I Gain Infinite Gold Just By Waiting-Chapter 265: Episode 4-2_Demon King (1)

1.

There was no life in the faces of the soldiers of the Seron Kingdom.

How could there be?

It had been roughly half a year since the sun disappeared.

In a world shrouded in darkness, where they had not seen a single ray of sunlight, how could these people possibly look lively?

And that was not all.

This was the world of humans, a world where they had always ruled over monsters. For a people accustomed to being at the top of the food chain, the constant terror of not knowing when they might die was an almost unbearable horror.

The higher-tier predators—tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of them—prowled the land, targeting humans at random.

In the face of such a threat, there were only two things a person could do.

Run, or pray.

They could flee to a place so remote the demons would never find them, or they could pray the demons would simply pass them by.

Most chose the latter.

The Seron Kingdom was among them.

What other choice did they have?

To abandon their homes and the families they loved, to hide in some hole where no one could ever find them—that was no different from giving up on being human. It was a life of loneliness and isolation, of cold and hunger.

’Please, just let our kingdom be safe.’

The price for that complacent prayer soon came due.

The demons were relentless and showed no mercy. Having already lost two legions, they merged the remnants into a single, overwhelming force. The Seron Kingdom—nothing more than a tiny dot on the map—had no power to withstand their fury.

It was a massacre.

Their only sliver of hope had been the tall fortress built with the sea at its back, but to the demons, it was a minor obstacle to be vaulted over.

The winged demons simply spread their wings, soared over the walls, and began the slaughter. Countless other monsters hurled their bodies against the ramparts, smashing to pieces the walls and gates that had taken decades to build.

There was no hope.

The demons reveled in the cries of people calling out to their gods, slowly twisting that fragile hope into utter despair.

The slaughter was terrifyingly easy.

The screams and wails gradually died down. By the time the sky was filled with nothing but the maddened, deranged laughter of the demons—

A small light flared to life.

"What the hell? Where am I?"

He was in the middle of a battlefield.

Kim Buja muttered to himself as he surveyed a scene ripped straight from the most generic, tensionless Chapter of a novel about a demon army’s massacre.

He had known he couldn’t predict where he would land, but in the middle of a battlefield like this?

Worse, the imperial princess was nowhere in sight, and a quick scan of his surroundings revealed not a single familiar face.

It didn’t matter, though.

There was no need to waste time wondering why he had been dropped here. Before him were demons he’d have to kill anyway, and humans being slaughtered helplessly.

What he had to do was obvious.

The Gold Ring in his hand was instantly engulfed in a brilliant, pure-white light. At the same time, the jet-black armor covering his body resonated with a rough, savage roar.

[Demon Energy Extermination.]

His fierce determination to erase every last trace of demonic energy from this world transformed into tangible power, flooding him with limitless strength.

[Twenty percent increased damage against demonic energy.]

Confidence surged through him—he felt he could do anything.

Drunk on that power, he glanced around and noticed a strange silence had fallen.

Every gaze was fixed on him.

The world was filled with darkness. So much time had passed that such a world had come to feel normal. Light had become a rarity on the continent, something seldom seen, if at all.

And now, a brilliant light had just erupted.

It had appeared in the one place that should have been the darkest of all: right in the middle of the demons. It was bound to draw every eye.

Their stares burned with hatred, contempt, rage, and madness. It was pure contempt—contempt for the one who dared defy them.

’Who dares to summon light before us?’

It was the equivalent of brandishing demonic energy inside a holy Temple—not just a provocation, but a direct challenge to their very nature.

The demons charged.

They were creatures whose actions always came before words; they had no intention of negotiating or compromising.

"I like this about you," Buja said with a grin.

Fortunately, he felt the same way. In his opinion, the trope of chatting with the enemy to build tension was only useful in novels to pad the word count and stretch out fight scenes. In reality, it was just the empty bluster of cowards.

In the end, only the survivors were winners.

He faced them head-on, drew his sword, and fought.

SWISH!

His sword swept out, slicing through the very space within its arc.

He had swung it lightly, but the result was horrific.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The space occupied by the flying demons was torn apart, engulfed in a series of explosions. The powerful blasts did far more than merely disrupt their movements; they snuffed out their lives entirely.

It was overwhelming offensive power.

Considering he’d struggled to handle even a single knight when he first arrived on the continent, forced to hide and wait for a chance to escape, his growth was absurd.

"Magic really is the best."

A wave of satisfaction washed over him as he looked at the aftermath. It looked like the pinnacle of swordsmanship, but in truth, he had simply cast magic through his blade.

They were only simple monsters and low-tier demons, but his attack power had climbed so high that he could kill them in a single blow. He had enough armor penetration and overwhelming mana to punch through a demon’s tough hide and turn it to pulp. The biggest factor, of course, was the host of demon-related options that turned even simple light spells into lethally destructive weapons.

Seeing the result of a single attack, his confidence overflowed.

The sky was swarming with demons. He sensed that there might be high-tier, even Great Demons, among them, yet he felt no intimidation at all.

He could do this.

