Chapter 15
One week has pa.s.sed since the Day of Fate.
Ever since the SNS 1 post by the riajuu, my Domain has had a continuous stream of invaders.
As I was gradually running out of CP due to the overwhelming number of invaders and their combat prowess, I was driven to manipulate information and to adjust the balance moderately.
First, the information manipulation.
３２ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｈｇｙｔａｙｅ
Hasn’t the number of low-ranked monsters decreased in that Kanezawa dungeon?
３５ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｓｋｅｄｕｆｈ
I’ve heard something like that as well. It looks like goblins suddenly appeared at the entrance.
４１ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｌｅｓｄｃｒｆ
＞３５ Srsly? We planned to challenge it tomorrow, but should we stop after hearing the rumors?
４２ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｓｋｅｄｕｆｈ
＞４１ What’s your level?
４３ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｌｅｓｄｃｒｆ
＞４２ Of course we’re level 1.
４４ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｓｋｅｄｕｆｈ
Then you better stop. That is if you are no suicide candidate.
５２ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｑｗｆｔｈｂｃ
＞３５ Liar. We tackled it yesterday, but only ran into some slimes and wolves.
７２ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｓｄｆｇｈｊｋ
I’m a demon king lol. Should I solve the riddle for you? haha
７４ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｅｊｄｕｒｈｓ
Ewww, a demon king has descended, or rather, clarify it for us if you’re really a demon king. lmao.
７５ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｓｄｆｇｈｊｋ
The monster-resp.a.w.n requires 6 hours.
That’s all I’ll tell you.
I endeavored in manipulating information through my smartphone.
By the way, the replies 32, 35, 41, 43, 44, 52, 72, 75 on the anonymous message board are all mine. I kept changing my ID using an app.
Moreover, since I regularly switched the slimes with goblins as subordinates deployed at the entrance of my Domain, there was plenty of credibility to it, too.
My submitted posts suddenly created a heated discussion, accelerating the posting rate on the anonymous message board. It was even picked up by some index sites.
An intense response battle repeatedly unfolded between those believing in the 6 hours resp.a.w.n theory and those calling it a hoax.
If it’s found to be the truth, it will turn into a crucial information for humanity.
Eventually a professor of a certain university came forward and decided to carry out experiments.
The details of the experiment was to send 12 humans above level 3 into the Kanezawa dungeon – in other words, my Domain – where the rumors started from, and have them kill nothing but slimes and rats around the entrance.
After having exterminated all the slimes and rats, they will retreat, and then they will restart the invasion once more in one hour, three hours and six hours intervals.
For the sake of making the above-mentioned experiment a success, it’s necessary to inform other people to not challenge the dungeon during that time. As a method to notify many people, a call-out over the net was chosen.
The progress of the experiment will be streamed in real-time over the TV and various net channels.
And so the experiment began.
50 slimes and rats in total are deployed to the entrance area of my Domain. I ordered them to charge at the humans near the entrance of the dungeon, making them go in groups of two and three, instead of attacking full force right away.
After 2 hours, all of the slimes and rats had been defeated.
After confirming that there are no monsters in the vicinity, the invaders withdrew.
After one hour, the invaders entered my Domain once more.
I had strictly ordered all my subordinates to stay away from the entrance area.
The invaders explored the entrance area for an hour and then retreated.
Two hours later, they invaded my Domain for the third time.
I deployed 10 goblins with bows and arrows near the entrance area. They welcomed the invaders with a rain of arrows.
“A large crowd of goblins!? Retreat! Fall baaack!”
The invaders evacuated my Domain in a hurry.
After another three hours the invaders re-entered my Domain.
I deployed slimes and rats at the entrance area. The positioned slimes and rats perished before long.
With this—the rumor of the monster’s resp.a.w.n time being 6 hours was actually proven true.
Though in reality, it’s a complete hoax.
The verified resp.a.w.n time created various controversies.
Among them, there were many posts from people – who were very likely real Demon Kings – who saw through my hoax, saying 『What BS! lol』, but because the discussion didn’t take place only in the net, but also in talk shows and all kinds of academic facilities, their voices didn’t cause an impact.
At the end of the majority of them however, the conclusion they came to was — a blitzkrieg.
Dispatch the main force into the dungeon in waves over a short time, and capture the dungeon without wasting much time. In short, the common opinion was to subjugate the Demon King, finally releasing the inviolable Domain.
In reality, the compensation for the subordinates’ creation — CP, recovers over time.
