Demon World Village Is a Morally Corrupt Product Created by Morally Corrupt Producers

The river blocking their path was very wide, but on the path closer to the Demon King's Castle, there were two river islands, one large and one small. The existence of these two islands divided the originally very wide and fast-flowing river into one wide and two narrow branches.

On the surface of the widest branch, there was a circular moving platform powered by magic. The two narrow branches could be crossed with a single sprint and jump.

However, crossing the river itself wasn't the problem. The real issue was the malice from the creators of the Chosen Space and Demon World Village that accompanied the river crossing.

The producer of Demon World Village was named "Fujiwara Tokuro." This was a producer who, after leaving Konami where his "FUCK" aura was already apparent, directly transferred to Capcom, which hadn't changed its name yet. When he was producing Demon World Village, this guy had already revealed his unscrupulous nature of "taking pleasure in tormenting players."

From the very beginning, the level design of Demon World Village, which had no intention of a sequel, was completely aimed at killing every player.

Fujiwara even set up a testing spot in an arcade near the company, putting a test version of the game into the machine for people to play for free. Then, using his position at the company, he secretly observed players' progress from the side.

As soon as he found a spot where players could pass smoothly without any signs of getting stuck, Fujiwara Tokuro would immediately record it and rush back to the company. He would then spend the night modifying the code, adding obstacles to the path that hindered players from passing normally...

It was clear that the Chosen Space had meticulously recreated this unscrupulous aspect.

"It's exactly the same as the original!"

The moment Cheng Tian jumped from the moving platform over the river, he inexplicably sensed something and immediately got goosebumps.

At the same time, six or seven floating armored figures, holding shields and gradually solidifying from nothingness in the distance, suddenly appeared out of thin air. They were swaying and approaching Cheng Tian and the others in an S-shaped trajectory, like crests and troughs.

[Ghost Armor: Normal Template, Ghost Unit. HP=1, MP=120. Strength 1, Agility 5, Spirit 12, Charm 0.]

[Monster Trait -- Puppet Armament]

If Arthur had seen them instead of Cheng Tian at this moment, he would have immediately recognized these floating knight armors as the armors of the kingdom's knights who had sacrificed themselves alongside him when they broke into the Demon King's Castle.

And now, these human knight armors were being put to waste, driven by Ghost Units that could control inanimate objects, to deter any audacious intruders.

The attack method of the Ghost Armor was peculiar. The empty shells they controlled could basically not launch normal attacks. They could only rely on the armor's own quality and the shields they held, using a telekinetic-like control to physically pressure intruders. Their ultimate goal was actually to push people into the water, which was the main reason Cheng Tian and the others triggered the Ghost Armor spawn as soon as they landed on the river island.

At this moment, Cheng Tian and the others were completely trapped on the small island in the middle of the river, in a dilemma.

These ghosts controlled by the Demon King's side did not have much intelligence. They would only faithfully execute everything according to magical instructions. The combat instructions given to them by the Demon King could be summarized in one word: "disruption."

The Ghost Armor group simply hovered above the river island, circling back and forth, neither approaching nor leaving. But as soon as someone tried to get close to the edge of the island to cross the river, they would immediately rush down and strike with their shields, not with great force but enough to make people lose balance.

If this happened at the riverbank, it would be one thing. But if one was already on a jumping or moving platform, they would most likely be knocked into the cold river water.

The durability of the Ghost Armor completely depended on the durability of the attached armor. Even if the armor shattered, the ghost itself would usually not be harmed. For them, all they needed to do was to switch to another set of armor to return to the battlefield.

It could be said that for players without information, the Ghost Armor, positioned as "delay and disruption," was truly very deceptive.

However, facing the Ghost Armors in the air, the two college students clearly became nervous. Cheng Tian's expression, on the other hand, was first confused, then enlightened.

Cheng Tian suddenly raised his hand and fired a Great Desolate Sky Imprisoning Finger at a Ghost Armor in the air.

"Turn into it!!!"

Cheng Tian shouted loudly.

The Ghost Armor targeted by Cheng Tian seemed struck by lightning and froze in place.

[You used "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" on the Normal Template unit "Ghost Armor."]

[The difference in your Spirit attribute and the target's is 0, the difference in your Charm attribute and the target's is +9.]

[Your skill check success probability is 59%--]

[Check passed.]

The Ghost Armor that passed the skill check began to show numerous fine cracks, visible to the naked eye.

Just as the Ghost Armor spawned and floated over, Cheng Tian had already begun to feel that his decision to temporarily uninstall the Vampire Hunter template was correct.

Therefore, the terrain of the river island he was currently on was a typical area prone to environmental kills via damage evasion.

Taking damage normally was fine; 140 HP couldn't get him instantly killed. But an uncontrollable backward jump after taking damage, followed seamlessly by dissolving upon entering water, would likely make Cheng Tian possessed by a god, unleashing all the foul language he had learned in his life towards the Chosen Space in the one or two seconds before drowning.

Fortunately, he still had the Knight Throwing ability granted by his Macho Strawberry Underwear, so he wasn't in a state where he could only take hits.

Even if his Knight Armor shattered and accidentally threw him into the water, he should still have a chance to climb back ashore.

However, with the mindset of "since I'm already here for the New Year," Cheng Tian decided to try out his new skill before attempting a throw.

As a result, after selecting the target, the skill icon was highlighted, indicating it could be used normally!

Cheng Tian's expression became subtle at this point.

A newly appearing enemy naturally wouldn't have less than 10% HP. So, the only possibility left was that the opponent's total HP was only a single digit.

This was clearly not right. Whether based on the game's original design or the conventional understanding of increasing dungeon difficulty, the HP of the Ghost Armor should be higher than that of a zombie. Thus, Cheng Tian came up with two hypotheses.

One was that the HP of the Ghost Armor was similar to the Knight Armor he was wearing, with HP presented as "absolute HP." Regardless of damage, only the number of effective hits mattered; it would take a fixed number of attacks to destroy it.

The other was that this tattered flying armor itself might have additional shields, armor values, or similar settings, which needed to be broken through before damage could be dealt to its main body, which had only single-digit HP hidden within the armor.

So, Cheng Tian, with the thought of "worst case, I'll become a monster myself," directly used "Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" on the front-line Ghost Armor.

With the cost of nearly half his MP, the Ghost Armor began to change.

However, when Cheng Tian saw the Ghost Armor he had turned into a "monster" unit, he himself was stunned.

The shattered armor, which should have fallen off, actually underwent significant self-reorganization and morphological changes, ultimately transforming into... a strange creature with a white crescent halo on its head, strong insectoid head and torso characteristics, and an overall sense of hollowness.

["Night Parade of a Hundred Demons" conversion complete.]

[You have become the temporary trainer of the Pocket Monster/Pokémon "Shedinja."]