Demon Lord Management Sim Game

The dazzling light slowly disappeared. I saw the same room but with different armor, weapons, and wooden counter.

And I couldn't see Emily nor the guiding shapeshifter.

"What?" I muttered. "What really happened?"

"Can I help you?" Instead of Zhoal, a man in his forties came out from inside. He limped and used a walking stick. "Sorry, but I can't accept custom orders with my condition. You can only buy what is already on display here."

I was silent, observing that man with a relatively thick beard and black hair.

"He's not a shapeshifter," Ayre whispered as if she could read my mind. "And strangely enough, I don't feel that discomfort anymore."

"Sir?" The man asked again.

"Oh, excuse us," I replied, unable to fully understand what had happened. "We'll take our leave."

I signaled Ayre to leave the place. A hypothesis had popped into my head, but I didn't believe it.

Once outside, I opened the game UI to contact Emily. However, I found out that all I could summon was Ayre. As if all my subordinates never existed.

My heart rate is crawling up. This strengthens my suspicions.

I then pulled Ayre into an empty alley. "We're going back to base."

My finger had moved to the teleport icon, but I froze and didn't press it.

"What's wrong, my lord?" Ayre asked.

I took a deep breath to calm my heart. "Looks like we have to fly to get to our base."

The teleport icon is gray, so it can't be used. It feels like I haven't explored this world at all.

***

During a few days of flying trips, I intend to stop by the various cities I've been to. I want to check the conditions in those places. However, I didn't find anything in the spots the cities were supposed to be.

I found only jungle or plains.

And once I got to the base, I only found an empty cave. There is no sign of development in the vicinity. Many trees still surround it.

Even when I entered the center of the base, I only found a cave that wasn't too big in size, the same as when I had just logged into this world.

"The world has a cycle of major earthquakes every few hundred years," Ayre explained while touching the cave wall. "So, many cities die, and humans rebuild civilization in other places. That makes cities in this period different from those we know."

"And only Madcrest city hasn't changed?" I responded, sitting on top of a large rock. "Because of the magic preserved in their buildings?"

"You may wonder why only they can apply that particular magic." Ayre continued. "That's because the magic can only be used in the location where Madcrest is. The ground in that place is unique."

"I see." I took another deep breath to suppress my panic.

Zhoal has sent us back in time, and we must find a solution to get back to our era.

"Zhoal mentioned the three items used to perform teleportation magic." I looked at my shapeshifter general. "Can we use that?"

Ayre turned to face me. "I don't know how that magic works, but I still remember the runes used. If we find the right mage, maybe we can reconstruct it."

"We don't even know if our currency is valid here." I rubbed my face, feeling more frustrated with our situation. "Well, maybe we can sell those as ordinary gold, but it might be worth less. We don't know how much to pay the mage…. Ah, sorry I complained too much."

My troop-building feature still works, but my darkness points are zero. Under normal circumstances, I would send many of my subordinates to look for such a mage. I can also ask them to make money.

Now I have to do it all myself with Ayre.

Ayre knelt before me. "Perhaps you need rest, my lord. You don't really stop on the way here.

"How can I rest in this condition…." I cut myself off. Getting angry at a time like this will not solve the problem. "Sorry…."

"It's okay." The shapeshifter general took my hand. "We will go through this situation together."

***

As per Ayre's suggestion, I decided to rest. However, I did it in my original world. When logging in, I use the fast-forward feature.

"Have you not slept yet, Your Majesty?" Ayre, lying next to me, muttered, turning the fast-forward feature off.

"Yeah, I can't sleep," I answered, also lying on the hard cave floor.

"Can I ask something?" She continued. "This has nothing to do with our situation. However, from the start, I kept thinking about this. I just haven't found the right opportunity to ask. It could be a sensitive subject, and you don't want the others to hear it."

"Just ask then."

She was silent for a moment. "While imitating the figure you had in mind at the time, I saw strange glimpses, my lord."

"You mean the one whose form you keep using, even now?" I frowned, not expecting to hear such a thing. "What kind of glimpses did you see?"

"At that time, I saw some glimpse of the metal vehicle, and no animal was towing it. I also saw unreasonably tall buildings. I even saw an iron bird with many humans sitting inside its body."

The figure that Ayre imitated was one of the famous movie stars in the world I came from. So, Ayre may have seen those things from my memory of the actress' films.

"How about I tell you that I am actually from another world?" I turned to the woman with a smile. "That world I came from had an extraordinary method of communication. Everyone can be connected no matter how far apart they are. I'm not talking about the long-distance communication we use a lot. This is very different. Almost every individual has a device that can do something like that."

Ayre looked back at me. "Sounds convenient."

"And you can access all the information from that device." I make gestures like playing with a smartphone. "And the devices are only this big."

Ayre looked up at the ceiling of the cave again. "I don't know if you're joking or not."

I chuckled. I knew she wouldn't believe me.