The eyes of the guards who tried to stop her,
Lost focus for a moment, and then they opened a path for her.
The same thing happened all the way until she reached the Queen's throne.
Nobody tried to stop her, and she didn't even ask for 'address' in this huge castle, as if it wasn't her first time coming here.
When she reached the big hall and opened the door, a young girl, 16-17 years old, was already sitting on the throne, waiting for her to come.
The old lady kneeled at a 10-meter distance from her and said with lowered head,
"Greetings, Princess!"
The young girl nodded nonchalantly,
"Greetings.
Give me the item you brought."
From her actions, it was obvious that she was under the charm too.
Like everybody else in this castle.
Lilith commented,
"This charm is like a spider-web, connecting everyone together in certain situations to act in a certain way.
Showing the 'Queen card' triggered this certain chain reaction, and forced everyone to bring the Queen or the card here after seeing either of them."
The old lady immediately stood up and walked to the throne to give her the card while the princess stretched her hand to receive it.
But when the princess was going to grab the card, as if someone pulled her hand, she stood up from her seat and walked away from the throne.
At the same time, the old lady's hand was pulled towards the throne,
And while both ladies were looking at each other in confusion, the old lady sat down on the throne in place of the princess.
*DING*
The old lady received a notification at this moment.
And the princess, after a moment of confusion, turned to her and said,
"Why did you summon me, royal mother?"
The old lady, whose 'charm' broke just now, bit her lips...
She remembered everything that led her to this place the moment the charm broke.
So she coughed and said,
"Just wanted to see you.
You can leave now."
And the princess left obediently, like a puppet.
The old lady then checked her infopad and nodded,
"I indeed became the new Queen..."
Then she looked around, as if looking for something.
But didn't see anything, so she said,
"Mr. Mayor, I'm not under the charm anymore..."
And the next moment, she felt something sharp on her neck, which was Little Mortal,
that seemed ready to kill her if she was still under the charm.
The old lady gulped nervously when she saw the little minion from hell appear beside her,
and he was looking at her with his cold eyes, as if he were still suspicious and ready to silence her at any moment.
After 10 minutes of silence, he finally nodded and put his sword away.
"Wise Elderly Number 1, welcome back.
Oh, sorry, I should call you Queen now!"
The old lady wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and said,
"This Queen is your 'soldier', Mr. Mayor!"
Little Mortal chuckled,
"Let's stop joking around.
Do you know what's going on, or should I explain it to you?"
And turned the two bodies visible again.
The old lady was at a loss.
She felt that 10 minutes of 'joking around' took away 100 years of her life!
She wondered if in the underworld, joking meant to put a sharp blade to someone's neck and stare at their souls for 10 straight minutes?
While helpless, she gritted her teeth and, after taking a look at the former Queen and the man with familiar equipment, shook her head,
"I don't know what's going on..."
She really didn't.
She only knew that this wanted criminal somehow got his hands on the Queen and a bounty hunter,
And then used her 'unquestionable loyalty' towards the Queen to figure out what to do next.
He pretended to be a 'messenger' and not the culprit himself, so she cooperated with him.
If he told her the Queen was kidnapped by himself, the 'charmed' version of herself would instead backfire and even attack him on the spot to save the Queen.
The old lady tried her best to ignore the part that she took his infopad and used it as she pleased for her 'Queen's' safety.
But how he ended up in this situation in the first place was a mystery to her.
Little Mortal, who saw her clueless, explained to her what happened.
The old lady took a deep breath after hearing about the mess that led to this...
She thought her boss was the unluckiest one in all of this because he had so many points that were lost now.
But luckily, he bought a lot of soldier packs.
"Mr. Mayor, as the current Queen, I can naturally invite anyone here.
So how about we eliminate them all here?"
Little Mortal nodded,
"Alright, you make a trap here for the rank 1 and the tycoons.
But let me handle those bounty hunters outside.
I don't want to risk a sun card blowing up the city."
And after giving her the 'trap cards', he left for the first bounty hunter that the 'New Citizens' found.
.....
Second Planet - Day 10.
When the 'fake' sun rose on the horizon, the elimination round was completed.
Inside the Queen's castle,
Little Mortal, who sent the previous Queen, the tycoons, the rank 1 participant, and the bounty hunters back to the 'waiting room',
had breakfast with the new Queen now.
"Miss Queen, how about you take care of this place, so I can go take a look at the Demon King territory?"
The old lady nodded,
"As you order, Mr. Mayor."
Little Mortal was going to say something else, but both of their infopads made a *Ding* sound.
