Park Jin-ho's fingers flew across the keyboard, the blue light of his three monitors casting an ethereal glow across his pale face. The cramped studio apartment around him was dark except for those lights, takeout containers stacked precariously on every available surface. The clock on his computer showed 3:47 AM.
He hadn't spoken aloud in... how long had it been? Three days? Four? The delivery man had started leaving the food outside his door without requiring a signature, an arrangement that suited Jin-ho perfectly.
Code scrolled across one screen while a fantasy MMORPG occupied another. He absently guided his character through a dungeon with one hand while debugging a mobile payment system with the other. Multi-tasking was second nature to him—his brain constantly processing multiple streams of information to avoid processing the actual world around him.
A notification popped up on his third screen: Payment received - 3,450,000 won.
Another freelance job completed. His bank account was healthy enough to maintain his lifestyle for another few months. Not that his lifestyle required much—food delivery, internet bills, utilities, and rent for this shoebox he hadn't left in nearly three weeks.
Jin-ho rolled his shoulders, wincing at the stiffness. At twenty-eight, he shouldn't feel this old, but lack of movement and poor posture had taken their toll. His thin frame, already naturally slight, had become almost fragile-looking over the years of self-imposed isolation.
He glanced at the single photo on his desk—a faded image of a middle-aged couple standing in front of a small house. His parents. They'd died when he was seventeen, a car accident on a rainy night. The inheritance had been enough to finish high school, and after that, he'd forged the documents needed to convince employers he had the proper credentials.
Not that it mattered—his skill spoke for itself. He'd taught himself programming, hacking, system architecture, everything he needed to secure remote work that required minimal human interaction.
Jin-ho stood and shuffled to his mini-fridge, pulling out a energy drink. As he cracked it open, a strange sensation prickled at the back of his neck. He turned, scanning the dark corners of his apartment.
Something felt... wrong.
The air seemed to thicken, becoming difficult to breathe. His computer screens flickered, the game character on screen freezing mid-action.
"System crash?" he muttered, his voice raspy from disuse.
The drink slipped from his fingers, spilling across the floor as a searing pain shot through his chest. Jin-ho gasped, clutching at his heart. The pain intensified, spreading through his body like liquid fire.
He stumbled, crashing into his desk, sending his keyboard clattering to the floor. The room around him began to blur, reality itself seeming to fold inward.
"Help," he tried to call out, but no one would have heard him even if his voice had been stronger. No one knew he existed beyond the digital signatures he left in code repositories and game servers.
The floor beneath him vanished. Jin-ho felt himself falling through absolute darkness, the pain now so intense that his screams made no sound. His body seemed to be tearing apart, molecule by molecule.
How long he fell, he couldn't tell. Time lost meaning in the void. Then, suddenly, impact.
He landed on a hard surface, the shock sending fresh waves of agony through his already tortured body. When he managed to open his eyes, he found himself lying in a pool of his own blood.
The room around him was vast and ancient, the walls appearing to be made of some dark material that absorbed light rather than reflected it. Strange symbols glowed with an inner blue fire across the floor and ceiling.
Jin-ho tried to move, only to discover with horror that his left leg was simply... gone. Not wounded or injured—completely absent, as if it had never existed. Broken bones protruded from what remained of his left knee, and blood poured from his mouth with each labored breath.
"Fascinating," a voice said from somewhere above him. "You're still conscious. That's unexpected."
Jin-ho lifted his gaze with enormous effort. Before him stood... nothing. Or rather, a shape made of darkness deeper than the void he had fallen through, vaguely humanoid but constantly shifting, as if unable to decide on a form.
"Can you understand me?" the voice asked, resonating not from the shape but seemingly from everywhere at once.
Jin-ho tried to respond, but only blood bubbled from his lips.
"I'll take that as a yes," the shape moved closer, circling him with what might have been curiosity. "The transition was rougher than I anticipated. Interdimensional summoning is not my specialty. The Goddess always had a better touch for it."
The shape sighed, the sound like distant thunder.
"I'm the Demon God, by the way. Creator of demonkind, co-creator of the world you're about to inhabit, and your new... employer, I suppose you could say."
