Chapter 1: First Dungeon Clear

Chapter 1: First Dungeon Clear

[January 2020 — Addresses by Each Country’s Heads of State]

The president of the United States of Gamerica, the world’s greatest economic and military power, was expected to think not only of the interests of his own country, but those of the entire world. However, the history of Gamerica acting in a global leadership position actually was not that long. Specifically, this was something that had begun only after World War II in the mid-twentieth century and had not lasted that far into the twenty-first.

At the start of the twentieth century, Gamerica still carried itself largely along the lines of the Monroe Doctrine, a policy which shunned intervention in the affairs of other countries. It was only during the latter half of the twentieth century during the Cold War that Gamerica effectively came to head the Western world. When the Cold War ended and significant progress was made in shale gas extraction technology, the US’s position started gradually crumbling away. Then in 2017, the man called a “real estate mogul,” Ronald Howard, was elected president upon a platform of returning to the Monroe Doctrine.

“My fellow Gamericans, I wish you a happy New Year. I am currently speaking to you from the White House after canceling my end-of-year vacation. That’s right, I canceled it just to deal with the Dungeon Outbreak Phenomenon that we’ve been seeing since the latter half of last year. As your president, I am always thinking of you and have your best interests at heart.”

On January 1, the very first day of the brand new year, the White House was filled to bursting with reporters. At the end of last year, President Howard had posted on social media that he had a big proclamation to make, with the government releasing official confirmation soon after.

“It’s been almost two years since I promised that I would make Gamerica great again. And in these two years, I’ve made that happen. We’ve fought enemies from outside and from within Gamerica and won every single battle. We’ve combated fake news and triumphed. We’ve done a deep clean of the illegal immigrants who threatened the integrity of our society and built a wall, a great wall, to stop any more of them from coming over from Mejicanos. Sina was exporting deflation and stealing labor from other countries, but we taught them a harsh lesson, a lesson they will not forget. And now, Gamerica has returned to being a world power. However...”

Ronald Howard almost always started his speeches tooting his own horn. Then he would wait for applause before continuing. Such was his style. This time, however, he dove straight into a contradictory conjunction without pause.

“However, Gamerica is now under a great threat, the greatest threat we’ve ever had since the founding of our country. These mysterious caves called dungeons are everywhere, and we have no way of stopping them. We’re sending in our finest, but the investigation is not making headway. Trust me, folks. Gamerica is currently under attack. Some call it a punishment from God. Some call it the work of the Devil. But I promise you, we will show no mercy—no mercy!—to anyone who threatens Gamerica, even if it is the Devil!”

After tapping his podium forcefully with his right index finger three times to punctuate his point, President Howard continued. “Many of you folks might be feeling uneasy at the start of this new year. Some of you might be feeling sad or worried. As I’m sure you’ve heard, Private First Class Thomas Clancy lost his life in Los Angeles Dungeon. He stayed behind to buy time for his fellow soldiers to escape and faced the hordes of monsters with nothing but his fists. If it wasn’t for his bravery, many more lives would have been lost. Private Daniel Chan lost his life at the end of last year, suffering from the heavy wounds he took facing two monsters at the same time in Chicago Dungeon. The brave men and women of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force are all fighting with their lives on the line. Folks, I promise you we will win. Even if it’s the Devil, we will win. But in order to do so, we need our soldiers.”

Here, President Howard paused briefly to take a sip of water. Then he appeared to shore up his resolve and turned to look straight into the camera once again.

“Currently, Gamerica has over two hundred thousand troops stationed all over the world. More than fifty thousand are in Japan and Reich each. These are honorable men and women who have helped maintain the peace of the world. However, Gamerica is now facing the biggest threat in the history of the world. We know that many of our allies—including Japan—have had dungeons appear within their borders. However, fourteen have appeared in our country since the end of July last year, and we have reason to believe that there will be more. The first priority of the Gamerican military is to protect Gamerican citizens. We don’t want to do this, and it sucks, but we can’t afford to baby other countries any longer.”

Up went President Howard’s right index finger, thrust high into the sky.

“As I always say, GAMERICA FIRST! What that means is that defending ourselves takes priority. Within the coming six months, we will be pulling back nearly all of our forces currently stationed overseas, be it Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine. Here are the specific numbers that we are calling home: from Japan, 2,000 Army, 12,000 Air Force, and 20,000 Marines; from Reich, 20,000 Army, 12,000 Air Force, and 1,200 Marines; from Woori, 16,000 Army and 8,000 Air Force. I repeat: we are pulling back all of our armed service members, even from countries I did not just mention. Folks, our troops are for protecting our land. This just makes sense, and we are only returning to what makes sense.”

