Jason awoke with a gasp, shooting up from where he had laid unconscious. After he had collected his thoughts, he glanced around.

He was still in the dark, rocky wasteland, the dim, blood-red light illuminating the corpse of the devil he had slain.

He quickly glanced around at the surroundings, this time also using his new-found soul sense. Nothing.

He sighed in relief. It was a miracle that no foul creature had chanced upon him as he was unconscious. Now, to examine his spoils and his own condition.

He observed his smoky hands carefully. During the struggle earlier, his instincts had guided him to condense his four fingers into claws.

“Hmmph. I’ll have to learn how to do that manually. What sort of creature am I, anyway? It is clear that I am a devil, as Azazel said, but of what type? That creature I’ve just slain could be a devil too, but his body is flesh and blood while mine is made of smoke?”

Jason carefully examined his body again, using all of his senses. Visually, his body was made of smoke. It did not seem to have any sort of scent, although that could be because of the overpowering stench coming from the devil’s corpse nearby. He did not seem to make any sound as he moved, which he noted to be a useful trait to make use of later. When he touched his own arm, the gas that made up his body flowed like water and parted, and his hand went right through his arm.

As it seems, his body truly possessed the properties of a gas, but something was holding together his overall form. Not to mention the devil was able to grasp his arm and injure him. How did it work?

He then tried to observe his own body with his soul sense, he saw his own soul.

It was a black ball, so dark it seemed like it absorbed light. Gaseous tendrils occasionally peeked through the ball, much like his own body. As he looked closer, he was shocked to find a symbol imprinted on its surface!

It was a glowing red pentagram enclosed with a circle, strange symbols lining the edge of the circle. He was about to study it further when it pulsed with a sickening red ray of light. The ray of light was then absorbed by his soul.

Jason felt some strange energy from the ray of light get absorbed by his soul, before he suddenly felt some strange memories appear in his mind.

Confused, he scanned the memories. At first, his face was full of shock, then fear, before he grinned, and started chuckling, which turned into full-on maniacal laughter. He giggled and wheezed, bending over in fits of laughter.

Why was he acting like this? Had he gone insane? The answer was in the memory that the pentagram left him.

The memory contained only a voice, the voice of the Devil Azazel.

“Hello there, Jason. I trust you have enjoyed your experience in Hell so far?

I have decided to give you a present in order to motivate you to fulfill my request more eagerly. I’m sure you have noticed this pentagram on your soul by now.

This pentagram is my mark, the mark of Sin. This is the advantage I have given you, the ‘cheat skill’ that most reincarnators have in those novels from Earth.

You see, this mark will reward you whenever you commit a sin. It is not so easily earned, of course. It will reward you based on the severity of your sins. Pickpocketing, lying and cheating will barely grant you anything. Only the more exciting and enjoyable acts will give you anything of worth. Torturing someone to insanity, devouring souls and granting them True Death, massacres and genocides, those will give you interesting rewards.

Of course, this mark will also motivate you to act. Do not think that you can just hide in the shadows for years to plot in safety. No. If you do not commit any major sin in a certain amount of time, you will be punished. As for what the punishments are, well, I hope you are not lazy enough to find out. After all, it would be difficult not to sin when you are in Hell itself.

And of course, I am a fair Devil. This mark is not bound to you. Other, more powerful devils can sense this mark too, and anyone who kills you can obtain this mark. Do not underestimate the worth of this mark. Most would do anything to obtain it. So I advise you to keep it safe and hidden.”

And with a chuckle, the voice faded, and the memory ended.

Naturally, Jason was absolutely elated. Who wouldn’t, to be rewarded for doing what you enjoy? This was truly a case of making your hobby your job.

Not a moment later, the mark glowed once again, and Jason some information appear in his mind.

committed. +5 Essence of sin.

‘Oh? So it appears that my ‘cheat’ is a sort of interface in my mind. What do they call it? A system?’

Of course, it was not really in the appearance of the system. From what he could tell, the mark was a sort of interface that he interacted with using his mind, or soul, and information was simply injected. For the sake of simplicity, he simply thought of it as a system, and so it suited his needs and appeared like so.

For now, he could vaguely feel that he could redeem some rewards, but something told him that he could do more as he grew stronger. He indicated with his mind, to see the possible rewards.

“Agghh!!”

His mind was flooded with information, and he felt like hot knives had just been stabbed into his brain.