“If I remember correctly, the way to escape virtual phase space is to allow the space to complete its purpose.”
It was Fujiko. The same girl who’d made the sharp-witted observation from before, Yoshie remembered.
“Correct. Finishing the game is also a way to escape. So first, I’ll explain the game’s rules. Everyone has been given a different role here, based on your personality. By fighting and winning battles here, you’ll gain experience and level up. And thanks to the fact that we’re in virtual phase space, any combat magic you learn here will remain with you even after returning to reality. This works because your brain remembers the movement patterns. It’s like a bicycle. Once you learn it, you never forget it.”
Some of the smarter students started to shout with joy when they heard this.
“That’s great. If we can keep defeating things like that rabbit for a solid week, we’ll learn all kinds of combat magic that we couldn’t get in the real world, huh?”
—Now they’ll be able to enjoy the game, I bet.
Yoshie nodded happily. “Now, please call up a mana screen, like you would in the real world when you wanted to read the internet,” she instructed them.
All the students used their student notebooks to call up mana screens. The screens listed off a number of stats, as well commands that could be used inside the game.
“You’ll see your stats there, as well as commands concerning the rules. These may change, so be careful when you’re about to do something. One of the things that makes this game unique is that an individual can command an army of NPCs. Each time your level goes up, your army will grow, so make good use of them.”
Fujiko had a question.
“So how do we beat the game?”
“To beat the game, you need to defeat the Demon King,” Yoshie said. Instantly the atmosphere in the schoolyard changed.
“Defeat...”
“The Demon King...?”
The students began to murmur to one another and look around.
“That’s right. Akuto Sai’s not here.”
“Keena Soga and Korone are gone too.”
—That’s a strange reaction. Do they not like him because he’s the Demon King...?
Your role in the game world was chosen based on your personality, which meant that Akuto was likely the Demon King.
Yoshie could feel that the conversation was going in a strange direction, and the atmosphere in the courtyard was turning more and more dangerous.
“I love it! If we want to get out of here, we just need to defeat the Demon King! This is our chance to get even with him for all the stuff he puts us through! And of course, if we beat him, we’ll get a ton of experience points right?”
“And there’s no risk of us dying, huh? Not that I’m planning on committing suicide.”
The students began to cheer as the news spread through the crowd.
—What? This is getting weird... Um, what do I do? I need to find some way to calm them down...
Yoshie was worried. There was still 2V to think about. He was the wild card here, and there was no telling what he’d do.
—I’ve still got this armor as a last resort... But it will only work as a reset switch, I bet. I need to find a way to get the students to let me be in charge, and then get everybody home alive...
Yoshie ran her hands down the armor she was wearing. That was the form the VPS control device had now taken.
○
“It seems that the world contains some kind of element that changes in response to human will,” Korone said as she looked at her mana screen.
“It was the same last time. We were able to exert a degree of influence over the story.” Akuto nodded.
“We’ve been given roles appropriate for the game world, and by finishing our jobs we can leave. That’s the same as last time, too.” Korone had thought to use her mana screen early on, and by reading the included manual had learned most of what Yoshie had explained.
“Roles appropriate for the game world, huh...” Akuto sighed.
Akuto, Korone, and Keena were in the hall of a huge castle. They didn’t know what castle it was. The room was dimly lit, and near the back of it was a fancy golden throne atop a long red carpet.
Akuto was sitting on the throne, wearing an overly complicated suit of armor, with clawed gauntlets and spikes on the shoulders. He was dressed exactly like you’d expect a final boss to dress.
“Ackie, you look really cool!” Keena was the only one who was excited. She was wearing a robe, and seemed to be some kind of priest.
“I wanted to be a princess, but that would make it weird if you came to save me, since you’re the Demon King. I guess this will have to work.” Keena pulled up her mana screen and displayed her stats.
Class: Priest Level: 10 HP: 20 STR: 6 MGK: 18 Army: 10,000
“Army?”
“Remember how I said this game gives you your own army?”
Keena snapped her fingers, and rows of soldiers in white capes appeared in the throne room.
“I see. It’s a war game, huh?” Akuto nodded in understanding. But then he realized something unpleasant.
“That means everybody’s going to come try and defeat me, right?”
“Most likely, yes. By the way, doesn’t one normally start a game at Level 1? Are we getting special treatment because we’re the enemy?” Korone asked.
“Maybe we are,” Akuto said as he pulled up his own mana screen.
Class: Demon King Level: 99 HP: 9999 STR: 25 MGK: 25 Army: 200,000
“They’re all maxed out, huh?”
“The manual said that the maximum stats for human strength and magic are 18,” said Korone as she and Keena looked over Akuto’s stats.
Akuto wasn’t sure how to feel about this.
“If I’m this strong, everybody will come to defeat me at once, I bet. But if I just let them beat me, the game will end, right? Isn’t that what we want?”
“Huh? You can’t do that, Ackie! You need to enjoy the game!” Keena complained, but Akuto saw no reason to care.