This speech, which would later be referred to as the Howard Doctrine, was the moment that defined Gamerica’s complete return to Monroe’s foreign policy and marked a crucial turning point in world history. Every country that was affected by this pronouncement was left scrambling about in a rush at the start of the new year.

That said, the effect of the Howard Doctrine on Reich, which was now a leader in its own right within the European sphere and had established largely cordial relations with all its neighbors, was rather mild. Similarly, the effect on Japan was also relatively diluted thanks to several reasons, such as being an island country, the continued stationing of the twenty thousand members of the Gamerican Navy, and the gradual building up of the JSDF that had been taking place during the six consecutive years the Urabe administration had remained in power.

It was the Republic of Woori that was caught the most off-guard and suffered the greatest shock of all.

＊ ＊ ＊

The nineteenth president of the Republic of Woori, President Park Jae-An, found himself chairing a convening of the National Security Council first thing in the new year. The Howard Doctrine was effectively a breaking of the US-Woorian Mutual Defense Treaty. As things stood, there would only be 250 US Navy soldiers remaining on the entire Korian peninsula in six months.

Director Cheong of the Office of National Security turned to the president with a grim look on his face. “Mr. President, President Howard’s proclamation places our country in a serious national security crisis. Although we have seen the emergence of only two dungeons in our country as of now, there is no guarantee that more won’t follow. Furthermore, the Kingdom of Ko’s silence at a time like this is very worrying. We have received intel that suggests they have also suffered at least one dungeon emergence, but no movement has been observed from their forces on the 38th parallel north. Once the Gamerican forces retreat fully, there is a very real possibility of the outbreak of a second Korian War. Should we not get in touch with the Gamerican side and convince them not to go through with this policy?”

President Park nodded slowly, but his heart was in a different place. He in fact thought the sustained Gamerican presence within Woori a deep-rooted evil. He had tolerated the Mutual Defense Treaty as a necessary evil from a national security perspective—since there was no telling when the Kingdom of Ko might come knocking—but if they were going to leave on their own accord, then he sure wasn’t going to stop them. In fact, this was a golden opportunity. And sadly, the Director of the Office of National Security was failing to see that.

“If Gamerica is withdrawing, then we’ll need to explore alternative solutions to maintain national security. We could even further our ceasefire status with Ko to a peace treaty and officially enter into the process of a peaceful reunification of the North and the South. In other words, we could aim for a Commonwealth Democratic Republic of Koria.”

The words of the president prompted the minister of unification to leap to his feet. “I agree fully, Mr. President! It seems clear that the US-Woorian Mutual Defense Treaty is already damaged beyond repair. What can a mere 250 Gamerican Navy soldiers do anyways? We should officially break the treaty and approach Ko with inter-Koria dialogue. General Secretary Kim’s conditions were the adoption of a ‘one country, two systems’ policy with combined foreign policy and military and the retreat of Gamerican forces. The first condition is what we ourselves wish for and are working towards, whereas the latter condition is now being fulfilled without us having to lift a finger. Naturally, our Democratic Party will be in favor of this, and the Justice Party and progressives are also largely for reunification. We should have no issue passing this through Parliament.”

The prime minister, who was the only person within the Park cabinet familiar with Japan, protested. “Please hold on a moment, gentlemen. Are we not being too hasty here? Breaking the US-Woorian Mutual Defense Treaty will greatly affect our relationship with Japan. May I remind you all that our largest technology manufacturers, including Samshik Electronics and CK Electronics, are reliant on imports from Japan for parts, like semiconductors. It would be a severe blow to our economy if that is to be cut off.”

However, in this atmosphere where the long-held dream of North-South reunification seemed so close at hand, emotions ultimately trumped logic.

“We can always rebuild our relations with Japan afterward. They’re also under the same pressure with the withdrawal of the Gamerican forces. Once reunification is complete, we would become a perfect and noble country greatly exceeding what Dangun himself had founded. With even nukes at our fingertips, Japan would be a mere dwarf compared to our national power and military might.”

President Park nodded with satisfaction. At this moment, it was only a very tiny handful who realized that the country had embarked upon a path not of reason and logic but of emotional nationalism.

＊ ＊ ＊

The Oriental Republic of Sina was, with a population of 1.4 billion and 9.6 million square kilometers of land, the world’s second-largest economic superpower. It was run by a single party, the People’s Communist Party, with the very first article of its constitution identifying the nation as “a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class.” After World War II, Meng Zemin led the People’s Liberation Army to banish the government of the Republic of Sina—which was attempting to introduce democracy and market economy—to the island of Formosa as he founded a communist-socialist state on mainland Sina and named it the Oriental Republic of Sina. That was then followed by events like the Cultural Revolution and the Antianmen Incident, but generally speaking, this was a nation that had been successful in raising its citizens’ average standard of living and unifying them through setting up Japan as a hypothetical external threat. Through employing what was effectively bread and circuses politics, the single-party regime was still in power even today.

