The world around him had conveniently paused as he looked at this screen.

Ronin’s eyes widened, but his surprised expression was soon replaced by smugness and a wry smirk.

“Took you long enough, Kai.”

Kai really did take too long, even by a patient man’s standards. Ronin had to navigate this world on his own for three years, entirely in the dark about what was happening besides the earlier explanation he received before becoming a baby.

He does not have a system to tell him what the relevance of a character is, what their stats are, or how he can quickly level up and become a villain already.

But Ronin would admit that he preferred it this way, since that gave him time to use his wits and figure things out on his own. And he did it very well, if he does say so himself.

[Sorry. The HTM system code made it so that the transmigrator can only communicate to the system when they reach Level 1. Of course, this was no problem for any other transmigrators like Min Cheng, since they start at Level 1 even by default. Others even allotted their points to start at Level 5 or higher.]

[But you do not have any points to allot for that, and your origin story specifically puts you to Level 0.]

“Because I have no Flame?”_.

[Exactly.]

Ronin rubbed his chubby little chin with his chubby fingers. “And how exactly did I receive a Flame just now? Was it because of the rune?”

[Yes. As an Illuso Mage, words are the source of your Mage Focus.]

Ronin understood completely. “And runes are words. I’m guessing that runes will bear significance to my leveling up. Does that mean that I gain a higher level for every rune I saw?”

Kai was about to answer, but Ronin figured it out quickly.

“No, that’s too easy. Leveling up gains more difficulty the more levels you unlock, after all. More EXP. So maybe I reach Level 1 for learning 1 rune now, then Level 2 for 10 runes, and so on.”

[…. Correct. There is no need for me to explain with the smart Master Ronin.]

“Don’t call me Master, I really don’t like hearing that word from a system.” Ronin scoffed.

But he did not complain about being called smart at all. Kai thought his ego must be higher than the heavens themselves.

[But it’s not just runes, Ronin. The further you level up, the more I will explain. But what is important for you to know now is that your origin story is coming to an end.]

“Right, I also wonder about that since you mentioned it. My origin story… Back then, the Goddess Bezirze offered the Zafeiri couple to take me with her to her temple in the woods.” Ronin remembered.

“Was it possible to have a route where I was taken there? Could I have done something to change the course of events?”

He has a hunch already, and Kai confirmed his guess.

[No. Your origin story…. Everything that happens before you meet Cermin Drychspiel… is 100% predetermined. It’s inevitable. It was made to be that way in order to serve as your first motivation as a villain.]

“I figured. Hmm, everything that happens before I meet Cermin.”

Ronin said ‘Min’ in ‘Cermin’ with such a strong tone of distaste, but also excitement. He can’t wait for the day he does meet Min Cheng’s character.

He then asked, “Then everything that happens afterwards could be changed according to my decisions and actions?”

[Yes. You would also unlock your first V-point mission by then. ]

“And what would that be?”

[Since V-points are not predetermined missions like H-points missions are, it will depend entirely on the situation and your dynamic with Cermin. The main goal is to ruin Cermin’s missions or find a way to stop him from leveling up. So I don’t know yet what your first V-point mission would be, only that—]

“It reflects on Min Cheng’s missions.” Ronin nodded. “I see. That at least gives me more flexibility on the options I could take to complete my V-points missions.”

He grinned with his scattered baby teeth. “I can even use it to find more ways to make his life as Cermin a living hell.”

He then heard Kai’s thoughts.

(He really does hate Min Cheng a lot, huh? From my experience, Min Cheng really is annoying… but that’s not the first time with any system. We all encountered annoying transmigrators at some point. Why is he so focused on Min Cheng?)

“Because you don’t know my experience with him.” Ronin grumbled. “I was forced to have a cat girl voice and to do stupid things for him. Not only that, but he is completely incompetent! He’s not even worthy of being in the Hero Transmigrating Machine! He’s not even playing the game properly!”

[But many transmigrators are like that, Ronin. That’s why the Rogue System rebelled in the first place. And from what I checked, you are not the only system that accepted his gift. Though most of them chose to be the hero. All of us have grievances against transmigrators, but…]

[Have you ever stepped back and tried to see what exactly made you hate Min Cheng so much?]

Ronin’s eyebrows were furrowed the whole time, but he blinked his big, beady eyes at this last sentence. Kai does have a point.

Yet he doesn’t know what to answer besides the things he already pointed out…. and he felt like he didn’t care for any answer at all.

He just has a natural hatred for Min Cheng. Why try to justify an emotion?

[Could it be jealou—]

“We’ve talked for too long. I have to continue playing my part in the story now.” He said with a darkened face. “You’ll still be around if I have questions to ask, right?”

[Yes.] Kai’s neutral tone seemed to have a hint of sourness from being pushed away like this. [Alright, Ronin. The story will resume.]

The holographic screen disappeared, and everything started moving again.

“Are you sure you’re alright, little Ronin?” Maellan asked him after being paused. “You seem to be agitated just now.”

Maellan placed his finger between Ronin’s creased eyebrows to smoothen it. “Are you mad about something? You want to eat? You want to go to the potty?”

Ronin became even more annoyed by his brother’s babying tone. “I’m fine. Don’t touch me.”

“Oh, sorry. You do not like to be touched, haha!” Maellan chuckled. “Well, let us continue reading then—“

“Young Master Maellan, the inspector has arrived to evaluate your Triannum results. The test will begin.” Axi suddenly arrived by the door, along with Rea who was holding out a sort of uniform folded neatly with a pair of black gloves on top of it.

“I see. Tell Father I would be on my way.” Maellan stood from his chair, and Axi left to relay the message.

He patted Ronin’s head as he went over to Rea, possibly to wear that uniform and gloves. “Wish me luck, baby brother.”

“Good luck.” Ronin said not-so-enthusiastically, but he was interested in what was going on.

As the two left, he jumped out of his chair to watch this ‘Triannum test’.