The Villain Can't Catch A Break

As Adam sat in the silence of his carriage, another holographic window popped up.

|| MISSION REWARDS TO BE DISTRIBUTED. ||

|| SYSTEM ENTERING SYNCHRONISATION MODE. TIME REQUIRED: 30 MINUTES ||

Thus, Adam continued his relaxing journey back to the estate. The carriage he was in was connected to and moved by a truck with a mana engine in it. He was basically sitting in a luxury trailer truck.

Adam, while deep in his thoughts, looked outside his trailer's window. This world he was now an inhabitant of was truly fascinating.

They had highways, roads made of tar, cars, trucks, bikes, and even trains and aeroplanes.

But for some reason, the inventors of this world couldn't figure out how to make guns.

The primary weapons for armies were still swords, shields, bows, spears, and the rest of the ensemble.

Settings like these made the world feel more like a mediaeval-based universe rather than a modern-based universe.

The creators of this world really went all out with all sorts of gadgets and gizmos just to maximise their enjoyment.

You would wonder how a noble could go back to his estate and cover such a long distance without any knights travelling with him for protection.

That was because these luxury trailers and all vehicles owned by the Nobles of the Empire were fitted by the Royal Magic Defence System (RMDS for short).

The inventor of this system was a commoner who rose to the rank of archmage. His name is Cain Iglesias. He is the head of the empire's security council, and his mastery of runic magic is what made the RMDS possible.

The moment any form of tampering or damage to the vehicle would occur, the vehicle would send a signal to the Security Council and also send a barrage of magical spells towards the assailants.

Such a complex system made the idea of vehicles owned by nobles being attacked an impossible situation.

As Adam took in the beautiful scenery of the world in front of him, the lights that lit up the road ahead of him, made with F-grade mana stones, the self-repairing roads that fixed all damage to them due to the constant application of the [Reverse] spell.

A 1st-tier magic spell that required little to no mana, and it's only effect was to revert the state of any object or area to how it was a second ago.

A spell that would be completely useless in every situation except for this one.

Adam admired these little details about the world and the innovation of the bright minds that lived within it.

Adam thought about his past life and his new life.

He vowed in his heart that in this life he will be a better person than he was in his last life; he vowed that he would do anything in his power to become the strongest existence on the continent and accomplish his mission to defeat the gods in this chess game, no matter the cost.

He had finally chosen to give up his life of chasing fleeting pleasures with different women and instead focus only on his own improvement.

Alas, fate had other plans for our villai- hero.

|| SKILL SYNCHRONISATION FROM HOST'S PAST LIFE HAS BEEN COMPLETED. ||

|| HOST HAS ACQUIRED THE FOLLOWING TRAITS:

[WOMANIZER]{S}: A TRAIT GIVEN LIFE TO BY THE HOST'S PERSONALITY IN HIS PAST LIFE.

THIS TRAIT FORBIDS THE HOST FROM UTTERING ANY WORDS OR ENACTING ANY ACTIONS THAT WOULD MAKE ANY WOMAN IN HIS PRESENCE DISLIKE HIM.

NO MATTER WHAT THE HOST WANTS TO SAY, IT WILL ALWAYS BE TRANSLATED INTO A FORM THAT WOULD TUG AT THE HEARTSTRINGS OF EVERY WOMAN IN THE WORLD.

THE MORE GIRLS WITH SOME SIGNIFICANCE TO THE STORY OF THIS WORLD THE HOST CONQUERS, THE MORE PASSIVE EFFECTS THIS TRAIT WILL UNLOCK.

CURRENT COUNT OF MAIDENS IN LOVE WITH THE HOST: 0

(SYSTEM TIP: CONGRATULATIONS HOST YOU FINALLY HAVE A SKILL BEFITTING YOUR STATURE OF A PLAYER, A LIAR, AND A CHEATER.

THIS IS WHAT ZERO P*SSY DOES TO A MAN. THOSE VOWS OF SELF IMPROVEMENT AND LEADING A BETTER LIFE WERE SHORT LIVED, WEREN'T THEY HOST?

