WeTried Translations

Translator: Goku

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Became a Villain Perfect for Leveling Up

Chapter 036

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36. Rusty Clock Tower (4)

With just that declaration of war, the hunters' momentum turned fierce.

No matter how alien my presence was, they must have judged that they could win the fight if they inflicted a fatal wound even once.

In the unreasonable ratio of 20 to 1, no one rushed in, and a probing battle ensued.

"I hope you will respect the laws of us hunters."

At that moment, one hunter began to persuade, as if not wanting to fight.

"It's naturally right for strong hunters to kill weak hunters. Didn't you know that and ascend the Clock Tower yourself?"

"That's right!"

"It is because people like us exist that the Abyss doesn't engulf the world. This is merely an inevitable shedding of blood that occurs in that process."

"That's right!!!"

As if the agitation was taking hold, the hunters raised their weapons and cheered in unison.

"......"

The hunters' law.

If one were to borrow their explanation, it meant that even the deceased female hunter ultimately suffered such terrible deeds because she was weak.

There was no shortage of points to refute, but I deliberately chose not to.

If weak hunters being hunted by strong hunters was the law itself.

Then isn't it enough to just trample on them, following their survival-of-the-fittest mindset?

Since I was stronger than them.

It was my job to set the law.

...Not those pieces of trash.

"You seem to have understood. I'll step aside, so to the elevator-"

The hunter, thinking his agitation had worked due to my lack of reaction, was struck in the face by a flying hammer and instantly killed, his head bursting against the wall like a hydraulic press.

"Damn it...! Everyone, prepare!!"

There was no surer way to convey a message than through action. The hunters simultaneously raised the muskets they had on them and aimed at me.

I swung Freud's Fang even faster than that.

Stabbing and paralyzing the closest one, I used him as a shield to block the lead bullets fired with ferocious flames.

Maintaining my posture, I charged and threw the corpse into the space where most people were gathered.

"Everyone, disperse! No matter how high-ranking a hunter, they'll be weak in a multiple-opponent fight!"

The guy who seemed the smartest in my sight caught my eye.

The very act of him constantly giving orders and controlling the chaotic situation was a detriment to me.

After revising my top priority to that guy, I seized the leg of another who had just fallen and was trying to get up, and threw him straight at the target.

"Kkeuk!!"

It barely missed the target, and only the thrown hunter hit the ground, his neck snapped backward.

After stomping on the fallen guy's head, bursting it, I ran behind a pillar and once again dodged the incoming bullets.

The incessant sound of gunshots filled my dead heart with exhilaration.

A smile that could be called an emotion bloomed on my emotionless face.

Peeking my head out from beside the pillar, I confirmed the location of the Beast's Hammer. Then, I wrapped Freud's Fang around the hammer's handle.

After that, I instantly moved to the hammer, snatched its handle with my right hand, and wrapped Freud's Fang around the ceiling, soaring high into the sky.

"Hup!!"

Evading the incoming bullets in mid-air, I raised the hammer. Then, with enough force to make the muscles in my right arm feel like they would burst, I brought it down.

Kwoong-!!!!

The weight struck the floor, causing a vibration strong enough to briefly shake the entire Clock Tower.

The hunter within the hammer's range naturally died instantly.

Other hunters huddled around him also lost their balance and rolled across the floor.

"M-monster...!"

The one who had been watching for an opening from afar lost his will to fight and was filled with despair.

The sight of me slaughtering hunters, exuding death, was nothing short of an incomprehensible entity, embodying the concept of judgment itself to them.

"......"

Unlike their gaze upon me. I merely felt more alive now than ever before.

When I saw the final expressions villains made as they died.

My lips curled up at the fact that they were ultimately no different.

Becoming an Abyss that swallowed darkness, I willingly wielded my weapons.

In my left hand, I swung Freud's Fang.

In my right hand, I swung the Beast's Hammer.

Overwhelming force could overcome even gunpowder, humanity's greatest weapon in history.

As I flew along the walls like a spider, no matter how well a musket was aimed, its bullets would never hit me.

Of course, those guys weren't even aiming properly, just haphazardly shooting with one hand.

I don't know about the high-floor hunters, but those who merely resided on the 3rd floor of the tall Clock Tower couldn't defeat me.

-Crack

As time passed, the sound of muskets firing decreased. Only the grotesque sound of the hammer striking down, and something bright red splattering, echoed.

"...I-I'm different from those people...!! I don't agree with the hunters' l-laws or anything like that at all!!"

With only one hunter remaining, he desperately rubbed his hands together, pleading for his life.

"......"

He was begging for forgiveness.

Was it truly sincere?

Just like Eirene had shown me. It was unknown if his heart was truly based on genuine emotion.

But the biggest difference between him and Eirene was this:

He hadn't acted in the face of fear.

"Die."

My judgment complete, I raised the hammer, intending to kill him.

"You dieee!!!"

The man aimed a musket, secretly loaded, at my abdomen and fired.

-----.

The lead bullet instantly burrowed in. A sharp, stinging pain, like being stung by a bee, was felt, but that was all.

"H-how... how could this be..."

At my completely unharmed appearance. The man dropped his musket and his eyes trembled, as if unable to comprehend.

"It doesn't hurt."

This wasn't the first time I'd been hit by a lead bullet.

I'd already taken about three shots while fighting agilely.

Even if I took one more shot. This level of pain didn't even register anymore.

