Chapter 2

The Game Difficulty
Went Crazy

Ancient rune mana, the power of spirits, and so on.

In the world of Grey Eden, many different kinds of power coexist, but among them, there are two powers that are the strongest.

One is the holy power of humans, and the other is the demonic power of the demon race.

Holy power and demonic power.

Light and darkness.
And the sun and the moon.

Because of their completely opposite natures, the two powers were always in conflict.

Humans hated demonic power, calling it an impure force, while the demon race despised holy power, calling it arrogant and hypocritical.

Because of this, the two factions fought endlessly to destroy one another.

The war between humans and demons that lasted for hundreds of years is the main story of Grey Eden.

If you play as a human, the main scenario leads to the destruction of the demon race.
If you play as a demon, it leads to the destruction of humanity.

“Then……”

《Innate Potential》
§ Demonic Power User

“What the hell is this bullshit?!”

Kwaaang—!

Glen shouted and slammed his desk.

Even if he was a scoundrel, he was still a child of the Wordsworth family, a holy knight lineage, so he had at least expected something from his innate potential.

Instead, he got the complete opposite—an innate potential that suited only the demon race.

‘If any human other than me finds out about this…….’

In an era where hatred between humans and demons reaches the sky, possessing demonic power, something exclusive to demons?

He would immediately be dragged away by inquisitors and put on trial by the church.

‘And on top of that, this hopeless body is already a discarded lunatic from the family. I wouldn’t even get a proper defense and would be burned at the stake.’

In other words, being a demonic power user was worse than useless for Glen.

No—it was nothing more than a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.

He wondered why they would give such a trash innate potential.

“Haah, I’m screwed……”

Glen covered his face with both hands.

“If it weren’t for that damn difficulty.”

A deep sigh escaped him.

Soon, Glen checked the message window he had seen earlier.

《Difficulty: Lunatic》

: For a more hardcore game experience, the difficulty of some elements that block your progress has increased.

Then Glen checked the message that followed.

《Perk: High Risk High Return》

《Viewing information on new Lunatic elements.》

《Glen Wordsworth – Lunatic》

: Although Glen is a child of the holy Wordsworth family, he has committed actions completely unbefitting of it. Therefore, based on the karma of his actions, new restrictions are applied.
: The innate potential “Demonic Power User” is granted to the human Glen.

In short, the reason Glen had demonic power was because of this Lunatic difficulty.

Originally, the highest difficulty in Grey Eden was Nightmare.

He had never seen or even heard of a difficulty called Lunatic.

‘Which means things even more vicious than I imagined are going to come crashing down on me.’

—There’s a way to play Grey Eden in a more fun and harder way. Interested?

“So that’s what that meant.”

A short silence passed.

Glen nervously bit his nails, then steadied his breathing.

‘Panicking won’t help. First, let’s calmly organize the current situation.’

Glen spread out a piece of paper lying on the desk and summarized the situation.

“So…… this is a frontline territory that will be invaded by demons in three months, I’m a psychopathic fanatic scoundrel discarded by my family, and now I can even use demonic power?”

After putting down the quill, a truly amazing character and situation had been completed.

It was the absolute worst difficulty.

‘No wonder it’s called Lunatic.’

A drop of cold sweat slid down the back of Glen’s neck.

But at the same time—

Thump—

Strangely, his heart was beating fast with excitement.

A future where he overcomes the worst, cornered situation and reaches the ending.

Seong Yo-hwan’s heart strongly desired the thrill that came from that.

‘Yeah. I’ve made and overcome even worse situations than this. So.’

Seong Yo-hwan—no, Glen—smiled bitterly.

‘Since it’s come to this, I’ll just play the best possible game with what I’ve been given. And with the increased difficulty, there’s something worth looking forward to as well.’

《Perk: High Risk High Return》

‘If you take risks, you can seize rewards equal to them.’

That meant if he overcame the increased difficulty, he would receive an equally great reward.

Of course, whether that was true, what the standards for overcoming Lunatic elements were, and how rewards were given—none of that was known yet.

‘But at least it’s clear that the difficulty didn’t just increase for no reason.’

Things were already bad, so there was no point in thinking negatively.

The worse the situation, the more you should imagine the best outcome.

A reversal always starts from that kind of mindset.

‘Let’s think calmly.’

With his resolve set, Glen began planning in his head.

