Chapter 4

RP: Vara • TL: Kim • PR: Whee

‘Why is your face so pale? Are you hurt anywhere?’ 

‘…’

The man looked at Sayun with a worried expression. Sayun was stiff with a bewildered face, as if he had been beaten by something. The hand stroking his shoulder was gentle, and there was lingering warmth in the eyes that looked at him. Normally, Sayun would have eased his worries by telling him it was nothing as if to repay his kindness, but this time he couldn’t.

Sayun didn’t know how to react nor receive the window in front of his eyes.

Humans are naturally afraid of the unknown, so the phrase ‘compulsory execution’ and the time limit that appeared suddenly were enough to frighten the young 16-year-old Sayun.

Can I ignore it again this time?

Or should I do something?

What should I do?

The questions seemed to have swallowed his thoughts. It was ominous and scary because he couldn’t predict anything, but one thing was certain: Sayun had a strong feeling that he couldn’t just ignore the system window like before.

But the hunch wasn’t accurate. The best decision he could make without being sure of anything was to maintain the status quo, so Sayun suppressed the fear that took over and pretended not to see the quest as he had done so far.

Sayun smiled at the worried uncle and broke out in cold sweat. His lips were dry because of the tension. He couldn’t even hear the people in the shelter raising their voices and fighting beyond the door, and even when the soldier worried about Sayun’s condition came to give him some food, his appetite didn’t change.

He spent time praying, looking for a religion he didn’t believe in, thinking that all his unrest would be in vain.

Despite such desperation, the time he didn’t want to come had arrived.

00:00:00

Beep—

As soon as the time set by the system ran out, a sharp sound like a fire alarm rang in Sayun’s head. The noise didn’t stop, as if reprimanding him for not obeying orders, and thick blood flowed down his earlobes. It was more viscous than normal blood, it was dark red, and it started to drip from his mouth.

That was the moment when Sayun wondered if compulsory execution meant the execution of his death.

<The time limit has expired so the execution will begin. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

The blue window appeared like a death sentence, and the death penalty was set. The pleural effusion was for Sayun himself.

Not death row, pleural effusion. 

tl/n: 사형수(death row) and 흉수(pleural effusion) sound similar in korean so the last two sentences were a play of words, but i can’t do that in english. also, pleural effusion, sometimes referred to as ‘water in the lungs’, is the build-up of excess fluid between the layers of the pleura outside the lungs.

‘…’

Is this what it feels like to be a marionette?

His body moved as if it were possessed by something. His consciousness was intact, but his body didn’t move according to his will. In that state, Sayun’s body swung the kitchen knife that the man next door used as a tool for self-defense.

To nobody else, but to the man Sayun used to call uncle.

Without hesitation, he attacked him as he slept.

Sayun, whose will was blocked by something indescribable, begged it not to do it. He was shocked, and eventually screamed.

What made Sayun feel most miserable was the kindness of the man who had woken up due to pain but did not resist when he saw Sayun’s eyes. In response, Sayun sobbed until his voice was hoarse and cried out that it should kill him instead.

Perhaps the desperate cry couldn’t reach the system, but his body finally stopped after the condemned man died. When Sayun’s body finally moved according to his will, something irreversible had already happened.

‘Oh…’

Sayun felt as if he was losing his mind in this situation. He couldn’t say that he didn’t do it, but he couldn’t say that it wasn’t true. However, he was caught by a soldier who came in after hearing the screams.

It would’ve been better if it had ended there, but before he gave up, Sayun saw the system window that seemed to mock him.

<Execution is over. Reversing time on Planet 9180. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

.

.

.

<The true evil of mankind is not swayed by personal affection. Get rid of your closest confidants. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

—

[First Test — The first step towards the true evil of mankind]

‘Get rid of the man who has done you a favor and prove your villainousness.’

Reward: 100 Karma

Failure: Compulsory Execution

Time remaining until execution: 24:00:00

—

Sayun fainted and went back exactly 24 hours in the past.

Even if it was only 24 hours, Sayun had returned to the past with all his memories, but nothing changed.

The system window was still forcing him with the compulsory execution, and the uncle was still kind.

In his memory, he was an uncle who died just a few minutes ago. Knowing that he was alive and kicking, Sayun started to feel nauseous without realising it.

His memory was clear.

The sensation of killing a person still remained, and frightened, Sayun fled from his spot as if he was possessed.

He shook off the soldiers who were holding him back and ran out of the shelter. Sayun climbed out from the underground, not listening to the people saying he had gone crazy. There were monsters lurking outside, but they were no different than himself. After 24 hours, he’d become a monster who killed the person who took care of him.

Sayun didn’t like that outcome and ran away. However, his miserable efforts and struggles were nothing but futile.

Contrary to how he expected it to be impossible to kill the old man if he went outside, when the compulsory execution began, his body automatically returned to the shelter and repeated the ‘actions’ from his memory. Then, the system transported an unconscious Sayun back to 24 hours in the past.

