"Why are you so pale? Are you sick?"
"...."
Sayoon stood frozen, his face ashen as if he'd been struck. The neighbor, now affectionately called "uncle"studied him with concern, his hand gentle on Sayoon's shoulder. Normally, Sayoon would have brushed it off with a reassuring smile. But not this time.
He didn't know how to react. Didn't know how to process the system window looming before him.
Fear of the unknown was natural, and the words "Enforcement" alongside a ticking timer were enough to terrify a sixteen-year-old boy.
Should I ignore it again?
Do I have to do something?
What am I supposed to do?
His mind drowned in questions. The uncertainty was suffocating, but one thing was clear this time, ignoring it wasn't an option.
Yet, instincts weren't facts. With no way to confirm what would happen, the safest choice was to maintain the status quo. So Sayoon swallowed his dread and pretended, as always, that the quest didn't exist.
He forced a smile for the uncle, lips dry with tension. The shouts of people arguing outside the shelter barely registered. Even when a soldier, noticing his state, brought food and urged him to eat, he couldn't muster an appetite.
Desperate, he turned to prayers to a god he'd never believed in hoping his fears were unfounded.
But time, indifferent to pleas, marched forward.
00:00:00
Beeeeep
The moment the timer hit zero, a shrill alarm blared in Sayoon's skull. Like a scolding for disobedience, the ringing didn't stop until blood thick and dark trickled from his ears. It wasn't just blood. It was something viscous, unnatural, spilling from his mouth in choking gushes.
For a second, he wondered if "enforcement" meant his own execution.
Then the blue window appeared.
< Time limit expired. Enforcement initiated. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>
A death sentence. And the executioner? Sayoon himself.
No, not the executioner.
The murderer.
"...."
Is this what it feels like to be a puppet?
His body moved on its own, as if possessed. His mind was awake, screaming, but his limbs severed from his will. In that state, his hand gripped the kitchen knife the uncle kept for self-defense.
And swung it.
At the man who had called him "son."
There was no hesitation. No mercy.
Sayoon begged, horrified, then shrieked in his mind STOP! KILL ME INSTEAD!
The cruelest part? The uncle, jolted awake by pain, met Sayoon's eyes and didn't resist.
His kindness, even then, was what broke Sayoon completely.
Only after the deed was done did his body slump, control returning. But it was too late.
"Ah…"
Unable to claim innocence or guilt, Sayoon's mind fractured. He screamed until his voice gave out, until soldiers rushed in and he collapsed.
He wished it had ended there.
But before blacking out, he saw one last taunt from the system.
< Enforcement complete. Rewinding time for Planet 9180. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>
...
...
< The True Evil of Humanity is not swayed by sentiment. Eliminate your closest ally. (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>
[First Test – The First Step to Becoming True Evil]
'Kill the man who showed you kindness. Prove your villainy.'
Reward: 100 Karma
Failure: Enforcement
Time until enforcement: 24:00:00
Sayoon woke up exactly 24 hours in the past.
Memories intact. Nothing changed.
The system still demanded a choice. The uncle was still kind.
To Sayoon, this man had died mere minutes ago. Seeing him alive, moving, breathing he gagged.
The memories were vivid. The sensation of killing still clung to his hands.
Terror-stricken, he fled.
Shoved past soldiers, burst out of the shelter. Ignored shouts of "Are you insane?!" and ran above ground, where monsters lurked.
But what did it matter? In 24 hours, he'd become a monster himself.
He thought escaping would stop it.
He was wrong.
When enforcement began, his body moved on its own, dragging him back to repeat the slaughter.
And the system? It just reset time again.
A hollow 24 hours. A "chance" to do it himself.
Sa-yoon refused.
He tried everything.
Stayed far from the uncle. Tied his own hands. Once, he even killed himself.
The system didn't care.
It didn't even let him die.
No matter what, it rewound time, forcing him to witness the enforcement's end.
After over a hundred failures, Sayoon broke.
He gave in.
Apologizing through tears, he killed the uncle himselfthen fled the shelter, seeking monsters.
Let them devour me.
He thought, this time, death would be allowed.
He'd obeyed. Done what they wanted. Surely, they'd let him rest.
How naive.
It didn't take long to realize his mistake.
As his breath faded, his vision dimming it wasn't death that came for him.
It was the damn system window.
< First test cleared. Reward: 100 Karma.>
Current Karma: 100
< Congratulations! You've taken your first step as the True Evil of Humanity. But true evil is never satisfied! Commit more atrocities! (b ᵔ▽ᵔ)b>
[Second Test – The Second Step to True Evil]
'Eliminate everyone in the underground shelter.'
Reward: 100 Karma
His wounds vanished. His mangled body, restored.
And he was back in the shelter.
Spotless.
No blood. No bodies. No knife.
As if nothing had happened.
The sheer, incomprehensible power of it the wall between him and any hope of defiance crushed him.
Did I really think I could die?
Really?!
He laughed, hysterical, at his own naivety.
The system, uncaring, cheerfully demanded more evil.
Sayoon resisted. Of course he did.
He ran. Hid. Fought.
But the outcome never changed.
Kill willingly, or be forced to kill.
Nothing he did mattered.
He lost track of how long he was trapped in that cycle.
The madness of being the only one aware of the looping time nearly broke him.
But he clung to sanity.
For five years.
The uncle's teachings never lose your humanity became his compass. His pride, his last lifeline.
They kept him lucid, even as he gritted his teeth through the horrors. He compromised with the system but never forgot what he was doing. Clung to the shreds of his conscience.
And yet, his life only grew more wretched.
Friends, family acquaintances all erased from memory by the system. Those forgotten had no place left but the abyss.
His struggles only dragged him deeper into despair.
At some point, the will to resist evaporated. Passion turned to ash. His eyes, once bright, longed for death.
When even the adults' lessons faded, Sayoon finally accepted what he'd long denied.
His hands were already stained. What difference did a few more lives make?
While others awakened to fight monsters, he killed humans.
That would never change.
Facing that truth was when he truly lost his mind.
After that, kidnapping and murder came easily.
He obeyed the system's quests looted gate drops, incited gate collapses, committed every crime imaginable. Tortured when necessary. Built a professional crime guild, then filled it with lunatics who shared his goal of global ruin.
Driven by an insatiable hunger, he obsessed over wealth, over proving his existence through others' suffering.
The result? Night Mice.
A globally feared criminal information guild.
A hollow achievement.
People trembled at its leader's name. And Sayoon?
He learned to enjoy it.
Because if he didn't, the despair would consume him.
Layer by layer, those struggles built the man he was now.
A man who had long since stopped fighting fate.
And embraced the role of Humanity's Evil.