“Wake up, you maggot!”

Victor opened his eyes in shock as the male gruff voice continued his tirade.

“Wake up! It’s a new day, and you are still asleep! I never had a worse host in my life. Wake up! You can sleep when you’re dead. Get your ass off …”

Victor looked around. He was alone. Silently sighing, Victor rubbed his sleepy eyes and spoke.

“Reunion, shut up.”

“How dare you call me by my name! That’s Sergeant Reunion to you, maggot!”

Victor tuned out the voice and looked around the flat. He remembered where he is. Victor was currently squatting in one of the numerous abandoned flats in the Kings. Even villains need a place of residence, and Jennifer gave him a list of blocks which were empty. His crew had the whole building to themselves.

The flat Victor picked was one of the better available ones in the area. It had running water, electricity, and he only need to add a few pieces of furniture to make it liveable. Victor sat up as his system continued his military tirade. The irony of his flighty system pretending to be a tough military drill sergeant was not lost to him, but Victor was just too tired to care.

“Reunion, what do you want?”

“That’s Sergeant Reunion, maggot! You completed your task, and a prize is available. How dare you go to sleep before getting it!”

“Oh, that’s right. You did say something like that. What time is it?”

Instead of waiting for an answer, Victor reached over and picked up his waist communicator. Shaped liked a bracer, the waist communicator was a device that hadn’t been invented yet when Victor went to prison but when Victor asked for a mobile phone, Candice recommended that he get a waist communicator instead. The old villain had to admit that his agent was right.

A marvel of an invention, the waist communicator was a mini-computer, mobile phone, and holographic projector rolled into one. It had so many functions, Victor haven’t figured out half of them yet. One of the functions he figured out was the holographic interface. He pressed on the button and asked for the time. A holographic clock image immediately appeared. Victor loved the novelty of the item, and he even had the option of choosing how the time would be shown. Victor saw that his system was right. It was late. He was getting too old for an all-nighter.

“All right, Reunion. Show me the shops.”

The flat disappeared, and Victor found himself back in the dark void. Victor looked around as he floated in the black nothingness. Then the light appeared, engulfing Victor. Before long, it disappeared, and Victor found four lights floating around him. They illuminated the area around Victor, but he looked beyond them, into the endless darkness.

The first time he was here, he remembered being in a panic. He was disoriented and even felt dizzy. Now, he felt strangely comforted by the surrounding darkness. Victor suspected this was due to his increased strength.

“Anytime now, host.”

Victor just chuckled. “Someone is impatient today.”

“A sergeant does not waste time on doing nothing.”

“Spoken like a system who never spent a day in the army.”

“What? Have you ever been in the army?”

“No, but I know many people who had and wasting time is one of the things armies do best.”

The system scoffed. “Second-hand knowledge at best. Now, pick your shop.”

Reunion pointed at the four lights circling Victor, and Victor saw transparent words floating above them. The Cultivation shop was still out, so he had the choice of Superpowers, Magic, Technology, or Random. He picked the random shop. Once again, a spinning wheel appeared before the villain. Victor wondered if Reunion would ever change it. It was amazing the first few times, but the novelty of the wheel has since worn out. Victor mentally wondered if the system could change the prize system, and what he would change it to. Maybe it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie.

Victor touched the wheel and waited for it to stop. When it finally did, Reunion was less than impressed.

“Wow. You really have no luck with this shop. You get a book.”

The wheel of fortune disappeared, and a small book took its place. Victor picked up the book and saw the title. “Forty Ways to Kill”. The villain flipped through it and found that it was a memoir. The name of the author wasn’t written but he was an assassin, and the book detailed the methods he used to kill his targets. As Victor went through the book, he found that it was a surprisingly jovial read.

“Reunion, is this a joke? Is this real memoir or a novel written like memoir?”

“A bit of both.” The system said. “It was written about six years ago by a web novelist who uploaded the story on an amateur writing website. Unknown to the public, the author was an assassin, and the story was based on his real-life experience. According to the synopsis written by the author, the author intended to publish a series of books, but he was killed in a home break-in before the series could be completed. Only the first book in the series was completed.”

“So, in short, the idiot was killed by his employers before he could tell the whole of Nexus of his nefarious deeds?”

“To be fair, it was paranoia. No one truly believe the author was really an assassin. The guy even wrote it as a comedy!”

“As if his employers were going to take the chance on someone linking the two. Did anyone make a connection?”

“No. The story was taken off the internet shortly after the author was killed, and there are only a few published books. However, the book is from this world. If you are so interested, you could do some research on the matter.”

“Oh please! That’s what minions are for.”

“I thought they are called villain support on this world?”

“Don’t you start too?”