Chapter 4: Handicapped New Game (3)

The tunnel went on and on.

We’ve been walking for approximately 30 minutes, but it seems like this underground cavern wasn’t going to end any time soon. How big is this cave?

However, I didn’t have the time to leisurely bask in the mystery of nature.

I’ve been listening in on a dangerous conversation that has been happening ahead of me for a while now.

“How about we just kill him here?”

One of the men suggested.

“We aren’t some petty thieves, we’re adventurers. Is there a reason for us to be obsessing over a couple of coins? The bounty on that Demon Lord’s head is more than enough.”

“Do you have an ass for a mouth? All I smell is gas whenever you open your mouth. How can you not understand why we’re like this? Even though we went through all this effort, we’ll only get a thousand gold coins. In other words, even if we cut his head off and turn it in――.”

Riff pointed at me.

“We’ll only get a thousand gold coins! Just move your feet diligently, you lazy bastard. It’s not like your wife’s breasts are going to run away somewhere just because you’re a day late.”

The others cackled. Even the rookie who was supporting my body shook as he laughed.

I felt a chill go down my spine.

‘You crazy bastards!’

These guys were treating my life like some joke. This wasn’t something a human would do.

They continued to joke around.

“You’re probably wrong, Captain Riff. There are rumors going around town saying that this guy’s wife has amazing tits. I’ve even dreamt about having my face smothered by those ass-sized breasts and suffocating a little.”

“I’ll be honest, I’ve also wished the same. He’s probably unbearably worried that his wife’s breasts are being passed around town.”

“You perverted bastards!”

I remained as quiet as a mouse.

Once the immediate threat to my life was gone, I gradually started to understand my situation.

For starters, these guys weren’t talking in Korean. And yet, I naturally understood what they were saying. The fact that I had woken up in a cave even though I thought I had died was bizarre and something about my entire body was abnormal as well.

‘Calm down…… Let’s calm down and think.’

I purposely took deep breaths. Slowly, going along with the beat.

I saw on some television program that if you focus on your breathing like this, then your mind should be able to escape from the initial shock. This piece of information, which I’ve never thought about in my entire life, came to mind right now for some reason. It probably means that my brain is that desperate.

They’ve been disclosing a rather large amount of information. Albeit, I wasn’t aware of this earlier since my mind was a mess.

Dungeon, conquering, adventurer……Demon Lord.

I’m uncertain as to why, but until a short while ago, although it feels like the distant past now, I was completely engrossed in the game <Dungeon Attack>. I thought about what happened immediately after.

‘I definitely died.’

I silently recollected what had happened up to this point. I opened and closed my mouth over and over again. My injuries hurt, so it was difficult for me to think straight if I didn’t do this. Dungeon, conquering, adventurer, Demon Lord, and death. These 5 key words kept repeating in my head.

All right. The inside of my head was clearer than before. At the very least, it felt that way to me.

Except there was something missing. It felt like I had missed something while doing the last calculations for a math equation.

“I don’t like that guy. If that guy is just putting on a show but actually has ulterior motives, then we’re the ones who’ll get the short end of the stick. There might be some goblins left somewhere in the dungeon.”

“Jeez. Since when did our comrade become such a coward? The monsters in dungeons are loyal to their Demon Lords. Do you understand? As long as the Demon Lord is in our hands, those guys are nothing. It doesn’t matter if a minotaur or an ogre showed up.”

The sound of talking echoed throughout the cavern.

“Gah……haa…….”

I pretended to groan in pain because of my injuries as I continued to think. What am I forgetting? I clearly know something. A certain scene that matches this situation perfectly.

I went through my memories meticulously. The time I got hit by an arrow, the moment I first opened my eyes, the car accident. Once I did, a certain memory emerged on the surface of my sea of consciousness.

Sequel.

“……!”

Why am I remembering this only now? VenusPanties, that person told me that he was going to send me the sequel of Dungeon Attack.

My vision abruptly became vivid. I started to thoroughly understand what this group was and the words they’ve been using. In order to not become impatient, I carefully ruminated the sentences in my mouth silently.

‘This is insane! God damn it!’

My breathing became faster. Was this all nothing more than a coincidence?

Someone told me that they would send me the sequel of a game. I died soon after. Once I opened my eyes, I found myself in a world that was incredibly similar to the game I played. ――This is all just a coincidence?

Contrary to my rapidly beating heart, I managed to reach a cool-headed conclusion. There was no way.

