In the fading light of Gaia, the clouds stretched endlessly across the continent, lit only by the last glimmers on the Planet Blue star.
Below this celestial canopy, the dying sun tried to paint the land in a soft orange glow, but the earth's stubborn crimson resisted its touch.
Slowly, the light descended, carrying a metallic scent and the lingering dampness in the air. Its orange tint shifted to a deep red, reflecting off pools of liquid below.
In this changing light, a disturbing scene emerged, casting an eerie glow that revealed a violent tableau etched into the ground.
Thousands of bodies lay strewn across the blood-soaked earth, a chilling reminder of the ferocious conflict that had torn through this place.
"...h...e.l..p"
Groans of the wounded mingled with the stench of death, hanging heavily in the air.
The ground, once teeming with life, was now a canvas of horror, bearing witness to the darkest depths of human cruelty.
Seven figures, once vibrant with life, now lay broken and battered on the unforgiving ground.
Their bodies bore the scars of a brutal struggle, twisted limbs and oozing wounds painting a nightmarish picture.
The weariness etched on their faces echoed the exhaustion felt within, while the fading glimmer in their eyes hinted at their impending fate.
Blood seeped into the earth, mingling with the soil, painting it crimson, The air was thick with the metallic scent of their suffering.
Standing amidst the horror was a man, handsome yet bearing the marks of the relentless battle, His gaze was steely, unyielding, as if the agony around him was just a backdrop to his unshakable determination.
'It's been 26 years since I reincarnated in this world,' Ryuk thought, reflecting on his transformation from a typical software engineer in a peaceful society to his current state.
Coming from a society where notions of afterlife, including concepts like Transmigration and Reincarnation, were commonplace themes depicted in the novels, he swiftly recognized the idea of reincarnation upon his arrival in this new world.
His suspicions were solidified when he activated his system at the young age of four.
It didn't take him long to understand that the core of his system was rooted in fundamental qualities associated with a villain.
Even though he comprehended that he had been reincarnated as such, contrary to the typical antagonists portrayed in novels, he harbored no intention to cause harm or dominate heroines, much less engage with them.
His aspiration leaned more toward leading a peaceful life, one where he could detach himself from his predetermined destiny and progress towards a life brimming with fresh experiences and knowledge.
Yet, his ethical code seemed to inevitably bind him to the cruel fate that typically befalls those characters.
He couldn't stand idly by, knowing the suffering they would endure to become the sons of heavens and heroines.
He made it his mission to intervene and save them from their inevitable, brutal fate.
But now, everything felt like a colossal mistake.
He gazed at those seven individuals with his icy, amber-flecked eyes, intensified by the orange light rays, their cold glint betraying no emotion, not even a hint of sympathy on his face.
Those individual's bodies were a brutal mosaic of blood and agony, with broken limbs grotesquely mangled, revealing the excruciating suffering they had endured at the hands of the man looming over them.
One young man, defeated and humbled, lay under the weight of his foot, missing limbs was a stark display of dominance and a grim reminder of the clash that had unfolded.
"So, Diana, what's your excuse for betraying me?"
His amber glinted eyes bore into the woman with bloodied, broken blue hair, kneeling in complete disarray.
"....you're evil"
"Oh, so, looking out for all of you makes me evil?"
The man narrowed his eyes, contemplating the echoes of protagonist halos and heroine's mentality, starkly real now.
Coming from a world far removed from such grim reality, he had read about these personalities in novels, but experiencing their shortcomings firsthand was a different story.
"How am I evil?"
He looked down at his foot where a young man, limbless and crushed, lay in a state of complete brokenness, mustering the little strength he had left to utter some words.
"...y....you ba..stard, You killed millions"
Hearing these words, the man's internal amusement grew at the absurdity of these hypocritical people.
He had eradicated all the evil organizations within the Empire after ascending to his throne.
Wars were waged to crush rebellious kingdoms that stood against his Empire, uniting the entire Heidal Continent under one flag—the Selvius Empire.
