Chapter 2: Arise, Demon King Jin
Jin suddenly woke up, his head aching for unknowns reasons.
"Where am I?" He muttered.
He was sure that he perished after his chest got pierced by the hero claiming himself to be the World Champion. 'If that really is the case. Then, did I not really die a pathetic death?' He pondered. If it was any other hero, then it would have been such a shame. If the latter was true, however, then it isn't so much a disgrace to have fallen in such hands.
'I died… right? Is this the spirit realm?' Jin pondered as he inspected his surrounding, 'Then, this is just my consciousness drifting across towards the other side—'. "Tsk, who am I kidding? I could clearly talk! This is my frickin' room! What the hell is happening?" Jin retorted. He could certainly see and feel everything around him like nothing happened.
The room, his room, was the same as always. Albeit it felt ethereal and dream-like, Jin could also feel that everything was real. He felt like he didn't experience death at all!
Was everything that happened just a dream? He could not deny the possibility that it might have been just some bad nightmare. However, Jin felt that it was all too real to just be a dream. In his head, everything did happen;
From the assault to the final moments of him being killed by a hero.
"That wasn't a dream… But, what is happening?" Jin silently muttered.
"Of course, that wasn't a dream, you buffoon! Tsk tsk, how could you just die without even fighting? I am disappointed in you!" A deep and dark voice suddenly spoke to Jin, startling the latter as he fell on his behind, stumbling back to his bed.
"Who— Who's there!? Oi! Wait… gramps?" The sudden voice, although unclear and distorted, sounded all too familiar for Jin to not recognize. It was his grandpa that took care of him when he was younger! Jin had never seen his father, as he died during the war against the humans, so Jin had to ascend the throne at a very young age.
"Huh, gramps, you can talk to me… So that means I am really dead, huh. Why is demon heaven looking so much like my room? Is this some form of torture?" Jin, after hearing his grandfather's voice, then leaned back on the idea that he was truly dead.
"Aish! You really are a moron, Jin! You're not dead! I am behind you." His grandfather's voice echoed once more.
"Huh? Behind me? Come on gramps… don't scare me like that." Jin shakily replied. Was his grandfather suddenly ghosting him after being a pathetic demon king? Probably. Was he willing to turn around and greet his grandfather who died a decade ago? Absolutely not.
"...What the hell! What's taking you so long to turn around!?"
"Oi gramps, I know you're a proud and handsome demon back in the day. But you've been dead for ten years already. I am not willing to see your rotten face— "
*Plak*
A sudden blunt force suddenly struck Jin's back, pushing him off of his bed.
"Wah! Gramps! Stop scaring me… please, I'll turn around! I'll turn around! — eh?"
Behind Jin was a blood-red greatsword that was as long as he was. The sword magically hovered over Jin's bed. In its hilt, a seven-horned skull was situated. 'The family's heirloom?' Jin wondered. "Gramps! Did you seal yourself inside the heirloom? What's happening?" Everything became even more confusing for Jin.
However, Jin didn't hear an answer.
What happened next shocked the confused demon king out of his wits—
The family heirloom, the blood-red greatsword, Seyna, suddenly rushed towards Jin; its blade directly pointing at his chest; his heart. The scene felt familiar... "Ack! — "
A mouthful of blood came out of Jin's mouth, as it landed on the sword's hilt…
The seven horns on the demon skull then glowed brightly. Jin could not discern anything from what was happening. At this point, he was all too confused to even care. 'Another dream, perhaps? Or is the demon heaven trying to reject a pathetic demon like me? Ah! Maybe that's the case… I guess I'll just have to accept the fact that I'd be dying twice, huh."
[Unlocked: Self Playable Character]
'Eh? What? Who's there?' Jin heard another voice. This time, he was pretty sure that he had no idea who it was. It sounded alien to him; like a female Orc gargling swamp water early in the morning. An odd description, but was the closest one could describe it with.
Suddenly, a bright red light enveloped the entirety of his body, including his face, forcing him to close his eyes. The brightness felt more painful than the one caused by the sudden stab from Seyna, the family's heirloom.
[Respawning…]
[Loading default 'Last Save'...]
"Make me proud… my dear grandson…"
---
The throne room was littered with dead demon knights.
It would seem like the raiding party formed by the guild was successful. Although the Priya Demon Kingdom was only a D-rank area, the guild could not be careless when attacking it. In the end, it was still a demon-infested territory; and the closest one at that.