Damn it, despite being in my mid-twenties, I never knew I had this kind of talent! I’m referring to my ability to think calmly despite my right foot being fucked up. I want to go thank the main culprit behind this incident for helping me discover this talent by giving them a slap.

I quickly laid out the possible answers.

I slowly caught my breath.

A 4 choice question.

At a glance, it feels like there are a lot of possibilities. Don’t be afraid, I consoled myself. I just have to cut down one choice at a time. It isn’t difficult. It doesn’t matter if it’s actually difficult or not. Just the very act of thinking that it isn’t hard in times like this is important.

‘For starters, the first possibility.’

How should I test this? The several novels I’ve read throughout my life were surprisingly helpful here. If this is a game world, then it will definitely respond to this phrase.

“Oi, Your Highness Demon Lord. Does your Royal person feel uncomfortable anywhere? Hm?”

The rookie asked. Rather than sounding concerned, his tone sounded sarcastic.

“If Your Highness Demon Lord falls here, then we’ll all end up going back empty-handed. That isn’t exactly a good thing. It’s a bad thing for us, but it’s an even worse thing for Your Highness! Captain Riff is quite a cruel person.”

“I’m……guh, I’m okay…….”

“All right. That kind of spirit is what’s important in life. Haha. Your foot is only slightly broken, after all. It should be fine after applying some spit on it. If you’re a man, then you should be able to endure something like that.”

In what way is this only slightly broken!?

The urge to cry out surged up my throat. However, I didn’t let my emotions show on my face and simply agreed with him.

I pretended to groan in pain and mumbled in a nearly inaudible voice. It actually did hurt every time I took a step with my right food so the acting part was easy.

“Status.”

Nothing happened.

It wasn’t time to panic yet. I murmured quietly in Korean.

“Status.”

At that moment, a clear sound effect rang out.

-Ding!

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ True Name: Dantalian Race: Demon Lord　　 　Faction: Dantalian’s Demon Lord Army Attribute: Neutral(0)

Level: 1　　　　　Infamy: 7 Job: Dungeon Manager(F), Demon Lord(F)

Leadership: 11/15　　Might: 2/5 　　Intelligence: 25/25 Politics: 10/15　　Charm: 3/10　　Technique: 1/10

*Titles: You have no titles. *Abilities: You have no abilities. *Skills: You have no skills.

[Achievements: 0] [Subordinates: 0 units/20 units] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

“…….”

A blue, semi-transparent hologram appeared before me.

I stood there stunned into silence. The rookie shouted at me.

“Why are you standing there like a scarecrow for!?”

He sounded as if he intended to hit me if I didn’t start moving again. He most likely can’t see the hologram.

“S-Sorry. My foot started to hurt.”

“Eh. Tch! How can a Demon Lord of all people not know how to walk properly?”

I staggered forward.

The emotion I was feeling right now wasn’t pride towards my ability to remain composed in desperately dangerous situations, delight for finally discovering the answer, or panic because of how absurd this situation was.

It wasn’t anger towards VenusPanties who was probably the main culprit behind all this or murderous intent towards the adventurer who scratched me with an arrow.

Only despair was wrapped around me right now.

‘Bloody hell.’

Even a swear that I would normally never use came out.

‘Fucking……this is a fucking terrible character!’

* * *

Dungeon Attack. A simulation game that was developed in Korea and made for a mature audience.

It belongs to the ‘dungeon-conquering simulation RPG’ genre. That was literally what it said on their official homepage. These developers would always create their own genres and attach them to their games. They probably think of it as a joke.

The main protagonist is a robust youth from a rural village.

To put it badly, they were a country bumpkin.

Once their hometown was razed to the ground by a certain Demon Lord’s army, they swore to get revenge on all of the Demon Lords. At a glance, the protagonist seems like your typical hero……but the main characteristic of Dungeon Attack comes from the difficulty. The fact that the hero was just a slightly strong country bumpkin. Nothing more, nothing less.

The Emperor’s secret child? A dragon’s final descendant? The teacher they met coincidentally was actually an archmage?

There wasn’t anything like that.

The protagonist was genuinely an illiterate country bumpkin that was raised in a rural village through and through.

Naturally, trying to defeat two or three Demon Lords on your first playthrough was difficult. You have to go through your 5th or 6th playthrough before you can enter the actual main story scenario. Only after you get through about 10 playthroughs will you be able to see all of the main story. If you want to beat the secret missions as well, then you have to at least go through 17 playthroughs like I did. Moreover, only a pro like me can achieve this with this little number of playthroughs. Was this not an insane difficulty curve?

