MMORPG: Rise of the Peerless Pumpkinmancer

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

In the background, a poor Devil was madly cackling…against its will!

What else was it supposed to do?! The Demon King had told it to cackle, so it cackled! The creature had always thought itself a master of torture, but it had been so wrong!

This smiling man was the actual monster! His peaceful smile was more frightening than a thousand holy archangels— and they were a devil's nemesis!

The Demon King had driven it near insanity before making an offer it could never refuse. He had offered the Village to the Devil! Yes, the entire fucking Village!

Devil were beings that resided in another plane of existence, and their sole purpose in coming to this world was to gather power.

There were two main ways to do this:

1. Soul Possession: They would possess a being, go on a rampage and use whatever means to become stronger.

For one such as the Exalted Hunting Lord, it meant hunting.

The Devil would transform its host into a great predator that would grow stronger with every new prey successfully hounded.

The human knew of this process. Apparently, his people called it "A Noob getting his account hacked by a mob lol". It was a very long and cryptic name.

The Devil had initially tried to use the nightmare to take over his soul. Sadly, this attempt had been PTSD-inducing.

But, there was another path for a Devil to become stronger.

2. World Link: This meant establishing a link from the Devilish realm to the world of the living. Afterward, the Devil would use minor devils to collect energy.

It was also damn near impossible!

The Devil had almost gone insane when the man had casually mentioned this! Its incorporeal body had been shaking so much it had almost poofed out of existence!

Was he freaking crazy?! The Devil wanted to grow stronger, not to die!!! But apparently, not only was the man crazy, but he also knew what he was doing.

He talked confidently about it in terms that the Devil barely understood. But, it remembered it all word for word:

"See Infinite as a restricted airspace and devils as flimsy aircrafts. Entering this world to establish a link would usually get them shot down by anti-air missiles set-up by the Empire…."

"But, what if one just happened to have control of said missiles? For instance, by lording over the Village. What if one helped the aircraft with the landing?"

He had given an enormous smile as he had laid out the options for the Devil.

1. Serve him and share part of its power. In exchange, the demon King would allow it to prosper in New Leaf.

2. Suffer, then die.

It wasn't too hard a choice.

That's how the Devil had come to serve its new master, how it had assisted with entrapping that one "Village Chief" human, and how it was now exploited.

The poor Devil wanted to sigh, but it had to keep cackling, or there would be trouble. Then it got to work, slowly establishing the link, something that probably hadn't been done in eons.

At least it would see the living get slaughtered. This was the only consolation to its current pitiful state.

[Congratulations!]

There came the strange voice again.

Ever since it had agreed to serve the Demon King, it could hear its murmurs. It didn't seem alive and would narrate when something noteworthy happened.

[Successfully Established Devilish Link!]

[Establishing A New Spawn Area For Minions!]

[Soul-Devouring Exalted Hunters Can Now Spawn!]

Oh, it would have fun witnessing them steal the life force of all those annoying humans!

[Beginning World Corruption: New Leaf!]

[Ding! Detected Rare Energy Node! ?]

[Corrupt Energy Node? Y/N?]

W-what?! As soon as the corruption began, the Devil felt it! Deep inside the earth, far from the surface, there was a great mass of energy!

It just waited there, completely unused! What were the odds?!

At this moment, it suddenly began cackling, for real this time! It laughed enthusiastically, giving what appeared to be the performance of its existence!

This was an opportunity to turn the tides!

As long as it could corrupt and harness this incredible energy, it would be strong enough to rebel against the Demon!

As long as its subordinates devoured enough life force from the puny mortals, it would win! This was a goddamn miracle!

At this moment, the Devil uttered a silent cry:

"Go, my precious! Hunt them and bring me their souls!!!"

Oh, this would be so much fun! How would the man react confronted with death? No, possession was better!

Oh, it couldn't wait! ??

The Devil was looking forward to the show as it kept cackling…

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

As it often did in Infinite, the apocalypse began with a system message.

[Curse Of The Exalted Hunting Lord Activating!]

The entire village was plunged into darkness as miasma spread across the beginner area.

The shivering players could only see the ominous system messages appearing before them. Reading only increased the dread.

[World Corruption Has Begun! Current Corruption 1%!]

[New Leaf —> Exalted Dark Hunting Grounds!]

[Soul-Devouring Exalted Hunters Spawning!]

[They Are Coming! Run If You Can…]

[It Is Time To Die!]

This didn't augur well. Who knew when the creatures would— that's when many stopped thinking.

The monsters were already here.

Their incredibly sharp claws plunged into so many players, killing them instantly. The victims disappeared in blue particles that illuminated their killers.

They looked like humanoid wraiths but showed predator characteristics at times: wolves, pumas, hyenas, etc.

The creatures were shadowy, tall, slender, incredibly fast, and godlike hunters.

<Soul-Devouring Exalted Hunter lv 22 ??>

"These things are so fucking quick!"

"They're freaking everywhere!"

"Level 22?! That's crazy!!"

The blue glow of death was one the players were used to, but the next scene chilled them to the bone.

The creatures opened their maws wide as they…devoured the light?! Some already had an inkling of what this meant.

"Oy, tell me this is just a visual effect!"

"What else can it be? It adds horror!"

"It has to be, right, right?!"

But then many players respawned, soon turning as white as chalk:

[Part of Your Soul Has Been Devoured!]

[Affected By Eternal Hunting Curse!]

[Congratulations! You've Lost XP!]

"G-guys….We can lose XP now…."

"Tell me this is a joke!"

"O-oh god! No!!!"

They all turned to one another, seeing the same shock in the other's eyes. A brief moment of silence followed before one perfectly summarized their situation.

"….. WE'RE FUCKED!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[A/N] Hype! Feb Mass Release Time! ??

Day 5: A storm is brewing….and tea. ? ? ? (2/4)