Chapter 4
Chapter 4
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: True Evil of Humanity (4)
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‘Why is your face so pale? Are you sick or something?’
‘…….’
He looked stunned, like he’d been struck by something, his face rigid. The man from next door eyed Sa-yoon with concern. His hand gently stroked Sa-yoon’s shoulder, and his gaze held a warm kindness. Normally, Sa-yoon would have brushed it off with a smile, assuring him it was nothing to ease his worry. But not this time.
He didn’t know how to react. He didn’t know how to process the window floating before his eyes.
People naturally fear the unknown, and the sudden phrase “forced execution” along with the time limit was more than enough to terrify a sixteen-year-old boy like Sa-yoon.
Should he just ignore it this time too?
Or should he do something?
What should he do?
Question marks flooded his mind, swallowing his thoughts. Nothing could be predicted—it felt ominous and terrifying—but one thing was certain: his gut screamed that ignoring it like before wouldn’t work.
Yet intuition wasn’t fact. With no certainty, the best choice was to maintain the status quo. Sa-yoon swallowed his rising dread and pretended not to see the quest, just as he always had.
He forced a smile at the worried man, sweat beading coldly on his skin. His lips were parched from tension. He barely registered the shelter residents arguing loudly beyond the door, and even when a soldier fetched food out of concern and urged him to eat, he had no appetite.
Convincing himself it was all just paranoia, he turned to a faith he didn’t even believe in, passing the time in prayer.
But despite his desperate hopes, the time he dreaded arrived.
00:00:00
Beep—.
The moment the system’s timer ended, a shrill alarm like a fire warning blared in Sa-yoon’s head. It rang incessantly, as if reprimanding him for disobeying, until thick blood trickled from his ears. It wasn’t ordinary blood—viscous and dark red—it surged from his mouth as well.
That’s when he wondered if “forced execution” meant executing him directly.
A blue window appeared like a death sentence, and the condemned was named: Sa-yoon himself.
No—not the condemned. The criminal.
‘…….’
Is this what it feels like to become a marionette?
Something had possessed him—his body moved on its own. His mind was intact, but his body ignored his will. It felt like his nerves had been severed from his brain. In that state, Sa-yoon’s body grabbed the kitchen knife the man next door used for self-defense.
And swung it at the man he called “uncle”—the one he’d followed around.
Without a shred of hesitation, he attacked the sleeping man.
His will blocked by some indescribable force, Sa-yoon begged it to stop, recoiled in horror, and finally screamed in anguish.
What broke Sa-yoon most was the man’s kindness. He woke from the pain, met Sa-yoon’s eyes, and didn’t resist. Sa-yoon sobbed hoarsely in his mind, pleading for it to kill him instead.
Whether his desperate cries didn’t reach or not, the merciless body only slumped after the man drew his last breath. Only then could Sa-yoon’s fingers move by his own will—but it was too late. The deed was done.
‘Ah...’
Unable to deny or accept what he’d done, his mind reeled. He screamed until his throat tore, only to be restrained by soldiers who rushed in at the sound, before passing out.
If it had ended there, it might have been a mercy. But before blacking out, Sa-yoon saw a mocking system window.
.
.
.
True Evil of Humanity does not succumb to petty sentiments. Execute your closest ally. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b
[First Test - First Step Toward True Evil of Humanity]
‘Kill the man who showed you kindness to prove your villainy.’
Reward: 100 Karma
Failure: Forced Execution
-Time remaining until execution: 24:00:00
Sa-yoon, unconscious, awoke exactly 24 hours in the past.
Even a mere 24 hours felt eternal with all his memories intact from before the regression, but nothing had changed.
The system window still demanded forced execution, forcing a choice, and the man remained kind.
In his memory, this man had died just minutes ago. Seeing him alive and moving made Sa-yoon retch involuntarily.
The memory was vivid.
The sensation of killing still lingered on his hands. Terrified, Sa-yoon fled the spot in a daze.
He shook off the soldier grabbing him and bolted from the shelter. Ignoring the cries of “Are you insane?”, he raced from underground to the surface. Monsters lurked outside, but he was no different from one. In 24 hours, he’d become a monster that killed the man who’d taken him in.
He fled to avoid that outcome, but his desperate struggles were futile.
Contrary to his belief that leaving would prevent it, forced execution began, his body automatically returned to the shelter, repeating the horrific act from his memory. The system then dumped his dazed self back 24 hours.
