Chapter 3: 3

There wasn’t a lot written in the thread. How did you conquer Great Demon Lord Baal’s castle? Give an explanation. That was all there was to their post. Nothing more, nothing less. Has VenusPanties not beaten Baal’s Great Demon Lord Castle yet?

I felt myself grinning on the inside.

-TekilLatte: For starters, I beat it with a minimum party of 4 members. Me, a knight, an archmage, and a healer.

-VenusPanties: A 4-man party is way too unstable. It’s standard to go with a party of at least 25 members.

I furrowed my brow. Standard? Are you debating with me on what’s standard?

There’s no such thing as a standard method in a game. At the very least, this was the case when you reached the highest point of the game. True professionals were the ones who created standard procedures. There was no way that VenusPanties didn’t know this. Nevertheless, the very fact that they were saying such and such about standard procedures meant that they were challenging me on whose method was closer to being considered standard.

I wouldn’t have cared if he had called me food waste. It’s true, after all. However, calling me food waste as a Dungeon Attack player was an insult which I couldn’t possibly bear. The things in this world which have evaporated pointlessly after I had worked strenuously for them was different from all of the things I had neatly piled up in this other world.

It may be a world that only I know about, but it’s still a world of its own!

-TekilLatte: The AI in the Demon Lord’s castle is so insane that if you increase the number of your party members, then the number of monsters increases like a bunch of cockroaches. If this happens, then the variety of monsters increases, so dealing with each and every one of them becomes difficult. That’s why it’s much easier to conquer the dungeon by lowering the number of mobs and minimizing the patterns.

The thread went on for a while. The two of us exchanged theories and counterarguments. Although we didn’t throw out swear words, this was no different from a complete quarrel.

The topic of discussion had shifted towards the game system of Dungeon Attack itself before I knew it. The number of replies reached over 200 in the blink of an eye. ‘Idiots, that’s not right!’, a third party would occasionally squeeze in like this. A large argument ensued. The members of the fan site split into two groups as they took either my or VenusPanties’ side and argued.

Time slipped by and it was already evening. The number of replies reached 750. It was then that the discussion finally came to a conclusion.

The members who had been silently spectating the argument for the last half of it declared the winner.

PartenonPillar: I think TekilLatte won this time?

-PlusBack: Even I think TekilLatte is right on this one.

The bloody battle had come to an end. One after another, the site members raised my right hand in victory.

Despite having survived the coliseum, I didn’t feel that ecstatic about it. I felt the same as I did earlier. I only had a sense of futility. ‘I knew I would throw my time away like this’, I snickered at myself in my head.

Right when I was about to shut my laptop, VenusPanties left another reply.

Were they perhaps trying to object against the outcome?

I realized that wasn’t the case when I read their message.

-VenusPanties: Hey, did you hear that a sequel of Dungeon Attack is coming out?

A sequel!?

I typed on reflex.

-TekilLatte: Whoa, are you serious?

VenusPanties: I’m serious. Fundamentally, it’s the same as Dungeon Attack. Except there’s one difference.

I opened my eyes wide. Were the rumors about VenusPanties being a part of the development team true?

I hastily asked him what the one difference was.

-VenusPanties: That’s a secret.

Are you kidding me!? I got worked up and pounded away at my keyboard. If I had hit the keys any faster than this, then I would have probably broken my keyboard.

-TekilLatte: Such a tease. You almost got me excited.

VenusPanties: In any case, if the goal of Dungeon Attack is to stop the Demon Lords and protect the world, then the biggest goal of the sequel is to conquer the world. This is what’s important. Don’t forget.

VenusPanties continued to beat around the bush. They only gave small bits of information.

I was in agony, but I didn’t get upset. Even if they were a developer, it would be difficult for them to hastily give out information regarding the sequel, wouldn’t it?

The key points were omitted, but I was able to create a rough outline with the small pieces of information that had been given. The next game is most likely going to be carried out in the shoes of a Demon Lord. That’s why the goal is going to be to conquer the world.

I felt excited.

