[Congratulations! Your Alignment is Villian!]
[Accept?]
[Yes] [No]
There was a blue screen hovering above a young girl. The girl was sprawled on a large queen bed, the stick of a sucker poking out of the side of her mouth and a pair of light blue headphones perched on top of her head of black hair.
The girl’s eyes slid across the screen as she read the message, casually flicking a finger towards the glowing [Yes]. Option chosen the screen faded out. A faint smirk played across the girl's lips.
…
It was and wasn’t surprising that my alignment was Villian. I knew I was likely to end up on the “Evil” side of the wheel, but I figured like most of the population in my situation I would end up closer to neutral.
Here on Terra, everyone at the age of 18 would have an alignment selected for them. The alignments were made up of several categories but the general ones were: Hero, Vigilante, Neutral, Anti-hero and Villian.
The selection wasn’t random. Based on your actions before becoming an adult you would be on either the “Evil” side of the wheel which included Neutral and the “Good” side also including Neutral. The evilness or goodness of each action would increase or decrease the probabilities of alignments, so most people ended up with neutral or close.
Being on the extreme of either side is very rare. Yay me. Flicking my finger in a upward motion I called forth my status screen. The action wasn’t necessary a thought would be enough to bring the blue screen back, but I found it fun.
[Status]
[Name: Ria
Alignment: Villian
Str: 7
Agi: 8
Dex: 14
End: 11
Int: 18
Stat Points: 5
Skill Points: 1
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Skills: None
Abilities: ????]
Ten is the average stat value for a full-grown male. Being a villain alignment did more than I thought, neutrals get 1 stat point in the beginning. I clicked on the question marks beside Abilities. I knew what they meant for Heros but anything about the Status of a Villian was heavily regulated and highly privileged information, not something I had access to.
[???? - Once you have officially embarked on the path of Villiany your ability will be unlocked. Complete a Quest, which can be found on the “Quest” tab. Good luck!]
At light “tap” of my mind and finger the Quest tab was open.
[Commit a Crime ~
Like any journey, villainy starts with small steps. Your first step is to commit a crime within 24 hours.
Guidelines:
1. There must be some penalty in place from law enforcement for the action of the “crime” to count.
2. Getting caught by law enforcement will give your quest completion an automatic F.
3. The crime must be completed in 24 hours.
Reward: Abilities will be unlocked
Penalty: None]
Interesting, no penalty.
Those with the Hero alignment were vocal about their Quests having severe penalties, mostly because it offered the public a sense of safety about the lengths the super-powered people would go to for their safety.
The entire population wasn’t worshipful enough for there not to be suspicions. It also helped Heros get out of legal situations when their rescuing did more harm than good.
But as Villian, I didn’t have any. That meant at least one of four things had to be true.
1. It was all a lie meant to better control the masses and gain sympathy.
2. The Villain alignment needed no supernatural penalty because if you were caught you would get a penalty by your society.
3. The spirit of a Villain is to do as you please, having heavy penalties meant taking some of that freedom away.
4. It was the first Quest and was a novice safety period, penalties would be applied to later Quests.
My guess is a combination of the top three. As fascinating as this rabbit hole into the system theology was I had more important, more fun, things to do.
Like planning my first crime.
It was harder than I anticipated, not that I had a problem coming up with crimes to commit. I was running into two blocks in my planning.
The first being that I had to complete it in 24 hours. I couldn’t do anything too complicated like robbing a museum, holding someone for ransom, or brushing up on my programming and siphoning money from banks into an off-shore account.
The second was the hidden expectations. At first, the Quest seemed straightforward, but the mention of an F grade implied that there were higher grades available. I guessed that the more complicated the crime was to pull off and the higher the penalty from authorities for the crime the higher the grade. There was a possibility that the grade was linked to what ability you would get.
Plus the thought of having anything graded lower than an A associated with me was nauseating. I need some fresh air.