First, he needed to deal with the demonic power flowing inside his body.

‘Ordinary servants might not notice, but if I meet people from the Wordsworth family, even a small leak of demonic power will be exposed immediately.’

So how should he handle the demonic power?

Like the veteran of Grey Eden that he was, several methods immediately came to Glen’s mind.

‘The best option would be an artifact that hides holy power or demonic power—the Ring of the Unorthodox…….’

But the Ring of the Unorthodox was located in the capital of the Papal Holy Kingdom, a full week away by carriage.

With a bitter expression, Glen discarded that top-priority option.

‘Right now, my movement is restricted. That means I have to solve this using items available within the Wordsworth mansion…….’

At that moment, one odd item flashed through Glen’s mind.

‘Demonic Power Sealing Shackles.’

They were originally items used to seal the demonic power of captured demon prisoners of war.

But right now, Glen was carrying demonic power, a ticking time bomb.

He wasn’t in a position to be picky.

“Shackles or whatever, it’s better than being found out and burned alive.”

With that somewhat absurd decision, Glen recalled the path to the mansion’s underground prison.

Just then, someone knocked on the door.

“Second Young Master.”

It was a maid.

When he checked the time, it was already lunchtime.

“It is time for the meal. Please come to the dining hall.”

“I told you to bring my meals to my room.”

It had been five days since Seong Yo-hwan had taken over Glen’s body.

During that time, he had refused to eat with his family and asked for all meals to be brought to his room.

After being thrown into an unfamiliar world, he didn’t have the confidence to calmly eat with his family.

“The Master ordered that you must attend today’s lunch.”

“No, why today of all days…….”

He had just finished forming his plan.

Until he could safely hide his demonic power, he wanted to avoid contact with anyone who might sense it.

At least until he obtained the demonic power sealing shackles.

‘I’ll just refuse. I’m a scoundrel anyway. It’s not like something bad will happen if I disobey Father a bit, right?’

“For your information, if you try to skip this meal, the Master said he will personally come here to escort you.”

The maid’s perfectly timed additional comment.

Glen groaned quietly.

‘Hoo…… so I don’t have a choice.’

Creeeak—

Glen opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

The maid shot him a cold glance and led the way.

But Glen, already completely used to such looks, showed no reaction.

Since there was still a deeper abyss he could fall into, avoiding it was the priority.

“Wait.”

“Why is that?”

The maid turned around with an indifferent expression.

Glen looked at her with serious eyes.

“Let’s stop by one place before we go.”

“……Where do you mean?”

“The mansion’s underground prison.”

The maid pressed her forehead.

Her expression clearly said, ‘This crazy bastard is about to start something again.’

“Young Master, please. Even now…….”

“No, it’s really nothing. I told you not to worry.”

In the end, the maid gave up and opened the dining hall door.

Glen swallowed his dry saliva.

‘There’s nothing to worry about. Preparations are already complete.’

With a resolute expression, he stepped into the dining hall.

Two people were already seated inside.

“Ah, you came, Glen.”

A voice welcoming Glen.

It was Tris Wordsworth, the eldest daughter of the Wordsworth family and his sister, six years older than him.

And one person sitting at the head seat.

“You hadn’t come out of your room for three days, so I thought you were dead. Looks like you were still breathing.”

A middle-aged man mocking Glen from the head seat—Henry Wordsworth.

He was the head of the Wordsworth family, famed as an outstanding holy knight.

“Brother isn’t here.”

“Edgar received a territory patrol assignment this morning and left the mansion.”

“I see.”

Glen sat in the seat farthest from the head of the table.

The maids placed food on Glen’s plate, and the meal began.

Clink—

A clear metallic sound echoed.

Soon, everyone’s gaze gathered on Glen’s table.

“……G-Glen?”

The first to react was Tris, sitting beside him.

With a shocked expression, she stared at Glen’s wrists.

There were shackles on them—the kind only war prisoners would wear.

“What is it, Sister Tris?”

Clink—

Glen himself calmly cut his steak while wearing the shackles.

Scrape, scrape—

In the midst of shock, only the sound of Glen’s knife echoed quietly.

The one who broke the silence was the family head.

“What strange thing are you doing this time, Glen?”

Henry scolded him with a stern expression.

But Glen looked back at him with an innocent face.

“What do you mean?”

“The shackles!”