Having my eyes gouged out, my limbs severed, a knife at my throat, or my head crushed.

Compared to such pain. The suffering caused by a lead bullet no larger than my pinky finger's tip was, well.

"K-k-kill... kill... Heeeek...!"

As my eyes, which could be described as emptiness itself, stared piercingly at him. The man stammered, trembled, and soiled himself.

His violently trembling hand dropped the musket several times as he tried to pick it up. I mercifully placed the musket firmly in his hand.

A confident provocation, daring him to fire one more shot like this.

After all, I possessed the ability to return from death.

And a fervent desire to grow stronger by killing this man after dying, thus raising my level further, engulfed my entire body.

"Devil... Devil!!!!"

-Bang!!!

The man repeated his mistakes, barely managing to load a bullet. He then placed the muzzle against his own chin and pulled the trigger.

"...Devil."

The word uttered as a dying cry lingered in my ears.

"Ha."

How amusing.

Me, a devil.

Even if I held the conviction to become a villain. I was fundamentally different in some way.

Because my childhood wish to become a villain with a backstory was not so trivial as to be dismissed with the word 'devil'.

Without even thinking of closing the eyes of the deceased. I now walked towards the center of the 3rd floor, where complete silence had descended.

In the hellscape where blood flowed on the floor and walls.

The creaking sound of the hammer dragging on the floor made the atmosphere even more chilling.

Click.

When I pressed the footplate in the center of the elevator. The chains on both sides wound up, and the platform slowly ascended.

"......"

The ascent was so slow that I considered using the stairs instead of the elevator. Still, I thought it better to follow the orthodox path from the game.

...But my judgment ultimately proved wrong.

As the elevator ascended floor by floor, mechanical creatures relentlessly crawled onto the approximately 4-square-meter platform.

The sight of creatures with bright red muscles attached to interlocking gears, moving, made even me break out in a cold sweat.

I vaguely understood why the hunters didn't go above the 3rd floor, instead continuing their own battles like defeated soldiers.

It meant that all the high-floor hunters who ascended above this were human weapons who had survived this maddening horde of mechanical creatures.

"...Now this feels a bit like a game."

Facing monsters one after another instead of people, the fact that this world's genre was a game belatedly sunk in.

My stats had merely increased, yet movements previously impossible were now achievable. Even after being hit by bullets, my body's durability was unharmed.

If around Level 10 was considered an ordinary human body. Then I, at Level 64, could be said to be an existence that was something more than human.

Someday, I would surpass Level 100. Surpass Level 200.

And if I ultimately reached Level 999, which my 1st Playthrough self had achieved?

I wondered how strong I would be then.

The fact that a time had come when I could harbor such hopeful thoughts was overwhelming.

"Come at me."

Thus, I slaughtered the mechanical creatures crawling onto the platform, one after another, with a windmill attack.

....

Covered in blood, having narrowly escaped death countless times, when I arrived on the 30th floor.

The elevator's chains stopped winding into the machinery and came to a halt.

Clock Tower Depths.

A floor almost touching the topmost floor that exited the underground city.

Shouldering the hammer, I stepped out of the elevator.

"Kuh...!!"

At that moment. My heart pounded fiercely, and a tearing pain began in my chest.

Tick-tock-

The minute and second hands of the clock flowed without stopping.

Even when darkness fell, even when light returned.

Time flowed.

- - - - - - - 

With a sudden surge of nausea, black blood clots poured from my mouth.

As I vomited all the pitch-black blood clots, the tearing pain subsided more than before.

"Worms...?"

Examining the black blood clots thickly smeared on the floor closely. They were a cluster of black-stained worms, twisting and intertwining to form a colony.

The realization that such things had been parasitic in my body made me gag briefly.

"......"

I raised my head at a persistent gaze, as if someone was watching me from somewhere.

Even as I raised the hammer again and looked around. No beings that could be called human were visible.

But I could deduce the identity of those who were watching me, hidden somewhere.

-High-floor hunters.

Not fakes, no different from thugs. But the real ones, who had ascended through desperate battles with mechanical creatures.

Whether they were uncomfortable with my act of putting my face into the mouth of a beast. Or if they were creeped out by the strange atmosphere my presence was creating.

They hid their identities as if ready to bare their fangs, subtly scattering killing intent.

Fortunately, they didn't pose a direct threat, so I began exploring the high floors to exit the underground city.

Intricately winding paths. And bridges without a single railing, from which one would fall if they misstepped.

After passing through paths with infuriating designs. I was able to enter a space that seemed like a banquet hall.

"............"

Then I discovered a portrait of a woman with an appearance like a black cat that brought misfortune.

The figure in the portrait, showing signs of weathering as if painted at least several centuries ago, was.

...Undoubtedly Maeve.

'My name is Maeve. Maeve, the poet and hunter.'

Suddenly, her self-introduction flashed through my mind.

If the Rusty Clock Tower was the hunters' base, it wasn't strange for her portrait to be hanging here.

Judging by Maeve's luxurious attire, speech, and demeanor, it was highly probable that she was of noble descent, having acted as a hunter for generations.

"...."

I unconsciously reached out to Maeve's portrait, then lowered my arm.

If I hadn't been betrayed, I would have trusted her as a comrade and entrusted my back to her.

"......Tsk."

I stopped digging through the meaningless past, raised Freud's Fang, tore her portrait, and then.

Passed through the banquet hall and headed towards the top floor of the Rusty Clock Tower.

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