IPERIML 4

Chapter 4

It was a sight I’d never seen nor heard of in my life.

For the first time, I finally understood what people meant when they said their ‘heart was leaping right out of their throat.’

And clearly, I wasn’t the only one left utterly stunned.

When Hakar first appeared, his pale blue eyes had been completely hollow and lifeless, but now they flickered with a sudden wave of emotion.

The destination of his gaze was the melted, unrecognizable remains of Morckald. Hakar couldn’t tear his eyes away from the pile.

“This… has never…”

“…happened… before…”

For some reason, I could completely understand how he felt.

Even through the glitching—his voice cutting in and out, low and rough every time his form faded and reappeared—it was more than enough to convey his raw emotion.

It was pure shock and confusion.

“…What…” “…are…”

Then, our eyes met.

It was no illusion. Hakar’s eyes were locked firmly onto mine.

While surprise still lingered on his face, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He held that posture, scanning me up and down as if trying to gauge who or what I was.

It only lasted a fraction of a second.

Before either of us could react, a massive wall of text materialized right between us. Without missing a beat, both Hakar and I turned our attention straight toward it.

BEEP—!

[Auto-Save Standby Mode]

• Unresolved sequence requires cleanup! [Entering Pending State]

Once again, our eyes locked.

“No way…”

“…You.”

“Can you see these floating words too?”

“How…”

Hakar was still glitching out like a frozen game screen, making a proper conversation almost impossible. But the message got through crystal clear.

It was an unspoken exchange: ‘You too?’ ‘Wait, you can see it too?’

I mean, I could see it because I was a player transmigrated into a game, but how on earth was Hakar seeing it?

No, wait—what does that even matter right now?!

BEEEEEP—!

[Buffering: Preparing Standby Mode] [20 Seconds] [19 Seconds] [18 Seconds]

The situation spiraling out of control was the real issue here.

Without warning, another piercing alert echoed out. This time, the dizzying pile of status windows froze all at once, replaced by a ticking countdown timer.

[15 Seconds] [14 Seconds] [13 Seconds]

I instinctively knew it. The second this short countdown hit zero, Hakar was going to vanish again.

“Who are you?”

It was like a sudden burst of clarity before the end. Otherwise, there was no way Hakar—who had been glitching nonstop—could stand there looking at me in a fully solid, complete form.

His voice didn’t cut out anymore, either.

“Who are you to be in—”

“Hakar!”

“……”

But we didn’t have the luxury to sit around and chat.

The status window explicitly stated ‘Auto-Save Standby Mode’ and ‘Unresolved sequence requires cleanup.’ In short, it meant I had to resolve the skipped tutorial and drag Hakar all the way back to this exact point for the game to trigger an auto-save.

Which meant with the few seconds I had left, I only had one job.

“Listen to me very carefully.”

“……”

“Do NOT die!”

If you die, I’m the one who gets screwed over! I’d have to go through the crazy, painful hell of stitching my own body back together all over again.

“If things look dangerous, fake your own death or do whatever it takes to avoid a fight, got it?!”

“……”

“No matter how painful it gets, hang in there!”

Of course, there was so much more I wanted to say.

Like survival tips to help him get through the tutorial he kept dying in, or info on useful items—like the needle I found—that could help him get stronger. But there just wasn’t enough time to blab about all that.

“Survive by any means necessary!”

“…Why?”

“So I can come get you!”

Even during our brief exchange, the timer was ruthlessly ticking down.

[5 Seconds] [4 Seconds]

Hakar stared blankly at me, his face deathly pale. I stared back, praying with everything I had that my message actually reached him.

With just one second remaining, I screamed at the top of my lungs:

“Just hang on until I get there!”

And then, it was over.

[Auto-Save Standby Mode: Functioning Normally]

Just as expected, Hakar’s body began turning transparent.

In a split second, he vanished without a trace, leaving behind zero proof that he had ever been standing there in the first place.

You’d think an unexpected crisis like this wrapping up would bring peace of mind… but I couldn’t relax for even a second.

“Is it actually broken?”

“No way, we literally just ran maintenance on it the other day.”

The commotion outside was getting closer.

“Come on, the spire alarm going off and shutting down repeatedly makes no sense!”

I had a pretty good idea of what caused it. Hakar hadn’t just appeared out of nowhere; every time he flickered in and out, the monochrome mana spilling out from the status windows rippled through the air. The security system must have been picking up on those massive mana spikes.

Naturally, the demons would swarm over to investigate.

“We still have to check it out. It’s our job.”

