“Why is your face so pale? Are you sick somewhere?”
When Sa-yoon stood there stiffly with a dumbfounded expression as if struck by something, the neighbor looked him over with concern. His touch on Sa-yoon’s shoulder was cautious, and his gaze held the usual warmth. Normally Sa-yoon would have reassured him it was nothing to alleviate his worry in return for that kindness, but this time he couldn’t.
He didn’t know how to react or how to accept the window before his eyes.
Humans naturally fear the unknown, so the suddenly appearing phrase ‘forced execution’ and time limit were enough to frighten the young sixteen-year-old Sa-yoon.
Should I ignore it again this time?
Or do I have to do something?
What should I do?
His thought process felt engulfed by question marks. It felt ominous and terrifying, unable to predict anything, but one thing was certain – the strong premonition that he shouldn’t simply ignore it like before.
However, premonitions weren’t accurate. In a state where he couldn’t be sure of anything, the best judgment he could make was to maintain the status quo, so Sa-yoon suppressed the mounting unease and pretended not to see the quest as he had done so far.
He forced a smile at the worried man and broke out in a cold sweat. His lips were parched from the tension. He couldn’t even properly hear the shelter people raising their voices and arguing beyond the door, and even when a soldier, worried about Sa-yoon’s condition, brought food and told him to eat a bit, he had no appetite.
Thinking all his anxiety would prove unfounded, he sought a religion he never believed in and spent time in prayer.
Despite his desperation, the time he hoped would not come arrived.
00:00:00
Beep—
As soon as the time set by the system ended, a sharp sound like a fire alarm rang in Sa-yoon’s head. Headaches persisted as if rebuking him for not following orders, and thick blood eventually flowed from his earlobes. Too viscous and dark red to be simple blood, it even gushed out from his mouth.
It was the moment he wondered if the forced execution was forcibly executing his death.
<The time limit has expired. Beginning execution. ( oᵔ▽ᵔ)o>
A blue window resembling a death sentence appeared, and the condemned was determined. The executioner was Sa-yoon himself.
No, not the condemned, but the executioner.
‘……’
Is this what it feels like to become a marionette?
His body moved on its own as if something possessed him. His consciousness was intact, but his body didn’t move according to his will, as if all his nerves were severed from his brain. In that state, Sa-yoon’s body swung the kitchen knife the neighbor mainly used for self-defense.
Targeting none other than the man he followed around calling ‘uncle.’
Without a moment’s hesitation, he attacked the sleeping man.
Sa-yoon, whose will was blocked by some indescribable force, pleaded not to do it, was horrified, and finally screamed.
What made Sa-yoon most miserable was the man’s kindness in not resisting upon seeing Sa-yoon’s eyes even after waking from the pain. At that, Sa-yoon wept in his consciousness until his voice grew hoarse, shouting for the man to kill him instead.
As if that desperate cry didn’t reach, the body that moved heartlessly finally slumped down only after the condemned had breathed his last. By the time Sa-yoon’s fingers moved according to their owner’s will, it was already too late to undo what had been done.
‘Ah…’
In a situation where he could neither say it wasn’t his doing nor admit it was, Sa-yoon felt his mind go blank and fainted when a soldier, hearing his scream, grabbed him.
It would have been fortunate if it ended there, but before losing consciousness, Sa-yoon saw a system window that seemed to mock him.
<Execution complete. Reversing the time of Planet 9180. ( oᵔ▽ᵔ)o>
.
.
.
<The true evil of humanity is not swayed by personal affection. Dispose of your closest confidant. ( oᵔ▽ᵔ)o>
+
[First Test – The First Step to Becoming the True Evil of Humanity]
‘Prove your villainy by disposing of the man who showed you kindness.’
Reward: 100 Karma
Failure: Forced Execution
- Time remaining until execution: 24:00:00
+
Sa-yoon, who had fainted, opened his eyes in the exact past 24 hours ago.
Although it was only 24 hours, he returned to the past with all his memories until the regression, but nothing had changed.
The system window still compelled his choice, threatening forced execution, and the man was still kind.
That man had died just minutes ago, according to Sa-yoon’s memories alone. Seeing him alive and moving, Sa-yoon involuntarily dry heaved.
The memory was vivid.
Terrified, with the sensation of killing a person still lingering in his hands, Sa-yoon fled from that spot as if possessed.
He shook off the soldier trying to stop him and ran out of the shelter. Ignoring people’s dissuasion asking if he was crazy, he went from underground to the surface. Monsters lurked outside, but he was no different from a monster himself. A monster who would directly kill the person who took him in after 24 hours.
Hating that outcome, he ran away, but his pitiful efforts and struggles were in vain.
Contrary to his expectation that he wouldn’t be able to kill if he went outside, when the forced execution began, his body automatically returned to the shelter and repeated ‘that act’ from his memory, and the system moved the dazed Sa-yoon back to the world 24 hours prior.
Sa-yoon, who regressed from that futile day, was only given an opportunity.
The chance to escape this detestable execution by directly disposing of the man with his own hands, not by force.
Unable to meekly accept that, Sa-yoon continuously made new attempts.
