WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Our Precious Demon King ◈
Chapter 11: Dual Core
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Fzzt.
The moment Junyong tapped the app, a sharp jolt struck him like an electric shock. His vision went dark, and he was thrown into a white universe.
“What the hell is this now?”
He couldn’t feel anything in this space.
“Hey! You’re finally here!”
“……”
Junyong turned around. A boy who looked about elementary school age stood behind him. He recognized the boy at once.
“So it’s you. The god of Earth.”
“That’s right. Hehe, my greatest achievement! Welcome home, our dear Junyong!”
The god of Earth danced. Fireworks burst in the air, and confetti fluttered down around him.
He was so different from what Junyong had imagined that Junyong was briefly taken aback.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Oh, you don’t like my welcome party?”
Kim Junyong frowned.
Was this what it felt like to see your own behavior reflected back at you?
The god of Earth was quietly nuts.
“Do you want to die?”
“Whoa, whoa. You know that’s not possible, right?”
Junyong already knew that from getting into a scuffle with the goddess of Belheim.
“Just tell me what you want.”
“I was just so happy that I wanted to welcome you.”
“What’s so great about me coming back?”
“It means I’m saved! Earth will be safe now.”
“Ha.”
Kim Junyong snorted.
Wasn’t this guy taking it for granted that he could dump the work on him?
“You think I’m going to kill the Demon Kings for you?”
“Yep!”
Why was this kid so cheerful?
“Haah... What’s wrong with you gods? Why don’t you just kill them yourselves?”
“Didn’t Belheim explain?”
“……”
When Junyong gave him an uneasy look, the god of Earth smiled and clapped.
“Oh, come on! How could a designer interfere? The universe would’ve been smashed to pieces by now if we did! We’re only planets.”
“……?”
“Fighting inside a world is the executors’ job.”
Designers and executors.
Gods and humans.
He drew a clear line between the two.
Still, that attitude of his was irritating. He took everything for granted.
Annoyed, Junyong gave him a contrary answer.
“I’m not going to work hard.”
“Aw, who said you had to? Just save me before I die, won’t you?”
“……”
The god of Earth’s innocent smile made Junyong laugh in disbelief.
“Seriously. Where even are we?”
“This is my very own design! The metaverse.”
“The metaverse?”
“That’s right! A fake Earth to fool those Demon Kings.”
“……?”
The cheerful smile faded from the god of Earth’s face. His expression turned serious as he spoke quietly.
“I originally put this place out as bait, but the Demon Kings thought it was the real Earth and came pouring in.”
“So it’s a stopover.”
“Exactly! The Demon King forces and the hunters fight here!”
Kim Junyong nodded.
If Belheim’s power was to grant people the blessing of leveling up, the god of Earth’s power was to create virtual spaces.
Leveling up and the metaverse, huh?
“You’ve seen those demons sticking out like pimples, right?”
“They called them dungeons.”
“Hehe, that’s right. Those demons are eating away at my metaverse! They’re trying to summon themselves from here to the real Earth!”
So that was why they called them dungeons.
Inside each one were a demon trying to invade Earth and its minions.
“The executors have to deal with them before they burst!”
“And if they can’t?”
“There’s a limit to how long I can hold them here! If you still haven’t dealt with them when time runs out, monsters and demons will be summoned to Earth.”
Hearing him say something so serious with such a cheerful expression gave Junyong pause.
If demons started running wild on Earth, it would end up like Belheim in no time.
“Aren’t you talking like this has nothing to do with you?”
“Aw, humans need to learn the hard way sometimes. Makes them work harder.”
He might look like a boy, but a god was still a god.
“Actually, a few dungeons burst while I was making this space.”
“Hm?”
“Hehe, I only have so many resources.”
For the first time, dismay crossed Kim Junyong’s face.
Was he really insane?
He’d taken the resources used to hold back dungeons and spent them on a space for a mere welcome party?
“Oh, right! Humans think this is the Demon Realm, not a virtual world, so please keep it a secret.”
“Why?”
“It gives them more motivation, doesn’t it?”
“……”
Compared to the goddess of Belheim, the god of Earth seemed much less sane.
“Hehe, anyway, I’m counting on you, big bro. You have no idea how hard it is to keep these pimples from popping.”
“Who’s your big bro?”
