Malvek had always been an ordinary man. He carried no deep-seated hatred, nor had he ever been betrayed by anyone close to him. His life was simple, filled with the quiet comfort of fictional worlds.
He read countless novels and comics, losing himself in stories of heroes who possessed the main character's aura that undeniable presence that allowed them to rise above everything and save the world. In his quiet moments, Malvek would whisper the same wish to himself: one day, he too might gain such power and become the hero the world needed.
But on the day the Purge began, reality struck him with merciless force. He watched people friends, neighbors, strangers being torn apart in front of his eyes. The screams, the blood, the sheer helplessness of it all shattered the illusions he had clung to.
Even when the universal will granted the system to humanity, Malvek remained nothing more than an ant in the face of the monsters that descended upon the world. The mere thought of an SSS-class Lunar Eclipse Butterfly filled him with bone-deep terror. Such creatures were beyond comprehension, forces of nature that could erase entire camps in moments.
The true turning point came the first time Malvek was stabbed by a D-class giant wasp. The pain was excruciating, the venom burning through his veins like liquid fire. As he lay on the ground, bleeding and gasping, a cold clarity washed over him. Survival of oneself was far more important than the survival of others. In that moment, the idealistic dreamer died, and a colder, more pragmatic man began to emerge.
---
One day, while returning to the survival camp after scavenging, Malvek witnessed a scene so horrifying it turned his heart to ice. In a secluded corner behind some ruined buildings, a level 32 hunter was engaged in sexual activities with both his own girlfriend and his big sister at the same time. The sounds, the sight of the man pounding into them without restraint it was too much.
Malvek attacked without thinking. But at level 26, he was no match for the higher-leveled hunter. The man easily overpowered him, beating him down until Malvek lay broken on the ground, bloodied and helpless.
As he struggled to breathe, he heard the devastating words. His girlfriend embraced the hunter, calling her boyfriend a coward. Even his own sister looked at him with disdain and said she didn't want a weak brother like him.
Lying there on the verge of unconsciousness, the system presented him with a glowing red option: "Kill this hunter by sacrificing yourself."
Fear of death gripped Malvek completely. He could not bring himself to select "Yes."
Instead, he chose "No."
The moment he did, the red aura around the option shifted to a dangerous purple. There was no mercy from any god. His head exploded violently on the spot. Malvek died right there, in front of his naked sister and girlfriend, his blood and brain matter splattering across the ground.
Then a miracle occurred. The blasted head began to heal at an impossible speed. The same face returned, but the power within was entirely different.
Level 60.
By choosing to survive, Malvek had reached level 60 in a single, brutal moment.
Just by his stare, the level 32 hunter dropped to his knees, trembling in terror. At that moment, Malvek crushed the man's genitals with overwhelming force and killed him without hesitation.
Then came the revenge.
He turned on his girlfriend and his sister. The wildness that had awakened inside him knew no boundaries. Even his own sister could not escape. He took them both in a frenzy of dominance and release, driven by the betrayal and the new power surging through him.
In the days that followed, pride consumed Malvek's mind. He still sensed the world normally and maintained control over his body, but greed kept rising within him like an unstoppable tide.
Right and wrong blurred into irrelevance. His libido grew insatiable. No matter who stood before him man or woman, stranger or someone once close he sought relief through raw coitus. The man who once dreamed of being a hero had become something far darker, a creature ruled by survival, power, and endless hunger.
The remaining survivors in the central east gradually joined the group, drawn by the promise of protection. They were a desperate mix of families, lone wanderers, and broken souls who had lost everything. Many had heard rumors of Malvek's strength and saw him as their best chance at survival. Under his leadership, the camp slowly grew — crude tents and reinforced shelters spreading across a relatively defensible patch of ruined city. Malvek enforced order with a heavy hand, but to most, his strength was worth the cost.
---
One day, while scouting the perimeter alone, Malvek witnessed something he should never have seen. In a wide clearing not far from the camp's borders, a woman was fighting an S-rank monster entirely with her bare hands. Her body was covered in intricate, handcrafted armor fashioned from the scales of multiple high-class beasts. She moved with terrifying grace and brutality, dodging lethal strikes and countering with punches that cracked the monster's armored hide. The creature a massive, serpentine horror with venomous spines roared and lashed out, but the woman showed no fear. She dismantled it piece by piece until she finally drove her fist through its core, ending the fight in a spray of blood and energy.
Malvek hid behind a collapsed wall, his heart hammering in his chest. The raw power on display horrified him more than any monster he had faced. This was not the kind of strength one gained through luck or a system boost. This was something deeper, more terrifying.
The woman, Viola Ren, eventually made her way to the camp. She joined without fanfare, but her presence immediately changed everything. Malvek remained the official camp leader, issuing orders and maintaining the day-to-day structure, but he quickly learned to obey Viola's commands in all important matters. Her authority was unquestioned, even if unspoken.
Viola was not like this from the beginning, however. The very first time she looked into Malvek's eyes, she felt nothing but pure disgust. She saw a coward who had somehow stumbled into power, now lording over a group of weaklings who could do nothing for themselves. To her, he was pathetic a man who had gained strength through survival rather than true conviction or will.
As time passed, Viola witnessed many of Malvek's shady sins. He began sleeping with more than ten girls simultaneously, using his position and strength to claim them whenever the urge struck. He harassed elders for better rations and forced women to submit to his desires, often in exchange for protection or resources. Children were not entirely spared his indifference; he would ignore their suffering or use their vulnerability as leverage when it suited him. Other sins piled up stealing supplies from the weak, punishing any hint of dissent with brutal efficiency, and indulging in every dark impulse his growing power allowed.
Yet Viola chose to ignore it all. She watched with a quiet, almost pleased fascination as Malvek committed more and more sins. There was something darkly satisfying about seeing a former coward act so arrogantly, ruling over people too weak to resist him. She let him continue, finding amusement in how low he could sink.
Even after all his crimes, Malvek still acted as a pure soul in front of Viola. He spoke with a gentle voice, offered help to the vulnerable when she was watching, and presented himself as the most good-hearted person in the camp. This hypocrisy only made Viola feel more certain of his true nature. She could have killed him at any moment, but she chose not to. Watching him play the role of a righteous leader while committing atrocities behind the scenes was far more entertaining and revealing than ending him outright.
The camp continued its fragile existence under this strange duality. Malvek maintained the illusion of benevolent leadership, while Viola observed everything with cold detachment. The central East was still a land of monsters and despair, but now it also hosted a new kind of predator — one who wore the mask of a hero while indulging every vice, and another who watched it all with amused disgust, waiting to see how far the hypocrisy would go.