“President Zhou, Gamerica has reverted to the Monroe Doctrine, and all their troops are withdrawing from their various Southeast Asian bases. Now we can finally claim all of South Sina Sea for ourselves.”

“Let us take advantage of this opportunity to advance on Formosa and the Diaoyu Islands!”

Zhou Haoran, the seventh president of the Oriental Republic of Sina, was a man who had come out on top of the fierce infighting within the gigantic People’s Communist Party and, by purging all his political opponents, seized power on par to what Meng Zemin himself had gripped. Naturally, the presence of a dictator who held such absolute power would elicit flattery from his surroundings. However, the man did not climb to the top above millions of party members by being a pushover who’d let such cheap words get to his head. Zhou Haoran took his glasses off and shook his head.

“We will first see how the global scene is affected before we make a move. Our top priority at the moment is to calm the unrest among the citizens. We have the most dungeons out of every other country—this is both a danger and an opportunity. Dungeons also produce a variety of things besides the black stones. We might be on the cusp of becoming the world’s greatest resource exporter. For now, focus on thoroughly investigating and understanding these dungeons.”

Everyone present nodded in response to the president’s words. It was true that the emergence of the dungeons was causing widespread unrest within the country. As history demonstrated, it was often such times when things like a new religion would spring up seemingly out of nowhere and spread in the blink of an eye. Ever since last year, the Cyberspace Administration of Sina had already been hard at work assiduously suppressing all mentions of dungeons on the internet.

“The People’s Liberation Army has already been deployed, with three thousand men sent to each of the roughly fifty dungeons that have appeared in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Chengdu. The troops at Beijing have already reached Floor 3, and it is only a matter of time before they clear it entirely.”

“As of now, we have confirmed the appearance of fifty-five dungeons within our borders. However, there might be more out there that have not been discovered yet. We have ordered all ministries to continue their surveys.”

“The most problematic areas are Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Most notably, riots have broken out in Ürümqi, where local Uyghurs have been clamoring for access to the dungeon in the city.”

“Crack down on it with every means possible. The dungeons belong to us Hans. We don’t need the trouble of dealing with powered-up Uyghurs. If there is a need to get a little rough getting them back in line, then so be it. Now, about the development of power plants running on the black stones...”

“I’m afraid it’ll be difficult to surpass Japan’s technological lead when it comes to the hydrogen power plants. Now that their security treaty with the US is under strain, however, they just might give us their technology if we threaten them a little bit. Shall we pretend to build up towards a forceful seizure of the Diaoyu Islands to draw them to the negotiation table?”

The president thought about the suggestion for a while, but did not nod to it. Rather, what he said next surprised many who were listening.

“We could acknowledge Japan’s claims to the islands in exchange for gaining their cooperation in the development of the power plants.”

“Mr. President, are you saying...”

“The dungeons are appearing all over the world. Depending on how you think about it, this means that the problem of global energy inequality might be over soon. Even without going to the trouble of extracting from the oil and gas reserves under the seabed near the Diaoyu Islands, we have in the magic stones a far more reliable source of energy. Our national policy so far has been to prioritize the acquisition of resources; I predict that soon enough, we will be prioritizing technological developments for the utilization of magic stones.”

“Isn’t that all the more reason to conquer Japan now and—”

“Don’t underestimate Japan!” President Zhou roared, his fierce frown striking fear into everyone’s hearts. “In the face of these dungeon emergences, nationalism is on the rise in every country. The unity of the Japanese people in the face of a common threat extends far beyond what we can imagine. Mark my words. Many seem to think they’ve gone complacent with peace, but this is a people who’ve fought endlessly against everything nature has thrown at them for more than two thousand years. There’s no telling how much damage we would suffer in backing them into a corner. Seeing as our goals are to gain control over our dungeons and secure new technological developments, using them would be a far wiser choice.”

Like all other countries, Sina had paid great attention to the interview which had been broadcast live on Japanese TV at the end of last year where the adventurer being interviewed had brought up the Dungeon System Theory. As the country that contained the most number of dungeons in the world, Sina simply could not afford to ignore the possibility of monsters overflowing from all of them.

At the same time, the world was also closely eyeing the progress of the development of technology for generating power through the magic stones’ capability for extracting hydrogen. It promised massive quantities of entirely clean energy through facilities that took up less space and cost figurative pennies to maintain. It was as if the solutions to both problems of energy shortage and global warming had been handed to the world on a silver plate. President Zhou’s head was already filled with thoughts of the new direction that he wanted to take his country’s diplomatic relationship with Japan.

＊ ＊ ＊

“To all citizens of Japan, I wish you a wonderful new year.”

