Prologue

Prologue

Colorful magical spells that one will only see in a fantasy novel slammed against the ground like meteors while causing the ground to crack. Those spells were timely blocked by a blade that was akin to a holy sword if one had to describe it.

The scene which can only be read in folklores and Myths was created, right under the demon king’s eerie castle.

The lord of many demons and one of the rulers of hell, the strongest being in the continent of Estria was facing the Hero of humanity. Their clash destroyed the ground, sending shockwaves in the air that could be heard even from miles away.

The low level demonic creatures screamed and ran away while the medium and higher grade ones, were enjoying the fight of the century sitting as audience in the rock colosseum cheering violently, like the demons they were.

The king of this castle and the ruler of all these demons, Baal. He was as imposing as always. A body twice as big as an average human’s, red colored skin and tight muscles, golden eyes with a black slit iris, a single goat horn on the left side of his forehead, while there was a broken horn on the right side.

His body seemed as tough as steel, while his overall look was like a humanoid bull.

The hero in question, was sweat drenched, dark black hair falling until his shoulders, a handsome complexion with sharp jawline, deep dark eyes and a pupil that gave an impression of absence of the iris, because of its dark color. He was wearing a shining silver armor and had a golden sword that was seemingly emitting a divine light.

The clash between the two was one of the biggest Battle in the history of the continent and even God’s were keeping an eye on it.

“I praise your courage for challenging my castle, lowly human. But that’s as far as you’ll go. You’ve brought destruction upon yourself. I’ll cut your head and hang it outside my castle for all the humanity to see for generations!”

Baal bellowed in a mighty voice making the cheers of the demons watching him echo across the skies.

“Dieee Humannn!.”

“Kikikikiki”

“Kill this lowly human!!!”

Even after all the demotivating shouts and the eerie scenery, the hero of Humanity didn’t falter his steps.

He shouted towards baal in a similarly imposing manner.

“We will see about that.”

He rushed towards Baal with his glowing sword.

“Baal, I’ll break your balls!!!.”

Hearing this, Baal flinched and unconsciously looked down.

Seeing the opportunity, the hero activated his crimson sword skill. His sword glow turned into a crimson light and he thrust his sword into Baal’s abdomen, who was unprepared.

Boom!

A loud explosion caused the ground to shake as craters and dust filled the vicinity.

The explosion shook the suffering ground once again and sent Baal crashing at one of the stone statues surrounding the colosseum. His back slammed against the wall, sending bits and pieces of the debris into the air.

Holding his abdomen with one hand while supporting his body with the other hand, Baal struggled to get up.

“How dare you!”

This was the first proper attack that Baal had received and it made him rethink the hero's strength. Though, he didn't have much time to think as the holy sword was already just an inch away from his neck.

"You still think you can take my neck as a prize?"

"Don’t get too cocky! brat."

Baal stretched out his hand to stop the sword that was about to lacerate his neck and if he was a second late, his neck would have already been on the ground.

With his strength, he pushed the sword up as he stood up from the ground. The hero tried to exert more strength, but it was all in vain.

Even though he could rival Baal in speed; his magic power and strength were far inferior compared to the demon king.

"Give up! You are a worthy warrior, but you are still a hundred years too young to defeat me."

"I'm the hero of humanity!! I will die, but not give–"

Before the Hero could even finish up his sentence, an explosion happened at the hilt of his sword. The force of it sent him flying through the ground, dirt and sand entering his mouth as a result.

“Cough…cough…”

The Hero coughed out the soil particles and looked up at Baal.

"Human, I acknowledge your strength. You are the first person in three hundred years to make me show my true form. Now, die as I claim your soul."

Baal said as an enormous aura burst out from his body. He was going through some sort of transformation as his body was growing and wings like a bat but red in colour, suddenly sprouted out from his back. His once golden eyes were now died in red.

“Come and punish this impudent human, Blade of Despair!”

A fluctuation in the air caused the space to crack as red lightning bolts were violently surging out from the broken space. A sword suddenly started to descend from the space.

A huge double edge blade made out of some kind of red metal, a single eye creeping around the hilt and veins bulging from the hilt to the middle of the sword as if it were alive. It was a truly grotesque appearance when compared to the hero’s holy sword.

At that moment, the hero suddenly remembered a legend.

It was said that the lord of Demons never uses a weapon because his body is a weapon in itself. But there was also another legend that said that Baal only uses his weapon when he's going to use his full power.

Remembering that, the hero blessed by the goddess couldn't help but mutter.

"Fuck! He's going all Thanos..."

*

After a long time, a robotic voice rang inside his head.

