Awakening: Starting With The Villain System

"…What?"

For a moment, I thought I'd misread it. But the words glared back at me, mocking, cruel.

A month. An entire month.

The system was threatening to lock my growth if I abandoned the mission.

My grin twisted into a snarl.

"Are you kidding me? A whole month?" I hissed under my breath. "Curse you, system!"

Another chime.

[Shut up, human. You are noisy.]

I blinked.

"…Eh?"

Did the system just, talk back to me?

Before I could process that little bombshell, the sound of a door creaking open snapped me out of it.

The passenger seat swung wide, and heavy boots hit the concrete.

"Didn't you hear what I said—" the man started, his voice full of irritation.

Then he turned. His eyes landed on the back of the truck.

Empty. No guard. No obedient worker unloading the cargo.

His words died in his throat.

The man froze at the back of the truck, confusion flickering across his face.

He glanced over his shoulder, maybe hoping the driver could clear up whatever felt wrong.

But what he saw locked the breath in his throat.

The driver was slumped forward against the wheel, blood dripping down his temple in a steady line, pooling dark against the seat.

The man staggered back, his boots scraping on the concrete.

Panic etched itself into his features as he turned to retreat, only to bump into something solid.

Me.

"You should've just stayed in the damn truck," I muttered.

He spun around, eyes wide, but balance never returned to him.

My katana flashed in the dim light, a clean arc cutting through the moment.

The man staggered once, twice, then crumpled to the ground.

A notification bloomed in my vision.

[You have killed two people!]

[You leveled up!]

[You leveled up!]

My face didn't move. My expression was flat, so flat it could have been carved from stone. Cold. Inhuman.

I had killed again. And yet… nothing.

No guilt. No disgust. No horror clawing its way up my chest. Just emptiness.

I blinked, my fingers tightening around the katana's hilt.

What's happening to me?

For a moment, silence. Then the system answered.

[You are slightly gaining villainous trait due to the Villain System's influence on you.]

Ah. So that was it.

I exhaled, my shoulders loosening just a little. I didn't dwell on it. Not now.

Killing was supposed to feel wrong, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized… sooner or later, it was going to become almost normal anyway.

This world was built on survival. Heroes, villains, monsters, it didn't matter. Everyone killed eventually. And I was already halfway down that path.

I stepped over the fresh corpse, sheathing my blade as I turned toward the looming building.

The truck job was done. The cash was mine. The witnesses were gone.

But my real task wasn't finished.

I needed what the system wanted me to take that is kept inside this place.

And the only way to reach it was to cut through everyone standing in my way.

Kill them. All of them.

The thought slid through my mind like it belonged there.

I frowned, jaw tightening. "Simple" was the wrong word. What I wanted didn't seem simple at all.

The building crawled with trained guards, dangerous people who could crush me if I slipped even once.

But the system's showed in my view again, it looked almost... smug.

[Ability.]

"Ability, technique, whatever," I muttered under my breath.

Sometimes, I swear this system didn't sound like an artificial intelligence.

It sounded human. A person. Breathing, thinking, mocking.

And that almost unsettled me more than the bodies at my feet.

Almost.

By the time I reached the building, my pulse had settled into something steady, steady enough to think clearly, but not steady enough to relax.

Switching into stealth mode, I slipping past the entrance became almost laughably easy.

I exhaled, a quiet sigh escaping.

So… what now?

Scanning the area, my eyes landed on a discarded bag tossed carelessly near a wall.

Probably emptied of whatever it had carried before and left to rot. Perfect.

I picked it up, brushing off the dust. Holding something made me look busy, useful, like just another grunt running errands.

My disguise as a guard needed more than just the uniform. It needed a story. A bag in hand made me look less suspicious.

Normal. Ordinary. Invisible. That was the goal.

System, where exactly is this… thing you want me to borrow?

[Steal,] the system corrected immediately.

I rolled my eyes.

Whatever. Just tell me.

[It's in the main storage section.]

And where exactly is that?

[Find it yourself. I can't tell you any further.]

Of course you can.

[I wasn't even supposed to tell you anything in the first place.]

I bit back a curse, forcing myself to breathe through my nose.

Fine. Whatever scraps it gave me were already better than nothing.

[Yes.]

I ignored it and moved on.

Pushing open a door, I slipped inside the interior corridors of the compound.

The place buzzed with activity, workers rushing from one room to another, barking orders, hauling weapons, papers, supplies.

Their tension was palpable, the kind of frantic order that only came when everyone was terrified of failing.

I kept my head down, walking briskly, bag in hand.

No eye contact. No hesitation. Just another faceless worker swallowed in the chaos.

Door after door blurred past, each marked with neat metal plates.

Armory. Briefing Hall. Surveillance Room.

None of them what I wanted.

I traced each one like I was back in the academy, searching for the right classroom while trying not to look like I was lost.

And just like then, a knot twisted in my stomach.

Damn it, system… you're giving me academy flashbacks. Thanks for the trauma.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't answer.

Which was fine by me. The less it talked, the easier it was for me to pretend I was the one in control. Though, deep down, I knew it wasn't true.

After what felt like an eternity of weaving through hallways, I finally stopped. My eyes widened.

Main Storage Section.

A heavy sigh left me, tension draining for just a second.

Relief. Actual relief. Finding this place had been almost as exhausting as my first day navigating the academy, but at least this time, my higher Intelligence stat was paying off.

Or so I thought.

I glanced around, nerves tightening again.

The corridor was eerily empty. No guards. No footsteps. No chatter. Security cameras were off. Nothing.

That wasn't normal.

Places like this weren't meant to be quiet, they were meant to be guarded.

If this was the "main" storage, then it held things worth more than weapons or cash.

The kind of things you didn't just leave lying around.

Unless if they were all dismissed.

Yes, maybe there were all dismissed.

A bad feeling crawled up my spine, prickling the back of my neck.

Every instinct screamed at me to return somewhere and hid until I understand what was really happening.

"What are you doing there?"

The voice snapped behind me like a whip.

My entire body froze.