If you put it into Demon King-like terms, subordinates are consumable goods. It possible to replenish the depleted subordinates as long as you have CP, even if it takes a long time. On the other hand, if 【Law】 — humans die, it’s the end for them. Their numbers are overwhelmingly larger, but a lost life won’t come back.
Defeating a Demon King through a blitzkrieg might be called a strategy following logic.
Do your best, humans! Please strive in the subjugation of Demon Kings for the sake of survival!
—However, leave me out of it and only subjugate the other Demon Kings.
I begin my second information manipulation.
Cleverly using different IDs, I not only post on the anonymous message board, but also write comments on influential blogs.
What I wrote is—
『What’s the point of liberating the low-level farming dungeons?』
『I’m level 1, so if all the dungeons with slimes are gone, I will be hard pressed to survive in the current world.』
『Right now we’re are the ones attacking one-sidedly, but won’t it be dangerous if the demon kings were to attack?』
『Wouldn’t it be a good idea to keep a farming dungeon, for example that Kanezawa dungeon, to use it as training ground?』
『Since you can also pick up items of good quality over there, it will be troublesome if it’s gone.』
I continued posting requests and comments to receive protection as — the dungeon with items of good quality that had been confirmed through eyewitnesses, or as the dungeon where low-ranking monsters appear — what’s commonly referred to as a 『Farm』 by humans.
Right now the world was in chaos. Rules and regulations have turned into a mere sh.e.l.l, and the world transformed into a place where one’s level decides one’s social standing.
However, challenging a dungeon all of a sudden is a scary situation for anyone.
As a result, a great majority of humanity was stuck at level 1.
Stirring up the anxiety of those level 1 humans, who are the majority, is my aim this time.
My continuous information activity bore fruit. The public opinion shifted towards the protection of my Domain as 『Farm』.
That’s how my Domain managed to obtain a moderate break time so that my CP doesn’t run out, moreover it lured in many low-leveled humans.
Chapter 16
Three weeks have pa.s.sed since the Day of Fate.
Thanks to the effect of my information manipulation and certain circ.u.mstances, I’m currently able to live my life as a Demon King quietly and comfortably.
As for those so-called certain circ.u.mstances, it looks like monsters left one of the inviolable areas — the Domain.
Until now it was an accepted theory that monsters couldn’t live anywhere but inside the inviolable areas.
The inviolable areas occupy huge chunks of the former world’s land, forcing humanity into a shortage of land and food. There were warnings that humanity might collapse in the near future, if it goes on like this.
Having said this, if you were to ask anyone whether they want to challenge Domains with their own life as bargain chip, the answer would be no.
Small quant.i.ties of food and a restrained life. But, many humans didn’t try to change that, saying “Eventually someone that’s not me will likely resolve these issues, so why should I risk it?”
However, that peace was torn apart.
The abnormal, or in other words, grotesque monsters, which used to only inhabit the Domains, invaded the sphere of their ordinary everyday lives.
Many humans panicked. At this rate there’s no place that’s safe.
“In that case, I have to obtain power in order to at least protect myself or the people I love—”
Many of the humans, who had only been spectating until now, were worried due to their current state of being level 1 and were lured towards the Domains to raise their levels.
Being promoted with that kind of background as well, my Domain was always full.
The humans have set up a reception desk at the entrance to my Domain.
They started organizing the humans invading my Domain.
What they exactly organized is—
Those challenging the Domain are to put up an application and fill out their levels at the reception desk in advance.
You have to wait for 6 hours or more after the previous applicant invaded before challenging it yourself.
Report to the reception desk after returning. On this occasion also report the loot obtained from treasure chests.
All that happens inside the Domain is regarded as own risk of those challenging the Domain.
The above-mentioned rules were courteously posted on the net, too.
Due to this arbitrarily decided management by the humans, I had to deal with being attacked four times per day.
My preparations are perfect though. The rest is just me adjusting the balance.
The point is to not repel them too much. It’s about inciting their pa.s.sion for gambling by moderately giving them rewards.
If I were to completely annihilate the invading humans, no new ones would come afterwards. On the other hand, if I don’t defeat even a single one, it will be a heavy loss for me due to not being able to gain experience.
I tune the invader’s survival rate at 80%.
If 12 people challenge my Domain, It’s almost certain that 2~3 will die.
Survival rate of 80% — 2 out of 10 parties will wipe. Or, if 10 people raid, 2 will die.
Considering it normally, that’s an impossible degree of difficulty. If it was a peaceful world, no one would ever challenge it under normal conditions.
The bargaining chip — life — is too expensive.
However, the state of the current world was by no means peaceful.
