I died with my eyes open.
That was the first thing I remembered.
Not pain.
Not fear.
Not regret.
Just the sharp understanding that the world I owned finally decided to kill me.
The room around me was cold and silent. A single light flickered above, throwing shadows across the steel walls. I could still feel the metallic chair beneath me. My wrists were tied. My suit was torn. My breathing was slow.
A man in a black military coat stood in front of me.
He wasn't smiling.
He wasn't angry.
He looked tired.
"You knew this was coming, Ryo Minami," he said.
I didn't look away. "You're too late."
His eyes narrowed. "Too late for what?"
I leaned back against the chair as far as the rope allowed. "I already won."
He stepped forward. "You bought every industry. You crushed every competitor. You owned the banks. The media. Half the governments. You pushed the world into a single economy held in your hands."
"And you fear I'll buy the other half," I said.
He didn't deny it.
"You reached the point," he said quietly, "where if we let you keep going, you'd eventually own the life of every living human."
I smiled. "That was the plan."
His jaw clenched. "You're sick."
"No," I said. "I'm efficient."
He lifted a pistol. A clean government-issued one. A silencer attached.
"You should have stopped," he said.
"I don't stop," I whispered. "I only take."
He hesitated for half a second—just half. Maybe he hoped I'd beg. Maybe he wanted me to look scared.
I didn't.
He pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit my chest like a hammer. I felt the shock, the heat, the sudden weightlessness as the world tilted. My vision blurred. My heartbeat slowed. Everything turned soft and distant, like someone was turning down the volume of reality.
But I didn't panic.
My final thought was simple.
I am not done.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
And then—
Light.
A bright flash exploded behind my eyes. My body felt tiny. Weak. Wrapped in something warm. Voices echoed around me as if underwater.
"He's breathing!"
"A healthy boy!"
Boy?
My eyes snapped open.
A woman I didn't know was crying with joy. A man with rough hands was laughing. Their faces blurred together. I tried to move my hands, but they were small. Chubby. Fragile.
A newborn's hands.
I blinked slowly.
No.
No way.
I remembered everything.
Every number.
Every plan.
Every betrayal.
Every dollar I owned.
Every scream from that cold room before the bullet hit.
I was Ryo Minami.
And now I was lying in someone else's arms.
"What should we name him?" the woman whispered.
The man answered softly. "Mammon."
My heartbeat stopped for a moment.
Mammon.
The sin of greed.
I almost laughed.
Of course the universe would do this.
I opened my eyes again. The room was warm, lit by lanterns. Wooden walls. A soft blanket around me. Everything felt old, rustic, far from the skyscrapers and steel towers I once owned.
A different world.
A different life.
But my mind was the same.
I waited until the two adults fell asleep. I stared at the ceiling. My newborn body couldn't move much, but my thoughts were sharp and cold.
"I got reincarnated," I whispered inside my head. "And you gave me the name Mammon?"
It was poetic.
I almost respected it.
Days passed.
I couldn't talk.
I couldn't stand.
But I could think.
I watched everything.
I memorized my new parents' routines.
I studied the world from my crib.
The food.
The clothes.
The conversations of neighbors.
The currency they used.
The stories they told.
This world wasn't modern.
It was medieval.
But there were hints of magic.
Knights.
Beasts.
Legends.
And I listened to them mention something that made my blood run cold.
"Calamity Morix."
A villain from the game I once played as a guilty pleasure. A game where the hero… was Mammon. The virtuous one. The blessed one.
But I wasn't virtuous.
And I wasn't blessed.
One night, while the house was asleep, something changed.
A soft sound echoed inside my mind. A chime. Gentle, like a bell ringing in a deep cave.
My tiny eyes widened.
A blue glow flickered in front of me. A floating panel. Clean. Bright. Pure.
A system notification.
[PATH OF HERO SYSTEM INITIALIZING]
I stared at it.
So it was true.
I was the hero of this world.
The one destined to defeat Morix.
But the panel continued.
[Scanning host soul…]
[Analyzing virtue levels…]
[Detecting moral alignment…]
The blue light flickered.
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
[ERROR]
My newborn heart beat faster. Something sharp moved behind my eyes, like cold fingers tapping my skull.
[ALERT: INCOMPATIBLE HOST]
[ALERT: HOST SOUL DOES NOT MATCH HERO ARCHETYPE]
No surprise.
I didn't breathe for a moment.
[Attempting recalibration…]
[Purification module activated]
A warm light washed over me. Gentle. Soft. Like someone wanted to wash away the corruption inside me.
My lips curled.
Purification?
Me?
Ryo Minami?
They could try.
The light grew brighter. Peaceful. Soothing.
I hated it.
Deep inside my chest, something twisted. Like an instinct waking up. A dark pulse. A hungry one. Something not human. Something this world must have placed inside me.