“I know, but what if it’s nothing and we end up disturbing him? You know he won’t let it slide.”

“I’d rather risk getting my head chopped off than shirk my duties.”

The voices grew louder and louder.

I had been too focused on Hakar earlier to notice, but two massive surges of mana were rapidly ascending from below.

In the Demon Realm, hierarchy was ruled by sheer brute force—the strong ate the weak. If those double doors swung open right now and the demons saw Morckald’s melted corpse, the outcome was painfully obvious.

They would assume I was the one who killed Morckald.

THUD.

“What the…? Why’d you open the door if you’re not going inside?”

“Lord Morckald…”

“What about Lord Morckald?”

Which meant I’d end up forcibly taking his place.

“…is dead.”

My plans had gone completely off the rails.

Originally, I intended to take advantage of the chaos in the Demon Realm following a vacant Demon King position to quietly slip away unnoticed. But now, my feet were glued to the spot, and my escape plan went up in smoke.

If I took Morckald’s throne under these conditions, I’d become the absolute lowest-ranking, most push-over Demon King in history. Every demon looking for a promotion would come crawling out of the woodwork to fight me.

“I’m going insane, seriously…”

Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. I just wanted to put an end to these miserable regressions—how on earth did things get this out of hand?!

Celesia looked down at the gathering crowd.

Cold sweat trickled down her back as applause rained over her like a heavy downpour.

“Do you perhaps have anything you would like to say?”

“……”

Celesia took a breath, trying to gather her thoughts into words.

Looking down at the demons below, she couldn’t spot a single trace of respect or fear in their eyes. Even though she stood there glaring with all the strength she could muster in her vivid pink eyes, scowling with deep wrinkles between her brows…

“It’s a Chihuahua.”

“Right? Totally a Chihuahua.”

“Pfft.“

Her small frame, her tiny, cute ears poking out through messily disheveled black hair, her stiffly upright tail, and those signature short Chihuahua eyebrows rendered all her fierce effort completely useless.

In the end, everyone just looked down on Celesia as a total joke.

Even the demon hosting the ceremony was no exception.

This demon—unmistakable with his grass-green hair topped with a bright red mushroom—was one of Morckald’s former subordinates. Now, he was assigned to serve Celesia.

Yet his attitude was far from serving.

“I…”

“Ah, it seems you have nothing in particular to say. We shall conclude the coronation ceremony here, then.”

Even though he clearly saw Celesia open her mouth to speak, he cut her off without hesitation. Then, with absolute laziness, he announced the end of the coronation.

“Dismissed, everyone!”

Hoken, standing a good distance away, turned around to leave alongside a slime demon who had been watching the whole thing in a daze.

“Well then, we’ll be taking our leave now. Please rest comfortably.”

“Hoken, are we really just leaving like this?”

“Hurry up and follow me.”

It was practically an ultimatum. The two left the venue without even bothering to ask for Celesia’s permission.

SLAM.

The second the heavy iron door slammed shut, unfamiliar lines of text floated into the air.

[Affection System Activated!] You were previously classified as an ‘Extra,’ restricting access to this feature. However, as a Demon King, you have now secured a portion of the story’s narrative control.

Affection information will now be displayed whenever changes occur in your relationships with major characters.

What is it this time?

Even with the system unlocking message, Celesia’s expression didn’t improve one bit. Her mouth twisted into a lopsided, annoyed smirk.

“What, am I supposed to bow down and thank you or something?”

Nobody asked to be transmigrated into this game, let alone into a background extra! Slapping me with a disease and offering the cure right after—were they making fun of her?

Celesia stood there with her weight shifted to one side, maintaining her defiant attitude until the end.

“Wait… Hold on.”

If the Affection System unlocked because the right conditions were met, did that mean system features like the Inventory could be unlocked later down the line too?

Celesia froze for a moment.

Just as she tried to recall what other features existed besides the Inventory if her guess was right, lines of text began appearing one after another.

They were the Infinite Regression War affection status windows—something she hadn’t seen once since transmigrating into this world.

[Hoken -> Affection: -30%] Note: Currently wary of you and assessing your strength. Once his final evaluation is complete, your life may be in danger…

[Morph -> Affection: 0%] Note: Has absolutely no thoughts.

Celesia let out a hollow laugh.

“Showing up right on time just makes it more annoying… But whatever, it’ll definitely come in handy.”

Setting her irritation aside for a moment, she immediately dialed back in on her next move.

Becoming a Demon King placed a ton of restrictions on going to retrieve Hakar, but flipping the perspective, it definitely came with its own set of advantages.

Maybe she could actually use this to her benefit.