《My Alignment is Villain? Perfect.》 Chapter 1: Interpretation [Congratulations! Your Alignment is Villian!] [Accept?] [Yes] [No] There was a blue screen hovering above a young girl. The girl was sprawled on a large queen bed, the stick of a sucker poking out of the side of her mouth and a pair of light blue headphones perched on top of her head of black hair. The girl¡¯s eyes slid across the screen as she read the message, casually flicking a finger towards the glowing [Yes]. Option chosen the screen faded out. A faint smirk played across the girl''s lips. ¡­ It was and wasn¡¯t surprising that my alignment was Villian. I knew I was likely to end up on the ¡°Evil¡± side of the wheel, but I figured like most of the population in my situation I would end up closer to neutral. Here on Terra, everyone at the age of 18 would have an alignment selected for them. The alignments were made up of several categories but the general ones were: Hero, Vigilante, Neutral, Anti-hero and Villian. The selection wasn¡¯t random. Based on your actions before becoming an adult you would be on either the ¡°Evil¡± side of the wheel which included Neutral and the ¡°Good¡± side also including Neutral. The evilness or goodness of each action would increase or decrease the probabilities of alignments, so most people ended up with neutral or close. Being on the extreme of either side is very rare. Yay me. Flicking my finger in a upward motion I called forth my status screen. The action wasn¡¯t necessary a thought would be enough to bring the blue screen back, but I found it fun. [Status] [Name: Ria Alignment: Villian Str: 7 Agi: 8 Dex: 14 End: 11 Int: 18 Stat Points: 5 Skill Points: 1 The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Skills: None Abilities: ????] Ten is the average stat value for a full-grown male. Being a villain alignment did more than I thought, neutrals get 1 stat point in the beginning. I clicked on the question marks beside Abilities. I knew what they meant for Heros but anything about the Status of a Villian was heavily regulated and highly privileged information, not something I had access to. [???? - Once you have officially embarked on the path of Villiany your ability will be unlocked. Complete a Quest, which can be found on the ¡°Quest¡± tab. Good luck!] At light ¡°tap¡± of my mind and finger the Quest tab was open. [Commit a Crime ~ Like any journey, villainy starts with small steps. Your first step is to commit a crime within 24 hours. Guidelines:
  1. There must be some penalty in place from law enforcement for the action of the ¡°crime¡± to count.
  2. Getting caught by law enforcement will give your quest completion an automatic F.
  3. The crime must be completed in 24 hours.
Reward: Abilities will be unlocked Penalty: None] Interesting, no penalty. Those with the Hero alignment were vocal about their Quests having severe penalties, mostly because it offered the public a sense of safety about the lengths the super-powered people would go to for their safety. The entire population wasn¡¯t worshipful enough for there not to be suspicions. It also helped Heros get out of legal situations when their rescuing did more harm than good. But as Villian, I didn¡¯t have any. That meant at least one of four things had to be true.
  1. It was all a lie meant to better control the masses and gain sympathy.
  2. The Villain alignment needed no supernatural penalty because if you were caught you would get a penalty by your society.
  3. The spirit of a Villain is to do as you please, having heavy penalties meant taking some of that freedom away.
  4. It was the first Quest and was a novice safety period, penalties would be applied to later Quests.
My guess is a combination of the top three. As fascinating as this rabbit hole into the system theology was I had more important, more fun, things to do. Like planning my first crime. It was harder than I anticipated, not that I had a problem coming up with crimes to commit. I was running into two blocks in my planning. The first being that I had to complete it in 24 hours. I couldn¡¯t do anything too complicated like robbing a museum, holding someone for ransom, or brushing up on my programming and siphoning money from banks into an off-shore account. The second was the hidden expectations. At first, the Quest seemed straightforward, but the mention of an F grade implied that there were higher grades available. I guessed that the more complicated the crime was to pull off and the higher the penalty from authorities for the crime the higher the grade. There was a possibility that the grade was linked to what ability you would get. Plus the thought of having anything graded lower than an A associated with me was nauseating. I need some fresh air. Chapter 2: Quantity Sitting on the porch enjoying the autumn sun was nice but brought me no closer to deciding what to do for my first crime. Things were just so hard, I wanted maximal results with minimal risk. A tall order considering the limited amount of time I had to make preparations. Worse comes to worst and I get down to my final moments. I could just walk across the street. Jaywalking was just a misdemeanor and would be a rather lame first crime. But it was safe and the people in my suburban neighborhood wouldn¡¯t even notice. I should set my sights lower, as much as I wanted my first crime to be grand and perfect it would be a huge risk. Until I had more levels, experience, and abilities it would be far too easy for heroes or vigilantes to catch a whiff of me. As the Quest said I should take one step at a time: it wouldn¡¯t always be like this my day would come. Despite my flight of philosophical fancy, I felt no closer to a solution. That is until it hit me in the face. Well, it was actually my foot, but that doesn¡¯t sound nearly as dramatic. In front of me were the slobbery maws of my next-door neighbor''s dog who had dropped a slightly less saliva-covered object at my feet. This wasn¡¯t anything new, their dog often escaped through the fence to visit me, bringing with him a ¡°toy¡± for me to throw for him. The problem is that the large dog¡¯s definition of a toy was rather broad. His toys had failed to surprise me when a month ago he brought a can of beans, not the normal size ones though. Of course, it was one of the industrial-size cans you buy at wholesale stores. However this time his offering was perfect. Harold was practically shaking with excitement in front of me waiting for the game of fetch to begin. Unfortunately I didn¡¯t plan