Author's Note: A lot of you are going to hate me for the upcoming chapters. Some of you will wine and complain, but remember. At the end of the day, I do what I want.

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Null is currently walking through a forest. It has been 5 months since he left Palperroth. He hasn't heard anything from the group that's trying to recruit him. Bloody Dagger had underestimated Null's revulsion towards people. He is not one to enter places populated with people unless he absolutely has to.

Null has also been traveling off road, so there is no way they can actually find Null. If Null doesn't want to be found, he won't be found. During this time, Null has figured out the compass. The compass changes direction 3 times, then it returns back to its original position. Null figures that there are three directions he can choose from. He chose the direction he originally traversed.

When the compass is about to change because of it being the end of the month, Null makes a straight line on his world map to where the compass is roughly pointing to. He then follows that general direction until compass changes back to direction he's traveling in.

'What could cause this compass to act like this? Could it be there are 3 different things I have to get? No. If that was the case, it would only focus on one direction at a time before it changes. This idea is insane, but what if 3 different places keep siphoning off energy from one another each month? A more insane hypothesis is that the thing I'm supposed to learn from keeps teleporting to three different places each month. That idea has a lot of merit. After all, the transmutation circle skills are supposed to be illegal to commoners.'

While he's walking, the compass starts blinking.

'Does this mean I'm close?' Ponders Null. 'Well, I at least have to look presentable before entering. It would really suck if they reject me because I look like a hobo.'

Null decides to head towards the closest village to clean himself up. He finds a village that numbers at about 200 people. Null frowns upon seeing the place. It looks destitute and the people look hungry.

“Excuse me traveler, but could you spare some food?” If there was a person asking for money, Null would've ignored them. However, this person is asking for food and looks unhealthy.

'I should just give him the food so that I can be left alone.' Thinks Null. He takes out some of his bread and gives it to him. He then takes out one of his paper cups and fills it with water and also gives that to him.

“Thank you sir! I will never forget your kindness!” He says with tears in his eyes.

Upon seeing this, more people walk up to Null asking for food. He doesn't have enough for everyone however. He decides to grow some of the food seeds that he's been carrying. He still doesn't know how he will deal with this situation though.

'Guess I have no choice. I just want to be left alone.' Null goes inside the forest looking for food. He finds it odd how scarce it is. When he returns to the village, he asks why.

“We have recently become infested with acid slimes. They eat everything and reproduce quickly. We have tried killing them many times, but a few always manage to survive and quickly repopulate. The little food we had left had to be rationed. Will you help us? All I can offer you is a fine bow as a reward.”

Quest: Acid Slime Subjugation Quest Information: The acid slime has wrecked havoc upon the village's food supply. Kill every single acid slime in the area.

Reward: Fine Bow Quest Rank: E

Penalty if refused: Decreased intimacy with village.

Do you accept?[/size]

'I don't need a fine bow, but whatever.' “I accept.”

You have accepted the quest.

Null heads out into the forest. It only took a few minutes to find what he was looking for.

“Identify.”

Acid SlimeInformation: They spit out a dissolving liquid. Durability on weapons is lowered if it touches the body. Can be killed quickly if attacking the nucleus.Level32 Health 2220Mana 1620 Strength 40 Dexterity 30 Vitality60Charisma10Intelligence40Wisdom35Luck30Attack19Defense16

Null shot out a single needle at the slime's nucleus, killing it in one hit. The number on the side of his vision showed that the number of slimes reduced.

'Now that I know the acid slime's mana signature, I can find all of them in one fell swoop.'

It didn't take long for Null to take out all the slimes. He returned to the village when it was done.

“We can now grow our food without worry! Thank you!”

Null had gotten experience, but it was like a drop in a bucket. The next request soon came in.

“Can you help us grow new crops?”

Null planted seeds and even painted a picture that could boost growing speed.

“Can you help us repair our homes?”

Null used his limited handyman experience to help. The quests kept on coming. Null didn't need any of the rewards, but he figured he hadn't done a quest in a while.

********

Null is staying at a villager's house who happily welcomed him in. He's reading a book.

'It won't be long before my journey is at an end. Doing quests like these won't be a problem. Once I get what I wanted, I won't be doing any quests anytime soon.'

It was then that a little girl came running into Null's room. She looked to be around seven years old.

