The most troublesome thing of all is that Hero
The last time we met, he was a really small kid, but now he's all grown up and quite the handsome young man.
His face doesn't resemble Yamada's much, though.
He gives off a gentle, kind sort of vibe.
How should I put it — he radiates pure-hearted good-guy aura just from looking at his face.
It might be my prejudice talking, but people who wear gentle smiles usually have some kind of ulterior motive. With the Hero, though, even that doesn't seem to apply.
I feel like my sub-entities would be purified just by his smile.
Even so, I don't want to get involved with this Hero.
When I met him during the war, he was still a small child. I let him go with the intention of letting him grow so I could harvest him later, but the situation back then is very different from now.
For starters, I've already ascended to godhood, so I don't need Experience Points or anything like that.
Experience Points?
What are those, do they taste good?
Don't need 'em, don't need 'em.
So yeah, there's no point in going out of my way to target him.
Well, that's from my personal perspective.
Like, it wouldn't really matter to me.
However, when you look at the bigger picture — the world as a whole — it's not that simple.
What even is a Hero, to begin with?
The answer is: the counterpart to the Demon King.
From what I can tell after looking at the system's upgrade history, the Hero and Demon King don't seem to have been part of the original design.
Instead, a Demon King arose naturally, a Hero emerged to defeat it, and D — finding the whole thing amusing — incorporated them into the system. That seems to be how the Hero and Demon King came to be.
In other words, the Demon King predates the Hero.
As for the Hero, their role can be summed up in one phrase: defeat the Demon King.
That's all there is to it.
While the Demon King has all sorts of complicated circumstances, the Hero's reason for existing is extremely simple.
Defeat the Demon King.
Conversely, you could say that whoever defeats the Demon King becomes the Hero, and whoever is defeated by the Hero becomes the Demon King.
And that's where the problem lies.
The Hero's Title has hidden effects that aren't listed in the description.
Having the Hero's Title is what makes you the Hero, but there are also hidden setups built into the Hero's Skills as a sort of Easter egg.
D is playful like that — setting up strange gimmicks and whatnot — so you can never let your guard down.
The Hero's Title has a hidden effect: it bestows the Title "One Slain by the Hero" upon whoever is defeated.
Well, defeating someone pretty much equals killing them, and once you're dead, getting a Title like that is pointless, so it doesn't really matter.
But if, say, you have a Skill like Immortality or Endurance, or somehow miraculously come back to life, this Title gains significance.
The Skills you gain from this Title are "Demon King Level 1" and "Taboo Level 1."
At this point, that's... not good.
Whether it's the Hero or the Demon King, having Skills makes it easier to become the next Title holder.
The Demon King had apparently been avoiding becoming the Demon King by using the Dominator Authority of Gluttony, but the more developed your Skills are, the easier it is to inherit the Title.
Being defeated by the Hero alone brings you one step closer to the Demon King's Title.
Well, the position of Demon King is already filled, so that's not an issue.
If there is an issue, it's the Title system itself.
Titles, like Skills, often produce special effects when obtained.
And at the same time, you automatically receive two Skills.
When you factor in the Title's own effect, it's like getting three Skills at once.
You might end up with dangerous Skills like Taboo and whatnot, but generally speaking, Titles are worth getting.
They've helped me out quite a bit too.
But there's a big trap hidden within the Title system.
Skills are obtained either by paying the cost of Skill Points, or by being honed through training until they bear fruit.
There's a proper system of equivalent exchange at work.
In contrast, Titles can be obtained simply by meeting certain conditions.
Some Titles do require effort to obtain, but the vast majority don't require any of that, unlike Skills.
Even the "One Slain by the Hero" Title I mentioned earlier can be obtained simply by being defeated by the Hero.
There's no equivalent exchange — it's simply granted.
So then, where is it being granted from?
The answer is: the system, and the MA field.
In theory, the Skills you get from a Title are supposed to work out to a net positive — as long as the recipient trains them at least a little before dying.
Or rather, the Title system was designed with that in mind.
It's like a loan — "Here, we'll lend you this Title, and when you die, pay it back with interest."
But given how desperate the current situation is, if I can help it, I don't want to be lending out MA energy.
Things are already on fire as it is.
So what makes this so troublesome is the "One Slain by the Hero" Title that you get just by being defeated by the Hero.
I got it.
No — I had absolutely zero intention of getting it.
In fact, I didn't even think it was possible to get it.
I'd already ascended to godhood and stepped outside the system.
And yet, somehow, I got it.
The cause seems to be that I'd been clumsily hacking into the system.
Some kind of weird reaction must have been triggered, and it bugged out.
When the Hero defeats one of my sub-entities, the Title gets triggered.
Naturally, the Title can't maintain its original form, so the moment it's received, it's automatically converted into energy.
And that keeps piling up every time a sub-entity is defeated.
Ah... yeah.
Me, the one saying energy is critically low, is wastefully siphoning energy.
No — in my current situation, I can't avoid this.
I shouldn't be receiving it, but before I know it, I already have.
For now, I'll have to hack into the data managing all that and fix the bug.
On top of that, the Hero keeps persistently targeting my sub-entities.
Is it...?
Trauma from the last war?
His instincts are insanely sharp, and every sub-entity that gets close gets wiped out.
Thanks to that, I've barely been able to send any sub-entities near Yamada.
Honestly, he's nothing but a nuisance.
But I can't get rid of him either.
So I'm stuck having to take the passive approach of avoiding him as much as possible.
Frustrating.
It's a relief that Yamada and the others enrolled in the academy.
As the Hero, he's always traveling from place to place, so he's not always around, but every time he came back, my sub-entities were getting eliminated.
But the academy is somewhere even the Hero can't interfere with.
I can finally keep watch without worry.