Lilith stood in the very center of a gargantuan, austere temple. Its vaulted ceiling vanished somewhere high in the gloom, supported by rows of colossal, cracked pillars draped in thick layers of dust and cobwebs.
The place looked less like a holy sanctuary and more like a tomb forgotten by the eons.
Beneath her feet stretched a fractured stone floor, cold and unwelcoming, while the air carried a heavy scent of dampness and age. It clawed at her throat with every shallow breath she took as she tried to wrap her mind around what had actually happened.
Slowly, she began to turn in place. Her bare feet scraped against the grimy stone.
Instinctively, she clutched her head with both hands; a sudden, throbbing pain was tearing through her temples, as if someone were driving white-hot needles into her brain.
Where is this? Just a second ago... I was...
The thought cut off violently.
Like a reel of old, flickering film, the image of her own death played out behind her eyes: blood spreading across the asphalt, and that final, sickening crunch of breaking bones. The sound echoed in her ears now with newfound intensity.
Lilith screamed.
Her cry bounced off the empty walls of the temple, carrying into the darkness and returning to her as a distorted wail. She collapsed to her knees, choking on sobs and sheer terror.
It took a long moment before her breathing steadied and her hands stopped shaking enough for her to lower them. Then, it hit her with brutal, crystalline clarity - that life was over. She had truly died in that world.
"This doesn't make any sense. I should be dead. I should be nothing... but I can feel this damn chill on my skin..." she whispered to herself.
She wiped the lingering tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand as the initial shock and terror began to give way to a hollow confusion. She looked around the monumental, empty space, which seemed to be waiting for her next move.
Suddenly, right in front of her face, the darkness was torn asunder by a brilliant, translucent light.
Levitating message windows materialized in the air, pulsing with a menacing violet glow that illuminated her pale features.
[ WELCOME TO THE GAME: HEROIC DEMON KING! ]
[ CURRENT PLAYER COUNT: 14,000,000,000 ]
WARNING: FACTION ALLOCATION COMPLETE!
Hero Faction Demon King Faction
[ CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED AS: "DEMON KING" ]
Lilith stared at the text with wide eyes, her heart racing again as more lines began to cascade down before her. She scrambled to understand the implications of the glowing script.
[ KEEP THE FOLLOWING IN MIND! ]
[ DEATH: Will result in the loss of your right to play and your total erasure from existence. ]
[ VICTORY CONDITION: Absolute world domination. ]
[ REWARD: Upon victory, you may choose: Reincarnation to your previous world, remaining here as an Absolute Ruler, or challenging a Higher Level World. ]
[ INITIAL PHASE: SURVIVAL PROTOCOL ]
[ SAFETY PERIOD: 7 Days. During this time, you are undetectable. ]
[ THREAT: After 7 days, Heroes will be able to sense your presence within a specific range. ]
[ HUNTING: Be prepared for subjugation attempts by Heroes, Adventurers, and other Demon Kings. ]
[ PRO-TIP: Remember not to stand out if you're a weakling! ]
Lilith read the flashing notifications once, then twice, then a third time.
She squinted, half-hoping that if she looked hard enough, the glowing letters would simply vanish and leave her in peace. But they hung stubbornly in the temple's gloom, casting a violet sheen over her pale skin.
She let out a shuddering breath that sounded like a thunderclap in the dead silence. Rubbing her face, she felt the very real warmth of her own flesh, even as her mind reeled from the sheer volume of impossible information.
"Dammit... all those stupid fantasy novels I read in my spare time were actually right," she rasped, her voice sounding foreign within the massive walls.
She tried to process the number that had jumped out at her the most.
"Fourteen billion people... fuck, that's almost twice the population of Earth. Where did they even get them all? Is this some kind of intergalactic dragnet?"
Her lips curled into a sour, disbelieving smile as she looked back at the words "Demon King." They pulsed with a strange, almost mocking pride, stirring a cocktail of rising irritation and resignation in her chest.
"But seriously, Demon Kings and Heroes? There wasn't a better, more original world in stock? This is such cliché, recycled pop-culture trash. It couldn't get any worse..."