on using the ¡°toy¡± he brought in the game, I needed it for something else. Lifting the corner of one of the steps I pulled out a worn tennis ball. I had stored one there for instances such as the beans. Meeting the excited pet in front of me I threw the ball towards the back of my yard, away from the street and upcoming traffic. Wearing gloves that I also kept beneath the steps for situations such as these I picked up the soaked object and made my way over to the fence separating my and the neighbor¡¯s yard. Looking carefully I spotted the disturbed ground where Harold had dug up the white property stake. When my neighbor¡¯s had first moved in and adopted Harold they had needed to install a fence, not that it managed to contain him, they had a surveyor come out to pinpoint the property line. They just never bothered to remove the stakes. The stakes were on my side of the fence, but I didn¡¯t pause to return the stack to its spot. No, I was going to do something rather ambitious. Hand on the top of the fence I jumped over it, landing on the ground in a kneel and stabbing the stake into the ground. My objective completed. I hopped the fence again. Harold was already waiting eagerly for me to continue playing fetch. Mindlessly I threw the ball again. When was the mission considered complete? Did I have to not get caught within 24 hours? I hoped not, getting my ability unlocked quickly was in my best interest if I wanted to stay under the radar as I grew. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. My wish was soon granted when the familiar blue screen popped in front of me. [Congratulations! The Quest ¡°Commit Crime¡± has been completed] [Congratulations! You have committed the crime ¡°Destruction of Private Property¡± widely considered a misdemeanor. Crime Grade: E] [Congratulations! You have commited the crime ¡°Moving Property Line¡± widely considered a second degree misdemeanor. Crime Grade: D] [Congratulations! You have committed the crime ¡°Trespassing on Property'''' which can be considered a misdemeanor or felony. Crime Grade: B] [Detected that Host has committed three crimes simantounously. Quest parameters being revaluated.] [...] When I saw the white property stake my mind had immediately thought of putting back, but with my thoughts recently being on committing crimes and I realized it was one. A easily explainable and commitible one, one I wouldn¡¯t have considered without my current crime oreinted train of thought. It made me consider whether there were other seemingly ¡°normal¡± acts of a sane person that could be construed as criminal in nature. I had quickly thought of the trespassing property one. Honestly the ¡°Destruction of Property¡± wasn¡¯t something I thought of. Poking a hole in their yard seemed to be a stretch although I see how it would fall under that definition. Their yard was exactly that, theirs. Speaking of definition I was surprised at the high grade of Trespassing considering my action, but I guess the system wasn¡¯t supposed to come up with the appropriate punishment for the crime, simply what the punishment could be for the crime. All of this information was great, but the whole Quest being revaluated made me nervous. What if the system decided it wasn¡¯t a complete task since a singular crime wasn¡¯t committed? What if it just took the lowest crime, or maybe the one that was technically first committed? Getting private property destruction would suck, on the other hand getting trespassing wouldn¡¯t be to bad. Although technically the property line movement could be considered the first crime commited how the system decided to look at it. The screen still showed the glowing ellipses. The sun was beginning to set and a chill was setting, Harold was finally panting although he still seemed excited to go after the ball everytime I threw it. I would give him another twenty minutes, although his family usually arrived around this time and I had no doubt he would bolt as soon as we heard there car pull into the driveway. Ten minutes into my wait the words on the screen finally shifted. [Revaluation complete. Please examine Quest for listed rewards] Not wasting a second I clicked on the Quest tab. [Commit a Crime ~ (COMPLETED) Congratulations! You have managed to complete the task in the allotted time and you managed to complete three at the same time! Truly an ambitious Villian! Combined grade: A- (Innovation is to be rewarded as the true path of Villiany, your grade was bumped accordingly!) Reward: Abilities now unlocked] [New Ability: Open Rebellion aquired!] Open Rebellion? What kind of skill is that? Chapter 3: Technically [Open Rebellion (Grade A) - When you commit crimes with no attempt to hide your identity this ability gives 0.07 free stat points.] What kind of explanation is that? ¡°No attempt to hide your identity¡±, what if I wore a hoodie would that count as hiding my identity or was it about intent? What if I committed the crime while it was dark out or while I was online? I¡¯m sceptical that the system will be able to differentiate intent considering all of my crimes were graded by the highest punishment allowed by the action and not what would likely be the judgment if it went to court. Harold abandoned me, his family having returned soon after my musing began. I did see him pause at the stake now on his side of the fence. Chomping down on the stake he ripped it from the ground and ran to bark at the back door, leaving a small hole in the turf as the only evidence of my crime. I guess I didn¡¯t wear him out as much as I thought. Seeing no more reason to suffer from the autumn chill that was no longer being mitigated by the sun as it had already begun its descent and now rested behind the houses I decided to meander back into the house. The warmth of the heating would hopefully help my synapses fire faster because the more I discovered about the system the more questions I had. It was time to come up with a research system. Settling into my desk I tapped play on some calm beats to help me focus on my brainstorming session. Pulling up a spreadsheet, one I designed specifically for the creative vomit that was my thoughts, my fingers began to skitter across the keyboard. I had a couple of hypotheses about how the System operated, of course, they couldn¡¯t be considered theories yet. That would involve a heavy amount of experimentation. But with my limited pool of samples I had a couple that I was going to begin to operate under the belief of. Or at least orchestrate experiments for.