Finally, the family head raised his voice.

Glen glanced down at his wrists.

“Oh, these? I am atoning for my sins.”

He smiled brightly.

“Atoning?”

“Yes. Five days ago, when I set the storage on fire, God whispered in my ear that I must atone for it.”

“So God told you to set the fire back then, and now He tells you to atone for setting it?”

“How could a mere human like me understand God’s grand will, Father?”

“Hah…….”

The family head let out a hollow laugh.

“It’s impressive how you manage to cause trouble in such creative ways every time.”

And that was it.

Turning his gaze away from Glen, the family head lifted a glass of wine to his lips.

His expression clearly said there was no point in talking further with a son who wasn’t in his right mind.

Seeing that reaction, Glen cheered internally.

‘Just as planned.’

The method Glen chose to explain the shackles on his wrists—

It was simply ‘acting like Glen.’

Before Seong Yo-hwan possessed him, Glen had committed countless atrocities while claiming to hear the voice of God.

That fanatical behavior was why the Wordsworth family called him a lunatic scoundrel.

‘And by acting like a crazy bastard who shackles himself, I hide the true intention of concealing demonic power!’

They say to hide a tree, hide it in the forest.

When a crazy person does crazy things as usual, no one finds it strange.

‘They just think, “Ah, he’s doing that shit again,” and move on.’

In fact, the Wordsworth family head showed exactly that reaction.

He forcibly avoided looking at Glen and continued eating.

Tris, sitting beside him, looked at Glen with worried eyes.

Thus, Glen’s act of wearing shackles to hide demonic power would simply be dismissed as another act of madness from a fanatic scoundrel.

Of course, the family’s perception of Glen would worsen even further……

‘But that’s a hundred, a thousand times better than being exposed and burned alive.’

A damaged reputation could be restored later, but there was no way to restore a body that had been burned to ashes.

Justifying his madness like that, Glen quietly checked his status window.

‘Ha, fuck…….’

His Charm stat, which had been –15, had dropped to –20.

After finishing the meal and returning to his room, Glen removed the shackles.

The ones he needed to be careful of were Henry, Tris, and his brother Edgar, who was currently away from the mansion.

If those who could sense demonic power weren’t nearby, there was no need to live with the discomfort of shackles.

Rubbing his sore wrists, Glen threw himself onto the bed.

‘I somehow got past the first crisis, but I can’t keep wearing shackles forever.’

The demonic power sealing shackles were only a temporary measure.

Glen needed a better solution than shackles.

‘Should I make some excuse and go look for something like the Ring of the Unorthodox? Or should I look for a sealing stone? Or maybe…….’

As he racked his brain, irritation began to boil up.

“Damn it, if I’m a holy knight, then just give me holy power. Why the hell give me demonic power too and make it this hard to raise? Lunatic? Stop fucking around!”

At that moment, a thought flashed through his mind from his own words.

“Wait……”

Glen suddenly sat up.

With a serious gaze, he began thinking about himself.

‘Come to think of it, wasn’t there a character in Grey Eden who had both holy power and demonic power?’

Glen listed the countless Grey Eden characters stored in his memory and reviewed their traits.

Soon, one character came to mind.

‘Mors.’

Mors, the god of harmony and fusion.

He was the final boss of Grey Eden.

After devouring the gods Minisse and Nox, representing the human and demon factions, he obtained both holy power and demonic power.

And Mors fused those two powers into something new.

That power was called—

‘Sacred-Demonic Power.’

Holy power, symbolizing light and the sun.

Demonic power, symbolizing darkness and the moon.

It was the ultimate power born from fusing the two strongest forces in Grey Eden.

Glen looked into the mirror.

A handsome but skinny boy with sharp eyes and an unimpressive appearance stood there.

Perhaps this pathetic scoundrel—

‘Might awaken Sacred-Demonic Power before Mors, the final boss of the game.’

If that happened, he would grow into a being stronger than anyone else in this world.

The thought sent chills down his spine.

“High Risk High Return……”

A human with both holy power and demonic power.

If he overcame that hellish situation, he could obtain the ultimate power—Sacred-Demonic Power.

“Haha…….”

A hollow laugh escaped his lips.

But even as he laughed, a sharp gleam shone in Glen’s ashen eyes.

The cold, brilliant gleam of a beast that had locked onto its prey.

“This is it.”