“I’ll text you next time! I really can’t keep this up any longer. At this rate, Earth’s going to host a demon reunion.”
“Wait!”
The god of Earth clapped his hands. Clap!
Fzzt.
The world vanished. A moment later, familiar scenery appeared.
A cluttered road, a fence, and a pimple... dungeon, its summoning halted midway by the god of Earth’s divine power.
“Shall I cut them down?”
Junyong turned around. Remi had knocked Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina down and was standing on them.
“Let them go. How long was I gone?”
“A-about two minutes!”
Cheon Yubeom got up and protested.
“We really didn’t do anything, but R-Remi just started doing all this stuff to us...”
Junyong could guess what had happened.
When Remi’s master suddenly vanished, Remi must have suspected Cheon Yubeom and Lee Mina and subdued them first.
“B-but did you suddenly connect to the Demon Realm?”
“Connect to the Demon Realm?”
“Isn’t that where you went?”
Kim Junyong looked down at his phone.
The app still carried a strong flow of the god of Earth’s divine power.
[Demon Realm Conquest]
Demon Realm Conquest, his ass.
It was a metaverse world the god of Earth had created in Earth’s image.
Then the Demon King forces had occupied it.
Before the full invasion of Earth, they had invaded the internet first.
On top of that, they were using the virtual world as a foothold to cross over to the “real Earth”...
And the god of Earth was apparently doing everything he could to stop them.
“C-could you tap the app again?”
Junyong did. The app that opened couldn’t have been simpler.
[Enter the Demon Realm]
[Dungeon Map]
[Demon Realm Forum]
“If you tap Enter the Demon Realm, you’ll enter one of its 256 sectors. It’s like a vast battlefield.”
They could hunt the minions of evil there, then find a return portal to get back to Earth.
In other words, field hunting.
“Could you tap Dungeon Map?”
“It’s just a world map.”
“Yes. It shows the status of dungeons around the world. It would be a disaster if we missed a dungeon that appeared somewhere remote and a demon got summoned.”
It wasn’t much different from the map Junyong had used to find his older sister’s hospital.
“The B, C, and so on here are dungeon grades. They indicate the difficulty. This time here is the break time. You have to defeat the dungeon boss before then.”
“How do you enter a dungeon?”
“Oh, just open your camera app and point it at the dungeon.”
Cheon Yubeom opened the camera app to demonstrate. When they pointed it at the dungeon, a link appeared.
<Dungeon Information>
Death Knight Oran’s Dungeon.
C-grade, 8 days 12 hours
“Oh, this dungeon belongs to a death knight named Oran.”
“Oh.”
Kim Junyong understood the structure at once.
The demon in front of him was currently in the virtual world.
‘So we invade the virtual world in reverse, starting from its summoning point here.’
While Earth’s god held back the demons’ attempts to summon themselves for as long as possible, hunters went in to kill them.
“I see.”
Kim Junyong nodded, then looked at Cheon Yubeom.
“Why are you trying so hard to explain everything?”
“Pardon? I-I’m always enthusiastic about everything I do.”
“Are you trying to push me into this?”
“N-no!”
Junyong grinned and looked at Remi.
There was still time before he was supposed to meet his older sister.
“Let’s go.”
“Yes.”
He’d wondered if Remi would be unable to use it because Remi wasn’t from Earth, but the app downloaded without trouble.
‘Looks like Remi’s a hunter too.’
‘Wasn’t that summoning magic? I thought Remi was a summoned creature.’
‘Who exactly is Remi?’
‘You ask, Section Chief Lee.’
Leaving the two to whisper, Junyong and Remi opened the app.
“Once you enter the Demon Realm, secure a return portal first. You should find one with a little exploring... Huh? Why are you taking a picture? Huh?”
Junyong followed the link from the photo, and a dungeon entry screen appeared.
Kim Junyong and Remi appeared on the waiting list.
Junyong tapped the glowing entry button below it.
Fzzt.
Kim Junyong and Kim Remi vanished.
“Ah!”
“Huh!”
“...Team Leader.”
“...Yeah.”
“They didn’t go into the dungeon, did they?”
“...I don’t think we can rule that out.”
“It’s C-grade. Can the two of them handle it?”
Normally, five to twenty people entered a dungeon together.
Cheon Yubeom shuddered.
“Remi was strong.”
“...I thought I was going to die.”
