WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 004

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Altar of Lamentation (1)

“I didn’t expect you to resurrect so soon.”

“…Please-!”

Crackle-.

《 Perk ‘Addicted to Defeat’ activated!

- Target ‘Eirene’s’ level increases by 10. 》

《 Resurrecting at checkpoint. LOADING… 》

From the next resurrection onwards, facing death was truly inevitable.

This was because Eirene’s ice attacks, despite her not particularly enjoying cruelty, kept freezing me.

From the sensation of every single skin cell freezing, to the horrific pain of my life-flowing blood vessels being destroyed.

I could never get used to the endlessly repeated agony.

《 Perk ‘Addicted to Defeat’ activated!

- Target ‘Eirene’s’ level increases by 10. 》

《 Resurrecting at checkpoint. LOADING… 》

When the number of deaths surpassed twenty, I gave up counting.

No one came to save me, nor to arrest Eirene.

Even if I tried to learn her attack patterns, the difficulty increased exponentially due to my damn perk.

Eirene’s ice attacks, which initially had a delay during casting, had by then changed level entirely, becoming capable of easily freezing a human like me.

Waking up in bed only to die every time.

Just as I was wondering if that was my only wretched fate.

What day was it? For some reason, Eirene didn’t kill me.

“….”

Having long forgotten how to even resist, I questioned her actions but couldn’t utter a word.

Because Eirene could easily trample my insignificant fly-like life.

“Dean, tell me. Aren’t you tired of dying?”

Eirene, perched on the bed, looking at me with emotionless eyes, questioned me.

‘Damn right I’m tired, you bitch…!’

I wanted to answer like that immediately, but I didn’t.

Because this brief moment of freedom was truly precious.

“You accept reality faster than I thought.”

Eirene poked my motionless cheek with her finger, then eventually picked up a dagger and lightly grazed my cheek with it.

“…Ugh.”

A stinging pain arose, and a groan naturally escaped me.

It hurts.

I wish she would just kill me.

What’s the point of torturing me like this?

“I like it.”

After that meaningful remark, Eirene surprisingly didn’t kill me.

Whether she had reached a sufficient level or simply grown tired of killing me, I couldn’t tell. But I shed tears at the fact that I was free, if only for today.

“Hmph… sniffle….”

I missed my mom so much.

If I contacted her after a long time, she’d probably get angry, telling me to call more often.

I missed that tenderness so much.

As emotions welled up and I started crying like a child, Eirene, who was sitting on the bed, turned her gaze to me.

Feeling fear from her cold stare, I choked back a breath and stopped crying, then.

“Cry. That way, I think I’ll feel a little better.”

Eirene pressed the dagger to my neck, urging me to cry more.

Unable to even resist, I eventually nodded and somehow let out the surging emotions.

With all the emotions accumulated from repeatedly facing death, and longing for my family’s embrace that I might never return to.

In the dorm, a man’s desperate cries echoed like a symphony.

“….”

Eirene, watching that sight, her expression gradually soured, then.

“…Why did you do that?”

Thrust-

“Guh-ack!!!”

She began to express her rage by stabbing the dagger into my forearm.

“You’re in so much pain!! Why did you do that when you killed me?!!”

“Aargh!! Guh-aaack!!”

The dagger blade, which started by stabbing my forearm, gradually moved upward, until it was carving into my elbow.

As dozens of holes were etched into my arm, it felt as if her emotions were being conveyed.

“It was fun, wasn’t it? Trampling on the weak…!”

Me, in the 1st Playthrough.

A level 999 munchkin and a murderer.

Why did I try to collect items and equipment back then?

If only I hadn’t done that.

…If only I hadn’t entered that area due to a bug in the first place, I would never have been possessed into this place.

I really wanted to kill Eirene.

Precisely because I could understand her feelings, I wanted to kill her even more.

“….”

With my uninjured right hand, not pierced by the dagger, I placed it on Eirene’s neck.

But even that, she seemed to dare me, confidently exposing her neck.

As if she wasn’t the me from the 1st Playthrough.

As if she wasn’t the weak me from before.

“Yes!! You’re finally showing your true nature, aren’t you!? You’re a murderer!! Murderer Dean!!!”

Eirene, now a complete vengeful spirit, shouted coercively, even as cold sweat poured down from her trauma.

At that sight.

“…I’m sorry.”

I stroked her cheek.

“W-what?”

I wanted to kill her so badly.

Right now, I wanted to kill Eirene countless times, in the exact same way I was murdered.

But… there was nothing I could do even if I thought like this.

I figured it would be better to just accept it.

They say that light finds those who completely let go of the struggle against fate.

“Shut up…! Shut up, shut up!!”

Because of my completely unexpected and sudden action, Eirene, unlike her usual self, completely lost her composure and plunged the dagger into my neck.

“Cough….”

“Do you think that kind of action will earn you forgiveness…!!”

Although the purpose of her revenge had faded after returning countless deaths to me, Eirene stabbed the dagger again and again, as if to ensure she wouldn't forget that fact.

Until my head was completely separated from my body.

Every time the dagger blade plunged, blood splattered savagely in all directions.

Did she know?

That there was little difference between how she looked now, and how I looked when I killed her in the 1st Playthrough before I was possessed.

Killing me to raise her level in preparation for the coming ruin was just an excuse now.

She had killed me so many times that she must have reached a level where she could easily crush a 2nd playthrough and still have levels to spare.

Clang-!