He shifted his gaze towards another woman with pink hair, her body completely broken, supported by a rock to maintain a semblance of balance amidst the devastation.
"Hmm, so what about you, Karina? Wasn't your family about to be executed by the Aidiac Royal family? Is it wrong for me to have intervened?"
"You killed them without mercy, and although you saved my family, it was not worth it", she retorted, supported by a rock, struggling to maintain consciousness, her gaze heavy and fixed downward.
"I just saved—"
"It's bullshit. You could have solved everything peacefully without drawing so much blood."
His narrowed eyes revealed his struggle to comprehend her mindset.
Hearing all this, the man began to understand why those novels depicted these people as hypocritical and low in intelligence.
If he hadn't saved them, they would have suffered the most gruesome fate.
Yet, despite being saved, these ungrateful individuals chose to blame him. The bitter irony of their ingratitude gnawed at him, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Guess you all have the same reasons"
The man looked towards the seven people, their disdainful gazes directed at him.
He had only aimed to change their fates, to rescue some from slavery, others from crippling circumstances, and a few from inevitable betrayal.
Yet, they all blamed him for saving them, unable to comprehend that he had severed the root causes that would have subjected them to excruciating suffering.
"Hahaha," Ryuk laughed heartily, covering half of his face with his hand, his amusement at their naive midset.
"Indeed, now I see," his hands dropped to his sides as he glanced down at these ungrateful individuals.
He finally grasped the essence of what those novels had tried to convey — 'these idiots think this whole world works like they think it would'
'System, Purchase the Regression Sutra for all of these people except the most idiotic one'
[ ᴘᴜʀᴄʜᴀꜱᴇ ᴄᴏꜱᴛ 10 ᴍɪʟʟɪᴏɴ ᴋɪʟʟ ᴘᴏɪɴᴛꜱ ]
Man looking at the window showing the killing points that was nothing but individual kills, he felt nothing, He crushed kingdoms and killed many people that he can't even seem to remember.
'Guess I've become numb to these killings,' his amber eyes turned cold, ' Purchase it'
[ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀꜱᴛᴏᴏᴅ]
Hearing that, a golden talisman directly entered the bodies of all seven people, leaving the protagonist untouched.
He looked down at the young man with dim eye pupils lying on the ground, increasing the pressure on his foot.
STOMP
"Aaaahhh! You monster! He was innocent"
"Of course he was, after killing thousands with his own hands and then blaming me for not being righteous "
He moved towards a woman lying on floor with bloodied state wearing a maid dress with short silver hair.
"M-master"
She gathering all her vigor spoke with low voice looking at the man walking towards her
"Oh, you remember me"
He looked at the woman who tried to backstab him while giving some excuse of how she was helpless while crying.
His eyes filled with a killing intent as those memories resurfaced.
" I-i love— "
She understanding her fate tried to last time tell him how much she loved him if not for her helplessness that caused her to betray him.
SLICE
Before she could speak, a sword without any resistance sliced through her neck, sending it flying a distance away.
THUD
It rolled a distance away, eventually coming to a stop.
His gaze shifted towards that direction, holding the sword, its blade soaked in blood, droplets falling to the ground and dyeing it crimson.
He looked at the woman in a saintess dress, her once pristine attire now drenched in blood as she held her stomach, blood dripping from her grasp.
"Now, saintess, what about you?"
He couldn't fathom this woman's mentality. She had been helpless when her mother suffered from an incurable disease, begging church priests who only cared about money.
He couldn't forget the image of a five-year-old girl begging while her mother lay on the chilling ground outside the church, awaiting inevitable death. He had stepped in to help.
He had destroyed all the monuments of that religion, an institution driven by greed, and eradicated all its sources.
He had burned all the teachings of that cultist religion along with their corrupt priests.
"Haa....haa...You are immoral," she gasped, struggling to speak amidst the pain.
"Even if they were wrong, you could have talked..."
SLICE
As she prepared to say more, a blade cut through her skin unnoticed by her weary eyes, causing her lifeless body to collapse onto the unforgiving ground.