They had thought Remi was a servant summoned by Kim Junyong, but Remi had become a hunter too and had now entered the Demon Realm.
“They’ll be fine, right?”
“By the way, whose jurisdiction is this dungeon under?”
“Ah!”
Right.
They’d forgotten.
Guilds usually bought the rights to clear dungeons.
Since this one was surrounded by a fence, its rights must have been sold to a guild too.
“Th-there’s a sign here.”
[Daesan Guild]
The Daesan Guild holds exclusive rights to clear this dungeon.
Unauthorized entry is strictly prohibited.
“We’re screwed.”
“Should we run?”
“What if the guild and Kim Junyong clash?”
Lee Mina shook their head. Just imagining it was enough to smell blood.
“What do we do?”
“...We’ll have to work something out.”
“Ugh, why did he have to enter a dungeon that’s been fenced off...?”
“Haah.”
They needed a plan.
Of all guilds, it had to be the Daesan Guild.
They were difficult to deal with in all sorts of ways.
“Let’s report to the Bureau first.”
“Let’s.”
But their timing couldn’t have been worse. Before they could make the call, the gate in the fence opened.
Creeeeak.
A group came in, then stopped in surprise when they saw the two of them.
“Huh? Who are you? You can’t just come in here without permission.”
“We’re with the Hunter Management Bureau.”
“What? Why would the Bureau...?”
Around thirty people streamed in. A familiar emblem on their uniforms caught the pair’s attention.
[Daesan Guild]
“What? What’s going on?”
“Executive Director Kang. Well...”
“Move.”
With that sharp command, a young man with slicked-back hair stepped forward.
‘Of all people...’
Recognizing the newcomer, Cheon Yubeom squeezed their eyes shut.
* * *
Fsssss.
After being summoned into the dungeon, Kim Junyong and Remi looked around.
“...It’s a city.”
It looked as though it had been abandoned for at least a few months.
Demon Realm plants grew through cracks in the asphalt, and half the buildings had collapsed.
“Where are we?”
The god had said he’d modeled it after Earth. This was probably exactly what Earth would look like if it were invaded and destroyed.
The writing on a broken sign caught Junyong’s eye.
“Which country used that script again?”
In any case, it was a ruined city in a foreign country.
No, it was a city in an artificial virtual world, in a place that had now become the Demon Realm.
And Death Knight Oran ruled it.
Junyong examined the world around them.
Something like a translucent barrier surrounded a wide area.
Was everything inside it Death Knight Oran’s territory?
That barrier marked the edge of the dungeon.
“Calling it a dungeon isn’t exactly wrong.”
“Our target’s over there.”
Remi pointed toward a hill in the distance.
Even without seeing it, they could sense it.
“Let’s kill it and leave. I should use this chance to run a little experiment.”
“Yes.”
The two set off down the street.
Their destination was the low hill, where the strongest chaos mana in the area was pouring out.
After they had walked a short distance, a skeleton lying in the street rose into a strange posture and approached.
“Kieeeeh.”
“Shall I cut it down?”
“Of course.”
Crack!
As it shuffled toward them, Remi took its head off with a clean stroke of the sword.
Clatter. Kim Junyong frowned at the heap of bones that fell to the ground.
“There’s no mana left behind?”
Every monster and demon had a chaos mana core.
That mana normally remained for a while after death, but this time, it had vanished as though it had evaporated.
As a black mage, Kim Junyong liked nothing better than taking the pure chaos mana left behind after death.
Converting negative emotions into mana was far too inefficient. Taking chaos mana left behind by death was much more efficient.
Yet what should have been there had vanished in an instant.
“It came to me.”
“What?”
“A status window appeared.”
“What? You never even received Bel’s blessing.”
No, even if Remi had, what kind of demon received the goddess of Belheim’s blessing? The “status window” was Belheim’s authority.
“I don’t know.”
“This is ridiculous.”
When another skeleton approached, Kim Junyong stepped forward.
He gathered its “longing” and “obsession” for life, along with its “hostility,” and used them as energy.
Then he placed his palm, filled with that energy, against its head.
Thoom! Fssss.
<You have defeated a minion of evil for the first time.>
<Unlocking your status window.>
The clear voice barely registered.
The change in his body was far more shocking.
“...!”
Junyong’s firmly locked mana core came under his control, if only a little. And a new kind of mana core formed.
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