[Reberu] ga Arunara Agerudesho? Mobukyara ni Tensei Shita Ore wa Gēmu Chishiki o Ikashi, Hitasura Re

[Born of Atrocity]

Information on the collected parts and by-products of the dragon corpse was worth thousands of gold.

Some of them were given to research institutes, while others were given to the survivors as a reward.

In case another threat to their continued existence came knocking on their door, humanity sharpened its fang. So that the next time it was attacked, it could win without as many sacrifices and so that more heroes could survive.

This was the universal way of thinking of people living in this world.

But of course, there was always an exception to everything. In the nation, some had deviated to the way of evil.

These people used the information, the by-products, and the surviving heroes for their own self-interest… and these people gathered under the banner of the ‘Black Sword’.

“How’s it going?”

“His physical ability is amazing. And you can say he has a natural talent for swordsmanship. But because of the effect of the treatment, the pigment cells in his hair have decreased and his face now has almost no trace of the original.”

“A trivial problem. In fact, it is good news. We don’t have to worry about anyone getting suspicious of his ‘original identity’ anymore.”

In the research facility located under the Obsius Co. which ran a financial business on the surface, the leader nodded satisfactorily to the researcher’s answer in response to his question.

In front of them was visible a completely naked swordsman with long gray hair tied low behind his neck and flowing down his back like a tail slaughtering the released monsters one after another.

“Natural talent for swordsmanship, eh. Perhaps it is due to the influence of the body… I also read in the battle report about the dragon learning swordsmanship. Can it be the cause?”

“It is possible. He’s got a piece of the dragon brain that was salvaged from the battle zone implanted in his head, after all.”

The swordsman’s body had countless surgical scars.

The color of his skin was uneven too, giving the impression that his body had been patched up from multiple sources.

Which was a fact. His body was made up of parts taken from many people and by-products obtained from the dragon.

The ‘base body’ was that of the Sword Demon, who was one of the lucky survivors of the Dragon Raid.

Unfortunately, due to the severity of his injuries, he could only wait for death. Taking advantage of this fact, the head used his authority as a noble to fake his death and brought him to the facility to use his body for experiments.

His torn muscle fibers were replaced with that of ‘The Destroyer’, aka the Princess Knight, who had a superhuman body.

His eyes were replaced with those of ‘The Spirited One’, who was said could see through everything, and his lungs with that of ‘The Lone Wolf’, who held the longest holding breath underwater record.

His ribs were replaced with one of the strong ribs of ‘The Unbroken’, reinforced with dragon scales, whereas his blood was replaced with dragon blood mixed with that of the ‘Evil Vanquisher’.

Of course, his other internal organs and bones were replaced with top-grade materials as well, but the one particularly noteworthy was a part of the dragon’s brain that had been taken from the decapitated dragon’s head and then implanted in the Sword Demon’s brain.

This was done in the hopes that it would somehow imbue the dragon’s learning ability that was so extraordinary it could even learn the Sword Saint’s swordsmanship through mere observation into the body, and it proved to be successful, evident from what they were seeing in front of them.

The one who made this all possible was the ‘Puppeteer’ Joseph Asanaga.

The techniques of the madman who hadn’t even a shred of hesitation in using people as material and his well of knowledge that came from his experience had been refined by the hands of the talented people gathered in the ‘Black Sword’, making ways to this inhumane and demonic deeds.

The leader secretly mocked Joseph for giving away all his ingenious techniques just so he could stay close to his beloved, make-believe, daughter puppet, but he never showed it and followed through with their deal and gave him the power of demon-kin. He even let him do whatever he wanted as long as he did the bare minimum of work.

“If he had a natural talent for swordsmanship, then he should be able to compete with the ‘Sword Saint’—no, surpass him, even.”

“I’m thinking of letting him gain experience in battles outside the wall to further his growth. There, he can fight both monsters and adventurers.”

“And that way, it will be easy to cover up the murder. Very well, I will allow it. Do whatever you need to do to make him stronger. He will be our trump card, make him become the strongest, unparalleled destruction machine.”