’At the very least, this is the level you need to clear a 9-star Legendary quest.’

What turned that thought into certainty was the gift he received from the demons he had just slaughtered.

[You have obtained 1,201 Gold.]

[You have obtained 451 Gold.]

"Oh?"

They were dropping more gold than he’d expected. He had killed dozens of demons with a single attack, which meant he had just earned at least tens of thousands of gold.

"Ah-ha!"

His confusion quickly turned to delight.

Why had he been dropped here, so far from the imperial princess?

Why were so many demons massacring humans in this place?

Why had he been thrown into such a disadvantageous battlefield, a place devoid of dreams or hope?

The reason was his to write, and Kim Buja spun the narrative in whatever way benefited him most.

"So you do have a conscience. You knew you didn’t give me much time, huh? Is this your way of telling me to farm a bit more?"

As long as you ended up in Seoul, it didn’t matter which road you took. And if he could earn more money on the way, there was no reason to avoid a detour.

Most importantly, the Demon King still hadn’t shown himself.

"Perfect."

He wouldn’t be fighting the Demon King right away. Better yet, he could reduce the number of underlings who would be a pain to deal with when that time came.

FLASH!

There was no reason to hesitate.

The light of divinity spread out, wrapping the entire fortress in its embrace.

* * *

The Empire’s situation was growing worse by the day.

The demons had not sat back and taken their losses. They had responded immediately after losing two legions, and their movements had become faster and more aggressive than before.

For the humans, who had been barely managing to chip away at the Demon King’s forces, this was a bolt from the blue.

The Demon King could have looked down on the humans and simply continued on his way, but he wasn’t that foolish. He had come to conquer the continent, but he did not underestimate its people.

No—he had underestimated them, but he also knew how to adapt. That was why he had chosen to merge two legions and press onward.

“He’s provoking us on purpose,” Kallis said, his voice grim. “He could consolidate all his forces, but he isn’t. He’s showing off.”

From the Demon King’s perspective, there was no reason to fear humans. He was the king of the Demon Realm, its absolute ruler. On the continent’s power scale, he was above even dragons.

Was a being like that supposed to cower just because two of his legions had been destroyed by mere humans? Even a dragon wouldn’t rage or flinch if one of its guardians was defeated by a mortal army.

To them, it was all just a game.

“We cannot afford to miss this chance.”

Whether it was a trap or a game, for the Empire, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For those already planning for the final battle with the Demon King, this was the only hope they had.

“We must reduce their numbers as much as possible.”

Of course, it would be difficult. Two legions. The combined power of two Great Demons would feel more than twice as strong as when they were separate.

Even so, they had to do it. If they let this moment pass, every human on the continent would be slaughtered long before they ever got a chance to face the Demon King.

“Can we win?” the imperial princess asked, her voice heavy with the knowledge of their predicament.

She knew they had to fight, one way or another. But before the battle, they needed a plan, and for that, someone had to look at the situation with cold, unflinching clarity.

“We are exhausted,” Kallis stated. “Our forces have been greatly reduced, and we are short on supplies. Even so, we must fight.”

Normally, he would have calculated the odds with ruthless precision. This time, he didn’t. The fact remained that they had to risk their lives and fight, no matter what. Even if the odds were terrible, even if it was a battle they were guaranteed to lose, there was no other path.

That was why, when he made his plans, he did not factor in defeat.

Wherever you died, defeat meant death all the same.

In that bleak atmosphere, a knock broke the silence. A knight entered and delivered a report.

“Commander. News from the Seron Kingdom.”

In a world where every report was bad news, his hopeful tone immediately drew the full attention of the imperial princess and Kallis. This was the same knight who had always brought reports of defeat, his expression invariably grim. What on earth could have happened to make him unable to conceal his joy?

“What is it?” Kallis asked.

In truth, he didn’t expect any surprises. All the news they had received for months had been painfully consistent.

Defeat. Collapse. Death.

They had heard which battle was lost, which kingdom had fallen, and who had died. It had been the same dull, repetitive litany. For this knight to bring news again meant it was important enough for the princess to hear, another heavy burden to be delivered.

And yet, he was smiling?

That could only mean one thing.

“We have a victory report.”

“...From the Seron Kingdom?” Kallis asked, his voice laced with disbelief.

“Yes.”

It was just a small kingdom. So small that calling it a kingdom felt generous; you could have called it a minor territory, and no one would have argued. And they had repelled a demon invasion? Not just repelled it, but sent a victory report?

Perhaps they had fended off a stray group of monsters that had broken away from the main force. But that couldn’t be it. They wouldn’t report something so minor in person.

Then how?

“A Hero of God appeared, slew two Great Demons, and wiped out the invaders.”

’A Hero of God?’

The moment she heard those words, the imperial princess shot to her feet.

“Buja!”

Color returned to her face. A Hero of God. At first glance, it sounded ridiculous, but if it were Kim Buja, the title would make perfect sense.

“They say the Seron Kingdom was bathed in light, and that light purified the entire region...”

He had returned in the name of God.

* * *