"Ugh,"
Drake awoke and opened his eyes. "Huh," he was surprised that he was still lying face down in front of the unmoving Demon King. The pain in his body was completely gone. He immediately pushed himself up with his hands and sat cross-legged, looking at his hands. His hands were still human. He flipped them over and immediately smiled widely.
"Looks like it worked. I'm still Drake, and if the Demon King is lying there, it means I didn't turn into a demon, and I won't destroy the world after taking revenge," Drake, or Noah, thought to himself.
He immediately brushed back his hair, but suddenly his hand hit something on his forehead and head.
"Huh?" Drake, or Noah, thought.
His hand started feeling whatever was preventing him from smoothing his hair back. After fumbling around what was on his forehead,
"Wait... horns?" Drake asked.
His face immediately went pale. He immediately stood up, and "Clang," his entire suit of armor scattered around him. He quickly bent down and picked up his shoulder guard, which still looked shiny and unstained by blood. He slowly directed the shoulder guard toward his face.
His eyes immediately widened because his eyes were now red, his skin was pale, his hair—which was originally black—had turned white, and most terrifyingly, a curved horn appeared on the side of his head, plus a straight, unicorn-like horn sprouted from his forehead, though his face was otherwise the same as before.
"Wh-what? I turned into a creature of legend in this world, a weird being that is a mix of human, vampire, demon, and beast... Cool people call a creature like that an Ancient Primordial because they're said to be the first beings to inhabit this world, but in the game, that creature is an Abomination, the lowest version, and one of the mini-boss monsters in this game... But an Abomination shouldn't have a face, only a mouth, while I do... How is this possible?" Drake thought, gripping the shoulder guard, trembling.
He then aimed the shoulder guard at his body. It turned out his body looked segmented, like a Frankenstein's monster, covered in stitches and patches of differing colored skin. He immediately became confused and tried to remove his horns, but he couldn't. Then he tried to open his status, and the result was the same: he couldn't.
"This monster only has one skill... it's called Doppelganger. It lets you disguise yourself as someone, taking their status and skills by killing them. When you revert, their status and skills are brought back with you. This monster is annoying in dungeons because once it uses its skill, one character is guaranteed to die, and the character's power become that monster's power, then it freely attacks the other characters using skills that are much stronger than the original," Drake thought to himself.
After that, he immediately paced back and forth, processing everything that had happened and deciding his next step—what he was going to do. Then he turned to look at the Demon King Balzaroth lying near him. He tried to use his Doppelganger skill, and a bright light wrapped around his body. He transformed into a copy of Balzaroth in front of him.
"Wow... it works," Drake mumbled, looking at his hands, which had changed into demon hands.
Suddenly, "Bwuuuung," a holographic screen opened in front of his face. It was his status screen, which he had tried to open earlier. Without delay, he read it immediately:
**********************************************************
Name : Drake Tharthell
Race : Abomination
Level : 1
HP : 100 / 100
MP : 50 / 50
Str : 10
Agi : 10
Sta : 10
Dex : 10
Mag : 10
**********************************************************
Doppelganger: active
**********************************************************
Name : Demon King Balzaroth
Level : 999
HP : ??? / ???
MP : ??? / ???
Str : 1500
Agi : 300
Sta : 1750
Dex : 250
Mag : 1000
Skill : Hell Fire (??), Black Hole (??)
Passive : Spear Mastery
**********************************************************
Transfer all status and skill ? [Yes] [No]
**********************************************************
Drake's face immediately brightened. Without hesitation, he pressed [Yes], and light immediately enveloped him. Then he reverted to his original form. Without thinking, he opened his status again.
Name : Drake Tharthell
Race : Abomination
Level : 999
HP : ??? / ???
MP : ??? / ???
Str : 1500
Agi : 300
Sta : 1750
Dex : 250
Mag : 1000
Skill : Hell Fire (??), Black Hole (??)
Passive : Spear Mastery
Special : Doppelganger: non-active (cooldown: 1 minute)
**********************************************************
"Whoaaah, it really transferred! Even though the undetected skills didn't transfer, this is pretty awesome," Drake thought gleefully.
Then he turned to look at the Demon King lying down. He gave the Demon King a salute. After one minute, he used his Doppelganger skill again and changed into his form from when he was still human.
**********************************************************
Doppelganger:active
Name : Drake Tharthell
Age : 25
Race : Human
Level : 999
HP : ??? / ???
MP : ??? / ???
Str : 700
Agi : 1200
Sta : 700
Dex : 1250
Mag : 1500
Skill :Holy Lightning Beam (??), Pillar of Light (??)
Passive : Sword Mastery
**********************************************************
Transfer all status and skill ? [Yes] [No]
**********************************************************
Without hesitation, Drake immediately pressed [Yes], and he was enveloped by bright light again. Then his new status opened up.
**********************************************************
Name : Drake Tharthell
Race : Ancient Primordial Being
Level : 999
HP : ??? / ???
MP : ??? / ???
Str : 1500 gone up to 2200
Agi : 300 gone up to 1500
Sta : 1750 gone up to 2450
Dex : 250 gone up to 1500
Mag : 1000 gone up to 2500
Skill : Hell Fire (??), Black Hole (??), NEW Holy Lightning Beam (??), NEW Pillar of Light (??)
Passive : Spear Mastery, NEW Sword Mastery
Special : Doppelganger: non-active (cooldown: 24 hours)
**********************************************************
"Wow... this already surpasses my stats when I beat the game and caused the apocalypse. This is really interesting. I don't need the Demon King's ultimate move that can destroy the world, so I'll delete the skill called Black Hole. The world won't be destroyed," Drake thought happily.
Drake immediately deleted his Black Hole skill and discarded it. Then he sat cross-legged in front of the Demon King and tapped his head. Then he looked up and raised both his middle fingers to the sky.
"Hehe... your plan failed, right? The world is safe. Fuck you, whoever controlled the plot," Drake muttered, taunting.
Drake stood up again. He still remembered the martial arts lessons from his dad. He immediately tried practicing his martial arts, and every punch or kick he threw generated a very powerful shockwave that even shattered the wall.
"Awesome. I don't even need weapons; I'm already super strong. Thanks, Dad, for all the lessons," Drake said, looking at his fist and smiling broadly.
Then he started paying attention to his surroundings. He sighed and looked once more at the Demon King lying on the ground. Then he looked at the exit door, whose gate was open.
"Alright, let's get out of here and explore the beautiful world of Aetheria, and then crush the humans. I still hold a grudge because of what they did to me. I can feel it, and it hurt so much, even though emotionally I don't feel betrayed," Drake thought to himself.
He turned around and started walking toward the door, but just as he was about to open it, he suddenly felt something behind him.
"Papa!"
A girl's scream was heard behind him. He turned around, and his eyes widened, seeing a beautiful and sexy succubus with black hair adorned with red horns crouching next to the Demon King's corpse, her face distraught. The girl collapsed, hugging the Demon King's body, and began to wail loudly, which made Drake's heart twinge and left him very confused.
"Wait... who is she? Was there a character like her in the game, and she called the Demon King Balzaroth 'Papa'?" Drake wondered, clearly clueless about what he was seeing in front of him.