Inheriting the Strawberry Macho Man's Will

If the main series and spin-offs were all counted, Demon Village had produced more than a dozen games over the past several decades.

Although every installment was basically the same old story with no originality to speak of, they were still tied together by the central thread of "a knight saving a princess."

In the Famicom version's opening cutscene, Arthur was bare-chested while Princess wore a long white dress, and the two met "secretly" in a gloomy, terrifying graveyard. It was obviously easy to misunderstand.

But anyone who had played Great Demon Village and patiently watched its opening cutscene would understand what that graveyard rendezvous meant.

Arthur had actually clashed with the Demon King's side before. Sent by the king, he had led an elite raid against them. 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 could humans venture deep into Demon King's Castle and reach the Demon King responsible for all the disasters.

All his companions had died, and Arthur himself had been grievously wounded after successfully bringing out the map. The scene in the opening cutscene where he was naked in the graveyard with Princess was actually Princess, who possessed rare magical powers, treating his wounds.

Had the players not intervened, after Princess was taken by the Demon King's underlings, Arthur would have donned his armor over his battered body and charged into Demon King's Castle alone once more to save her.

Incidentally, One-Ear and Suicide Duck's complaints when they had first entered the instance had accidentally hit the mark. The Demon King really had abducted Princess for breeding.

The Demon King, ruler of the demon realm itself, planned to use his half-human, half-demon offspring with Princess to become the new king who ruled the entire human world... exactly like Great Demon King Bowser of the Dragon Turtle Clan abducting Princess Peach.

Clearly, Cheng Tian's seemingly self-indulgent yet actually very earnest declaration of his intentions to Arthur's skeleton had triggered the dungeon's hidden mechanic.

The dead Arthur gave Cheng Tian the Demon King's Castle Map, the only thing that could point toward the correct route, along with certain even more special things.

When Cheng Tian picked up the scroll and saw its item description, a projection window of clearly higher priority covered the map's description.

While wearing only underwear and having no defensive equipment equipped, you made a sincere promise to "kill the Demon King" before the skeleton of the knight Arthur, who had failed before achieving his goal. Knight Arthur acknowledged you as a fellow underwear-clad macho man and gave you a heartfelt response.

You have obtained the limited storyline item "Demon King's Castle Map."

Demon King's Castle Map: Limited storyline item, map. A map that 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 Demon Village's limited storyline—The Truth of Demon King's Castle.

The ruler of the demon realm, "Astaroth," has spread ominous evil power throughout his Demon King's Castle. All humans corrupted by this evil power will forever fall into delusion. Fight the false Astaroth within the illusion, and even if you are fortunate enough to win, you will merely have defeated an insubstantial phantom.

Only by holding the Demon King's Castle Map, which marks the correct route and bears special magical power, will you have a chance to meet the real Astaroth and save the poor abducted Princess.

Outside the time allotted for fixed dungeon missions, you may proactively open a portal to Demon Village's exclusive dungeon without paying any cost and continue your previous mission progress.

No other random players will intrude upon the exclusive dungeon.

You may invite other players to form a party and enter the dungeon. For every additional day an invited player remains, they must pay a certain amount of points.

The maximum party size is five. At the same time, the dungeon's overall difficulty will increase or decrease according to the number of players.

Each time you enter the dungeon, you must defeat the stage's final BOSS unit before you can leave.

Other party members may stop paying points and allow the dungeon to expel them. However, using this method will prevent them from taking any points, attributes, or skill point gains earned during the dungeon adventure out of the dungeon.

A limited storyline? An exclusive dungeon?

As an experienced gamer, Cheng Tian could accurately understand what those terms represented. But as a complete newcomer to Chosen Evolution Space, he had no way of understanding what a limited storyline stacked with an exclusive dungeon truly meant.

This was a unique encounter that ninety-nine percent of Chosen Evolution Space's veterans had never seen before, one worthy of being labeled "rare," "precious," and "one of a kind" all at once.

In terms of rarity, limited storylines ranked a tier above even hidden storylines. In theory, anyone could trigger an ordinary hidden storyline, but once a limited storyline had been triggered, no other player could ever replicate it.

In theory, only if the triggerer died before completing the limited mission would its activation conditions reset and wait for the next fated person. Until then, everything belonged exclusively to the triggerer.

What was more, this was an exclusive dungeon where random players could not barge in.

After all, players themselves were often the greatest unstable factor in all Chosen Evolution dungeons. If that instability could be eliminated and one could proceed step by step, both safety and the chances of gaining rewards would increase dramatically. This was the stable adventure scenario countless veteran players who had suffered enough from the erratic Fourth Cataclysm had dreamed of!

Unfortunately, it had been triggered by a complete newbie like Cheng Tian. It was practically like winking at a blind man.

As for Cheng Tian himself, after reading the limited storyline description, he immediately thought of a crucial setting from the Famicom version of Demon Village.

If players only cleared the first playthrough, the ending would tell them that the one they killed was merely Astaroth's phantom. Only by replaying all six stages from start to finish and completing a second playthrough could they 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 off by a certain elite Red Arremer before reaching even a quarter of the first stage...

With this map, Cheng Tian could directly fight the Demon King's true body during his first playthrough, provided he could survive until then.

"Hm?"

Cheng Tian, whose gaze had lowered as he read the projection, finally noticed that something was wrong with himself.

His briefs, which had previously been covered in dirt and dust and had turned from white to gray-black, had somehow become an adorable style identical to Arthur's, decorated with countless strawberry patterns!

Cheng Tian froze for only a second before breaking into a broad grin.

Pink strawberries! A macho man's favorite!

You made a promise to Arthur to "kill Demon King Astaroth." Arthur's lingering soul chose to release its final ripple toward you.

Detected that you possess the exclusive talent "Game Expert"—

Your boxer briefs have transformed into special equipment—"Arthur's Proof."

Arthur's Proof: Green, Excellent/Lv1. Limited storyline equipment, underwear. Does not occupy a fixed equipment slot. Equipment requirement: Arthur's recognition.

While within a Demon Village template dungeon, you will be treated as possessing the Original Type Protagonist Template—"Knight/Arthur."