TLN: Title is insanely long (46 words) so I will be shortening it down to “Tokyo Demon King”. I’m going to be trying out a few different novels to see which ones are received the best. I can at most accept 2 more novels to translate before I’ll need to look for more help. Someone has commented about novel they would like me to pick up, so I’ll try translating that next.
Chapter 1 – Japan lost to the dungeon
The sun was shining through the rubble of the collapsed buildings.
The spring breeze lightly shook the leaves of the trees, brushing against the windows of the buildings making a sawa sawa noise.
There was not even a single shadow of a person at the once crowded intersection. Trees grew through the gaps in the cracked concrete, small animals and birds climbed the trees as if playing with one another.
–Tokyo, the heart of Japan.
The towering skyscrapers that were once the symbol of the city centre, collapsed and became a land of rubble.
The buildings that survived the collapse were entwined by huge roots, after being absorbed by the trees, they looked as if they were now part of them.
A once prosperous concrete powerhouse, there is no sign of that now.
As well as the buildings swallowed by the giant trees, the city was lush with greenery.
The landscape makes it seem as if hundreds of years have passed since Japan was destroyed. Buildings have deteriorated, ivy vines crawl along everything, flowers have grown everywhere, it would be hard to find an intact concrete building.
Just like a forest, the ferocious power of nature has robbed the people of Tokyo of their homes.
Tokyo is no longer the city of people.
Only the “grotesque” people now wander the green streets.
Those things that should only have existed in fantasy, never in this world, now certainly existed and threatened the very land beneath the human’s feet.
Winter, 2020. It was around the time the cold wind began to blow, signalling the turn of the season.
Japan…no, the world’s peace collapsed very easily.
Because of the “Dungeons” that appeared around the world.
These dungeons trampled on the history of mankind.
An enormous dungeon seemingly towering to the heavens, appeared underneath the biggest radio tower in Japan.
A large hole dungeon appeared and swallowed up an entire prefecture.
A dungeon appeared that dominated the sky and shut out the sun forever.
Various sizes, thousands of forms. But could the appearance of these dungeons truly threaten the civilization that mankind has built? No, Human’s have survived numerous disasters and are not so weak.
Mankind was not destroyed by the dungeons….it was what emerged from the dungeons that destroyed mankind.
An anomalous existence—monsters.
Goblins, orcs, trolls, kobolds, imps, lizardmen–
Existences that usually appear in folklore, myths, manga, anime and games around the world.
The monsters that flew out of the dungeon overran humanity with extraordinary power that far exceeded humans.
Not just humans, even cars would be flung into the sky by the strength of these monsters.
The road was dyed red with fresh human blood. Chopped off necks lines shop windows. The river was filled with rotting human bodies. People’s lives were crushed with ease, just like crushing ants.
Of course, humans didn’t hold their thumbs and wait to be killed.
Using weapons, they fought. The various departments designed to protect the country acted swiftly and fulfilled their obligations to protect the people.
However, the beings they had trained against were “humans”. Firearms are only usually used against humans or animals, they cannot be used against the inhabitants of the fantasy world. Steadily, humanity’s numbers dwindled.
The more monsters that left the dungeon, the quicker humanity fell.
Centring on the dungeons, nature spread out and engulfed the city.
Buildings were swallowed by giant tress, the city was wrapped in roots and ivy, the greenery was very thick.
As soon as each country identified the emergence of monsters from the dungeons, they immediately tried to destroy them with weapons…but even missiles could not destroy them.
At the edge of despair, there was nothing else to do.
No matter how many monsters you kill, it is meaningless unless you destroy the dungeon that is producing them.
So, mankind began to disappear.
At least, that’s what was expected to happen.
However, a turning point came for humanity.
One day, all humans awakened with a special ability known as “skills”.
After awakening a special ability, an effect would occur throughout the body.
The concept of “Level” was born because it was possible to view a person’s status, which is the digitized version of their physical abilities.
Just like a role playing game, that sort of system became reality. Man now had the power of fantasy to fight fantasy.
Humans began to use these mysterious powers as their own and quickly flipped the power structure.
As if they knew how to use them from the beginning.
By awakening their special abilities, humans were no longer powerless towards another existence.
Some people could create fire from nothing, others could carry large vehicles with one hand, some could cut a bus into two pieces with a single stick.
People were now able to fight monsters.
By the time mankind had decided to counterattack against the monsters—one year had passed.
[Table of Contents] – [Next Chapter]
Apprentice Translations 