[You don't have to worry about dying at the hands of the protagonist. I am here to help you defeat him!]
After a short silence, the system finally answered with a weirdly upbeat message, like it had already gotten used to Dante's nonsense.
"It's good that you understand me so well," Dante said, feeling very pleased. "But you still haven't told me the important part. How do I actually get stronger?"
He scratched his head and kept going. "Sure, I'm confident in my ability to handle a few women in bed, but some of my seniors are awakeners, you know?"
If things went sideways and those beautiful women got too wild, he would end up being used like a human dildo and sucked dry until he turned into a mummy.
[Your worries are unnecessary. Villains who only scheme but have zero personal strength are just budget Ain't-zen.]
Dante nodded in agreement.
Then the system continued.
[For every reward your targets receive, you will obtain ten times that reward! No matter the reward, whether it is bloodlines, talents, techniques, or anything else, you are guaranteed to trigger 10x rewards.]
"Holy fuck!" Dante blurted out, completely thrilled. "Now that's what I'm talking about. Stealing the heroines while getting ten times the rewards? This is probably the best and juiciest deal anyone could ever ask for!"
Before he could celebrate any further, the system made sure to kill his excitement.
[But there's a catch.]
"Sigh, fine," Dante said with a look that showed he had fully expected this. He already knew something had to stop him from just spamming it endlessly. "Tell me. What is it?"
[The system slots are limited, but they can be increased by taking down heroines. Rewards are based on the difficulty of the missions, and missions scale with favourability.]
[Assigning extreme missions too early might make the target suspicious.]
[You can currently release up to two systems. Once bound to a target, they cannot be taken back. It is advised to use them wisely.]
"…Fair enough," Dante muttered. "I guess those are the real conditions."
Only now did he realize that the earlier conditions weren't actually restrictions at all. They were basically advantages in disguise. It made sense when he thought about it.
Things would have been much simpler without these limitations, but rushing through everything might not even be a smart move.
If he captured all the heroines before Ryan came back, he would miss his chance to properly screw with Ryan's head.
And since there were three ways to drain the protagonist's luck, Dante had a feeling there was probably a cap on how much could be taken just through stealing women alone.
Personally, Dante liked to take things slow.
If he was going to steal all the heroines, then he was going to do it the right way. He would win over both their hearts and their bodies.
He wanted to hand Ryan his "surprises" one at a time, slowly driving him out of his mind.
"Before we get down to business, I want to ask you something else," Dante said after remembering something important. "Can I see my status panel? What about other people, especially Ryan?"
[Of course, you can view the status panel of everyone. You can do that by saying it out loud or simply thinking about it in your mind, but…]
"But what?" Dante's eyes narrowed. "Why are you pausing like that? It's not like I can hit you or anything."
[I haven't finished yet. There is another catch.]
Dante's eye twitched.
"You know what? Since you love catching so much, catch these hands, you motherfucker!" He finally snapped and started throwing punches at the screen.
Of course, he couldn't actually touch the blue screen, let alone land a hit, but right now he just needed to let it out.
[Wait! Let me finish!]
"Fuck you, Ding Dong! Why the hell are you dodging?" Dante yelled, still swinging like an idiot.
The system was seriously yanking his emotions back and forth, and it was getting impossible to tell whether the thing was actually trying to help him.
A few minutes later, Dante was sitting on the floor with his back against the bed, breathing hard.
"Damn it, why the hell is this body so weak?" He pushed his hair back, feeling even more frustrated than before.
"It seems like I only kept some of my old features. My face still looks pretty similar to before and…" He paused, pulling his waistband forward for a quick peek before continuing with a look of relief. "Phew… my Excalibur is still the same."
More than his face, Dante was proudest of the monster hiding in his pants.
"System, what are you waiting for? Just explain everything properly already!" he barked, forcing himself to cool off.
[I will make sure to explain everything clearly. You can increase your luck by stealing the protagonist's luck, and on top of that, you will earn villain points.]
[Using villain points, you can buy anything you want from the villain store.]
[You can even buy items that give you extra system slots!]
As the system kept talking, a strange expression slowly crept onto Dante's face.
[You can raise your realm, improve your talent rank, and much more with villain points. They are even more useful than the protagonist's luck.]
"Is that it?" Dante asked, veins bulging on his forehead. "Is that what you meant by another catch?"
[I promise!]
'Ah… since when did systems start ragebaiting people?' Dante thought, not knowing where to put his face. 'And I actually fell for it from a fucking clanker?'
If this were a novel, the readers would probably be dying of laughter right now.
To take his mind somewhere else, Dante pulled up the status panel in his head.
[Status Panel]
[Name: Dante Ackerman]
[Loading….]