“If we don’t end this in a week, everyone might be in danger. We need this over as soon as possible. Maybe I should just kill myself here...”
“Wait,” Korone said. There was a serious tone to her voice. No, her voice was always serious, but this time there was an urgency to it.
“What’s wrong?”
“I’ve looked at all the data I can view from the inside, and it seems that there’s a dangerous element here as well.”
“Dangerous?”
“Yes. It seems that there are three elements influencing this world. They’re all interacting with each other, and causing results beyond what the program itself allows for.”
“Three elements?” Keena asked.
“One is Keena Soga. You.” Korone pointed to Keena.
Keena stood there in shock. “Me?”
“It seems that what happened to this world was only made possible by your mana’s unique frequency. It’s likely that you can change the rules of this world with a thought.”
“Change the rules? I’m not going to do that. I already know this game,” Keena said, and laughed.
But Akuto just nodded and said, “That’s right. When we went inside the book, it was because of Keena’s power. So the reason we were able to get inside this world so easily was because Keena knew the rules from the start?”
“Most likely.”
“But that still means we’re safe, right? Once Keena’s had some fun with the game, we can leave.”
“No. There’s also the second element. The fact that the VPS control device was brought into this world itself.”
“Normally you’d leave something like that on the outside, right?”
“Yes. There must have been some kind of mistake. Now the control device is capable of interfering with itself. If we’re unlucky, we may end up unable to control anything.”
“That sounds serious... But is there more?” Akuto gulped. It
felt like the game wouldn’t be as much fun as he’d thought.
“The third element is this: There’s something inside the space that is not obeying the rules.”
“Huh? That can’t be right. The rules are what created this whole place, aren’t they?”
“I don’t know why. But analyzing the data shows that there’s someone who isn’t obeying the rules.”
“Got it. Let’s say you’re right; what problems does that cause?”
“It’s impossible to say for certain. But the biggest problem is that anyone harmed by this person will suffer real damage, not simply damage within the game.”
“That’s... dangerous.” Akuto understood the seriousness of what he was hearing. Someone was lurking out there who didn’t follow the rules, and if that someone killed him or another student, they might die for real, not just in the game.
“And this person who’s not following the rules... where are they?”
“I don’t know. It’s impossible to track them. We don’t even know if they mean us harm. There’s a good chance the accident I’m worried about may never happen. But if this person means us harm, the students may die while still believing it’s a game.”
“Got it. Either way, there’s no time to have fun. We need to find a way out of here as soon as possible.”
Akuto went to sit up from his throne, but Korone stopped him.
“You can’t do that. The game’s rules don’t allow the Demon King to commit suicide. If you kill yourself, the program will just make a new NPC to take your place as Demon King. You’ll survive, but the other students will remain in danger.”
“Oh...”
“So either way, the safest way to fix this is for the game to end as soon as possible.”
“So there’s barely anything I can do, then. The most I can do is let them kill me without really struggling.”
“No, there’s a simpler way.”
“A simpler way? That can’t be right,” Akuto said, shaking his head.
But Korone looked at him seriously and said, “Kill them all.”
“Huh?”
“Win by killing them all. If the Demon King attacks the adventurers and wipes them out, the game ends.”
“W-Wait, are you saying...?” Akuto stammered.
“What are you afraid of? The more time passes, the more uncertainty you have to worry about. And as time passes, their levels will go up. The safest way to ensure their survival is to give them all a quick death,” Korone said coldly.
She was right. Absolutely right. There wasn’t a single flaw in her argument.
“But...”
“No buts. You need to hunt the adventurers while they’re still inexperienced. Bring down a rain of blood on them. No, the most efficient way would be to capture them, gather them all in one place, and bury them alive. What’s important is to kill them in the most efficient way possible. That’s the final solution.” Korone brought her face right up next to Akuto’s. Her eyes were serious. Of course, she was always serious. But this time she was extra-serious.
“...Don’t tell me you’re excited about killing them? Since this is a game.”
“Not at all. Oh, one option would be to gather them on top of a cliff, and then send a herd of stampeding bulls to knock them off. It would be efficient, and quite the spectacle as well,” Korone said, and then she knelt at Akuto’s feet. “Just give the order, and I, Demon General Korone, shall slaughter these rebels down to the last man.”
“...No, you’re definitely having fun with this.” Akuto sighed. But Korone’s jokes aside (assuming they were just jokes), she was right. It was the safest way.
“Alright. I’ll leave it to you.”
“You honor me, sire. I swear I shall bring you victory. Glory to the Demon King! Glory to evil!” Korone raised a fist, and Keena gleefully did the same.
“Glory to evil!”
“Glory to evil!”
More voices began to join in. The hall was now filled with soldiers in black armor and hideous demon beasts. They raised a shout like a hurricane and stomped their feet like an earthquake, swinging their arms up towards the ceiling.
“Glory to evil! Glory to evil! Glory to evil! Glory to evil!”
—This is... even if it’s a game, it’s still pretty crazy.
