There was a saying that if you’ve committed a crime, you’d absolutely get punished. It’s a saying that almost never came to fruition.
There was another saying.
If you were to go to hell you’d have to pay for all your wrongdoings, no matter how small. Of course, I didn’t agree with that one either.
This wasn’t really a saying and more of something I experienced myself.
If a situation was just too incomprehensible, a person’s thought process would turn 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 complicated, so let’s put it simple.
Simply put.
This thing called Hell existed and I think I died.
The cause of my death was also rather simple.
It was ‘Acute myocardial infarction due to high blood pressure, which caused a cardiac arrest’.
My blood pressure suddenly went up like this, because of a malicious comment I was reading. That’s what I’ve been told.
My blood pressure went up because of some bad comment? Just for that reason? Really?
My eyes grew a bit distant.
That’s supposed to be my last memory?
“Please sign this quickly.”
She threw a form in front of me. There was some stuff written on it, with a blank space presumably for my signature below.
“……So, I’m dead? I, I just saw some malicious comments which made my blood pressure rise and then I just died? People can die like this?”
“Do people always have to die for great reasons? There are a lot of people who die just by slipping on an icy road. Alright, hurry up and make your choice now.”
Even if I didn’t want to believe it, I didn’t have a choice in that matter.
………Anyway, I was in hell now.
It was up to myself if I took the deal or just went right down.
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 lines 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 got sent to heaven. That’s why everyone goes through the process of atoning for the petty sins one had accumulated 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 novels one could describe as second- or third-rate.
My biggest sin was leaving behind a lot of work throughout the years as a commercial writer.
I told the readers who were reading my stories well that it was a writer’s biggest sin to leave a story unfinished, before calmly digging up my sub-account to publish other works.
“To be honest, sins committed by individuals are often only on the minor side, but if the number of these small sins accumulate, 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 directly pierce through my heart. This was on a completely different scale than normal bitterness.
What if my blood pressure rose again? What would happen if I died again after I already died?
My sins were just small ones that accumulated throughout my life.
Anyway, the punishment I had to endure was being sent 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, 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, see. That depends on the novel….”
“Why?”
“Well, I, uh……I only wrote novels in which a lot of people die……”
“Well congrats then. Think of it as a trivial punishment for your disregard of life then. It seems you don’t understand the preciousness of life.”
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 certainly would have written something with a dreamland amusement park as the setting, wouldn’t I?
How should I have known that I’d get punished for writing things like that, but who’d write a novel with that in mind in the first place? Who’d write about a master gunsman in their novel and didn’t give him a gun?!
This was all just in my head! Just because I wrote down I could punch as fast as lightning, didn’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 a lot of people died. To add to that, I was addicted to writing bad endings to the point that people said that, if one of my stories had a happy ending, I’d have gone crazy.
Maybe my real sin was that I messed with my readers’ feelings with my bad endings all year round.
No, wasn’t that actually rather convincing?
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? Didn’t I just get killed by some malicious comments?
[The Demon King is Dead]
This novel got the worst ratings, but in my opinion it was the best.
Because this was a slice-of-life novel.
As I was criticized by my readers for always writing bad ends, I wrote this novel that didn’t have any serious global crisis from beginning to end. I actually didn’t finish it, but the beginning was rose-colored, very refreshing and peaceful.
This novel told the story of what happened after the heroes defeated the final boss in the prologue.
That’s why its title was ‘The Demon King is Dead’.
This story took place after the death of the Demon King after all.
At least it’s not like my other stuff, where one had to fight for one’s survival from start to finish.
I must get this one. No matter what.
I just had to get this one!
Speaking of the results.
It worked out just the way I wanted.
As a result of a random lottery, I was to become the “Demon King’s son” of [The Demon King is Dead].
* * *
The Demon King’s son wasn’t a character 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 something that couldn’t even be called a character.
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 which led my blood pressure to rise?
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, but just a 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
[Demon Domination D](Unique to Arcdemons)
Comprehensive Ability Assessment – Lowest Rank Demon
Combat Level Assessment – F
Despite getting deceived by this novel, fortunately I was still able to find out who I actually was. 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 to oneself in reality.
I didn’t appreciate this convenient ability in the slightest.
Shouldn’t the kin of the Demon King be of a different caliber?
Arcdemon was a rather simple 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 around me were just 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 fiercely fighting inside the Demon King’s Castle.
The violent explosions and thunderous roars made me realize that this bloody war was really happening.
Outside, there were shouts, screams and cries of monsters as a siege was taking place. 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 previously 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.
Aren’t I such a good prince of the Demon Realm?
Only
“Damn iiiiiiiit!”
However, having this title while the Demon Realm was falling apart was much more dangerous!
I’d rather replace it with Human Soldier 1!
I’m really confident that I can switch sides and bow down to whoever!
