Chapter 958 - 16: Part-time Demon King

Chapter 958: Chapter 16: Part-time Demon King

So——

Is the end of the universe really a part-time job?

Gu Mo seriously contemplated this, pondering whether this could be the true essence of the current world. Or perhaps when the Part-time Demon King and Part-time Hero came over from the Otherworld, they brought some strange "elements" to this Dungeon World.

Could they have led this world’s style towards an unusually subtle direction?

It’s no wonder he thinks this way; after all, the script of "Part-time Demon King" is rather mystifying. The Demon King came to work part-time, the Demon Grand Marshal came to work part-time; when the Hero chased them, he also stayed on Earth to work part-time; Fallen Angels pursued them and stayed to work part-time on Earth too; even a Great Angel who came to deal with them was defeated and ended up staying on Earth to work part-time...

——Part-time, part-time, part-time...

——One could say that everyone is either working part-time or on the way to working part-time...

In the beginning, the Demon King himself had quite ambitious goals. He hadn’t forgotten his identity, nor what he should be doing, and he hibernated on Earth with the determination to bide his time for a resurgence. He vowed to accumulate Power in this world, seek a comeback, and surely counterattack the Ante Yisula World in the future!

He was indeed a person of great ambition!

A natural conqueror who would never stop!

It’s just unfortunate that after saying this over and over, whether he no longer believed it or developed other thoughts and plans, or simply had his spirit weakened over time, the Demon King eventually became a thoroughly law-abiding part-time worker.

Even his firm and grand ambitions—

Evolved from "In the future, I’ll go back to conquer Ante Yisula," "I want to gain new Power in the new world and reconquer the world"...

——gradually degraded at the speed of light.

Eventually hitting rock bottom, in just a year, his ambitious aspirations turned into the level of "I want to become a formal employee at McDonald’s," which is laughable and tear-inducing... The magnitudes befitting a Demon King seem to grow smaller day by day.

One can’t help but wonder what kind of a complex expression Demon Grand Marshal Asher would have in seeing the changes a year later.

In any case, from Gu Mo’s perspective, these people indeed seem quite toxic, making it natural to suspect that information disturbance could lead to some memetic contamination unknowingly... With this peculiar notion swirling in his mind, he watches a boy on the opposite side of the street walking over while yawning and rubbing his shoulder.

A thought arises in his mind, and he is ready to put it into action immediately.

......

...

Kusanagi Hikotou’s face is undeniably weary as he yawns unreservedly.

He continuously rubs his shoulder, uncertain if it’s psychological or genuinely uncomfortable, feeling that his shoulder has been persistently troubled by unpleasant aftereffects ever since sustaining an injury during last summer’s world tournament representatives’ training. It often feels less than comfortable.

It probably isn’t just psychological...

After all, the injury was indeed quite severe. He’s played baseball for nine years, being officially positioned as cleanup hitter and catcher for a sturdy young team during middle school, having participated in international matches and being part of Japanese representatives in the world championship Tokyo selections.

Yet last summer, it all ended swiftly due to his shoulder injury.

He remains somewhat unwilling to let go of it internally, sighing as he extends his arms and stretches with a good, strong effort. The cool night breeze blows, inevitably carrying a hint of chill, yet it doesn’t make him feel rejuvenated; instead, he can’t resist yawning again.

Today’s part-time job went late, mainly because the manager had urgent matters to attend to and left him watching the store for quite a while. Consequently, he couldn’t get home until now, much later than anticipated.

Originally he planned to bring a gift for his sister today, but it seems impossible now.

Wondering whether she’d be upset.

Kusanagi Hikotou shakes his head, then impulsively tilts his chin upwards, yawns widely once again, and squeezes out some tears from his eyes... Clearly, he is exhausted to the core, feeling that both his physical stamina and Spirit have been fully burnt out today.

Then, at the next moment——

"Oops..."

Because of yawning and closing his eyes, he momentarily can’t see ahead, and suddenly feels himself collide with someone, leading to a whiplash that makes him fall backward, landing solidly on the ground.

Ping pong!

A heavy sound can be heard, resembling large chunks of stone crashing heavily from above.

"Sorry, sorry... Are you alright?"