[You have died at the hands of Baal. As a result, you have failed to conquer the dungeon 'Baal's castle'.]

[Player 'ZenPanty' has the option to restart the final quest. Yes/No.]

[You have decided to not continue. You have logged off.]

Click!

With a clicking sound, The VR capsule was unbolted.

From the white haze that followed up, Zen dismounted from the capsule while stretching out his stiff body. It was his own, self-made VR capsule.

His long, black hair fell in front of his eyes as he muttered out the one question that was in his mind.

"How long has it been?"

He turned his stiff head to look at the clock on the wall that was pointing towards the figure 3. It was exactly 3'o'clock in the afternoon.

"Hahh..."

Zen couldn't help but let out a deep sigh. If it was 3 in the afternoon, that meant that he was playing this game for more than 7 hours without any break.

Even though he made capsule’s inner space relatively comfortable so that the human body could handle being in it, He still felt his muscles twitching.

As even the best of sofa would feel uncomfortable until we don’t switch our position a little.

Rubbing his stiff neck, he glanced around his room which made his heart feel even more heavy than before. It was because his room was an utter mess.

He wasn't sure when he had last cleaned his room as there were cobwebs forming in the corner of the walls. Several packets of cigarettes were piled up, creating many different towers, big and small.

The only place that looked relatively clean was his desk which had his monitor and a small bookshelf with lots of light novels occupying it.

But in entirety, even the dazzling smile of the anime girl on the poster stuck to the wall wasn't enough to give the room a less shabby and worthless atmosphere.

'I should really clean this room.'

Thinking that, he stepped out of his capsule and moved to the small bathroom that was attached to his shabby ¼ apartment.

Even walking was hard for him as he was simply feeling too dizzy and his head was all fuzzy; thanks to gaming for 7 hours. Honestly, it would be weird if his head wasn't feeling fuzzy.

According to the research done on VR technology, it was normal to feel fuzzy after a few hours in the capsule.

Ironically, Zen didn't dislike the fuzzy feeling.

He was actually happy about it because it was one of the indications that the capsule was working like it was supposed to.

With the staggering footsteps, he reached the bathroom and felt a refreshing feeling as the cold water touched his face. He felt like he has been rebirthed and the fuzzy feeling died down a little.

"... After cleaning the room, I should also get a haircut."

Zen muttered as he watched his face in the mirror. Droplets of water were trickling down his face through his neck, some getting stuck in his unkept beard.

He had long, messy hair and a beard that hasn't been shaved for months. If you look beneath that, he was actually fairly good looking with a sharp jawline and smooth skin.

With a bit of styling, he could actually become a real eye candy. Just he wasn't interested in relationships.

Zzzzz!

As he was thinking about that, a sudden vibration captured his attention.

He jerked his neck that was still stiff and looked at his phone that was vibrating on the table. It was an indication that someone had sent him a message.

He already knew who would have texted him. After all, the only people who usually text him were either his parents or his sister.

His college friends used to text once in a while asking him for meetups, but that too stopped because he rejected them every single time.

Zen walked towards his phone and tapped on it. There were many notifications and even some missed calls. And just like he had thought, all of them were from his family.

With a tap, some holograms suddenly appeared in the air. There was

[Mom: Where are you? You haven't answered your phone in a while and you keep leaving my messages on read. Why are you being like this? Why can't you just get a job like...]

Zen stopped reading the message there and swiped it. He didn't want to hear the same words that he had heard several times already.

His parents never understood him and his mom just wanted him to get a normal job like others and get settled. He understood her worries, but her way of doing things was something that never fitted with him.

He just wanted his parents to understand his passion and hobby a little, but they never even tried to understand it.

At this point, he had already given up his hope of convincing them.

With a frown on his face, he kept reading her earlier messages. There were also some messages from his father, but the content was the same.

He just kept swiping them, but suddenly his fingers stopped as a message from his sister appeared in front of his eyes.

[Sis: You will always be a trash.]

It was a direct and insulting text that Zen didn't have to contemplate for a long time, but it did have an effect that was worse than his parents' messages.

He could feel that his sister really hated him.

He kept staring at that message for a while, his eyes showing many emotions. Pain, anger, sadness and many more.

After some time, he muttered;

"I won't be a trash forever. I will soon change your perspective of me. I'm sure of that."

Those words were enough to make him more confident and they reassured him that he could really change the perspective of his family towards him.

The basis of his confidence was in front of him and that was the VR capsule that he invented himself.

But he didn’t know, that though his life would change, It would be something utterly different from what he was expecting out of it.