  1. Its responses were confined by preprogrammed expectations and rules.
  2. Because of these limitations rules and Quests are generic and not usually detailed.
  3. Loopholes were numerous, exploitable, and in some cases rewarded generously.
  4. Grades were applied to crimes and abilities, they hadn¡¯t been applied to the difficulty of quests or to the host.
  5. Although crime completion could be divided into grades that did not seem to be the case for my ability any crime would net me a 0.07 increase to my stats. Meaning for every 15 crimes I committed I would get a stat point (plus an excess of 0.05) to distribute as I saw fit.
And these five assumptions pointed to one logical course of action to net the most reward with minimal risk. I had chosen to accept my first alignment because one it fit my ideology and two it seemed. Looking at the web of different tests I could run with various controls and changing variables I felt pure joy, this is what I lived for: the thrill of discovery. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. The hours passed in a blur the only indication being that my vision was beginning to blur as well. Breaks are a necessary part of being human, but thinking about how much time would be wasted if I stepped back from my computer to take said break was unpleasant. Sighing I decided to make the most of my break and eat my dinner, my stomach rumbled making its agreement known. For some reason, I was craving tomato soup maybe with that day-old bread I had picked up from Francis¡¯ Bakery. Digging through my cupboards didn¡¯t sound appealing, but it was my best shot if I wanted to satisfy my craving, unless by some miracle it was stocked near the front. I tried to keep my fridge and cupboards fully stocked even though I was just one person alone I felt safer knowing it was there and I always made sure most of the items were either nonperishables or had a long shelf life. I only had to dig through one shelf in my canned goods cupboard before I found some. My prize won I placed it on the stove to heat up while I sliced the bread. There were a lot of things I needed to test to make sure I was exploiting the System to the fullest extent. But I was human there were only so many tests I could run, I needed breaks like this one. Pulling the soup off the heat I decided to move it to a bowl instead of consuming it straight from the pot, mostly because it would cool enough for me to eat it quicker rather than any discomfort from the social taboo of eating it without properly plating it. Sitting at the table with my bread, soup, and cup of tea from my constantly running kettle I got ready to dig in. As much as I loathed my separation from experiment planning the food was good and I enjoyed my break. Break finished I was ready to tackle the task at hand with a refreshed mind. As I observed my spreadsheet of notes I noticed some tweaks that I could make to improve the code shortcuts so that my chaotic thoughts could be converted into organized chaos smoother. I had the theoretic know-how to do it, but the specifics escaped me. It had been a while since I was interested in the intricacies of how computers operate. I really needed to brush up on it especially now that I had my alignment. Online crimes would widen my range not to mention the quantity. Hit me with an apple and call me Fig Newton, because at this point I deserved it for my stupidity. The answer to wasting time was right in front of me. It would take some work and more than just brushing up, but I think I could create programs to commit crimes for me possibly multiple at a time. It would also be a great way to test what counted as a crime committed by me and whether using a computer would be considered hiding my identity. Speaking of hiding my identity I wonder if I went by an alias or building a virtual machine to commit the crimes on would count as hiding. It¡¯s a possibility that the System only considers the physical covering of my appearance as an act of hiding my identity. I suppose there is only one way to find out. It was going to be a long night or long day considering the numbers in the corner of my screen indicated early morning. Chapter 4: Rinse Before I set up any new programs I needed to figure out if the effort was worth putting in, brushing up on coding was worth it because various crimes could be directly committed or assisted with. However, for specific programs, it would be better to see if it was feasible. I was going to commit a crime. The virtual machine was still in the process of booting up, so I decided that I would get dessert. My stent out in the autumn chill had given me a craving for hot chocolate, I think I had some whipped cream from Thanksgiving¡¯s pumpkin pie. Despite taking my time I still managed to get back to my laptop right before it finished. Letting my drink cool a little from scalding, I pulled up Boop my favorite web browser. Clicking on Boomail I started to set up a new email, with the name Edna Foxe her birthday was September 17th, 1948. I clicked the setup button and voila, she now had a new email account for all of her needs. She of course didn¡¯t exist. [Open Rebellion has been used for the crime ¡°False Impersonation¡± 0.07 points have been added to your free stat points] An easy crime that no one would bother pursuing if they caught it, Open Rebellion had worked on both a laptop and on a crime the essence of which was to hide your identity. The System works in mysterious ways. [Congratualations! You have committed a crime under the umbrella of ¡°Fraud¡± please go to the quest tab to gather your reward] That pop-up on my blue screen was not expected when did I get that quest? Curious I clicked on the quest tab [Commit Fraud ~ (COMPLETED) Congratulations! You have completed the crime ¡°False Impersonation¡± which is considered fraud. Reward: 1 Exquisite Villianous Item Lottery (EVIL) Coin] [Since you have received your first EVIL Coin the corresponding tab has been opened. Using the coin you have the chance to spend the coin for an opportunity to win rare equipment for your various evil needs.] Ignoring the new currency for now I continued looking through the Quest list there were four other quests I wasn¡¯t even aware of. [Commit Theft ~ Thievery is a classic for criminals, truly an oldey but a goody. Please commit a crime labeled under theft. Penalty: None Reward: 1 EVIL Coin] It was good to know that the no-penalty thing was not a one-time thing and it appeared that none of the other quests had a penalty either. Not that I planned on failing any of them. [Commit a Traffic Violation ~ Although