I was utterly frozen. No coherent thought could form in my mind as the pressure left me completely stunned.

“Glory be to all good!” the regal man uttered, and—

“Glory be to all good!” the angelic figures surrounding him echoed.

The man swung his right arm. “With the first swing, be judged for your sins!” Then, he turned the arm the other way. “With the second swing, be judged for your intent!” Then, he raised his left arm. “And with the third swing, be judged for your nature! Heavens above!”

“Heavens above!” the angels echoed.

“Heed our call!” he said.

“Heed our call!” and they echoed again.

“Purge all that which be impure! Purify evil! Purify all!” The man took a deep breath and practically screamed, “Heaven’s Judgement!”

The world stopped. All the angels and the man stood frozen solid as the pendulum above began swinging. It swung once, passing over my head, missing the top of my skull by an inch. Then, it swung the second time, again barely missing me. But as it returned the third time, I could feel its intent.

It was heading right for me, and it would likely obliterate me from existence, but as it got within less than an inch of my face—

It stopped.

A voice echoed in my mind.

Your current alignment is [Evil].

You have met the requirements to change your alignment.

Do you wish to set your alignment to [Good]?

Warning: All skills with an [Evil] alignment will have their alignment set to [Neutral] or [Good], and their effects will be appropriately adjusted. You will no longer be offered [Evil] classes. You will be provided [Good] and [Neutral] classes.

Without thinking, I agreed to the offer. I didn’t know who was offering or why or what the hell was happening, but I knew that if I didn’t accept, things wouldn’t turn out well. Besides, I was evil? Said who? Of course I’d want to change that!

Your alignment has been set to [Good]!

[Evil] skills detected!

[Drain Life] changes to [Energy Absorption]!

[Reap Soul] changes to [Resurrect]!

[Summon Hellspawn] changes to [Summon Elemental]!

[Slave Binding] changes to [Oath of Loyalty]!

Title acquired: [He Who Passed Heaven’s Judgement]!

Title acquired: [Traitor of Hell]!

In the blink of an eye, the pendulum beside me swung away from my head, reversing as if time itself was being reverted. Then it dropped again, flying over my head just as it had the first two times.

The world continued moving, and the regal man looked at me, eyes and mouth wide open. “What… are you?”

This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

Then, the image of the man cracked as the world around me splintered. I found myself 20 meters in the air, and I quickly plummeted into the canopy of a tree, tumbling awkwardly as I landed on the ground.

I merely sat there for a while, stunned, incapable of comprehending what had happened.

Eventually, I finally gathered my wits about me and asked, “Am… Am I in a fucking videogame?”

Why was the voice in my head talking about skills, classes, and titles? I hadn’t played games in a really long time, but I was pretty sure that was the sort of stuff you’d find in an RPG.

But there was a more critical question, an echo of the words the regal man said before I was whisked away. “What am I…?”

Judging from what I’ve heard from that voice, it was clear that… “I might no longer be human.”

I took a deep breath. This was bad. Whatever those strange men had done to me had turned me into something that heaven itself wanted to wipe from existence. I desperately wanted to know more about what was happening to me.

As soon as I had that thought, a menu screen appeared in my mind’s eye.

Name: Unknown

Race: [Devilich]

Alignment: [Good]

Class: [None]

Passive Skills: [Quasi-Immortality] [Fire Affinity: B-rank] [Death Affinity: B-rank] [Hellfire Affinity: C-rank] [Rot Affinity: C-rank] [Witherflame Affinity: F-rank] [Regeneration: S-rank] [Strength: C-rank] [Agility: C-rank] [Endurance: C-rank] [Perception: D-rank]

Active Skills: [Energy Absorption] [Resurrect] [Summon Elemental] [Oath of Loyalty]

Titles: [Symbiote] [Otherworlder] [Aberration] [He Who Passed Heaven’s Judgement] [Traitor of Hell]

Symbiote: [Archdemon Cancer Cell Biomass]

It was hard to describe it, but the menu didn’t feel like a surface I was reading off of; rather, it was a direct projection of information straight into my mind.

“Holy shit…” I breathed out. “I have a goddamn status screen.”

For the briefest of moments, I had the thought that perhaps my brain had been connected to some form of advanced VR technology. But this felt way too real for that to be the case.

The number of questions I had about this absurd avalanche of information was growing by the second, but the thing that bothered me the most was—“Why does it say that my name is ‘Unknown?’ Isn’t my name James?” I asked myself, not even entirely sure that I was correct.

Just as I had that thought, the menu screen updated.

Name: James

Oh, cool.

But no matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t remember my surname. Well then. Now that I ran out of things to distract myself with, it was time to address the elephant in the room. “What the fuck is a ‘devilich?’”

And, as it seemed to be a recurring theme, the imaginary menu screen answered my question.

Race: [Devilich]

The mythical peak of mortal evil. The unholy fusion of high-rank demonism and lichdom. For those who lay their eyes upon the devilich, all hope shall be extinguished, and the heavens will weep at the horrors they shall be subjected to.

“Oh…” was I could say to that. Not that there was a good way to react to the fact that I was apparently an absolute abomination. A fact that, concerningly enough, didn’t bother me at all. Which, now that I think about it, was probably not a very good sign.

I took a deep breath to calm myself. I touched my hair, which was cut relatively short by my sister to ensure I looked presentable; God bless her soul. Am I allowed to say ‘God bless you?’ Hadn’t gone up in flames yet, so… probably? Wait, was that bearded man God?

I took another deep breath. Back on track.

My face was mushy as always, and my arms appeared to be those of a human. And there seemed to be no horns growing out of my skull.

“Relax, James…” I told myself. This whole thing sounded a whole lot like a video game to me. Even if it was actually real, the mere existence of “video game logic” gave me some hope. As far as I knew, my race could very well be purely cosmetic, and that description was nothing but flavor text.

I hadn’t seen my reflection yet. Maybe my eyes were just red? I hoped that was the extent of what being a devilich entailed.

For the time being, I just wanted not to panic. I had hopes. My expectations had been raised for the first time in a decade, and the last thing I wanted was something that would ruin my chances of starting a new life.

Besides, a fantasy world with video game magic? This was stuff from my wildest fantasies.

Once I believed myself to be calm enough, I decided to take a closer look at the rest of my status screen.