“I can't believe our hero is staying in my house!” She says excitedly.

Null only looked at her annoyed.

“My name is May. What's yours?”

“Null.”

“Is that a book? I always wanted to have books.”

“Okay.” Null says.

“What's that word?”

“Flow.”

“How about that one?”

“Diagram.”

The next day, May showed off to her friends on what she had learned from Null. Jealous, they all ran to Null to learn things. He taught them multiplication, division, algebra, probability, calculus, and linear algebra.

'This learning speed is absurd.' Thought Null.

He had gained a lot of experience in his librarian class because of this.

Null had stayed there for a few more days. May had constantly kept following Null around. Thanks to Null, the place looks a lot better. The people there are grateful towards Null.

“Please come visit if you have the time.” Someone says to him.

“I'll miss you Null.” May starts crying.

Null starts heading towards the exit.

“Hey friend!”A group of players start calling out to him.

There were four people: Three guys and one girl. The guy in front looked like a warrior. The girl's provocative clothing told the story of her being a dancer. The robe and wizard hat made the third guy a mage, and the fourth guy looked like a rouge of some kind. They greeted Null warmly.

“This place looked like a dump before. You really helped cleaned this place up.” The warrior said impressed.

“Why did you work so hard for the NPCs doing F and E ranks?” The rogue asks intrigued.

“Do you need anything from me?” Null asks.

“Oh. Excuse our rattling. Ahem. There's a quest requirement and we need at least 5 people. We only have four. Care to join us?” The mage asks.

“No. Sorry.”

“Is there a reason why? It won't be that difficult. There a dungeon near here that requires five people to open. The rewards should be grand. It has never been explored by other players.” The dancer says.

“I'm a librarian. I doubt I'll be much help to you.” Says Null.

“A librarian? Seriously?”

This gives him odd looks from everyone.

“Well it doesn't matter. You can carry extra equipment or something. You have my word that we will not gimp you out of your share.”

“Sorry.” Null says simply he's about to walk away.

The dancer girl comes over. She grabs Null's arm and places it between her breasts.

“I would really appreciate it if you said yes.”

Dancers have stats like the beauty stat and charm stat. A person can fall under from their charms without even realizing due to the game. She had activated a technique to make Null fall for her and not be able to resist her beauty. However, she made one mistake. Null did think she was really beautiful, and the technique she used to make someone infatuated with them did work on Null. However, Null has a phobia of beautiful women. All the women that have gave him his traumas were all beautiful. The more beautiful the woman, the more fearful of them he will become. Null quickly separated from her.

“That technique is useless against me.” Null says to her.

“What? Impossible! Are you gay?”

“*sigh* And here I was hoping you would come willingly.”

That leader's personality changes. Before, he was polite and kind. Now he has an arrogant haughty tone. “I am surprised that the person our leader wants us to capture is a librarian. You must have figured out a secret of the class. Well, that's no concern of mine. Now, do you want to come with us quietly, or will you have to lose a few levels before you take a hint?”

More players that were in the town come out and try and surround Null. Their numbers grew until they hit around 50. Null had long ago sensed them in hiding when he used Essence of Mana. Null throws a throwing knife in a random direction. It cuts and activates a switch that throws multiple needles at the opponents in front of him. Some people get hit and die. Since Null made it that the degrees of separation from him throwing the knife and the needles hitting the opponents were high, he did not get the murder mark.

“I've long ago figured out that you all were following me in this village. I was wondering when you would make your move.”

The people that were killed soon revive back. The warriors rushed at Null with swords and spears. Null kept moving so that they couldn't trap him. He managed to cut some people with his poisoned gauntlets making them no longer a threat.

'There are too many opponents.' Thinks Null.

Null hides and kills them off one by one. However, they soon revive. Null kills them off again. That warrior, realizing his tactics aren't working switches them.

“Grab everyone in this village!” The warrior yells out.

Soon afterwards, yells and banging noises could be heard. The villagers are brought to the center of the village.

The leader yells out, “Null, I know you cared for these people! For every minute you don't come out, some one will die!”

“Ah, what a waste. And we were planning on selling them. It would be a shame to kill them. They have gotten so healthy thanks to you Null.” That mage said snarky.

Null answered them by killing another one of their members with his needle launchers.

