Chapter 73 – Saturday’s Origin Store [1]

[Origin Store is now open!]

Cassius didn’t hesitate for a single second after the golden panel, shimmering as if infinite SN were woven into it, appeared in front of him. He immediately used his Lucky Lucky Lucky Ticket: a bright golden ticket with a five-leafed clover etched beautifully on its surface.

After its use, it transformed into a spray of golden clovers that surrounded him completely like a cloak before dissolving, just in time for another notification to appear.

[PROCESSING...]

Cassius felt nothing different from the ticket. After all, he had no real understanding of how luck worked as a concept. But his trust in the System’s items was absolute.

While the System processed, he looked at his x2 Boost and calculated, without using it yet, what his total would become.

It was simple arithmetic: thirty-five thousand VP would become seventy thousand VP.

A staggering amount. And yet Cassius found himself cursing under his breath and fighting back a full tantrum the moment he remembered the conversion rate between VP and OP.

Seventy thousand VP would become seven hundred OP.

"This is a scam!" He hissed, fists clenching, "Seven hundred OP is nothing!"

He barely stopped himself from saying it out loud — couldn’t afford to draw attention — but the disappointment was real and thorough.

Then, before he could spiral any further into his complaints, a different panel flared in front of him, one that had nothing to do with the Origin Store.

Cassius stopped, his attention snapped to it instantly.

[NEW ACHIEVEMENT! Mastermind!]

[A Fated Villain, that is indeed what you are. You have caused a far-reaching impact on the Badur Kingdom — its economic, social and political landscape — by targeting two of the Chosen Ones.

A young, innocent boy is dead. A brother has been disowned for daring to seek justice. An entire family has chosen silence because of their own weakness. And yet a fire rages underneath, one threatening to reach the Alchemy Tower.

All of this, with a mother grieving the unjust death of her son.

You are the root cause of every one of these events. And we must say, Last Born of the Desdemona, this warrants a Special Mention.

Congratulations. Your Fated Villain standing has taken one half-step forward in the Eye of the World.]

[Rewards: 5,000,000 VP, Triplet Item Ticket.]

"Oh..." Cassius’s mouth shaped itself into a wide O, genuinely caught off guard.

And it was at that moment, as if struck by lightning inside his mind, watching the panel and the rewards laid out before him, that something finally clicked.

’I am a Fated Villain.’ He mused, closing his eyes to focus deeper, breathing slowly to settle his restless mind. ’That’s who I am. That’s the Path I asked to walk, and now I see it clearly...I am rewarded for going against the Chosen Ones.’

That was the simplest explanation. And the most true.

Because when Cassius had acted with Isolde, he hadn’t done any of it intending to destroy innocent people and families.

He had only meant to put Anesthesia and Emrys in an uncomfortable position; to make their path harder, to make them suffer a little.

Yet somehow, as if shielded by something invisible, they had come out of it nearly unscathed. The ones who absorbed the full weight of his actions were those around them.

Which made Cassius think, and remember, one of the things he had always liked about Villains.

The protagonists, the main characters, it was always like this with them. Those around them suffered and they kept getting stronger, using the suffering of others as fuel for their own growth.

Just like the recent events.

What had happened would make Anesthesia and Emrys act differently now, in ways Cassius could no longer easily predict.

He hadn’t been in this world very long. And yet Cassius Desdemona had already changed it in ways that left even him speechless.

But what was done was done.

"If I am considered a Fated Villain because I was born to stand against the Chosen Ones," He whispered, watching the Origin Store prepare to open fully, "then so be it. I will walk this path without flinching. Because if I don’t, my family, and my wife, will be nothing but ash under their hands."

And as he had once said, he was ready to do anything to protect the people he loved.

So let the world call him villain. He would be satisfied as long as his family saw him, knew him and spoke to him simply as Cassius Desdemona.

Nothing else. Nothing more.

[And why are you not including me?] Ananke chimed in, her voice serious. [I have told you, Cassius, I am now your Nexus Fate. You and I can no longer be separated, regardless of what happens.]

"Careful, Queen. I am a married man." He said with a soft, joking tone, showing his ring.

But by now Ananke was no longer easily flustered by these gestures. She knew him well enough to recognise that he reached for unserious words exactly when he was starting to feel embarrassed, a way of pulling the conversation somewhere more comfortable.

Not that day.

[Hear me well, my Blessed.] She pressed on. [You are not alone on this path. I, your Goddess, am here. Your wife, Isolde Amaris, is here. Your family, the Desdemona — and even the Hood — are here.]

She chuckled.

[Aren’t you lucky? You are a Villain born inside a house of Villains, with a wife who would kill for you without being asked. You do not lack for support. It will not be easy, of course, they are Chosen. But you are far from helpless.]

"I am indeed not helpless." Cassius said, smiling widely. "And honestly, no joke this time, I am absolutely Lady Luck’s favourite child. Tell me if you know a Goddess of Luck. I might go to her church and light some candles. Hell, maybe I’ll kneel and kiss her—!"

[I will kill you if you do that to another goddess, Cassius Desdemona.]

"Oh my—!"

DING!

[Here are the three items of today’s Saturday Origin Store.]

He immediately forgot everything else and fixed every ounce of his bubbling, excited attention on the golden panel, palms rubbing together in anticipation.

[1 — Beauty Potion (Special Item): A potion created by the most universally acknowledged ugly woman in the world, even among the gods during the Age of the First Revelation. She spent her entire life attempting to alter her appearance and become beautiful.

At the end of her thousands of years, she had failed her one and only goal and died as ugly as she was born, in a deserted village between two ice-covered mountain peaks.

Yet it was not the potion that failed. The potion succeeded enough to make the gods of the Alchemical Path tremble. Ingesting it will enhance your beauty in a way entirely unique to you. (30,000 OP)]

[2 — Master Key (Special Item) : This Key was created by a man who called himself Cultured Writer, owing to his love of entering the homes of random people and observing them in intimate moments all for his Book Series, which he gloriously titled The Way of Degeneracy.

This Key opens any door, any lock. However...beware. There are times when the Key opens somewhere other than the door you intended. (20,000 OP)]

[3 — Honorary Prayer of the Mother Demoness of Pestilence: If you ever wish to attract the attention of a BEING you should not, this is the most effective method available, and this Honorary Prayer would serve that purpose perfectly. (300,000 OP)]

[What catches your fancy? And more importantly, what can your pocket actually afford?]

Cassius stood frozen for a long moment, mouth refusing to close, gasping continuously.

In that instant, he was profoundly, deeply grateful for the Lucky Lucky Lucky Ticket. Because this was undoubtedly its effect.

And it seemed the ticket’s influence had extended even to the rewards just granted by the System.

Because he had received 5,000,000 VP — which converted to 50,000 OP — alongside the Triplet Item Ticket, which would get him three of the same item upon any purchase.

And he still hadn’t used his x2 Boost. Cassius had every right to pass out from excitement.

[Perhaps Lady Luck does favour you, after all.] Ananke muttered, even she surprised.

"Told you." He said, and used the x2 Boost.

His OP climbed to a staggering 100,700.

He still had his Discount Ticket — seventy percent off — and his Freeze Ticket.

"What should I do, now, dear Queen?"

He asked his goddess with a wide, beaming grin, his whole body trembling with barely contained excitement, his eyes locked firmly on the Honorary Prayer of the Mother Demoness of Pestilence.

—End of Chapter 73—