Even the Villain Has a Story

There are no bad villains in the world.

What an absurd yet sweet statement that was.

The book which Sayun was drawn to because of its title was very good for a book that came out 8 years ago. He even wanted to recommend it as a must-read to the people who had entered the torture chamber.

Sayun liked all of the contents of the book in general, but he especially liked how he understood the heart of the person who became a villain due to unavoidable circumstances.

Just as he was thinking that the book would’ve been a best-seller if the author released two or three more, Sayun heard a cough and rustling from below him. He dropped the book he was holding.

“Ugh!”

The man who was hit by the book that fell on him groaned. With trembling hands, he grabbed Sayun’s foot, which was trampling the man’s chest. Inside the gate, only the man’s groans echoed.

“Why…”

“…”

“Why are you doing this to me…?!”

The man made a face in anger. After gazing at the resentful expression on the man’s face, Sayun looked at the system window which occupied half of his field of vision and it started to become extremely annoying.

“Well…”

A drowsy voice covered the man’s groans.

“Do I need a reason to do this?”

The man was speechless at the shameless response. Sayun shifted his gaze toward a corner.

“Why did you kill them?”

…Them?

The man turned his head along with the question, looking at the monster corpses piled up on one side of the gate. It was a common sight that could be easily spotted anywhere inside the gate. 

What was wrong with that?

Sayun trampled on the man’s wound after seeing his questioning eyes. 

Cough!

The man spat and vomited dark red blood a few times while trembling.

“When you’re asked, you have to answer.”

It was gentle, but the tone of Sayun’s voice wasn’t warm. The man’s gaze looked past his head, as if looking at a dead body and not a living person.

“Ack!”

The man gasped after making eye contact with his dead colleague and hurriedly grabbed Sayun’s foot out of instinct for survival. Sayun smiled crookedly when the word “beggar”  instantly came to his mind.

Looking at his desperate hands, didn’t it seem like he was holding on to a rope?

How unfortunate.

They didn’t even know that the rope they had grabbed was rotten.

“For the quest, the quest…!”

“Huh?”

“Because of the quest… I had to clear the gate… They were attacking me and I wanted to live…”

The man answered pitifully while looking at Sayun. He thought that if he didn’t give Sayun a truthful answer, he would end up in the same situation as his dead colleagues, but questions kept running through his head.

How did a man who looked like a ranker have the ability  to break into a beginner’s gate? Why did he kill his colleagues, and why was he asking these questions?

There was nothing the man could understand, so he was afraid. 

Who in the world would ask why they killed monsters?

If the monsters weren’t dealt with, a gate fire would occur and they would start attacking humans. You had to kill monsters to clear the gate. Did he really ask because he didn’t know?

Could it be? That the killer wanted to play with him just for a moment’s entertainment?

If the killer’s interest came to an end, then the man would meet the same fate as his colleagues.

As the man’s face turned white after predicting his future  Sayun leaned in and brushed the dirt off the man’s chest. The sound of his blade scraping away the dirt was intimidating so the man closed his eyes tightly.

“See? After all, if you didn’t kill the monster, it would become a threat to you, so you killed it.”

“Yes, yes…!”

“Then, me too.”

“…Huh?”

“I’m saying that if I don’t kill you, I’ll be in danger.” 

“…?”

In order to live, the man kept a positive and humble attitude, as well as his mouth shut. The killer in front of him spoke such bullshit with sincerity.

No matter how much the man thought about it, he couldn’t figure out what he did wrong by taking the monsters’ lives. That’s right, he was still a new Awakened and the man in front of him was a ranker who looked skilled. How could he pose a threat when his three colleagues died with a single gesture?

“What…”

The man couldn’t understand nor sympathise, but as soon as he was about to ask his question, a loud breaking sound suddenly reached his ears.

“Argh!!”

His ribs cracked as Sayun put pressure on them. As the man screamed at the sudden pain, Sayun covered his ears.

“Why are you making such a fuss over a few broken bones?”

“Aghhh!”

The man was withering in pain to the point where he could no longer speak. In fact, it was more that he didn’t say anything because he was afraid that if he refuted even the slightest thing, he would end up in a tough situation anyway.

