WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

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◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 007

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Altar of Lamentation (4)

I couldn’t understand why I had embraced her instead of killing her.

…No, actually, I did know.

It was because her calling for her father as she fell down the stairs with me overlapped with my own image.

When I was young, my father had died in a traffic accident with a truck while driving a taxi.

It was around my second year of high school.

Not being able to make a single phone call to my father then had become a deep regret.

And so, I had inadvertently felt a sense of kinship with her and embraced her.

“….”

When I opened my eyes after resurrecting, Carmen was straddling my stomach, clutching my neck with both hands and crying.

From her hair, subtly glowing in the light that poured into the altar through the wide-open door, to the tears flowing endlessly from her eyes.

There was nothing that wasn’t beautiful.

“Kugh….”

Realizing I had revived, Carmen immediately tightened her grip, as if she had been waiting.

The terror of being suffocated to death right after resurrecting made me instinctively flail and resist.

“Is it… really true that my father is alive?”

“Even if I say he’s alive, you won’t believe me… Khk!”

She choked me, not even listening to my answer, and asked again as if threatening me.

“I’m asking if he’s alive!!!”

Wham!!

My head was slammed hard against the floor.

It hurt so much.

From the sensation of my hair gradually becoming damp, it seemed my skull had cracked.

Moreover, my spine seemed to have shattered along with it, as my body, which had moved fine, wouldn't obey after the impact.

“…Ugh.”

My lips wouldn't move as I wished, letting out intermittent moans.

Please stop.

Your father is still alive.

He's perfectly alive in the abyss of that damned underground prison.

“Ughhh!! Ughh…!!”

“Answer me!!”

I wanted to shout like that immediately, but with my whole body paralyzed, all I could utter were moans.

Wham! Wham! Wham!!

My head was slammed against the floor a few more times, completely shattering the back of my skull, and brain fluid leaked out.

My whole body tingled and shimmered, as if fireworks were going off inside.

Currently, my entire body was paralyzed and completely limp, but if it weren’t, I would have been thrashing like a fish thrown out of water.

“Haa… Haa….”

Only after slamming my head repeatedly until the man before her had completely lifeless eyes did Carmen catch her breath.

Since she naturally couldn’t get a question-and-answer from a man whose skull was utterly crushed, she then unhesitatingly stomped on my head, crushing it.

《 Perk ‘Addicted to Defeat’ activated!

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

《 Resurrecting at checkpoint. LOADING… 》

“…Fuck, just listen to me.”

Immediately upon resurrecting, I crawled across the floor, distancing myself from Carmen and expressing my rage.

“Your dad’s perfectly alive! He’s trapped in the abyss below that damn underground prison, fuck!!”

I shouted strongly, filled with the resentment of having spoken only the truth before, yet no one ever believed me.

“…How can I believe that?”

It’s this bullshit again.

I tell the truth, and they don’t believe it.

Is it because of my damn appearance?

Should I laugh?

But if I laugh, my face looks disgustingly villainous, doesn’t it?

“Hoo… Haaah….”

There was no benefit in getting angrier, so I gritted my teeth and slowly recalled the location where Fist King Theodore was imprisoned.

“…Listen carefully. I’ll only say it once.”

Recalling the time I spent about an hour just finding one path, I began to explain the dungeon in as much detail as possible.

“…In the underground prison below the Forgotten Heart Resonance, there’s a place where damned skeleton hordes crawl around. Among them, the ones holding torches run away when they see people, right? If you follow them, you’ll find engine rooms. Find and destroy a total of five engine rooms in that manner.”

It was a process so complex that I wouldn’t normally remember it properly, but with my anger burning to the end, I was actually able to recall it even more calmly.

“Once you destroy the engine rooms, a stone pillar rises in the center of the prison. Pull the five levers on that stone pillar in order. The order, by lever length, is 32145. Then the stone pillar opens, and stairs appear. Go down there, and Fist King Theodore is there.”

After finishing such a detailed explanation that even I was surprised, I took two steps back.

“Satisfied now? Believe it or not. …Ha.”

I had told her nothing but the truth, so the rest was up to her.

“…….”

Carmen, who had suddenly heard the detailed location of her father, fell silent, as if trying to chew on every single word I said in her mind.

