Why Is Everyone in This Dating Sim Trying to Kill Me?!

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Translator: Vine

Chapter Title: The Incubus's Apostle (1)

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Swish—

Hundreds of black shadows rose, flickering as they stood guard around her, like a protective retinue.

"Dream Demon, Incubus. You cannot defeat me within my domain."

She said, her eyes cold.

"Ha… What is this?"

I let out a gasp of admiration.

It was a sight that made me chuckle in disbelief.

'A Necromancer type?'

Judging by the shadows' apparent sentience, her aptitude seemed to be in manipulating the souls of the dead.

An affinity for controlling the deceased.

It wasn't a rare aptitude in Velvetsra.

There were Awakened individuals of the Necromancer type.

However, within Velvetsra, they hadn't garnered much attention.

Their abilities were inefficient, with low upper limits and not particularly high lower limits.

Moreover, the few useful Necromancers usually appeared as fiends on the enemy's side.

'Necromancers fundamentally needed to use monster corpses, and they couldn't endlessly reuse a corpse once resurrected…'

Among characters who used limited resources to unleash abilities, Lim Ga-eul was a prime example of a similar type.

However, unlike Lim Ga-eul, who could use her abilities throughout a battle if given good mana stones,

most Necromancers had short summon durations.

On top of that, their AI was monotonous and poor.

When Velvetsra was just a game, I'd thought Necromancers were merely for unique concept playthroughs.

But now that it was reality, I understood why.

'Because you're controlling multiple summons alone, it's heavily influenced by mental strength and intelligence.'

In other words, it was as difficult as having dozens of hands and drawing different shapes with each one.

This meant that an ordinary human brain couldn't handle it with typical abilities.

That's why most Necromancers weren't born with such capabilities, becoming unfortunate beings unwelcome in any party.

But what about the woman conjuring shadows before my eyes now?

She wasn't raising bones but summoning spirits, and each moved in a distinct manner.

I dodged the shadows' coordinated attacks and swung my sword sideways.

Slice—!

But the shadow merely passed right through with a 'whoosh'.

It was the same phenomenon I'd experienced when I was dragged here.

"…Are these truly immune to physical attacks?"

Even if magical attacks were their weakness,

complete immunity to physical attacks alone would allow certain chapters to be cleared effortlessly.

Whoosh—!!!!

The shadows surged upwards once more, lunging at me.

Hup!

As I threw my body back and performed a backflip,

Thud—!

Thud—!

Thud—!

Following the shadows, the ground where I had stood was repeatedly dented, creating a series of craters.

And at that moment, I narrowed my eyes.

'Hmm, could it be…'

To test my sudden realization, I waited until the moment of the enemy's attack, then, just before it touched my body, I swung my sword again.

Slice—!

This time, a slicing sound echoed as the shadow dispersed.

'As expected, they only materialize at the moment of attack? Of course, that makes sense. Complete immunity to physical attacks would be too overpowered.'

Still, it remained undeniably broken.

The more I confirmed her abilities, the more my heart leaned towards one idea.

Recruiting her into our Utopia Party.

The current composition of the Utopia Party was:

Main DPS: Kang Do-hee.

Tanker: Lee Yu-ri.

Supporter: Lim Ga-eul.

Healer: Sophia.

And finally, me, the Sub-DPS and party leader.

One role was still vacant.

That was the 'Specialist'.

A position for deploying wide-range attacks and dealing with trash mobs.

It was an indispensable role in large-scale battles.

Shin Se-hee, who used fire magic, originally fit that position, but she was an Operator, not a combat role.

That's why, until now, when our party faced numerous enemies,

we relied on Kang Do-hee's and my strong firepower, along with Lim Ga-eul's 'Acceleration' support skill to boost attack speed and conduct group battles.

However, the enemies appearing in the future would only grow stronger, and this method would soon reach its limits.

'Hmm, indeed…'

Whoosh—!

I channeled mana into my left arm and deliberately allowed one of the shadows' attacks to hit me.

Thwack—

A dull impact resonated.

And my left arm felt slightly heavy.

'Ha, oh? It seems to have a curse as an attack passive?'

Its attack power was pitifully weak compared to Kang Do-hee's, but the Specialist's role was, after all, mob clearing.

And with a bit more training, there was plenty of room for her to grow stronger.

'Tsk, I was originally thinking of a character joining in the episode after next for the Specialist role…'

It seemed better to either give up on that character or assign them to a separate sub-party.

Because I was convinced this woman would fit our party much better.

'Both Kang Do-hee and I primarily engage in close-quarters combat… When magic is used to sweep through enemy lines with wide-area firepower, it creates a damage loss.'

Because while powerful magic rained down on enemy lines, Kang Do-hee and I would have to stand still to avoid getting caught in it.

