A few minutes later, a server-wide announcement was made.
– [Server] The Demon King’s Castle, buried under the snow north of Wicker Town, has revealed itself with the resurrection of the Demon King.
– [Server] The master of the Demon King’s Castle is the skeletal knight, Magia!
– [Global] Wicker: Sorry, I just made a typo in the announcement;; My bad.
– [Server] The master of the Demon King’s Castle is the skeletal knight, Majia!
– [Global] [Ruthless Businessman] Movgun: LOL
– [Global] [Ruthless Businessman] Movgun: Guess everyone really likes my nickname.
– [Global] [Foreign Worker] Rain: Did that dude just not understand the concept of fun?
– [Global] [Sashimi] Momo: Rain, watch your words.
– [Global] [Landlord] Ronze: Bro, shouldn’t you be preparing for your trial?
– [Global] [Ruthless Businessman] Movgun: I was just running a legitimate business, this is unfair.
– [Server] Due to a powerful barrier, the Demon King’s Castle cannot be attacked for now.
– [Server] The barrier will disappear tomorrow, Saturday the 16th, at 10 PM, allowing entry.
– [Global] [Credit Delinquent] Rupko: First attack squad tomorrow is Rupko’s Raid Team.
– [Global] [Credit Delinquent] Rupko: No cutting in line.
– [Global] [Credit Delinquent] Rupko: I’m taking down the Demon King and heading straight to heaven.
– [Global] [Demon King] Majia: Pay back your debts first.
– [Global] [KangKang] Serena: LOL
– [Global] [Credit Delinquent] Rupko: If I beat the Demon King and make a million won, that’s enough for me!!
Just like when the hidden class “Skeletal Knight” was first revealed, the announcement quickly sparked dramatic waves on Parallel’s official channels.
[(🔴Live) Wicker Town Season 2 – Parallel Server Broadcast, Day 8] 👪33,328 viewers
The chat was flooded as thousands of viewers, who had spent 12 straight hours grinding and wiping out mobs, swarmed in after hearing the news. It got so overwhelming that they had to turn on follower-only chat mode, which was usually kept off.
— Greetings, Demon King!
— Is this guy a hidden-class hunter or something?
— That armor looks sick LOL
— Such a fancy and stylish set
— With the full set on, he looks twice the size of a regular player
— Damn, he looks OP. Probably gonna wreck everyone.
— 0.02% drop rate LOL what kind of luck is that?
— This server is really handing everything to Parallel, huh?
:: An anonymous donor has sent 10,000 Clouds! ::
:: But isn’t this kinda funny? The guy who was handing out settlement funds to the whole server turns out to be the Demon King? LOL ::
— This is that classic twist where the Demon King is actually a good guy LOL
— [I Quit the Hero Party to Become the Demon King]
— Oh yeah, the hero gets salty and becomes the Demon King LOL
— Ohh, so that’s the story?
— When are we getting a look at the Demon King?
The player count had increased by over ten thousand since the Skeletal Knight reveal, likely because more people had joined the server.
It started with 20 players, and more than 80 newcomers had since moved in. The total settlement funds distributed during that time amounted to 1.6 million WK. It was possible that people who remembered receiving that money had come back to see what was happening.
If this kind of attention had been on the team members, it would’ve been an absolute jackpot.
Damn, what a waste.
But remember.
Lapitz Potion is the best.
Lapitz Potion is the best.
No matter how many people are here, as long as I improve the public image of the controversial Lapitz Bread, my job is done.
With about half a day left until my duties as the Demon King began, I took off my armor and went straight to Dora, the alchemist.
[Heeey, all of this was made with Serena Potions?]
“Yes, all of it.”
[But this is crazy. Where did you even get this much bread? 12,000 pieces is kinda terrifying…?]
Ever since Lapitz Bread could be synthesized into potions, it had started to hold real value within the server.
When converted into potions, they could be sold for a decent price. This allowed new players to establish a financial foundation quickly, letting them integrate into the existing player base with ease.