commonly done by ordinary people a proper Villain can put a truly thrilling spin on the mundane things of life. Please commit a crime labeled as a traffic violation. Penalty: None *Warning! The System is not liable for any damage to your body occurring during any activities you choose to participate in* You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Reward: 1 EVIL Coin] I wonder how many people had tried to get some sort of healing ability or item with a similar ability from the System after doing something stupid for that warning to be warranted. [Commit Assault ~ A true criminal should not only be able to end fights but start them too. Please assault someone. Penalty: None Reward: 1 EVIL Coin] It wasn¡¯t hard to imagine how I could kill two birds with two stones and complete these crimes while also gaining stats from Open Rebellion. [Commit a Crime ~ (REPEATABLE) You may not feel comfortable committing all the crimes at once, but consistency is key. Please commit a crime a day. If you commit multiple crimes you can select the one you want to count for the reward. If none is selected the crime with the highest grade will automatically be selected. Penalty: None Reward: EVIL Coin or Coins depending on the grading of the crime] It appeared that Grades only applied to some Quests which is good news for me because it meant I could get the same rewards for fewer risks and would have less worry about whether to use Open Rebellion with them. Commit a Crime was repeatable but I wonder how repeatable it said that a crime would be chosen by the end of the day, did that mean the quest would reappear everyday? The Quests appeared at a strange time sometime after I committed the three crimes but before I committed this one in the very early morning. The Commit a Crime suggested a refresh would happen for the Quests daily, my guess would be midnight. It surely wasn¡¯t when I first accepted my alignment or committed my first crime. The Quests now reviewed I decided to explore the new tab that opened. The glowing blue screen gave way to a colorful pinwheel that I could only see half of but the half I could see was split into about a hundred sections none of the sections were labeled. To the right of the wheel was a coin slot and above the slot was a gold coin emblazoned with the letters EVIL. I tapped the coin and it disappeared from the screen flipping my hand over and open I saw the coin I had felt spawned the the second I had pushed on the screen. Not eager to get rid of the first thing the system had given me I began to examine it. The first side as I had previously seen said EVIL but the tail side read LIVE and instead of the block capital letters of EVIL, LIVE looked like it was calligraphed. The edges of the coin looked almost like a gear, the teeth large and far apart. I wasn¡¯t quite ready to spin it yet I wanted to finish the research I had started, however, I didn¡¯t know if I waited too long the coin would disappear so it was probably better if I spent it. Holding the coin edge forward I pressed into the slot it went in with a clink. Flashing lights dropped down from the top of the screen reading SPIN! I tapped it, nothing happened so I placed two fingers on the wheel and brought them into an arch. The wheel began to spin quickly pointer popping into existence as the segments ticked by. Finally, the wheel stopped on a red segment. [Congratulatioins! you have won NOTHING] And if that announcement wasn¡¯t cruel enough there were shiny white rays that usually shot out from an item you win in video games, with you guessed it, nothing in the center. Coin spent I decided to start on the hopefully more rewarding task of research. The sun had started to creep across the floor by the time I had set up my first program, more like my first ten programs, however, after I set up the coding parameters for the first one I could copy and paste and make the needed adjustments. I also created nine other emails for the nine other programs. Awarding me a list of - [Open Rebellion has been used for the crime ¡°False Impersonation¡±...] [Open Rebellion has been used for the crime ¡°False Impersonation¡±...] [Open Rebellion has been used for the crime ¡°False Impersonation¡±...] [...] I had set up everything on my virtual machine, it was better to have an isolated environment so any shady websites I clicked on wouldn¡¯t be able to infect my computer. Of course, even with those precautions and the anti-virus and firewall on the virtual machine, I made sure to save the template for my coding on a USB and on my actual laptop just in case. I decided to start the systems on one of the survey websites and I could have waited for the results but I had just pulled an all-nighter and really needed to get some sleep. So programs activated I took a shower, brushed my teeth, and fell unconscious. Chapter 5: Coverage On a quiet street in a quaint one-story house slept a young lady. The hum of a fan covered most of the sounds from the cracked window, only the occasional cricket or roaring engine breaking the peace. Every ten minutes or so a soft blue glow hovered above the girl before vanishing. If the girl wasn¡¯t such a sound sleeper the light would have awakened her long ago. The girl was exhausted from the darkening beneath her eyes from attesting to insufficient sleep on a regular basis. It wasn¡¯t until the sun was almost halfway into the sky that the girl began to stir. Sluggishly the girl dressed before stumbling to her kitchen for the fuel her body needed. *** The blinking red dot in the corner of my vision was hard to ignore, but my only semi-conscious brain managed the feat as I sought out the last of my box of instant oatmeal and rummaged in the freezer for some frozen fruit. I debated on a cup of tea or a glass of juice to chase the meal down. Eventually, my need for caffeine prevailed and perpared my cup of green tea smothered in an appropriate amount of honey and a dash of lemon. Despite my barely functioning brain I managed to make a rather balanced breakfast: a fact I¡¯m rather proud of. I savored every bite, I didn¡¯t always enjoy food since I tended to get caught up in work and eating takes up valuable time. But I accomplished my tasks last night and felt I deserved the reward of a leisurely breakfast. Dishes cleaned and put away I headed over to my desk and clicked on the virtual machine glancing over the code, everything seemed in order. Finally I turned my focus to the red light in the top right side of my vision. Immediately my vision was filled with the notifications from last night. There was a total of 79 notifications. [Open