What I Truly Want Is—
What I Truly Want Is—
The hill of piled corpses seemed as though it would emit a rotting stench.
Blood spilled so profusely across the ground that it soaked everything beneath one's feet.
The moment the video turned on, the sight that met the eye was the bodies of countless villagers. Corpses riddled with stab wounds lay strewn about the village like garbage.
No... could those even be called stab wounds?
They were injuries better described as ripped apart than cut. The state of the bodies was that grotesque.
Though it was only a game, it was enough to make Chae-rin furrow her brow.
In their pointless pursuit of reality, it was absurdly vivid even at times like this.
The situation already seemed to have progressed for quite some time, as the surroundings were nothing short of utter chaos.
Villagers still alive were shouting here and there that a Demonkin had appeared.
By the look of it, it was as if a psychopathic murderer or a large wild beast had passed through.
But standing at the center of the video was...
-It hurts... it hurts...
Some young boy. If one were to put an age to it, he seemed to have just barely turned fourteen.
A scrawny boy who hadn't even properly hit puberty yet.
Except his entire body was covered in blood, and tears streamed from his eyes.
-Why, why do I have to suffer this...? I was just born, so why do I have to live on the run?
But his eyes were rather bizarre, for the entirety of his pupils were black.
Only the ominous red glare gleaming fiercely at their center gave a hint that he too possessed pupils.
They were what were commonly called Demonic Eyes.
After shedding tears for some time, the boy eventually parted his lips again.
-...Forget it. I hope you all just die.
A childish tone, as if throwing a tantrum.
But that power could not be ignored.
Soon the boy shot toward the cameraman.
Boom—!
A massive roar echoed in all directions.
The cameraman must have been some kind of tank class, because although she held on, her expression was deeply furrowed.
By the looks of it, the impact was considerable.
Taking advantage of the aggro being drawn to her anyway, the cameraman shouted to the villagers.
-Everyone, run while you have the chance!
-Th-thank you!
-We owe you our lives, young lady!
After that, well... it was repetitive.
Chae-rin found herself watching a fully grown adult woman, a tank class at that, being pushed back by a little kid who hadn't even hit puberty.
To be honest, the cameraman had a few attack opportunities.
But perhaps because the enemy looked so young, the cameraman hesitated to attack each time.
That tedious standoff came to an end a few minutes later when the Knight Order arrived at the village.
The knights who reached the village immediately formed a circular formation and cut down the Demonkin.
A little kid who looked barely fourteen, without a moment's hesitation.
Blood spattered. Entrails spilled out.
After the commotion died down, a knight who appeared to be of fairly high rank came over and offered thanks to the cameraman.
-Thank you. We were able to prevent the damage from spreading thanks to you.
-No... well...
The cameraman scratched her head awkwardly. Perhaps because a young child had died, her discomfort was palpable.
The knight's expression was not particularly bright either.
However, in the knight's case, the cause of her unease seemed different from the cameraman's.
The knight glanced around and then asked her subordinate.
-...Casualties?
-Ma'am! As far as we've confirmed so far, approximately forty-one.
-For a remote village, the damage is quite severe...
The knight's expression hardened gravely. Then she spoke as if making a declaration.
-A demon may descend before long.
The video ended there.
Yoo Chae-rin immediately looked at the comments.
The reactions in the comment section were all over the place.
[These game company bastards are at it again]
[Even if they claim to pursue realism, isn't this fckn too cruel?]
[idk what kind of art they're going for but they're chopping up a little kid~~]
[Those knight bitches have no human heart, seriously]
Sympathetic public opinion said that, even for a game, doing that to a child was too much.
[Demon Advent? lolololol]
[New content out? kekeke]
[Finally demon foreshadowing after half a year of the game lololol]
Those who couldn't give a single shit about that and were happy new information had been posted.
[but... isn't that little kid kind of cute lol... hh]
[↳ fr though kek]
[↳ die just die one second sooner]
[↳ sir please hold your breath for just one hour, I beg you]
With these bizarre weirdos intermixed here and there, the comment section was nothing short of a total mess.
Yoo Chae-rin sifted and sorted through them for usable information.
[So what exactly is a Demonkin? Is that even a person to begin with?]
[↳ yeah, I asked the villagers and they said it's because of some Demon's Blood?]
[↳ Demon Blood?]
[↳ tf is that now lol]
That was the reason why that young child had turned out that way.
[So what's this Demon Advent thing]
[↳ I asked a knight and she said that boy and the dead people were all offered as sacrifices, and the demon's seal likely weakened a lot]
[↳ Oh]
[↳ So basically a raid is opening soon?]
[↳ idk]
And that was the fact that something new might appear before long.
Having checked the entire post, Chae-rin was lost in thought for a moment.
'Demon's Blood, huh...'
She didn't know exactly what it was, but she thought it seemed like a truly nasty piece of setting lore. To think that something called that could turn such a young child into that. It was a slightly chuunibyou-ish naming too.
Even though this game was virtual, all the NPCs living inside it felt real.
Characters who all felt emotions, felt pain, and laughed, like actual people.