Then, as if something got tangled in the middle, she flinched, looked at me, and sent a gaze as if hoping for an explanation again.

“….”

I responded to that gaze with silence.

“Don’t you know that your life is in my hands?”

Perhaps displeased by my silence, Carmen immediately snarled sharply and threatened me, but I didn’t flinch at her action and provoked her.

“…Go on, kill me. Unlike your father, who’s dying underground, I’ll just come back to life even if I die.”

Thump-!!

“Kugh-ohk!!”

Provoked beyond the line, Carmen delivered a precise punch to my abdomen, creating a hole.

With a mere straight punch, my abdomen was completely torn open, and blood instantly filled my lungs, gushing out of my mouth.

It was the fate of one who, due to adrenaline, forgot his place and crawled up.

《 Perk ‘Addicted to Defeat’ activated!

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

《 Resurrecting at checkpoint. LOADING… 》

When I opened my eyes, Carmen was sitting on the distant stairs, her head wrapped in her hands.

From the subtle inner light that eerily leaked out, it seemed she was using her Far Sight to search the place I had described.

“….”

Hearing signs of life, she glanced at me with less anger in her eyes than before.

It seemed she had only realized my words were true when she confirmed them with her own eyes.

Regardless, it was none of my business, so I slowly got up and squatted down.

“You.”

Carmen spoke to me in a low voice as I inhaled the dusty air of the altar.

“…Speak.”

I replied, trying to hide my trembling voice, wondering if she might kill me once she had all the information and I was no longer needed.

At my action, Carmen seemed about to say something, then bit her lower lip and rose from the stairs.

“…….”

She approached me and began to caress my face without a word.

I still couldn't understand this action of Carmen's, touching my face.

Due to her incomprehensible action, my pounding heart grew more frantic as time passed.

“Why… why on earth….”

Finally, Carmen let her hand fall to the floor and asked me in her peculiar voice, utterly devoid of emotional elevation.

“Why did you spare me?”

Her eyes, directed at me, held an emotion called confusion.

Had she started to want to trust me after confirming her father was alive, or had repeated killings caused a flimsy sense of pity to arise?

Or was it confusion at the fact that a murderer was showing a human side?

Whether that emotion was hypocrisy or confusion didn’t matter.

Because Carmen had adopted a posture of attentiveness, ready to hear my true feelings.

“…Even if I tell you, you won’t believe me.”

Nevertheless, I coldly kicked away the chance for an explanation that would never come again.

Having been murdered by Carmen countless times, I didn’t want to exchange any more words with her.

Yes, I know.

Carmen, standing before me, is also a victim.

I just didn’t want to reach the stage of sharing this damned sense of kinship that we both felt.

“…Indeed. I didn’t believe you either.”

Carmen met my gaze for a moment, as if respecting my opinion, then took a step back.

“I’ll let you go.”

“…What?”

As if a sudden whim had struck her, she gestured towards the stairs, indicating she would let me go.

“…Get out now. If you don’t leave within 30 seconds, I’ll kill you thousands of times to raise my level.”

A sudden 30-second escape window was given to me, who had been frozen in place by the paranoia that even this might be a test.

‘…Whatever it is, let’s just escape first and think later.’

There wasn't even enough time to worry about what would happen next, so I sprang up as if ejected and ran straight up the stairs.

Fortunately, as I passed Carmen, she only watched me and truly didn’t touch me.

When I arrived at the entrance of the altar, Carmen had already reached the entrance before me and began to count.

“5… 4… 3….”

At her eerie voice, counting down the numbers, I squeezed out every last ounce of strength I had and somehow threw my body out of the entrance.

My knee scraped and my leg got bruised while rolling on the ground, but in my fear of time running out, I didn’t even notice the blood and kept running.

“…I will keep watching you.”

Even after all the time was up, Carmen, who hadn’t followed me and stood silently, left me a brief warning and then walked away somewhere.

And so, I succeeded in escaping the Altar of Lamentation after dozens of days.

My next hiding place… I hadn’t decided.

I simply wanted to escape this damned world and ran endlessly.

Even if I fell, even if I stumbled and rolled on the ground.

I just kept running forward, haphazardly.

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