Rebellion has used for the crime ¡°False Impersonation¡± 0.07 points have been added to your free stat points] [ERROR] [It has been detected that the Host is using a non-sentient being to complete the crimes] [Recalibration occuring] [It has been decided that the completion of the task will still be counted since the responsibility lies with the host and there is no attempt to hide her connection to the nonsentient being, however, the stat points earned will be reduced] [Open Rebellion has used for the crime ¡°False Impersonation¡± 0.0007 points have been added to your free stat points] [...] The notifications were uniform after that. It wasn¡¯t exactly unexpected that the system would ¡°dock my pay¡± since I was using the automatic version to complete a crime essentially every five minutes. It would be more ridiculous if the System allowed me to get full credit. If I could leave the programs for 24 hours I would gain about 20 stat points a day, 604 in a month, and 7,258 in a year. That would be a ridiculous amount considering that the natural human limit was 20 for Str, Agi, 25 for End, Dex, and 30 for Int. The limitations are different for the purely physical stats vs. the ones including intelligence and willpower. Even with the System¡¯s limitations, I could earn about 6 stat points a month and 72 in a year which would be about 14 per stat. This of course didn¡¯t include when the computer needed to be shut down, crashed or I earned more stat points with more acts of Open Rebellion the latter being something I planned to do often. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. If I continued to study coding and its applications I could smooth out the process and up the output. Right now I have a clunky process, I have the ten profiles I created alternating filling out surveys that another system has filtered through to find. That¡¯s why it takes about five minutes to complete each crime. However, right now it was a priority it was giving me a steady income and I wanted to spend more time researching the limitations of what counted as crimes as well as what triggered Open Rebellion. I let the program continue to run but with an addition. This addition made it so that anyone trying to track my IP address would get pinged to random spots around the world. As the system ran I waited for the familiar blue glow to fill my vision at the six-minute mark I checked the quest log, and there was an option to fill in the daily crime quest 75 options, meaning that the crime had been committed but not counted as Open Rebellion. Although the result wasn¡¯t unexpected I had still hoped that it wouldn¡¯t count as hiding my identity since I was only technically hiding my location, if it still counted it would add another element of safety to the whole process. I didn¡¯t expect anyone to pursue the matter even if they did figure out the answers were fake, but it would have been nice. I removed the cloaking element and decided to do some other elements, outside ones this time. I grabbed my coat, gloves and beanie and headed out the door. Four hour later I had made some progress. Jay-walking had netted me an Open Rebellion stat reward as well as an EVIL coin for a traffic violation, honestly I hadn¡¯t expected it to count since I wasn¡¯t in a motorized vehicle but it was a nice bonus. Committing the same crime but this time with my hood on still activated Open Rebellion. I tried it but this time with the thought that I didn¡¯t want anybody to be able to tell it was me Open Rebellion didn¡¯t activate. My intention theory was disproven and with the previous experience with it adapting to me using my computer I was starting to think the system was more adaptable then I had predicted. Further testing showed that as long as the things I was doing were natural for the circumstances and my intentions were ¡°pure¡± Open Rebellion would activate. When I put my gloves on Open Rebellion no longer activated, my guess would be because the cool weather wasn¡¯t enough to warrant that sort of usage. More testing as the seasons changed and I explored different venues would be necessary before I reached any conclusion though. By the time I had made my normal loop around the neighborhood, I had completed a total 11 traffic violations and trespassed on 7 lawns meaning I had added 1.26 to my stats. I wanted to stay outside for a while longer so lounged on my porch pulling up my stats. [Status] [Name: Ria Alignment: Villain Str: 7 Agi: 8 Dex: 14 End: 11 Int: 18 Stat Points: 7 (0.1518 not currently available) Skill Points: 1 Skills: None Abilities: Open Rebellion (A)] It appeared that the stat points to the decimal point would not be available until the reached a full point. I had spent my spare time thinking about the ways to optimize the usage of my stat points, even with how easy it was to earn them I didn¡¯t want to waste them. Right now my most valuable stat was Int it was also the one I had a natural advantage in. I decided to raise Int to 21 placing two in End and Dex respectively. End was important to support my high usage of Int. Dex was more important for how it could be applied to typing and any other projects I would have to do with delicate inner workings. I saw the merit in investing in the more physical stats for more balance and in case I got in physical altercations, but right now it would not be the most cost-effective. Perhaps when I had more points I could dedicate more to that side of my build. For now, though it was time for steady growth and figuring out the best optimization of risk vs. reward. I had made some progress, but I was hardly satisfied by how slowly things were moving. Chapter 6: Cotton Alignments on the darker side have become more accepted over the years. In the 16th century, people suspected of not having a neutral or ¡°light¡± standing would be publicly executed, and their accusers were praised as heroes despite the fact that there is no skill to detect someone¡¯s alignment. Even modern day technology hadn¡¯t figured out to detect that some progress had been made with polygraph testing but it wasn¡¯t fool-proof. Anyone ¡°witnessed¡± committing a crime over the age of eighteen would be assumed to have a darker alignment and murdered legally or met with unfortunate accidents leading to their demise. This trend did have an effect the active ¡°hunt¡± for villainy had made acts of petty crimes plummet, and only the truly desperate would risk their lives for such small gains. These successes further fueled the self-righteousness of the government officials and the citizens beneath them. Support did begin to wane when the number