It seems the system has finished checking the source of the exploit from last night.
[ - System Notification -
Alert: An unexpected system crash has occurred, initially flagged as a potential exploit related to point activity.
Investigation Update: After a detailed review, the cause has been identified as an internal game error — not a player exploit.
Temporary Restrictions: As a precaution, the shop and point system have been locked to prevent further issues.
Next Steps: The situation has been escalated. The final decision is pending admin review. Normal operations will resume once the admin provides further instructions.
In this period of time, Points are only calculated to allow participants to advance to the next planet, and it will be recorded in the system database only. ]
Reading the notification, the old lady frowned.
She knew the reason for this error in the system was this little mayor,
who bet a number that was too big, and when it was multiplied by 500, it exceeded the total limit set in the system.
So the first prediction for the system was that someone exploited it.
But after checking all the records of the two planets, or maybe even all of the planets,
The system reached the conclusion that the responsible one, who was the rank 1 participant of this season's first planet, didn't do anything wrong.
He simply did everything by the rules.
As an old newborn with many years of experience,
She knew this system had a record of every participant's move from the moment they entered any planet until the end of the season.
Nothing could hide from it.
So after finding the culprit and checking everything he or anyone related to him did, the system concluded that it wasn't anyone's fault.
But now, the system doesn't know how to deal with such a situation.
There was actually a participant with a ridiculous amount of points that it didn't have any pre-programmed way to deal with.
That's why it passed the 'judgment' to this so-called 'admin'.
The Old lady thought this Admin was someone from the level 3 civilization.
But for a certain group who knew this 'admin' was actually 'Hypermind', this message had a different meaning!
Lilith said in wonder,
"We know the admin is Hypermind, which won't do anything in other dimensions because of that 1-year limit.
So, does it mean this situation is going to continue for close to a year?"
Little Mortal took out the bounty hunter's infopad and checked the message he sent last night to the unknown contact.
The message was still 'on the way', and hadn't reached its destination!
The Crystal vibrated, saying,
Lilith was surprised,
"Those coincidences led to this?
One year of no communication with the outside for bounty hunters?"
And the notebook finally nodded and thought to itself,
Boss's skill won't trigger so many times back-to-back for no reason!>
And the most confused one was Little Mortal himself.
He knew fate wasn't even aware of his existence, let alone doing anything for him.
In his guardian territory, it might be effective to find some clues of his existence through Guardian law, but here?
That was impossible....
The old lady, when she saw her boss turn quiet, said,
"We can slow down a little, maybe?
We'll wait until the admin decides what to do.
This way, your points for this planet will be calculated too, even if there is a reduction.
As you know, each planet's main event starts with a cool-down to allow others keep up with them.
So, you can be sure that for the next 480 days,
The third planet's main event, whatever it is this season, won't begin."
Little Mortal nodded,
"Yes, you are right.
We need to speed up."
The old lady was shocked.
"No, Mr. Mayor, I said to slow-'
But Little Mortal interrupted her,
"I know, I know.
I heard you the first time.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
You said there is no time to waste.
And we need to use this opportunity."
The old lady wanted to cry,
'That wasn't what I said...'
Little Mortal continued,
"Now, tell me what else is new?
If there is nothing else to talk about, gather everyone so I can leave while you stay here."
The old lady bit her lips in frustration.
This guy's brain seems problematic.
"Well... Last night, I went through the message history of the former Queen and found out about her real mission here..."
And she told him about her mission to plant chips in people's bodies in secret.
Little mortal though, just sneered,
"And why would I even care?"
And left after rolling his eyes at her, said,
"Remove the charm effect from wise elderly number 2."
Helpless, the new Queen gathered everyone outside and retrieved them to their cards after removing the charm from the wise-looking elderly.
With what she did last night under the effect of the charm, all of their 'soldiers' were under the charm effect now...
This underworld minion not killing her for making this mess was a miracle in itself.
Not long after, Mr. Mayor, on his new motorcycle, left the city.
Only the wise elderly number 1, in the role of Queen, stayed behind, ready for the day that the Demon King attacks the city...
.....
Second Planet - Day 11.
Demon King's territory.
After midnight.
Inside a dark and scary castle at the center of the Demon King's territory,
A scary man with a long black beard was sitting on a throne made of human bones and skulls.
On each side of him, three scary-looking men and women, with scary armors and huge weapons, were standing.
The whole scene resembled an image because they were not moving at all, as if frozen in time.
At this moment, all seven people suddenly fell asleep.
The scary man's head dropped, and the six scary people fell to the ground.
A voice sounded,
"So embarrassing...
