HVG Ch 11

Episode 11

Ding—

<Congratulations! The number of “Spirits” you have collected so far has reached a total of 10! Mission completed, and rewards have been granted! (*´▽`*)>

Reward: 500 points

Progress to next reward: (10/40)

Wow, seriously.

<You, who will repent from being a villain! Of course, great power should be used for good, right? Eat the good, spit out the bad! You must not follow in the footsteps of a villain! We don’t do bad things. („• ᴗ •„)>

“I’ve never done anything bad, though?”

<You, who must repent to avoid being cast aside like a hunting dog after the hunt^[1]! You may have walked the right path, but you couldn’t have done it alone! Arrogance and pride are poison to character development, you know? (´｡• ᵕ •｡`)>

“……”

So now it’s saying the reason I’ve lived righteously is because of it?

Granted, since the age of seventeen, when the system first became visible, Haewon had lived according to its instructions. It wasn’t like he welcomed the path the system laid out for him from the start. He’d pushed back several times.

But every time he did, the system broke his limbs in the most vicious ways. It would orchestrate situations so cleverly, so coincidentally, that to anyone watching, it just looked like he had slipped or fallen due to his own mistake. Sometimes things escalated to the point where he ended up causing harm to others.

After going through that, he eventually gave up resisting. He figured he might as well go along with what was given, and so he began following the missions diligently. If there were a word to describe the current Seo Haewon, it might be “a good citizen who wouldn’t even spit on the street.” In fact, that’s exactly how he had lived up until he came here.

“You’re the one who drilled it into me not to even spit outside, and now you shamelessly… Fine, whatever. I get the smoking thing, but let me ask, why the hell is alcohol off-limits too?”

<Villains are notorious drunks! You, who must repent, must not drink! Your drunken behavior is said to be the worst in the world, so bad that people might literally run away if they saw you! ٩(｡•́‿•̀｡)۶>

–“I” feel anxious just thinking about you drinking! You, who must repent, must not drink, right?!

–Resist the temptation of alcohol! If you take even a single sip, divine punishment will befall you! But if you abstain until death, something good might happen?

Reward: 1,000,000 Points

Failure: -10,000,000,000 Points, fractured limbs, harsh criticism from those around you

“……”

So basically, the reward comes when I’m dead. Seriously? Might as well just say I’m mentally unstable and shouldn’t drink.

With a pout, Haewon looked up at the floating window and waved it away. Because of things like this, he never got to experience the kind of rebellious phase people usually go through at least once during their school years. All he ever did was go back and forth between home and the library, devoting himself to his studies.

Wow… I really was a model student.

At this point, he really wanted to ask what kind of life “Seo Haewon” from <The Strongest Villain in the World> had lived, that it forced him into such rigid behavioral restrictions.

Not that it would ever give him an answer.

“…Hey, you said it yourself. That ‘Seo Haewon’ from <The Strongest Villain in the World>, you told me I have to change his life. So that means I really was that kind of guy, right? The type who killed people and lived recklessly, and did all sorts of villainous crap?”

<(„• x •„)>

As always, the damn thing clammed up like a shell at times like this.

At first, he’d questioned his sanity, repeatedly denying the existence of the system. But by now, he was starting to chew on the possibility that maybe what it had said was true.

When he first read the title <The Strongest Villain in the World>, Haewon assumed it was just the name of a novel. But after some time had passed and he looked back on it, he realized it was more like a record. If anything, the phrase was a sugarcoated version—a glorified term—to soften the evil deeds committed by “Seo Haewon.”

Even now, Haewon still couldn’t believe he had committed the kinds of terrible things described in what he read. He had grown up so upright. He was the type of person with a soft heart, someone who was always swayed by his brother’s words.

“…Ah, forget it. I’ll just go look for more spirits before I leave.”

Letting out a sigh, Haewon got moving again, jabbing his rifle a few times into a pile of trash, idly passing the time.

But nothing turned up, and eventually, he ended up sitting on the edge of the landfill, half-heartedly muttering Buddhist sutras that didn’t really help.

“I need to get going before Chorangi wakes up.”

In the first place, “Spirit Absorption” was only possible with corpses that had strong lingering attachments to life. Just poking around a landfill wasn’t going to yield results. And he was long past the point of getting discouraged by things like this. Still, he had kind of hoped today would go better.

“At this rate, when am I ever going to collect all 40?”

<You, who will successfully repent in a proper way! Opportunities don’t always come around! But if you search harder! Faster! More earnestly! There’s nothing you can’t accomplish! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`)>

“…You’re seriously….”

Right beside him, the damn system just kept rubbing salt in the wound.

Haewon stared at the blue window for a moment, then finally brushed off his rifle and turned away with slow, dragging steps.

He’d love to land a punch on it, just once. But with no physical form to hit, swinging at the air only made him look like a lunatic.

With no other outlet, Haewon shook his head roughly.

I’m just a pushover. I did as I was told to turn over a new leaf, and before I knew it, I’d become a complete sucker.

* * *

“Cough…”

When Haewon, curled up while lying down, began coughing, Chorangi, who had been nestled against him, was startled and quickly lifted his head. With a worried look on his face, Chorangi reached out with his tiny fern-like hands and clumsily patted various parts of Seo Haewon’s body.

Haewon always came down with something like a fever after absorbing a spirit.

When his fingers brushed over the inside of his wrist, where the mark was, it stung as if he’d been burned.

