A Hero Who Shatters Worlds

In true role-playing game fashion, DQ assigns every gamer the role of the 'Hero'.

The NPC playing your parent kicks things off with brisk efficiency, revealing to the protagonist—who has only just rolled out of bed—the secret that 'you carry the bloodline of the Hero.'

The story itself follows a linear structure, though the game never bothers to probe that structure with any real depth.

There are a handful of prescribed tasks to complete, and even those are left entirely to the gamer's discretion.

'What kind of Hero will you become?'

That is DQ's core catchphrase.

Remarkably, this game labyrinth—built on an even more advanced system than its predecessors—reads a gamer's SEED data and analyzes which game labyrinths they've gravitated toward throughout their career.

Gamers accustomed to other genres are provided a support AI tailored to the playstyle they know best, while rookie gamers who find game labyrinths unfamiliar are assigned a beginner-exclusive support AI to help them adapt to DQ as quickly as possible.

This is what DQ proudly advertises as its 'Gamer-Friendly Adaptive Learning Support System Interface AI.'

If it merely assigned an AI and left it at that, it wouldn't be anything to write home about. But the moment you connected to DQ and met the support AI Spirit Rubinas, there was no choice but to be astonished by this labyrinth's potential.

The moment she spoke, a fresh alarm flickered across his vision.

This was the first game labyrinth ever that could interfere with YggON in this manner.

[So a labyrinth with plug-in support has finally appeared, has it.]

YggON's reaction was surprisingly understated.

[If you'll think about this honestly, Master—haven't quite a few game labyrinths caused you harm simply for being the master of UR YggON?]

In Rider-On and a string of other games, he'd received zero system benefits, and in the worst cases he'd been outright barred from entering the labyrinth itself.

[When the 2.0 update launched, I assumed plug-in-compatible labyrinths would appear immediately. That was a miscalculation. Human progress is slower than one would hope.]

YggON mimicked a sigh.

[To think a mere 'plug-in' only got implemented because S.E.N tossed them a bone. Disgraceful.]

Ryu Hwi checked whether using the plug-in carried any penalties.

[The plug-in is strictly an expansion feature, so barring exceptional circumstances there are no drawbacks. Honestly, that spirit AI of theirs is insufferably rude. Isn't basic etiquette to bow and scrape the moment you recognize your betters?]

Tuning out YggON's grumbling, Ryu Hwi reviewed the plug-in information.

If there were no penalties, using it was obviously the smart play.

With this thing, even though his system had been YggON-fied, he could still receive DQ's LV bonuses while progressing through the labyrinth.

He installed the plug-in and dove into the world of DQ.

A hero, he thought with a snort—not a word that suited him in the slightest.

[Master, it's a Baby Devil.]

"Another annoying one shows up."

Cute as a button on the outside, the Baby Devil was fairly popular among the gamers who played DQ.

But it was an absolute pain of a monster.

[Entering the Battle Field.]

DQ's combat was fundamentally 1 vs. 1.

The instant you encountered a monster, you were forced into a Battle Field and locked into a one-on-one showdown with it.

He'd wondered at first why the game was structured this way, but the reason became clear soon enough.

DQ's monsters were each tuned to be brutally strong. Without properly leveraging the system, winning even a single fight could prove difficult. Every single battle hit like a boss fight.

Yet the difficulty was never unreasonable—there was genuine satisfaction in methodically grinding your way through, and the system had its clever touches. Newcomers, for instance, were given a 'WAIT' mechanic until they'd grown comfortable with combat.

While the gamer mulled over their actions—spells, attacks, positioning—the monster's movements slowed to a crawl. As the gamer grew more practiced, those WAIT windows shrank, until eventually the battle transitioned into real time.

It was only possible because Battle Fields existed as a separate space, and the fact that beginners were so thoughtfully accommodated earned the system high marks.

What was applied to Ryu Hwi, on the other hand, was the highest difficulty setting.

