The Birth of the Cutest and Most Incompetent Demon King in the World~!

I’m translating the chapter and shaping the in-universe text into the required HTML blocks as I go, while keeping the narration in novel-style paragraphs.CHAPTER_TITLE: The Birth of the World’s Cutest, Most Pathetic Demon King

After the first server maintenance, people flooded back into the server that had reopened just five hours later, and before long, the whole place was swallowed by a whirlpool of chaos.

Obviously, a pack of gloriously insane bastards were running around slaughtering everything in sight. They all had horns sprouting from their heads, and their bodies were generally black all over.

There were a few players who mounted a counterattack against the demons, but most were simply helplessly overwhelmed. The reason was simple: once they transformed into demons, their HP tripled, and while most weapons could no longer be equipped, the only exception was claws, like Wolverine’s. The demon-only claws, however, dealt absurd damage, so even a few hits would drain HP away in a rush.

With the players left defenseless against the terror campaign, the temporary allied force formed by the first and second continent players was eventually established as a formal organization. In preparation for the demons, they summoned as many airships as they could, loaded every player aboard, and rose into the sky.

The demons could only stare up at the heavens, blank-faced, like dogs that had chased chickens right off the road.

The answer they got was the magic-and-cannon combo they had already tasted once before.

Shooooom— KWA-KWAAANG!!

The allied force had managed to evacuate everyone from the demon terror, and its leadership gathered aboard one of the airships to begin a meeting.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The outcome of the meeting was soon announced to the players, and most of them agreed with it. They quickly organized their deployments, decided on stationed positions, and set up standby units near key areas. They were fully prepared.

And as a result of their quick movements, when a demon finally poked its head out, they melted it with concentrated fire.

As soon as the demons stuck their heads out, they were erased by focused fire. Even if one slipped through, the warriors would rush in and cling to it, grinding it down piece by piece. The damage wasn't all that severe.

But as a result, an unexpected side effect appeared.

The melee fighters who had to close in and fight started dying alongside the demons from their allies' area attacks.

At first, everyone assumed it wouldn't matter since they were on different continents. But whether the mod had been made with this in mind or not, when a second-continent player killed a first-continent player, the Crime Rate rose, and the portals connected to the third continent multiplied.

At first, they thought there must have been a portal they hadn't found. But once they confirmed that portals were appearing in areas they had already finished scouting and declared safe, they finally understood what was happening.

Because of that, area magic from spellcasters was banned. Once those high-damage AoE spells were prohibited, even more manpower had to be thrown into defeating the demons. After this situation went on for nearly a week, many players began complaining of exhaustion.

Meanwhile, the third-continent players had confirmed the response methods being used by the other continents and went, “Screw you,” then organized themselves into squads. The assault teams charged in mindlessly, while the rest of them started searching for the Demon King.

Convinced of the Demon King's existence, the demons began prowling the map for him. And when the allied force players heard reports that “the demons are roaming around looking for the Demon King,” they, too, started carefully searching for the Demon King, or at least something related to him.

The Demon King they were all so desperately hunting was, at that moment...

"Kyahhh~! Gross! Go awayyyy~!"

...being chased around by a dog.

"Ahem. Don't slander me. Watching Kunya is part of operations duty too."

Hmm. It wasn't entirely wrong, either. Since the server started, there hadn't been a single bug that required calling operations. So monitoring KuroNyang, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only player on the hidden continent, did technically count as operations work... kind of.... damn it.... He really didn't want to admit it.

"For that reason, I stand here proudly."

Rusty spent a moment idly chatting with his viewers. While he was distracted, KuroNyang, after running around in circles, discovered an old door and slipped inside.

"Huh? There....."

-Why? Where is it?

Rusty looked toward the door KuroNyang had entered, then let out a small laugh.

"Guys. Watch closely. This is the birth of the most pathetic and cutest Demon King in history. Heh."

-?? De...mon king?

-KuroNyang?

-That pathetic cat?

-Holy crap.....

"It was supposed to be a place where you'd have to beat up all the mobs and gather clues before coming here.... But luck is a kind of skill."

-So this was one of those luck-based trash games after all.....

---------------

After people became certain that the Demon King existed, one particular theory gained even more support: that the Demon King’s appearance was the final content.

The server had already been open for a little over two months, and since they had said it would run for three months from the start, people guessed that the final content would be a last war between the Demon King and demons on one side, and the human alliance on the other.

That theory earned the support of many players and was practically accepted as common knowledge.

Still, there was one question even they couldn't answer.

Why now?

Only about two weeks remained before the server would end. Some guessed that maybe no player had met the conditions yet, or that they still hadn't found the trigger, but none of those answers quite felt right to everyone.

Of course, anyone who knew the truth could have said, “It’s because... well... it’s just too pathetic...;;;" But ordinary people didn't know that, so... yes. That was that.

In any case, the Demon King everyone had been waiting for at last began to reveal himself.

As soon as the server shut down for maintenance, people rushed toward Rusty's broadcast.

Rusty read through the questions one by one for a moment, then opened a notepad.

"First, I'll answer the things I can answer right now."

He typed the questions and answers into the notepad.