Kaoru Koizumi Reincarnated as a Demon

"Is it really okay to do this?"

Himejima Akeno silently walked up to Rias's side, looking down at Koizumi Koichi who was lying unconscious on the ground.

"This is the best solution we have right now."

Just a moment ago, she had inserted one of her Evil Pieces, a Pawn, into Koizumi Koichi's body, reincarnating him into her servant.

The Evil Pieces were a powerful set of items invented many years ago by Beelzebub, one of the Four Great Satans of the Underworld.

Taking the form of a chess set, it consisted of sixteen pieces in total: one King, one Queen, two Rooks, two Bishops, two Knights, and eight Pawns.

The Evil Pieces were created to increase the number of devils, as pureblood devils in the Underworld suffered from low birth rates and a dwindling population.

Among them, the King piece represented the highest authority and belonged exclusively to pureblood devils.

The remaining fifteen pieces were held by the King. Once the King found a satisfactory servant, the pieces would be integrated into the servant's body, transforming them into a devil and granting them immense demonic power.

This empowerment did not overwrite the servant's original abilities; rather, it assimilated their existing powers, converting them into demonic energy.

The Queen piece could directly grant a servant power on par with a High-Class Devil. Rooks, Bishops, and Knights provided Middle-Class Devil strength, while the Pawns granted Low-Class Devil power.

However, even a Low-Class Devil was a creature of myth.

With an incalculably long lifespan, robust regenerative abilities, and superhuman physical traits, a Low-Class Devil could easily wipe out a small squad of modern military troops.

Such pieces were incredibly precious, even to someone like Rias.

But right now, in order to seize control of the gaming company Aincrad Corporation, she had no choice but to use one.

This was no longer just about saving Toujou Koneko.

It was also because even Satan-class powerhouses like Serafall and Grayfia had been dragged into this mess.

"Akeno, once he wakes up, please explain things to him properly."

Saying this, Rias turned to look at the cardboard box filled with helmets beside her. She reached in, pulled out a gaming helmet, and vanished from the scene as a magic circle appeared beneath her feet.

Seeing this, Himejima Akeno let out a heavy sigh. She looked at Koizumi Koichi on the ground, then at the hundreds of gaming helmets piled up in the warehouse. A massive magic circle enveloped the entire building.

In the next moment, everything in the warehouse vanished, leaving behind nothing but an empty space.

...

Aincrad, the Town of Beginnings, in the central plaza.

A figure with brilliant crimson hair cascading down her back suddenly materialized.

Rias looked at the medieval-style architecture and the bustling crowds around her, pursing her red lips.

As expected, if she didn't log into the game herself, she would never be able to forgive herself.

With this thought in mind, Rias silently digested the beginner's guide she received upon entering the game, then cast a determined gaze toward the outside of the town.

Since even the Satans could not resist it, she would follow what Kayaba Akihiko had said in his nationwide broadcast: enter the game world and completely clear this game.

Thinking this, she walked straight toward the fields outside the town.

As a pureblood High-Class Devil of the Underworld, she refused to believe she couldn't clear a game like this.

And she was far from the only one who harbored such intentions.

Ten minutes later, another figure appeared in the plaza. It was none other than Himejima Akeno, who had just parted ways with Rias.

After handing Koizumi Koichi over to Rias's Knight, Kiba Yuuto, giving him a brief rundown of the situation, and instructing him to protect Koizumi Koichi and everything related to the game, she grabbed a helmet and logged into the game as well, having already guessed Rias's intentions.

Chen Changsheng naturally welcomed supernatural beings like them with open arms, as their presence would accelerate Ai's growth rate.

It would also speed up the process of clearing the game.

After all, to Ai, Aincrad was merely an initial stepping stone.

Only by having the game cleared quickly, and having the players who gained power from the game swiftly disrupt the real world's existing systems, could Ai gather enough power of faith.

For the current Ai, acquiring enough power of faith to truly evolve into the God of Games was the most crucial task.

As for collecting the dissipated mental energy of the players, that was actually of little importance.

With Chen Changsheng by her side, the one thing Ai did not lack right now was basic energy.

...

A week passed in the blink of an eye. Most people in the real world finally accepted the harsh reality: there was truly no way to rescue the players trapped in the game from the outside.

Meanwhile, the numerous factions greedily eyeing the gaming company were forced to unwillingly back down due to the intervention of Kiba Yuuto and Koizumi Koichi.

The power of devils was simply too overwhelming in the world of ordinary humans.

Even though one of them only possessed the combat strength of a High-Class Devil, and the other had only been a Low-Class Devil for a week.

All they had to do was use teleportation magic to appear right in front of those corporate tycoons and politicians, and a single hypnosis spell was enough to make them obediently fall in line.

However, just because forceful methods were off the table didn't mean they couldn't use other approaches.

For example, investment.

Although there were still a hundred thousand players trapped in the game world, the global broadcast of this incident had generated an unprecedented amount of hype and attention.

If the Aincrad Corporation could take this opportunity to launch another virtual reality game, backed by the guarantees of major corporations and government officials, they would undoubtedly reap a massive fortune.

Originally, Kiba Yuuto and his companion had absolutely no intention of accepting their investments.

But later, they were approached by the legendary Satan Beelzebub, who instructed them to accept the investments and put their full efforts into developing another virtual reality game. He needed this to gather more information.

As a result, the two could only hold their noses and comply. Kiba Yuuto began engaging with the investors, while Koizumi Koichi started rebuilding the team and rebranding the company.

Naturally, they could no longer use the original name. They established a new gaming company, starting fresh under the name of Rias Gremory.

As for the virtual reality technology, they publicly claimed to have purchased the exclusive licensing rights from the original gaming company.

And while the real world was undergoing massive changes...

In the game world, the majority of the players had already adapted to their new lives.

Compared to the original work, the current game world was incredibly realistic.

Players gradually discovered that anything possible in the real world, even the laws of physics, could be perfectly replicated in the game.

But this came with a catch: the powerful monsters were no longer rigid game programs. The higher the level of the monster, the more exponentially its intelligence and combat prowess spiked. Furthermore, these monsters inherently possessed incredibly rich combat experience.

As a result, even when players leveled up and their physical attributes grew stronger across the board, they could no longer face monsters of the same level with the effortless ease they had in the beginning.