Most of the Sword Demon’s body had been replaced with others’ body parts, and even his ego had disappeared due to the influence of the part of the dragon brain implanted in his brain.

He was born anew as a different person and the leader gave him the name ‘Nanashino Katsumi’ and sharpened his fangs as the ‘dragon-demon-kin’, the strongest being in the organization.

The leader pulled some strings with his power as a noble to allow him to go outside the wall, and night after night he fought ferocious monsters and at times attacked strong adventurers who went out to explore the uncharted lands.

Even within the confine of the wall, he would carry out various murders as part of the organization’s assassination business, some were even captains at the knight order.

The more he fought, the more he learned, and the sharper his sword grew.

Was it because the memories and experiences of the Sword Demon reawakened, or was it the result of the terrifying learning ability of the dragon’s brain?

And since he acted alone, he was given the magic sword ‘Indestructible Sword Eckesachs’, which further increased his personal combat power.

It had been a year since the Dragon Raid.

Nanashino Katsumi was promoted to Executive just half a year after he became active.

Having reached what was considered the highest position in the organization, he was now a complete destruction machine that only listened to the leader’s orders.

“The research on demonization has made great strides thanks to Joseph, I also have Luisina’s ‘puppets’, Asanaga, and Pygmalion, as well as the ‘dragon-demon-kin’ Nanashino Katsumi! Many heroes have perished in the battle against the dragon and the nation has been exhausted by the violent actions of the evil dragon believers, no one can stop anymore!

“Not even the Sword Saint!” said the leader after reading the report on how Nanashino Katsumi had slashed through the barrier in the forbidden section of the great library in the Elf Territory.

The leader no longer had any doubts about Nanashino’s strength and recognized him as his strongest pawn.

He was overjoyed and trembling at the fact that the vision he had envisioned for the future was imminent.

The fact that he had obtained a ‘dragon’, that he had obtained ‘power’, made him rejoice.

With the completion of Nanashino Katsumi, the leader of the ‘Black Sword’ would set his grand plan into motion.

“The time to wield the power of the Black Sword I have founded and built up over the course of 500 years has come!” He shouted loudly. “Three years. In three years, the Black Sword will pierce the king’s throat and lead me to the throne! I will rule this nation, I will rule this world!”

It would be easy to dismiss his words as nonsense.

But in ‘a certain world (in-game)’, he did manage to kill the reigning king and reached his hands out for the throne.

The groundwork had already been laid, and if nothing had happened, his ambitions would have gone as he had planned until he was defeated by the protagonist (Amanai) and his comrades.

However, this world would never go down to the future he desired.

The ruin of the ambitions of the leader of the ‘Black Sword’ was set in stone the moment the being that was the turning point awoke.

“…Ngh, hm? What is this place? Where am I?”

He couldn’t possibly anticipate or imagine it.

That a human from another dimension, who had been observing the world he lived in as entertainment, would awaken as ‘Nanashino Katsumi’ by way of ‘reincarnation/possession’.

Therefore, in the short time it took for the being to understand the situation he was in, the leader, who had been away from the base, cluelessly missed his only opportunity to prevent his ambitions from derailing off-track.

“Ha, haha, hahaha! Well, this is great!”

After he digested the situation, he set out to fulfill his hidden ambitions.

He continued to obediently follow the leader’s orders to not arouse any suspicion from the leader and his loyal followers, but using his knowledge of the original game, he moved behind their backs to create his personal faction, effectively taking over the organization from within.

Then, taking advantage of the opera house incident, he broke away from the organization, he continued his agenda while swallowing up everything that the leader built, and now Nanashino had the academy dungeon in his hands.

“Yo, sons of bitches! Good job restraining yourselves until today! I really appreciate the fact that people with broken personalities like you guys behave well! Thank you, I mean it!”

In the 50F of the academy dungeon, the lowest floor known to ordinary students.

At the square there, Nanashino smiled at the people gathered in front of him.

