1 Selected

The sun was beginning to rise on a Friday morning. Not that Kiyoshi would have known. Normally he would have attended his university classes but he had been feeling under the weather which was unusual for him.

Kiyoshi, typically a healthy young man had fallen ill to a cold that had been going around campus. Likely one of the teammates from his track team had passed it on to him.

He had been competing in track through high school and was luckily scouted by a university that held a reputable track team. The only downside was that this university was quite far from where he lived and so he knew no one in the area. As he was a first year at the university and knowing hardly anyone he began playing video games.

A studious worker in high school he had almost never had the chance to play video games and discovered that they made for an excellent hobby. Among his favorite games were Devilkind, a game about playing the role of a devil in a apocalyptic world, and Shattered Earth, a tactical game involving conquering earth through various forms of deceit and brutality.

Enjoying games of a more realistic and brutal nature he had given himself the in game name of DemonAmongHumans. Of course he didn't really consider himself a demon, but oftentimes playing the bad guy was just more fun.

He laughed as he considered his good fortune, although he was feeling ill this morning he had managed to pick up a new copy of a game that had just come out that he hadn't had a chance to play yet. The game was called Monster Hunter it featured a battle arena where players could either fight as the hunter or the monster and featured customizable characters and classes.

He sat down in front of his computer and turned on the game.

…LOADING…

The intro started playing

A hunter dressed in a black trench coat holding a spear accompanied by a second hunter holding a torch in one hand and a short sword in the other were cautiously entering a dark cave. The hunters, both men, had the look of grizzled warriors that had seen their fair share of battle.

Then suddenly a demon stepped into the torchlight. Puffing his chest proudly he was wearing only a loincloth and held no weapons, although he did possess horns and long claws at the end of his fingers.

The hunters momentarily stiffened then positioned themselves as a unit to fight. The demon sprang closer towards his prey closing the distance rapidly. His claws outstretched towards the first hunters throat only to be forced away at spear point. The hunter holding the short sword began stabbing at the demon while the hunter with the spear kept his point fixated on the demons chest preventing him from engaging. The demon realizing he can't win the fight of attrition desperately attempts to leap over the spear point to attack the short sword hunter only to find himself impaled. As the demon lay dying on the end of the spear he seemed to look up and stare directly at you as he whispered, "Will you avenge me?"

Shaking off chills from the intro you can't help but ruefully reflect on how they had battled against the demon two on one. Even though it was just a game his blood boiled at the thought of it. Despite it being a game where you could play as monster or hunter it was clear that like many other games the "good" guys will always win.

Having seen the intro before though he realized they must have added to it prior to official release. As he didn't remember the demon asking to be avenged.

The Home Screen of the game had several options:

Start

Customize New Character

Tutorial

Settings

Kiyoshi paused and then selected Customize New Character. The game prompted him for a name and so he typed in his trusty DemonAmongHumans username. Next the game asked for hunter or monster, without hesitation he selected monster.

Under the monster category their were a few different monster options to choose from. After perusing his options he settled on a demon race. Next were class options that were tailored to this race and he had a few to choose from

Fighter: a class that specializes in melee attacks preferred weapons include long swords and spears

Assassin: a class that specializes in stealth, sneaking, and traps specializing in stealth attacks and ambush's preferred weapons include daggers and short swords

Mage: a class that specializes in magical abilities typically using cunning and mana to overcome their enemies preferred weapons include magic staffs

Typically playing a fighter, after watching that intro of what he could only assume was a fighter he decided to select mage.

Character customization appeared on the screen he decided on Male, and made him tall with only a slightly reddish skin color, his horns were black and sharp coming straight out of his skull. He customized the body so it was muscular and athletic with six pack abs and powerful arms.

Satisfied with his appearance he selected save and exited back to the main menu, then Kiyoshi selected Start. At that very moment a magic rune appeared beneath him and flashed brightly rendering him both blind and unconscious.

"The Demon Lord selected you" whispered a soft voice…