This whole territory was 'offline'!
Is it because there is no participant here?
They were just 'paused' for the next 479 days?"
And a small figure with a gun in hand appeared.
Little mortal, while disappointed by the game quality, dragged the 'Demon King' away from his throne.
This guy didn't have an info pad, and there was only a 'Demon King' card with him.
Little mortal then turned the Demon King invisible, summoned the wise elderly number 2, and before he figured out what was going on and the Demon King's charm could force him to act,
Little Mortal gave him the 'Demon King card' and pushed him onto the throne.
After entering the territory of the Demon King, all of the newborn cards became 'unusable' due to the Queen's charm.
Except this wise old man, who wasn't charmed anymore, and became the new Demon King right then when he sat on the throne with the Demon King card.
At this moment, the old man received two notifications.
One of them was the notification that said he was replacing the Demon King position.
And little mortal received two notifications too.
One was his 'unusable' newborns, who also received a second charm, allowing him to choose between the Queen's charm or the Demon King's charm to be in effect.
And the second notification was the same for both of them.
[ - System Notification -
Special Event Triggered: Secret King
Participant: Mortal, the Strongest
Status: Two subordinates detected — Demon King and Queen.
Charm Effect: No unaffected participants detected on this planet.
Special Event Activated: Secret King
Objective: Orchestrate the tale of broken love and buried hatred between the Demon King and Queen.
Earn points based on the number of living creatures that perish during the event.
Bonus: Due to the absence of competitors, you are eligible to claim the season-end reward ahead of schedule.
The story's outcome is yours to control.]
The new Demon King and Little Mortal looked at each other blankly.
The season was basically over with what just happened.
Lilith on his shoulder said,
"I didn't see any sinners at the level of the higher beings in the Demon King's territory.
They are all citizens that you can just leave here."
And the Crystal confirmed.
Little mortal looked around the hall, then said,
"Let's go, Mr. Demon King.
We don't need anyone from here..."
The wise elderly number 2 nodded speechlessly and went inside the card.
Little mortal, with the secret king title, walked out of the hall and left while muttering,
"I wonder if there is a good back-and-forth conversation between a Demon King and a Queen in my notebook."
And the excited notebook, which understood the meaning, immediately wrote one for him.
After glancing at the Demon King army, which were 'frozen in time' living creatures, he left without paying attention to them.
He then drove back towards the Queen's city and, around evening, arrived there.
He went straight to the Queen, and because of his secret identity as the Secret king, no one stopped him.
The old lady saw him coming in, stood up,
"Greetings, secret king."
She received the same system notification about the secret event, too.
Little mortal nodded at her and, after summoning the new Demon King, said,
"Sup, Miss Queen?
Ready for your fight to the death?"
The old lady looked at the old man and nodded awkwardly.
Little mortal cleared his throat and said,
"As you know, I am a real fan of democracy."
The two nodded, while denying his claim in their mind.
'Do you even know what democracy is?'
"That's why we need to vote for who wins the battle between the Queen and the Demon King.
To make it simple, we say our opinions at the same time, alright?"
The two nodded again.
If his democracy was his obvious 'forced opinion', then 'dictatorship' needed to reevaluate its current identity.
"Alright, in 3.
3, 2, 1!"
The old lady and the old man naturally said,
"Demon King wins."
Who else could they choose so this little minion doesn't lose any soldiers, while the 'sinners' get robbed?
And at the same time, little mortal said,
"The Queen will be the winner."
And the two looked at him in shock!
Little mortal shook his head in disappointment,
"Sigh, it can't be helped.
I respect your decisions, and this election, with two votes for Demon King and one vote for Queen, is officially coming to an end.
The winner is... Demon King!"
Then he looked at the 'Queen' and said helplessly,
"Sorry, I tried my best to help you win, but alas..."
The two wise elderly wanted to think he was just joking with them, but they weren't sure...
Was there a hidden meaning behind all of this?
Or was he trying to say his 'democracy' isn't rigged?
"Alright.
Let's plan the battle, and how it should play."
The two took a deep breath and nodded.
Little mortal gave each of them a paper with their roles and the lines they should say for the act.
One look and they were speechless...
Why did he even vote if this was the 'storyline' and the ending...?
"Now that you know about your roles, let's take care of the two armies."
The two nodded blankly.
"I will be the commander of the Demon King's army.
And the Queen's army can have a random commander, I don't care who.
Just remember not to add any of my future soldiers or citizens that can distract them in the mix."
The old lady nodded.
His future soldiers were the newborns with participants.
And the citizens were poor and useless in his eyes because they didn't have anything that he could rob.
