Deep in the heart of the Valley of Eternal Darkness, amidst shattered columns and the skeletal remains of ancient structures that hadn't seen the sun for eons, the air suddenly shuddered.
In the middle of ruins that seemed to whisper of forgotten tragedies stood a monumental altar of violet obsidian. A blinding light erupted, and above the altar, a figure materialized - the very embodiment of predatory elegance.
The figure descended slowly, her gigantic purple wings moving with unnatural grace as they sliced through the murky air. Her silhouette was tall and statuesque; her pale, marbled skin shimmered in the violet glow, and her curly black hair billowed around her horns like living fire.
As her feet, armed with sharp talons and armored scales, touched the ground, the purple membranes of her wings folded behind her with a soft, leathery rustle.
Lilith straightened up, her blood-red pupils immediately scanning the surroundings. She looked at the altar, then at her hands, where the violet scales glinted with a matte finish.
"So, this is where I begin..." she whispered, her new, velvety voice echoing through the rubble. She turned slowly in place, her expression falling as she took in the sheer scale of the destruction. "Dammit, this place is a total wreck..."
Before she could sink into her complaints, a translucent system window materialized in the gloom before her face. At the top, an elegant script read:
[ PLAYER MENU ]
Lilith tilted her head slightly, one of her curved horns cutting the air. "Player Menu?" she repeated, touching the interface with a finger.
A massive, complex system of options unfolded before her, looking like the most advanced RPG HUD she'd ever seen. Her eyes darted across the icons.
"Chat Menu? Status Menu? Trade Menu? So I can communicate with others? And trade? Hmmm... I didn't expect that. I thought I'd be completely alone against the world."
Driven by pure curiosity, she accidentally tapped an icon shaped like a golden crown with a black talon. The window instantly reloaded.
[ CURRENT NUMBER OF DEMON KINGS: 10,000,000 ]
Lilith's eyes snapped wide.
"Ten million?! There are that many of us?!" she cried out, her wings twitching instinctively. "Wait..."
She furrowed her brow, remembering the initial announcement about fourteen billion beings.
"If there are only ten million of us, what about the rest? Does that mean everyone else is a Hero?"
She shook her head, her black hair brushing against the violet armor on her chest.
"No, that's impossible. A balance like that wouldn't make sense. If there were a thousand Heroes for every one of us, we'd be dead within hours. It must be that we're scattered across different worlds, and those fourteen billion are the sum of all players across every dimension..."
She shook the thought away, deciding to leave cosmology for later. She began feverishly searching for a "Heroes" tab, wanting to check their numbers, but the menu remained silent on the subject.
"So that's how it is..." she muttered, clenching her hand into a fist. "I can communicate with and get info on other Demon Kings, but I know nothing about the Heroes. I have to assume the worst: that their numbers are at least as large as ours, if not larger."
She tapped the chat button. The screen was immediately flooded by an avalanche of chaotic messages blurring past at dizzying speeds:
"I transmigrated into a disgusting monster! Is this some kind of joke?!"
"Help! I'm trapped in some kind of cave!"
"Haha! All you animals deserve this! I'm the Lizard-Demon King now! I'll conquer the world! I'll destroy everything!"
"Lizard-Demon King? Then why am I just a Slime-Demon King?! The system hates me!"
"Slime isn't even that bad. I ended up as the Cockroach-Demon King... have you seen my legs?!"
"So the Demon King type is random? Did anyone get something normal?!"
"I'm so hungry. It's just desert everywhere. There's nothing here. If any boss wants to give me some food, I'd be very grateful! Please!"
Lilith looked at the small number "3" in the top corner of the chat window. She clicked it, ignoring the moans of despair and outbursts of aggression from her fellow sufferers for a moment. The system displayed a brief message:
[ You may only send three free messages per day. ]
She looked at the endless spam and smiled crookedly.
Even with a three-message limit, with ten million players, this chat is just one giant dumpster fire, she thought, watching the entries roll by.
Some were shocked by their new forms, others completely despondent over their situation. There were those panicking in the face of hunger, and those who - like the Lizard King - had become intoxicated by their sudden power and were already planning massacres.
Lilith sighed heavily, her armor rising with the deep breath.
"Everyone reacts differently... some want to conquer, others just want to survive the night. And me?" She looked at her murderous talons and the ruins around her. "I have to find a way to make sure those ten million don't become nine million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine..."
Lilith leaned against the edge of the violet altar, her heavy wings twitching restlessly as her gaze lingered on the last chat messages, where desperation met the absurd.
She realized then that this game was unfair from the start; while she had landed in ruins with a powerful lineage, thousands of other Demon Kings had been dropped into absolute wastelands without a drop of water, their only companions the scorching sun or eternal frost.
Some, however, had the luck of no longer being biological - those reborn as Skeleton or Wraith Kings could mock hunger and thirst, sitting on their ruined thrones without needing to scavenge, giving them a massive head start in the race for survival.
Lilith bit her lip. Her red eyes flared as one word from the chat - "food" - struck her consciousness like an alarm bell, sending a strange, hollow gnawing through her stomach.
"Wait... if I'm not undead, that means I have to eat... but what exactly do Succubi eat?" she wondered.