AT LEAST THE SILVER LINING TO ALL OF THIS IS THAT EVEN THOUGH THE HOST IS A WASTE, AT LEAST HE CAN HAVE HIS WOMEN PROTECT HIS SORRY *SS.)

[UNDERDOG]{A}: THIS TRAIT EXISTS DUE TO THE HOST'S UNRELENTING PURSUIT OF OVERCOMING HIS LIMITS AND CHANGING HIS FATE.

THIS TRAIT GIVES A 100% ALL STAT BONUS AGAINST ENEMIES WITH A HIGHER TOTAL STAT VALUE THAN THE HOST.

(SYSTEM TIP: FINALLY SOMETHING OF VALUE. THIS TRAIT IS THE ONLY TRAIT YOU HAVE THAT WILL GIVE YOU SOME SORT OF FIGHTING CHANCE.

AT LEAST THERE IS SOMETHING REDEEMING ABOUT YOUR PAST LIFE.

2 times 0 is still 0. HEHE!)

[VETERAN'S ADVANTAGE](S): ALLOWS THE HOST TO ACCESS THE CHARACTER SHEET OF ANY INDIVIDUAL IN THE HOST'S FIELD OF VIEW. ||

Adam lets out a heavy sigh.

It wasn't often that he would be completely stumped by any situation in front of him.

The guy who complained the most about free will now had his own speech controlled and censored.

The start of this new life was much worse than he could ever imagine. He had already been through a lot in his last life; was this second life just another sick joke?

Not all hope was lost, however. Adam looked at his arsenal and started strategising and deciding his first moves.

'[CALCULATOR] is a trait that would be useful on any character in the game except for this one. It's meaningless how quickly you strategise or perceive reality if your body cannot keep up with your mind. Predicting the trajectory of an attack is meaningless if your body is incapable of dodging it.'

He understood why the system made fun of him so much. This body was such a waste that he deserved all the insults hurled at him. Those weren't meaningless jabs at him; the system was spitting facts.

By far the worst part about this character was the god awful LUCK stat.

There is not a single character in this game that has a luck stat below -10 except for Adam Alastair Dacre.

To explain how the LUCK stat works, let us compare Adam to Jake, the protagonist of the game.

Adam has a LUCK stat of -100, while Jake has a LUCK stat of 100. They are at the opposite ends of the spectrum.

If Jake faces a random fortunate incident wherever he goes, Adam faces a random unfortunate incident wherever he goes.

For example, Jake could find a random bush filled with precious herbs as he strolls through some random forest on an evening walk.

On the other hand, if Adam were to do the same thing, instead of finding herbs, he would be attacked by a pack of wolves or goblins.

The only silver lining to the negative luck stat is that every unfortunate situation will be an opportunity to gain more causality energy.

Unfortunate situations that end up being significant events end up becoming sudden quests. Whereas minor misfortune during daily activities, when overcome, will provide him with 10 causality points each.

The saving grace of this negative luck stat is that it can only effect random chance mechanics.

Someone's bad luck has no influence over the free will of the characters of the game, including your random npcs that inhabit the world. As long as they are humanoids or intelligence-based species, Adam's bad luck can't make them hate Adam due to the influence of the bad luck.

The next big issue with his stats was the MANA stat.

One unit of MANA stat meant that he had 10 mana in total.

Absolutely pathetic.

The 1st-tier magic [FIREBALL] costs 10 mana.

A level 1 goblin baby might die from it if the fireball hits it right in the face.

The good thing about the MANA stat is that it's an infinitely increasing stat if you have a mana breathing technique.

The quality of the mana breathing technique determines the upper limit of your potential MANA stat that you can have.

Every noble household has their own mana breathing technique that's taught to all of their generations.

For some reason this trash known as Adam Alastair Dacre didn't even have a mana breathing technique learnt. No wonder the mana he had was so low.

It was probably because after his mother's early death when Adam was still a small child, he fell out of favour with his father, who cared not for a child of a dead woman that wouldn't bring him any benefits.

The 1 MANA stat he had was probably because a slap from Cassandra or some prank of hers activated the dormant mana that was present in Adam's noble bloodline.

