Demon King: Hero, don’t run away!

1: Chapter 1: I Choose to Start as a Civilian 1: Chapter 1: I Choose to Start as a Civilian Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the leaves, casting dappled patterns in the forest where the player Yang Yu, with sword in hand, strayed from the main path and searched the underbrush for lone slimes.

The blazing sun scorched his skin while a gentle breeze caressed his face; fatigue from long travels gave the illusion of truly being in reality.

With a sweep of his hand, a semi-transparent black panel unfolded, listing attributes, tools, skills, equipment, tasks, and achievements in a neat row before his eyes.

[Personal Attributes

Name: Yang Yu (ID: Rolling Potato) Level: LV 1 Experience Value: 0/20

Race: Human (Civilian) HP: 28/28 MP: 30/30 Physical Strength: 15/20

Main Profession: None

Secondary profession: Herbalist Apprentice (LV 1)

Personal Attributes: Strength 5, Defense 4, Intelligence 6, Special Defense 2, Agility 12, Charm 3, Endurance 2, Luck 1

Free Attribute Points: 0

Resistance: None

Evaluation: You’re like another Yobi Daxiong—good for nothing, except you can sure run fast.]

[Tools: Low-level Healing Herb*10.]

[Skill

General: Attack (Barehanded), Defense (Barehanded), Passive—Automatic Translation (Your language is understood in this world.)

Herbalist Apprentice: Passive—Herbalism (Identify low-grade herbs), Passive—Farming (Increased yield by 5%)

Skill Points: 0]

[Equipment: Rusty Iron Sword: Attack +3.]

[Task

You want to become an adventurer, but your parents are strongly against it.

You need to prove your strength to persuade them.

Task Requirement: Defeat a slime.

Reward: Startup funds of 2000G, 20 low-level healing herbs, 200 experience, and three lottery draws (Newcomer’s benefit: 50% chance for a skill, 20% for tools, 20% for junk, 10% for equipment)

Abandonment Penalty: Experience value gain -50%.]

[Achievements: None.

Reputation: 0]

Nothing reassured a player more than seeing the game panel.

If it weren’t for his meager stats displayed on the game panel, Yang Yu might have truly believed he’d arrived in another world.

A day before, he’d waged a relentless 72-hour battle with Division A’s newest hellish challenge, then collapsed into bed.

In his dream, he found himself in a room barely ten square meters, crammed with game consoles from every era.

From the nostalgic Atari console to various modern gaming machines, you could find them all here.

In the center of the room sat a slovenly glasses-wearing girl in slippers, munching on chips and nonchalantly playing King of Fighters.

Noting Yang Yu’s arrival, she continued to pummel the final boss with her controller as she made introductions.

She claimed to be a deity named Black Spade.

As a staunch adherent of dialectical materialism, Yang Yu didn’t believe in such things as gods.

Hmm, I must be dreaming.

This is what comes of regular all-nighters; look what’s happened—I’m hallucinating some bizarre dream.

As Yang Yu pondered whether to cut his weekly all-nighters down from four to three or two, Black Spade offered him a controller.

“Care for a few rounds of King of Fighters?”

Figuring it was just a dream and the other party was asking for it, Yang Yu graciously accepted the controller and casually picked a character.

Sometime later…

“KO!!”

The flickering light from the TV illuminated the impassive side of Black Spade’s face as she watched the character she controlled collapse again.

Setting down the controller, she fell silent.

Despite resorting to the low tactic of corner camping and spamming projectiles with Big Snake, she was soundly beaten by Yang Yu’s combos without a chance to fight back.

The atmosphere turned frosty in an instant.

Yang Yu had no idea what Black Spade was thinking, especially since she’d now lost to him a hundred times.

It felt somewhat embarrassing to keep beating her.

Yang Yu had thought about going easy, but a true player, even against a child, could never bring themselves to hold back.

Next time, he would show no mercy and rub Black Spade’s face in the dirt.

As Yang Yu considered how to relieve the awkwardness, Black Spade fished out a game cartridge from her shorts.

“You’re pretty good at games.

Want to try one I’ve made?”

The cartridge was typical for the old red and white consoles; to be frank, Yang Yu didn’t expect a game of that capacity to deliver anything monumental—it would likely be at most on par with “Brave Fighter vs Evil Dragon 2.”

“Sure, let me take a look.”

