[Victory and defeat are common in war. Great hero, please try again.]
...
Saiki didn't pay it too much mind.
[No problem, no problem. Looks like I have to protect this village chief to win! Anyway, it's already saved.]
Saiki started over. This time he did a good job protecting the village chief and wiped out half the demons. At that moment, the chief suddenly looked at Saiki and requested a joint skill.
[Oh!! Didn't expect there to be joint skills. But why with the village chief?]
Saiki chose to accept. The chief then hugged Saiki's controlled doll and spun it around a few times.
"Thunder Half-Moon Slash!"
Saiki's doll and the chief—one with a hammer, one with a staff—slashed toward the monsters. It was a wide-area attack. All the remaining monsters were hit, and their HP bars all dropped… by 1 point.
[Such low damage.]
After hitting the demons, the chief even showed a smug smile: "See that? That's our combination skill."
[What kind of combination skill is this? Don't even mention it if the damage is that pathetic.]
Saiki continued controlling the character to kill the demons. When only one demon was left, the chief requested the joint skill again.
This time Saiki chose no.
[Only one monster left. No need to use this tickle-damage skill. I'll handle it myself.]
But after Saiki chose no, the screen froze for a moment. The chief's expression changed from kind to serious as he looked at Saiki.
"What? Are you a spy sent by the Great Demon King? You won't even use our joint skill."
The chief's expression grew even more serious. Saiki felt something bad coming.
[Hey, wait… no way?]
"Die!"
Sure enough, the next second the chief swung his staff and chopped toward Saiki.
"Ah!!"
Saiki's controlled character's HP instantly hit zero and died on the spot.
[Character death. Victory and defeat are common in war. Great hero, please try again.]
Saiki's face gradually darkened. The controller in his hand unconsciously gripped tighter, and with one press a crack appeared. Finally Saiki eased up, or he would've had to replace the controller.
Saiki chose to try again. This time he accepted the old village chief's joint ultimate skill and wiped out the demons.
After defeating the demons, the old chief looked at Saiki with an admiring gaze: "Mere monsters are nothing. Young man, we did it thanks to our teamwork this time!"
[(ꐦ°᷄д°᷅) What the hell? What do you mean "we"? You old geezer are just in the way. If you weren't an NPC with some use, I would've chopped you down long ago.]
Saiki clicked the dialogue box and discovered that besides options, he could also type himself.
Since Saiki was too lazy to type, he opened the option box. There were three choices.
Option 1: Politely greet: "Hello, ૧(●´৺`●)૭ Village Chief."
Option 2: Politely greet: "Hey old thing over there, come here. I have something to ask you."
Option 3: Rudely greet: "Stinky old man, can't you see I'm busy? Hurry up and come over…"
[Seriously, these options are so obviously misleading. Would anyone really pick 2 or 3?]
Saiki silently told himself in his mind that he didn't want to pick 2 or 3, then chose 1.
[Even though I really hate this stinky old man, for the sake of clearing the game there's no choice. And if I pick 2 or 3, the old man might trigger another event and chop me again. No thanks.]
After the greeting, the old chief looked at Saiki with a bashful expression: "Oh my, after going through life-and-death together, don't call me so old. I'll get embarrassed."
[Embarrassed my ass, you stinky old man! So gross. This isn't a dating game.]
Watching the old man's art style become refined as he gazed at him on screen, Saiki barely held back the urge to punch the monitor and chose to continue chatting.
This time Saiki directly switched to typing mode to avoid weird options leading to other routes. Now he seriously suspected there might be dating game elements in here.
If a quest triggered later requiring him to romance this old man who just killed him, Saiki would definitely storm the developer's office and blow up the company.
"Village Chief, I am the brave hero."
After the village chief saw what Saiki typed in the dialogue box, he instantly dropped the bashful act, put his hands behind his back, and assumed the pose of a serious, otherworldly sage.
"I see. If you are the brave hero, then you should… be more serious!"
[You're the one who started acting unserious first, stinky old man.]
"Hello, brave hero. This place was once a beautiful and peaceful village, but unfortunately it was destroyed by the Great Demon King."
The chief led Saiki's viewpoint to look around. All around, the village houses looked perfectly peaceful, not a trace of destruction.
[If they at least made it look a little destroyed, that would be something! What's wrong with this dev team? Did they put all their effort into screwing with people?]
The chief solemnly placed his hand on Saiki's shoulder and pleaded: "Please, you must help us defeat the Great Demon King!"
[You don't have to say it. I was going to anyway, stinky old man.]
The dialogue box appeared again.
"Okay, leave it to me."
Saiki quickly typed a few words.
"Good!"
Seeing Saiki's response, the old chief smiled with relief. Then he took out a map, handed it to Saiki, slowly unfolded it, and spoke in a low whisper: "Take this map, follow the path!"
Saiki clicked to zoom in and slowly scrolled through the map.
[Yare yare daze, what kind of map is this? The lines are drawn so obviously. If you're giving a map, just give it quickly. I don't want to look at this stinky old man anymore.]
At this point Saiki still hadn't realized how serious things were. The old village chief's relieved expression gradually turned meaningful: "Remember, this world is full of dangers everywhere…"
The next second, the old chief flipped to the last part of the map. A small knife appeared on it. The chief picked it up and stabbed Saiki with it.
Saiki's controlled doll's HP instantly hit zero. He staggered back two steps and fell to the ground.
Meanwhile, the old village chief was still ecstatic, as if something wonderful had happened. He threw his head back and laughed loudly: "You still weren't careful enough. Remember, this world is full of hidden dangers everywhere, hahahaha…"
[Character death. Victory and defeat are common in war. Great hero, please try again.]
(Why can this traitor old man one-shot me!!)
Saiki looked at the familiar death panel, black aura radiating around him.
The next second, Saiki teleported away in an instant and arrived in a desolate wilderness.
He tightly clenched his fists, floating in midair. He found several rock formations over a hundred meters tall. Saiki gripped his fist, exerted a slight force, and swung.
The rocks instantly shattered into pieces.
[Restoration ability.]
Saiki extended one hand, emitting a faint glow. The broken rocks began to reassemble. Saiki swung his fist again, smashing the reforming rocks once more.
"This damn stinky old man!!!"
...