I’ve Been Reincarnated as a Villainess’ Older Brother

ike the online games he played, not for his YouTube channel, but out of his own personal interest, and the mobile games he had been playing on his subway commute, paying small amounts of money for upgrades here and there. 

He had even been waiting for a special limited edition of a new game to be delivered to his apartment. 

He had been so devoted to playing video games that he took a low-paying job so that he could get home early and play.
On days that big-budget games were released, he always took a day of paid leave from work and played all day, making it to the mid-game on the first day it was out. 

He had loved video games. 

He had never wanted to actually make video games, but he had thought that if he could just make money off of playing them, his life would be complete. 

The term “eSports” had come into use, and it had started to become more and more possible to make money through playing video games, but Cain had never really specialized in these games where one competed against other players. 

That was why he had gone to uploading Let’s Play videos. 

He didn’t want to spoil any new games that had just come out, so he had started with a video on an action game with no plot.
He began doing research on how to edit his videos so that even with games with a storyline, his viewers could become interested in playing the game for themselves.
Eventually, he had grown his channel to a point where he was making enough money to cover the cost of about one new game per month. 

He had started to get comments on his videos, and he was reminded of the joy he got from playing video games in his elementary school days when he and his friends would discuss the progress they had made in the game or strategies on how to beat it. 

I’ve discovered it all over again – video games are fun! I want to share these experiences with everyone!

Thoughts like that had run through his mind, and he tried his absolute hardest to meet his goals.
But he had tried too hard, and that was how he ended up in his current situation. 

“I want to play video games,” he repeated, looking down at his hands, which took up the position of holding a controller.
He made the motion of pressing buttons and pulling triggers, his fingers wriggling in midair. 

Cain recalled a story in which the main character loved books, and when he was transported to a different world, that main character became an author in his new life. 

There was another story where the main character loved eating, and in his new life, he became a miso and soy sauce maker. 

Cain thought about how he could make card games, Othello, or some other board game in this world he had been transported to.
He had been given a life of aristocracy – born into a high-ranking position close to the royal house itself.
If he wanted to, he could get his hands on the necessary materials and workers to mass-produce these games. 

But to build an electrical power plant, or invent the television, or produce hardware and programming software necessary for video games – these were impossible tasks for Cain to take on.
They weren’t problems that could be solved with money or political power. 

Cain had accepted that since he had been born into this world, he had to do his best in his new role as a duke’s heir. 

Usually, this would just mean he needed to concentrate on his training and studies and seek the help of the family and servants he had by his side. 

Cain was given a body that improved without fail whenever he put work into it – just like leveling up in a video game.
This made it satisfying to study and train himself physically. 

Diana was as adorable as always, and she seemed to be making progress along a path that steered her away from growing up to be a villainess.
Ilvalino could still act closed-off at times, but he was no longer holding darkness in his heart.
Cain felt like he was doing well, as far as the game went. 

He didn’t know if Mother had ordered them to avoid his room, but Cain couldn’t hear any servants walking the halls outside of his doors. 

He realized that this might be the first time he had ever been alone since he had been reborn as Cain. 

“Man, I really want to play some video games,” he said, a third time. 

In a video game, you could play recklessly, and even if you made a mistake, you could just reload yourself.
After all, most games let you save your situation as many times as you wanted.
Cain wanted to play out someone else’s problems and be inspired by them, or cry over them, or laugh over them. 

This situation he was in where he mostly knew the possible outcomes of his game, but he needed to produce his own ending (with no extra lives, at that) was a lonely walkthrough of a game on hard mode. 

Cain had been given some time alone, at last, and he found himself cracking under the pressure.