If they were in the army with the newborns, they were only a distraction for them.
He only wanted to rob and kill the participants.
"And tell your army to move in lines and only fight on the ground.
I'll do the same with our side."
The old lady didn't know why he wanted to fight on the ground, but nodded again.
After discussing the details of how the ending of the war should play out, Little Mortal left.
....
Half an hour later, around the evening, Little Mortal 'deployed' the Demon King outside of the city and removed the Queen's charm from all of his 'soldiers'.
Then he 'summoned' his strongest army of newborns to tell them what to do in the upcoming battle.
The next moment,
An army of newborns, all in black suits and black ties with sunglasses, appeared in front of him.
Little Mortal, who saw his 'strongest army' for the first time in their 'army uniform',
which was a suit like his own, and their sunglasses, which were their 'participant detector', looked at them in disbelief.
Even Lilith, the notebook, and the crystal were at a loss.
These people's choice of their army uniform was indeed unique.
None of them knew these newborns did this because they wanted to curry favor with the underworld psychopath and increase their chance of survival...
As if he couldn't believe what he was seeing, Little Mortal rubbed his eyes a couple of times, but the result still didn't change.
He gulped down and walked a few steps back.
Then he frowned, brought out his info-pad, and sent a message to everyone.
The newborns all received a message, and because the *Ding* was specific to their boss, they all immediately read it.
A couple of seconds later, they started moving and flying around, and Little Mortal looked away while turning his back to them.
5 minutes later, when he didn't hear any movements behind him, he looked at his army again.
This time, a proud smile appeared on his face, and he nodded in approval.
"Now that's what I call a real army."
Now, the whole army was in formation.
Women on one side, men on the other.
Those with short stature at the front, the tall ones at the back.
And the elderly group was leading a part of the army each.
Ignoring the 'kids' in the front row, who weren't really kids, the whole army gave a feeling of discipline.
"Good.
Now, you, sir.
Please follow me."
Little Mortal pointed at a random elderly man to go with him.
Not long after, they arrived in the vicinity of the Queen's territory.
Little Mortal changed the newborn's charm to 'Demon King'.
Because a newborn under the Demon King wasn't allowed to enter the Queen's territory for another 479 days, a barrier appeared and blocked their path.
On the barrier, a round seal was now showing off its prowess, as if saying, 'nothing can break me'.
Little Mortal, seeing the 'bravery' of the seal, nodded in approval and fired at it.
*BANG* And after that, there was another 6 *BANG* in some unknown places in a 100-meter radius.
The arrogant barrier broke miserably.
This time, as a level 2, Little Mortal didn't let go of the gun and just offset the recoil with a backflip,
"Alright, let's go back."
And on his way back, he took a card out and added it to his handgun.
The elderly man, who recognized the card, looked away as if he didn't see anything.
But the corner of his eye started twitching.
At this moment,
An angry female voice echoed through the Queen's territory.
"Who dares to break into my territory!"
And the Demon King, who knew the 'story' had begun, shouted back,
"It’s been a long time, Elysia."
Many brainwashed, charmed heroes immediately followed the Queen who appeared in the sky outside the city.
Little Mortal hurried back to the army and stood in the group of little ones in the front row, excitedly.
If he weren't the only one with a red tie, you would easily ignore him.
The Demon King flew to the sky,
"I almost didn’t recognize you — the crown suits you…
Though it does little to soften that ice in your eyes."
The old Queen snorted,
"And you, Malrik. Still draped in shadow, still mistaking power for presence.
You dare step into my kingdom uninvited — why are you here?"
And waved her hand.
Behind her, heroes in a group of thousands flew out and landed on the ground in an orderly manner.
The Demon King, Malrik, frowned,
"I’m not here for pleasantries. I’ve come for her. Our daughter."
The Queen, Elysia, raised an eyebrow and said coldly,
"Our daughter? You speak of her as though you ever had a claim.
You abandoned her, Malrik — you abandoned us."
And signaled the 'heroes' below to be ready.
All of the participants activated their cards and took out their melee weapons.
The Demon King said mockingly,
"I left because you made it impossible to stay!
Your obsession with control, with your precious kingdom’s “purity”— it drove me away.
I would not bow to your court like a leashed beast."
And his army, too, brought out their melee weapons.
The whole demon army had the same equipment, just in different sizes.
The Queen frowned,
"And I would not watch my realm burn under your unchecked wrath.
You think I didn't see the way your power twisted those around you? How even your love came with chains?"
The Demon King chuckled darkly,
"And yet, it seems you kept the one chain that mattered most — our child.
