System Supervillain, Chapter 100

Chapter 100 – First Interview

Before entering the interview space, I took a moment to assure my pets that I wouldn’t be needing their services as bodyguards to help talk down or beat down an angry reality controller. They were, understandably, quite relieved at that. Huinnalge blushed, though, when I told them to keep the costumes on, because I planned on taking them off later. She still wasn’t entirely happy with my owning her, according to Bulkkoch, but she was not going to cause problems so long as she still got to be with her lover and children. I saw no reason to poke the bear more than necessary, so I just smiled, and stepped through a portal to the interview room.

The interview space was… interesting would be putting it nice. Completely empty and formless would be a better description. Auxiliary controls popped up, allowing me to set the parameters. So, everything was set up so that a System Administrator could make this pocket dimension for interviews, and change things as needed to suit the environmental and physical needs of both parties, even if they were of wildly different species? That was good to know.

A bit of twiddling with the controls, and I found myself in a small white room, lit by an everpresent glow that had no definable source. There just was light, without shadows. A simple folding table sat in the middle of the room, with two chairs, facing each other. As I sat in one chair, I set the entrance point for the room to be on the other side of the table, so that my interviewees would see me, and the empty chair, waiting on them. The similarities to an interrogation room off some police procedural show were not lost on me.

A tap of the interface, and now it was time to begin. A cylinder of static flickered on the entry point, before it resolved into a woman. Not in costume, because she’d been quarantined while at home. It had been evening when I quarantined everyone, but a thirteen hour time difference meant that she had been just getting ready for lunch when I’d snapped her up, leaving her in comfortable, if expensive, civilian clothes.

Rang Su-Yun was a very attractive woman. As one might expect, considering that she’d been a movie star before the System. The Korean entertainment industry definitely shared its preference for men and women who were easy on the eyes with the folks in Hollywood. It only made sense, really. Most people didn’t want to spend their hard-earned money to spend hours looking at someone hideous, with the possible exception of ‘ugly duckling’ or ‘beauty and the beast’ romance stories. Even then, the people that were called ‘ugly’ or ‘plain’ in those movies were at least an eight out of ten for normal people. Same thing with ‘old’ women in the industry. She was only twenty-nine, but people were already talking about how she was getting older. Idiots.

The movie star quickly looked around, and I could see a moment of panic in her eyes. She tried to do… something, but this space was set to disallow powers or abilities used by quarantined individuals by default. Smart, considering that most people who got quarantined probably wouldn’t be too happy with the System Administrators when they were interviewed.

“Your powers won’t work in this space,” I said, breaking the silence. As the star turned to look at me, I motioned to the chair across from me. “Please sit down, Ms. Rang. We need to have a discussion about your continued existence from this point forward.”

She took a breath to steady herself, and then walked to the chair, sitting down properly. “You are the villain Iceblade, yes? What is happening? Why are you doing this? I have never done anything to you, as far as I know.”

“Yes, you have never done anything to earn my vengeance, which is why we’re having this pleasant conversation, instead of doing something much more violent. To speed things along, I will inform you that I know you are both Rang Su-Yun, movie star, and Lady Abstract, reality manipulator. Now, tell me, what is the last thing you remember?”

Su-Yun blinked, and said, “I remember trying to make the System acknowledge my abilities. It kept throwing up error messages whenever I attempted to reshape the world around me. My Abstractions were collapsing into certainties, instead of the improbabilities I am used to. Then, the next thing I knew, I was here.”

“Interesting. Good to have confirmation that the Quarantine has a stasis feature. At any rate, I believe the simplest way to say this is to not mince words. I am the System Administrator for Earth, chosen by the System after it came online. You, along with several others, were quarantined shortly after I gained System access, because you were threatening to destabilize the System with your actions. I had been intending to simply leave all of you in there indefinitely, but the Guild offered me a substantial sum to review your cases individually, so that their accounts could be properly balanced.”

“So, what, you’re here to judge me? What gives you the right to say what happens with me?”

“Well, because I am the System Administrator, and you’ve been disrupting the System, I do have the authority to make edits to your status, and either bring you into compliance or purge your existence from reality, to preserve the System. That is actually part of the job description. I don’t even have to abuse my access to do that. Luckily for you, I’ve decided what to do with you, which is why you now have a collar around your neck, both literally and figuratively.”

Su-Yun’s hand went to her throat, and found the black leather collar there, with a silver ring at the front of it, perfect for a leash. Her face went from shock, to a furious scowl. “You think you can get away with this? I might not be a government super, but I have a lot of friends! They’ll send everyone after you for this!”

Whatever response she was expecting, my laughter wasn’t it. “Oh, you still don’t understand. You see, through the System, I’ve already put hard limits on your powers. And not even time travel or dimension hopping will get away from that, as mandatory updates have gone through putting limits on all such powers, causing them to fail if they would go to a place or time outside the System. But you’ll also find that the psychological limitation I’ve put on you means you’ll find it very difficult to go against my commands, and even when you manage it, you cannot harm me. Also, I tied all your powers into that collar, which you cannot take off. If I take it off you, however, then you are nothing but a normal woman.”