Jin-ho blinked, certain he was hallucinating from blood loss or that this was some bizarre dream brought on by too many energy drinks and too little sleep.
"You're not hallucinating," the Demon God said, apparently reading his thoughts.
"Though I can understand why you'd think so. This is all very real, Park Jin-ho."
The shape stopped circling and hovered directly in front of him.
"I had to call in quite a few favors to pluck you from your world. Well, 'favors' might be generous. More like 'minor concessions.' The God of your Earth was surprisingly amenable to the trade. A side of premium beef for your soul." The Demon God's form rippled in what might have been laughter. "You weren't exactly a high-value acquisition in the cosmic marketplace."
Jin-ho would have been offended if he weren't in so much pain. The blood pooling beneath him was spreading wider.
"You're dying, of course," the Demon God noted casually. "That body, at least. But I didn't bring you here for your physical form. It's your consciousness I need."
With tremendous effort, Jin-ho managed to lift one bloody hand, reaching out toward the dark shape in what might have been a plea for help or an attempt to verify its existence.
"Interesting," the Demon God murmured.
"Most humans would be cowering or begging by now. You're... different."
The shape moved closer, and Jin-ho felt an icy coldness as something that might have been a hand touched his forehead.
"Your mind is exceptional—isolated, analytical, detached. And there's something else... a darkness in you. Not evil, but... emptiness. A void untouched by human connection. Perfect for my purposes."
Jin-ho's vision began to fade, darkness creeping in from the edges.
"Don't worry about the pain," the Demon God said, almost gently. "It's nearly over. Your human form was never going to survive the transition. But I have another body waiting for you. A vessel of great power."
The dark shape expanded, enveloping Jin-ho completely.
"My world is in crisis," the Demon God's voice continued, now seeming to come from inside Jin-ho's mind.
"The Goddess who co-created it with me has abandoned her responsibilities out of spite. She summoned a hero from your world before departing—a perfect, shining champion tasked with destroying my children, my demons."
Jin-ho felt his consciousness begin to detach from his failing body, a strange floating sensation replacing the pain.
"Her summoning was perfect, of course. No blood, no pain, no messy transition. Always showing off."
The Demon God's voice held ancient bitterness. "We were lovers once, creators together. Then she met another, a higher God, and turned her back on everything we built."
Images flashed through Jin-ho's fading awareness—two divine beings creating mountains and oceans, shaping creatures from darkness and light, their love manifest in the very fabric of reality.
"She couldn't leave our world entirely—we were both bound to it by creation laws. So she spent centuries turning the humans against my demons instead, twisting their minds to hate at puberty, giving them powers to hunt my children."
Jin-ho could barely process the information as his life ebbed away.
"Now she's finally gained permission to leave, to create a new world with her new lover. But before departing, she summoned a champion to finish what she started. I couldn't allow that. I needed a champion of my own."
The darkness pressed closer, becoming all that existed.
"So I chose you, Park Jin-ho. A human with no attachments, no great purpose, no meaningful connections. Your life was..." the Demon God seemed to search for a diplomatic word, "...expendable. But your mind has potential."
Jin-ho felt the last threads connecting him to his human body snap. The pain vanished instantly, replaced by a sensation of pure consciousness floating in void.
"Your arrival here—broken, bloody, yet still alert, still fighting—confirmed my choice. There's a resilience in you I didn't expect from someone who lived such a small, contained existence."
Jin-ho tried to speak with a mouth that no longer existed. What do you want from me?
"I want you to become my Demon King," the Demon God answered the unspoken question. "To lead my children, to protect them from the humans who would destroy them. Without the Goddess to regulate human development, they'll devolve into something worse than demons ever were. They must be eliminated before that happens."
Why me? Jin-ho's consciousness pulsed with the question. Why not a demon?
"Because I need someone who understands humans, who can think like them. And paradoxically, someone who has lived apart from them, who can see them objectively...and I think it will be funny that a human will kill the humans that bitch 'loved'."
Jin-ho felt himself being pulled through space, rushing toward some unknown destination.
