Kazuki died doing what he loved most: absolutely nothing useful. But instead of peace, he wakes up in a broken world where gods gamble on mortals, monsters scream in ancient Latin, and everything he touches turns mildly cursed.

Now branded as “The Vessel” and dumped on the infamous Infernal Path, Kazuki gains EXP every time he suffers—and boy, does he suffer a lot. Armed with a soup ladle, a sarcastic talking cat named Mistral, and a system that raises his corruption faster than his stats, Kazuki must navigate deadly dungeons, soul-eating relics, and a prophecy that claims he might be the reincarnation of an ancient cosmic disaster. Or maybe the disaster itself.

Surrounded by a reluctant elf archer with emotional range issues, a battle-happy himbo, and a mage whose trust levels are permanently set to “knife,” Kazuki doesn’t know whether he’s destined to break the cycle… or become it.

One thing’s for sure: he’s not the hero.
He’s just the problem no one can fix.

Mistral was gone.The others had fallen behind.Even the system had stopped making passive-aggressive suggestions.


So when Darin appeared at the edge of the cliff, out of breath, bleeding slightly, and holding a flag made from a torn bedsheet with "TEAM CAT" drawn in charcoal, Kazuki's first words were:


Darin grinned like an idiot. "I declare a party raid!"


Kazuki stared. "You're not even making sense."


"I'm raiding you, idiot!" Darin shouted, pointing his sword. "You left the party. You glitched the system. You absorbed a shrine. That's boss behavior, and I didn't sign off on a final boss DLC!"


Kazuki blinked. "You're staging an intervention… with a sword."


Darin raised it dramatically. "The sword of feelings."


Kazuki laughed once—dry, tired. "Go home, Darin."


Kazuki sidestepped, calmly. "You can't win this."


Darin swung wide, missed on purpose, spun, and shouted, "I don't have to win!"


He dropped the sword.Tackled Kazuki.And hugged him.


Just Darin's arms around him and one sentence that nearly broke his last thread of conviction:


But something inside him cracked. Just a hairline fracture in the armor he'd been layering since Emberfall.


"You're not evil," Darin said. "You're just too smart. Too tired. Too scared."


Kazuki's hands shook. His voice cracked.


And then Kazuki did something he would remember forever:


He pressed his hand to Darin's chest, summoned a fragment of system code—bare, unstable, shimmering like a dying star—and knocked him unconscious.


Whispered, "You're the best thing I didn't deserve."


[Kazuki Alignment Drift: +15%][Party Status: Fragmented][Soul Weight: Increasing]


As he disappeared into the shadows, the echo of Darin's last words clung to him like a scar:


Chapter 36 - Chapter 36: I Knocked Out Darin and Still Hate Myself