I held up a hand to keep her from interrupting. “And who will your friends send after me, hmm? The Squadron Supreme, perhaps? In the two years you’ve been in quarantine, I’ve already taken them down, with half of their members enslaved like you are. Of course, I had to defeat them first, since I am careful not to abuse my administrator privileges in any way that I can’t easily explain, just in case some ‘supervisor’ type shows up to audit the logs. But, suffice to say, the Squadron isn’t a concern for me.

“But what about closer to home, hmm? Two of Korea’s most famous heroines are also under my thrall, and they’re living in your house right now, which I’ve owned ever since your ‘disappearance’. I assassinated Jinlong over in China, and one of my pets killed the former Emperor, and Mófàn, the new Radiant Emperor, is too busy dealing with politics to trouble me.

“And even if your friends are some of the less wholesome sort? Well, the syndicates and cartels all know me, and my work. They won’t do anything to make things personal with me. The Russians still tell horror stories of how I exacted revenge upon the gangsters who thought they could cross me, and Doctor Ubuntu’s organization no longer exists, thanks to me, and everyone knows it. They won’t come to your call, now that I’ve staked a claim to you.”

I saw as each revelation was like a nail in the coffin to Su-Yun, sealing her fate. She knew there was no way out for her, but she hadn’t given up on defiance. Not that I expected differently. By her perspective, up until mere hours ago, reality itself had been her plaything, to mold according to her every whim, so the idea of ‘consequences’ or things she couldn’t change were utterly alien to her. That had actually been one of her Disadvantages before I started rewriting her Status. No, I could tell that she would be an unruly slave, at least until she was properly broken.

“So, what, am I getting special treatment, because I’m an attractive woman? Or are you going to make the other reality manipulators your bitch boys too? After all, most of them are guys, aren’t they?”

And there it was. Moving swiftly to the offense, to try and keep me off balance. Fortunately, I knew that I had all the cards in this situation, and I wasn’t some insecure ‘alpha male’ that had to keep proclaiming how alpha and straight he was to cover for that insecurity. Any man who has to say they are the king is no true king, after all. I had long since progressed past the point where jabs trying to question my sexuality could affect me.

“Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. It will depend on how things go with their interviews, honestly. Of course, I went relatively light on the changes I made to you. But, with Administrator access? Little things like turning a, say, white man into a gorgeous ebony woman is child’s play. I just have to have a legitimate reason to go in and start changing things. And, by trying to destabilize the System with your powers, every last one of you reality manipulators has given me that reason.”

I paused, and looked her in the eye. “Of course, you are getting special treatment, in a sense. But not because you are an attractive woman. You got to be the test subject for what I can and cannot do, because until I started diving into the interface, I didn’t know whether I could change you without bringing you out of quarantine, and I didn’t know whether you would come out of quarantine at a point of my choosing, or if you would reappear in the physical location you left from. Since my pets are living in your former home, that makes it far easier to deal with than, say, Reality Slash, who disappeared in the middle of Berlin, on a public street. You were simply the most convenient person to use.”

“I hate how much sense that makes.”

I shrugged. “I think you’ll find, once you get past how many things I do that could be considered ‘over the top’, that I am a very sensible guy.”

She took a breath, and then said, “So, since you’re so sensible, I assume that you have some kind of plan in place, for what you’ll do with me?”

“Oh, yes. You see, since you’re my pet, I’m going to enjoy your body quite thoroughly. Not that you’re unfamiliar with such treatment. After all, your biography in the System, combined with the skills you have, paints a very clear picture, even if you didn’t already have a reputation for sleeping your way to the top. I don’t blame you for that, by the way. Using the abilities you have to get what you want and avoiding consequences is prime supervillain behavior.”

I paused, and then said, “Of course, consequences are going to be a big part of your life, from now on. I’m going to breed you, like my other women, but you’re still plenty young, so I’m sure getting back into shape afterwards won’t be a problem. However, your actions between now and then are going to determine what your future fate will be. Play nice, and you’ll get to be in movies again. Too much of this rebellious phase, though, and I’ll strip all your experience as an actress, and turn it into being a submissive maid. Really annoy me, however, and your return to acting will be as a porn star, with your face as the selling point for a whole series of anal gangbang movies. Do you understand me?”

Su-Yun looked at me in shock and horror. “You don’t lie. That’s one of your things. Everyone knows that. Y-you would actually do that. To me? Make me some kind of whore for the fucking degenerates who pay for porn? Fine. I understand, I won’t fight you, you bastard, but don’t expect me to like it.”

“Ah, if you understood, then there is a better way to address me than ‘you bastard’. You will call me Master. Understand?”

The movie star bristled, but forced herself to sigh, as her shoulders drooped. “Yes, Master. I understand.”

“Good girl.”