Demon Lord, Does Even a Crap Game Have an Ending? - Chapter 3

[SYSTEM]

 

Hero Appears! Lord Liheros has connected to the server.

 

“Liheros?”

 

As far as I remembered, there was no NPC named Liheros. Come to think of it, the Hero class was a playable character from the start, so there was no way a Hero NPC would exist. Did a Hero NPC appear because the Demon King awakened but there were no users to play?

 

‘First, I should summon Phero and have her scout.’

 

“You called, Master!”

 

“Gasp!”

 

I had only thought of her, and she was already fluttering her wings by my bedside. Like the portals, I still wasn’t used to these highly convenient functions. Given my dignity as the Demon King, I calmly cleared my throat and gave Phero her orders.

 

“Phero, find out where this Hero named Liheros is.”

 

“Understood!”

 

Before she even finished answering, she shot through the forest like a bullet. While I waited, I rummaged through my skill window to see if there was any other way I could find him, when Phero spoke to me in my mind.

 

‘Master! I found him! Please come to where I am.’

 

I hadn’t expected her to find him this quickly. Perhaps because it was a Korean game, even the NPCs had impatient personalities. Thinking of Phero, I drew a portal and stepped through. I emerged from between thick bushes, and Phero naturally landed softly on my shoulder and whispered.

 

“He’s over there. The Hero you were looking for.”

 

A figure walking through the forest caught my eye. A man with unnaturally brilliant blonde hair amidst the green foliage. Seeing him in beginner’s armor, he looked like a newly created character. Why did he appear at this timing?

 

“It seems the Hero appeared because Master woke up.”

 

“Huh?”

 

I glanced sideways at Phero, wondering if my thoughts weren’t audible, then shifted my gaze back to the Hero. Just as the bats in the Demon King’s castle had said, there must be a protagonist for there to be an antagonist, and perhaps the world only started moving because I… that is, the ‘Demon King,’ had awakened? It was a plausible story. If so, I became troubled, wondering if I had to destroy this peaceful world to see the end of the story.

 

“Huh?”

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“That guy, if he keeps going like that, he’ll go off a cliff. Is he okay?”

 

“….”

 

He walked as if he wouldn’t stop, his footsteps steady, only to halt at the very edge of the cliff. His back was motionless, as if he were staring at something. But perhaps because it was a game, even just standing there was dramatic. The sight of his soft, golden hair scattering in the wind seemed to play out in slow motion. While I was lost in such thoughts.

 

He disappeared.

 

“…Where did the Hero go?”

 

“He, he fell off the cliff?”

 

“What?”

 

He vanished from my sight in the blink of an eye, no, in 0.01 seconds. And he just took a leap of faith off a cliff? Was this real? Because it was a prologue area, there were well-maintained roads to prevent beginners from getting lost, so this was the first time I’d seen something like this. From the dizzyingly distant ground, shattered pixels floated into the air.

 

‘That’s the effect when a character dies. So, he fell to his death after all. Still, he should regenerate soon.’

 

The spot where he died was a save point, so those scattered fragments of data should gather at the edge of the cliff and revive him. However, even after several minutes, the blonde Hero’s form did not reappear.

 

“He’s coming from over there?”

 

Phero pointed with her tiny foot. He was walking from the direction the Hero had come from earlier, with the same stride. Why was he starting over from the beginning?

 

‘Could it be, a save point bug?’

 

“Oh dear! He’s going towards the cliff again?”

 

“What the?”

 

This time, instead of throwing himself off, he carefully grabbed onto the cliff and began to descend. But what was the point? Again, I must say, it was a steep, high cliff that strongly suggested it wasn’t a path, so it was impossible to go down. It seemed he had fallen and died again, as pixels crumbled and floated up. The Hero revived at his initial spawn location countless times, but he did not give up on the path leading to that cliff. Watching him, both Phero and I, though silent, had turned pale.

 

I was certain. There was a bug in the Hero’s pathfinding AI.

 

“Phero, does the Hero know I’m the Demon King?”