Eighteen years, Elysia. Eighteen years without a father, without knowing her true bloodline.
You kept her from me — a pawn in your endless game of pride."
The Queen said with anger,
"I kept her safe. Safe from your world of fire and fury.
She is a princess of this kingdom, not some heir to your demonic throne. She belongs here."
The Demon King answered back with anger,
"No, Elysia. She belongs to me now.
She is of age — her blood sings with power she cannot yet understand.
You would have her waste away in a golden cage, blind to her true potential."
The old Queen rebuked,
"Her potential will not be tainted by your darkness.
I will not let you drag her into the pit you call a kingdom."
The Demon King, while snarling,
"And I will not stand idly by while you clip her wings.
She is coming with me — tonight."
And the old Queen shouted,
"She is not yours to take!"
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of heroes below shouted all at the same time,
"SHE IS NOT YOURS TO TAKE!"
Little Mortal, who saw the scene, gasped in shock!
"These people didn't have a line to say, but they cooperated with her! Nice job!"
And on the Demon King's side, everyone in his army all shouted together,
"THEN STOP US!"
Little Mortal, who heard 1.5 million people shouting behind him, gasped for the second time!
"What in the world—"
And then, the two sides started marching towards each other.
1.5 million army of the Demon King, against 0.5 million army of the Queen!
1.5 million disciplined and fully equipped army, against 0.5 million charmed participants who didn't have time to arm themselves.
As the two armies got closer, the Queen's soldiers unsheathed their weapons.
On the other side, the Demon King's soldiers, only having one hand on the handle of their swords, didn't unsheathe their swords.
The plan was different on their side.
They needed to wait for a *BANG*, and then do what they were told to.
*BOOM*
The Queen and Demon King's collision in the sky above made a shock wave that was the sign to start the battle.
And down below, when the two armies reached a 50-meter distance from each other, *BANG*.
A loud *BANG* sounded, causing confusion among the participants and trembling the hearts of the newborns who knew what it meant, prompting all of them to stop in their tracks.
The next moment, a head exploded in the first row of the Queen's army.
Then, behind the exploded head, another 12 heads exploded.
After that, in 13 lines, as if a huge and unstoppable iron ball was on the rampage,
many more soldiers got hit by something, and each of them lost a body part depending on their luck, height, and stature.
The two elderly 'fighting' in the sky, seeing the scene below, shook their heads.
Their boss wanted to try his handgun's 'limit', so he tried it on the participants.
The two sighed in relief.
It's good that he didn't use it on them...
Down below, the newborns who saw the 'result' and knew their boss was done with his experiment let go of their swords and brought out their guns instead.
*BANG* x 1.5 million.
The supposed melee fight suddenly turned into a gun fight, but only for one side.
It was as if two armies from two different eras faced each other.
One from the past, one from the future.
The participants were dumbfounded.
First, the gunshot that they didn't even know how many died because of it, and how strong it was.
And now these 1.5 million people who brought out their guns!
If it wasn't because of the Queen's charm, they would be on the run by now.
Who was crazy enough to fight such a battle?
In the midst of this chaos, a certain Little Boss rubbed his chin in wonder,
"I'd really like to know how many targets it took to stop the bullets?"
The Little Boss was naturally Little Mortal, who asked his soldiers to let him do his experiment first, and then start their killing.
The Crystal vibrated, saying,
The one that went through 25 targets didn't hit any 'bones' on its way.
The handgun is still limited by the power restriction on the planet.>
Little Mortal, who heard the answer, as if disappointed, changed to a sword and joined the battlefield.
He only allowed his soldiers to use one magazine, and after that, they weren't allowed to waste more bullets.
But even that one magazine killed around 50% of the participants while they tried their best to block the bullets.
Hence, not long after, the melee fight began.
In normal circumstances, the Demon King's army was supposed to be twice as large as the participants.
And the participants had their newborns and citizens to fight alongside them.
But now, the Demon King's army was 1.5 million newborns, and the original 1 million citizens who were supposed to be the real army weren't even here.
The 500,000 participants were essentially alone because a certain Queen asked them to leave their newborns behind in the city to protect the princess.
And for 'Love', they did what they were told willingly.
That's why, even though more than 3.5 million newborns were left in the city as reinforcement,
These participants out here all got slaughtered under the sword of the Demon King's army, which couldn't be killed at all because of their invulnerability cards...
The 1000x invulnerability cards weren't only for show.
And not only that, even the old Queen herself was using the charm against her own 'heroes'.
She didn't want to waste too many invulnerability cards of her real teammates.