Immediately, fragments of spicy novels and adult manga she'd once glimpsed flashed through her mind - scenes where succubi fed on "life essence" obtained in very specific, physical ways.
Her cheeks turned a deep shade of crimson in a split second, almost matching the color of her wings. She began shaking her head violently, her dark tresses slapping against her face to banish those embarrassing images.
"No, no, no! There has to be another way. Maybe they eat fruit? Or... or some kind of mana from the air?" she rasped to the empty ruins.
She quickly closed the chat window to avoid tempting fate and instead, with a trembling talon, called up the Status Menu, hoping to find some answers there.
[ STATUS MENU ]
NAME: Lilith
LEVEL: 1
RACE: PRIMORDIAL SUCCUBUS MONARCH (Rare Demon King Race)
[ BASE STATS ]
HP: 400
MP: 200
Strength: 10
Agility: 40
Stamina: 30
Charisma: 100
[ SKILLS ]
[Human Mask] (Inactive)
[Succubus Endurance] (Inactive)
[Succubus Desire] (Inactive)
[Will Control] (Inactive)
[Beginner Anti-Magic] (Inactive)
ANALYSIS
[ POINTS & TALENTS ]
Skill Points: 10
Talents: -
Lilith stared at the numbers with a mix of disbelief and amusement. Her lips curled into that specific, lopsided smile as she realized how much her new nature deviated from any combat norm.
"I should have expected this... out of all my stats, Charisma is the highest, starting right at a hundred, while the rest barely crawl around forty," she muttered, sliding a talon over the glowing crown icon.
"Though on the other hand, if the stats of those poor slime and bug bastards are as low as I suspect, even with my 'ten' in strength, I could probably crush them with my bare hands."
She was right; the advantage her Rare Race provided was almost overwhelming at this stage. She was starting from a level that low-class Demon Kings could only dream of.
However, the system was ruthless - this initial dominance was merely a sign-up bonus. In this world, every Demon King, even one born as a lowly rat, possessed the unique ability to break racial limits. With enough time, cunning, and the blood of enemies, even the weakest player could evolve into a deity of destruction.
If Lilith rested on her laurels, trusting only her innate charisma and rare bloodline, time would quickly strip away her power. Her lead would vanish the moment she faced someone who fought for every stat point in the mud and dust.
"A hundred points of charisma... does that mean I just have to look at someone and they'll fall at my feet?" she mused, squaring her powerful, violet breasts and feeling her armor creak under their weight.
"But these skills are inactive. And what about Talents? Why don't I have any?"
Lilith scanned the newly opened section of the interface, noticing the system clearly separated Skills from Talents, giving the whole thing an even stronger RPG feel. She clicked the Talents tab out of curiosity, but instead of a list of options, a brief, enigmatic description appeared:
[Talents are unique traits of a being, acquired by meeting specific environmental conditions, performing extraordinary feats, or surviving extreme situations.]
"Meeting specific conditions?" Lilith muttered, her brain pulsing from the information overload. "That's a hell of a broad definition. What does that even mean? If I survive a lava bath, do I get fire resistance? Or if I seduce a hundred knights, do I get a charisma bonus?"
She furrowed her brow, trying to imagine the most absurd scenarios for gaining talents in the devastated landscape of the Valley of Eternal Darkness. She shook her head, pushing those visions aside to focus on something more tangible - her skills.
Seeing that the only active function was Analysis, she shifted her gaze to the list of locked abilities and noticed a pulse next to the counter: "Skill Points: 10."
She tapped the number, and the system immediately threw up an explanation:
[You may use your available points to permanently unlock selected skills of your race. After activating all available skills for a given stage, the player's level will increase to 2, unlocking the second-tier Demon King development tree.]
"Well, at least that's a clear and concise explanation, without all that gibberish about 'conditions,'" Lilith stated, nodding slowly. Her powerful black horns cut the air with a faint whistle.
She began analyzing the list, but her enthusiasm quickly died when she realized the system hadn't bothered to provide any descriptions of what these powers actually did. She stood before rows of names that could mean everything or nothing, forced into a guessing game where her survival was the stake.
"Great, so I have to choose blindly," she smiled crookedly, her red eyes narrowing in irritation.
"Succubus Endurance? I can probably run longer or... well, you know. Desire? That sounds like a straight path to becoming a living magnet for trouble. And Will Control probably requires more mana than I currently have..."
She sighed heavily, feeling her breasts heave in the violet armor, and looked at the first name on the list: Human Mask.
Although her new body was incredibly strong, predatory, and - let's be honest - deadly sexy in a demonic way, Lilith still felt the echo of the girl who had been drinking coffee and worrying about work deadlines only this morning.
"Well, I might be the Primordial Succubus Monarch now, but inside, I still feel like Lilith... I feel human," she whispered, a hint of melancholy in her voice.
"This 'Human Mask' will probably let me go back to my normal look, so I can rest for a moment from all these talons, scales, and wings that must weigh a hundred kilos. And it'll be easier to trick someone by playing the helpless woman instead of parading around with horns out."
Driven by that internal human reflex, she clicked her black talon on the skill icon.
[ DO YOU WISH TO USE 10 SKILL POINTS TO UNLOCK: HUMAN MASK? ]
"Yes. Confirm," she said firmly. The violet glow reacted instantly, washing over her body with a new wave of energy.