He was a C-Class awakened, not to mention that he would be able to make ends meet even if he became a D-Class. As long as he cleared the beginner gate, he could be treated anywhere as long as he lived through it.

The man swallowed his pain and looked up at Sayun with teary eyes. 

“Spare me… I won’t tell anyone anything. I will keep it a secret and forget everything. So…”

“The monster you killed would’ve said that before it died.”

‘How would he know that?’

Despite the frightening situation, reasoning uselessly with the killer drove him mad. Every word he said was so vague. The man didn’t think that the killer heard the true feelings of the monsters he had killed. Was he a monster lover?

There was a time when the man thought that even if he was caught by a madman, it would be a mistake.

The man’s confused thoughts did not lead to anything in the end.

“Ugh…!”

A muffled groan escaped his throat with difficulty.

While he was careless, he was hit in a vital point. The man stared into Sayun’s eyes in surprise, and after a few seconds, his body dropped.

Krrr.

The body began to freeze. Sayun straightened his back and looked around him.

One, two, three, four.

There were a total of four frozen corpses in the gate. That meant that all the shortages were filled.

Ding.

<Congratulations! Achieved ‘The True Evil of Mankind Does Not Wait for the Seed of Hope’! 1,000 Karma will be given as a reward for killing 100 new awakeners! (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

“You’re so funny.”

Sayun was grumpy as he checked the system window in front of him.

Finally, the 100th person. After the tedious repeated quest, Sayun wiped the blood splatters off his face with a relieved expression, walked to the fallen man, and grabbed the dagger.

The value of the dagger was higher than their lives so he cherished it more. Since it was an SS-Class dagger, he wiped the blood off the blade and put it in the sheath around his waist.

Suddenly, the title of the book that fell on the floor caught his eye.

‘There Are No Bad Villains in the World.’

It was sweet, but honestly, it didn’t sound right. The plot that the villains should not only be viewed as bad was refreshing, but villains were villains anyway.

It would’ve been better if the title of the book was changed to <There Are No Villains Without a Story in the World>. As he had small regrets, a system window appeared saying that the gate clear conditions were met and the entrants were sent out. They didn’t give Sayun a gate clear reward. 

It was normal since Sayun wasn’t a beginner.

Vrrrr.

When he retrieved the dagger and picked up the book, the ground vibrated. As the vibrations began to resemble an earthquake, Sayun searched for the item and pulled out a fireball.

Tuk.

As he threw the fireball and collected the loot, the ice melted and the corpses of the four awakeners soon caught on fire.

After the funeral, which some might call hypocrisy, Sayun looked at the burning corpses before turning away. The vibrating gate emitted a bright light which obscured Sayun’s view.

***

— Breaking News. The head of the criminal group Night Rats waged war against the Russian Guild last night…

As soon as Sayun left the gate, there was an emergency broadcast on a large screen. It happened quite a long time ago, and as Sayun watched the news report as if it happened only yesterday, he picked up his phone to call someone.

“Ah, Jongsik-ah. It’s me… Yeah, I was called in again so come pick me up. I’m at…”

Sayun heard a grunt through the phone due to his frequent calls. The person mumbled, saying he didn’t want to go, but he was so loyal that in the end he would bring the sedan to where Sayun was.

As he was waiting for Jongsik to arrive, the murmurs of the people who were watching the news caught his attention.

“Are they talking about the Night Rats again?”

“Ahh, how in the world can you live in such an unpleasant way?”

“What are the police doing, not catching the Night Rats?”

“They’re like foreign mafia. If they want to catch them, they’ll have to go to war, so they only apply sanctions in moderation.”

“It’s so scary, honey. Can we just go overseas?”

Sayun wondered if it’ll be safe going overseas.

As he was listening to the people’s conversations, he laughed. He didn’t want to hear them any longer, so as he reduced the detection range, the voices grew quiet until the surrounding area fell silent.

“I love the system so much.”

The world’s worst criminal information guild, Night Rats.

There was no praise for Sayun, the leader, compared to saying he was the worst villain.

The system forced him to become a villain and so he did. As he was about to walk away, a blue window popped up.