If the main series and spin-offs were all counted, Demon World Village had seen more than a dozen installments over the decades.
Although every game's plot was essentially the same old formula, with nothing new to speak of, they were still all tied together by the main thread of "a knight saving a princess."
In the NES version's opening animation, Arthur was bare-chested while Princess wore a long white dress, and they were shown "meeting in secret" in a gloomy, terrifying graveyard. It was clearly easy to misunderstand.
But anyone who had played Great Demon World Village and patiently watched the opening animation would understand the explanation for that graveyard rendezvous.
In truth, this was not Arthur's first clash with the Demon King's side. Sent by the king, he had led an elite raid against them once before. With everyone except himself wiped out, he had successfully seized the Demon King's Castle Map.
That was the scroll Arthur still clutched tightly in his hand even after becoming a skeleton.
In theory, only with the map's guidance did humanity have a chance to penetrate Demon King's Castle and reach the Demon King behind all these disasters.
All his companions had died, and Arthur himself had suffered grievous injuries after successfully bringing back the map. The scene in the opening animation of him naked with Princess in the graveyard was actually Princess, who possessed rare magical powers, treating his wounds.
If Player had not intervened, after Princess was taken away by the Demon King's minions, Arthur would don his armor despite his broken body and charge into Demon King's Castle alone once more to save her.
Incidentally, One-Ear and Death-Seeking Duck Bro's complaints when they first entered the instance had accidentally hit the mark. The Demon King's purpose in abducting Princess really was reproduction.
As the ruler of the Demon World, the Demon King intended to use his half-demon, half-human offspring with Princess to become the new king ruling the entire Human World... just like King Koopa of the dragon-turtle clan, who abducted Princess Peach.
Clearly, Cheng Tian's seemingly self-directed yet genuinely serious act of expressing his resolve to Arthur's skeleton had triggered the instance's hidden mechanism.
The deceased Arthur gave Cheng Tian the Demon King's Castle Map, the only thing that could point to the correct route, along with certain even more special things.
When Cheng Tian grabbed the scroll and saw its item description, a projection prompt with obviously higher priority covered the map description.
[While wearing only underwear and no armor, you made a sincere promise to "slay the Demon King" before the skeleton of Knight Arthur, who had failed before accomplishing his mission. Knight Arthur acknowledged you as a fellow underwear-clad tough guy and gave you a heartfelt response.] [You have obtained the limited story item Demon King's Castle Map.] [Demon King's Castle Map: Limited story item, map. A map Arthur and his companions brought out at the cost of countless sacrifices, marking the correct route through the uppermost level of Demon King's Castle.] [You have successfully triggered the limited story of Demon World Village—The Truth of Demon King's Castle.] [The ruler of the Demon World, "Astaroth," has spread ominous evil magic throughout his Demon King's Castle. All humans corrupted by this evil magic will be trapped in delusion forever. Fighting the false Astaroth within the illusion, even if you win by luck, merely means defeating an insubstantial phantom. Only by holding the Demon King's Castle Map marked with the correct route and imbued with special magic will you have a chance to meet the real Astaroth and save the poor abducted Princess.] [Outside the time period of fixed instance missions, you may proactively open a portal to the exclusive instance of Demon World Village at no cost and continue your previous mission progress. No other random players will intrude upon the exclusive instance. You may invite other players to form a party and enter the instance. For every additional day an invited player remains, a certain amount of points must be paid. The maximum party size is five, and the overall difficulty of the instance will increase or decrease according to the number of players. Each time you enter the instance, you must kill the stage's final BOSS Unit before you can leave. Other teammates in the party may stop paying points and allow the instance to expel them. Using this method, they will be unable to bring out any points, attributes, or Skill Point gains earned during the instance adventure.]
A limited story? An exclusive instance?
As a Player with extensive gaming experience, Cheng Tian could accurately understand what those terms represented. But as a complete newcomer to Chosen Space, he had no idea what a limited story layered with an exclusive instance truly meant.
This was a unique encounter that ninety-nine percent of Chosen Space's seasoned veterans had never witnessed, one worthy of the labels "rare," "precious," and "one of a kind" all at once.
In terms of rarity, limited stories ranked a tier above hidden stories. Theoretically, anyone could trigger an ordinary hidden story, but once a limited story had been triggered, no other player could hope to replicate it by chance.
In theory, only if the triggerer died before completing the limited mission would its conditions reset and wait for the next destined person. Until then, everything belonged exclusively to the triggerer.
What was more, this was an exclusive instance without random players barging in.
After all, players themselves were often the greatest source of instability in every Chosen Instance. If that instability could be eliminated, then proceeding step by step would greatly increase both safety and the likelihood of rewards. This was the stable adventure scenario countless Veteran Players, sick to death of the Wild Card Fourth Calamity, had dreamed of!
Unfortunately, it had been triggered by Cheng Tian, a complete newbie. It was practically like winking at a blind man.
As for Cheng Tian himself, after reading the limited story description, he immediately thought of the key setting from the NES version of Demon World Village.
If you merely cleared the first playthrough, the ending would tell you that the one you defeated was only Astaroth's phantom. Only by clearing all six stages again from beginning to end and completing a second playthrough could you face the Demon King and save Princess.
Of course, that setting was meaningless to ordinary players, because ninety-nine percent of them had already been driven away by a certain Elite Red Demon before even reaching a quarter of the way through the first stage...
As long as he had this map, Cheng Tian could directly fight the Demon King's true body in his first playthrough, provided he could survive until then.
"Hmm?"
Cheng Tian, whose gaze had lowered as he read the projection, finally noticed something wrong with himself.
His briefs, which had been covered in dirt and dust and had turned from white to grayish-black, had somehow become an adorable style covered in strawberry patterns, identical to Arthur's!
Cheng Tian froze for only a second before breaking into a grin.
Pink strawberries! A tough guy's favorite!
[You promised Arthur that you would "slay Demon King Astaroth." Arthur's lingering soul chose to release its final ripple upon you.] [Exclusive Talent "Game Master" detected—] [Your boxer briefs have been converted into Special Equipment—Arthur's Proof.] [Arthur's Proof: Green, Excellent/Lv1. Limited story equipment, underwear, does not occupy a Fixed Equipment Slot. Equipment Requirement: Arthur's recognition. While you are in the Demon World Village blueprint instance, you will be regarded as possessing the Original Protagonist Template—"Knight/Arthur."]
Before you continue