"The body I've prepared for you has been preserved for five centuries. The previous Demon King, murdered by his human queen at the beginning of this conflict. His body holds great power, and fragments of his memories remain. They will help you navigate your new existence."
I don't want this, Jin-ho protested weakly.
"Want?" The Demon God's amusement was palpable. "When were your wants ever considered in your previous life? Did you want to be orphaned? To live alone in a box, your only worth measured in lines of code? At least now you'll have purpose. Power. A role of consequence."
Jin-ho couldn't argue with that assessment of his former life.
"Besides," the Demon God added, "the alternative is oblivion. Your human body is dead. This is the only continuation available to you."
The darkness around Jin-ho began to thin. He could sense another destination approaching.
"I should warn you," the Demon God said, almost as an afterthought, "the transition into the new body will be... unpleasant. But the pain will be temporary. The power will be eternal."
Jin-ho felt himself accelerating, rushing toward something solid and real.
"Oh, and one more thing," the Demon God's voice began to fade, "I'll be with you. In your mind. Guiding you. We're going to be very close, you and I."
The last thing Jin-ho remembered was a final, searing pain as his disembodied consciousness slammed into something solid and cold. Then darkness once more.
Until he opened his eyes to a stone ceiling, illuminated by flickering torchlight.
--
A hour earlier, in another part of the realm, a young man named Jason Miller opened his eyes to a chamber of light.
Unlike Jin-ho's violent summoning, Jason's arrival had been gentle—a soft transition from his college celebration to a temple of white marble and gold. No blood, no pain, no disembodied consciousness.
The Goddess had spared no expense, using the last of her power in this world to bring forth the perfect champion—athletic, charismatic, confident, and pure of heart. Everything Jin-ho was not.
"Jason Miller," she said, her voice like wind chimes and distant bells. "Champion of Earth, welcome."
The young man stared in wonder at the luminous being before him, her beauty beyond human comprehension. Unlike the Demon God's amorphous darkness, she appeared as radiant light given humanoid form.
"I am the Goddess of this realm," she explained, her tone warm but somehow rehearsed. Her gaze kept drifting to a distant doorway glowing with golden light. "My world faces a crisis. Demons threaten humanity. Their king died centuries ago, but his followers remain numerous and dangerous. I need a champion to keep them contained."
As she spoke, she circled Jason impatiently, her form occasionally flickering as if holding her appearance required effort she was increasingly unwilling to expend.
"I would handle this myself, but unfortunately..." She waved a hand dismissively. "Ancient pacts. Rules of non-interference. Tedious cosmic regulations."
Unlike Jin-ho, Jason did not question or resist. His whole life had prepared him for a moment of destiny, for a chance to be truly special.
"I accept," he said without hesitation, his voice strong and clear.
The Goddess smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. She placed a hand upon his forehead, bestowing a blessing that filled him with warmth and power.
"Excellent," she said, already stepping away, moving subtly toward the glowing doorway. "I bestow upon you my blessing. Strength beyond mortal men. Speed that rivals the wind. Senses to perceive evil. Power to counter demonic magic."
"Then rise, Hero of Humanity," she proclaimed with practiced grandeur. "Your quest begins."
As Jason stood tall and proud, accepting his divine mission without question, the Goddess was already drifting toward the golden doorway, her attention clearly elsewhere.
"Remember," she called, now halfway to the glowing doorway, "good and evil in this world are clearly defined. Demons bad, humans good. No moral gray areas to worry about!" She gave a final, distracted wave. "Best of luck!"
As she reached the threshold of the golden doorway, her entire demeanor changed. The forced smile fell away, replaced by genuine excitement. Her form straightened, becoming more vibrant, more real.
"Finally," she whispered to herself. "That old fool will never expect this. Let him deal with these creatures on his own. I'm done with this world."
With her final duty to humanity complete, the Goddess stepped through the golden doorway, which closed behind her with a final flash of light, abandoning the world she had helped create for new horizons with her new divine partner.
At the same time, Jason stepped through his doorway to the Temple of Light.
The game was set in motion. The pieces were on the board.
And somewhere in the north, a hour later, the unlikeliest Demon King in history was about to awaken to his new existence.