He tried distancing himself far from the man, tying his hands, and even took his own life once.
He used every possible means, and the system ignored all that resistance. It didn’t even let Sa-yoon die.
Even when Sa-yoon made an extreme choice, it stubbornly turned back time and made him see the end of the forced execution. It was Sa-yoon who surrendered to the shackles of pain that continued in the unwanted immortal life.
When over a hundred attempts ended in failure, the exhausted Sa-yoon finally chose the ending the system compelled.
Repeating his apologies, he sent off the man with his own hands, then left the shelter and sought out a monster.
He let the creature that had lost its reason and attacked humans freely tear him apart and didn’t resist. He thought he could die that time. Since he gave the system what it so wanted, since he accomplished what they so desired and cheered for, he thought they would let him die.
He thought they would at least allow him that much rest.
It didn’t take long for him to realize how hopelessly naive that thought was.
What came to find Sa-yoon, whose breath stopped and consciousness faded, was not the grim reaper, not some inhuman existence to judge him, but the damn system window.
<You have passed the first test. You will acquire 100 karma as a reward.>
- Current Karma: 100
<Congratulations! You have taken your first step as the true evil of humanity. But the true evil of humanity cannot be satisfied with just this. Commit more evil deeds! ( oᵔ▽ᵔ)o>
+
[Second Test – The Second Step to Becoming the True Evil of Humanity]
‘Dispose of all the people in the underground shelter.’
Reward: 100 Karma
+
As the new order was delivered, all his wounds automatically healed and his body, turned to rags by the monster, was moved to the shelter.
To the spotless shelter with not a drop of blood.
Sa-yoon, unable to believe a new quest had been issued or that he hadn’t died, could only look around with perplexed eyes.
The scene was neatly arranged as if telling him to forget the terrible memories.
The corpse, bloodstains, knife. All of it.
As if it never happened, it disappeared and cleanly reverted.
Wall.
Faced with a transcendent phenomenon that couldn’t be understood with human common sense, the first thing Sa-yoon felt was some towering, insurmountable wall.
Did he really think he could die?
Really?
Despite knowing what kind of thing the system was, he found it ridiculous how he blindly believed in death. As he let out a crazed sneer, the system that appeared with the damned notification sound demanded evil acts so nonchalantly as if not caring one bit about his anguished heart.
Sa-yoon, unable to meekly obey even out of resentment for his suffering so far, tenaciously fought against the order to kill the shelter people despite knowing he couldn’t resist.
He used every possible means to run away and evade. But no matter how he struggled, the ending he met was always the same. Kill directly, or be killed by force.
Nothing could be changed. No matter what he did, the situation where doing nothing was worse than doing it made Sa-yoon powerless.
He didn’t know how long he drifted in the repeating fate.
The fact that he alone out of all the people in the world was living in repeated time drove Sa-yoon mad.
Still, Sa-yoon tried not to lose his sanity.
For a whole 5 years at that.
The man’s teaching to never lose his humanity no matter the situation became Sa-yoon’s guidepost, and his lofty pride became his support.
Thanks to them, no matter how hard it was, Sa-yoon gritted his teeth and maintained his right mind. Even while making unavoidable compromises with the system, he didn’t forget his awareness that he was committing evil deeds. He desperately tried to preserve the bare minimum of conscience, even if it could be called wretched.
As a result, unfortunately, Sa-yoon’s life became even more miserable than when he first encountered the system window, if it could get more miserable at all.
The system made Sa-yoon’s childhood friends and his parents’ acquaintances forget him, and the forgotten person was pushed into a pit with nowhere to go. His struggles were just self-torture that plunged Sa-yoon into deeper despair. Once fallen into a swamp, it was hard to crawl back out.
As things turned out that way, at some point the desire to resist vanished. The passion he burned left only ashes, and his once lively eyes yearned for death.
When even the adults’ teachings grew dim, Sa-yoon finally accepted what he had denied for so long.
Whether he wanted it or not, his hands were already tainted. Would it make a difference to kill a few more people when he had already killed not just one or two, but tens of thousands?
While others awakened, entered gates, and killed monsters, he harmed people. Not monsters, but people.
That would remain the same in the future too.
When he faced all those facts, maybe that’s when he lost his mind.
After that, he no longer hesitated to kidnap and murder.
When the system issued a quest, he entered gates to intercept drop items, instigated gate overflow, and committed all sorts of crimes. If necessary, he even tortured, and not content with creating a professional crime guild, he even filled the member positions with lunatics who believed in destroying the world.
Always feeling something was lacking, he became obsessed with making money and wanted to prove he was alive even if it meant tormenting others. As a result, the information guild ‘Night Rats’ founded by Sa-yoon soon became famous as a global criminal information guild and solidified its position.
A result that could never be called an achievement, just numbness.
People feared Sa-yoon, who became the leader of Night Rats, and Sa-yoon, who accepted reality, also lived enjoying it.
If he didn’t enjoy it, he would be consumed by the misfortune that befell him.
It was no exaggeration to say that time, piled up layer by layer as if struggling not to have his very self taken away by the system that had already stolen so much from him, created the current Sa-yoon.