It has only been a few hours since I became low-spirited after having beaten all of Dungeon Attack. I now had a new place to invest my time into. A corner of my head was reprimanding me for being such a shut-in gamer, but it didn’t matter at this moment. My mind had left me at the thought of being able to play the upcoming game.

Another bombshell was dropped here.

-VenusPanties: You may have noticed already, but you’ve actually been selected to be a beta tester.

My head began to spin. My fingers were automatically tapping away at the keyboard like a musician who had played the piano continuously for 20 years.

-TekilLatte: My God, you really are a developer!

-VenusPanties: I strongly recommended you as a beta tester.

-TekilLatte: Milky white VenusPanties. I love you VenusPanties

-VenusPanties: Fuck of.

-VenusPanties: Fuck off.

Just how deterred were they by that comment to accidentally make a typo?

My face was already all smiles. I would gladly accept more swear words like ‘fuck off’.

-TekilLatte: When does the beta start?

-VenusPanties: Honestly, if you wanted, then you could start today.

-TekilLatte: Amazing. Let’s go.

-VenusPanties: Right now?

-TekilLatte: Let’s go.

-VenusPanties: It’s already night time. What about your daily life?

-TekilLatte: Daily life? I don’t know anything about that.

-VenusPanties: You really are a shut-in.

You’re one to talk.

Seeing as he said that I could start today, they probably intended to email the demo to me.

The faster the better. I would probably start feeling empty again if I went back to my place. I’d rather forget about the world and sink into a game.

-VenusPanties: Are you sure you want to do it right now?

-VenusPanties: You won’t regret it, right?

-VenusPanties: It might consume all of your time.

That seemed like a silly question to me.

I’ll naturally regret it. I regretted it earlier as well. I regret it even now and I’ll continue to do so. This was one thing I was certain of for some reason.

I didn’t think long before I typed my response.

-TekilLatte: I don’t care at all.

The other party responded saying that they understood. After that, there were no more replies in the thread.

I waited thinking that they were sending me the file; however, there was no response even after 30 minutes had passed. I thought about rushing them, but I figured they would send it to me on their own time so I closed my laptop. The thought that the person may have been tricking me crossed my mind as I left the cafe.

Cars zoomed up and down the wide intersection of Daehak Street. They were probably mostly being driven by office workers. Each and every person stood at the crosswalk thinking about their homes. I heard a trending song through my earphones.

The street sparkled with white, yellow, and red lights. The lights entered my line of sight for a moment before they soon disappeared.

For how long will this lifestyle last?

Would anything change once summer break is over and my semester resumes?

When will everything suddenly come to an end?

I was better off compared to some. There were people that were worse and more pathetic than me all over the world. So, at the very least, I could be at ease for now. For now, for now, for now…… after repeating this over and over again, there will be a day where I can no longer say ‘now’. I can have my last regrets when that day comes. A fair verdict will come to pass so that I can’t console myself by saying that I’m better or worse off than others…….

The crosswalk light changed from red to green. I left all of the thoughts that were filling my head on my heel and walked forward.

I remembered everything clearly up to this point.

It was incredibly painful.

My mind blacked out for an instant.

Once I opened my eyes, which I have no memory of closing, the world was upside down.

‘Ah.’

Even though there was music coming through my earphones, the sound felt like it was coming from far away. I thought vacantly. I was hit. By a truck. It wasn’t that surprising. My ears were blocked by music and my head was filled with other thoughts, after all. I walked forward not knowing that a vehicle on the side was still speeding forward. It seems that even in my final moment, I was destined to be incapable of devoting my all into this world.

‘I don’t want to die.’

‘Mother.’

‘……It hurts.’

My vision started to fade in and out. I wasn’t moving my eyelids voluntarily. It felt as if someone else was opening and closing my eyes for me. Nevertheless, that’s how it was.

That was it…….

It was pitch black.

* * *

I woke up to the sound of a ceiling crumbling.

A corner of my mind still felt heavy, but once a rock fell right in front of my face, my consciousness was forced back into me. I hastily got up. My surroundings shook as if a bomb or something had gone off in the distance. One after another, at that.

“What, what is this!?”