“That's the way you want to play it?” The leader raised up his hand.

They killed three of the villagers right there by beheading. The villagers were in a panic. Screams and cries of anguish could be heard. Them killing the villagers causes Null to pause. He didn't think they would actually go through with it. He thought they were bluffing.

Null comes out. He may not like people, but that doesn't mean he's a sociopath.

“Null!” May yells out while being held as a meatshield.

“Fine. I'll go with you.” Null says resigned.

The Bloody Dagger leader laughs and shakes his head.

“Oh no, no, no. This won't do. You see, you've done irreparable damage to us. Do you think that coming with us alone is going to fix this?”

Null furrows his brows. “What do you want? Get this over with.”

He lets go of some of the villagers.

“Here's how this is gonna go. You're going to let the villagers kill you.”

That's not actually that big of a deal to Null. Death isn't permanent in this game for him after all.

“For every 20 seconds that you stay alive, we'll kill a villager. And begin!” The leader says with a bloodthirsty smile.

“I'm sorry Null.” One of the villagers says while running at him with a sword.

Null takes a poison and drinks it. He then removes his armor. This makes it so that the villagers were easily killed by him. He revives back in the village later.

“There. It's done. Let's go already.” Says Null.

The leader shakes his head.

“No can do. You cheated by taking poison! You cheated by taking off your armor!”

The leader swings his sword down and kills another villager. Blood coats the ground and his sword.

“Mother!” One villager yells out.

“Put back on your armor and let's begin again.” He says with a smile.

Null can see how this will end. No matter what he does, all the villagers will end up either dead or enslaved. He sees the crazed look on the villagers, desperately trying to kill him. They had tied Null up, so he can't take any poison to help him. Null looks on. The villagers keep steadily dying. The players have hostages so he can't get to them. He suddenly has another epiphany.

'No matter what I do, it never ends. I tried befriending people, and they ended up betraying me. I tried running away from people, and they ended up following me.'

Null looks at the villagers who had changed, desperately trying to kill him.

'It seems... I was mistaken. All this time, I knew that people were disgusting, but I never stopped to ask why.'

The villagers are frantically trying to kill Null, but his armor is too powerful. There are tears in their eyes.

'People are disgusting, to protect themselves from other disgusting people. It's the only way one can thrive in the world overrun by people. Sure, some bully for fun, but others bully because they in turn don't want to get bullied. Sure, some hurt people for fun, but others hurt people because they in turn don't want to get hurt.'

Null keeps getting beat down, but doesn't fight back.

'I will only do harm to myself if I keep going along the way I've been going. To not fight back when being provoked? That's going to lead others to provoke me. That's the way humanity is. That's human nature. So from now on, I'll...'

“HAHAHAHA! How do you like the mayhem that you caused? Huh Null?” The leader says laughing at him.

'I'll...'

“This was brought about because of your actions! Caring for NPCs? How pathetic! HAHAHA!” The other players laugh along with him.

Suddenly, it looks like something breaks within Null, his fragile psyche broken. The look he makes is one of madness. He suddenly... Smiles? But there is nothing warm about this smile.

'I'll embrace my humanity as well!'

Null raises his crossbow and shoots through a hostage. It hits the person holding her and shoots through him as well. The hostage was May, the little girl that had always followed Null around. The girl's face shows surprise as she sees this.

'Null... Why?' Was all she thought before she fell to the ground and closed her eyes.

Due to your cruel actions, your infamy has gone up by 10.

Null gains the murder mark. The crossbow was always meant for enemies with a high degree of armor. That he would use it on a defenseless little girl was overkill. This action causes the villagers to pause in their steps. They see Null smiling. He had never smiled even when they were celebrating.

Null then dashes towards another player. He tries holding the man up as a hostage. It doesn't deter Null in the slightest. He cuts through him, making it to the player holding him killing him.

The leader sees the change in the situation.

“Do you want the villagers to die!?” He yells out towards Null. Null doesn't answer back. He rushes towards another batch of players, eyes wide and smiling.

“Dammit! Kill the hostages!”

The people that were going to kill the hostages got attacked by paralysis needles along with the hostages.

Null beheaded the poisoned players, looking gleeful while doing it.

“Seems we can no longer use the hostages. Attack Null!”