So a tragedy like that was never going to sit well with her.
Of course, she was a gamer, so she just needed to enjoy the game.
She decided to push all the bad thoughts aside and only think about the new content.
Fortunately, she did not make any connection between that Demonkin and Yor.
*
Winter had fully ended, and it had already been a week since spring arrived.
The once brilliant moon had almost completely vanished, growing steadily darker.
What did that mean?
It meant the time was once again approaching for that goddamn Berserk state to erupt.
Since today was precisely the new moon, I had to face the demon within me boiling up once more.
But this time, I wasn't particularly worried.
Because I had Holy Water!
Holy Water was a truly important thing to me in many ways.
It was true that using it weakened my power.
But in any case, Holy Water only acted on the Demon's Blood, not my body.
What did that mean?
It meant that if I used it when Berserk A triggered, I could prevent my blood from rampaging wildly. If I used it well, I could get through the berserk state with almost no pain.
Roughly three Holy Waters per one berserk episode.
So having six Holy Waters meant I could skip a whopping two months' worth of the berserk state for free.
So my mood could only be good.
'It's normally a hard-to-get item.'
Thanks to Yoo Chae-rin, I had been able to obtain it relatively easily. It was an advantage gained from interacting with Otherworlders.
Anyway, thanks to that, I had nothing to fear today.
Berserk A, you bastard, come at me if you dare!
But when night came, what visited me was.
-Surrender your body to me.
A sickening voice that rang inside my head. It was Berserk B.
The moment I realized that, I spat out curses.
"Ah, fuck."
Unfortunately, Holy Water did not work on Berserk B.
Feeling a strange anger boiling up from within, I rushed out of the cave.
*
As I mentioned last time, Berserk A acted on the body, B on the mind.
With A, as we had seen before, the blood itself could be seen rampaging.
Then how exactly did B affect the mind?
The answer was simple. It amplified the emotions themselves.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The moment I stepped outside the cave, I could feel my heart beating strangely fast.
It was not because I was out of breath. It was a bodily reaction to manipulate rage.
Something like heat rose to my head, a stifling feeling in my chest. Negative thoughts kept surfacing, trying to cloud my mind.
And... something like blood rushed to my lower half a little too.
It couldn't be helped. Berserk B boiled up not only emotions but even human instincts.
Because the more complex and twisted a person's heart, the easier it was for the demon to tempt them.
-Are you not dissatisfied with the world? How long do you plan to live on the run like this?
I did not know whether this voice I heard in my head was an actual demon or merely an auditory hallucination.
But one thing was certain. It felt as though entrusting my body to that bastard would mean crossing a river of no return.
Thus, the way to cope with Berserk B was the exact opposite of A.
Unlike A, where I had to silently endure deep inside the cave, for B I had to get out of the cave and roam as much as possible. Because if I stayed still, my own emotions would devour me.
I had to divert my attention outward as much as I could and not lend my ears to the voice.
"Grrrr! Woof! Woof!"
"Kreeeeek!"
Even if it was a night with no moon, enemies were scattered everywhere.
I could see the gleaming eyes of mutated animals and monsters. They rushed at me as soon as they saw me.
I didn't bother avoiding them and killed every single one I laid eyes on.
Night originally belonged to them. No matter how skilled I was, taking them on in pitch-black darkness where I couldn't see an inch ahead was difficult.
Every fight left gashes on my body and drew blood. That was fine.
Because right now I had to release this aimless rage.
I had to let off the stress.
Amidst all that, the voice kept creeping in little by little.
-Speak what it is you desire.
What I desired was a beautiful-girl harem sex.
A room filled with beautiful girls. Soft skin and huge tits!
To build a decadent paradise with the world's strongest beautiful girls was my dream.
When listening to the demon's voice, I had to occasionally spout this kind of bullshit too.
Because if you listened to that overly serious bastard's words, depression would automatically creep in.
A person must live with jokes. The world was too harsh not to.
While I was thinking such thoughts, the bastard spoke to me again.
-Do not lie.
I asked the bastard out loud.
"Huh?"
I didn't desire a beautiful-girl harem sex?
Absolute bullshit!!!
When a man is born with a rod and two stones hanging below, isn't that naturally the dream he should have?
Truly, if one is a man, it is normal to desire a beautiful-girl harem sex.
Which was why I considered most of the 'men' in this place to be gay.
Of course, if there was someone in this world who also desired a beautiful-girl harem sex, I was willing to acknowledge them as a man.
Even so, the bastard's words continued.
-Is there not something you truly desire?
I desired something even more than a beautiful-girl harem sex?
I asked the bastard without thinking.
'What's that?'
The bastard answered.
-A return to civilization.
'...'
-I shall grant it to you. If you entrust your body to me, I will grant that dream. No, I will go beyond granting it, and change this very world.
For a while, I couldn't speak. But it was only for a moment; I coldly told the bastard.
'Not interested.'
Because I knew his words were nothing but a hollow temptation.
Because I knew it was a dream that could never come true. I could refuse his offer without any particular hesitation.
And so I roamed the forest throughout the night.
The sun rose hours after that.