Villain Hiring: Help! Author Wants Me Dead

The mic floated close to my mouth, humming with mana, almost as if it was waiting for me.

I stood still, knowing from beforehand that the whole thing was being broadcasted to the whole world.

I was practically what the new generation called 'live'.

The Lapui Family had let me known a while back that they will be doing this to increase their reach and that they had invested a lumpsump amount of money to use the 'live feed' function of the system to increase their mame and fame.

My cloak settled behind me like a shadow, the obsidian platform steady under my boots. Lights from all directions focused on me, bright and warm, but it wasn't the heat that made me sweat.

It was the weight.

Not of my armor—I'd long discarded those days after all.

Not even the stares of thousands around me could make me sweat.

It was the weight of truth.

I looked out across the seven floors, each balcony packed with nobles, merchants, leaders, heirs, soldiers, spies, and fools.

All watching. All expecting. Some sipping wine. Some whispering. Some smiling politely, not knowing how close they were to panic.

I could see Room 7 from here, behind the clear glass wall.

Noah. Aurelia. Seraphina. Erza. Dario.

They were watching too.

I let the silence hang.

One breath, then two.

And then, I spoke.

"The world is changing."

Simple words.

The kind that could belong to anyone.

But not when I said them.

"Ever since the Gods descended and gave us the System, everything has shifted. Kingdoms have fallen. Empires erased. Families that stood for a thousand years crumbled overnight. And amidst all of it… we've called it a new age."

A low murmur passed through the crowd. Familiar territory, I thought.

People were nodding.

"But I'm not here to tell you what you already know."

My voice grew quieter, thoughts drifting back to the reports I received just a few hours back.

"I'm here to tell you what you don't."

The mic picked up every word now. The tension spreading like fire in dry grass.

"Three weeks ago, in the wastelands beyond what was once the Northern Crescent, my men found a body.

A dead body…

And yet, it held inside it… something I hadn't seen in the almost twenty years."

I closed my eyes for half a second.

"I looked at it's pictures just before entering the auction."

My voice dropped to a whisper. And yet, everyone heard it.

"The body carried hollow energy."

Silence.

Total silence.

The kind that crushes your chest.

"I don't mean corrupted mana. I don't mean curse marks.

No.

I mean The Kalki's. The same creatures that tore our skies open during the First Fall. The same things that gods failed to destroy. The same things we swore never to speak of again."

Screams didn't come. Not yet.

Instead, disbelief covered the roofs of the building.

I could almost hear feet shifting.

Shocked gasps passed among the crowd as panic began to form in the public.

Shaking my head at their expected reaction, I continued. "We thought they were gone. Buried. Dead.

We were wrong."

The auctioneer lady beside me stood frozen. The fake smile dropping from her face. I didn't need to look at her to know it.

"I don't care what the World Council is doing. I don't care what puppet kings are saying…and I'm definitely not here to play politics.

I'm here to warn you that all of this," I pointed at the nobles grand clothes and overly lavicious seats, continuing, "this show of wealth and power—it means nothing if we don't survive the next few years."

The first sound of a chair scraping echoed from the second floor. Then another. A lady in green fainted.

"They're back." I stated again, trying to makr it clear in their head that I wasn't kidding.

"I don't know how. I don't know why. But the Hollows have returned."

Voices erupted all over the balconies.

"No—no, that's not—!"

"Lies!"

"What proof?!"

A group of high nobles on the third floor began yelling. Some cursed. Some began messaging their guards through mana-links.

But I didn't stop.

"You all want to buy ancient relics today. Mana weapons. Armor. Treasures. But let me ask you something—"

I pointed out across the balconies.

"Are you buying to show off? Or are you preparing to fight?"

That struck.

Hard.

I could see even the nobles who hated me sitting back in thought. I saw Duke Almaris rubbing his chin, suddenly not looking so confident.

Another noble lady I knew from back in the days could be seen clutching her fists so hard that her hands went pale.

And Prince Callum?

He just stared.

Smart bastard—

"This isn't fear-mongering. This isn't politics. This is war."

My voice turned cold.

"Because the Hollows never died."

"They waited."

"And now they're waking up."

The lights above the stage flickered once—possibly from the crowd's collective surge of mana.

People panicked when afraid. Some unconsciously activating their skills. Others reached for their weapons as the security guards moved in.

Tensions rose as behind me, the auctioneer finally spoke, her voice trembling through the mic.

"Cut the broadcast. Now. Cut—"

Too late.

I had already pulled the curtain.

Walking a little away from the centre of the podium, I drifted to its edges to properly witness how the common people on the lower floors reacted to this piece of information.

"Let the chaos begin."

***

A/N: I'm currently preparing for a very important exam, and thus was unable to upload for the last few days since I had recently shifted and was setting down and getting used to everything here.

The chapters will be uploaded like usual from now on, and if nothing else, I promise there will be at least 1 chapter a week to continue the story as usual. But in the next few days, I'll fully upload the last 10 chapters of the privilege tier for my privilege readers!!

Wish me best of luck~

>_<