There is a saying that if you’ve committed a crime, you’d get your just desserts eventually. Though if you ask me this was rarely the case.
There is another saying, that if you were to go to hell you’d have to pay for all the sins you’ve commited while you were alive, no matter how small. Of course, I didn’t believe this one either.
While I was alive that is.
If a situation was just too incomprehensible, a person’s thought process becomes rather simple.
In a certain office, I was forced to make a certain choice by some sour-faced woman wearing a suit.
It was rather mind boogling so I’ll give you the summmary.
Simply put, this thing called Hell existed and I think I died.
The cause of my death was also rather ordinary.
‘Acute myocardial infarction due to high blood pressure, which caused a cardiac arrest’.
My blood pressure suddenly went too high, because of a malicious comment I was reading. That’s what I’ve been told. She said.
My blood pressure spiked because of a bad comment? That’s the cause of my death? Are you serious?
My eyes grew a bit distant.
That’s supposed to be my last memory?
“Please sign this promptly.”
She threw a form in front of me. There was contract written on it, with a blank space presumably for my signature below.
“……So, I’m dead? I-I saw a malicious comment which made my blood pressure spike and then I just died? People can die like this?”
“Do people always have to die for great reasons? There exists many people who die by simply slipping on an icy road. Death is a simple matter. Now hurry up and make your choice now.”
Even if I didn’t want to believe it, its not like the world would change because of it.
………Anyway, I was in hell now.
It was up to myself if I took the deal she gave or just went right down to its depths.
I just had to sign.
I was forced to make a choice that I never thought I’d ever have to make.
There were some names written on this form that I was more than familiar with.
[The City of the Dead]
[Surviving in the Ruined World]
[The Hunter became a Manager]
[The Trash returned]
[Somehow, the Game became Reality, but I’m just a Janitor]
[The Demon King is Dead]
These were all titles of novels I wrote.
My charges were ‘Being a repeat offender’ and ‘Having no prospects at all’.
For that I was to be sent into the world of one of the novels I wrote.
“So, I’ll get sent into one my novels?”
“Yes. As to which character or novel you’ll inhabit is up to chance.”
Shit.
I should have written more peaceful novels.
This was the explanation I got from this person I presumed to be a Grim Reaper or a Hell’s Employee.
Every single person sinned.
Except for very rare cases, no one immediately gets sent to heaven. That’s why everyone goes through the process of atoning for the petty sins they accumulate through their life.
Additionally, since there were a multitude of different sins, the method for atonement differed from person to person.
I was a novelist.
A web novel author who somehow managed to make ends meet with trashy works of writing anyone could describe as second or third-rate.
My biggest sin was abandoning many stories I left unfinished throughout my years as a commercial writer.
I told the readers who were reading my books that it was a writer’s biggest sin to leave a story halfway, before hypocritically digging up my sub-account to publish other works.
“To be honest, sins committed by normal people are often only on the minor side, but if the number of these small wrongdoings add up, don’t you think the scale of said sins would increase?”
“Ah, yes….”
Was it decided by simple arithmetics? Was that really okay?
Honestly though, just listening to her voice sent a shiver down my spine.
The bitter voice coming out of the Grim Reaper’s mouth seemed to pierce through my heart. This was on a completely different scale than mere disdain.
What if my blood pressure spiked again? What would happen if I died again after death?
My sins were just small ones that accumulated throughout my life, surely I don’t deserve such harsh judgement.
Anyway, the punishment I had to endure was turning into a random character of a novel I wrote and surviving until the ‘end’.
If I manage to do that, I’d get sent to heaven.
Apparently there were a lot of people that just got sent straight to hell, so I had it good… at least, that’s how the Grim Reaper tried to console me, though that didn’t really work.
“As it is a novel you wrote, wouldn’t you know everything about it and what would happen in it? This can’t even be called a punishment, now can it? In fact, wouldn’t it be rather easy for you?”
The Grim Reaper didn’t even look at me as she nonchalantly said this to me.
“No, well, you see, that depends on the novel….”
“Why?”
“Well, I, uh… I only wrote novels in which many people die……”
“Well congratulations then. Think of it as your just desserts for your blatent disregard of life. A fitting punishment wouldn’t you say so?”
You bastard, it’s not like I killed anyone in reality, now did I?! It’s just fiction!
No, if I actually knew I’d one day have to live in one of the worlds I created, I would have definitely written a work with a comforting dreamland as the setting, wouldn’t I?
How should I have known that I’d get punished for my genre of writing? Who’d write a novel with that in mind in the first place? Who’d write about a killer sniper in their novel and not give him a gun to shot people?!
This was all in my head! Just because write about how I can punch as fast as lightning doesn’t mean I actually could pull that off.