Sayun was only given a chance.

A chance to escape the damned compulsory execution by killing the old man with his own hands, not by force.

However, unable to accept it, Sayun continued to try new things. 

Sayun ran away from the old man, bound his hands, and once even killed himself.

He did everything he could, and the system ignored all resistance. It didn’t even let Sayun die.

Even if Sayun made an extreme choice, it stubbornly turned back time to see the end of the compulsory execution. It was Sayun who held the white flag in the chain of suffering that continued in the unwanted immortal life.

After more than a hundred failed attempts, Sayun, exhausted both mentally and physically, chose the ending the system forced upon him.

Apologising over and over again, he killed the man with his own hands, and then left the shelter and went looking for a monster. 

Sayun had lost his reason after attacking the old man so he gave up his body to be devoured by the monsters to their hearts’ content. He then thought he could die. He knew that the system was going to let him die, because he did what it wanted, and what it desperately craved.

Sayun thought it would allow him to rest.

It didn’t take long for Sayun to realise how naive that was. 

It was the goddamn system window that appeared before Sayun, whose breath was cut off and consciousness fading, having neither the grim reaper nor human beings to be his judge.

<You have passed the first test. You have acquired 100 Karma as a reward.>

— Currently owned Karma: 100

<Congratulations! You took the first step as the true evil of mankind. But the true evil of mankind cannot be satisfied with this. Accumulate more evil deeds! (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

—

[Second Test – The second step towards the true evil of mankind.]

‘Defeat everyone in the underground shelter.’

Reward: 100 Karma

—

As soon as the new command was delivered, all of his wounds were automatically healed, and Sayun’s body, which was ravaged by monsters, was moved to the shelter.

To a clean shelter where he couldn’t see a drop of blood.

Sayun couldn’t believe his eyes that a new quest had been given and that he hadn’t died, so he had no choice but to look around, bewildered.

Everything was neatly organised as if to forget horrible memories.

The corpse, the bloodstains, and the knife. All of them disappeared as if they were never there.

A wall.

In front of a transcendent phenomenon that couldn’t be understood by a human’s common sense, the first thing Sayun felt was a high wall that he couldn’t overcome.

Did he really think he could die?

Really?

Even though he knew how the system was, he believed he could die, and that was ridiculous. The system, which appeared with a damn alarm sound that made him go insane, demanded evil deeds so casually that it was like it didn’t care a single bit about Sayun’s disturbed mind.

Sayun was unable to obey the quest, even if his suffering was unfair. He knew he couldn’t resist it, but he still recklessly tried not to kill the people in the shelter.

He ran away and evaded by any means. He did all that, but the end result was always the same. Either kill them directly, or kill them by force.

Nothing could be changed. Sayun felt helpless and powerless knowing he couldn’t do anything about it.

He didn’t know for how long he had been adrift in the repeated fate.

The fact that he was the only person in the world living the repeated time made Sayun go crazy.

Still, Sayun tried not to let go of his reason.

At least for five years.

His uncle’s teaching on not to lose his humanity no matter the circumstances became a guide for Sayun, and his high self-esteem became a support.

Thanks to them, Sayun clenched his teeth no matter how hard it was and maintained his sanity. While he was forced to compromise with the system, he didn’t forget the realisation that he was committing evil deeds. He tried so desperately to keep his guilt to a minimum, even if it was sloppy.

As a result, unfortunately, Sayun’s life became more miserable than when he first saw the system window.

From childhood friends to his parents’ acquaintances, the system completely disregarded his private life, and the disregarded people had nowhere to stand and were pushed into the abyss. The struggle was nothing more than self-abuse that plunged Sayun deeper into despair.

As it turned out, he had a desire to resist at some point. The burning passion left only ashes, and his distinctive eyes longed for death.

Even when the teachings of the adults faded, Sayun finally accepted what he had been denying for a very long time.

Whether he liked it or not, his hands were already dirty. Would it make a difference to kill a few more people after he had already killed thousands?

He hurt people when they awakened and went into gates to kill monsters. He killed people, not monsters.

That was going to continue in the future.

When he faced that fact, he seemed to have gone insane.

Since then, he had not hesitated to kidnap and murder.

When the system gave him a quest, he entered the gate, intercepted the drop item, and committed various crimes. He tortured them if necessary and filled the positions of his guild members with gangsters who believed that it was not enough to create a professional crime guild.

Sayun always felt that something was lacking, so he was obsessed with making money, and wanted to prove that he was alive even if that meant tormenting others. As a result, the information guild ‘Night Rats’ that was established by Sayun had become famous as a global crime information guild and solidified its position.

It could never be called an achievement, just an insensitive result.

People were afraid of Sayun, who became the head of the Night Rats, and Sayun accepted that reality, enjoying it and living it.

If he didn’t enjoy it, it’d be himself that would be engulfed in the misfortunes that were to come.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the time where he seemed to struggle, when he didn’t want to lose his reason to the system that had already taken away many things, had piled up to make him what he was today.