She lifted her wings and patted Henry Parker's shoulder. "You have such unique advantages, young man. With the Book of Fate in your hands, it's like having a road to the heavens at your feet.

Others are Icarus, but you're climbing a ladder—steady as can be!"

"So... what exactly should I do?"

"It's very simple," Crow said. "You just need to kill people."

"If you do it yourself, the records in the Book of Fate will be even more detailed, right? Not only that, if you kill one, you can gain that person's skills; kill ten, and you can become a true genius. As long as you have it, the more people you kill, Henry Parker, the stronger you'll become."

She whispered softly in the boy's ear, "Aren't there so many people who look down on you? You must hate them to death, right? Not just your classmates and teachers, but also the parents who abandoned you... This world hasn't treated you well, so why should you be merciful to it?"

Henry Parker was stunned.

Ah, as expected, he was scared, right?

For a moment, Crow felt a sense of delight, but when Henry Parker looked up, she saw a trace of... surprise? in those eyes.

"Really?" Henry Parker could hardly believe it. "All I have to do is kill people?"

"......"

"Then let's start with William Lee."

Henry Parker started counting on his fingers. "Who told him to always show off about his great dad and uncle? Rich and heartless, he deserves to die! And that woman who's always flirting with him—they've probably been together for ages... The English teacher is the third, always making snide remarks about me in class... Oh, and that fat bastard who thinks I stole his money, his brother's no good either, always fighting at school. I'm doing the world a favor, right? Mr. Parker, that rotten agent, he should die too. I work so hard at my part-time jobs, and he just opens his mouth and takes a 20% cut..."

As he spoke, Henry Parker looked up, expressionless, and stared at her:

"—They all deserve to die, because they've all offended me, right?"

Chapter 9: Plan B

"......"

Crow was silent.

"It shouldn't be like this, should it?"

Henry Parker whispered, "I know not everyone has to like me. Maybe I'm not sociable or popular, and maybe sometimes some people deserve a little punishment for their actions, but none of them deserve to die.

They're all living people, just like me. They shouldn't die, just like those people in the club shouldn't die. Even if they might be guilty, they're still innocent."

"So, I don't like what you're saying."

Henry Parker looked into her eyes and emphasized, word by word, "—I really, really, really don't like it."

"...Oh my, why so fierce?"

Crow turned her head away, seemingly sobbing sadly. "Big sister is just thinking of your own good, you know. Besides, now that this whole bird is yours, can't I at least test you a little before we start working together?"

As she spoke, she blinked her teary eyes. "For the sake of my sincerity, can't you give me a chance to make up for it? If Plan A doesn't work, we still have Plan B."

Unfortunately, a Crow acting like this was not cute at all.

"...What's Plan B?"

"Very simple."

Crow gave him one last look. "Since you don't want to kill others..."

She said, "Then I'll just have to kill you."

In that instant, Henry Parker's vision went black.

.

.

Henry Parker had a long dream.

In a haze, it was as if he had just finished work and was heading home. While waiting for the subway, he was still inwardly mocking a useless employee he had fired earlier that day. Then, from deep in the tunnel, came the roar of the approaching train.

Before he could put away his phone, he heard a venomous voice behind him: "Go to hell!"

The next moment, a pair of hands shoved him in the back.

He fell, he flew, and then he fell again—toward the tracks. The train's headlights grew brighter and closer, and then Henry Parker was crushed, torn to pieces. The last thing he heard was the crisp sound of his own skull cracking.

An indescribable pain hit him. He didn't have time to scream, not even to feel fear, before his consciousness quickly faded.

Next, it was as if he had become a business tycoon dominating the global economy, now at the end of his rope, trapped in a park. His betrayed assistant sent him a final ultimatum, demanding his surrender.

Henry Parker sneered coldly, then raised his gun at him.

Bang!

A soft sound came from a distant helicopter, and Henry Parker could no longer feel his body. In his final moment, he heard his assistant's bewildered shout: "Don't shoot, he hasn't—"

Shot in the head?

In his daze, before Henry Parker could react, it was like a string of nightmares. Suddenly, he became a flamboyant middle-aged man, wearing a strange power suit, carrying a gun, charging into the Louvre to fight a group of bizarre insectoid creatures—and then quickly died again.

This time, his last thought was: Damn, I need to reload my save...

Reload? Reload what? Reload your Rem!