WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 012

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A Curse to Someone (5)

The barrel spewing flames, and the fired metal bullet.

Simultaneously, bright red flesh pieces burst and were shredded.

Blood that burst forth like fireworks splattered on her pure white uniform and cheek.

Thud-. Maeve’s corpse, who had committed suicide by pointing a pistol at her head, fell lifelessly to the floor.

Blood flowed continuously from the ownerless body, creating a small pool of blood.

As if urging me to realize the utterly incomprehensible reality of what had happened, Maeve’s black eyeball rolled over and stopped at my feet.

She, who had asked me to kill her, first shot her own head.

“…Is she a crazy bitch?”

Grumbling at such bizarre behavior that one could call her the craziest among the women I’d met so far, I wondered if I should take her equipment, and the moment I reached out for the musket.

The eyeball that had fallen on the floor rolled back to its owner.

“…?!”

Starting from the point where the eyeball rolled back in, the flesh pieces scattered everywhere and the pool of blood all at once began to return to Maeve’s body.

Blood seeped back into the severed blood vessels, and torn flesh pieces and bone fragments cruelly stuck together, regaining their form.

A different form of resurrection, unlike me, who only resurrects after experiencing death.

Maeve was… an immortal.

Is that why she asked me to kill her, just like in the 1st Playthrough?

But how?

If an immortal with abilities like Maeve’s had appeared in the game, I would surely remember her, but I didn’t know her, nor did I know how to sever immortality.

Once Maeve’s burst face had completely regained its form, she slowly rose and looked at me again with an emotionless expression.

“See? I can’t die by my own hand.”

She wore a bizarre expression, as if a sign of familiarity, her eyes not smiling but the corners of her mouth raised.

“If you kill me. I’ll do anything Dean wants.”

Maeve, having holstered the musket she held in her hand at her waist, approached me and thrust her face close.

Piercing through the subtly rising soft scent of flesh, a repulsive smell of blood was detected.

That terrible smell I could detect every time death came to me permeated Maeve’s entire body.

“…Ugh.”

“Oh.”

Instantly, a hallucination arose as if the surrounding scenery was dyed in darkness, and gastric acid refluxed.

Falling to the floor as if in a seizure, I buried my head and vomited pure white gastric acid.

“You… what are you, exactly?”

“I’m Maeve.”

Maeve, who naturally squatted down and patted my back, gave an emotionless reply.

The repulsive smell of blood emanating from Maeve was not an actual smell.

It was a kind of allure of death, detectable only by a special individual who had experienced death multiple times like me.

“Is my smell that strong? I just washed.”

Once the nausea had somewhat subsided, Maeve smelled the clothes she was wearing.

Seeing her make an expression as if there was no problem with the smell, it seemed this blood scent was only perceived by me.

“Sorry. I made a mistake on our first meeting.”

Apart from her emotionless tone and actions, Maeve’s personality was gentle.

She, who stood up first, reached out her hand to me, and as I tried to take her hand and stand up, I flinched at the smell and stood up alone.

……

The hand she extended out of consideration was left awkwardly alone, so Maeve awkwardly put her hand in her pocket.

“You asked me to kill you, right…?”

Feeling the burning pain in my throat due to the gastric acid, I opened my mouth.

“Yes. As you can see, I can’t die even if I want to.”

“…Sorry, but I can’t.”

“Is that so?”

As if she had expected to be refused, Maeve nonchalantly met my gaze.

The abyss contained within her eyes was no different from mine; it contained darkness.

“Then just die.”

At that moment, Maeve took out the musket she had holstered at her waist, aimed at the center of my forehead, and pulled the trigger.

“Ugh…!”

With a click, and a sense of despair, thinking ‘as expected,’ I closed my eyes.

“…?”

But neither the phenomenon of sparks flashing nor the pain of my head being blown off was felt.

When I slowly opened my eyes, all I could see was a round muzzle and a pure white index finger pulling the trigger.

“…I forgot to load it.”

With an expressionless face, Maeve, who nonchalantly uttered a chilling remark, quietly moved her hands and began to load the musket.

She could have just stabbed me with the blade attached to the end right away, but she continued to load it as if to show off, so I quickly pushed Maeve’s shoulder, making her fall.

“Ouch.”

“You crazy bitch…! Why are you doing this to me!”

When I yelled at her, who showed no frown even in pain, her lips soon opened.

“Because I thought if I did this, you might kill me.”

The reason Maeve provoked me so openly was simple.

She had asked to be killed but was refused, so she did such a reckless thing to create a reason to be killed.

