Cassian was sitting on the edge of the bed with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands covering his face.
He had been in that position for half an hour, trying to sort out the mess that his mind was at that moment.
He went over the facts one by one, again and again.
The first was that he had "died"; that was an undeniable fact—he remembered the truck perfectly.
The second was that he had been transmigrated by a system that supposedly only appeared in novels.
And lastly, that his new life was as a secondary villain alongside three mandatory missions he had to complete if he didn't want to die.
He had cursed Marek Nightrend more than once for wanting to manipulate the heroines into falling in love with him.
And now he had to do exactly that… he had to turn them into villainesses and kill a god.
Cassian could only exhale slowly, trying to ignore all of that for a moment.
'Perfect. Everything under control.'
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the system screen still floating near him, with the same message that had appeared when he pressed yes.
[That's great! I knew you wouldn't leave me alone in this world.]
[I have faith in you, Cassian.]
He just looked at the screen for a moment.
"Yeah, sure," he muttered without much enthusiasm. Then, almost out of habit like a novel reader, he asked the first thing anyone in his situation would ask. "Do you have some kind of shop? Rare items, unique objects, that sort of thing?"
[Do I look like a merchant to you?]
At the screen's response, he could only let out a small laugh filled with irony.
"You don't look like anything, you're just floating text, that's all."
[Good point. The answer is still no, though.]
"Great," he said, running a hand over his face. "So, what advantages exactly do you give me? Because so far the only thing you've done is give me impossible missions and change my last name."
[The last name suits you much better. Admit it.]
"The advantages," Cassian repeated, ignoring the comment.
The screen flickered for a moment before replying.
[If you're in such a hurry to see the advantages you have, then say or think "status."]
Cassian frowned slightly at the system's remark, but in the end he did as it asked.
"Status," he muttered.
The screen changed immediately, displaying a more organized structure.
[Status.]
[Name: Cassian Nightrend.]
[Age: 19 years old. (Days away from turning 20.)]
[Rank: Basic ➜ Lvl 1.]
[Talent: SSS.]
[Natural ceiling: Unknown.]
[Mana Core: Active ➜ Efficiency: 1%.]
[Skills: None.]
Cassian read the list from top to bottom.
Then he repeated it several times.
His eyes stopped on two specific lines and didn't move from them.
Talent: SSS.
Natural ceiling: Unknown.
"Wait…" he murmured. "Does it seriously say SSS talent?"
[Correct.]
Cassian took a moment to respond. Not because he didn't understand, but because he couldn't believe what he was seeing was real.
In the novel he had been reading for weeks, the talent system worked like a ceiling. No matter how much someone trained or how many fights they survived, talent determined how far they could go.
An F talent could only reach the Basic rank and that was it, unless certain conditions were met.
The world he was in now was governed by eight ranks: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Master, Grand Master, Saint, and finally, Deity.
Each one was divided into ten levels, and advancing wasn't a matter of luck, but of effort, training, and real battles.
Most people were born with a talent between F and D. For them, reaching the Expert rank or higher was the dream of a lifetime… and even so, few achieved it.
But the protagonist of the novel—the guy he would have to face sooner or later—didn't play by the same rules.
He had an SS talent.
One of the strongest in the story. The supposed chosen one.
The man with all the heroines on his side and the backing of the entire damn fate itself.
But he now had a rank above the hero's, with a ceiling the system itself described as unknown.
'Did Marek seriously have such an enormous talent?' he thought in disbelief. The guy was a complete idiot in every sense of the word, and at no point in the novel did he show anything interesting.
[That's not the case. The former owner of the body barely had a C talent. I took the time to give you those advantages. You're welcome, by the way.]
"...Thanks," he muttered, still staring at that section.
Another thing he had was his active mana core. Which meant he could use magic, something not everyone in that world could do.
That said, the efficiency was only 1%, which was almost a joke, but it was something he could improve later with training.
For now, he would take advantage of those benefits and train as much as necessary to increase his rank and his mana reserves.
'Anyway, what do you mean I only have 1% efficiency?'
[Did you want everything at once? You'll increase it with training, so stop complaining already.]
[You have the most OP thing in this world, and on top of that you have me. The Villain System, which is no small thing.]
Cassian nodded slowly; he wasn't going to deny that it was absolutely right.
"With this power, will I be able to defeat the forgotten god?"
[Not at all. Haha, that's why you need to conquer the heroines to have powerful allies when the battle comes.]
Cassian could only swallow hard; not even with an SSS talent would he be able to do anything against the forgotten god.
He didn't even know what or who it was; he had barely read half of the novel.
So he only knew the story up to a certain point. The rest would be uncharted territory.
Then he looked at the screen again.
"And what else can you do, besides giving me missions that kill me if I reject them?"
[Many more things that I'll reveal to you over time.]
[But first, there's something you need to do.]
The screen changed again.
[Secondary Mission Available.]
[Behave over the next few hours exactly as Marek Nightrend would. Do not break character at any moment.]
[Reward: Complete memories of the original body.]
[Do you accept?]
[Yes / No]
Cassian stared at the screen for several seconds, having no real reason to reject the mission. Those memories would help him a great deal later on.
But on the other hand, the idea of acting like an arrogant idiot disgusted him. It wasn't exactly what he had in mind for his first day.
But without those memories, he would be completely in the dark about his new life, his family, and the environment around him.
Without thinking too much about it, he quickly pressed yes.
'I hope acting like an idiot doesn't rub off on me.'