 

“Hmm~ With your current appearance, Master, I don’t think so. You’ve become quite shabby.”

 

She was being sarcastic, right? Anyway, as far as I knew, NPCs couldn’t visually recognize me as the Demon King, so I should guide him onto the correct path. Phero, sensing my intent, left my shoulder and perched on a nearby tree branch. I once again blocked the path of the respawning Hero as he walked towards me.

 

“Stop. Where are you going?”

 

“….”

 

The blonde Hero, ‘Liheros,’ looked at me with a blank expression, then mechanically tilted his head. I met his clear blue eyes, often called azure. I hadn’t realized when only observing his back from afar, but with his slightly messy hair, thick eyebrows, and almond-shaped eyes, he was quite handsome.

 

“Who are you?”

 

“Uh….”

 

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, I recalled the Demon King’s true name from my status window. ‘Arcris.’ His true name had never been revealed among users, and even I, who had possessed him, only learned it after looking at the status window. I never thought a mere NPC would have information about the Demon King’s name.

 

“Call me Arcris. I’m a wandering adventurer.”

 

“I see. I’m Liheros. We’re fellow adventurers.”

 

“Yes, Liheros. I don’t want to meddle, but you’ve been causing such a commotion that I can’t help but butt in. You were lost, weren’t you?”

 

“Ah, yes.”

 

I let out a deep sigh. It was a relief that he was aware he was lost.

 

“Follow me. You need to go this way.”

 

“I see.”

 

‘What do you mean, ‘I see’? Did he really not know?’

 

Swallowing back a sigh, I walked past him and took the lead. It made no sense that he was heading for the cliff when it looked like the trees themselves were parting to show the way. Annoyance flared, but I reasoned with myself that it was unavoidable due to the bug from the Hero’s perspective. We walked along the path until we came to an empty house, similar to where I had changed my clothes. I stood by the door and gestured.

 

“If you need weapons or armor, you can pick them up from places like this.”

 

“Can I really?”

 

He asked with a naive expression, as if questioning the blatant trespassing. Was he going to verify morality for every little thing? This world was simply built this way. Nevertheless, with patience, I spoke in a roundabout way, like an NPC in a beginner’s tutorial.

 

“Of course. It seems no one has lived here for quite some time.”

 

Liheros leaned against the wall, poking his head inside to look around for a long time before finally entering and just standing there like a ghost. Watching him, my impatient K-soul cried out. Finally, he picked up something he could wear and put it on. It was a cloth cloak, similar to mine but in a different color, and he sheathed a durable longsword at his waist.

 

“Now, head to your next destination.”

 

“Where is the next destination?”

 

“….”

 

I thought if I just got him away from the cliff, he’d figure it out on his own, but it seemed he had completely relegated me to the role of a guide NPC in his mind. However, there’s a reason they say you can’t spit in the face of a smile. Seeing his pure, questioning face with a gentle smile, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him to figure it out himself. Come to think of it, I started to worry about leaving the clueless Hero in a forest full of monsters, only for him to die absurdly and have to start all over again.

 

‘It would be more time-efficient to watch him a bit longer, right? After all, the Hero and the Demon King are in an adversarial structure, so we can’t travel together indefinitely for story reasons.’

 

“…There’s a monster that hasn’t been seen around here before, and the villagers are in trouble. I think we should deal with that first.”

 

I could tell him this because I had already experienced the tutorial section in reality. The place we were going was the first area to learn combat. In Aliento Saga, all quests were one-time events, and once completed, the monsters in that area would not respawn. However, when I had thoroughly explored and defeated monsters in ‘Principium’ just before the Hero appeared, the quests were not completed, and the monsters kept respawning. Because of that, I had been wandering without being able to progress any quests or story, but I was convinced that if it was because I was the Demon King, the Hero would be able to proceed with the stalled story.

 

“Alright.”

 

Before I could finish speaking, Liheros walked towards the location marked on the map without hesitation. As he approached the target area, a man’s scream echoed through the forest.

 

“H-Hieek…! Help me!”

