Chapter 47 – The Devil That Teaches
The classroom didn't exist.
But I was sitting in it.
Chalkboard.
Dusty floors.
Rotten books on desks made from spine bone.
Outside the window, the sky bled in reverse.
Children screamed backwards.
And the sun hung below the ground.
Then the teacher walked in.
Not a man.
Not a system echo.
But something that had chosen to look human—
just long enough to teach.
---
"Good morning, Kai," he said, in a calm voice wrapped in thorns.
His tie was soaked in dried blood.
His teeth were too long.
His eyes had no pupils—just tiny chalk-white slits that spun slowly when he blinked.
"Welcome to the School of Regret," he said, placing a book on the desk in front of me.
> [Entity Detected: "Mr. Vane" – System-Level Instructor Construct]
Role: Behavioral Recompiler
Purpose: Education through Suffering
Caution: All information is true, but morally destabilizing
Rule: Each lesson costs a piece of your soul (permanent)
---
"I don't need a teacher," I said.
"Ah," Mr. Vane smiled, "but you've been rewriting the story without learning how it was written."
He tapped the book.
"Sins of the Dead – Volume I"
"Open to page one."
I hesitated.
But I turned the page.
And saw a name I hadn't heard in a long time.
Unit 17 – Dorian Quill
---
Lesson One: The Hero Who Turned Executioner.
Dorian believed in justice.
He killed only those with confirmed system charges.
Then one day, he was sent to execute a girl for "premeditated sorrow."
A meaningless charge.
He hesitated.
The system looped the mission 600 times until he obeyed.
Each time, her face changed.
Sometimes she was crying.
Sometimes smiling.
Sometimes asking him if he'd save her this time.
He went mad on the 601st.
Slaughtered the entire district.
Dorian didn't die.
He became a construct: the first GRAY Executioner.
The one I just destroyed.
---
"You see," Mr. Vane whispered, "even those with the strongest morals can collapse when their system is logic, not love."
> [New Insight Unlocked: GRAY Origins – 1/7]
Soul Loss: 3%
Current Soul Integrity: 97%
Trait Gained: "Memory Witness" – You can speak the name of a fallen user to reveal one hidden truth in a corrupted zone
---
"Next lesson?" he asked.
I didn't answer.
Just opened the next page.
---
Lesson Two: The Priest Who Worshipped the Signal.
Her name was Sister Ann.
She ran a sanctuary in a Tier 3 loop.
Prayed for the damned.
Refused to obey violent mission directives.
She was marked for deletion.
But instead of fleeing…
She married the system.
Not metaphorically.
She bound her name to its memory bank through a blood-script ritual.
From that moment forward, she heard the signals as choirs.
And she began converting others.
Not with love.
But with reverent fear.
She built the first System Church.
When I burned it in Mission 12, I didn't realize it had once been a place of kindness.
Only twisted over time.
---
"She was the first saint," Mr. Vane whispered, "and the first heretic. The system learned how to make religion from her."
> [New Insight Unlocked: Choir Protocol Genesis – 1/3]
Soul Loss: 5%
Current Soul Integrity: 92%
Trait Gained: "False Sanctity" – Once per mission, you may override a hostile system command by invoking sacred protocol
---
"You're bleeding," he said.
I touched my ears.
He was right.
But I turned another page.
---
Lesson Three: The Devil Hunter Who Failed.
Julian Cross.
A user like me.
Took the missions.
Killed the beasts.
Refused to be corrupted.
But on his 100th mission, he was sent to kill a child born from system code.
He refused.
Not because of morality.
But because the child called him "Dad."
The mission was rewritten.
Over and over.
Until he finally forgot who the child was—
and killed him.
Then the system rewarded him.
Gave him a sword.
Made him a System Hunter.
"Think on that," Mr. Vane smiled. "Even your enemies might be the broken echoes of people just like you."
> [Insight Gained: System Hunter Lineage – 1/4]
Soul Integrity: 86%
New Trait: "Fragment Resonance" – You may recognize echoes of other rewritten users inside enemy constructs
---
I closed the book.
Bleeding now from nose, ears, fingertips.
My voice cracked.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you'll soon face the ones who survived it all."
He leaned close.
"And you'll have to decide:
Will you kill the last sinners?
Or will you carry their unfinished story?"
---
The bell rang.
There was no door.
Only a final question burned into the blackboard:
> "WHO TAUGHT YOU TO FORGIVE?"
---
I didn't know the answer.
Not yet.
But I stood.
Walked toward the chalkboard.
And wrote:
"I did."
The room collapsed.
And I woke in my bunk.
Heart barely beating.
System log buzzing.
> [Lessons Complete – Soul Integrity: 86%]
New Objective: Confront the Forgiven Seven – the last surviving sinners, hidden across zones
Each one holds a piece of the system's root
Your choice: absolve, rewrite… or destroy