The sin of greed.
The light flickered, struggling.
[Warning: Host resisting purification]
I felt it.
My soul pushed back.
A newborn body, but an adult mind filled with decades of ruthless ambition.
I swallowed the warmth.
Rejected it.
Crushed it.
[Warning: Host actively overpowering system safeguards]
The panel shook.
Cracks formed across the blue interface.
I watched them spread like lightning.
[Purification failing]
[Hero Path unstable]
I waited.
The cracks widened.
The blue light dissolved into dust.
A new color bled through.
Red.
Deep.
Violent.
Hungry.
The temperature in the room dropped. My tiny breath shook.
A new message formed:
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE]
[HOST SOUL PRIORITY: RYO MINAMI]
[REBUILDING ARCHETYPE]
My heart pounded.
The blue shreds of the Hero System burned away.
Red circuits formed.
Dark symbols.
Numbers that glowed like embers.
[WELCOME, MAMMON]
[PATH OF GREED ACTIVATED]
The air around me trembled.
Something slid into my mind like a whisper.
Only those who take may rise.
A thrill shot through me. Sharp. Addictive.
The panel expanded.
[GREED INDEX: 100%]
[Starting bonus acquired: The Golden Sense]
[Ability unlocked: Value Perception]
I knew these terms.
I understood them instantly.
Golden Sense.
The instinct to recognize profit.
Wealth.
Weaknesses.
Opportunities.
Value Perception.
The ability to see what people want most.
What they fear losing.
What they cling to.
Tools of a businessman.
Now gifts of a newborn.
But the system wasn't done.
Another line appeared.
[FATE PATH: TERMINATE CALAMITY MORIX]
I froze.
Even with a corrupted system, fate refused to bend.
I whispered internally. "You want me to kill Morix?"
[Affirmative]
"And what if I don't?" I asked.
Silence.
Then—
[Compulsory Quest Generated]
[FAILURE PENALTY: SOUL DESTRUCTION]
My breath hitched.
So the prophecy was absolute.
Even the Greed System couldn't change it.
Morix.
The one villain I admired.
The one I considered a masterpiece of storytelling.
A character I liked more than any hero.
I wasn't going to kill him.
But fate demanded it.
This conflict pulsed through me, like a knife pressing against my ribs.
The system seemed to sense my hesitation.
[Warning: Host unwilling to follow Fate Path]
[Warning: Host attempting resistance]
The red panel trembled like something alive.
[Adaptive Protocol Engaged]
[Solution: Increase Greed Power to override Fate]
I stared at the message.
Override fate?
A slow smile spread on my newborn face.
"That sounds perfect," I said silently.
The system flared again.
[New Goal Assigned]
[ACCUMULATE WEALTH UNTIL FATE BREAKS]
So that was the game now.
I needed money.
Power.
Influence.
Control.
Enough to twist destiny itself.
Enough to protect the one person fate wanted me to kill.
Morix.
I closed my eyes.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway. My mother was coming to check on me.
The red panel dimmed, slipping back into my mind.
But one last message appeared before it vanished.
[FIRST QUEST UNLOCKED]
Steal something of value within the next 24 hours.
Reward: Greed Seed]
I stared at the glowing text.
A baby stealing something?
Impossible for anyone else.
But not for me.
Not for Ryo Minami.
Not for Mammon.
A shiver ran down my spine.
The door creaked open. Warm light spilled into the room. My mother smiled down at me as she approached the crib.
I smiled back.
Innocent.
Quiet.
Harmless.
She had no idea.
My tiny fingers curled.
24 hours.
Time to begin.
Time to take.
Time to break fate.
My mother leaned down to lift me.
My system whispered softly in the back of my head.
Take something.
My heartbeat quickened.
This was just the first quest.
The first step.
The first sin.
The beginning of something dangerous.
Something legendary.
Something profitable.
I looked at my mother's wrist.
A bracelet.
Silver.
Small.
Sentimental.
My first target.
A soft, cold thrill spread through me as the system pulsed again.
[Greed Awakening: Phase One]
The world blurred.
The crib.
The lanterns.
My mother's gentle smile.
Everything melted into a single, razor-sharp thought.
Mine.
And that was when the system whispered four words that turned the entire world upside down.
[Morix has been born.]
I froze.
My lungs tightened.
Born?
Already?
The world spun.
And then the final message hit like a hammer.
[And fate has already begun moving toward your first collision.]
My vision shook.
My breath trembled.
A collision?
When?!
Before I could think
[TIME LEFT UNTIL COLLISION: 72 HOURS]
My heart dropped.
Seventy two hours?
That wasn't enough time.
That wasn't enough for anything.
The system pulsed violently.
[PREPARE.]