I was in a room I had never seen before in my life. No, it didn’t feel right to call this a room. It was an enormous cave. The ceiling was twice as high as the one I saw in the stalactite cave which I happened to visit on Jeju Island. My eyes looked towards the black end of the cave which went on for who knows how long. Why was I in a place like this? This question came to mind, but I didn’t get the time to figure it out.

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A putrid smell of blood. A pungent smell of blood wrapped around me as if it intended to cover the inside of my nostrils and up to my brain in its scent.

“Guh……!”

Curses surged up from my throat.

There were corpses scattered around me. A human with a bloated body, a decapitated human, a human whose limbs were twisted in the wrong direction, a human body with arrows sticking out of it and their guts spilling out――all sorts of corpses were scattered all around the cave as if someone were trying to exhibit the many different ways a person can be murdered.

There were also the corpses of monstrous creatures lying among the human corpses. However, my mind wasn’t clear enough to pay attention to them.

“Ugh! Kuh, uuuugh!”

I vomited for some time before I instinctually had a feeling that this wasn’t the time to be vomiting leisurely. I could still hear a bunch of explosions echoing in the distance. Each time one resonated, the cave floor and ceiling shook violently.

“Damn it, guh, fuck!”

I wiped my mouth and started to walk forward without any hesitation. At any rate, staying here was dangerous.

The instant I moved my right foot, I flopped down on the floor weakly. It was then that I realized my right foot was broken. It wasn’t a simple sprain. Just taking a glance at it, I could tell that the bone itself had shattered. My right foot dangled against my will.

“Damn it! Gah!”

After I fell over trying to stand up again, I started to crawl with my two arms. In order to get as far as I could to the explosions. I could hear the sound of shouting and screaming between each explosion. Although I have never experienced being in a war before, even I could tell that what was happening in the distance was the sound of battle. This was a battlefield.

What is happening?

Didn’t I die?

No, where am I?

At that moment, I heard someone’s voice behind me. The husky voice of a man.

“There he is! There’s the Demon Lord!”

Demon Lord.

It was a title that had absolutely no connection to me. Regardless, I could tell that the shout was directed towards me.

Once I managed to turn around while on the ground, I saw a dozen or so people saying something as they approached me. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they definitely didn’t seem friendly. At that moment, something stabbed into the ground at a terrifying speed right in front of me. It was an arrow. They were shooting arrows at me!

I crawled forward desperately.

“Don’t shoot! Ghh, don’t shoot! It’s not me! It’s not me!”

My voice sounded feeble even to myself. My voice got mixed into my groans so it came out almost like a gasp. Nevertheless, I couldn’t endure the pain without shouting out a little, so I continued to speak.

“Hgh, don’t, don’t shoot! Kuh, you got the wrong person!”

I couldn’t breathe. While this was all happening, arrows continued to fly at me. I can dodge them. I can dodge them. These words repeated in my head over and over again like a broken radio.

However, my luck soon ran out. An arrow brushed against my forearm. My flesh was cut clean.

It hurts!

It actually――hurts!

“Gah, guuh!”

My vision became white. I felt tears flowing out of my eyes. The tears were incredibly hot.

I moved my limbs and crawled like a bug without any sense of direction. A sharp rock on the floor of the cave stabbed into my thigh. As one might expect, it hurt. It couldn’t be helped. I crawled. Something pressed down on my back. I was being strongly stepped on. 

I realized that it was a human’s foot.

“I caught him! I’ve caught the Demon Lord! I, the great Riff, have captured Demon Lord Dantalian!”

“Look at him! He’s like a bug.”

“Riff, you aren’t planning to take all of the credit, right?”

It felt like an anchor had dropped on top of my body and was holding me down. Nevertheless, I still tried to struggle. I reached my arms out and clawed at the ground. I swung my legs as if I were paddling them in water.

A group of people laughed above me.

“He really is like a bug. No, he literally is a bug.”

“More mutt-like than a son of a bitch. It seems that even people like us can capture a Demon Lord.”

“Wait a second. Calm down, everyone. Don’t get too excited. We still haven’t learned where all the treasure is kept in this dungeon. Killing this bastard may be important, but if we go back emptyhanded, then we’ll only end up being a laughingstock.”