While Adam was assessing his next moves, the familiar holographic window appeared.

|| HOST, CONGRATS ON FINISHING YOUR FIRST QUEST, IN CELEBRATION AND ALSO BECAUSE 'THE BEING' THAT BROUGHT YOU TO THIS WORLD PITIES YOUR CURRENT STATE, THE SYSTEM SHOP HAS BEEN UNLOCKED IN ADVANCED.

NORMALLY IT WOULD HAVE UNLOCKED AFTER YOU COMPLETED THE FIRST MAIN QUEST, HOWEVER, SEEING YOUR SITUATION 'THE BEING' DOUBTS THAT YOU WILL SURVIVE UNTIL THE FIRST MAIN QUEST BEGINS. ||

Adam had now added 'that being' to his hit list along with the gods.

Regardless of how annoyed he felt at the constant insults and jabs at his situation, the premature unlocking of the system shop was a good thing.

Adam opened the shop.

||SYSTEM SHOP:

1. BUY STAT POINTS: 20 CE (short for causality energy) FOR 1 STAT POINT.

2. BUY SKILLS OR TRAITS:

50 CE FOR 'F' GRADE SKILLS OR TRAITS

100 CE FOR 'E' GRADE SKILLS OR

TRAITS

250 CE FOR 'D' GRADE SKILLS OR

TRAITS

500 CE FOR 'C' GRADE SKILLS OR

TRAITS

1000 CE FOR 'B' GRADE SKILLS OR

TRAITS

5000 CE FOR 'A' GRADE SKILLS OR

TRAITS

10000 CE FOR 'S' GRADE SKILLS OR

TRAITS

3. UPGRADE SKILLS OR TRAITS: 1/2 OF

THE COST OF THE SKILL/TRAIT

GRADE THE SKILL/TRAIT IS BEING

UPGRADED TO.

4. BUY ITEMS; COST DEPENDS ON THE

ITEM BOUGHT. ||

After a little bit of thought, Adam bought the skill [OSCILLATOR]{F} for 50 CE.

Now Adam focused on the one good stat of his character, the MIND stat.

MIND stat only focuses on the intelligence of the person and resistance to mental debuffs.

The MIND stat can evolve into the RESISTANCE stat through a hidden piece, which he won't be able to access until the academy starts.

The reason why people never made a character build around the MIND stat was because only a few skills, like pain resistance, scholar-class-related skills, and merchant-class-related skills, had synergy with it.

Pain resistance may sound useful, but it was a meaningless trait.

So what if your character doesn't feel pain?

A stab to the heart is a stab to the heart.

He will die either way.

Having pain resistance while he doesn't even have access to an HP bar anymore was the last thing he wanted.

Imagine dying without even knowing that you were about to die. Pain resistance in his current situation is no more than a sick joke from the creators of the game.

Suddenly, a system window popped up.

|| DUE TO YOUR BAD LUCK, YOUR DRIVER HAS ENCOUNTERED A ROAD BLOCK ON THE HIGHWAY.

THE ROAD BLOCK WAS PLACED BY NAMELESS BANDITS THAT HAVE NEVER APPEARED IN THE LAST 50 YEARS SINCE THIS HIGHWAY'S CREATION.

DUE TO YOUR BAD LUCK, THERE SEEM TO BE NO GUARDS PRESENT NEAR YOU, FOR SOME REASON YOU ARE THE ONLY TRAVELLER PASSING THROUGH THIS ROAD AT THIS TIME.

DUE TO YOUR BAD LUCK, YOU RECIEVED A DRIVER THAT WAS MENTALLY INEPT. FOR SOME REASON, HE GOT OUT OF THE TRUCK TO REMOVE THE ROAD BLOCK.

YOUR DRIVER IS NOW A HOSTAGE OF THE BANDITS. ||

As Adam read the contents of the system window presented to him, he could feel a small headache. It was as if this start of a new life was over before it even began.

But where there is loss, there is also an opportunity.

|| SUDDEN QUEST

OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE THE BANDIT

ONSLAUGHT IN ONE PIECE.

REWARD: 100 CE

PENALTY FOR FAILURE: DEATH ||