Kusanagi Hikotou’s first reaction is to apologize. Seated on the ground, somewhat gritting his teeth, he massages his sore back, raises his gaze to look ahead, and is momentarily stunned upon seeing a young man standing in front.

Nearby, on the sidewalk in front, lies a rectangular Stone Tablet about the size of a B5 sheet, worn severely and marked extensively with black scorch marks, seemingly from burns... It appears this is the item he inadvertently knocked from the man’s hands.

But why are you walking around with a stone tablet on the street?

Is this something important?

"Nothing much, I just wasn’t paying attention..." Gu Mo smiled and said, carefully observing the young man in front of him, taking in his past life entirely, and quickly deducing the trajectory of his future fate, as the causes and effects intertwined, various possible future images circulated in his eyes.

"I really apologize..."

Kusanagi Hikotou still felt quite embarrassed. He stood up and quickly walked over to pick up the stone tablet lying not far away, intending to return it to the other party.

Very heavy, a weighty feeling.

It seemed to be more than just physical weight, but he didn’t think much of it at the moment. Besides, he was still an ordinary person, both in life form and sensory perception, so he couldn’t sense what kind of curse was accumulating on this holy relic, nor the conceptual weight it held.

He curiously inspected it and muttered if this could be some sort of unearthed relic, Kusanagi Hikotou quickly ran over to return the item to the young man opposite.

"Thank you, young man..."

Gu Mo smilingly reached out to take the stone tablet, then thanked him with a peculiar gaze, thoughtfully examining the young man in front of him.

"..."

"..."

The air was briefly silent.

This made Kusanagi Hikotou a bit puzzled, and he couldn’t help but feel slightly uneasy. Because even though the young man opposite him was not much older than himself, looking to be just in his early twenties, and seemed to have a gentle expression, there was still an inexplicable sense of pressure.

—Especially during that quiet moment when he wasn’t speaking, simply scrutinizing him...

—Kusanagi Hikotou couldn’t quite put his finger on it, just felt unreasonably that he was being examined from above...

This was a very clear realization, a feeling akin to when he was a child being called to the office by a teacher for criticism after making a mistake at school. Precisely because it was very clear that the other party was in a dominant position while he was in a weaker position, his heart became restless.

Kusanagi Hikotou secretly tugged at the corners of his mouth, forcing a smile: "I’m very sorry about earlier, if... if there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave now..."

Though he didn’t know why this person was staring at him with such eyes, he decisively prepared to leave.

"Please wait a moment..."

The young man opposite softly spoke, stopping him.

Just as Kusanagi Hikotou was turning away, his face fell at these words, and a deeper sense of unease took root in his heart. His mind couldn’t help but think wildly: could it be that he damaged that stone tablet and now he had to pay for it?

But that’s just a hard stone tablet—

It wasn’t broken or anything, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right?

"Since you happened to come across it, well, then... I’ll give it to you." Gu Mo glanced at the holy relic in his hand, then spoke casually.

"Huh?"

Kusanagi Hikotou, still lost in thought, was stunned for a moment, his mind even more chaotic and bewildered. Why give it to him? Could it be some new trick of forced buying, finding a reason to force someone to buy something just to blackmail and extort money?

"Take it... it’s something that was originally meant to be yours."

Gu Mo said earnestly. He had just carefully glanced through the young man’s fate and found that losing this opportunity would indeed have a significant impact on him...

Although he would still, in another way, walk the same path called Godslayer.

Just as the end is already destined, the destination has already been determined, as for which road to take during this journey and which mode of transportation to use... these would only change the "process" without affecting the determination of the "result".

Right now, this stone tablet, simply put, is just a ticket.

If he took the ticket, then Kusanagi Hikotou might not reach that destination so conveniently and quickly, as he wouldn’t be able to take the express train... but he could still wait for some time and catch other routes, or even walk to that end on his own.

But without the holy relic that stole divine power, it would still be a lot less convenient. In the future Gu Mo foresaw, it could take anywhere from three to five years, to perhaps thirty to fifty years, for Kusanagi Hikotou to don this supremely honorable glory and become one of the world’s most powerful Demon Kings.

Gu Mo thought about it and felt that since it was his opportunity to begin with, it should be returned... having one less Demon King would make a significant impact, the more chaotic the scene, the better.

Though what he was returning was not the original, but a mass-produced projection he casually conjured—

It was clearly more effective than the original.