of violent crimes met with a ramp-up. People desperate enough to commit petty crimes such as stealing bread were much more willing to kill the owner of the bread. First of all, they could easily take more, secondly, fewer witnesses met less chance of getting caught and last but certainly not least the punishment was death either way. Light can not be conceived without darkness a balance needs to be mediated. Eventually when all the extreme hate died down society figured out how to walk the tightrope of goodness and evil some societies were more successful than others. Nowadays even if darker sides were heavily advised against they had a place: at least the Anti-heroes did and even Villains couldn¡¯t officially be convicted unless proven without reasonable doubt that they had committed a crime. Anti-heroes appealed to the younger generations, especially with their love for justice and attraction to rebellion, morally grey characters are always a popular ¡°book crush¡±. What¡¯s more attractive someone willing to lose you save the world or someone willing to lose the world to save you? Anti-heroes were still heavily stigmatized against admitting to that alignment would alienate them from most if not all of their social group including family. Suicide in those cases was alarmingly high. Because of this no one knew how many people were actually in each alignment, often anti-heroes and Villains would disguise themselves as neutrals or even Vigilantes. Ria had never felt the call to be an Anti-hero the thought felt constricting. Rather than feel she was right and pursue that path at the expense of rules and regulations she found great joy in breaking them for her own benefit. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Anti-heroes had some sort of ¡°right¡± reason to be the way they were, once upon a time they were innocent they wished for the good in the world only to have it crushed out of them by tragedy and the steady hammer of society made for the wealthy and elite. Ria simply never cared enough for those things to take root. She wanted freedom and there was plenty of lines she was willing to slither across to get there. Despite her lack of restrictions, she did have self-imposed regulations especially right now at the beginning of her villainy journey where she didn¡¯t have the power for the spontaneity she craved. Rarely would Ria lie or backstab the people around her, she would only do so to reciprocate the ¡°kind¡± intentions of others. She was nothing if not a generous host. Many would describe her as polite and honest and she was, but only for the anonymity and goodwill it afforded. Social graces and charisma would afford you a lot of leniency when you had a penchant for bending the rules. ¡­ Fear was an emotion I felt often as a child, everything scared me. A shadow on my wall, the creaking of the floorboards and thunder would send me into a corner to shiver in fear. Teachers told me I would grow out of them with time, I wasn¡¯t content to wait for this crushing weight on my heart to someday melt away I wanted a solution, a cure. So I studied I did my research checked out tough books wrestled with the dictionary mounted on a pedestal in the library until I understood what I was reading. That is when I discovered the more I knew the less I feared. A shadow was something blocking light the shapes it formed were endless people could use this to create puppets, beautiful patterns, and tell stories. Floorboards creaked because they were warped from years of wear and tear. Thunder is caused by lightning heating the air around it until it expands causing a loud sound. So at six I decided I needed to know everything. Then I would fear nothing. I was always smart supposedly I got it from my parents, but my stubborn need to know all there is to know took it to a whole new level. I was lauded as genius by the teachers that had tried to bring my comfort by endorsing complacency, so I didn¡¯t take their praise seriously I just kept studying. Over time I learned how to organize the information I learned, making my mind palace. Except it wasn¡¯t a palace having that much space as regal as it would be served no purpose and brought me no comfort. It was more of cottage cozy with vegetation surrounding it the perfect combination of nature''s chaos and order. I strewed my information across rolling hills and crowded woods. But my favorite memories, the treasured pieces of ¡°me¡± I kept within the cottage. I found so much peace there within my mind and maybe that¡¯s what spoiled me for the company of other people. Why would I need the companionship of another when I was happier in my own company when I didn¡¯t have to be on guard for unprompted attack? Or maybe it was people who ruined people for me. Maybe I had experienced too much betrayal. Maybe one person too many had earned my trust only to shatter it into little ittty-bitty pieces. Not that it mattered I am happy where I am content with who I am. Chapter 7: Carolling Days began to pass quickly, and my daily routine kept me busy and fulfilled. I left my programs running while I slept, when I woke up I ate breakfast, took a quick shower, and then walked to the local library. Walking allowed me to gain some more stat points either by jaywalking or ¡°trespassing on private property¡± by cutting corners. Also when I start putting points in physical stats it would provide a good opportunity to get used to the new power. I wasn¡¯t keen to repeat the migraine I got from dumping my stat points into Int. Vomiting to the point of dry heaving while someone took an icepick to my temples is not my idea of a fun time. Once at the library, I made use of the computers and books there to dove into my research. Because of my interest in knowing everything I had a tentative grasp on essentially every subject and as I had been preparing for my alignment. I had an even better grasp of what it could entail, but if I needed more detail about The System, my alignment, and alignments in general. My alignment was too rare and the records were very limited mostly just horror stories in the kids section. Social media was a great source of information on how or what determined the direction of public opinion. Not to mention the many strange and interesting ways people committed crimes, most of them were just stupid but it did show a more creative side of crime. After a couple of hours of aggressive note-taking and plotting I would make my way to the park to eat my packed lunch or buy a meal from one of the nearby restaurants downtown. Usually, my choice was the park, I wanted to enjoy the relative warmth