"Pair of Kings! None of you can beat that? Haha, then don't mind if I do! Four Aces! And a Four! I win!"
The little blonde character gathered up the cards, took the ten copper coins the Elder handed over reluctantly, and swaggered out of the house with a gait that screamed he didn't care about anyone.
Since learning how to play "Anti-Feudalism," Chris had challenged nearly everyone in the village, not even sparing the children playing by the river. At first, he and the villagers traded wins and losses, but as a math prodigy, he quickly mastered the tricks and gained the upper hand. He hadn't lost a single round since.
Unfortunately, the maximum bet was only 10 copper coins. If there were no cap, Chris was confident he could win enough in the starter village to rival the wealth of a nation.
"Who should I challenge next? Oh, right, the old lady in the wheelchair south of the village hasn't played me yet."
Chris pulled up the map, found the old lady's house, and marched toward the location of his next victim. Just then, the sharp chirping of the hourglass interrupted his thoughts.
"Cheep! Cheep! Cheep!"
Chris reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the tablet.
What he saw was disastrous. The ugly fledgling bird was sitting right on the connection point in the middle of the hourglass. Only a tiny bit of sand remained. He estimated that in fifteen minutes, it would all be gone, the bird would scream its head off, and the other lurking customers would ruthlessly drag him away and occupy his seat.
He had been so focused on playing cards that he hadn't noticed how fast time was passing—he hadn't even finished the DEMO!
What a loss! A total loss!
Chris had asked Miss Yvette earlier; the DEMO's plot only went as far as defeating the beast of the North Mountain. After that, you could still wander around, but the story wouldn't progress, there were no new maps, though you could still play cards with the villagers.
He decided to put the card games aside for now. He had to finish the story today to get a general idea of what the DEMO was about, so he wouldn't be left out of the conversation when talking to Miss Yvette later.
He braced himself, ignored the hungry and eager gazes behind him, and controlled the little character to turn around and head toward the hills north of the village. The old lady in the south had unknowingly escaped a catastrophe—congratulations to her.
The strength of the monsters in the North Mountain was significantly higher than in other areas. Chris could one-shot a slime south of the village, but in the North Mountain, a slime could actually beat him down to low health. If he hadn't won a lot of money playing cards and upgraded to good equipment, the slimes would probably be dancing around his corpse by now.
After a hard-fought battle to the summit, Chris finally saw the beast rumored to have kidnapped the children.
When he was at the foot of the mountain, he had caught a glimpse of two red dots floating above the clouds. He had thought they were lights on the mountain, but once he reached the top, he realized they were the blood-red eyes of the beast.
The beast was a giant snake, pitch-black all over, perched on the mountain peak. Its body almost blended in with the rocks, and its long, curved fangs were even longer than the blonde character's body.
Besides its fangs, the giant snake had another weapon. It slammed its spiked tail against a nearby rock; with a loud bang, the rock disintegrated into powder. The children were tightly coiled by the giant snake, their faces pale, their status unknown.
The little blonde character drew his longsword. The original 45-degree top-down view changed to a side-view battle scene. On the left was the black snake, and on the right was the sword-wielding warrior.
The black snake took up most of the screen, and even then, less than a third of its body was visible. The overwhelming pressure made Chris tremble involuntarily even through the screen. Compared to the beast, the little blonde character was as tiny as a lone boat in a raging sea.
Name: World-Serpent Jorm Attribute: Dark HP: ???
Chris: "..."
What's with the three question marks?! Isn't "HP Unknown" even scarier than "HP: 9999"?!
The spectators behind him, however, were just there for the show.
"Young master, why are you just standing there? Don't tell me you're scared?"
"Go for it, young master! Show it what you're made of!"
"Heh, can't play without top-ups, can you? The son of the Wynn family is only so-so, after all."
Chris grit his teeth. Even though he knew the spectators were baiting him, he had to fight. Losing the battle was one thing; losing face was another. He could not let the Wynn family be shamed!
Maybe the magic snake was just bluffing—it looked terrifying, but maybe its stats weren't that high?
He pulled up the skill menu and, without hesitation, used the strongest skill he currently had: Cross Cut.
The little blonde character's eyes sharpened. He kicked off the ground, leapt high into the air, and his longsword traced a beautiful silver cross in the sky.
"Cross Cut" dealt 1 damage to the Magic Snake.
Chris: "..."
He was wrong. He was truly wrong. Why did he overestimate himself and try to be a Hero or challenge some magic snake? Wouldn't it have been better to just play cards in the village? Wasn't it great to bully the villagers with his superior math skills and become the King of Cards of the small village?
The next turn was the Magic Snake's attack. It raised its spiked tail and swung it down heavily.
In an instant, the mountains shook, rocks flew, and the little blonde character was swept right off the screen by a blow to the chest. The Magic Tablet vibrated violently, nearly numbing Chris's hands.
The Magic Snake dealt 999 damage to you. Battle failed.
"Boss! Refund!" Chris slammed the table in anger.
The screen returned to the mountaintop scene. The little blonde character was lying on the ground, covered in rubble, with thin streams of blood spreading from beneath him like a river. The Magic Snake opened its massive maw, its blood-red eyes gleaming with greedy, tyrannical light, ruthlessly announcing the arrival of death.
Chris gripped the Magic Tablet and screamed.
Just at that critical moment, a bolt of golden lightning dropped from the pitch-black night sky. It split the night mist, the dust, the darkness, and the dim, hazy moonlight, slicing the Magic Snake in two.
