Daily Life RPG System

Chapter 70: A Game Between Two Families

Looking at the potion he just bought with the discount voucher for 40 gems, Hiro looked outside the floor-to-ceiling window while twirling the bottle in his hand.

A moment later, he uncapped the bottle and downed its contents in one gulp. Afterward, he promptly put on the cosmetics of a demon kin, reached into the system with his mind, and opened a portal leading to the Demon Realm.

Hiro slid a note declaring his absence from the provincial capital from under his study room's door and without hesitation, he entered the portal.

…

Boom!

A muffled explosion went off inside Hiro's body the moment he digested the potion.

[Notice: Spirituality and demonic energy are conflicting within your body. For your safety, the system has triggered a hidden feature.

[You can now switch between various character settings at will. While you're using a specific character mode, the attributes and abilities from the other characters will be rendered inaccessible.]

[Notice: {Infinite Sword Matrix} is a universal ability and can be used across all character modes.]

…

[Hiro]:

Race: Demon.

Bloodline: ???

Level: 11.

XP: 1%.

Skills: Infinite Sword Matrix.

…

Hiro's attention was on his current attributes, and he immediately realized why his body felt uncomfortable just now.

Thinking about something, Hiro immediately opened his palm and concentrated. A moment later, a great suction force appeared in his open palm, and only then did he relax.

Hiro concluded that his innate physique was something outside the range of skills and attributes, which explained a lot.

As long as he could use his gluttony physique, then everything else was inconsequential.

Lifting his head, Hiro took in the scenery of the Demon Realm.

Ash-gray dust covered everything in sight, and from the looks of it, this terrain was something akin to a large desert.

Treading forward, Hiro kept his eyes open for any unexpected dangers while he interacted with the system.

Make sure not to add the demonic-affiliated laws from the game to my personal dimension, okay? Actually, can I use them to improve my bloodline?

[Notice: The extracted laws will be preserved by the system. No, you have awakened an affinity to pure demonic energy, but you haven't obtained a bloodline. Hence, improving the bloodline is impossible.]

Figures, Hiro mused silently. Although I can wantonly absorb demonic energy, my body can only accept the purest form of energy, so most of it will go to waste.

Demonic energy was very dominating, and it wasn't like spirituality or elemental-based energies where one can get pretty flexible.

After a long while of walking in the bleak desert, Hiro ran out of patience.

He silently synchronized with the Arcana Lord, concealed his aura, and started to teleport.

This way, it didn't take long before he stopped at the edge of a massive stronghold the size of an ordinary city.

Even from outside the stronghold, Hiro could spot the spiraling, demonic tower at the center of the stronghold.

He teleported one more time inside a vacant alley before he canceled his synchronized state, slowly walking out into the street.

Hiro looked around.

Slimes, felines, avian creatures, lizards, humanoid beasts—all mannerisms of demons roamed the streets.

Humanoid creatures were a minority, and even less were those who were nearly indistinguishable from humans.

Hiro took a deep breath and stepped out, planning to explore the stronghold.

"Move! Make way!"

Thud!

A speeding figure crashed into Hiro's chest, catching him off guard while he was taking in the architectural grandeur of the stronghold.

Hiro took two to three steps back, his momentum canceled out by a sturdy wall behind his back.

Grunting, Hiro looked up to see a gray-robed figure scrambling up from the ground, and without hesitation, they continued to run down the street.

"Give way! Stop that thief or give way, stop obstructing us!"

A hurl of abuse and curses followed from the distance. A pack of single-horned wolves dashed over, a goblin mounted on each of them.

Whips cracked in the air, occasionally destroying street stalls or harassing other demons.

However, the goblins seemed to avoid provoking any bipedal or humanoid demons.

"Theif?" Hiro had a weird expression. "Things like law exist here?"

"Brother, you must be new here! Caw! Caw!"

Hiro was startled. A black raven fluttered down and rested on his left shoulder, uninvited.

"The Lord of this stronghold is greatly inspired by humans, and after we captured a few smart ones, they were forced to improve my lord's stronghold to meet the standards of what those humans call modern and civilized… Caw! Caw!"

Hiro didn't bother removing the black raven from his shoulder, and he raised an eyebrow instead.

