Inheriting the Will of the Strawberry Tough Guy

If we count both the main story and side stories, there have been over a dozen installments of Demon World Village over the past few decades.

Although the plot of each installment is essentially the same, offering no new ideas, it still maintains a core narrative of "a knight saving a princess."

In the opening animation of the NES version, Arthur, bare-chested, and the Princess in a white dress are shown "meeting" in a gloomy, terrifying graveyard. This easily leads to misunderstandings.

However, if you've played Great Demon World Village and patiently watched the opening cutscene, the graveyard rendezvous can be explained.

In reality, Arthur wasn't meeting the Demon King's forces for the first time. Under the king's orders, he had already led an elite raid on the Demon King's side. With his entire team wiped out except for himself, he successfully snatched the Demon King's Castle Map.

This is the scroll Arthur clutches tightly, even as a skeleton.

Theoretically, only with the map's guidance do humans have a chance to penetrate deep into the Demon King's Castle and reach the Demon King responsible for all the disaster.

With all his companions sacrificed and Arthur himself heavily wounded after successfully bringing out the map, the scene in the opening animation of him with the Princess in the graveyard was actually the Princess, who possessed rare magical power, healing Arthur's injuries.

If it weren't for player intervention, after the Princess was captured by the Demon King's subordinates, Arthur would have donned his armor despite his injuries and charged into the Demon King's Castle alone to rescue her.

Incidentally, when One-Ear and Death-Seeking Duck Bro started their banter upon entering the dungeon, they stumbled upon the truth. The Demon King's motive for kidnapping the Princess was indeed reproduction.

The Demon King, the ruler of the Demon World, intended to use his half-human, half-demon offspring with the Princess to become the new ruler of the entire human world... much like King Koopa of the Koopa Troop who kidnapped Princess Peach.

Clearly, Cheng Tian's seemingly self-indulgent but actually very serious declaration to Arthur's skeletal remains triggered a hidden mechanism in the dungeon.

The deceased Arthur bestowed upon Cheng Tian the Demon King's Castle Map, the only item pointing to the correct path, as well as some even more special things.

As Cheng Tian picked up the scroll and read its item description, a clearly higher-priority projected pop-up window covered the map's description.

[While wearing only underwear and no armor, you sincerely promised the unfinished knight Arthur's skeleton to "slay the Demon King." Knight Arthur gave you his affirmation and heartfelt response as a fellow underwear-clad warrior.]

[You have obtained the limited story item Demon King's Castle Map.]

[Demon King's Castle Map: Limited story item, a map. Brought out by Arthur and his companions through immense sacrifice, it marks the correct route to the uppermost level of the Demon King's Castle.]

[You have successfully triggered the limited story of Demon World Village—The Truth of the Demon King's Castle.]

[The ruler of the Demon World, "Astaroth," has spread ominous, evil magic within his castle. All humans corrupted by this evil magic will be forever trapped in delusion. Battling the illusory Astaroth in a phantom realm, even if you miraculously win, you will only have defeated an empty phantom. Only by holding the Demon King's Castle Map, marked with the correct route and imbued with special magic, can you have a chance to meet the true Astaroth and save the pitiable, kidnapped Princess.]

[Outside of fixed dungeon quests, you can activate a portal to enter the exclusive Demon World Village dungeon at any time without cost, and continue your previous quest progress. No other random players will intrude into the exclusive dungeon. You can invite other players to form a team and enter the dungeon; for each additional day an invited player stays, they must pay a certain amount of points. The maximum team size is 5 players, and the overall dungeon difficulty will adjust based on the number of players. Each time you enter the dungeon, you must defeat the final BOSS of that stage before you can leave. Teammates can choose to be expelled from the dungeon by not continuing to pay points; this method will prevent them from bringing any points, stats, or skill points earned during the dungeon adventure out of the dungeon.]

Limited story? Exclusive dungeon?

As a player with extensive game experience, Cheng Tian could accurately understand the meaning behind these terms. However, as a complete newcomer to the Chosen Space, Cheng Tian had no idea what this combination of limited story and exclusive dungeon truly entailed.

This was a unique encounter that 99.9% of the veterans in the Chosen Space had never witnessed, deserving of the descriptors "rare," "precious," and "one-of-a-kind."

In terms of rarity, limited stories were a tier above hidden stories. While hidden stories could theoretically be triggered by anyone, once a limited story was triggered, no other player could replicate or piggyback on it. Theoretically, the trigger conditions would only reset if the triggerer died before completing the limited quest, awaiting the next destined individual. Until then, everything was exclusive to the triggerer.

Moreover, this was an exclusive dungeon where no random players would intrude. It was well known that players themselves were often the biggest destabilizing factor in many Chosen dungeons. Eliminating this unstable element and progressing step by step would significantly increase safety and the potential for rewards. This was a stable adventuring scenario that countless veteran players, tired of the unpredictable "fourth natural disaster," had dreamed of!

Unfortunately, it was triggered by a complete novice like Cheng Tian, which was almost like winking at a blind man.

As for Cheng Tian himself, after reading the limited story description, he immediately thought of a key setting from the NES version of Demon World Village. If you only cleared the game once, the ending would tell you that you only defeated a phantom of Astaroth. Only by replaying all six stages from the beginning and completing a second playthrough could you face the Demon King directly and save the Princess. Of course, this setting was meaningless to ordinary players, as 99.9% of them would be repelled by a certain elite red demon before even reaching a quarter of the way through the first stage...

With this map, Cheng Tian could directly confront the Demon King's true form on his first playthrough, assuming he could survive that long.

"Huh?"

Cheng Tian, whose gaze had shifted downward due to reading the projection, finally noticed something amiss. His underwear, which had been covered in dirt and dust and had turned from white to grayish-black, had somehow transformed into the same cute style as Arthur's, adorned with numerous strawberry patterns!

Cheng Tian froze for a second, then grinned. Pink strawberries! The best for a tough guy!

[You made a promise to Arthur to "slay the Demon King Astaroth," and Arthur's residual soul chose to unleash his final ripple upon you.]

[Detected that you possess the exclusive talent "Game Master"--]

[Your boxer briefs have transformed into a 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 approval. When you are in the Demon World Village blueprint dungeon, you will be considered to possess the Original Type Protagonist Template—"Knight/Arthur."]