[Analysis Complete]
[Host has unlocked the Degenerate System]
[Initial Skills]
Silver Tongue – Mastery of persuasion and rhetoric. Your words can sway decisions, manipulate outcomes, and influence others.
Method Acting – The art of fully inhabiting another persona. You adopt their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors so convincingly that your performance becomes indistinguishable from reality.
I got stuck with the villain starter pack?! How did it choose this after checking my aptitude?
I was joking when I said I was 99% horny all the time—it was more like 98%!
'So I'm destined to become evil, huh?'
Let's be real: most main characters who get skills related to persuasion powers turn into total perverts pretty quickly.
'Cursed my life!'
This wasn't me. The system had already sunk its claws in, feeding me wicked abilities.
That's right. Now I just had to accept my new fate—and abandon my moral compass, reluctantly and painfully, of course.
"Status," I commanded, trying to stop myself from smiling too much.
[Name: Ace Mercer]
[Rank : Lower Being]
[Class : Novice Degenerate]
[Skill : Silver Tongue]
[Skill : Method Acting]
Wait. That's it? Where are my stats? My attributes?
The detailed breakdown with numbers and cool-looking bars? Isn't that basic system 101?
How was I supposed to min-max my way to greatness without any numbers to obsess over?
Just as I was about to open my mouth and give the system a proper scolding for its awful design, I was suddenly yanked out of the darkness.
Next thing I knew, I was back in the hospital bed. No one was around. It looked like I had been out for a long time.
Tried moving my hand first, but something was off.
'Damn it,' I sneered internally.
Not only was the system lazy with details, it also forgot the bare minimum: healing me.
'Okay… calm down.'
At least the skill was still there. And I could finally speak now.
I just had to be smart: think carefully, make a plan, and hope that one day I would unlock a skill that could finally get me out of this damn bed.
One step at a time... or, well… zero steps for now, but that was the idea.
If there was any upside to all this, it was how perfectly the system matched my interests.
And when I said 'interest,' I mean reading questionable doujins—stuff no sane man would be proud of showing to others.
[First Mission: Trick your stepmother to spoil you rotten]
That was it? I was expecting something more extreme. Isn't this system too tame?
"Hey, system, come on! Don't treat me like a rookie. Give me something challenging."
[Bonus Mission: Increase the Affection of Any Woman]
"Now we're talking. Although it'll be hard for me to do that if I can't move, right? So… how about you heal me?"
There was no response. And here I thought that acting chummy with my mysterious system would earn me some points.
I mean, the system was called Degenerate, right? So acting like a scumbag should earn me goodwill… or was it using reverse psychology on me?
Either way, it seemed I had no choice but to do things the hard way, and talk my way through this.
I should check my skills first.
'Silver Tongue...'
Sure, the effect sounded cool, but in reality, expecting instant results would be wishful thinking.
It was safer to think of the skill as a kind of real-world brainwashing, using repeated reinforcement to make people follow you—like how cult leaders turn followers into worshippers.
Funny as it sounds, cult leaders could spout the most ridiculous nonsense—half gibberish, half grandiose lies—and somehow people would nod along like it made perfect sense.
But my skill was different—it only made me better at convincing others, so I was closer to a good salesman than a cult leader. Which also meant I had to be careful.
While I was considering how to test the skill's effectiveness, a young nurse stepped into the room, breaking my thoughts.
Her soft brown hair was neatly tied in a bun, and her hazelnut eyes matched it perfectly.
I looked her up and down—no joke, she was a solid eight out of ten, even without heavy makeup, just her natural beauty shining through.
And when she turned around?
Man, that view just made my day.
"Are you okay, Mr. Ace?" she asked, stepping closer. Her perfume carried a faint lemon scent."
Holy shit! if the average nurse looked this good, I wouldn't be surprised if the female doctors were straight-up runway models.