If one were to recklessly raid and lose, it might trigger a chain effect; an alternate storyline that could harm the players, or worse, the game's structure in itself. Being so close, barely a hundred kilometers away, to the United Federation of Human Nations (UFHN); it would be devastating, even harmful, to [Human] players for such an abrupt storyline to happen.
In this full-dive virtual game— Dark Descent— Players aren't given infinite respawns as other RPG games normally do. At a certain level, depending on the players starting class, the respawns would then dwindle to a meager amount, around twenty to thirty lives, depending on how well they did during the initial phase.
And as such, in-game organizations formed by players themselves need to handle raids and other things well enough to ultimately deter unexpected things to happen. Limited lives changed the pattern of how the usual RPG strategy works. Teamwork became a key factor for finishing harder quests, betrayal amongst peers became an impactful scenario every time it occurs, and the ever-shifting A.I.-controlled quests became a huge burden for grinding players with very limited respawns.
Ultimately, Dark Descent became a sensational pick within the genre of VR gaming.
With a thriving market, many real-life organizations had branched out to create guilds and replicas of their own organization inside the game. Wherever money lies, many corporates would soon follow. But with how the game works, bad players would easily get punished in-game. May it be due to foolishly grinding against stronger monsters, or just simply getting player-killed by other corporate players.
With a diverse range of audience and unique gameplay— Dark Descent simply attracted people from all age and ways of life.
...
"Hahaha, I could totally say that I am the World's Champion and not even a demon king could tell the difference." The gilded golden 'hero', Vince, proudly flaunted as he pulled his silver sword out of the demon king's body, blood still dripping from its blade.
*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*
"You're truly skilled, Vince. For a player with a class and items bought with money, you did well killing a low-level boss. Hahaha" A player with an effeminate-looking avatar, one with long white hair, mocked as he gracefully strutted inside the demon throne room.
"Hmph, I am not in the mood for your sarcasm, Josef. For an ugly nerd like you to flaunt in-game with such an avatar, you're even more of a disgrace than I am." Vince retorted. His face not losing a single smirk against Josef.
"Shush! You two should stop. A cleared notification has yet to appear. There might be other requisites before we could complete this raid. Stop misbehaving and be on your guard." Another player, one with a jade-like beauty, reprimanded the quarreling duo.
"You're overthinking, Cherise. It might just be a server lag." Vince commented.
"It might have lagged behind from how fast we cleared the area, hahaha. Anyhow, If you're that worried. Then let's just report it as a bug or something, there's nothing we could really do. Let's just save our progress here and leave." Josef added.
Cherise nodded in reply. "I guess we should."
…
"... Huh, I can't seem to save? Why is my status still "In combat"?" Vince opened his status page and was confused by what he saw. His face contorted upon the realization that the timer for the raid hasn't stopped as well! It was no wonder that the cleared notification hasn't appeared yet, they're still not done… But, why was he still "in combat"? Perhaps—
"..."
"...Oi Vince, did you really finish off that boss behind you?" Josef queried. He had checked his own status page, and could also see that the timer was still ticking. He couldn't save either, as they were partying with each other. The "in combat" status would obviously apply to everyone within the party.
Vince, who could feel a cold breeze run down his spine, turned towards Demon King Jin, "Are you blind? Of course, he's dead! Can't you see that 0HP above his head... What?"
.
HP: -1
.
"A negative HP? How is that even possible? Oi! Stop playing around you stupid boss and just die." Without hesitation, Vince drew and swung his silver sword once more towards the unmoving and decapitated body of Demon King Jin.
.
HP: -51
.
..."Ah! Just die already!" *Slash!*
.
HP: -154
.
..."Fuckin' hell! Die!" *Slash*
.
HP: -277
...
"Vince! Stop it! Let's just use a recall scroll and report this bug, there's no point in doing that!" Cherise, seeing that the health pool of the presumed dead boss was somehow decreasing instead of hitting a zero, opted to just give up on the raid and report the error to the mods. They all felt like it might have been a glitch due to all the rushing that they did.
However, the idea of escaping felt like a far fetched dream in an instant.
A voice suddenly resounded within the throne room. At first, it sounded like inaudible gargling, but as soon as they realized where it was coming from, the horror immediately grew inside of their hearts.
...
"Huh… Me? "Playing around"? You might have mistaken… You invaded my home. You killed my people, you… killed me, and "I" am the one playing around? Screw you… Screw all of you. You're the one that needs to die… all three of you. All of you"
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