The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

That desire burnt like a fire deep within him, more fiercely than those stars above. It was a fire fuelled by the pages of legendary tales he'd read as a child, stoked by the teachings of his sect, and kept alive by his own self-belief. That fire drove him forwards with every flicker of its flame. It motivated him to achieve feats others didn't dare dream of, and without it he would be an ambitionless shell of himself.

That was why he remembered his goals, his dreams and his fire every time he looked at the stars. Every time he looked at the proud moon in the night, or the dazzling sun during the day.

While he was lost in his thoughts, Isaac had walked all the way home. He didn't usually let his guard down while walking around the sect; maybe he was just getting careless because he'd had a small drink. He shook off his sentimental thoughts and unlocked the window at the side of his house. He hadn't bothered fixing the door since it would just get broken again next time someone tried robbing him, so he was still using this as his entry point.

He climbed through the window and locked it behind him, then went to grab some ingredients from his cupboards and make a simple meal. When it was done, he took his food and sat at the shin-height table in the middle of the room. He slowly ate the bowl of soup he'd made while scolding himself for being so careless in the sect, especially while he was carrying a horde of reward points. Then he ate a side dish of roasted turnip chips and mentally checked his plan for about the 400th time, making sure there were no flaws in it or variables he hadn't considered.

And for the 350th time, he concluded that there were no holes in his plot. Of course, the remaining 50 times were when he was just coming up with his plan and had noticed a problem in it; any such problems had long since been fixed. After reassuring himself of this, Isaac finished the side dish he was eating and went to bed.

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Isaac was up so early the next morning that you could hardly call it morning at all – it was more like late night. He got dressed and made his way to the mission board under the cover of darkness. With so much time before the sect became busy, he could mess with at least 20 missions. So he got to work.

As usual, he pulled out the wooden fountain pen and copied out a mission onto the back of a mission notice. Then he wrote the mission number of a different mission on it and recorded all the details on the spare sheet he kept.

After repeating the same monotonous process over two dozen times, Isaac finally decided to leave lest he was caught.

After finishing his morning duties, he continued with his normal routine: back home for breakfast, a trip to the library, then 2 hours at the training grounds. When he was done, it was midday and time to visit the Adventurers' Hall.

20 minutes later, Isaac stood outside the large, arched entrance to the Adventurers' Hall. It was incredibly busy today and the queue for mission applications tailed all the way out of the door. Isaac joined the back of it and was forced to wait three quarters of an hour before his turn eventually came.

When he got to the desk, Isaac applied to the good half of the missions he messed with today. Then, since the hall was packed and none of the seats were free, he went outside to see whether anybody was arriving with his quest items.

Whenever he saw somebody approach with one of the mission items he'd noted down, Isaac would quickly go to accept the corresponding mission, then watch as they argued with Freyja at the desk. After they were gone, Isaac would collect his rewards then go back to waiting.

That was how he spent the rest of the day: waiting, watching, and getting rewarded. The only thing he didn't expect to see was the group from the day before; the group which had argued with Freyja and been chased out. Since they had taken one of the missions Isaac had tampered with, they ended up accepting a mission to clean some of the sect's animal pens instead of the mission they wanted. Obviously that mission wouldn't complete itself, so not only were they cheated out of the good mission's rewards, but they still had to go and complete this bad one.

Isaac just imagined these proud youths washing out pig-sties and was filled with the urge to laugh. Of course, he held it back and could only chuckle internally as they walked into the Adventurers' Hall.

Other than that group providing a little entertainment in his day, everything went exactly as planned. He met Freyja at the pub to pay her, then went home and hid his recently acquired resources in a secret compartment. After getting robbed the first time, he'd been forced to create a new hiding spot. This time he had hollowed out a space beneath his floorboards, right under where the table was. To reach the secret compartment he had to move the table, take away the rug underneath it, pull up 2 floorboards, then remove a layer of dirt covering the small box he hid there. Of course, the box was also locked and Isaac kept the key around his neck, though most cultivators wouldn't have trouble opening a locked metal box.

Regardless of that, it was a much better hiding place than anything Isaac'd had before. He believed that it would be incredibly difficult to find without using an Anima to search the area, so he felt confident leaving his valuables here.

He put his new resources into the box with everything from yesterday, locked it up and buried it again, then put the floorboards, rug and table back in exactly the same places as before, as if they'd never been moved. He even remembered to spread some dust on the floorboards before putting the rug back.

He went to bed and slept soundly, then woke up several hours later to tamper with more Rank 1 easy missions on the mission board.

After that, everything went just as smoothly as it had the day before. He got his resources without any problems, and there weren't any signs that he'd get caught soon. In fact, he was making more and more each day, since he'd increased the number of missions he messed with every day. He was making so much that Freyja wanted a larger cut.

Isaac simply told her that he was the one who'd come up with this plan and was taking all the risks. Since everything was going so well, he could pay her 7 reward points a day instead of 5, but she would have to work harder and make sure her colleagues didn't report him.

She agreed and both of them headed back to their respective homes.

That night, Isaac slept like a dead man. When he arose, he went to mess with the sect mission board, then did a bit of training and made his way over to the Adventurers' Hall. In just 3 hours, he claimed 7 groups' mission rewards; Isaac was truly raking in a fortune.

Right now it seemed like his scheme was perfect. The Adventurers' Hall was peaceful other than the occasional argument; none of the staff seemed suspicious of him; he didn't notice anybody new among the staff, and it truly seemed like nothing had changed since he started his scheme. Nobody was onto him and it felt like he could keep doing this forever.

However, Isaac wouldn't let himself be lulled into complacency. He knew he would be caught eventually, and he just had to delay that date.

Indeed, there were currents beginning to move beneath the peaceful surface of the Adventurers' Hall. Every week, the hall's mission records were analysed by a special committee of auditors. They used a selection of Anima to check for anomalies in the records and discover any suspicious activities. For example, they could unearth cases of theft or embezzlement by employees of the hall, incidences where disciples had faked a mission, or other strange details regarding mission completion.

It just so happened that this analysis of mission records occurred today. Of course, the auditors noticed Isaac's incredible mission completion speed and found it highly suspicious. They immediately reported it to their superiors and an official investigation was launched.