Kuuya Fukusei was an ordinary young man.

Maybe a little more well off than others. He was a sociable kid from young, and he was born and raised in a normal family. He had normal hobbies, and took a liking to light novels and games like boys of his age, but that didn’t mean he overindulged in them like a hikikomori. He fought and scuffled with others because of his beliefs, but that didn’t make him a violent person. He learnt in school and studied hard for his tests, but that didn’t mean he was extremely intelligent.

The clone was keenly aware of this ever since it was given ‘life’. It understood its creator, because it was made by its creator, that Kuuya, like everyone else, could be anything it chose to be. And perhaps it was the unconscious will of its creator too, that he began to push different parts of himself onto each clone.

“Number 1. You start learning how to fight from now on.”

Those words decided Number 1’s code of existence.

Boxing. Karate. Kick-boxing. Kung Fu, Judo, Jujutsu, Mixed martial arts, Wushu, Wrestling, Fencing, Systema.

His moves become sharper and deadlier, skills honed by a mad-man who only trained. A clone was such an existence that willpower or talent no longer mattered. It only needed the code to ‘get it done’. At the creator’s guidance, Number 1 had reached close to the peak of human limits; a superhuman who could still die from bullets.

 

One day.

“Number 1.”

The clone looks at its creator blankly.

“What do you want to be?”

And then to the book he’d always read. The books that weren't included in its code. Or perhaps, it was? Number 1 could not tell. Was this ‘sentience’? In that case, if a wish were to truly be granted, then it…

“...would like to be reincarnated into a fantasy-like world.”

Perhaps it felt like the words it’d just spoken were too indulgent and out of its code. Number 1 added, as if it was a request.

 “...Please.”

Thus, Serval was born that day.

 

---

 

In every fantasy story, the tale was as old as time: A quest to slay the great evil, all in the name of returning home.

The leading roles; the hero and the Demon King. Later, it was deemed that the hero was too lonely, so the hero was joined by trustworthy party members. Next the hero had to indulge in sweet moments of respite during his journey, so the hero is given a love interest. Love interests. The party members become his love interests. At the end of the journey, the Demon King is slain; a happy ending without care for any loose ends because all evil starts and ends with the Demon King.

But since when was it that this ordinary concept had become twisted? A story popular enough that it becomes culture, breeds inspiration. 

What can I do to make it more different?

The Demon King becomes the hero’s love interest. 

Just so that the tale could rekindle that feeling of interest— or to critical consumers of the medium, a morbid curiosity on what could be possibly rewritten. 

The party members betray the Hero.

The Hero is a girl.

The Hero is not a human.

The Hero… no, the reincarnated, summoned, soul-exchanging main character… is the Demon King.

How many more variations were there?

The ideas and rhetoric that try to reinvent the world.

Yet they fail to realize that this journey into the other world, has always had the same mythos.

The precept of the world would never change no matter what.

And as long as one acknowledges and gains a strong awareness of that fact, they would become the “rule breakers” of that world, if it ever exists in real life.

Transmigration with his old body intact. 

Serval awoke with no memories of its past life. It was a world called Parvula, where he knew nobody. It was another world, a place where he should have difficulties with language, culture and identity.

Yet embedded within Serval was a self-written ‘code’. The cognition of ‘isekai’ had changed how he perceived the world. What variation would this world take? What were the NPCs, the events, and powerful people, monsters in this world? He questioned the world, and its rules.

This perception was known as the Player System.

Granted to rule breakers who existed outside of the world’s conventions.

 

One of the first things Serval had managed to take advantage of, was the books of Parvula. From there, he derived patterns and narratives that could be driven by the laws of ‘storytelling’, and acted upon them.

Actions of what could only be seen as a madman. And yet he proved himself right every time. Adhering, yet defying the world’s comprehension each time, he began to find even more loopholes. At a certain point, it was as if he was trailblazing logic that had yet to be fleshed out in the other world.

The young man contained a named boss, a heterochromatic-eyed Wyvern called the "Drake of Witch Flames" which was deemed to be a monster that cannot be tamed by the System. He, by perception, treated the monster as an inanimate object, and immobilized it with paralysis magic. Once it entered his inventory and came back out, the Wyvern had been completely cleansed of its original logic and became his trusty steed.

This Clean magic is convenient, but what properties does it have to create such a phenomenon? The removal of what the user considers as impurities, could that also apply to impurities in the air? Yes? Then what is defined as an impurity? Can magic, which exists as a foreign influence, be an impurity? If so… magic can be cleaned.

