God-Tier Extraction Talent: Reincarnated in a Game-like World!

Chapter 535: The True Villain

Gabriel remained quiet as the memories moved around him.

For the first time in a while, he felt conflicted.

He had killed Torin. He had cut through Black Star without hesitation. He had called them enemies, treated them like obstacles, and crushed their base because it benefited him. But after seeing this, the shape of the matter no longer looked as simple as before.

Black Star was not innocent.

Torin was not innocent either.

Yet Gabriel could not call him a simple villain anymore.

If players had killed his family, if they had harmed the people close to him while laughing about rewards and quests, would he have reacted differently? Gabriel knew the answer even before the question finished forming inside his head.

No.

He would have done worse.

His eyes moved across the memory where Torin stood among corpses, breathing hard, his face covered in blood and rain. The man had been broken that night, and after breaking, he had turned his grief into a blade aimed at every otherworlder he could reach.

Gabriel understood that kind of path too well.

A goal could start from pain and still become madness later. Torin had suffered, but after a point, the lives of others had stopped mattering to him. Players, innocent or guilty, became the same thing in his eyes.

Gabriel’s fingers tightened slightly at his side.

In that part, he could see a reflection he did not like.

He had also done horrible things for his own goal. Darius Aston was dead because Gabriel judged him as a future problem. General Aston was gone because the situation demanded it. Neither of them had been connected to Sutre. Neither of them had destroyed his world. Yet they were now dead because they stood too close to his path.

A soft sigh left him.

"Maybe I am the villain here."

The words sounded strange coming from his own mouth, but he did not take them back. He knew exactly what kind of road he was walking. He had never pretended it was clean.

Peace was not built by righteousness alone.

Survival was not given to those who only kept their hands clean.

He closed his eyes briefly and opened them again.

"If I succeed, my future self will thank me."

His voice was low, but the decision inside it was steady. Whatever guilt existed could wait. His goal came first. The world had already shown him that weakness only invited worse suffering.

At that moment, the memory shifted again. This time, the scene showed a small hidden meeting room. Torin sat across from a group of players whom Gabriel recognized as members of the ChaosKnight Guild. Their faces were tense, and judging by their gear, they were not weak among the older batch of players.

"Begin," Torin spoke with a firm and authoritative voice.

The first man nodded and stood up to introduce himself. "As you might already know, we’re envoys from the ChaosKnight Guild, an order of the Holy Church. We’ve been sent by the higher ups to seek your help in annihilating certain heretics."

The man at the center did not respond immediately. After a few seconds, when the messengers began to grow impatient, he finally spoke. "Who is this person you want my Black Star clan to get rid of?"

"His name is Sir Broken, though you people would know him as Gabriel Reyes," the leader of the messengers said, his tone filled with fury.

You. Hearing his name, Gabriel could not help but raise a brow. He had to admit, the ChaosKnight Guild’s resilience was very admirable.

Torin’s eyes sparkled with a mysterious gleam. No one knew what he was thinking, but a slow, wide smile that resembled that of a serial killer began to spread across his face. His pearly white teeth glistened as he raised his head, finally looking directly at the one who had been speaking all this while.

Badump! Badump!

The bearded messenger felt his heart pounding violently against his chest. A thin drop of sweat trickled from his temple down his cheek and onto the oak table.

’What is this pressure...?’ he frowned inwardly and glanced around.

The others were just as uneasy, their breathing heavy and uneven.

"So you want me to get rid of Gabriel Reyes, the MVP of the Inter Guild Display Event?" the man smirked.

The head messenger swallowed hard. The sound of saliva traveling down his throat echoed awkwardly in the silent room. His lips parted. "Y yes! If you can get rid of him, not only will our guild handsomely reward you, but even the Church as well."

He seemed to grow more confident as he added, a forced smile on his face, "Not only that, but your family and our guild would establish good relations. With our numbers and immortal status, we would definitely be of great help."

The head messenger thought he was being persuasive until the man began to chuckle as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

His laughter was strangely unnerving, making everyone even more anxious.

Then he stopped laughing. His tone turned cold and chilling as his sharp gaze fell on the lanky otherworlder. "What makes you think I can be bribed?"

"T that..." The player swallowed for what felt like the hundredth time since arriving and suddenly felt his bladder tighten.

"B because you’re the leader of the infamous mercenary clan, Black Star. And to top it off, you’re Hero Rank..."

"Very correct... but," the man said as he slowly rose from his seat. The shadow never left his face. Standing over six feet tall, his entire presence became even more domineering and commanding. "It seems you and your guild are very clueless about the kind of person I am."

The player narrowed his eyes, trying to form words, but before he could speak, the man snapped his fingers. A thin flash of light appeared in the air, too fast to follow, yet bright enough to notice.

Under the stunned gaze of everyone present, the head messenger’s neck split open. His head rolled off and disintegrated into radiant fragments.

"F fuck! He killed him!"

"Save yourselves! He’s a psycho!"

The rest tried to fight back, but they were killed over and over until they were sent back to the beginner village.

The memory moved faster after that.

Several scenes flashed by.

Gabriel watched it all without speaking until the memory finally slowed again.

This time, the entrance of Black Star’s hideout appeared before him.

It was night.

The air was quiet, but the pressure around the place felt wrong. Torin stepped out from the base with several assassins behind him. His face was older now, closer to the man Gabriel had fought.

Across from him stood a figure in a clean suit.

The man wore a monocle over one eye.

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed instantly. "He really came himself."