The entire room was drenched in pitch-black darkness.
"Cough!"
In the center, a man spat out a lump of blood. His blood spilled onto the black ground. His blood was just as thick and black as the earth beneath.
Of course, I wasn't surprised by this. I'd known for a while that he was different from humans.
I placed my sword against his neck.
Shing- The cold blade touched his skin.
Looking down at him, I said:
"It's over, Demon King. Your ambitions end here."
The Demon King, once a being who plunged this world into terror.
As I spoke, I was quite out of breath.
Haa, haa, my rough breathing filled the pitch-black room.
Those labored breaths came not just from me, but from everyone present.
A Knight covered in wounds.
A Mage leaning on his staff, depleted of mana.
A Saintess who had used up all her holy power.
Everyone was barely standing, exhaling rough breaths.
As our hot breaths gradually subsided, I realized that this battle was finally over.
It truly was a difficult fight.
Too difficult to express in mere words.
Sword marks were scattered everywhere, and during this battle alone, my party members nearly crossed the river to the afterlife several times.
We even had one actual sacrifice.
But we won in the end.
We persevered, stood up, and captured the Demon King who had plunged the continent into fear and chaos. If I swung the Holy Sword in my hand, his head would surely fall.
The world was saved.
Yet strangely, I felt nothing special about it.
Then the Demon King spoke:
"Kehe... what a shame, what a shame. If I had just a little more time, I could have attained complete power..."
A sneer formed on his blood-stained lips.
"If I had more time, I could have finally ended this hateful world... I see. So this is as far as I go. My ideals will disappear here..."
"..."
He muttered incomprehensible regrets.
I silently listened to his words.
Ah, it's not that I felt sympathy for him, but this scene was simply "unskippable."
After talking for a while, he looked at my face and said:
"Kill me, Hero. I won't beg pathetically for my life."
As he said, I slashed my Holy Sword diagonally.
Slash!
With a silver line, his head fell.
Simultaneously.
[Congratulations!]
[You have defeated the Demon King!]
A system notification appeared on the monitor screen.
I stared at it silently.
"..."
*
"Kyaa! Hero, well done! Really, really... well done!!"
"Now the citizens can sleep peacefully. Thank you, Hero. It's all thanks to you."
"It's finally over... it truly was a difficult journey."
After defeating the Demon King, the Hero's party headed back to the kingdom in harmony. On the way back, the party members' faces bloomed with smiles.
The Saintess praised the Hero's achievements, the Knight looked at the Hero with a face full of goodwill, and the Mage smiled with a deeply relieved expression.
Everyone was full of affection.
At this rate, the Hero would probably return to establish a harem with the entire party and begin a peaceful life.
The kings of each country would likely exalt the Hero and engrave his great achievements in history.
It was truly a comfortable and happy ending.
However.
"...Tsk."
I couldn't help but click my tongue at the sight.
From my perspective, this playthrough was another failure.
I see the heroines laughing happily.
Saintess, Knight, Mage...
The Rogue is missing.
This time, the party member who dropped out was the Rogue.
Last time it was the Saintess, the time before that the Mage, and the time before that the Knight.
This time, once again, the Rogue was eliminated.
With a disappointed face, I muttered:
"Damn, I was so close this time..."
The Rogue had unfortunately fallen during the final battle with the Four Heavenly Kings. She couldn't endure the last phase and chose to sacrifice herself.
Still, we somehow managed to defeat the Demon King... but this was only half an ending.
So I deleted this playthrough without hesitation.
All the records I had accumulated were quickly reset.
It was a shame to lose all the achievements and equipment I had gained... but in the end, if it wasn't the ending I wanted, I had no choice but to delete it.
'That makes 999 times.'
In the quiet room, I muttered to myself.
With this, my 999th try also ended in failure.
I struggled until the end, but it was still impossible to save all four heroines.
Sigh, but at least I managed to keep all four alive until the final Four Heavenly Kings, so I've accumulated some data.
I should take comfort in that this time...
No.
"ARGHHHH!! THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!!"
It's not comforting at all!
In the room dimly lit only by the monitor, I screamed loudly.
This was the hysterical reaction that came every time I failed to get the true ending.
I was so close to beating it this time. Everything was going according to plan.
But I failed again!
It hurt even more because it was my 999th failed attempt.
Thanks to this, I was reminded once again:
This game [Demon King and Hero Party] is garbage!