Like in Legend of Lambda, it was a difficulty tuned exclusively to him personally, granting no leisurely thinking time whatsoever. He had to judge and act on the spot, and every enemy's overall stats were permanently set above his own.

The faster Ryu Hwi got, the faster his enemies became; the stronger he grew, the stronger they grew in turn.

Thanks to which, he got to savor that satisfying chewy difficulty anytime, anywhere.

Take the Baby Devil he was facing right now. It was a joke of a monster—a creature that 'knew' top-tier spells but lacked the mana to actually cast them.

On Ryu Hwi's maximum difficulty, however, it transformed into a monster that spammed those top-tier spells indiscriminately.

A spell that blanketed a vast area in blinding radiance. Fast activation, enormous range, devastating power.

But Ryu Hwi could already see exactly how to answer it. He understood what the enemy intended before it moved, and his body reacted on pure reflex.

Before the Baby Devil had even finished chanting, he could tell which spell was coming; before the magic manifested, the attack's range, its effects, and the counterplay had all bloomed in his mind.

A lance of ice materialized in front of Ryu Hwi like a shield thrown up to protect him.

The jagged, irregular surface of the ice scattered the light in chaotic refractions, dispersing Flash—Dioga's power in an instant.

But Ice Lance didn't merely diffuse the spell and call it a defense. Through those blinding reflections, Ryu Hwi sent the Baby Devil's own Flash—Dioga hurtling right back at it.

"Krek?!"

Struck down by its own spell, the Baby Devil went tumbling backward.

This was the realm of naturally reading every 'event' about to unfold around him, deriving the optimal move in a split second, and not merely blocking an enemy's attack but turning it into a counterstrike.

The senses of Ryu Hwi, who had reached Intuition Lv4, had already climbed beyond even the realm of the superhuman.

The Baby Devil staggered upright and began a new spell.

A pillar of fire—hot enough to kill on the barest graze—erupted from the ground and swept toward Ryu Hwi.

"Keh?!"

No matter how furiously the flames roared, Ryu Hwi at Intuition Lv4 slipped serenely between the pillars of fire, following the path his instinct laid out before him.

The Baby Devil immediately moved to cast its next spell, but Ryu Hwi was faster.

"Spell."

A 'Spell' he'd drilled over the past two weeks.

The sky swallowed itself in storm clouds, and a single bolt of lightning slammed into the earth with a rolling crack of thunder.

Its power was nothing like a mere 'Lightning' spell.

In a single strike, the Baby Devil was charred black.

[It's going to cast revival magic.]

"I know."

Twitching—still not quite dead—the Baby Devil lay before him as Ryu Hwi touched the deck of his Shuffle Gun.

[Rammut Infancy] + [Lv 2 Up] = [Rammut Maturity]

A shadow dragon many times more massive than the one from Rammut's infancy materialized and set upon the Baby Devil, tearing into it.

Before it could manage a single syllable of revival magic, the Baby Devil met its end, impaled on Rammut's enormous fangs.

Clamping the Baby Devil in its jaws, Rammut writhed and squirmed against Ryu Hwi as if begging for praise.

Rammut was clearly angling for affection, but from Ryu Hwi's perspective, having a dragon far larger than himself glom onto him was nearly unbearable.

He gave it a perfunctory pat, and Rammut, satisfied, dissolved away.

In DQ, slaying a monster didn't make it vanish on the spot. You had to properly finish it off—only then would it drop its items and disappear.

But Ryu Hwi skipped the cleanup and left the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠corpse lying there.

Sure enough, a horde of monsters came swarming in from every direction, drawn by the scent of death.

DQ was fundamentally a 1-vs-1 affair, but by exploiting a prepared alternate system, you could turn it into a 1-versus-many brawl.

That system was precisely this: using a monster corpse's stench as bait.

The mechanic was designed to pressure gamers psychologically—kill the monster and flee as fast as you can before the other beasts come running. Ryu Hwi, however, had found an entirely different use for it.

[Twenty-five have gathered. Since a maximum of five can pile into a single battle, that makes it a five-battle chain.]