The price of life crashed drastically— it was a broken world.
Once I checked the net, the majority of the Domains had a survival rate of less than 50%. Among them there were even some Domains with a survival rate of 0%.
With such circ.u.mstances existing as well, my Domain that was regulated towards a survival rate of 80% enjoyed a high popularity.
Luring the humans with slimes and bats, I steadily killed the invaders by dispatching packs of wolves or goblins from time to time.
Also the equipment of the Black Iron Series, which appear from the treasure chests at a rate of one item per 7 days, grandly stirred the gambling spirit of the invaders. By the way, even if it was a miss, they would still acquire one equipment piece from the Iron Series per day.
Alright. My life as demon king was going really well.
On one day my Domain was invaded by the strongest humans, said to be over level 3 each and having one person using a weapon of the Black Iron Series, four people using weapons of the Iron Series and the others wearing equipment of the Wood Series, but I barely escaped by annihilating them with the cheat goblins and the Silver Series kobolds.
Was it a blunder to have annihilated all the high level humans? I was fl.u.s.tered about that, but once I checked the net—
１０３ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｍａｓｅｆｓｅ
That Hero-sama’s party was apparently annihilated in Kanezawa?
１０７ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｚｓｒｆｓｗａ
Hero-sama shouldn’t invade a farm!
１１３ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｍｓｄｒｅｓｄ
Didn’t they advance too deep after getting c.o.c.ky?
１４２ Unknown Adventurer ＩＤ：ｓｅｆｂｇｒｓ
Cause of Defeat: Because they were little boys playing around.
Luckily for me, with many viewpoints stating that the high-leveled humans were killed after having advanced too deep into the dungeon, the truth was buried in darkness.
Or rather, if you kill a human equipping the Black Iron Series, they also drop a weapon of the Black Iron Series?
What a great deal since I can recycle it from now on.
And, as a result of killing 12 high-leveled adventurers—I experienced two big changes.
First, I went up to level 2.
I expected that there might be some kind of iconic level-up sound, but it was a simple electronic sound, similar to the ringtone of receiving a mail on the smartphone.
The announcement sound was a let-down, but the benefit of the level-up was huge.
The first benefit was my maximum CP going up to 200. The number of items I can create has increased thanks to this. As a result, this led to a drastic reinforcement of my combat prowess. In addition, the amount of recovered CP per hour went up from 10 to 20, too.
The second benefit was me acquiring 5 BP. Just when I thought it would only be 1 BP, it turned out to actually be 5 BP, which made me extremely happy.
Another change was — some goblins evolved.
Three goblins involved into Goblin Archers!
The evolved goblins were the ones I had frequently entrusted with the task of finishing off the invaders.
The exact changes in their strength are still unknown, but their ranks grew from E to D. It’s at the level of them becoming around 5 cm taller and their dry skin improving just a little bit.
Hmm. Until now, I used my subordinates with the thinking of equaling them as consumable goods, but won’t it be better to form an elite unit and have them focus on finishing off enemies, once they evolve?
The evolved goblins are all members of the goblins I quipped with bows. That’s why they’re called Goblin Archer? Would they have become Goblin Fighters or Goblin Knights if they had used swords?
Other subordinates besides goblins should be able to evolve as well, right? Until now I preserved my kobolds, but should I allow them to evolve? Having treated the wolves, who were granted the duty to finish off humans several times, as consumable goods is really regrettable…
Thanks to this time’s evolution, I reflected on my subordinate management from now on.
The result of deliberating for some time was me deciding to pick subordinates whom I will give the chance to evolve in the future.
One goblin that wielded an axe and a shield. One goblin that used bow and arrow. One wolf. One kobold wielding a sword and shield. One kobold equipped with a spear and shield.
Since my subordinates don’t possess names and as I can’t distinguish them by appearance, I decided to divide the individuals by having the kobold, who had a spear and shield, wear a Silver helmet, making the other kobold wear a Black Iron helmet, dyeing the wolf bluish white as it can’t equip any items, giving a red hat to the goblin with bow and arrows, and a blue hat to the goblin I had equipped with axe and shield.
I was curious about the evolution of slimes, rats and bats, too, but after judging it difficult to give them the chance to deliver the killing blow, I postponed it.
I deployed all the chosen subordinates in the vicinity of the treasure chests. I ordered them to deliver the finishing blow after the targets were brought close to death by packs of wolves and goblins using archery.
The evolution of my subordinates greatly jolted my curiosity as I pa.s.sed my life as a Demon King that lacked any diversion.