She didn't get to finish her complaint.
As if offended by her lack of enthusiasm, the system spat out another notification that hit her with blunt directness.
[ CHOOSE THE DEMON KING BLOODLINE YOU WISH TO INTEGRATE WITHIN THE NEXT 10 MINUTES! ]
Before she could even process what that meant, the air around her vibrated.
Throughout the vast hall, from the floor to the high shadows of the ceiling, millions of black, spherical crystals began to materialize. Each was the size of a basketball, hanging motionless in the air to create a surreal forest of dark orbs.
Every sphere pulsed with its own hidden rhythm, carrying the essence of a different bloodline.
Everything depended on this choice - her future strength, her rank, her abilities, and above all, whether she would survive those first seven days before the Heroes began their hunt.
Panic began to claw at Lilith.
She knew this was the most important choice of her new life, but there was one massive, glaring catch - every single sphere looked identical. They were smooth, black, and impenetrable, offering not a single hint as to what lay inside.
The system clock in the corner of her vision began its pitiless countdown. Every passing second brought her closer to a forced, random integration that could very well be her death sentence.
"Goddammit, this is like some sick lottery where the prize is your life and I don't even have a ticket," she growled, approaching the nearest sphere.
She put her nose almost against it, but the black surface revealed nothing, reflecting only her own terrified expression. She walked a few paces further, nearly tripping over her own feet, and began inspecting other orbs.
A deep sense of depression and helplessness washed over her. She furrowed her brows in such an intense effort to find even the slightest difference that her temples began to ache.
Right at that moment, as her desperation peaked, a strange, violent change occurred in her eyes.
She couldn't see it herself without a mirror, but her irises flared a bloody crimson. She felt a sudden, sharp sting in her eyeballs, as if someone had dropped a bead of acid into them.
Suddenly, the world was no longer just a collection of black spheres. Next to the orb she was currently looking at, a new, smaller system window bloomed, describing its contents with brutal honesty.
[ SLIME (DEMON KING RACE) ]
Type: Low-class Demon King.
Description: Upon integration, you will be reborn as a Slime Demon King. Possible to awaken corrosive-type talents.
Evaluation: Too weak for the start of the game. Not recommended.
Lilith blinked, rubbing her stinging eyes, and quickly shifted her gaze to the neighboring sphere, praying that this new ability wouldn't vanish as quickly as it had appeared.
[ LIZARDMAN (DEMON KING RACE) ]
Type: Low-class Demon King.
Description: Upon integration, you will be reborn as a Lizardman Demon King. Possible to awaken detection-type talents.
Evaluation: Relatively weak for the start of the game. Not recommended.
Lilith blinked rapidly.
The burning in the corners of her eyes was giving way to a strange, unnatural sharpness of vision. It allowed her to see microscopic cracks on the black spheres, and along with them, all that golden text.
"What's happening? Why can I suddenly see all this hidden info when they were just empty black eggs a second ago?" she rasped, looking around in disbelief.
Her voice echoed off the cold columns as if seeking confirmation from the very architecture.
The answer didn't come from the gods, but from the system, which threw a new notification window in front of her with an almost audible, ironic ping. It was brighter than the ones before.
[ ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: ABSOLUTE PURITY ]
[ INFORMATION: For achieving an incredible feat in your previous life - maintaining your virginity until the age of 26 - the Administrator grants you a unique passive skill: ANALYSIS. ]
[ CONGRATULATIONS! You will be one of the few Demon Kings in the history of this game to hold the Virgin status! A rare sight in this world! ]
Lilith froze.
In a single second, her face turned the color of a ripe tomato. A mixture of pure shame and sudden, helpless rage boiled in her veins at the sheer audacity of the system. It had just aired her most private business in front of fourteen billion potential viewers.
"You have got to be kidding me!" she screamed, shaking her fist at the levitating message as if she could physically strike it.
"That wasn't an 'achievement'! That was a lack of time, shitty guys, and a degree that sucked the life out of me! Shut up with the congratulations, you perverted algorithms! What kind of world gives you superpowers for being single?!"