Suddenly, he was a little interested in this lord and their train of thought.

"Don't be surprised," said the black raven, its brown eyes reflecting the expression in Hiro's crimson orbs. "My lord likes everything that is orderly and beautiful, Caw! Then again, as a demon with the nine-tailed fox bloodline, it's understandable!"

Hiro recalled the kitsune from the folklore of his past life, already grasping an image of this particular lord.

How wonderful would it be if this lord was a she and fell in love with me at first sight? Hiro mused the impossible.

There were great restrictions on the love at first sight, among them was the current state of mind of the target, their mental fortitude, and whether or not Hiro was in disguise.

If he wore a mask, a cosmetic, or any disguise of any form, then the love at first sight triggered would be invalid.

Since Hiro was planning to keep his cosmetics disguise active in the Demon Realm, he could forget about scoring any lucky first-sight triggers.

"You seem to know a lot about this place, little raven," Hiro looked at the black raven on his shoulder, a little interested.

"You know, the sky is the limit for creatures like myself," the raven responded proudly. "If there's something that I wish to know in this stronghold, I'm afraid only my lord's residence can stop me."

"What boastful words!" Hiro exclaimed, a hint of exaggeration in his tone.

The black raven was piqued as it proclaimed loudly, "Try me! Caw! Caw!"

"Well," Hiro rubbed his chin in thought. "I'm new here, so I obviously want a place to stay and do business."

"Easy," the black raven responded. "See that fugitive that bumped into you earlier? Capture them and you'll be rewarded handsomely; it's not impossible to get yourself some property deeds and a startup capture!"

Hiro looked into the distance, and he could see that the goblins had already surrendered the gray-robed figure.

"Isn't it too late already? They've already captured that person," Hiro knitted his brows as he responded.

"Nonsense!" The black raven flapped its wings furiously. "As long as they hadn't sent the captive to the local garrison, those runts can't be considered to have finished the job! Caw! Caw!"

Hiro narrowed his eyes. "I feel like there's more to this than a simple capture order!"

"Caw! Caw! Smart! As expected of the demon I look favorably upon," the black raven was elated.

"It's a game between two families in the stronghold; both offered great rewards for whoever captured that lass. They wouldn't personally interfere, they want to test which family has greater prestige in the stronghold by testing which family the bounty hunter chooses to redeem the reward from!"

Hiro kneaded his forehead. "As expected, it's not that easy. What's the background of this demon lass you mentioned? She seems like a humanoid demon, why is she being targeted like this?"

"Isn't it obvious? She's a fallen aristocrat from a conquered stronghold! Spoils of war! Caw! Caw!"

The black raven flapped its wings, looking anxious. "Hurry and capture her! Snatching her from a group of silly goblins is much easier than contending against what's to come! Caw! Caw!"

Hiro couldn't agree more. Thus, he didn't hesitate any more and stepped in the direction of the commotion.

From a languid pace, his feet picked up speed, and soon, he bolted forward at an alarming rate.

The black raven brandished its claws from the talons and sank them into Hiro's shoulder guard, holding tightly onto dear life while cawing loudly.

"Can I kill at will?"

"Caw! NO! Caw!"

"Tsk!"

…

Hiro's demonic energy exploded out from his body, condensing into three onyx black swords around his body.

Sensing the dense, pure demonic energy coming off the swords, the black raven was shocked.

As expected of great little me, my eye for talent is as sharp as ever! The black raven was elated.

It was shocking when Hiro appeared out of nowhere on the street since he didn't remember him making an entrance, and the alley he exited from was a dead-end.

At first, it thought that this guy was looking for trouble, and decided to stick with him, perhaps it could contribute a little to the stronghold's lord.

However, it didn't expect to hit the jackpot this time—such pure demonic energy must come from a Great Demon lineage, right?

While the black raven was thinking of this, Hiro was light-handed enough not to kill any of the goblins—he cleared a path with the Infinite Sword Matrix by inflicting severe, though not crippling injuries.

Amid the mayhem, he clutched the frail hand of the dragon lass, picked her up in a princess carry, and bolted away from the street.

Deep down, Hiro knew that this was merely the beginning.