The Demon Lords here were the same as those very Demon Lords that were indispensable to RPGs. The protagonist is a hero, so the enemy is a Demon Lord. Simple logic.

Demon Lords live in the dungeons they create and monsters protect those dungeons. The player has to utilize their ability, supplies, and strategy to try and conquer those very dungeons.

Although it’s a common setting, Dungeon Attack has its own feature. Normal RPGs have only one Demon Lord, however, Dungeon Attack has several. A whopping number of 72 Demon Lords. The player has to defeat all 72 Demon Lords.

Rank 1 Baal, Rank 2 Agares, Rank 3 Vassago, Rank 4 Gamigin…….

Rank 71 Dantalian.

In the game, Dantalian is literally the scrawniest, worst, and lowest among weaklings!

Even if you barely have any experience in playing games, beginners can beat at least Dantalian in their first playthrough. It was natural. In the first place, he’s a Demon Lord that was made for beginners. If I were to compare him to something in a different game, then he was no different from a rabbit in the first hunting area of a game. As long as you know how to click, anyone can slay a rabbit.

That wasn’t all. Dantalian was treated so badly that……while every other Demon Lord appeared with very pretty and flattering illustrations, one Demon Lord, Dantalian, had nothing.

He was treated entirely like an extra. He was only a Demon Lord in name and was weaker than monsters that were slightly strong.

Before I died, the stats of the last Demon Lord I defeated, Rank 1 Demon Lord Baal, was roughly like this. I remembered them precisely because I looked at them hundreds of times in order to beat him.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Name: Baal Job: Dungeon Manager(SSS+), Demon Lord(SSS+) Level: 389 Infamy: 8700078

Leadership: 356　　Might: 402　　Intelligence: 311 Politics: 287　　Charm: 210　　Technique: 109

*Titles: 1. Great Demon Lord 2. Legendary Dungeon Manager 3. Legendary Slaughterer *Abilities: Strategy SSS+, Operation Art SSS+, Discipline of Kingship SSS, Swordsmanship SSS+, Magic S *Skills: Devil’s Doctrine, Lethal Move Nullify(改), Magic Nullify(改)

[Achievements: 2500] [Subordinates: 7500 units/7500 units] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

How brilliant. The title Great Demon Lord wasn’t wasted on him. Generally speaking, he had an aura that one would acknowledge as the true boss of a game.

Going along with his monstrous stats, his illustration was amazing as well. He looked like a handsome middle-aged man. There were a lot of gamers who thought that the Great Demon Lord looked better than the protagonist.

On the other hand, how were Dantalian’s stats?

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ True Name: Dantalian Race: Demon Lord　　 　Faction: Dantalian’s Demon Lord Army Attribute: Neutral(0)

Level: 1　　　　　Infamy: 7 Job: Dungeon Manager(F), Demon Lord(F)

Leadership: 11/15　　Might: 2/5 　　Intelligence: 25/25 Politics: 10/15　　Charm: 3/10　　Technique: 1/10

*Titles: You have no titles. *Abilities: You have no abilities. *Skills: You have no skills.

[Achievements: 0] [Subordinates: 0 units/20 units] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Generally speaking, he had an aura that people would acknowledge as the sandbag of the game. This is absurd. What is this?

Just because they were all similarly known as a Demon Lord didn’t mean that they were all the same. In truth, the gap between Baal and Dantalian was similar to the gap between the United States of America and Nepal in terms of influence. The gap couldn’t be bridged even with a second chance at life.

Just so you know, once your first playthrough comes to an end, Dantalian stops appearing entirely starting from your second playthrough and on. This was the developers’ way of showing consideration because they believed it would be tedious for the players to deal with him every time.

For example, imagine giving a level 20 swordsman a quest to ‘go to the beginning forest and hunt a rabbit!’. Think of how boring that would be. Quests like those should be deleted appropriately by the developers. Demon Lord Dantalian fitted in that condition perfectly. A rabbit that was unbearably tedious to deal with……. From a straightforward perspective, the character known as Dantalian in the game Dungeon Attack amounted to only that much.

The problem now was that I had become that very rabbit.

I think I might go insane.

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Author’s Afterword

That’s all for today.

Subscribing, recommending, and leaving a comment are the driving force behind my writing. ^^

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TL note: Thanks for reading. Nothing much to say this time, so I’ll see you guys in the next release. I might just skip leaving a TL note all together on some chapters since I can’t really have something to say every single time.