Reborn As An Extra In My Own Novel-Chapter 67: Penalty

(About ten minutes ago: Kai’s POV)

"Rest in peace, senior." As soon as I spoke to the deceased senior I saw in the library, I stood up and prepared to enter the building.

Except for the pile of corpses at the entrance, nothing else particularly caught my attention.

It was just silence, the growls of the monsters were fading as if they couldn’t locate any prey to devour, but with the help of my zone and clairvoyance, I could tell there were still living humans inside the lab.

One step at a time, I gradually made my way into the entrance, summoning Shiki and Gobo to stand ahead of me.

’There aren’t supposed to be this many drifters...’ I placed my hand on my chin.

In my novel THD, there were a total of seven factions under the demonic cult.

These seven factions determined which branch of the seven deadly sins the demonic human fell under.

And since, unlike drifters, which were lifeforms close to demons but mostly appeared as monsters and rarely spoke even when they had intelligence, or mana beasts that were formed by condensing mana and miasma over time—

Demons were living species just like humans, only unlike them, all demons were naturally born with mana and had a cruel disposition, not to mention how corrosive their energy was to the extent that it destroyed their own world, which now manifests on Earth as dungeons.

But perhaps the most unique thing about demons was their ability to form contracts with people weaker than them, granting part of their power in exchange for that person’s life.

Even though this contract could be nullified, for instance, if the human surpassed the demon they made the pact with, or if a high-ranking mage severed it, this rarely occurred, as mages that entered a contract with a demon usually did so of their own volition.

And just as mages possess talents that evolve into gifts, demons possess orders that evolve into aspects.

These orders are divided into seven segments, just like mages have affinities; this classification dictates what powers the demon and their demonic human will have.

That is, the orders of pride, lust, envy, sloth, greed, wrath, and gluttony, which also serve as the base factions of the demonic cult that demonic humans serve.

And Deerheart himself was a member of the Lust faction of the demonic cult, which was why his charm ability was so powerful and how he was able to allure so many female students to complete his experiment.

Sacrifices For Revival.

I sighed. For now, I needed to retrieve the three items I was after and proceed quickly to the administrative office.

But there was still a chance that all of my plans could collapse. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a contingency plan, but it would be troublesome to confront Deerheart without dealing with all the drifters, mana beasts, and his fellow demonic humans first.

As I ascended the stairs, slicing and dissecting one mana beast after another, I heard a loud explosion echo from meters ahead, and almost at the same time, another resounded from where the administrative office was.

’Reni’s and Neko-sensei’s locations.’ I gripped the dragon blade tightly, I had to trust the characters I created in this crucial moment.

Because even if I wasn’t here or never transmigrated, they could still have figured out how to resolve the situation.

I forced a smile and mused, ’Isn’t that right, Matt.’

**

Before I realized it, I had reached the second floor, and since I was gaining more and more saints as the battle went on, the climb up the stairs became slightly easier.

One of the new saints I had acquired quickly ran over to me, dropped to one knee, and presented the dimension ring now filled with mana cores.

I laughed darkly. ’Perfect, just perfect. I have to farm as much exp and cores as I can.’

My laughter slowly faded as I heard voices ahead of me, not from chatter or monsters attacking directly, but from a person slowly dying on a sickbed.

I channeled mana into my feet and dashed toward the room in the hallway of the fourth floor.

As I drew nearer, the screams grew louder. ’What the hell was that? Are there survivors?’

That was actually my best guess, but if by any small chance they were horrifying creatures, I was ready to curse.

’System, scan for any other human lifeforms in the vicinity.’ I might have been a pro at scouting using my zone and clairvoyance, but I couldn’t lie, the system was better at it than me.

I frowned slightly, my brows furrowing. ’System.’

Stopping abruptly, even though I could still hear the screams, I called again. "System."

’What happened?’ I clicked my tongue. ’Just when I fucking need you.’

But as I took one step forward, ready to sprint again, the system finally rang in my head.

Not its usual sarcastic tone, but a gentle warning chime.

Ding!

[User has overused a vestige that exceeds his rank]

[Penalty for the Star of Ruin enabled]

As soon as the window flickered in front of me and I heard the system’s voice, I felt my head ignite as my legs gave out.

I gasped for breath slowly, my chest tightening, a wave of nerve-shattering pain tearing through my bones.

I had legs, but at that moment I couldn’t feel either them or my arms. Slowly channeling mana through my veins, circulating it throughout my body, I exhaled in relief.

Inhaling deeply, then exhaling heavily.

’Why does this system, this world, or whatever divine force brought me here, love putting me through pain?’ I sat on the floor, only then did I realize the world seemed to slow down.

"At least you’re wicked enough to let time flow normally and kill whoever’s in that class."

There wasn’t time to rest, the pain had already left my body, so there was no point in idling around.