THUD
He turned towards a woman, her shoulders pierced by arrows, her eyes devoid of hue.
"Now, Little Sister"
He despised this woman the most, unable to comprehend the twisted mindset of his step-sister. She had initially proposed him, leading him to grapple with moral dilemmas.
After persistent efforts and struggles, he had finally accepted her.
But in the end, she betrayed him, joining hands with his enemy, offering a feeble excuse of wanting him all to herself and not sharing him with other women.
His mind was in turmoil, unable to grasp the rationale behind her actions. Didn't she share the protagonist with many other women?
"Ryu—"
THUD
Just like that, another lifeless body soaked the ground once again.
His gaze shifted towards a woman, her body leaning on her sword for support, blood trickling from her mouth as she struggled to maintain her balance.
"Now, Miss Fiancée"
The woman's eyes, exhausted yet ablaze with anger, fixed on the man responsible for the deaths of her family, while her weak voice tried to protest,"Y-you killed them"
"How many times," he sighed, "I told you, they were just using you"
"Though, it doesn't matter now"
SCHLKT
His sword, now stained once more with blood, had reached a saturation point where even the ground refused to absorb another drop of the crimson liquid.
Turning towards another direction he moved towards a woman holding daggers, struggling to maintain her failing posture.
"Who would have thought, releasing a slave from her contract would lead to betrayal," he muttered in frustration.
He looked at the girl, anger consuming his mind.
He had saved her from a life of slavery, yet upon witnessing her family's demise, they began to perform a pathetic act of helplessness.
Despite his efforts to clear this misunderstanding, he found himself accused by her of murdering her dear family.
"You killed them even as they begged for mercy, their helplessness due to money..."
His gaze was blank as he looked at this woman before shifting it towards another woman with missing limbs—the worst one of them all.
drip
Blood trickling from her lips, staining the ground where her face laid.
"And finally you," he said coldly, "promising eternal love and all, dear bodyguard, and then betrayal"
The woman, with her dwindling breath, could only gaze at the man's foot and the blood staining the ground.
She felt helpless, unable to comprehend where she had gone wrong.
For her, everything had felt right until they all got influenced by a stranger.
She couldn't understand why she believed in that strange man and betrayed the man she had loved with all her heart.
Her eyes lost themselves in the encroaching darkness as consiouness faded.
"System, activate all the talisman," he intoned, his voice resonating with authority.
[ ᴀᴄᴛɪᴠᴀᴛɪɴɢ - -» ↺1% ↺35% ↺99% —⟩ ▒▒▒▒ 100% ]
WHOOSH
The air crackled with anticipation as ethereal energies surged.
A pulsating aura emanated from the talisman, casting a mesmerizing glow that spread like wildfire, bathing the world in a surreal light.
HUSH
The world around him froze, suspended in a moment of eerie stillness.
Colors muted and sounds dulled, giving way to an otherworldly quiet.
The world began to unravel, rewinding in a celestial dance, reversing the progression of events.
It was as if nature itself was rewinding a cosmic tapestry, threads of existence intertwining in reverse.
As the man watched, memories danced before his eyes - moments lost, actions undone, and wounds healed.
The very fabric of reality was being stitched back together, taking on the form of a past now rewritten.
Then Sudden Darkness —
.....
In the Selvius kingdom, a lavish palace stood as a monument to extravagance.
Within its grand halls, adorned with gilded arches and shimmering white walls, lay a room adorned with books and plush furnishings, fitting for the name — Ryuk von Selvius
As the first rays of dawn gently caressed the palace, casting a golden glow upon the regal chamber, a five-year-old boy stirred from slumber.
His eyes snapped open, revealing amber irises as he sat on the bed, gazing down at his small, child-sized hands.
Clenching his small fists, his blank amber eyes slowly lifted as he stared straight ahead, commanding,' System, activate the Villain aura'
His objective had become apparent.
In his past life, he had avoided using his system, refusing to adopt the persona of a villain.
His sole wish had been a peaceful life, aspiring to peacefully transition into the cycle of reincarnation.
But now, circumstances had changed.....