For Sa-yoon, trapped in this futile loop, each regression granted only an opportunity.
An opportunity to kill the man with his own hands—not forced—and escape this endless execution.
Unable to accept it willingly, Sa-yoon kept trying new approaches.
He stayed far from the man, bound his hands, even took his own life once.
He exhausted every means, but the system ignored them all. It wouldn’t even let him die.
No matter his extreme choices, it stubbornly rewound time, forcing him to see the execution through. In this unwanted immortality of torment, Sa-yoon was the one who surrendered.
After over a hundred failed attempts wore him down body and soul, he finally chose the system’s demanded end.
Apologizing repeatedly, he sent the man off with his own hands, then fled the shelter to seek monsters.
He offered his body to one that mindlessly attacked humans, refusing to resist. He thought he could die then. He’d fulfilled the system’s desire, done what it craved in ecstasy—surely it would let him go.
He believed it would grant him that much peace.
How naive that was became clear soon enough.
As his breath faded and consciousness dimmed, no grim reaper or otherworldly judge appeared—only the damned system window.
[Second Test - Second Step Toward True Evil of Humanity]
‘Eliminate everyone in the underground shelter.’
Reward: 100 Karma
As the new directive arrived, all wounds healed automatically, and his tattered body—mauled by monsters—was transported back to the shelter.
To a pristine shelter without a drop of blood.
Unable to believe the new quest or his survival, Sa-yoon could only look around in bewilderment.
The scene was immaculately cleaned, as if to erase the horrific memory.
Bodies, bloodstains, the knife—all gone.
As if it had never happened, everything reset perfectly.
A wall.
Before this incomprehensible, transcendent phenomenon beyond human reason, what Sa-yoon first felt was an insurmountable, towering wall.
Had he really thought he could die?
Truly?
It was laughable that he’d clung to death despite knowing what the system was. He let out a mad chuckle, but the damned alert sounded again. The system appeared, utterly indifferent to his turmoil, casually demanding more evil.
Even if just out of resentment for his suffering, Sa-yoon couldn’t obey meekly. Knowing resistance was futile, he still fought the order to kill everyone in the shelter with grim determination.
He fled and evaded with every trick he had. But no matter how he struggled, the outcome was always the same: kill them himself, or be forced to.
Nothing could be changed. Realizing inaction was worse than any action left him powerless.
He didn’t know how long he drifted in this repeating fate.
Being the only one in the world living the same time loop drove him insane.
Yet Sa-yoon fought to hold onto his sanity.
For a full five years.
The man’s teachings—“No matter the situation, never lose your humanity”—became his compass, his towering pride his pillar.
Thanks to them, no matter how grueling, he gritted his teeth and stayed sane. Even as he compromised unavoidably with the system, he never forgot he was committing evil. To preserve a shred of conscience, he struggled pathetically if need be.
The result? His life grew no better than when he first met the system window—only more wretched.
Childhood friends, parents’ acquaintances—everyone the system made forget him was cast into the abyss, rootless. His struggles only dragged him deeper into despair, self-flagellation from which there was no escape once ensnared.
Eventually, his will to resist evaporated. The passion he’d burned away left only ashes, and his once-bright eyes yearned for death.
When even adult teachings faded, Sa-yoon finally accepted what he’d long denied.
Whether he wanted it or not, his hands were already stained. After killing not one or two, but tens of thousands, what difference did a few more make?
While others awakened, entered gates, and slew monsters, he harmed people. Not monsters—people.
And that would continue.
Facing all those facts, that’s probably when he snapped.
After that, he committed kidnappings and murders without hesitation.
When the system issued quests, he entered gates to steal drop items, incited gate saturation, committed all sorts of crimes. If needed, he tortured, formed professional crime guilds, even recruited lunatics bent on world destruction.
Always feeling something was missing, he obsessed over money, tormented others to affirm he was alive. Thus, the intel guild ‘Night Rat’ he founded became a world-renowned crime network, solidifying its position.
An achievement he couldn’t call success—just numbness.
People feared Sa-yoon, the Night Rat Leader, and having accepted reality, he came to revel in it.
If he didn’t enjoy it, the misfortunes crashing down would consume him.
Layer upon layer of those desperate flailings to not lose his sense of self to the system—which had already stolen so much—built the Sa-yoon of today. It was no exaggeration.