ITDG 03

Chapter 3

Trapped in a Damn Game

Dermo woke up.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself inside a dark, damp cave.

It seemed he had dozed off without realizing it.

“Ugh…”

Rolling his shoulders, he stretched his stiff body.
Maybe it was because the ground was hard, but every joint ached.

He turned his head and saw a faint light shining in through the entrance.
It looked like morning, though without a clock, there was no way to tell the time.

Leaning against the rocky wall, Dermo fell into thought.

Last night, he had escaped into this cave to hide from the men chasing him with swords.

“Logout.”

His voice came out weak.
Of course it did—he hadn’t eaten or drunk anything since yesterday.

Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. The logout didn’t work.

“Character window.”

A transparent blue window appeared in front of his eyes.

[Name: Dermo]
Class: Half-Demon
Reputation: 0
Strength: 5 | Stamina: 5 | Agility: 5 | Intelligence: 5

Skills: ,
Authority: Soul Absorption
Unassigned Stat Points: 2

Dermo gave a dry laugh. It was absurd.

He couldn’t log out—but everything else worked.

Character window, skill window, inventory… every menu that used to glitch in the tutorial was now functioning perfectly.

Everything except logout.

“F***ing great…”

He cursed under his breath and shut his eyes tight.

No matter how he looked at it, this wasn’t normal.
He really was trapped inside the game.

He had no illusions that the administrators would save him.
If they could, he would’ve been out already.

At first, he had panicked and denied it, clinging to hope that the devs would fix everything soon.
Then, as time passed, frustration set in.

Why me?
Why the hell me?

He had cursed the useless game masters, harder than he’d ever cursed anyone in his life.

Now though, his emotions had settled.
He was… calm.

He was starting to accept reality.
After all, refusing to face it wouldn’t change a thing.

Keeping his eyes closed, he began sorting through his thoughts quickly.

What should he do now?

The answer came easily.

“Just do what I always do.”

He would treat it like any other game—like all those times he’d cleared every challenge by any means necessary.

“I’ve got one year, right?”

That was the game’s time limit—one in-game year.
If he couldn’t log out before then, this world would become hell itself. Literally.

Demon World wasn’t a figure of speech.
It was the setting of the game—a continent slowly being devoured by hell, where players had to stop demon cultists from summoning archdemons, and survive.

If he didn’t grow stronger before that, he’d die for sure.

Even if this was a game, something deep inside him told him one thing:
Death here would be real.

In Demon World, death meant permanent character deletion.
No respawns. No second chances.

He clenched his jaw.

“Move carefully—but don’t overthink it. As long as I don’t screw around, I won’t die.”

He had played through countless runs on PC and seen every ending.
But there was one big difference this time—he was in the game.

This wasn’t tapping keys or clicking a mouse.
Now he had to fight, run, bleed for real.

His palms were already sweating just thinking about it.

He couldn’t afford to waste a second.
To survive, he had to act fast.

Two goals came to mind immediately.

First: Survive and grow stronger.

No deaths allowed. Not even one.
But hiding away forever wasn’t an option either.
When the final year came, only the strong would survive in that inferno.

He needed to get stronger—fast.

Second: See the game’s ending.

No one outside was likely to fix this.
If there was a way out, it would be through clearing the game itself.

To live, and to escape—he had to reach the end.

“Should I use that strategy…?”

He recalled one of the walkthroughs he’d written himself.
A method that worked for any class—a cheap, efficient strategy.

Normally, he wouldn’t touch such a boring route.
But now?
Now it was about survival.

He needed reliable allies—cheap to recruit, strong enough to grow.
Fighting demons alone wasn’t realistic.

He sighed and opened his eyes.

“…Haa.”

Enough time wasted on regret.

He grabbed the sword beside him and stood up.
Turning toward the cave’s entrance, he stepped into the light.

From now on, he’d have to move faster than anyone else in this world.

But first—

Growl~

His stomach made a miserable noise.

“…Food. Right. Food first.”

* * *

Not far from the cave.

Dermo crouched in a patch of bushes, rustling through the undergrowth.

Rustle. Snap.

He plucked a few small berries and inspected them.
About the size of a fingertip.

He tossed them into his mouth.

They burst sweetly on his tongue, spreading moisture through his dry throat.

Plop. Plop. Crunch.

Like a starving man, he devoured every berry in sight.
After swallowing dozens, the hunger and thirst finally eased.