On top of that, I was afflicted with a minor case of pretentiousitis, so I wrote a lot of stories about disastrous situations in which the vast majority of people died. To add to that, I was addicted to writing bad endings to the point that people had said, that if one of my stories had a happy ending, then I’d have died and been replaced.
Maybe my real sin was that I toyed with my readers’ feelings all year round.
Drat.
So what actually were the novels I wrote?
What would happen to me if I were transported into one of them?
[City of the Dead]
A zombie novel.
I was quite sure I’d die in a single day.
[Surviving in the Ruined World]
Post-Apocalypse.
I was here in hell because I couldn’t even survive in our peaceful, normal world, you know? No chance I live through a ruined world.
[The Demon King is Dead]
This novel got the worst ratings, but in my opinion it was the best for my situation.
Because this was a slice-of-life novel.
As I was criticized by my readers for always writing dark stories, I set this novel in a time period that didn’t have any serious global crisis from beginning to end. I actually didn’t finish it, but the beginning was rose-colored at leaast, very refreshing and peaceful.
The story of what happened after the heroes defeated the final boss in the prologue.
Hence the title: ‘The Demon King is Dead’.
I thought a story about the world after the fall of the Demon King would be a rather interesting premise.
At least it’s not like my other stuff, where everyone had to fight for survival from start to finish.
This is definitely the pick. No matter what.
Ah, I was lucky that I had the capcity to write at least one peaceful work!
Speaking of luck, it seems mine ended right there.
For the character I was to be reborn as was a death sentence.
As a result of a random lottery, I was to become the “Demon King’s son” in [The Demon King is Dead].
The Demon King’s son wasn’t a person that even made an appearance in my novel in the first place.
She told me that I’d get put into a random character, however I actually got someone that didn’t even exist.
An unlucky person would break their nose even if they fell backwards, huh.
That’s what she told me.
Didn’t I just die because I got too mad about some comments?
Just as I was relieved that I drew the safest novel, I got put into a position in which I’d die right at the start!
I wouldn’t even be the Demon King, someone who had power, but rather the prince.
It would have been much better if I were the Demon King. For example, if I were the Demon King I’d also be the highest-level existence of the Demon realm, so I could have just stayed put, surrendered, or ran away.
Even though the Demon King dies right at the start, he’s not to be trifled with.
However, I was just a prince of the Demon Realm who just turned 17.
Valier Jr.
Age : 17
Status : [Force: 3.4(F)]
[Agility 4.3(F+)]
[Dexterity 5.2(D-)]
[Magic power 9.9(C-)]
[Strength 5.7(D-)]
Race : Arcdemon
Talent : None
Abilities
Comprehensive Ability Assessment – Lowest Rank Demon
Combat Level Assessment – F
Despite getting deceived by that harlot, I was fortunately still able to find out who I actually was when a game-like screen appeared before me.
I never put this setting into my novel, so was this something those guys who sent me here gave me out of pity?
So, in terms of tropes, I was in a fairly common situation, in which an author somehow ended up in his own novel with a game system.
However, no matter how common the trope was, it would never feel like a familiar situation if it suddenly happened in reality.
I didn’t appreciate this convenient ability in the slightest.
Shouldn’t the son of the Demon King be of the same caliber as his parent?
Arcdemon was a rather interesting species, but wasn’t my current condition basically the worst of the worst?
This guy had no fighting capabilities.
I saw something that seemed like an ability to rule over all demons, but all that surrounded me were dead demons.
What a hellish situation.
It was the start of the prologue.
[Event Quest: Downfall]
[Description : The defeat of the Demon King’s army is imminent, but you’re powerless to do anything. Do your best to survive.]
[Goal : Escape the Demon King’s Castle]
[Reward : 100 achievement points]
All I could do was run.
I didn’t even pay attention to that mysterious system window that appeared in front of me.
-Kabaang! Bababaaang!
“Crazy!”
There’s nothing I could do to stop the war.
It seemed like the Demon King and the hero’s party were already engaged in heated battle inside the Demon King’s Castle.
The violent explosions and thunderous roars made me realize the reality of the situation.
Outside, there were shouts, screams and cries of monsters as a siege was taking place. Though they seemed to have already broken through.
The hallways were already lined with dead or fallen demons.
I couldn’t even imagine a person dying in front of me, but it was even worse seeing monsters that have only existed in my head dying right there.
Still, maybe because I felt like death was imminent, I kept running.
I thought I’d die if I stopped to vomit.
A prince of the Demon Realm, under most circumstance, would have guaranteed my livelihood.
“Damn iiiiiiiit!”
However, having this title while the Demon Realm was falling apart was certainly not one of them!
I’d sooner be Human Soldier 1!
I’m really confident that I can switch sides and bow down to whoever you know?
Please report to us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!