No, it wasn't a thunderbolt—it was an incredibly dazzling sword light!
The Magic Snake didn't even have time to scream before it was cut into two pieces, its remains falling to either side.
Chris stared at the tablet in a daze, forgetting to scream and even forgetting to breathe.
That single sword light had cleared the thick clouds from the night sky, and crisp moonlight poured onto the mountains like a waterfall. A red-haired girl, bathed in silver light, stepped over the unmoving carcass of the Magic Snake and walked toward the little blonde character pinned under the rubble.
She wore silver scale armor, and her crimson cloak fluttered in the gale. Her eyes were red like the Magic Snake's, but it wasn't a bloody, cruel red—it was the clear color of a ruby.
The girl raised her hand, and the rocks pinning the little blonde character were lifted by an invisible force. She snapped her fingers, and Chris watched in amazement as the character's wounds healed at a visible rate, and his HP was instantly filled.
"You are also a Hero caught in the Chronos Turbulence, aren't you?"
The girl spoke, her voice unexpectedly refreshing.
"I have destroyed the Magic Snake. Do not be afraid."
Chris wanted to say "I'm not afraid anymore," but he just opened his mouth blankly, unable to say a word. The character in the game, like its controller, stared blankly at the girl as if his voice had been stolen.
"Why aren't you speaking? Scared speechless? Seems like you're still a newcomer," the girl's lips curved slightly, forming a small dimple. "But it's alright. Everyone starts as a newcomer."
"When you have the strength to destroy a Magic Snake in the future, come find me in Spring City. I would be happy to become your companion."
"I am 'Crimson Thunder' Red Light. Remember my name."
With that, the girl flicked her cloak, stepped over the remains of the Magic Snake, and walked away without looking back.
The screen went dark, and the logo for Hero's Legend emerged in the night sky.
This DEMO version ends here. Please look forward to the official release for more content. Would you like to: A. Quit. B. Continue playing DEMO content.
Chris didn't choose. He just sat there motionless, as if he had lost his soul. The silhouette of the girl's crimson back seemed branded onto his retinas; no matter where he looked, that splash of red wouldn't go away.
Chris, who had lived for nineteen years, felt in this moment that he might have fallen in love.
Not just him, but the spectators behind him were collectively silent, unable to recover from the shock of the girl's gallant appearance for a long time.
Several minutes passed before one of the spectators spoke in a soft, puzzled voice:
"Um... did I remember wrong? 'Crimson Thunder' Red Light... wasn't he a man?"
"Why is Red Light a girl? He's so famous, the Manager couldn't have made a mistake! Could it be that this 'Red' isn't that 'Red,' and they just happen to have the same name? Or did something happen to Red Light, like a curse that turned him into a woman? Or is Red Light actually a man in drag? Then my feelings for him... I... am I going to become gay? I don't want that!"
On the way back to the university from Sunset Boulevard, Chris clutched his head and muttered to himself, his consciousness a bit muddled.
Miss Yvette had been invited to ride back to school in Chris's steam-powered vehicle, so she had to listen to the young master's lovestruck ramblings the whole way. At first, she felt quite sorry for Chris, but by the twenty-third time he repeated the same words, even the patience of a saint would have been exhausted.
"I think everything will be cleared up when the official version of Hero's Legend is released, right?" she said, frowning.
"But that's three weeks away! Three weeks! A full twenty-one days! How am I supposed to live?!" Chris clawed at his hair frantically, turning his smooth blonde locks into a literal bird's nest. "I see it now! The Manager intentionally planted such a cliffhanger in the DEMO just to lure everyone into buying his game! How devious!"
Having seen Lorne Dungeon's true colors, Chris began to curse him out. But despite the cursing, he wasn't about to cancel his pre-order for the Magic Tablet. Otherwise, wouldn't he never see Red again... uh, he meant, wouldn't he never be able to solve the mystery surrounding Red?
Chris wasn't the only one who felt this way.
The day after the DEMO was released, pre-orders for the Magic Tablet doubled. Two weeks after the Magic Game Experience Store opened, all five hundred tablets were fully pre-ordered.
By the third week, the waiting list had reached over fifteen hundred people, and some were even offering high prices to buy someone else's pre-order spot. For a while, the Magic Tablet became the most sought-after commodity on Norelia's underground black market.
One month later, on the day the Magic Tablet was released:
Fire-Hammer the Dwarf was woken up early in the morning by deafening pounding on his door and shouting. Dwarves had lived in mines for generations and didn't like sunlight, so Fire-Hammer always woke up late. He got up grumbling, threw on a leather coat, and looked down from his bedroom window.
"What's all the racket at this hour?! Do you want me to decorate your heads with my axe?!"
The moment he said that, Fire-Hammer regretted it.
The area outside the shop was swarming with a massive crowd. People were pushing and shoving, scrambling to get to the shop door. The door, which could withstand an attack even from a giant dragon, was groaning and creaking under the pressure of the surging crowd.
If he were to plant an axe in each of their heads, Fire-Hammer's supply of axes might actually run out.
"Mr. Fire-Hammer, I am a reporter from the Norelia Herald. Could you share your thoughts on the product placement you have in Hero's Legend?"
"Mr. Fire-Hammer, I heard you are a supplier for 'Dungeon Entertainment.' Do you have any spare Magic Tablets? I'm willing to pay a high price!"
"Mr. Fire-Hammer, please open the door! We want to buy merchandise for Hero's Legend!"