of autumn before winter hit. Lunch and Vitamin D consumed, I would begin experimenting with crimes and the limits of Open Rebellion. I preferred to do it after my research because although I had come up with several theories to be proven or disproven I found that my new points in my Int made epiphanies much more common and absorbing information easier. After my experiments, I would make records of everything in my data sheets. Granted my memory at this point was practically photographic, but I liked having a physical representation of the work I had done. Plus although I could remember everything it wasn¡¯t necessarily easy so having it in such an organized form made things simpler. Work done for the day I would play with Harold and whatever he dragged with him until his owners came home so far he had fetched a trowel, a whole roll of toilet paper, a boot, and strangest of all the headlight to a car. Then it would be time for time to relax, read some watch a new show, and then get ready for bed. And then it would start all over again. It was peaceful and fulfilling despite the perceived monotony of it all I was discovering new things every day and getting smarter with every added stat point. On Monday I discovered a database specifically containing academic papers about alignments. There were a couple of articles of interest including one detailing the expected ratio for each alignment and how long people typically waited before settling on an alignment surprisingly it was 1 and a half years: longer than I had anticipated. Thursday the librarian had begun to warm up to me, the cookies from the bakeries across the street that I shared every couple of days speeding it up. With the newfound ¡°friendship¡± I didn¡¯t have to spend time hunting down the books I wanted, a stack of books always sat on the desk I had unofficially claimed as mine. I brought a bag of bird seed to the park on Friday, tossing handfuls generously and spontaneously across the park''s entirety. The birds were hesitant at first but soon hundreds were swooping down to get their fair share of the snack. I didn¡¯t mind them and found some amusement at the scuffles that occurred, but my goal was different than that: the glowing blow screen reading. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. [Open Rebellion has been used for the crime ¡°Littering¡± 0.07 points have been added to your free stat points] According to the law, it didn¡¯t matter how biodegradable the items were that were left behind: anything can fall under the purview of littering. It was unlikely that someone would sue you for feeding birds, but technically a case could be made. On my day of rest, Sunday, I decided to skip the library and just plo- I mean relax at home. Considering my recent schedule it wouldn¡¯t hurt to dedicate a day to making bigger plans, my planning sessions at the library primarily centered around quick easily repeatable actions. Just as I sat down at my desk to start rummaging through a couple of thicker books I had borrowed I heard a knock at my door. Despite me leaving in a well-populated suburban area I did not get company often and most neighbors tended to mind their own business, so guests were not a common occurrence. So I decided to ignore it, if it was life-threatening they¡¯d start yelling, if they didn¡¯t then it wasn¡¯t important. No screams came from my dead-bolted door, but the knocking began to come at louder volumes and a higher frequency. In short, they were trying to get on my nerves. As tempted as I was to simply put on my noise-canceling headphones I looked at the clock and realized it was 5 AM. Once I realized the time my curiosity got the better of me, who was shameless enough to go to someone''s house this early morning and try to pound their door down? Going to my door I lifted the cover on my peephole. It was the Cranially Abusive Rabid Opposum Lady or as she was better known as Carol. She was a member of our HOA or so she said. The existence of our HOA had never actually been approved, by any of the neighbors. That fact didn¡¯t stop her from trying to enforce the by-laws she came up with ¡°for the good of the community¡±. She had never tried to turn her foam-dipped fangs towards me and morally guilt trip me into following her laws, but I had comforted past victims so I knew what to expect. That¡¯s why I opened the door, it was my day ¡°off¡± and I could use some entertainment. In the time I had stood there contemplating the horrors I was about to be subjected to the pounding had never ceased, in fact, somehow the full-force banging was becoming louder. Slowly I eased off the deadbolt and twisted the lock, it was unlikely that she could hear me over her sledgehammering, but better safe than sorry. Door unlocked I grabbed the door and yanked it open. CAROL landed on the floor: face first. Her arms hadn¡¯t moved fast enough to catch her. Amusing indeed. What surprised me is how quickly she bounced back to her feet and acted like nothing happened. ¡°You really should get a doorbell, I¡¯ve been knocking for a full five minutes. What it was an emergency? It isn¡¯t safe, I¡¯ll have to bring it up at the next safety meeting.¡± The confidence although admirable was comical with the redness of her face and sweat dripping from the work she had put into denting my door. ¡°No need, I heard you.¡± I tried to keep my voice level not wanting my amusement to creep in. She spluttered her way through a couple of ¡°well I never¡¯s¡± and ¡°kid¡¯s these days¡± as well as a ¡°no respect¡±. Finally, she seemed to settle herself smoothed down her blouse and stated with as much decorum as she was likely to muster, ¡°If you heard someone knocking you should have answered the door, it¡¯s very rude not to. All I wanted to do is speak with you about how best to contribute to our lovely community here.¡± ¡°My apologies, I thought with all that banging going on this early in the morning only someone with an unsavory character could be at my door.¡± I was quite shocked when CAROL didn¡¯t resume her word stumbling and her face just got redder and redder. ¡°For your information, I am not an unsavory character, I am a member of the HOA and I came here to give you two things.