Chapter 1

The day I ended up inside that book, I just happened to pick up the kid who would one day destroy the world.

He was small and thin, his whole body soaked in blood. When I reached for him, he clamped his teeth down on my finger and refused to let go.

A sharp warning rang out in my head. [Run. This is the cruelest villain of the future.]

I looked down at the child in my arms. He was so light that it barely felt like I was holding anything at all—just skin and bones shaking in the cold.

I hesitated for three seconds. Then I let out a quiet breath. I decided to raise him for now. If things went badly, I could always give him up later.

Ten years passed. The boy I had picked up back then now knelt in front of me.

He looked up at me, his gaze heavy and unblinking. "You were the one who took me in. You want to throw me away now, huh? It's too late."

*****

The day I ended up inside that book, I just happened to pick up the kid who would one day destroy the world.

To be exact, he ran into me.

That evening, I stood under an old tree, staring up at a strange moon. I tried to make sense of things.

I kept asking myself the same questions. Who was I now? Where was I? How did I end up here just because I stayed up late reading a novel?

Then something rolled out of the bushes. It hit my leg and wrapped around my ankle, holding on tight.

I looked down. It was a child, a child covered in blood.

He lifted his head slowly. A pair of large eyes looked up at me. Something in those eyes made a chill crawl up my spine.

It was not fear. It was not a plea for help. It felt heavy, like something was about to spill over, but I couldn't tell what it was.

"Save..." He managed one word, then passed out.

At the same time, a cold, mechanical voice exploded in my head.

[Key plot character detected. Edwin Carroll. Male. Seven years old. The ultimate villain of the original story.

[In the future, he will destroy the world. Recommendation: Stay away immediately to avoid being drawn into the main plot.]

I froze.

Edwin was the same villain who had made me so mad that I threw my phone.

He was the lunatic who wiped out the male lead's entire family and destroyed the female lead's sect. In the end, he nearly brought the whole world down with him.

[Warning. Target is severely injured, but the danger level remains S-rank. Recommendation: Retreat immediately or eliminate the target.]

I looked down at the child clinging to my leg.

He looked about seven or eight. He was so thin that he was almost skin and bones. The clothes on him were nothing but rags, so filthy that I couldn't even tell what color they used to be.

The fabric was torn in several places, exposing the wounds underneath. The flesh had split open. Some cuts were still bleeding.

His face stayed hidden in the shadows. I couldn't see it clearly. The only thing I could see was his hand, dirty and bony, gripping my pant leg like it was the only thing keeping him alive.

I stayed quiet for three seconds.

[Host, please make a decision as soon as—]

"How old is he?" I asked the system.

[Seven.]

"Seven..." I repeated it under my breath.

In the original story, Edwin had been abandoned at seven. After that, he wandered the streets, got taken by traffickers, and was sold to a mine.

He stayed there for three years. He was beaten and starved every single day. Later, the mine collapsed, and he escaped in the chaos.

That was when everything started to change. That was when he began turning into the person who would destroy the world.

This meant that the child at my feet hadn't experienced any of that yet.

He hadn't been sold to the mine. He hadn't endured those three years. He hadn't become that person yet.

[Host, do not be misled. A villain is a villain. Even at a young age, cruelty is already in his nature—]

"Shut up," I snapped.

I crouched down and picked him up.

He was even lighter than I expected, way too light for a seven-year-old. I held him in my arms. His head dropped limply against me, revealing a face smeared with blood and dirt.

Even like this, I could tell his features were delicate. He would have been a good-looking kid if he had been clean.

I muttered, "He is so skinny. This is just too much."

[Host, wake up. This is the villain. The future calamity that will destroy the world.]

"Yeah, yeah." I started walking toward the town with him in my arms. "I will just take care of him for two days. Once he heals, I will dump him somewhere."

The system went quiet.

So did I.

We both knew that was just an excuse. I didn't even believe a word I said.

Edwin stayed unconscious for three days.

During that time, I used what little money I had left to rent a room. I bought medicine and food. Every day, I cleaned his wounds, changed his bandages, and gave him water.

His injuries were worse than I thought. There were whip marks all over his back. Some were so deep that I could see bone. There were rope marks around his ankles, rubbed raw and bloody.

My hands shook every time I changed his dressings.

He was just a child.

I couldn't understand what kind of person would do this to someone so small.

[Background information. Edwin was born into a cultivator family. However, he was deemed useless due to his naturally damaged spiritual roots.

[To preserve the family's reputation, his father ordered thirty lashes. On the night of his seventh birthday, he was cast out.]

My hand paused as I changed his bandages.

Looking at the crisscrossing wounds on his back, I suddenly felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room.

That night, I had a dream.

In the dream, a small boy was tied to a pillar. People stood all around him, dressed in fine clothes. They looked at him like he was something filthy.

The whip came down. He bit his lip and stayed silent.

Blood splashed into his eyes, but he didn't even blink.

There was nothing in those eyes. Nothing at all.