Villain: Ultimate Mutation System in the Alternate World - Chapter 489

Chapter 489: Dared Not
He touched the tree again, feeling a powerful pull.

This time, he noticed particles of his own soul being absorbed.

As it happened, a realization dawned on him: he could control which part of himself he wanted to sacrifice.

Memories flashed through his mind—moments of joy, sorrow, fear, and anger—all intertwined with the experiences that had shaped him.

Each fragment of his soul represented a piece of who he was, a complex mixture of emotions and memories.

But now, standing at this crossroads, he knew he had to choose which one to let go.

‘Don’t tell me this is really the essence of it all,’ he thought, frustration bubbling up within him. ‘In order to gain something, I have to sacrifice another in return.’

He was stuck in a dilemma, unsure which part of himself to let go. The uncertainty weighed heavily on him.

What if he got rid of his fear?

On one hand, it seemed like a good idea. Imagine the benefits:

Absolute Bravery: Without fear holding him back, he could take risks and face challenges he used to avoid.

But then he thought about the downsides. What if he lost his caution?

Fear had kept him safe all this time. Without it, he might make reckless choices and find himself in dangerous situations more often.

He also wondered about his other emotions.

Would he become numb? Fear was tied to other feelings . Letting it go could dull his experience of life.

‘I need to pick something less important, ‘

‘How about guilt? I’m pretty sure I don’t have much of that anyway, so sacrificing it would not affect me at all,’

Sacrificing an emotion he rarely use was a small price to pay.

He felt the momentum building. If he was already sacrificing so much, why not keep going?

But he stopped.

It was true—the more emotions he sacrificed, the more benefits he stood to gain from the fruit.

But at that point, he realized he’d be giving up too much. He’d be hollow, an empty shell of who he was.

‘What’s the point of getting stronger if I lose myself in the process?’

He remembered a debate he’d overheard once: “If God is all-powerful, then why does He do nothing but observe?

At the time, the question was a paradox.

But now, standing at the crossroads of his own choices, the question started to make sense.

Maybe it wasn’t that God didn’t want to act—maybe God did not care at all.

For a being like that, things like emotions, decisions, and even struggles didn’t matter. They were insignificant in the grand scheme.

If he were to sacrifice too much, would he become like that?

Detached, indifferent, and so far above everything that nothing held meaning anymore?

So with that, he chose to retain most of who he was .Some things were worth keeping, even if it meant the reward would be smaller.

The result?

A fruit the size of an apple appeared in his hand.

Not as big as the Meta-human ones, because he had only sacrificed one emotion—guilt. It wasn’t impressive by comparison, but it was enough.

And with that, he took a bite, the taste immediately hitting him.

Disgusting didn’t even begin to describe it—a strange, rancid mix of flavors that was worse than anything he’d ever eaten, even corpses.

Still, nothing happened right away.

So, he figured he had to eat the whole thing. Each bite was a struggle, his stomach twisting with every chew, but he forced himself to keep going.

‘This better be worth it,’ he muttered, the bitter aftertaste clinging to his mouth.

Just as he swallowed the last piece, something shifted inside him.

A spark of energy coursed through his body. Not like the usual power he felt—this was something else, an element he had never encountered before.

It didn’t settle in his core like his other abilities. Instead, it flowed through his veins, foreign and powerful, before… vanishing.

He blinked, confused. Where had it gone?

Before he could even process what was happening, the entire space around him began to collapse.

Cracks formed in the ground and sky, spreading like shattered glass . A deep, rumbling sound echoed in the distance, growing louder.

He turned to see a blinding light, slowly creeping toward him, swallowing everything in its path.

Panic surged in his chest, but there was no time to react.

The light rushed forward, faster now, until it completely engulfed him. Everything was erased—the sound, the cracks, the world.

All that was left was the light.

When his vision cleared, he found himself lying beneath the giant hole in Green Valley City.

He sat up slowly, taking in his surroundings.

‘I’m back? What happened here?’ he said, feeling uneasy.

Something felt off. The air around him was thick, not with miasma. It was an energy he recognized all too well.

This was the same energy he had felt when Lilith released her aura in their first meeting, but this time, it was overwhelmingly powerful and thick, wrapping around him.

‘Don’t tell me she actually succeeded in getting the seed.’ he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Even if he had been able to enter the portal, it was in an illegitimate way.

Lilith, on the other hand, had the key in her possession, which meant she must have gotten the seed way easier and evolved into something he dared not imagine.

He slowly floated to the top of the giant hole, and what greeted him was a destroyed city.

Signs of battles were everywhere, and countless corpses lay scattered around, a clear sign of the chaos that had occurred.

But the most shocking sight was that some of these bodies had turned decomposed already and only the bones remains.

“Wait… How long was I gone?”

He landed onto one of the destroyed military tents and touched the pile of bones.

This wasn’t something that happened instantly; it meant their bodies had decomposed through normal means.

“So you’re finally back,” a voice echoed from behind him.