“Oh, my dear comrade. You’re right.”

Someone kicked my side. I wasn’t able to let out a cry as I rolled over. Cough, cough. Coughing up air was all that I could manage to do. The dirt on the cave floor stuck to my tear-soaked face.

Someone spoke to me even though I still couldn’t open my eyes.

“All right, Your Highness the Demon Lord. Let me ask you a question. Where’s the room where all the dungeon’s money is stored?”

“Spare me…… Spare me.”

“Riff. It’s annoying, so just mess up his knees. He’ll probably chirp like a bird.”

“There’s no need. This is good enough, Cyclops.”

They were having a very chilling conversation. I pleaded desperately.

“Spare me……I’m not who you’re looking for…… It really isn’t me…….”

“Okay. Okay. Calm down, Your Highness Demon Lord. We also don’t want to get more violent than necessary. Don’t cry so much, all right? Stop crying.”

“Kuhahaha!”

Laughter erupted around me.

I held back my tears. Regardless of my state, I have to drag this conversation on for as long as possible. That was my path to survival, after all. An urge to vomit and cry mixed together and was trying to surge up my throat, but I did my best to swallow it all down. However, I couldn’t stop myself from doing something similar to a hiccup.

“Good. That’s it. Now you look like you’re ready to negotiate! Keep it up.”

“Uk……hk, kuh.”

“Let me ask you one more time. Where is all of the money in this dungeon kept?”

“Meongnyun-dong――hck, it’s in Meongnyun-dong.”

Meongnyun-dong is the name of the neighborhood I was renting a place in. I had just blurted out the first name that came to mind. What did it matter? I just had to say something.

The other party let out an audible sound of confusion and asked back.

“Maeirun, what?”

“Meongnyun, Meongnyun-dong.”

“What a weird sounding word. Do any of you guys understand what he said?”

“It’s probably the demon language. It sounds authentic.”

“Okay. Your Highness Demon Lord. I like your smart business style. I feel like we can become friends, but first. Hey.”

The other party patted my cheek jokingly.

“Where is this Maeirundou room? Tell us where it is exactly.”

“In the room I was in…… there’s a secret passageway.”

“In the Demon Lord room? There’s a secret passageway in the Demon Lord room?”

“Yes, in the Demon Lord room……it only opens after authenticating my biometrics……so a passageway that only opens if I place my hand over it……is there.”

“A magical device, huh.”

‘All right’, the man grunted to himself before grabbing my arm and pulling me up. An excruciating amount of pain traveled up from my right foot.

“Aah!”

“Oh dear. It seems your leg is fucked.”

He clicked his tongue.

“Oi, rookie. Support His Highness Demon Lord. He’s an important guest, after all.”

“Understood, Riff!”

The young man, who was referred to as by ‘rookie’, put my arm around the back of his neck. I wound up walking while using him to support myself.

I was finally able to obtain a slight breadth of mind, so I rubbed my face with my forearm. Once my tears were wiped off, my vision cleared. There were still tears mixed with dirt in the corner of my eyes, but it was enough to see in front of me.

There was a total of 15 people around me. They all had a weapon in their hands like a bow or a spear. They all had intimidating facial features.

“Let’s go!”

The man called Riff shouted. The men chatted with each other and exchanged water pouches as they walked forward. I was practically being dragged by the rookie.

Fortunately, it seems they knew very well where the Demon Lord room was. That was a relief. If they told me to guide them to the Demon Lord room, then they would immediately know that I was lying.

“Hkk……kuh…….”

However, I couldn’t lower my guard. All I’ve done is delay my death ever so slightly.

The open cavern was quiet, so the sound of the group of people chatting resonated quietly throughout the cavern like a terrifying requiem. Additionally, my feeble groans were mixed in there as well.

***

TL note: Thanks for reading the chapter. These aren’t exactly long chapters, but FFXIV is very distracting. Hah. It’s not a terrible pace, though. In any case, Dant does seem a bit more pathetic in the WN, but it does seem like a more normal reaction to the situation. I guess you can say the LN toned it down a lot.

Welp, see you guys in the next chapter.

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