Akuto sighed to himself.
3 - The Demon King and the Fate of the Grail
“...I’m lucky the communication unit itself is on the other side. It means I can still communicate. I was right to at least get my arm inside.”
2V had transformed into a snake. Or more specifically, the doll’s arm that she had sent inside had transformed into one. The arm contained a communication unit that allowed it to take action on its own; 2V had added that function to help spy in places that only an arm could reach.
The snake hid in the jungle and watched Yoshie and the students. It was an ordinary-looking green snake, one that blended in well with the rest of the world.
“Looks like the girl made it inside successfully. But there’s something I didn’t tell her. If my information is accurate, someone’s been lurking in this place long before us... The question is, what kind of effect are they going to have on this world? And if I can get to them before anybody else...” 2V whispered.
The being who’d been lurking in this world from the beginning was likely to interfere in ways that were impossible to predict.
“I need to investigate them a little more... Fortunately, none of the Megis priests seem to have noticed,” 2V said to herself, as she moved her mind back to a doll in the real world. It was another doll with an ordinary face, the kind 2V favored. The doll was in the Megis temple’s library right now. The only things in the room were a few dedicated terminals, but there were files that could only be accessed from there.
2V was looking for a file that one of her scientist colleagues had remembered seeing: a file with information on the first Demon King.
It took some time, but 2V was able to find several files related to it, all of them holding amazing information.
“Look at this...! It’s just like I thought... No, even more...!”
○
“It’s hard for me to ask you to believe me, so just let me tell you what you need to know to stay safe,” Yoshie — Or Yoshihiko, as she was now calling herself — said.
It was hard to tell if the students in the courtyard were listening to her, they were so riled up. Half of it was fear, and half of it was excitement to be playing a game. Either way, they weren’t paying attention.
—Well, this isn’t good. I need to get everyone back safe so that I can find 2V and Akuto Sai...
Yoshie opened her screen to see what was going on. Since she’d created the program that controlled the world, and thus, the world itself, she had special access that allowed her to see what was happening throughout the map. She realized, just like Korone did, that there was someone in the game who wasn’t abiding by its rules.
—2V? No, he was pulled in just like me. So it can’t be him. And he’s just an arm... so he can’t do that much. Does that mean somebody was inside the VPS from the start...? Whatever it is, it’s dangerous. If it makes contact with everyone... they might be killed!
Yoshie was scared. But she couldn’t think of anything to tell the students that they’d believe.
“This isn’t good. Should I just climb up on the podium and start giving orders...?”
She whispered to herself. If she had to, she would do it, but doing something like that required the skills you’d need to lead an army. Honestly, she didn’t think she was up to it.
“I don’t think anybody but you has the knowledge to do it.” Junko must’ve heard Yoshie’s whispering, because she’d leaned over to whisper in Yoshie’s ear.
—Huh?
Yoshie gasped and turned towards her. Junko was smiling and trying to cheer her up.
“B-But I’m an outsider, and I’ve never led anyone. Will they listen to me?”
“If that�
��s what you’re worried about, I can tell them what you want to say. Either way, I’m going to help you,” Junko said.
—She’s such a nice person. She’s willing to help me. This is a tough situation, so that really makes me happy.
Yoshie smiled, relieved.
—Um, I need to thank her. I’m a man now... so I need to smile like a character in an otome game.
“I’m glad to hear you say that. I suppose that means I have nothing to worry about, then.”
—Does that make me sound cool?
But when Junko saw Yoshie smile, she frowned and looked away.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Junko said, “I’m saying that I don’t trust you.”
—Oh, I guess it didn’t really work... No, there isn’t time to let it get me down.
“Then I’ll speak without reservations. It’s true that I have fewer things to worry about now, after all.”
“I... see. As long as you understand,” Junko mumbled to herself.
Yoshie walked up the podium.
“Everyone, I’d like your attention. I apologize again, as the person responsible for this situation. But I’d like your help. And I’d like you to allow me to speak to you like this. No, I’m not telling you to follow my orders. I want you to know that even if you don’t trust me, if you’re careful, you can safely return to your world while having a good time.”
Everyone turned towards Yoshie. They seemed willing to hear her out, if nothing else.
“Thank you for listening to me. I’ve already explained most of what you need to know. No, if you don’t even believe that, that’s fine. I just hope that you’ll all work together and try to escape from here. And I’d like her to be the one who helps lead you.”
Yoshie pointed to Junko.
The students all gave a shout, and began to voice their agreement.
“Hattori will do just fine, I guess.”
“She was a hero during the war with the Demon King.”
“There’s lots of rumors about her and the Demon King... but she did fight in that war.”
Junko’s mouth opened in surprise. When she saw Yoshie hold out a hand to her, she walked up to the podium. But she didn’t take Yoshie’s hand.
“I agree that the smart thing to do is wait and see if we can really trust this man. But until then, we all need to work together, and be careful, and get as much power and as many experience points as we can!” Junko shouted, and everyone gave a cheer.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 7 Page 5
