Hell was perfect.
That was the problem.
Lucifer Morningstar sat upon his throne of obsidian and bone, one elbow resting lazily against the armrest, long fingers supporting his chin. Beneath him stretched the Ninth Circle—an endless empire of fire, ash, screaming souls, and meticulously organized suffering.
Demons moved with flawless discipline.Sinners screamed on schedule.Punishments were executed with mathematical precision.
There was no rebellion.No chaos.No surprise.
Lucifer sighed.
It was a sound so soft that it should not have carried far—yet the moment it left his lips, the entire Ninth Circle trembled. Rivers of lava stilled. Torture engines froze mid-motion. Several demon kings instinctively dropped to one knee, their horns scraping the scorched marble floors.
None dared look up.
Lucifer did not notice.
He was busy being bored beyond imagination.
"…Another century," he muttered, eyes half-lidded. "Another flawless century."
His crimson gaze drifted lazily across the endless horizon of Hell. Towering citadels burned with eternal flame. Armies stood ready, weapons polished, formations perfect. Contracts were fulfilled. Souls were processed. Everything functioned exactly as it should.
And that was precisely why it was unbearable.
"Hell is perfectly ordered," Lucifer said to no one in particular, his voice rich with dry sarcasm."That's why it's so boring."
A demon duke—tall, skeletal, wings folded tight—hesitated before stepping forward. His voice trembled despite centuries of service.
"My Lord… should we… increase the suffering quota?"
Lucifer didn't even look at him.
"No."
"Introduce… new forms of torment?"
"No."
"Start a war with the Seventh Circle?"
Lucifer's lips twitched—not with amusement, but irritation.
"I conquered reality before your species learned how to scream properly," he said flatly. "War is tedious. Paperwork afterward is worse."
The duke froze, bowed deeply, and retreated at once.
Lucifer leaned back into his throne.
This throne had once thrilled him.
When he first claimed Hell, it had been chaos incarnate—warring devils, collapsing realms, broken laws of reality screaming for structure. He had crushed rebellions, rewritten hierarchies, and imposed order with an iron will.
It had been fun.
For a while.
But eternity had a way of draining novelty from even the most exquisite cruelty.
He closed his eyes.
Endless punishments.Endless demons.Endless schemes that all ended the same way.
Victory.
Always victory.
No challenge.
No growth.
No chaos.
Just… maintenance.
Lucifer's fingers tapped idly against the throne.
"…I need a vacation."
The thought amused him faintly. The ruler of Hell, desiring rest—not from labor, but from perfection itself.
And then—
Something happened.
The air before him glitched.
Not warped.Not distorted.Not broken.
It glitched.
Reality itself stuttered, like a poorly written illusion failing to maintain consistency. A translucent panel flickered into existence before Lucifer's eyes, hovering awkwardly in midair.
It blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Then froze.
Lucifer raised an eyebrow.
"Well," he murmured, interest flickering for the first time in centuries. "That's new."
The panel vanished.
Reappeared.
Vanished again.
Then—
[Empire Construction System initializing…]
The words appeared in crude, glowing text.
Lucifer stared.
"…A system?" he said, tasting the word like a forgotten flavor.
Hell had rules.The cosmos had laws.Systems were tools—crafted mechanisms meant to guide lesser beings.
Not him.
The panel flickered violently.
[Scanning host…][Analyzing power level…]
The text froze.
A progress bar appeared.
It did not move.
Lucifer waited patiently. Eternity had given him practice.
Ten seconds passed.
Then the panel shook.
[ERROR… ERROR… ERROR…]
The text scrambled, symbols overlapping, fonts changing rapidly as if panicking.
Lucifer smiled.
That smile alone caused several distant demon lords to faint on the spot.
[Power level exceeds measurement.][Attempting recalibration…][Rebooting…]
The panel vanished.
Reappeared.
Vanished again.
Reappeared upside down.
Lucifer tilted his head.
"Oh, this is adorable."
The system rebooted.
[Reboot complete.][Switching to… Beginner Mode.]
Lucifer blinked.
Beginner.
Mode.
For a moment, Hell itself seemed to hold its breath.
Then Lucifer laughed.
It wasn't loud.It wasn't violent.
But it echoed through every circle of Hell like rolling thunder, carrying with it genuine amusement—something the realm had not felt since its creation.
"A beginner?" he said, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. "Me?"
The panel continued, blissfully ignorant.
[Welcome, Host!][You have been selected to build a civilization from nothing and grow step by step.][Target audience: Weak mortals, reincarnated heroes, chosen ones.]
Lucifer leaned forward.
"…You poor thing," he whispered fondly.
The system, meanwhile, was convinced of something very specific.
That Lucifer Morningstar was a weak mortal.
[Starting scenario will now be generated.]
Lucifer's laughter faded into a thoughtful hum.
This… was interesting.
A toy.
A mistake.
A novelty.
"Managing Hell is dull," he mused. "But letting something like you misunderstand me so completely?"
He leaned back again, eyes gleaming.
"That has potential."
The system continued its cheerful instructions.
[Your journey will begin on a small island in a fantasy world.][From humble beginnings, rise to greatness through effort and strategy.]
Lucifer snorted.
"Effort."
Hell's administrators would have wept if they heard him laughing like this.
The system finished loading.
[Do you accept the tutorial scenario?]
Lucifer did not answer immediately.
Instead, he cast his awareness across Hell—checked the borders, the chains, the contracts, the flow of suffering. Everything ran flawlessly. His subordinates were competent. His authority absolute.
Hell would not fall apart without him.
He stood from his throne.
The moment he did, every demon in the Ninth Circle dropped flat against the ground, foreheads pressed to the stone.
Lucifer did not look back.
"Maintain order," he said casually. "If anything explodes, put it back together."
"Yes, my Lord!" echoed countless voices.
Lucifer turned his attention back to the floating panel.
"A small island," he repeated. "No resources. No power. No significance."
His smile returned—slow, sharp, delighted.
"Sounds like a vacation."
He reached out and tapped the panel with one finger.
[Tutorial accepted.]
Reality folded.
Hell vanished.
And somewhere far away, in a forgotten corner of a fantasy world, waves crashed gently against the shores of a poor, neglected island—
—just as the Devil arrived to play city-building.
✦ End of Chapter 1 ✦