But what if the method involved controlling shadows to deal with numerous enemies?

The Specialist could rampage without Kang Do-hee and I being held back.

Hmm, the more I pondered, the stronger my conviction became.

Indeed, she was the right fit for our main party.

"…How…"

As I barely allowed any attacks to land and even cut down her shadows,

she opened her mouth in disbelief.

"Incubus, how could you… my attacks…'"

Her painstakingly recovered stamina seemed to have dropped again, as she was trembling, drenched in a cold sweat.

Though I had managed to keep her breathing with a potion, she was still in a dangerous state.

I nodded, looking at her.

'Any further verification would be dangerous.'

Hup—

I channeled mana into my feet and immediately kicked off.

Shadow Step (暗影步).

My form stretched out with the shadow-infused footwork, and I dashed through the shadows that blocked my path.

Thud—

Then I moved behind her and lightly struck the back of her neck.

"—!"

She had wide eyes, startled by my sudden movement, but soon lost consciousness and slumped down.

Thump.

'As expected, dealing with the summoner is the answer for this type.'

***

"Damn it, da-damn it, damn it all—!"

Suzuki Satoru, the apostle of the Dream Demon, Incubus, and a fiend who worshipped him.

His back was severely hunched, his eyes moved independently, and his teeth protruded hideously.

And the pockmarks scattered across his skin made his already hideous face even more monstrous.

He twisted his repulsive face into a rough grimace.

"Wh-what goddamn bastards have i-invaded!!!"

His grand dream of creating his own Garden of Eden in the Jukai Forest.

That dream was now nearing its completion.

To have an interruption at such a crucial moment!

He had no idea how this could have happened.

"Th-the Jukai Forest… everyone sh-shunned it, so I th-thought no one would c-come… Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

What's worse, the intruders were hunters with monstrous abilities.

Normally, with the ability bestowed by the great demon race, the Incubus, the Dream Mist (夢幻霧),

they should have been trapped in a powerful fog that induced happy dreams, eventually becoming monster fodder.

But for some reason, it had no effect on them at all.

In fact, as time passed, it seemed they were developing resistance, their speed of advancing through the mist growing faster and faster.

The monsters he had lured to them had already been annihilated several times over.

At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they found him.

Satoru nervously gnawed on his fingernails.

"I-I have to run… B-but—"

Even though he had to escape immediately, there was a reason his feet wouldn't move.

Due to his unsightly appearance, Satoru had hidden in the Jukai Forest to avoid people's gazes, and there he had coincidentally seen her.

A solitary shrine maiden living in this horrific forest, honoring the dead with graceful movements.

'Ichika.'

Her transcendent beauty, not of this world, and her formidable mental strength.

And her emotionless expression, unwavering before anything.

The moment he saw her, Satoru felt the sticky, damp darkness within him.

Satoru had succumbed to that inner voice, becoming the Incubus's apostle and a fiend.

'I-it's almost done…! Just a little, a little more and Ichika will be c-completely mine…!!'

Her noble spirit hadn't yet been corrupted even by Lord Incubus's power,

but her body was almost completely under his control.

Every time she fondled her own body with lustful gestures, he felt an ecstasy incomparable to anything else.

Soon,

her lofty spirit would also be corrupted.

Her expression of disdain would also change.

Into a form of lust for him.

However, her body had somehow weakened recently, which bothered him, but he believed it would naturally resolve once the brainwashing was complete.

"F-first, I have to go back to Ichika…! I'll h-hurry the c-corruption along, and then we'll escape together!"

The authority of enthrallment was fundamentally achieved through touch. And the deeper and more intimate the contact, the more its effect multiplied.

In other words, Satoru intended to embrace Ichika right then.

"A-ahem, I-Ichika… Your f-first time might b-be a little painful… but th-there's no time now… You'll d-definitely f-feel good too."

Originally, he would have taken his time, making her desire him and kneel before him, but now there was truly no time, so he had no choice but to force it.

In anticipation, his member swelled beneath his clothes.

"A-and the Garden of Eden can be rebuilt later. We'll go somewhere no one can find us, somewhere no one knows—! Just the two of us! Ha-happily together. Th-that's right, that's what we'll do."

Nodding with a serious expression, Satoru stumbled and hurried down the forest path.

Then, just before the location where Ichika was, he suddenly stopped as if remembering something.

"Ah, th-that's right. No m-matter how urgent it is, I c-can't let her see my h-hideous form."

Satoru used the Incubus's authority to overlay an illusion over his face and body.

His hideous face was concealed, revealing the appearance of a smooth, handsome man—anyone would find him good-looking.

Finally, what he saw upon entering Ichika's location was…

"…Y-you, what, are you—!!!!!!!!"