Even the Villain Has a Story

‘Resistance (Disabled)’

“…That’s something I’ve never seen before.”

The unfamiliar thing that Sayun had never heard of was occupying a space called ‘alignment’.

In general, every awakened person had one alignment. Sayun had never heard of a person with two traits, and it was the first time he’d ever seen that specific trait itself. Sayun, who was already fed up with being the ‘true evil of mankind’, couldn’t help but wonder at why the resistance suddenly appeared. 

Was that also a trick that the system played on him? Like the evil of mankind?

If it’s disabled, would Sayun be able to enable it later and give it another trial?

Or…

His distrust in the system responded to the unfamiliar alignment. Sayun, who had a thick bone when facing bad things, had definitely developed something like an ominous foreboding. It wasn’t a nine out of ten, but it felt like it worked perfectly, so he stroked his chin with a careful expression. His black eyes looked around to gauge the damage that the alignment could do to him.

Contrary to what he was worried about all this time, it didn’t feel as strange as when he first saw the window that designated him as the true evil of mankind or when a compulsory execution quest appeared. His heart didn’t beat as fast as it did before those incidents, and the anxiety didn’t come.

It wasn’t because Sayun was burnt out so much by the system that he had adjusted to sudden misfortune now, and it wasn’t because the current ominousness was lighter than the misfortunes he’d already experienced.

It was just literally pretty good, nothing less.

No, it was just okay. For some reason, a little bit of hopeful energy seemed to flow out of him, as if he was holding a jackpot lottery in his hand.

Something was unusual. 

His sense of ‘becoming’ that was developed because he was running an information guild was sparking up.

It was kind of suspicious. It was way too good.

Resistance, to what?

As Sayun continued his own reasoning, he suddenly remembered the idea he had one day.

It was a time when Sayun had not completely gone mad and he was still somewhat conscious.

At that time, Sayun hypothesised that if he were the true evil of mankind, there would be a true hope of mankind.

Why was it that when there was a villain, there would always be a hero to oppose him, and that there was no evil on the side of the good?

Since the confrontation between good and evil was the eternal principle of the world, Sayun had the idea that there might’ve been someone special who was tasked with responding to him and killing him, unlike ordinary awakened people. Some people could say it was a reach, but the imaginary existence opposing Sayun in his increasingly exhausting life was enough to give him a glimmer of hope.

Using that hypothesis as fuel, Sayun ignited his fading will of resistance. It was then that he began to fight to die, thinking that there was a key to changing his life somewhere. 

Whenever he died, the system didn’t let him and revived him each time, so he got up and went to die at the hands of others. The pain he felt as he was dying was nothing compared to the hope that he could finally get out of the system. However, he came back to life over and over again. Several times, without exhaustion. If not, he would’ve spent three months like that.

The man who was the first to get tired of such mad behaviour was Jongsik. After Sayun unintentionally saved him from terrorists while carrying out his quest, he had been chasing after him, crying and clinging to Sayun not to do it, and Sayun went crazy amid frustration of hope. It was a miserable time for Jongsik, and he used to say it was the darkest time of his life.

Sayun went around, dying every day, but there was no significant outcome. Rather, everytime he died and came back to life, his immortality spread among a small number of awakened people, and the system granted him an achievement.

Sayun was discouraged by the system which seemed to laugh at his efforts and had since abandoned his useless hopes and lived more viciously. Now that he was thinking about it, it was such a foolish challenge.

He remembered that time for the first time in so long, and Sayun was immersed in silence. He wouldn’t have recalled that day for no reason.

“There’s something…”

The alignment may have had something to do with his old hypothesis because it was the first thing he thought of when he read ‘resistance’. Maybe it was a clue to the search for ‘true hope of mankind’, which he gave up on after dying for more than a hundred times.

In the first place, the only thing Sayun needed to resist was the system. He climbed all the way to where he was now, so who would interfere with his life other than the system? 

It’s good even if it’s not enough.

Sayun stopped hesitating and touched the ‘Resistance’ alignment.

Ding!

<Cannot be activated in your current state. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

The window denying his access didn’t particularly disappoint Sayun. Rather, Sayun gained even more confidence than before.

It was the system that limited and refused to give out skills or information that would be helpful to him, so if it was hiding it, it must’ve been something important. He could tell by looking at the status window that he only received after 10 years.

If the alignment really meant resisting the system or screwing it over…

“I have to get it somehow.”

When Sayun, who muttered in a low voice from the bottom of his heart, pressed the alignment again, the same information window appeared. Sayun looked at the system windows with his arms crossed.

When he narrowed his eyes and analysed it, there was ‘See activation conditions’ written in very small text at the bottom of the blue window. The writing was small enough that it could barely be seen by Sayun’s S-Class eyesight.

Yes, it’s small. Even so… Would it show it to me that easily?

It was too simple to find a solution to the point where caution was overshadowed. Compared to the life he had lived so far, the difficulty was exponentially low, which was suspicious. Sayun looked at the activation conditions somewhat suspiciously, wondering if it was a trap. 

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

Right.

Sayun did say it was too easy.

Had it been for others, he would’ve given up thinking there was no way, but Sayun clicked ‘See Activation Conditions’ as if he had gone back to the beginning.

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

One more time.

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

Again.

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

Again.

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

Again.

He repeatedly pressed it as if he was fighting something. The system’s smiling emoticon which he’d always seen seemed to be a provocation that said ‘do it if you can’ today, so the speed of clicking the conditions only increased.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!

Every time he aggressively pressed the button, the system also sent out a blue window accordingly. Sayun had already clicked it more than a thousand times, but there was no change. It was no wonder that it was set up that way from the beginning. That was the time when others would drop it and give up, but Sayun’s tenacity was more terrifying than those who were guided by evil.

It was still too early to give up.

If he tried as much as he could and stopped within 30 minutes, then he wasn’t the head of the information guild. No, he wanted to retaliate against the system window that tortured him every day.

For example, a system blackout.

If he pressed it fast enough that it couldn’t be processed, an error would appear and the system would go down.

It was an absurd idea, but Sayun was able to hold a glimmer of hope. Because of that, Sayun continued to press the button. The SS-Class Agility stats were being demonstrated right there.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

<Not viewable. (bᵔ▽ᵔ)b>

<Not…>

.

.

.

Five hours had already passed since Sayun saw the information window.

Still, there was not a single moment where he was tired and didn’t insist on seeing if he could win against the system or not.

Ding!

A mechanical sound that was a little different from the notification sound he had been tired of hearing reached Sayun’s ears. Sayun, who barely stopped moving his finger, looked at the window in front of him.