Oh I like ur theory. It makes sense. Mine was that the hero charcter Bei was referring to was og mc (hero) of the comic book that took a dark turn and resembles a demon lord with all that power/aura.
OOOOooohhh, I wanna merge your theory of the dark turn with mine. That could explain why he is cruel and merciless.
Yeahh that would be good
Interesting theory, I came up with a theory too lol. I feel like the OG hero that everyone's referring to is actually our own MC Tae, I feel like the hero and demon lord fell in Love at first, but the world couldn't have it so either the demon lord got killed in the first instance or everyone was reset.
But the demon lord retained his memories and is still in love with Tae. Maybe that's why Tae had that weird BDSM dream with the cruel demon lord cuz that was his first life.
Plus the demon lord said that it's not his companions' time to die yet, maybe they died in his first life? That's why the hero was cruel and he has these constant nightmares now of them dying?
The demon lord was the first hero. I'm not sure of everything that happened in the novel happened to him but from the latest chapter (chapter 31), the hero is powerful and cruel. He looks similar to the demon lord.
I suspect that something happened, the party died and the world restarted with the first hero now being the demon lord. But the world needs a hero, bringing Tae into the world.
That's why the demon lord made a comment saying its not his companions' time to die yet in one of the earlier chapters. He's been through this before.