“This game really took a lot of effort!

Don’t be scared now, this game world is vast, and the story is set in…” He inserted the cartridge into the console, fiddling with the cables, as Black Spade excitedly began to introduce the game.

In summary, the game was just another cliché RPG featuring the hackneyed theme of Demon King and Hero.

The game had three beginnings, each for the Hero, Civilian, and Demon Soldier.

Each beginning represented a different level of difficulty, with the Hero being the easiest, the Demon Soldier next, and the Civilian the hardest.

To this point, Yang Yu could roughly guess what the storylines each beginning corresponded to.

The Hero’s story was the King’s Path to defeating the Demon King; the Demon Soldier’s was the wicked tale of becoming the Demon King and conquering the world; the Civilian’s was about struggling in the chaos of the world.

Could this cartridge really hold that much content?

If it truly could, it was either a masterpiece or complete garbage.

Yawning, Yang Yu awaited the loading with controller in hand.

“This game can’t be saved, and you only have one life.

You’re pretty good at games, so if you’re so capable, pick the hardest beginning and let me see you beat the game in one go!” Black Spade’s smile widened even more, still hung up on having lost a hundred times before.

Yang Yu raised an eyebrow.

Once upon a time, he couldn’t even pass the first level of Super Mario, a total noob.

But over the years, after countless games, he had transformed and grown into a true pro gamer.

Whether it was the Dark Oppression God series or the meme-worthy “Sir, the times have changed,” all were a piece of cake for him.

As a streamer who specialized in difficult games, for the entertainment of his audience, he would often set a small goal to increase the difficulty, reaping an overnight fortune in virtual gifts.

Not saving an RPG and clearing it in one life was practically routine.

Scared?

It didn’t exist!

“Piece of cake, Civilian it is.

I’ll tell you, if this game has a Hero, I’ll make sure to measure their strength in Heroes.”

The selection screen appeared, and navigating the cursor to the Civilian option, Yang Yu pressed the button without hesitating.

Suddenly, everything went black before his eyes, and he had arrived in this world.

At first he was at a loss, but he quickly came to terms with reality.

“Everything that glasses-nerd girl said was true!

This is my own Sword Art Online!”

Yang Yu’s heart raced as he eagerly opened the door of the room, only to receive a slap in the face from reality.

He was born into a family that dealt in herbal medicines, the only son of his parents, Kari and Lisa, who showered him with love.

Often dealing with injured adventurers, his parents knew well the dangers of that lifestyle and strongly discouraged Yang Yu from embarking on such adventures.

Now what to do?

[Life is full of choices, and perhaps one careless decision can flutter like the wings of a butterfly in Fulormida State, whipping up a hurricane in the Atlantic that completely changes your life, or even the whole world.

Now you face your first life choice.

You have grand dreams, but your parents believe that a simple life is the truest.

What seems the best course of action?

1.

Persuade your parents.

2.

Listen to your mom’s words and don’t hurt her feelings.

3.

Immediately jump on the table and perform a silly dance.

Time to choose: five minutes.]

Oh boy, this game includes some text adventure too.

The first two options are conventional, a choice between staying or leaving, but what the heck is that last one…

immediately jump on the table and perform a silly dance?

Isn’t that just ridiculous?

Are you sure you won’t end up with broken legs from your parents this way?

But on second thought, if you choose this option, what kind of story will unfold after?

You might get some bizarre tool that could help with clearing the game.

Yang Yu lusted after the third option, but to play it safe, he still chose to persuade his parents and received the task to take down a Slime.

He would need some time to get accustomed to the uncannily realistic controls, and the Slime just so happened to be the best practice target, so he began the task without a second word.

Enduring the blazing sun, he continued to search and suddenly, not far off, sparse rustling came from a bush, with a flash of blue darting past.

Upon closer inspection, it was a round creature the size of a basketball, its jelly-like body gleaming in the sunlight with a blue as deep as the sky.

There it was, the Slime Yang Yu had been desperately seeking.

He opened the panel, and all of the Slime’s attributes were laid bare.

[Slime

Level: LV5 HP: 190/190 MP: 60/60

Attributes: Strength 37, Defense 146, Intelligence 36, Special Defense 176, Agility 17, Endurance 20

Resistance: Physical 50%

]

emmmm…

WTF?

Excuse me, goodbye!