Former murderers, drug addicts, outlaws who just wanted to go on a rampage spree, researchers fascinated by human experiments… the people in front of him mostly had personality problems. Though they had the abilities, it was difficult to put them to work. They were troublemakers in ‘Black Sword’.

Nanashino had persuaded them to follow him precisely because of that.

Although they were mostly self-centered, one thing they had in common was that they could endure and cooperate to achieve their personal goals.

When such people were freed after holding themselves for a long time, it was often they would metaphorically explode.

Nanashino was convinced they would be indispensable to the final part of his plan, and so he invited them in as companions.

“Thanks to that fool Joseph, everything is more than adequately ready! Tomorrow! We will end our days of abstinence!”

“You mean we can do whatever we want starting tomorrow?!”

“Damn right we can! No need to hide in the dark anymore! In the middle of the day, under the sun! Murdering, robbing, raping, you name it! We’ll be able to do whatever we want! Common sense, laws, and shit be damned! We’ll be free!”

“Freedom!”

“We’ll be free!”

“At long last!”

One after another, smiles appeared on the faces of the broken people who were unable to live in society.

All of them were terribly sadistic. They were nothing more than a collection of offensively vulgar people who wielded their powers as demon-kins for their own desires.

A legion of self-interest and inferiority complex where lowly beasts whose conversations were only limited to “I want to tear off someone’s limbs and collect their blood to use as paint”, “I want to rape anyone that catches my eye”, and something along the lines gathered.

“Hmm, it’s nice to see you all become so spirited. Pygmalion, I’m counting on you to watch these scums until tomorrow. When the time comes, release them into the wild.”

“Slurp~. Y-yes, all right. Leave them to me.”

“What’s wrong? You’re not feeling well? …Ah, could you be feeling guilty, now?”

Pygmalion was unable to immediately answer Nanashino’s question.

Pygmalion knew it was stupid, but it was true he had a guilty conscience.

Nanashino, seeing through him, burst into laughter then placed his hand on the big guy’s shoulder and whispered into his ear.

“You’ve already fallen to the bottom of the bottom, quit worrying about the small things.”

“……”

“Besides, I need you. Without you, I wouldn’t have come this far. I’ll be relying on you until the very end, Pygmalion.”

The whispers were so sweet that even though he knew they were poisonous, Pygmalion still swallowed them.

Pygmalion could no longer escape, nor did he have the intention to.

Satisfied after reaffirming his control over Pygmalion, Nanashino left him behind and walked away in a good mood while humming.

His past world. He would achieve in this world what his past self couldn’t achieve.

Starting over your life and moving up in the world was the privilege of a reincarnated person, he would be a fool not to do so.

“Kukukuku. Wonder how many people will die. Wonder how many people will I get to kill! Oh, fuck! I just can’t wait for it! Aha, aha, ahahahahaha!!”

The anticipation welling up in his heart seemed about to burst at any moment, and he laughed like a mischievous brat.

What kind of expressions would those suffering from his scheme make? How would they cry?

What horrific a scene would the world create when he let loose those people with broken personalities?

They were just stopping points for his original objective, but he did take pleasure in them.

The next day, the ‘Nanashino faction’ finally began to move.

They spread pure destruction indiscriminately and rampage to satisfy their desires.

Atop the now-moving academy dungeon, Nanashino Katsumi raised the corner of his mouth as he picked up screams and saw blood splattering in the city below.

“—Oh?”

Then, from the tragedies-filled city, someone ripped through the sky and flew toward him.

Nanashino gave a friendly smile at the sudden arrival and greeted him in an easygoing manner.

“Yo, what’s up, my fellow reincarnator (player). You enjoying the game?”

What came back was a gaze filled with deep, simmering wrath.

Finding his anger too comical, Nanashino laughed at him amusedly.

The world, people, and monsters. Everything other than himself was but a tool and a toy for his ambition.

And Nanashino Katsumi fancied himself as a true player. That was why he could laugh at the tragedies he caused.

Therefore—he still didn’t realize that he had stepped on the tail of a terrifying beast.