¡± Saying so she shoved a bright red slip of paper and a green sheet of paper that appeared to be a poster of some kind. Then huffing she stormed down the driveway. What a pity, I was just starting to have fun: from what I was told these scoldings on average last much longer. Closing and relocking my door I read the two pieces of paper. The red was a citation for my grass being a centimeter over the HOA limit, I was surprised it wasn¡¯t for my prolific jaywalking. The second was a trash pick-up day which involved walking the neighborhood to pick up litter. As I was about to toss both papers in the trash a thought struck me a plan that would both allow me to commit a crime but be heralded as a do-gooder. Attaching the date on the flier to my calendar I headed back to my desk. Chapter 8: Peachy ¡°Hero Atlas what are your thoughts on the new law that just passed? Is the restrictions on people with an Evil Alignment a step backward?¡± The young reporter with light blond hair was one of my favorites, Rosiland always asked heavy-hitting questions: the ones steeped in controversy. She never faltered, even when she was interviewing National Heroes there was no starry-eyed admiration in her eyes typical of the general populace. ¡°Of course not! The newly passed law is for the safety of all, it¡¯s well-known that Evil Alignment people are five times more likely to commit crimes if they are monitored it will discourage them from doing so. In the end, it is for their safety as well the fewer crimes they commit the easier it will be for them to be contributing members of society.¡± Atlas¡¯ dimples flashed as he gave the camera what had been described as the manifestation of ¡°boyish charm¡± in a smile. I was surprised by his comment about the safety of the evil-aligned, most heroes disregarded that part of the population until it came to punishing them for ill deeds. My surprise didn¡¯t last long when after his comment he looked behind the camera a lifted one eyebrow before his smile got wider. The answer had been scripted and he was looking for confirmation that he got it right from his PR manager. ¡°And how do you plan to enforce this? There is no such skill that detects what alignment someone is. Unless you guys have been holding out on us?¡± Rosiland questioned and maybe there was more barb in the last question than strictly necessary, not that I was complaining. I wonder what alignment she is? ¡°Of course not, Rosie. Us heroes have nothing to hide any secrets we have about our skills are simply so those with nefarious intentions don¡¯t get a leg up.¡± There was an undertone of dismissal in the first sentence the spacing and tone mimicking that of an adult speaking to an ignorant child. ¡°Our scientists have come up with a device which takes a sample of a person¡¯s blood and can tell which side they fall on even though it hasn¡¯t been perfected to the extent where we can tell whether they are Villain or Anti-hero.¡± The hero continued breezily. ¡°Interesting since all papers I have seen published have shown such devices have a 60% accuracy at best,¡± Rosiland said her grin taking on a predatory edge, perhaps this was her revenge for the previous disrespect. ¡°I¡¯m just a simple man I don¡¯t have the knowledge to speak to that, but it is a good idea and I trust our scientists.¡± An appeal to him being just the average man and therefore trustworthy: a smart move. The interview continued much in the same vein Rosiland asking questions that threatened to expose Atlas for his prejudice and ignorance, but that he managed to recover from with only minimal scratches to his reputation. It got boring after a while so I turned it off, knowing that I could pull it up again if the mood struck me. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I didn¡¯t watch the news that often, but considering my recent aligning it would pay to keep on the current events and public opinion. Of course, it was mostly the latter, the news didn¡¯t go into the scientific breakdown of what they were saying or use facts at all. Most of the stories were heavily layered in prejudice and bias. For example, although what Atlas said about the evil-aligned being five times more likely to commit crimes was generally an accepted statistic, there was truly no way to know that was true. As previously stated there is no way to know if someone was evil-aligned the statistic they got was from asking incarcerated individuals. Individuals who had very little to lose and new that declaring themselves to be evil-aligned often worked as a deterrent for other crimanals who messed with them. Rosiland had been right about previous devices not being accurate and I doubt that the newly minted device Atlas mentioned had improved the percentage of accuracy much. To a certain extent the device could put a dent in my plans, if i was tested and it was declared I needed to be under surveillance my crimes would be noticed. That is if I refused to adapt. Over all it was an inconvenience, but not impossible to work around should it become necessary. There was however some silver linings I found in this declaration. There was bound to be push back from people about the infringement of rights even if it was the rights of people they didn¡¯t particularly care about. If the machine was as inaccurate as I anticipated it being then about fifty percent of the population would be labeled as in need of surveillance something that would set the public outcry against them. In the case that the public was ignored the draining of funds and manpower would cause the effort to lose traction and it would be given up. My guess was that they wanted something else, either that or they were as stupid as they seemed. The silver lining would be the questioning of the Heroes'' intentions as well as my chance to take note of any groups that formed in protest to possibly use as allies in the future. It would be interesting to see how things would unfold. Done with my current train of thoughts I pulled up the EVIL lottery screen staring at the one coin sitting there. In my quest to set a routine, I hadn¡¯t yet implemented the plans to complete more tasks and thus I only had the lone coin from my ¡°Traffic Violation¡±. I did debate waiting until I had collected others, but it would not increase my chances so I saw no reason to wait. Plucking the coin from the screen was not as shocking to me this time but I did still feel a certain sense of wonder as the digital thing in front of me become real at the touch of my fingers. The coin slid into the slot with relative ease, popping of piece of gum into my mouth I started to form a bubble as I watched the colors spin around. When it finally stopped I was prepared for another congratulations for "Nothing!" that''s not what happened. Honestly, if these were the types of things that the EVIL lottery could offer I needed to get more coins pronto. [Congratulations! You have won "Incendio - The Arsonist''s Dream" This weapon is capable of setting anything on fire. Happy burning!]