 

Translucent, colorful slimes surrounded the source of the scream. Usually, one might imagine cute, round jelly-like slimes from an adorable casual RPG when thinking of slimes, but Aliento’s slimes were carnivorous, and the decaying corpses and bones of various animals were explicitly visible within their translucent bodies. At launch, some people felt repulsed by the grotesque monster designs, which differed from the overall atmosphere of the game.

 

“Haaat!”

 

While lost in memories, Liheros sprang forward at the speed of light. His grip on the sword was agile and precise, unlike his clumsy pathfinding. In fact, with his tall physique wielding a sword, he exuded an intimidating presence. He cut them down in a fluid, continuous motion, and as the slimes split, their bodily fluids spurted out, scattering the decaying animal corpses and bones from within their bodies into the air. As the corroded matter was exposed to the air, a stench so strong it made me want to vomit wafted through.

 

“Kugh.”

 

Covering my nose with the tip of my cloak, I kicked the shattered slime chunks with my foot. Come to think of it, slime chunks weren’t quest items, but they could be sold to wandering merchants for currency called gold coins or simply gold. I picked up a perfectly intact, bouncy slime chunk and turned my head to tell Liheros, but he, kindly, was helping up the NPC covered in the disgusting stench.

 

‘Is this what you call being heroic….’

 

Recently, protagonists in games and various content were often depicted with ‘satisfying’ personalities. Perhaps that’s why this classic character, who felt frustratingly kind, felt so unfamiliar after so long. Come to think of it, the fact that the Hero was blonde gave him a very classic feel. The developers at Fractal must really like old games. I quietly tucked the slime chunk I was going to give Liheros into my bag.

 

‘I can give it to him before we part.’

 

“Thank you! You saved me!”

 

“Are you sure you can go alone?”

 

“Yes, of course. I have nothing to give you, but….”

 

The man rummaged in his pocket as if to offer a reward, but Liheros waved his hands and conveyed with his whole body that it was alright. In the end, he pressed a small pouch of gold coins into the man’s hand and bowed repeatedly before leaving. As if worried about something, he watched the man’s retreating figure until he was out of sight. Thinking he was too kind to refuse a reward, and wondering if he would just stand there forever, I approached and spoke to him.

 

“You should accept rewards whenever you can.”

 

“Why?”

 

It was natural to receive rewards for completing quests, but now, from the character’s perspective, I explained it based on the economic standards of this world.

 

“Adventurers have to make a living too. That’s the nature of the adventurer profession. Their only income is the rewards they receive for helping others, and unless they catch the eye of an incredibly wealthy magnate and are appointed as a bodyguard knight, they barely scrape by on rewards alone.”

 

“…Ah, I see.”

 

“If you start refusing, other adventurers might have to work without receiving rewards. Just know that.”

 

“I understand.”

 

He seemed like an idealistic type with flowers blooming in his head, so I decided to hit him with a direct shot, fearing he wouldn’t understand if I spoke indirectly. He replied with a voice full of determination. He tightly gripped the pouch of gold coins in his hand, then tied it securely around his waist. He was so valiant, just like a hero from a classic RPG. It was almost laughable.

 

…

 

Yes. I should have savored it when he was an innocent, clumsy baby hero.

 

“Chris!”

 

A little over a week has passed since our first meeting, and he has become a self-willed brute who calls me by an affectionate nickname without my permission. When I looked at him with a bored expression without answering, he naturally slung an arm over my shoulder and leaned his weight slightly towards me.

 

“…I really liked it better when we first met.”

 

“There you go again.”

 

“Next, we have to go here.”

 

“On the way, let’s stop by here for a moment.”

 

“Hmm, is that okay?”

 

I asked in a dry voice, looking at him pointing to my side, where my index finger was touching. Liheros, as if accustomed to it, curled the corners of his lips into a grin. I never imagined we would be traveling together for so long. There was a reason I ended up staying by his side.

 

“There’s no reason it wouldn’t be okay.”

 

It was the day three days ago, the first time I experienced a sense of loss since he descended into this world, that became the turning point.