Just as I placed my arm on my knee, trying to fully rise to my feet, the system rang again.

[Due to user’s bloodline, standard penalty has been avoided]

"But you just made me pass through pain."

[Assigning alternate penalty suitable for the user]

Ding!

Loading... Please don’t leave the page...

"This isn’t a page though."

[Assigned Penalty: Nice Guy]

"What?" I muttered, immediately tapping on the floating system window labeled Expand.

Ding!

The words on the glowing sky-blue interface made chills run down my spine. "Huh?"

[You can’t reject a request or command directly]

"I can’t what? For how long? Why?"

[Hahahahahahahahahahahaha... Enjoy your penalty]

"Just answer the fucking question."

[Cough cough, sorry, got a bit excited there...]

’Excited at my pain?’

Ding!

[User may use other means to refuse but cannot directly decline. So, in a scenario where your mouth doesn’t function, your body must respond. But if you can verbally disagree without being direct, and before I activate pain mode—yes, you can technically refuse.]

The system paused dramatically. freёwebnoѵel.com

[The penalty will last for 100 to 1,000 times the amount of time you used the Star of Ruin outside the required rank.]

"And what else?"

[Huh? That’s it from me. Goodbye~]

I clicked my tongue, restraining the urge to punch the stats window. ’Don’t worry, stats, you didn’t do anything.’

Looking above the main stats window to the one showing the two-hour countdown, I held my breath and dashed forward.

There was no point in being dramatic, it wouldn’t change anything.

For now, I had to save the person inside that room, but that turned out to be the worst decision I could’ve made.

Truthfully, part of me urged caution, but the other part, the one rushing to complete this arc, screamed otherwise.

The sequence of events that followed was fairly straightforward.

I handed the two people in the room, who claimed to be scouts sent to retrieve students and do some recon—some potions. After that, the two second-years quickly swore loyalty to me.

Then I told the male of the two to inform his superiors of my message and how I eliminated the monsters, though I was still sweating from the whole ordeal.

I planned to intimidate them a little with my army of soldiers, though I was pretty sure they could handle most of them if they tried, but with the new massive aura vestige I’d acquired, I was confident it would work.

But as I reached the top of the stairs, I couldn’t even fathom what the boy had told the rest of his companions.

Because hell, did they look terrified, and I didn’t even know who told my saints to line up like I was some kind of monarch, but here I stood, saints flanking my left and right, and one random guy I just saved kneeling in front of me like I’d conquered him.

But who was I to complain? As long as it stopped them from giving me any commands or requests, I was fine with it.

And just like a charm, it worked, or I hoped it had, but as I looked at Taylor, who was laughing like some psychotic villain whose plan had gone off track, I couldn’t help but curse under my breath.

My aura had already reached peak stage, so there was no way I was backing down even as he began laughing and asked if it was funny.

But the next words that left his lips made me feel like my life had drained away.

"I hereby command you all by the name of House Karmis—kneel!"

His command made the rest of his group look at him like he’d lost his mind, but for me, it felt like a thousand mountains had crushed my shoulders.

I held back the urge to gasp for air, my mind scrambling for words to say.

The system did say I had to counter it, but I was speechless.

’Damn it.’

Taylor raised his voice again. "Do you want your families to get wiped out? Kneel."

My hands twitched slightly, as I was about to summon my blade. ’It would be better to just kill him.’

Taylor might have been a chain villain, but it was better killing him that people finding out I had such a weakness, even though it only came after I used Star Of Ruin.

But just as my knee was about to give out, and my sword vestige was about forming, the beam of light that emerged from Deerheart’s experiment disappeared, and the purple clouds fell still.

Tremors coursed through the ground as earthquakes began erupting around the academy.

Walls crumbled and buildings collapsed, glass shattering into fragments.

Taylor’s eyes widened as his knee gave way, the pressure on my shoulder vanishing at the same time.

"What the hell is that?" Ivy asked, her voice quivering.

Using the strength I had gathered after the brutal first encounter with the penalty from Star of Ruin, I commanded my saints to grab onto each member of the group and leap through the window with their stunned bodies.

The moment we exited the building, it split in two as debris and dust scattered everywhere.

In the sky, a colossal magic circle took shape as the sky looked like a tornado was churning inside the clouds instead of in the air.

Beneath the clouds was a swarm of flying monsters; I could see flickers of light forming around the school as all the creatures summoned by Deerheart began to disappear.

Not only them, but the students too, every single corpse started to dissolve, converging into the magic circle.

I clenched my teeth as I spotted a massive mechanism that also resembled a magic circle beneath the one in the sky, but unlike the former, this wasn’t a magic circle, it was a gear connecting the bodies of countless females, not just students, as if transferring their souls.

Amanda’s eyes widened, her jaw quivering. "Is this the end times?"

The real Deerheart incident had begun... But now it was so much worse.