Thinking that Maeve, who seemed to be of the same kind as me, wouldn’t kill me, I had let my guard down.

“…Hand over the gun.”

“Okay.”

With a sense of betrayal that she, too, was no different from the other bitches, I took the musket from Maeve as if snatching it and gripped it tightly in my hand.

“If you’re going to do it, kill me in one go. I don’t want to see a life review.”

Towards her, who had slowly closed her eyes as if seeking sleep, I pointed the blade.

At the sensation of killing a person for the first time, I tried my best to calm my trembling hand and regulated my breathing.

Thus, I deeply plunged the blade attached to the musket into Maeve’s neck.

Her pure white skin instantly turned bright red, and blood gushed out, pushing past the embedded blade.

《 Perk ‘Curse of Immortality’ activated!

- Cannot be killed by opponents with a lower level than oneself.

- Can directly commit suicide after Level 666.》

When the light completely vanished from Maeve’s eyes, a perk window, presumed to be hers, lit up before my eyes.

‘…Curse of Immortality?’

The condition that she would never die to opponents with a lower level, and that she must achieve Level 666 or higher to commit suicide.

……

I perfectly understood the reason why I couldn’t remember Maeve from the 1st Playthrough.

Because I, from that time when I was Level 999, could easily ignore and kill her immortality.

When I pulled out the blade that had been absurdly plunged into her neck, the continuous bleeding stopped, and soon the wound healed completely without a trace.

“It failed.”

“…Sorry, take your musket.”

“Why couldn’t you kill me?”

Maeve, who received her musket back as if accustomed, asked me for the reason.

…Should I tell her the true nature of the curse she’s under?

Separate from the fact that everyone in this world can open a status window, it seemed only I could confirm such special perks.

“I don’t know how to kill you.”

Deliberating what choice to make, I soon covered it up with a lie, as if I knew nothing.

The very fact that I knew this information was directly linked to my survival, so it shouldn’t be exposed.

“…A lie.”

I acted my best to avoid having the lie exposed, but Maeve’s empty eyes easily saw through that I was lying.

“You know how to kill me, don’t you?”

……

“…Tell me now. If you don’t want to die.”

Maeve, whose emotionless expression began to crack, grabbed my collar and thrust the musket blade directly at my neck.

But beyond that, she didn’t move more forcefully or try to inflict a wound.

For her, who had no idea I resurrected, she couldn’t easily kill someone who might be able to kill her.

“…Please, tell me what you know. I’ll grant you anything you want.”

When I met her gaze without any reply, I could see Maeve’s emotions growing urgent.

Her eyes, which had shown no vitality at all, now shone brightly as if revealing her true nature, and an expression bloomed on her emotionless face.

……

But I had no intention of ever telling her the truth.

It was an obvious situation where I would die if I told her the condition. Plus, if I played my cards right, it seemed I could manipulate Maeve.

Originally, I wouldn’t even think of doing vicious acts that preyed on people’s weaknesses, and wouldn’t have done them. But not anymore.

A villain must adopt a villain’s methods.

Thus, I grabbed the musket Maeve had aimed at my neck.

“…Do you want to know?”

As I brought the musket blade to my neck, blood flowed down with a sharp, stinging pain.

“But if you kill me like this, you’ll never know, will you?”

“That’s… because I was afraid you’d escape…!”

Maeve, who realized her mistake, hastily put away the musket, and I felt confident that manipulating her would be easier than I thought.

Tickling the flustered Maeve’s cheek, I raised the corner of my mouth.

In her eyes, where our gazes met, I saw a momentary tremor, like an earthquake.

“Help me. Then, someday, I’ll tell you how you can die.”

Manipulating a human pushed to the edge of a cliff was enough with just a bit of clever talk.

If I was with Maeve, I could definitely conquer the Labyrinth of Fissures that I couldn’t conquer.

At the fact that I could obtain Freud’s Fang again, the colors of the world that had disappeared began to regain their original hues.

As Maeve’s goal was to sever her detested immortality, I would use her as much as possible, and when she was no longer needed, I would tell her the conditions to break the curse.

“How about it?”

Without even giving her time to think, I urged Maeve to choose as if driving a wedge.

Although it was a very unfair contract, the only choice she could make was ultimately one.

“…Alright. I’ll accept the proposal. But if you deceive me, I’ll never let you be.”

Her ability, which was a curse, was for me nothing short of an absolutely useful meat shield.

An ability that was a curse to someone, and a blessing to someone else.

“Don’t worry, I won’t go back on my word.”

Thus, I succeeded in recruiting Maeve, a massive variable, as a pawn.

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