Painful [Physical Manifestation]

[Error, request unavailable. Tutorial has not been completed.]

"Ah…" Zack said, realizing that he was jumping the gun a bit. Walking briskly down the tunnel towards the utility pipe, he tapped the welcome message on his screen.

[Welcome to the Demon Summoning App.]

Well, he needed the refresher anyway. It had been quite a while since he went through the tutorial, and his memory was foggy enough already.

The little red demon on the front of his screen danced and cheered before being followed by a gratuitously flashy display of rainbow colored confetti falling down his screen accompanied by a Yay! sound effect.

[Demon Summoning App Beginner Guide]

Congratulations! You have been selected for the Demon Summoning Program. Demons are now appearing on your home planet, but fret not, you will be able to harness their power for yourself through this application.

The process is simple. You may unlock additional powers by spending currencies in this app. Demon crystals are the main currency type accepted.

[Explanation on how to obtain demon crystals.]

Killing demons will grant you demon crystals, which you may extract from their chest cavities. You may also earn demon crystals through daily missions and special events.

[Important notice regarding paid demon crystals vs. free demon crystals.]

Do note that the demon crystals harvested from monsters are considered paid crystals, while the crystals earned through other means such as daily missions are considered free crystals. Certain banners and features require paid crystals to unlock.

Additional features will be unlocked as you progress through the demon summoning app.

Please press confirm to continue

[Confirm.]

New feature has been added.

You have unlocked [Basic Summoning]

[Beginner Summoning Festival] will be available soon.

[Starter Goodie Pack] will be available soon.

[Mega Starter Goodie Pack] will be available soon.

[Limit Break Potions] will be available soon.

All of the options were grayed out except the top one, [Basic Summoning].

Ah, the good old summoning app, as exploitative and convoluted as usual. Zack mused that the fact that such a predatory system that was designed to easily part an unknowing summoner from their precious paid crystals was the only thing holding humanity back from being swallowed the calamity said a lot about what the cosmic neural network algorithm learned from its observation of this world.

Even the heavens and constellations above understood the addictive and impulsive nature of human beings. It was as if the designer of the demon summoning app was a multiversal corporation with a slew of cosmic data scientists eking out every single iota of addictive potential and packaging it in one mobile game stuffed full of banners and deals and flashy microtransactions, many of which were bad deals or 'trap' deals, mind you.

In a sense, there was something eerily human about the design of the demon summoning app. Such an app, were it not for the obviously fantastic powers that it granted, as well as the whole thing about, you know, the existence of demons, would not seem out of place when compared to a top rated human made mobile game on the market.

He glanced to the top right of the screen.

Current VIP Level: 0

[Initial demon crystal deposit needed to unlock VIP Level 1.]

To proceed to VIP level 1, please extract demon crystals from a demon and deposit them into the application by placing the crystals above your screen.

Extract demon crystals [1/1].

Deposit demon crystals into app [1/1].

Fortunately, he had already skipped ahead and done all of that before. He already cut out a demon crystal from the corpse of a Drakken wolf and put it into the app.

Task complete.

Once that is done, please tap on the [Basic Summoning] feature to perform a basic summoning.

Perform basic summoning [0/1].

This is where it all begins, huh?

Zack already had a plan mapped out for his first few days with the demon summoning app. The first thing he needed to do was capitalize on the amazing beginner packages and explore the city for hotspots, while also avoiding some cleverly designed 'traps' as he liked to call them.

But first, he needed to finish the beginner guide. He briefly skimmed the description of the basic summon.

[Basic Summoning] is a one-time free summon that guarantees an SR grade summon from three potential summons.

The Demon Summoning App uses a rarity grade system as follows.

Uncommon (UC)

Rare (R)

Super Rare (SR)

Super Super Rare (SSR)

Additional information will be available once the beginner summon is complete.

Ah, yeah. The first summon was of utmost importance, and fortunately had zero rng built in. It would yield an SR summon, and it was quickly discovered that every single person received the exact same SR yield for this beginner summon.

The summoning button sparkled with anticipation as if it was screaming tap-me!, and Zack pressed it confidently.

A flashy glowing pentagram spun into the screen, before spinning and pulsating. Growing larger, it burst into a shower of confetti, revealing a grinning red bowl cut demon with a horizontal-oval shaped head, its bowl cut covering its eyes completely.

You have summoned SR grade character Mischievous Demon! Congratulations!

To be honest, Zack felt a rush when he saw the little red demon. It was like greeting an old friend.

Your VIP Level has increased from 0->1.

[Platoons] are now available.

[Physical manifestation] is now available.

Please place Mischievous Demon into your platoon and advance to the physical manifestation screen.

The app displayed a little circle on the screen around the mischievous demon, and showed how to drag it up to the platoon, which was a row of five empty squares. Zack swiped his thumb up and performed the gesture quickly.

He then took a deep breath, clearing out his airways and preparing for what was to come next. Once he was ready, he tapped on the physical manifestation option on the top right corner, and waited.

The moment he clicked it, his body began to glow, and a horrible ear-splitting pain came right afterwards.

Zack clenched his teeth, sweat dripping down his face. The demon assimilation a.k.a. physical manifestation process was never easy, and it hurt like he was being burnt alive on a stake on top of a giant roaring bonfire. Some people ended up passing out from the pain, but Zack was prepared and steeled his nerve for this moment.

His arms glowed a bright red for a brief moment, getting brighter and brighter, before the aura began to fade and his skin began to return to its original state.

Zack instantly felt stronger. His hands and feet felt lighter, and he could jump higher than before.

The mischievous demon would eventually become a fire-type demon when evolved, which would grant his fists a fiery impact, but Zack was not going to go down the route of the mischievous demon so fast. He had a better plan in mind.

Once the physical manifestation was complete, his phone vibrated violently, beckoning him to check the screen again.

Would you like to summon again?

This time around, as the first-time summon discount had been used, it required a hundred paid crystals to summon.

Zack quickly pressed no.

[Summon declined.]

This was one of the first 'traps' of the demon summoning app. Sure, summoning could grant him another round of power, and that might save his ass if he was currently being hunted by a pack of Drakken wolves, but he managed to avoid that situation with his pre-knowledge this time around. Another summon wasn't what he needed in the long run. He had to save his paid crystals for when they were really necessary.

The trick behind speedrunning the demon summoning app came down to resource management and knowing where to go around the city. Especially in the early stages of the calamity, paid demon crystals were hard to obtain.

When it came to the second point about knowing where to go in the city… Zack's memory was incomplete, but one particular location stood out in his head.

That particular location coincided with the new alert that just showed up on his phone's screen.

New event has been added.

You have unlocked [Demon Dawn] event.

New events will be added on a continuous basis as your world continues its integration process.

Gamdu Communications Tower in the heart of the downtown. That's where he needed to go, as soon as possible.

Why?

Because Gamdu Communications Tower was where the [Demon Dawn] event would take place.