human meat sauce.

Good news: The comic System can revive her on the spot.

Bad news: She has to enter the comic The Natural Child and beat the entire protagonist group to a pulp.

The original villains in the comic can't accept their miserable fates, but they're powerless to change the ending. Their last attempt to fight back is to ask someone to viciously beat the protagonist group who will eventually kill them. In exchange, after they die, the System will use their bodies to create brand-new secret identities for Lin Le.

Lin Le: Got it. Deal. Just tell me how many times you want them beaten.

--

The Natural Child was originally a conventional shonen manga. It had beautiful artwork, but the plot was too slapdash, and its seemingly expansive world of superpowers was a complete mess, so it never got very popular. But everything changed when the reboot came out.

[New Esper added: Fantasy Type, "Mr. Rabbit"]

A pink-haired young man with soft, long ears wears a beautiful tailcoat. Sitting in his "Rabbit House," he swings a pocket watch and chuckles softly. "Welcome. What would you like to trade with me? Information? Treasures? Or perhaps... your life?"

[New Esper added: Fantasy Type, "Moonlight Knight"]

A knight from days of old gallops toward them in silver armor. Though everything he wears is an expensive noble's possession, the thing that should be most precious, his sword, is a silver blade long since rusted away. The knight's hoarse voice is as decayed as his sword. "Please tell me, have you seen my master?"

[New Esper added: Fantasy Type, "Sphinx"]

A golden-haired man with wings sprouting from his back lazily leans against a stone statue, his tail swishing like a lion's. He narrows his golden-red, predator's eyes to slits. "Answer my question or die. Is that really so hard to decide?"

[New Esper added: Fantasy Type, "Medusa"]

[New Esper added: Fantasy Type, "Gabriel"]

The reboot fleshed out a wealth of plot details and introduced a new batch of especially striking villains, setting off a storm on the long-dormant forums almost overnight.

"Rabbit" sells information, "Knight" hunts "Rabbit," and "Sphinx" follows "Knight," asking her questions without end. Meanwhile, the "Rabbit House" has put a bounty on all of them.

[I'm just saying... Good kid, maybe stay out of grown-up business. How many beatings have you taken just to protect "Rabbit"?]

[But Mr. Rabbit has helped the protagonist group so many times. We have to protect him, don't we?]

Is "Rabbit" a friend, and everyone else an "enemy"?

Lin Le needs forum popularity to keep her secret identities running, so she turns right around and shows the protagonist group how treacherous people can be.

Secret identities that have already beaten up the protagonist group: Mission complete. Logging off!

Secret identities that haven't met their beat-up quota yet: Switch sides now. Stir things up!

The armor over the "Knight's" face shatters. In the shadows, a relieved smile appears on half of his handsome, not-yet-rotted face. "Thank you. I've found my master. Now, please allow me to serve you once more as a knight."

She says her master is the protagonist's mother, so...

[Nooooo, don't kill the Knight, you bastard Rabbit!]

With no one left to ask, "Sphinx" calmly poses his question. "What do you think it would take to save this world?"

He says the world is heading for destruction, so...

[Don't die, don't die, I'm begging you, don't die! You haven't even told us who's destroying the world, man!]

And "Mr. Rabbit" gets his wish and takes on the villain role, beating the protagonist group to a pulp. Then, inside the true villain's cage of flames, he opens a rabbit hole and switches places with the protagonist group. "There are still so many things I haven't explained, but never mind."

"You, the last 'Natural Child,' survive with the hope of the world."

[New Esper added: Fantasy Type, "Pandora's Banshee"]

"Pandora" opens her box and releases all the evils of the human world: greed, emptiness, slander, envy, and pain.

Only then can the "hope" at the bottom of the box see the light again.

Content warnings: A fictional, wish-fulfillment story, very indulgent with a huge golden finger. The heroine is cool, there's no romance, and it's an ensemble story. The blurb doesn't cover the whole plot!

Theme: The hymn of humanity is a hymn of courage