According to the system, this was because the spirits themselves also had to adapt to their new circumstances.

“I’m fine, Chorangi. It’s okay.”

“No.”

“I mean it. I really am okay.”

“No.”

Chorangi kept repeating “No” with a deeply gloomy expression on his face.

Still, it was good that Haewon had made it back before sunrise…

Haewon blinked a few times and placed a hand on his feverish forehead. He had overexerted himself from daytime until late at night.

After parting ways with Beom Ryeohan, Haewon had been constantly on the move, trying to make up for the points he couldn’t earn earlier. It wasn’t until midnight that he was finally able to set down his rifle.

By sunset, his body had already reached its limit. His hands and feet were trembling, but he pushed through with sheer stubbornness, desperate to earn even one more point.

In the end, the points he managed to collect were pitiful compared to what he had earned during the Monster Wave.

The monsters that appeared later simply yielded fewer points.

The moment the wave ended, he had headed straight to the fortress, but by then, the lights in the lodging had already been turned off.

The only people outside were mostly newcomers. They looked utterly exhausted, as if they had just barely caught their breath after fending off monsters from the fortress walls.

Eom Hyungwoo, who had been summoned to guard the fortress gate with his golem, and Lee Hwayeon, who had been out scavenging for food with him, were also gasping for air as they returned to the dark lodging.

—“Isn’t this a bit much? I mean… Why are only we out here busting our asses like this? Aren’t the others going to fight at all? What the hell is this? I joined this guild because I heard it was a good one, but it’s just the newbies getting worked to death.”

At Lee Hwayeon’s furious complaint, even those who tried to act indifferent scratched their heads awkwardly in silent consent.  

—“It really is too much… We’re the ones out there struggling to hunt, and the veteran members just go inside and sleep. I came from another guild, and even though it was a small one, at least they never dumped all the work on just a few people like this.”

—“Exactly! Hey, Seo Haewon-ssi. Say something. You’ve been out there fighting all night too. But your so-called Hyung already went inside and is probably stretched out sleeping like a baby. Doesn’t that feel unfair to you? And Eom Hyungwoo-ssi too! You’ve been out there at the gate suffering alone while the rest of them were just sitting back, cracking open canned food and eating. And they didn’t even share any with us! This is driving me crazy!”

—“Hey, Hwayeon-ssi. If you get that angry, your co—”

—“Say ‘your core muscles will weaken’ and I swear I’ll kill you! I don’t care how nice you are, how can you joke at a time like this? Eom Hyungwoo-ssi, you’ve been in this guild for over a month, haven’t you? So you’re not even a rookie, but you’re still getting dragged around like this. Doesn’t it piss you off when they call you ‘Bongbong^[2]’?”

—“Well…”

—“They don’t even try to get food themselves, yet they have the nerve to chew out the one who actually brought some back. Ugh, it’s so damn frustrating!”

Beating her chest in frustration, Lee Hwayeon let out a cry that her stress was going to kill her, then headed straight to the living quarters.

The others, who had been standing around awkwardly in silence, started to move one by one as if her exit had triggered them. Each of them dragged their tired bodies inside.

Haewon had also dragged his heavy body back to the lodge, washed up, put Chorangi to bed, and then headed out to the landfill again.

But Hwayeon’s words kept lingering in the back of his mind and wouldn’t leave.

Because… she wasn’t wrong.

“Ah, tomorrow… I’m probably going to get scolded by Hyung.”

“No.”

“I didn’t earn enough points. I must be crazy.”

“No.”

Seo Haewon’s points were linked to the guild, and only 20% of them were available for his own use.

The remaining 80% were added to the guild’s pool, where the guild leader held usage rights and distributed them for “appropriate purposes.”

Of course, everyone in the guild had their points linked to the guild pool to some extent, but their contribution rates were significantly lower, typically around 5 to 10%. That’s why having a larger number of members made it easier for a guild to accumulate points.

Right now, the guild wasn’t spending much, as they were in a phase where they needed to solidify their ranking. But later, guild points would become a crucial resource when food became scarce.

In the end… it was something done for the benefit of the entire guild.

—”Haewon-ah, Hyung’s just been really overwhelmed lately. I don’t know why there’s so much to do just because the guild got a bit bigger. We’re almost up to 40 members now. Supplies are going to keep decreasing. They might even tell us to become fully self-sufficient. We need to save up a lot of points for that. So, Haewon-ah… Just this once, I need you to push through for us one more time.”

So what had he done?

Seo Haewon, the one who earned the most points, agreed to contribute 80% of them.

On the other hand, Haewon didn’t know the percentage that Seo Kangyeol was contributing.

He knew it was unfair. But still… that damned “Hyung” was now the only family Haewon had left. So even if it left a bitter taste in his mouth, he wanted to at least try believing him. And in the end, he did as his brother asked.

“Ah, whatever. Chorangi… Hyung’s going to get up for a bit. I need to take some medicine.”

“No.”

“Chorangi, are you upset because Hyung went out earlier? But I came back quickly today, didn’t I? You can sleep with me again.”

After gently stroking the whining Chorangi’s head, Seo Haewon got up. Not wanting to be held back by the child, he quickly slipped out of bed, grabbed a bottle of tranquilizers, and headed to the bathroom.

He hurriedly tossed a couple of pills into his mouth and scooped some water into his hands to drink.

“This time… it feels worse than usual. This anxiety is really…”

Whenever this unexplained anxiety crept up, it usually meant “those incidents” were drawing near.