They rush out to attack. Each of them is strong. Null cannot fight all of them at once. He chooses to retreat. The players follow after him. They run into the forest.

“AAAAAAH!”

A player falls into a trap and gets impaled. The spires are covered with that poison that attacks the nerves. Another player steps on a landmine, exploding and blowing off his leg. The more they advance, the more players that fall to Null. They kept advancing until there was only a fifth of them left.

“Dammit. Retreat!”

They all run away, but Null was not done with them. He shoots at their backs, hitting them with needles and his crossbow. Every time they try to give chase, Null retreats and they are unable to get to him. Only 3 people made it back to the village alive out of 50. When you kill a person once, you get a murder mark. If you kill the same person twice while having the murder mark, you get teleported to the outskirts of the city, town, or village you're staying in.

You can kill as many players as you want without being teleported away, so long as you do not kill the same person twice. There is an invisible force field that covers the city, town, or village that doesn't allow you to enter. An exception to this is if there is property you own. You can kill the person as many times as you want without suffering any consequences if they're on your property. This is how Red Serpent Guild was able to get away with what they did with Null.

“Are you telling me he managed to kill all of you!?” That leader yells frustrated at a person who had just revived.

“He keeps running away.”

“You have trackers with you! You can find him!”

“We've already tried that. It always leads to traps that gets more of our people killed.”

“We have thieves that can see and disarm traps!”

Thieves have the passive ability Detect Trap which makes it so that traps glow blue in their vision. Thieves also possess the active ability Disarm Trap in which they use system assist to guide them on how to disarm a trap. The more complex and powerful the trap, the longer it will take to disarm it. A lot of times, thieves won't be able to disarm a trap without a sufficiently high level in Disarm Trap.

“We've tried that as well. We manage to find and disarm one or two traps, but Null always takes out our thieves with his damned arrows.”

Null put up decoy traps for the express purpose of weeding out their thieves. When he finds them, he shoots them down with his crossbow.

“Dammit. He's got us.” The leader says frustrated.

They stay for an entire day. Null can no longer enter the city because he's killed a person more than once. Every time they leave to try and find Null, they always end up killed. The leader decided that he has had enough.

“We have already lost countless levels thanks to Null. Let's just cut our loses and leave.”

They all leave the village. While in the middle of the forest, Null ambushes them. He takes out a quarter of them by throwing needles and bombs. He then quickly retreats, leaving as quickly as he came. The trackers quickly try to find him, but they soon realize that it's useless. The trackers are quickly attacked. They try to run away, but they kept running into traps. They're all killed. They revive back in the village, starting the whole process all over again.

“At this rate, we'll all fall back to level one if nothing is done.” The leader says with clinched teeth.

The leader goes out by himself.

“Okay Null. We know you're angry because of our actions.”

He pulls out a huge sack of gold. “This is 2000 gold coins. All we ask is for you to let us leave. What do you say?”

Null answered him with an arrow straight through his eye.

*************]

David is now in school. He has laid countless traps throughout the region in proximity to that village. They won't be able to make it too far even if Null was gone for 10 days straight.

Everyone is looking at David strangely. That's because he is smiling. He doesn't care about anyone's stares though. A person walks up to David. This is one of the people who always bully David without touching him.

“What are you so happy about? I didn't know a depressing loser like you was even capable of joy.”

Most of David's other bullies saw that something was off about him, so they left him alone. This bully is one of the slower ones. David didn't pay attention to him and kept on walking still smiling. The bully, aggravated that he's not getting a reaction out of David, gets in front of him and puts his finger in David's face.

“You look at me when I'm talking to-”

David grabs his finger. This shocks the bully. David's smile expands.

Crack!

“AAAAAAH!”

The bully holds his hand while on his knees, screaming in pain. Seeing how the bully was blocking his way, David kicks him over and over again, then he kicks him towards the wall, smacking him into it. That bully holds his chest along with his hand, looking at David with a look of horror. David acts like the bully wasn't even there, like the bully was just a can on the road, that just so happened to cross David's path. David walks pass him without even sparing that downed guy a second look. People look on in shock at David's cruel actions.

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Author's Note: I bet a lot of you thought when looking at the title that Null would turn into a goody two shoes. Oh how I live to fuck up your expectations.