Three full days had passed since Yuto—no, since Ren Kuroda—had fallen unconscious during his Demon Lord Awakening.
For those three days, he had remained sprawled across the open grasslands, fast asleep as though the world itself had pressed pause around him. Yet not a single monster dared approach the area where he lay.
The reason was simple.
Even in his unconscious state, the surge of demonic essence radiating from his body had continued to rise at a steady, relentless pace. It was overwhelming—instinctively terrifying. The surrounding monsters didn't need intelligence to understand the danger. Their very instincts screamed at them to stay away. Getting close to him? That wasn't courage. That was suicide.
And then—
He woke up.
The moment Ren opened his eyes, excitement surged through him like electricity.
He had never expected this. The awakening of the "Oni Bloodline" reward hadn't granted him any flashy new active skills—but it had triggered the awakening of the Demon Lord Seed within him.
He had become a True Awakened Demon Lord.
This was profit on a level that bordered on criminal.
Ren could feel it clearly: after completing the transformation, his strength had shattered the upper ceiling of SSS-class entirely. He had stepped into the realm beyond conventional ranking—the so-called "Transcendent Tier."
And not the weakest rung of it, either.
At minimum, he was solidly mid-tier within that category.
Then there was the passive ability of "Lord of Pride."
Absurd didn't even begin to describe it.
Unless the opponent possessed some extremely specialized ability, anyone roughly equal to Ren in strength would find it impossible to break through his defenses—even if he simply stood there and allowed them to attack him.
As for opponents weaker than him?
They would either lose the will to fight before the battle even began… or fall directly under his domination.
And when facing opponents stronger than himself, the skill even halved the damage he received.
"This isn't Pride," Ren muttered to himself with a crooked grin. "This is straight-up arrogance."
Invincible.
Domination plus immunity plus damage reduction.
That was the only word he could think of to describe his current state.
Feeling the overwhelming power coursing through his body, Ren suddenly felt that the nightmare-level trip to that "Problem Children" world hadn't been in vain after all.
"…Wait."
He blinked.
"Other than the reward for the first task, don't I still have the second advanced task reward unclaimed?"
The designated world-travel ticket had been used automatically at the time. But that mysterious "???" reward—
He hadn't even gotten the chance to see what it was before he collapsed unconscious.
Becoming a True Demon Lord was already more than he had dared to hope for. Even if the mysterious reward didn't meet expectations, he wouldn't complain.
But based on the difficulty of that advanced mission… there was no way the reward would be garbage.
His system might be a little tsundere and prone to snark, but it had always been impeccably fair. The risk level of missions directly correlated with the quality of the rewards.
There was no universe in which a hell-mode challenge like becoming Humanity's Final Trial would reward him with junk.
Driven by curiosity, Ren chose to claim the mysterious reward.
A translucent interface materialized before him.
Then—
Two side-by-side dialogue windows appeared.
A choice.
One of two.
And the moment Ren saw what was inside those windows, his hands almost started trembling.
They were the two Simulated Creation Star Charts he had possessed during his time as Humanity's Final Trial.
『Seven Deadly Sins』
and
『Hyakki Yagyō』 — Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.
The "???" reward… was letting him choose one of these two as a permanent acquisition.
For a split second, Ren nearly lost his composure.
This wasn't just profit.
This was hitting the jackpot and then discovering you'd also won the lottery twice.
Simulated Creation Star Charts were apex-level artifacts in any world. Absolute top-tier existences. He had never imagined that the mysterious reward would be something like this.
But joy quickly gave way to agony.
Choosing one.
Just one.
It was cruel.
Although he knew it was unlikely, Ren still shamelessly tried.
"So… it really has to be one or the other?" he asked cautiously. "There's no option for 'I'll take both,' right?"
The system didn't even bother responding.
Instead, a one-minute countdown appeared beneath the two selection windows.
Below it, a small line of text blinked mockingly:
『Please make your selection within one minute. Failure to do so will be treated as forfeiture of the reward.』
P.S. Just because you're not a kid anymore doesn't mean you get to have everything. Stop dreaming.
There it was again.
Ren was absolutely certain those P.S. lines were manually added by the system solely for the purpose of roasting him.
Still, being the generous and magnanimous adult he was, he decided not to stoop to the level of a knockoff AI.
Instead, he attempted negotiation before the timer expired.
"How about this," he proposed quickly. "I'll choose one of the two Star Charts here. As for the other… I'll trade you another Simulated Creation Star Chart of equal value—'Void Star: Tai Sui.'"
Yes.
Ren possessed another Simulated Creation Star Chart—the one formerly held by the Star Sea Dragon King.
『Void Star: Tai Sui』
Its power was terrifying. It could seal all Ultimate Species except Dragon-kind. Even against other races, it halved their spiritual rank.
In pure functional terms, Tai Sui was arguably more powerful than either 『Seven Deadly Sins』 or 『Hyakki Yagyō』 alone.
The problem?
Ren didn't meet its activation requirements.
It was powerful beyond reason… and utterly unusable to him.
So instead of letting it gather dust in storage, why not exchange it for something he could actually use?
Individually, 『Seven Deadly Sins』 and 『Hyakki Yagyō』 weren't unbeatable.
But together?
That was true invincibility.
Unfortunately for Ren, the system had zero interest in bargaining.
The countdown ticked downward mercilessly.
Thirty seconds.
Twenty.
Ten.
"…Tch."
In the end, forced by time, Ren made his choice.
He selected:
Simulated Creation Star Chart — 『Hyakki Yagyō』.
On paper, 『Seven Deadly Sins』 seemed more powerful. It allowed him to convert the strength of those burdened with negative emotions into his own power.
And let's be honest—how many people in any world were free of negative emotions?
But its applicability was too narrow. It worked only on humans.
That limitation made it dangerously situational.
Yes, powerful humans certainly existed. But how many humans could surpass him now?
Probably very few.
In contrast, multi-species societies were the norm across worlds. Compared to 『Seven Deadly Sins』, 『Hyakki Yagyō』 was far more practical.
And far more aligned with his identity.
After all—
He was a Demon Lord who walked among demons.
..
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