Gaining a ton of cheat-like skills through thought experiments alone, he pushed the Player System into the creation of Absolute Magic Nullification with simple lifestyle magic.

Personifying concepts and turning them into people forcefully. Who knew that something as vague as “Death” could possess a body and sign contracts with him? With that alone, he could wield that very concept to neutralize even ephemeral opponents.

With each accomplishment, Serval felt himself getting closer to his one goal.

Before he knew it, Serval’s name had become widespread. A holy sword was granted to him by the First Princess, whose eyes looked at him with a strange gaze that day. His hair glowed and turned gold, and his eyes sapphire blue. The Player System had given him the appearance, and title of [Hero].

 

Yet as omnipotent as he was, there was something Serval could never seem to change in Parvula.

“Sir Serval. Please, defeat the Demon King!” She cries out sincerely.

“Demons… killed family… Ruru... can’t forgive...!” A beast-girl tied in chains looked at him from a cage with eyes that could kill, her howls echo with deep-seated resentment.

“Ser…val… you carry on everyone’s wishes now. With everyone’s hopes and dreams… defeat him.” A trusted companion died in his arms with his back impaled with countless of black spears.

“Foolish human, the look on your face. The despair, let me taste it even more!” The demonic henchmen spouted the same few lines.

“Why did I do it…? What a stupid question. That’s because… I am… a DEMON!” Even as her life was at the mercy of her opponent, a woman with bat-like wings still forced her claws towards him.

 

It seemed like the world had already decided that demons were irreconcilable with humans, no matter what he did to change it. The narrative had already been determined.

And so as he had done everything that had to be done, Serval the Hero acknowledged and faced his final challenge.

A dazzling gold sword was plunged into the chest of a demon lying atop a crater on the black obsidian floor. The halls used for the final battle in ruins. A man sitting atop the throne, exhausted in mind and strength. He heaved erratically, as blood continued to spill from his body.

The Demon King was truly an existence that even a rule breaker would struggle to defeat. 

If he had stepped out of his domain and ensured the premature deaths of the growing heroes, then the story would have been much different. But it would never happen that way. Because the world had damned the Demon King to final boss status. In other words, it would always take a passive approach and call on minions to hinder the heroes. Experience points for the party.

 

But a win was a win.

A victory for the world.

The mind of the young man, who had always been fighting, was suddenly put at ease.

As if an invisible burden was finally gone.

Why?

Serval was a clone who was given a new life. He experienced many things, and acted according to his desires. He ate and drank, he experienced love, he went on an adventure, and he met things that normal humans would never see in a lifetime. Going down like a hero was probably not what he’d expected, and there would be many who would mourn for him, or get angry at him for leaving like this. Perhaps there would also be those that would chase him even after death.

But deep down, he’d always felt something missing.

He wanted to be reincarnated into a fantasy-like world.

But why?

…In his last moments, Serval widened his eyes in realization.

The Player System, who’d accompanied him and frozen.

No, the world had frozen. Everything turned monochrome. Even the status window that he was looking at, had turned gray.

A new window had appeared.

It was something that even him, a rule breaker of this world, could not control.

Yet a satisfied smile was formed on his face.

 

>Status of “Death” has been detected.

>『???』has been canceled.

> Large data values have been detected.

> Would you like to return data values?

 

As his identity was slowly revealed to him through fragmented memories, Serval closed his eyes in satisfaction. He nods once, and time returns to normal again. The golden weaponry scattered around the battlefield begins to be recollected into data fragments.

His body began to crumble, not into gold particles as he’d thought, but into a melting form. It was a painless process, maybe even a comfortable one as if he was about to return to what he was before.

 

Retrieve〖Wooden Toy Sword〗from inventory.

A sword with a blunt edge, used by a child.

 

He recovers memories from a long time ago.

Five children who had gathered at the playground to play-pretend.

Of a hero and the unfortunate kid who had to play the demon king.

“I am the hero Luke! You can become the baddie.”

“Ehh… but I wanna be the hero too…”

“We’ll take turns after this, Kuuya!”

“That’s right, someone has to be the bad guy.”

“Urk you guys… well if I’m gonna be the bad guy, I’ll at least have a cool name… a cool name like, Serval.”

“Serval huh, that’s not a bad name! Demon King Serval, I challenge you to a fight!”

“Ha ha ha! Hero Luke, I won’t be easy to beat!”

It was a distant memory, but a very fond one.

 

“I’m the hero this time, you guys…”

‘Kuuya’ smiles for the last time, as he points his remaining arm towards the ceiling with the wooden sword. It was the only thing that completely disappeared alongside his body.