“Ha ha... This is wack...!”
Sho didn’t know what was whack about it, though. Everywhere he looked, there were enemies. He couldn’t let his guard down for a second, even when doing something else. It felt like being stranded on an island full of zombies or monsters. Like he was the protagonist of a Hollywood blockbuster. As he kept running, he started to approach a player just standing there, one who didn’t seem to grasp the controls, yet. Without hesitating, Sho threw the TV at this new player and pummeled them. The other player seemed surprised, but Sho kept beating until they fell to their knees.
—XX:XX Sho beat Hoshi to death.
(Last words: I wanted to... take it easy...)
“Ha ha! Hah ha ha ha!”
Sho burst out laughing. He just killed another human being on the other side of the screen, and with no mercy. He didn’t understand the overwhelming sense of victory. Sho couldn’t stop laughing just imagining the other player’s expression at that moment. If his enemy was just an AI or monster, he would not have been this excited.
“Alright. You can take one of their belongings when you kill a player.”
Not all, but just one. This seemed to require some foresight, too. He may need to take something that he didn’t necessarily benefit from, just to keep other players from obtaining it. He noticed that the weapon the other character had was a plate, which seemed useless. Through the several combat encounters, the Durability on Sho’s suit had decreased to 3. Remembering that fact, Sho decided to take his enemy’s armor.
“His armor’s... A schoolgirl outfit...?”
Sho hesitated for a few moments. Putting it on his male avatar was bad. However, if the Durability of his suit were to reach 0, he would be left naked and with drastically reduced Defense. It was unthinkable to try and survive this cut-throat arena with no armor.
“I-I don’t have a choice... Not if I want to survive. I got to use what I can.”
Ditching the suit he had been wearing, Sho donned the schoolgirl outfit with a slight elation. Instantaneously, his avatar changed to that of a creepy man in teenage girls’ clothing.
“Ha, I look like a pervert. But what’s this... strange sensation I’m feeling...?”
Sensing a presence, Sho turned around to find a man wearing a helmet and carrying a pickaxe.
“Wait, is that you, Sho...? Do you see yourself!? I didn’t know you’d gone full pervert, LOL!”
“...!”
Sho writhed reading the text popping up on screen. He hadn’t expected to be called a pervert from someone in a video game, and this late at night, nonetheless.
“I have not a lick of shame for the way I look!”
“Oh, crap! Here comes the pervert in a schoolgirl uniform!”
The two went into combat, but perhaps taken aback by Sho’s determination, the man wearing a helmet ended up on his back. Seeing this, Sho cried in victory, panting.
“Witness... the power of Sailor Sho!”
Screaming some nonsense, Sho robbed the man of his possessions and sprinted away. The game, now in full motion, caused quite the commotion among players in the middle of the night.
Meanwhile, Akira was rolling in laughter as he watched the various encounters all around the arena. With a can of beer in his hand, he seemed to be enjoying the show of the players’ excitement and confusion.
“This is hilarious! I’m so glad I made it. Totally worth the farm.”
This video game, much too intricate to be created by an individual, had only been completed with the money made from selling off the farm Akira’s parents had left him. Was it an extravagant hobby? Debatable. Akira could have retired right then and there if he had kept the farm, and he shared and ran the game free of charge. Clearly, he wasn’t in it for the money. Some might have called it a complete waste of inheritance, while others might have seen it as Akira donating his money and time for the enjoyment of others. His nature carried on into the distant future, where we would spend money like water. No amount of time required would make Akira change his priorities from putting his own world above money.
“Get a load of this, XXX... This is my new world.”
Lighting the cigarette in his mouth, Akira squinted at the screen. No matter how long he waited, that particular name never appeared on the list of registered players.
It was already past 1AM, but as far as Akira could tell from the News Report, players were still at it hard and strong.
—XX:XX, Floaty was blown to bits by XX.
(Last words: Off to the underworld!)
Akira did a spit take with his beer.
“Stop playing around and get a job.”
Although, as someone who spent the last year lost in his own little world, he had no right to criticize anyone. Eventually, Akira logged in as the Demon Lord of the Empire and entered the Sleepless Castle. While he had outsourced the game’s graphics, this area was, of course, the most expensive. In short, it was a giant, near-futuristic fortress illuminated in white. It had carried on most of the functions of the Far East City. Even the battleship Musashi was afloat in the bay nearby with the sole purpose of demonstrating the Empire’s strength.
“I better finish the battleship fast... So they can see it from the beaches and ports.”
He looked over at the super-gigantic battleship near the ocean’s horizon. Akira wanted to implement it sooner, as it seemed to epitomize the Empire, but he ran out of time.
“Lots of bug reports, though...”
Most of them were about missing graphics, but there were various other reports about missing displays, items disappearing, etc. If he didn’t fix these quickly, the players would lose trust in him.
“Please fix it soon.”
“Part of my character stats is glitching.”
“The punching animation...”
“I can only hold five items!? Come on!”
The forums were being filled at incredible speed with requests and bug reports. The foundation of Akira Ono’s acting chops were built here, along with his guts to act dauntless in a pinch. He responded with confidence to the outcry.
“All problems will be addressed by the next event. Any emergencies will be dealt with immediately. Thank you for your patience.”
While his response exuded confidence, he was panicking on the inside.
(Dammit! I think the save process is glitching!)
As he desperately looked for the culprit file, the sound of a can cracking open could be heard. Even now he was reaching for another drink.
(I can’t find it! Where did I screw up!?)
Chugging his beer, he scrambled to find the issue. On the forums, though, the more stress he was under, the more arrogant he became.
