Back in his room, Dante saw Emma sitting cross-legged on her bed, absorbing the knowledge from the manual.

'She's not sleeping anytime soon.' He closed the feed with a smile on his face and pulled up the notification tab with a thought.

He hadn't checked it since before the gala and the notifications had been piling up the entire time.

[Emma held your hand in front of hundreds of people and publicly marked you as hers!]

[+3,000 Villain Points!]

[You made the heroine feed you in front of Marcus!]

[+4,000 Villain Points!]

[You humiliated Marcus Devereux at his own game and made him leave with his tail between his legs!]

[+5,000 Villain Points!]

[Emma bought an entire building just because another man tried to outbid you!]

[+5,000 Villain Points!]

"She really went all out." Dante shook his head with a grin.

The memory of Marcus standing there with his hand frozen in the air while the auctioneer bowed and handed the item to them was still fresh in his mind.

[The protagonist's mother saw photos of you and Emma at the gala and couldn't sleep from jealousy!]

[+2,500 Villain Points!]

[Total Balance: 50,500]

Dante recalled her resentful expression and smiled. He was happy to see her showing her real emotions.

If this was the Natasha from before the sleeping mission, she would have probably hidden everything and suffered in silence.

The current Natasha was heading down a different path from the one in the novel, where she ended up as a soulless shell with no emotions.

He then checked the favorability.

[Emma's favorability has increased by 6]

[Total Favorability: 47 (Crush)]

'That's a nice jump.' Dante looked at the number with a pleased expression. Raising Emma's favorability was easier than Natasha's since her previous favorability was already at 58.

Knowing that tsundere, it would get a hell of a lot harder once he reached that number again.

Then his eyes landed on the notification he had been waiting for.

[Emma has successfully completed the tutorial mission and awakened the Ice Elf Bloodline (Legendary)!]

[Triggering 10x rewards...]

[Detecting the reward is incompatible with your current situation. You have no existing bloodline to upgrade.]

[Analyzing alternatives...]

[Three options are available. Please choose one.]

[A) Select an Epic grade bloodline of your choice. Guaranteed full purity and immediate awakening.]

[B) Convert the reward into equivalent Villain Points.]

[C) Select any bloodline regardless of grade. However, initial purity will be limited if the grade exceeds Epic.]

Dante didn't even look at the first two options. His eyes locked onto option C the moment it appeared.

Option A was safe but boring. An Epic bloodline was decent, but he wasn't the type to settle for decent.

Option B was out of the question. No amount of villain points was worth giving up a bloodline.

'Lower purity is just a temporary problem.' A grin slowly spread across his face. 'But… a Divine grade bloodline is forever.'

At a lower purity, some of the techniques might be locked but even if he gets one or two techniques, his combat power and talents would skyrocket.

"C."

[Great choice! You can go ahead and choose from the bloodlines available in the store!]

'I already know which grade I want. Now I just need to pick the right one.' Dante opened the villain store without any hesitation and set the filter to Divine grade bloodlines only.

His eyes widened. 'There are this many?'

The list stretched far longer than he expected. Hundreds of bloodlines filled the screen, starting from elemental ones to monster races, ancient beasts, and things he had never even heard of.

'But from what Master told me, there are only a handful of people in the world who possess a Divine bloodline. Even most of the heroines only had Mythic ones.' He was genuinely shocked to see so many of them here.

Then a thought crossed his mind and the smile on his face disappeared.

'Wait...' His blood ran cold. 'Did all of these bloodlines get wiped out during the Ruination?'

He had a very strong feeling that was the reason. Possessors of Divine grade bloodlines had unimaginable strength and near infinite lifespans. They weren't the kind of beings that just died out on their own.

'What the hell were they fighting? How did so many of them get wiped out?' The uneasy feeling in his chest only grew the more he learned about this world. And then the scariest question of all surfaced in his mind.

'Did they win in the end... or is the world living on borrowed time?' He swallowed. 'If it's the latter, whatever they were fighting against must still be out there.'

His eyes instinctively darted to both sides of the room. It was like reading about the monster in a horror movie and suddenly feeling like it was standing right behind you.

He let out a sigh of relief when there was nothing around him. 'There is definitely something fishy about this world.'

'I might have knowledge of the novel but it's heavily limited to the protagonist's perspective. I should never assume I know the full picture.'

The more he discovered things that were new or different from the novel, the more he started questioning everything.

He pulled up his status panel and checked his Foresight talent. It was still at EX rank, which meant the information he had about the plot should be reliable to some extent.

Dante closed his eyes and took a moment to think calmly.

A few moments later, when he opened them, there was a clear look in his eyes. 'I should stop worrying about things I can't control and focus on getting stronger. That's the best way to prepare for whatever the future throws at me.'

He could ask Natasha about the Ruination since she was the leader of the oldest organization in the world. She had to know something.

But even if she told him, there was nothing his current self could do about it.

'Since Master hadn't told me, she must think there's no need to let me despair over something I can't change yet.' Dante thought as he scrolled through the bloodlines. His finger finally stopped on one name and a grin formed on his face. 'I'll get strong enough so she never has to carry that burden alone.'

'This will be the first step.'

[High Elf King Bloodline(Divine)]

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