The system screen floated in front of me, glowing that familiar blue.I had been staring at it for hours now—Just sitting in my chair, reading the same lines over and over, making sure I understood every single word and if I was not hallucinating. But then again how could it be after this hell?
[CORRUPTION PATH UNLOCKED]
[New Skills Available]
Three skills. That's what I got.
[Skill: Silver Tongue - Level 1]
Increases persuasion effectiveness. Target is 15% more likely to consider your perspective.
[Skill: Identify Weakness - Level 1]
Reveals basic information about the target's emotional vulnerabilities and desires.
[Skill: Mask of Sincerity - Level 1]
Others perceive your intentions as genuine. Less effective on high-level cultivators.
I tested the last one on Scarface Liu when he came to report about some merchant caravan passing nearby. Told him I was thinking about going straight, becoming an honest man.
For a second, that idiot actually believed me. His face went all confused before I laughed and told him I was joking.
The skill worked, that was a Good thing.
I then closed the screen and leaned back. My cave was quiet except for the sound of wind outside and distant voices from my men drinking around the fire.
Six months, that's how long I had before the next Chosen One showed up to kill me and yet also to figure out how to deceive this hero.
But the funny thing was, I didn't feel a single drop of guilt or regret about what I was planning.
Seventy four times—swords went through my chest, blades across my throat, cultivation techniques burning me from the inside out cooking my organs until they turned into charcoal.
And every single time, watching some teenager brat with a righteous face before everything went dark.
It does something to you, dying that many times, watching it become a routine and the worst part, you remember the pain, you remember your own death, but what can you do?
Nothing, just sit there and wait for them to kill you again….
I didn't care anymore…. Not about right or wrong…. Not these fucking brats... .I just care about not dying again.
And if corrupting these chosen ones and making them sinners is how I survive? Then I'd do it. I will gladly do it.
Three days passed before I left my cave.
I'd spent that time reading everything the system gave me. There was a whole section on corruption mechanics - like a tutorial, which was pretty funny again, considering I was supposed to BE the tutorial.
[CORRUPTION GUIDE]
[Chosen Ones arrive with strong moral foundations. Direct corruption will fail. Build trust first. Understand their fears and desires. Offer them power, help or solutions that require small compromises. Over time, these compromises add up.]
[WARNING: If the player somehow loses its life, ************************************]
"Mmm" I tapped on the screen but nothing changed, what's the warning? I thought about it, what would happen; Will I be trapped again and the worst thing this system will also disappear.
"Haah." This system was f***ing with me but still this was the first chance I had gotten! So I had to be careful and patient. I walked out of the cave in the afternoon where my twelve bandits were scattered around the camp doing….ugh.
What can I say? A few were supposed to be on watch but I could see them sleeping against rocks.
Useless.
For these years I'd barely paid attention to these guys. They were just... there…like NPCs who reset every time I died, who never really changed or grew or did anything interesting.
But now I looked at them. Old Chen was stirring something in a pot over the fire.
He has been a soldier once, before he deserted, witnessing his whole unit getting slaughtered by demonic beasts and decided he'd rather live as a bandit than die for some noble's war.
Little Feng was sharpening his knife nearby—Fifteen years old and only joined us last year—or what felt like last year to him—because he had nowhere else to go since he was an orphan whose parents were killed by some cultivator who belonged to a big family.
But suddenly a thought passed in my mind: why wasn't he chosen? He was also an orphan like those brats and has suffered hardship —so why wasn't he given a chance or anything like that? And there I was looking carefully at him and remembering those other kids.
"What a shitty world," I said. Little Feng's face was covered with ugly marks, maybe from birth—and probably that was why he was never chosen.
…
Scarface Liu was gambling with two other men, losing badly from the looks of it. He had been a merchant's guard before he killed his employer over an unpaid debt and then gambled away the money within a month.
They all had their stories—their backgrounds and reasons for being here.
I wondered if the system made all that up, or if they'd been real people once before getting stuck in this loop with me. Well it didn't really matter either way.
"Boss!" Scarface Liu waved me over. "Want in on the next round?"
"No." I walked past him toward the edge of camp where we kept our weapons stored.
My sword was there, leaning against the wooden rack and so I picked it up. The weight felt wrong in my hands since I'd never been good with it. Even after thirty, I practiced with it but still I was barely competent.
Being at the Foundation Establishment stage. The system locked me at that level— I couldn't advance higher and break through.
The Foundation Establishment should have been enough to handle the average bandit or beast. Should have been enough to at least put up a fight against these Chosen Ones.
Except it wasn't. Because they carried some shitty Plot armor. Destiny. Heaven's blessing. Dog shit luck. Whatever you want to call it.
The world itself wanted them to win and they always did, no matter how hard I tried. Which simply meant fighting them directly was pointless.
I had to try something different this time.
"Scarface," I called out. "Get everyone together. We need to talk."
It took twenty minutes to gather all twelve of them. Half were drunk already even though it was barely past noon. I made a mental note of that—if I was going to use these idiots as part of my plan I needed to discipline them first.
"Listen up," I said once they were all assembled. "Things are going to change around here."
A few groans. One guy actually rolled his eyes.
I pulled out my sword and put it against his throat before he could blink.
"You think I'm JOKING?" My voice came out flat and cold. "You think this is the same as before?"
The guy froze and everyone else went quiet.
I'd never really used my cultivation pressure on them before and never bothered but now I let a bit of it leak out—just enough to make the air feel heavy, to make their breathing a little harder.
They all straightened up real fast.
"Better." I pulled my sword back. "Now listen. In six months, someone's coming here. Young, probably around sixteen or seventeen and they'll have a quest to kill me."
Silence.
"Boss, you have a huge bounty on you, we already know that someone will come here to find you, but a kid?" Old Chen asked.
They didn't know about the system so their confusion was acceptable. But who cares.
"Just do as I say, don't ask me useless questions. Get better. Train. Stop drinking yourselves stupid every night. When that person arrives, I need you to put on a convincing performance."
"Performance?"
"Yes, we're going to stage a fight and make it look real. Some of you might need to play dead and I'll take a wound that looks fatal then 'escape' into the forest so they will think they won and completed their quest."
"But can't we directly kill them?" Scarface Liu interrupted.
I only gave him a serious look and he closed his mouth immediately.
"Then what?" Little Feng asked as his eyes lit up.
"Then I will approach them later with a different identity." I smiled. It didn't feel warm. "And I will threaten their beloved for money."
"Aaaahhh." Understanding flashed on a few faces…At the end they were bandits who loved riches more than anything..