It's just a common harem eroge, yet it doesn't have a single proper happy ending, what a stupid game!!
Moreover, since it's a roguelike game where you're done once you die, even seeing H-scenes was difficult.
...Well, to be more precise, it was difficult to see the sweet H-scenes I wanted.
There were plenty of heroine violation scenes if you went down the defeat route.
[Demon King and Hero Party]
This game, with the ordinary premise of a hero party going to defeat the Demon King, was an innovative game that mixed roguelike and dating sim systems.
The random elements that kept the game from getting boring, and the heroines who grew closer as you traveled, were the charm of this game.
Thanks to that, it was quite popular when it first came out.
The fun gameplay and pretty heroine illustrations were enough to attract attention.
However, that popularity quickly faded within a few months of release.
In fact, the purpose of this game wasn't for the hero to become strong and build a harem, but to be defeated and die.
This game is a violation eroge.
And not just any violation eroge, but an extremely niche one with large amounts of grotesque and dark fantasy elements added!
As a result, all players who genuinely wanted to beat it disappeared, leaving only hardcore perverts.
Of course, at first, there were people who tried to get the harem ending.
Since it was a roguelike game with many random elements, many people claimed that if you tried enough times, you could save all four heroines.
But the path to that ending was long and difficult, and somehow one or two heroines would always drop out.
So all the people pursuing the true ending dropped out.
'Except for me.'
And I was starting to get tired and felt like I might drop out soon too.
Just thinking about the time I've dedicated to this game, it's been almost 7 years. I've spent more than half of my twenties on this eroge.
But despite that, I still haven't managed to save all the heroines.
Even though I've defeated most of the bosses dozens of times.
It's so difficult that I often fail to clear it even when I know the strategy.
"This game is really shit."
At this point, one might ask:
If the game is so terrible, why not just give up?
I might be the crazy one for investing 7 years in a mere eroge.
I knew that well.
But even knowing that, I couldn't give up.
It's really, really embarrassing.
It's a reason so ridiculous it might make you laugh.
It's because I really like the heroines in this game.
No, at this point, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it love.
I was extremely fond of the heroines here.
The heroines in this game were all charming.
Not just with pretty illustrations, but each heroine was three-dimensional with clear appeal points.
On top of that, they were all courageous, good, and strong... it was impossible not to like them.
But these damn creators made these charming heroines and then went with a violation eroge genre.
Maybe they get sexual pleasure from seeing something strong being broken, anyway, they were incomprehensible bastards.
"Haaa..."
I sighed involuntarily.
At this point, I sometimes thought that maybe there was never a full salvation ending from the beginning.
That it was blocked by the system, and I've just been wasting my time.
Whenever I thought about that, my mood would plummet.
"...No, there must be something."
I tried to gather my resolve and grabbed the mouse again.
Well, it's a roguelike game full of random elements, so there must be something.
And since I've already completed 999 playthroughs, it would be too wasteful to give up now.
So let's just try until the 1000th playthrough.
I can think about whether to quit or not after that.
So I clicked on [New Game] for the 1000th time.
And then something strange happened.
[Achievement "The One Who Never Gives Up" has been unlocked!]
[Hidden Route "Noble Sacrifice" has been opened!]
[Would you like to challenge it?]
"Oh!!"
I shouted involuntarily.
A hidden route! And before even starting the game!
Yes, I knew there had to be something.
How vast this game is, there's no way they wouldn't have prepared something like this.
I looked back at the monitor screen with a grin.
I could see the selection window flickering before my eyes.
[Would you like to challenge it?]
[YES or NO]
"Of course it's yes!"
Only a lunatic wouldn't take this opportunity.
I clicked the mouse without a moment's hesitation.
And then—
[Warning! Monster difficulty will increase significantly!]
[Warning! Hostility of characters will increase!]
[Warning! Unexpected variables may intervene during gameplay!]
"...Huh?"
With a bright light illuminating my surroundings.
[May luck be with you]
I lost consciousness.
*
—And so, half a year later.
"...I shouldn't have clicked yes back then, fuck."
I'm currently trapped inside the game.
"Hero, is that all you're capable of?"
"Ugh, disgusting. Hey, can't you walk a bit further away from me?"
"Enen would surely curse at you if she saw you."
"...Repulsive."
And I'm being bullied by those heroines every day.
I can't help but sigh.
"Haaaa..."
This game is really fucking shit.