"Chained battles stack experience bonuses, so that's 1.25 times, right?"

[In-combat actions add experience too. One-versus-many battles, chain battles, no item usage, swift victory, overkill, back attacks—if you clear every single condition, the multiplier climbs as high as three times.]

Ryu Hwi used every system DQ had to offer.

Five consecutive rounds of 1-versus-5, in a game where even 1-on-1 was a struggle. It might as well have been a death sentence, but Ryu Hwi didn't care in the slightest.

"Three times might be a stretch, but let's push for two."

Watching the swarming monsters close in, Ryu Hwi smiled without a trace of fear.

DQ-exclusive status experience had risen, and he'd also gained a brand-new DQ-exclusive skill: Demon God Slash.

And with Strength reaching Lv5, it could now be converted into a YGG skill.

According to the plug-in's own description: "Stats and skills raised to 'MAX LV' can be converted into 'YggON System-exclusive Skills.'"

Ryu Hwi's current DQ level was 27, and he'd just managed to push a single status all the way to MAX LV.

"Getting a status skill turned out to be faster than I expected. Which means..."

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

[It means there's more above it, doesn't it.]

Ryu Hwi converted DQ Strength Lv MAX into a YGG skill as a test.

True to a skill acquired through a special plug-in, it came laden with restrictions.

He equipped the skill anyway and threw a punch at full power.

"The boost is bigger than the 'physical ability' effects from my other skills."

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

At just Lv1, it delivered roughly the same sensation as the other skills at Lv3 or Lv4.

Of course, this only applied to 'Strength' specifically, so he couldn't say one was strictly superior.

[The DQ Strength level has been reset, and its required experience has increased.]

"So the loop is: raise a DQ stat to MAX again, convert it into a skill, then combine those skills to raise the YGG skill's level. Pretty finicky system."

The biggest headache was being unable to use the Exp cards in his possession.

Raising DQ-related skills meant doing nothing but playing DQ for a long, long time.

[Skills gained through plug-ins tend to have potent effects, Master. Once you've acquired one, it will reliably pay off.]

"The problem is I don't have time to leisurely enjoy DQ."

There was no telling when Nox would make her move.

[Isn't that precisely why you spread false rumors and dragged all the gamers into 'Legend of Lambda'?]

"That's right."

Jucheongwang was trying to keep gamers out of the 'Night Zone'.

In that climate, GA-ES had exposed the claim that a hidden treasure of Yggdrasil lay within Legend of Lambda's Night Zone—and that Jucheongwang was concealing it.

What made it doubly effective was that the rumor hadn't been secretly spread by Jucheongwang itself, but broadcast as 'truth' by its adversaries—the very side hostile to Jucheongwang.

Sure enough, plenty of gamers were right now throwing themselves at Legend of Lambda's 'Night Zone' even at the cost of being unable to control their pain receptors.

At present, Nox—thanks to S.E.N's seal—mistakenly believed she was fulfilling her designated role.

Every gamer intrusion would drive her to devote herself even more faithfully to that false role of hers.

Until the seal broke and Nox moved, he had to obtain Mental Tolerance, which slumbered somewhere within DQ.

[Speaking of which, Master—shouldn't you be heading back to the village soon? Your quest is complete.]

"Was just about to do that."

He activated another spell learned in DQ.

Wrapped in light, he rose up into the sky.

Fly—Luora, the teleportation spell that carried him to any designated destination.

As he soared through the air, he took in the world of DQ spread out below him.

DQ's purpose was one, and one only: to become the true 'Hero' who would strike down the 'Demon God'.

How a gamer cast in the RPG role of the 'Hero' chose to shape their own story was entirely up to them.

There was no doubt in his mind that DQ would go down in game labyrinth history.

The only problem was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that the ones forging that history were a collective calling themselves 'XENIX'.

'Needless to say, S.E.N's fingerprints will be all over them.'

What kind of Hero will you become?

The thought drifted up unbidden.

'Being the Hero who blows this world to pieces sounds like fun too.'