“Well… that’s better.”

Now that his stomach was full, it was time to grow stronger.

In this game, demons were ranked from 1-star to 7-star.
Normally, 1-stars were just fodder mobs.

But not here.
This was Destruction Difficulty—a level harder than “Hell Mode” in the PC version.

Even a 1-star demon couldn’t be underestimated.

“No grinding, huh…”

Demon World was nicknamed ‘Grind Hell’ by its players.

Unlike other RPGs, there were no levels—only stat increases gained by specific actions.

To raise Strength, swing your sword until your muscles burned.
To raise Intelligence, cast spells until your mana ran dry.

If you wanted to grow fast, you had to risk your life in real combat.

But his class, Half-Demon, was different.
He could only grow by absorbing demon souls.

A high-difficulty class, even for veterans like him.

Still, Dermo clenched his fist and smirked.

“Actually… I like it this way.”

He wasn’t just a veteran—he was a rotten-water-tier player, the kind who’d done everything there was to do.

What others saw as impossible, he saw as an opportunity.

He’d just have to kill demons and steal their souls for quick growth.

First things first, though—he needed to find a village.
Wandering the forest blindly for demons wasn’t efficient.
People meant information—and information was power.

There should be one nearby…

He scanned the forest and walked forward.

When he’d escaped the pursuers, he hadn’t run aimlessly.
He knew this area—it was the territory of a criminal gang from the eastern region, featured in the tutorial.

That meant this was the Eastern Zone—and there was something important located nearby.

But seeing the game world in person was disorienting; landmarks looked different from the screen.

After a few minutes of searching, something caught his eye.

Through the canopy above, sunlight slipped between the leaves and glinted off something red.

Unlike the shaded greenery, a patch of crimson leaves shimmered vividly in the light.

A smile spread across his face.

“Found it.”

Leaves as red as if painted with blood—Red-Eye Herb.

A natural stimulant that rapidly restored mental and physical fatigue just by chewing.

Perfect for cutting rest time and keeping up his pace.

He gathered every Red-Eye Herb in sight, transferring them into his inventory.

[You have acquired 16 Red-Eye Herbs.]

There should be a valley near where these grow…

He followed the faint sound of running water.

About ten minutes later—

Shhhhhhh—

He heard it clearly.

Dermo pushed through the foliage and reached a small stream.
He followed the flow downstream.

If his memory was right, a small village lay that way.

That would be his first base of operations—and also where an essential item for his plan was located.

Biting down on a Red-Eye Herb, he broke into a sprint.

“Hope I’m not too late.”

He had to keep moving—fast—if he wanted to stay alive.

* * *

A scream echoed through the forest.

“UAAAGH! My arm!”
“Hit its right side—urk!”

Mercenary Tom collapsed to the ground, staring blankly as his comrades were torn apart before his eyes.

He didn’t feel sorrow or rage.
They’d only met yesterday—no time for bonds.

Mercenaries lived and died by risk.
All he felt now was helplessness and sheer terror.

Damn it… I can’t die yet…

He trembled violently.
Before him, a pair of glowing red eyes stared back.

It looked like a wolf—but its skull was split in two, and from the gap between, a long tongue dangled obscenely.

Definitely a demon.

“Ah…”

A short sigh escaped him.

He’d known his luck was bad that morning.
A simple “wolf hunt” request had turned into a demon encounter.

Drip. Drop.

Blood dripped from the demon’s tongue—the blood of his now-mangled teammates.

As that writhing tongue flicked through the air like a dancing snake, Tom squeezed his eyes shut.

It would be his blood next.

Whoosh—

The demon’s tongue lashed forward, slicing through the air.

In the pitch-dark of his mind, his life flashed before his eyes.
So this is how I die…

Then—

Thud! KRRRHH!

A sharp impact—and the demon howled.

The tip of its tongue veered off course, brushing Tom’s ear before embedding itself in a nearby tree.

“W-What…?”

He opened his eyes, confused.

The demon was thrashing wildly, pawing at its face.
Its right eye was bleeding.

Tom glanced down.
At the creature’s feet lay a bloodstained rock.

Someone… threw that?

Who the hell had the guts to throw a rock at a demon?
And more importantly—who else was here?

Before he could think further, a man stepped out from the shadows.

Despite being covered in dirt and mud, his golden hair still shone faintly.

With calm, determined eyes, the man charged straight at the demon.