When it comes to knowledge about the world of Hiro’s Journey, no one knows it better than me! I know everything, the towns, maps, NPCs, the dog in the town, Hiro's strengths and his very few weaknesses.

There's no way my plan would fail!

Of course, a part of me doubted myself. I'm going to be killing people, and I've obviously never done that, let alone using magic and fancy weapons to kill them. Living with the guilt is one thing, and learning how to actually kill people is also a thing.

Wait, hold on! I've watched enough isekai anime to know some stuff.

Stats!

A window popped up. Heck, what a convenient dream, really. I might even enjoy this.

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DEMON KING || LVL 99

[STATS]

STR: 953

DEX: 869

INT: 678

LUK: 10

CHA: 81

HP: 4900000/4900000

MP: 3500000/3500000

[SKILLS]

Undead Army [Summon]

Curse of the Lord [Debuff]

Hellfire [AOE]

Lord's Domain [Buff]

Poison Rain [AOE; Status Effect]

Dark Lightning [Chain Attack]

==========

I was pretty sure this isn't the full list of skills. Could it be that I have to unlock more skills myself? Hey, aren't I supposed to be the final boss? Don't tell me I still gotta train to unlock my skills!

Also, what's up with my luck and charisma stats? It's almost pathetic.

The more I stared at the stats window, the worse I feel. With my current luck, there's no way the plan will go accordingly! I must find a way to increase my stats before the plot begins…!

"Hey, armor." The talking armor turned to me. "I think it's about time I train to be even stronger."

"Of course, my lord. You will be an invincible being in this world." It then took a few steps back, the sound of the metal plates knocking against each other filled the brief silence. "We will return to the castle at once so you may continue with your training."

Ohoo! I get to see the demon king's castle up close in person! I guess being the villain here has its benefits too. I got up and followed behind the armor boy. Not too far away, there's a portal with that familiar purple swirls glowing in it. As we stepped through, I was greeted by the interior of the throne room.

"The lord has returned!" Armor announced.

Soon, various hurried footsteps were heard. Monsters and demons alike rushed into the room. I do recognize most of them - since they used to be fodders for when I was grinding levels for Hiro.

"Our lord! Dear lord! You've finally returned!"

"Your tan looks fantastic, my lord!"

“We missed you so much, lord!!”

It went on and on for a while. Them endlessly praising this fake demon king before them, and me just standing still as if I'm a birthday boy and everyone else is singing the birthday song. Armor, who was next to me, whispered to me that I had been away for a whole eight years, and that he was the only one with me the entire time.

That was weird, it wasn’t in the story. The demon king had always been around in the game, what’s up with me being away for eight years suddenly? What had the demon king been doing for the past years? I’ll have to ask Armor later on.

"Alright, alright, that's enough. I've returned to train, so I should get started." Before it's too late and all of us get slaughtered by my best boy, that is.

"My lord! Are you thinking of invading the human nation?" One of the demons asked.

"What, no--" Actually, hold that thought.

If I were to kill the king of the human nation, doesn't that technically mean I'm invading them? So it's like playing a genocide route of a game. Well, I'll leave Hiro alone, of course- because I'll die if I was to fight someone with plot armor. I've watched enough anime to know not to set up dumb flags for myself, anyway!

"-- no way I'm not doing that! I'm the king of demons, after all!" I puffed my chest out as I announced to pretty much all of my army that we, the demons, are going to invade the human nation. "We're going to kill their king! Take his throne! And feast on the humans!"

Cheers filled the room almost immediately. They sure are easy to please. What a bunch of simple minded mobs. This is exactly why their role was just fodder in the game.

Me, I'm different. This is my dream, so I'm going to do whatever it takes so I can become the best demon king!! As well as stay alive, of course.

After dismissing the mobs, I headed down to the training dungeon. As expected, it was filled with weapons and magic books. At the corner of the room was a huge mirror with a fancy golden frame. Once again, I checked myself out. My face was mostly the same as I remembered it to be, thank goodness for that. My body, however…

I lifted my shirt. A perfect washboard graced my vision. I could really scrub clothes on these abs. It makes me wonder - how can my charisma be so low when I have these bread rolls right here?! This is unacceptable! After all, I'll need that stat in order to get into the town without alerting the guards or worse - Hiro! So first of all, I'll have to mix into the humans, then sneak into the castle, and yeet their king outta this world.

[SYSTEM: Thinking detected. Your INT level has increased.]

I paused as the pop-up appeared. Thinking detected, huh? That means I don't have to do manual training in order to increase my stats! But stats like luck and charisma… just how should I go about increasing them? Would striking a cool pose in front of the mirror increase my charisma? Or should I practice some cool lines to say when I assassinate the king? Or maybe I should try starting a harem-- Nah, no way. It's all demons here. It's a line I refuse to cross.

I huffed. On the other hand, is luck even something that can be practiced? Should I see how many six I can roll from a dice? That's not gonna work - what if it decreases when I fail?

Anyway, let's prepare a plan B.

Waltzing over to the shelves, I looked through the collection of magic books. How to cast a fireball, A dummy's guide to shadow step, Demon History Vol 666… And there it is - Shapeshifting! I took the hard cover book out from the shelf. With these horns, people would be running at the sight of me, and we all know that'll lead to a Bad End for me.

So, I'm going to have to disguise myself as a human, even though I already look ninety percent like one.

I flipped through the book. It could be due to my high intelligence stat, but I easily understood the spell. As expected as the final boss of the game. Starting with such overpowered stats really makes me feel like a protagonist of an isekai story.

[SYSTEM: Shapeshifting skill acquired. Current LVL: 1]

As expected of a game, everything could be done so quickly and effortlessly. Want to learn a new spell? Just double-click on a spellbook! Though I'm at least actually reading through it here. That aside, I placed the book back and headed towards the mirror once again.

"Shapeshift!" I called out while imagining a normal, human me. From the reflection, I could see my horns slowly shrinking- But it stopped right before they could disappear fully. Right now, I have two red buttons on the top of my head.

What else can I do but to laugh?

With a poof, the horns returned. It appears that the effect will be lost if I lose focus. What a terrible skill. Still, it's a good one to learn if I want the plan to go smoothly. Stretching my arms before me, I prepared myself to master the arts of shapeshifting. I’m the master at grinding, after all!

[SYSTEM: Shapeshifting skill is now LVL 2]

[SYSTEM: Shapeshifting skill is now LVL 3, mana cost decreased by 10.]

[SYSTEM: Shapeshifting skill is now LVL 4]

[SYSTEM: Shapeshifting skill is now LVL 5, you can now retain your form for 1 min without focus.]

[SYSTEM: Shapeshifting skill is now LVL 10, you have reached the max LVL for the skill. You can now use it as a passive skill, using 10 MP per second.]

By the time I realized, two days had passed. Such deja vu. During the training, I was wondering if I'd wake up suddenly, but I'm still here after two days. My body must be rotting in real life if time flows at the same rate here.

I stared at the mirror, looking back at me was my human form as I remembered it. No horns or sharp teeth and ears, I've managed to turned my hair black as well.

It felt weird seeing "myself" again. Ever since I've "woke up" in this setting, everything seemed so real. The way mana was slowly drained from me as I trained the skill, the smell of the books, the dust that tickled my nose, it felt as if I'm actually here instead of it being a dream.

A thought popped into my mind: What if, just what if, I really did get isekai-ed into the game world?

Then all the more I should try and stay alive so I can go back to real life, right?

That's right. Isekai or dream, either way I'll have to destroy the human world.