— LOL
— 1,500 Serena Potions, lmao
— Enough to last until the server shuts down LOL
— Selling all this would bring in hundreds of thousands, right?
But I’m not selling them.
Lapitz Potion is a dear friend to the Demon King.
I’m going to drink every single one of them in front of everyone.
Just as I finished collecting my 1,500 completed potions and was about to leave, Dora stopped me and handed me a dimensional box as a gift.
[This is a 2-second invincibility potion. This is a 2-second invisibility potion. And this is a 10-second berserk potion. I thought you might need them since you’re the Demon King, so I packed a few.]
Technically, I shouldn’t be helping the Demon King.
But every time I made potions, my alchemy experience increased, allowing me to unlock higher-tier potions.
And yet, when they said they’d give me “a few,” it somehow turned into 100 of each.
Each potion costs several thousand WK, so altogether, it was close to a million WK.
“This is way too much. If I keep this up, I’ll get kicked out of town for helping the Demon King.”
[Hehe. So what? If I get kicked out, I can just work under you, Demon King.]
I insisted that I didn’t need all of them, but in the end, I couldn’t win against Dora’s persuasion and ended up taking everything.
As expected, a big-sister-type VTuber has a different level of persuasive power.
With her sultry voice, she gently leads people along, and that’s exactly why her Hatchling fans go crazy the moment they turn off their “dumb mode.”
Anyway, after receiving an armful of potions, I returned to the Demon King’s castle and began a full-scale dungeon renovation.
Since I had been given system privileges, at that moment, I could edit the internal space like an administrator.
I could create mazes, design the outer walls however I liked, and even insert short video clips.
Once it was completed, the administrators would review and test the dungeon.
That meant I had to finish everything before the server shut down at 6 PM today.
Fortunately, I had about four hours left, so it didn’t seem too difficult.
I already had some ideas in mind, after all.
However, there was one thing that bothered me…
[(🔴Live) Wicker Town Season 2 – Parallel Control Room, Day 8] 👪 31,044 viewers
I wanted to add a surprise element.
But with so many people watching, they’d see everything I was doing in the dungeon.
If I minimized my screen and focused on another display, people would complain about “hiding the screen” and curse me out.
Thinking back to when I almost lost public favor by over-promoting, completely shrinking the screen to hide my work wasn’t an option.
Was there any way to make some of the viewers leave?
Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry for long.
– [Server] A trial for economic offender ‘Movgun’ regarding ‘antitrust law’ violations will be held in the courthouse soon.
– [Server] Wicker Town residents, please take the time to participate as jurors.
Since I was always tuned into the Parallel streamers, I hadn’t noticed the bigger picture.
But after looking into it, it turned out Movgun had been making quite a few enemies (in internet streaming culture, “making friends” often means the opposite).
Dungeon owners weren’t allowed to refuse duel challenges from those trying to claim ownership.
However, Movgun just happened to own a three-star flying mount a phoenix.
To challenge someone, you had to right-click them and send a duel request, but since Movgun kept flying away, frustrated challengers requested a trial.
People seemed genuinely mad, but at the end of the day, this was just WWE-style drama one of the server’s big events.
After all, the reason the courthouse existed was to generate entertaining broadcast moments from these ambiguous cases.
— Oh right, that’s today
— Oh yeah lol
— I gotta watch this
— Wait, it’s already the 15th?
— Let’s goooo, economic crime trial!
With the audience’s attention shifting, I seized the moment and said,
“I’m curious about the trial too. How about we watch it together and then get back to dungeon work?”
— Oh, nice idea
— Good call lol
— Demon King ㅠㅠㅠ
— See you later
— The trial takes priority lol
— No way we’re missing a major server event
Since even our team leader and other members were heading to the courtroom, I pulled up their perspectives showing the leader’s screen as the judge’s POV and splitting the rest into four juror views.
Meanwhile, I quietly turned my own screen off.
Why?
Because I wasn’t actually going to the trial I was going to secretly build the dungeon while watching the stream.
I’d quickly create the secret surprise room during the trial and pretend to be working on the other areas once it was over.
* * *