The moment she brought the dagger down for the last time, the blade, unable to endure any longer, shattered in half and lay scattered on the floor.

“Die!! Just die!!”

But perhaps still wishing to express her rage at my already dead body, she threw away the shattered dagger and gathered ice energy in both hands, summoning icicles and firing them indiscriminately.

Crack, crack-!

Icicles pierced my corpse, creating large holes.

Still unsatisfied, Eirene fired icicles several more times before stopping her attack.

“…….”

Only then did the dorm room’s scenery register in her eyes.

My head, splattered with blood and severed.

And below it, my body, brutally dismembered beyond recognition.

Eirene, whose hands began to tremble, eventually placed a hand on the cheek I had stroked, then.

She tightly shut her eyes and fled the dorm.

《 Perk ‘Addicted to Defeat’ activated!

- Target ‘Eirene’s’ level increases by 10. 》

《 Resurrecting at checkpoint. LOADING… 》

And so, I resurrected again.

“…Fuck.”

I never imagined I’d gain freedom so abruptly like this.

I had watched all of Eirene’s actions through the consciousness that persisted even after my head was severed.

Unable to even understand why she acted that way, I stroked my neck, where I still felt phantom pain.

“….”

Nevertheless, the fact that I was finally free remained unchanged.

Having overcome countless deaths, I had escaped from that truly horrific hell.

The moment that realization struck, I immediately got up.

And exited the dorm room, which had become a trauma in itself.

“…Huh?!”

As I stumbled through the dorm corridor, barefoot and in my worn-out uniform, a female student passing by recognized my face and was overcome with shock.

Dean, the male student who had been killed during practical training and whose body subsequently vanished without a trace.

“Um…!”

At the sight of the student alive and well, speaking to her.

“…Gurgle.”

The female student foamed at the mouth and fainted on the spot.

“Please, someone help me… Oh, man….”

To think the very female student I was about to ask for help would collapse….

It was awkward to wake her up again and ask for help, so I carefully laid her down in a corner of the hallway and continued on my way.

Where should I run to?

I couldn’t think of anything at all.

Since the timeline I was possessed into was already in the past relative to the main story, I couldn’t go to any familiar places. Just as I was about to despair at this fact.

“…Altar of Lamentation.”

Suddenly, a location came to mind.

“I can escape there….”

If it was the place the protagonist used as a hideout in the game’s main story, I could hide from the NPCs who had regained their memories.

Since it was said to have existed since the distant past even in the main story, it met the sufficient conditions to serve as a refuge.

Plus, it was a place only the protagonist could use, as a bonus.

“…Let’s go.”

Once the optimal location came to mind, I immediately fled the dorm building.

I worried if the students I encountered along the way might be Eirene, but thankfully, that didn’t happen.

‘…I hope I don’t run into the others who regained their memories.’

《 Inheriting memories and stats from 1st Playthrough.

Target - Eirene, Carmen, Maeve, Altair, Sigrun 》

Currently, there were a total of five NPCs who had inherited memories and stats from the 1st Playthrough.

Excluding Eirene, I had no idea where the others were, so cold sweat trickled down my back.

Don’t worry… even if they inherited memories, they would never find me if I hid in the Altar of Lamentation.

No one would expect me to hide there.

And so, I headed towards the Altar of Lamentation barefoot.

Fortunately, outside the Abandoned Academy, the scenery was almost identical to the game.

Even the ambiguously narrow paths and the maze-like tangled roads.

Except for the absence of monsters on the roadside, every scene was almost the same, so finding my way was not difficult.

….

“…I’m here.”

Fearing Eirene might chase me, I arrived at the Altar of Lamentation after staying up two whole nights.

My bare feet were scraped and aching from walking on the unpaved dirt road, but I had no time to feel the pain, filled with the joy of finally being free from this damned level-up shuttle.

“It looks much better now than in the main story.”

In the main story, the Altar of Lamentation was nothing short of ruins, but in the current past timeline, it was simply a good tower to hide in.

“…Please, open.”

Unlike the main story, where the door was firmly closed, I begged the gods for it not to be locked as I placed my hand on the massive door.

Whoooosh--

A sound too grand to be merely a door opening echoed, and thankfully, the door opened completely.

“…Phew.”

The interior of the Altar of Lamentation was truly dark and gloomy.

Dust particles floated countless within the light that entered, visibly so.

But precisely because of such an atmosphere, I was convinced no one would find me, and I stepped inside.

《Checkpoint designated ▶ Altar of Lamentation》

The moment my body fully entered, a flash appeared before my eyes, and a notification window announced that the checkpoint had changed.

“Uwaaaah!!!!”

Overwhelmed by the surging emotion that I no longer had to return to the dorm even if I died, I immediately roared and fell to my knees on the floor.

How much I had wanted to see this message.

There was a time when I repeatedly died and tried to find a way to change the checkpoint.

…But it seems I’ve only just now figured out the condition.

The condition for the checkpoint to change seemed to be arriving at a safe place.

Just as I was feeling relieved by the checkpoint selection method, identical to the game system.

“You’ve finally arrived.”

From below the Altar of Lamentation, a hushed, husky voice echoed.

“…Fuck.”

It was a voice I didn’t recognize at all.

But it was clear.

The owner of this voice must be one of the NPCs I had killed.

Realizing that even the Altar of Lamentation, which I thought would be safe, was not a safe zone, I instinctively recoiled and tried to retreat.

Thud-!!

Immediately, the massive door of the Altar of Lamentation closed, and darkness descended.

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