“All of the issues mentioned so far are expected. Don’t worry.”
Thinking that all was expected, the players were relieved.
“Just leave it to Ono, it’ll be fine.”
“Yep. He’ll fix it in no time.”
“Three minutes, tops. Right, Ono?”
(What do you think I am, an instant ramen!?)
Akira wanted to shout back at the forums, but if word were to spread that the game was riddled with bugs at launch, it would hurt its reputation. Akira continuously scrambled to fix bug after bug for the entire week. Still, issues kept arising. As the number of registered players grew, the more it strained the server. Eventually, Akira was notified of the discontinuation of his server contract, and he madly looked for another one he could sign up for. While the players were too busy to sleep, the same could be said about Akira. As he had intended, a world ruled by the Empire provided a harsh environment for all, but not even this world’s creator was an exception. For weeks after, he would rinse and repeat the process of finding a server host only to be kicked out. The game was just too big for any individual service to hold. It was large enough to justify a corporation owning and operating it.
(What am I supposed to do...!? I just keep getting canceled on!)
From the point of view
of the server companies, they didn’t want to support any application that strained their servers like Akira’s did. It didn’t help that the internet wasn’t as developed back in the day.
As Akira’s corner grew tighter and tighter, he received a particular email, with a lead for a suitable server overseas.
“A foreign server...? Didn’t think of that one.”
Akira jumped to the website to, of course, be greeted with blocks of English text. Just looking at it gave him a headache. It would take him an immense amount of time to translate and read through it all. Server contracts already came with complicated fine print as is.
“Why don’t these idiots have a Japanese version!?”
While Akira’s outrage was unjustified, a language selection box appeared on the top right of the screen, as if it had heard his call.
“O-Oh... There it is. My B.”
He immediately switched to Japanese. Apparently, it was a test server where they wanted to see how much weight the server could carry.
“This could be the one...”
Akira inputted the necessary information to apply. Surprisingly, he received a same-day response. In Japanese, nonetheless.
“‘Ready for transfer when you are’, huh...? Yes!”
Finally resolving his lingering issue, Akira thrust his fists into the air. For the past few weeks, he had jumped from server to server, which caused a lot of issues for gameplay. Since many players had been complaining about it, Akira wrote in the forums with his usual boisterousness.
“The wait is over, everyone. The Japanese servers were too weak to handle my world, so we’re going overseas. Continue to enjoy smooth gameplay in our new server.”
He really had no right to be so high and mighty about it, but the players responded with applause.
“You did it, Ono!”
“Going to the big leagues... It’s getting real.”
Most players didn’t have a grasp on the workings of a server, and just gave a knee-jerk reaction to the ‘overseas’ descriptor.
(Alright. If the server’s stable, I can keep modifying the game...)
He would continue to put more and more weight onto the server. However, this one in particular didn’t budge no matter how much Akira poured into the game. Moreover, it was extremely cheap. While he was relieved of one major problem, Akira couldn’t shake a remnant of sorrow in his heart. He still hadn’t seen XXX, who had always supported him through trying times.
(Should I just send an email or something...? No, I should wait.)
He might have been stubborn, or perhaps prideful. Days turned into months, and even after years of running the game, XXX’s name would never be registered to it. This was a thorn that stuck into the heart of the Demon Lord, there to stay for many years to come.
Postscript
Thank you for reading the second volume of our newly published edition! The author, Kurone Kanzaki, here. By the time this volume is published in Japan, we should be in 2019 already. The era of Heisei is over! I hope everyone is doing well in the new era. As for myself, I’m working on volume 3 (as of Nov. 2018). By the time you are reading this, I will have finished the next volume and enjoyed a leisurely soak in a hot spring. That’s what’s happening... It has to be... Please...
In volume 2, we saw some old characters, characters I’m sure you never expected to see again, and some new characters. I hope you enjoyed them all. As the Demon Lord’s life gets busier in the book, I’m busy at work writing and working on the anime, commuting to Tokyo quite often. Thanks to the anime adaptation, I have had the opportunities to meet with various people in publishing, and many creators of various professions. Every day is really exciting! These are all experiences I never would have had if I had never put my pen to paper. I can’t help but acknowledge that Demon Lord, Retry! has completely changed my life. It’s a miracle. It’s magic. It’s destiny. (What am I saying?)
In the new year, I’m looking to go as hard as I can on publishing the next volume and completing the anime adaptation. I hope you can come along with me for the ride.
For those who have suffered all the way through the postscript, I have good news. The voice talent for the anime is absolutely incredible! I almost keeled over seeing the cast list. Maybe I was blessed with a cheat code by the Goddess... Or ensnared in one of the Demon Lord’s schemes...
Now that I’ve given my usual spiel, I’ll wrap it up nicely.
Thank you to everyone at Futabasha, everyone working on the anime, Mister Ino who draws me gorgeous illustrations, and Mister Minotake who is turning this story into a wonderful manga!
See you again in volume 3!
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Copyright
Demon Lord, Retry! Volume 2
by Kurone Kanzaki
Translated by Adam Seacord
Edited by Jack Diaz
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © Kurone Kanzaki 2017
Illustrations by Makoto Iino
All rights reserved.
Original Japanese edition published in 2017 by Futabasha Publishers Ltd.
This English edition is published by arrangement with Futabasha Publishers Ltd., Tokyo
English translation © 2020 J-Novel Club LLC
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.
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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.
Ebook edition 1.0: January 2020
Demon Lord, Retry! Volume 2 Page 20