Prime Minister Urabe Seiichirou had moved up the day of his return to work after the New Year’s vacation by two days from January 4 to January 2. This address to the nation that he was currently delivering was his first duty of the year.

“Yesterday, President Howard of the United States of Gamerica announced that he would be pulling back all overseas Gamerican forces to redirect them towards the protection of Gamerica. I assure you that this is not a particularly sudden development. During the past few years, Gamerica has already been steadily decreasing the number of troops stationed within our country. At the same time, we have been gradually expanding our JSDF with the aim of becoming able to protect ourselves with our own strength. Do not be alarmed at President Howard’s words; what he said was actually quite reasonable. Protecting one’s country with one’s own hands makes sense. We humans have been doing things this way ever since the start of human civilization millennia ago; this is the normal way. All that is happening is that we are finally, seventy years after the end of World War II, returning to how things are supposed to be.”

President Urabe paused a moment. The dream of independent self-defense that so many of his predecessors had pined for without being able to do anything about now seemed so close at hand.

“Ever since July last year, the entire world has been under threat as wave after wave of the mysterious spaces called dungeons continued appearing without respite. Within the dungeons, life-forms as-yet unknown to us that seem to be, for the most part, hostile towards humankind continue to increase in number. Although they are staying put within their holes now, we have no guarantee that they won’t climb out one day. As the man elected to protect your lives and property, I cannot simply leave these dungeons be. In preparation for the worst-case scenario, I am formulating an extraordinary budget that will be used towards further bolstering of all our Ground Self-Defense Force, our Maritime Self-Defense Force, and our Air Self-Defense Force.

“Furthermore, we are also pushing ahead with the civilian adventurer initiative that we launched at the end of last year. It is true that we are facing a great danger—at the same time, this is also a great opportunity. Thanks to the new resource called magic stones dropped within the dungeons, we now have a realistic and entirely viable path towards energy self-sufficiency. In addition to potions, the existence of tools with truly magical effects have also been confirmed. I believe without a doubt that at the moment we overcome this crisis, we would be attaining even greater heights of prosperity as an entire race.”

Flashes and shutters went off in a flurry.

Urabe continued. “More than half of the Gamerican troops stationed within Japan will be withdrawn by June of this year. Naturally, many will feel unease at such a drastic change to a security treaty that had been in effect for more than seventy consecutive years. However, allow me to clarify that the large majority of the troops leaving are from their Army and Marine Corps. The twenty thousand troops of the Gamerican Navy will remain here and continue aiding us in the defense of our territorial waters, which does include the Senkaku Islands. Of course, we will continue aiming for further independence in self-defense. In order to return to the natural state of ‘protecting our own country with our own hands,’ I wish to ask everyone to express your opinions on constitutional reform through the House of Councilor member elections that will be taking place this summer.

“I’m sure that there will be voices of opposition. Remember, however, that we are already under attack. These dungeons are intruders from an unknown world in every sense. Yes, our civilian adventurer initiative is steadily getting on track. However, the defense of our country is, ultimately, the duty of the JSDF. And what are we to tell these brave men and women protecting us from the monsters in the dungeons? ‘This is not sanctioned by the Constitution, but please enter the dungeons and fight with your lives on the line’? All signs lead us to believe that there are more dungeons to come. We, too, must be bold in standing up to this mysterious threat. What we can do is to reform the Constitution and provide our troops the proper constitutional support they need to do their job.

“In the ordinary session of the Diet that will be taking place this month, I will be introducing the Adventurer Act. During last year’s extraordinary convening, we urgently enacted a countermeasure bill in response to emergency circumstances. Afterward, we incorporated input from experts and civilian adventurers to create this legislation that I am bringing forth. My hope is that it will be seriously considered and deliberated over by the Diet so as to become the best legislation that it can be.

“This coming year is sure to be a crucial turning point in human history. Our knowledge and understanding of the dungeons remains woefully inadequate, and we have no idea what is waiting for us in the future. It is not an exaggeration to call this the greatest crisis in all recorded history. Even so, we refuse to be beaten. In order to pass down this Land of Abundant Rice and this life-sustaining planet to our children and our grandchildren, now is the time when all humanity needs to stand together and unite. I shall believe. I believe in humanity’s wisdom, intellect, reasoning, heart for peace, and bravery in standing up for loved ones. I. Believe.”

Prime Minister Urabe stepped back from the podium and bowed. The shutters went quiet and, after a short pause, a storm of applause thundered down.

◇ ◇ ◇

[January 4 — Sapporo - Ezoe Kazuhiko]

January 4 was the day when normal employees would be returning to work. Instead, I was currently in the city of Sapporo in Hokkaido Prefecture together with Akira and Mutsuo; Mari couldn’t come because school was resuming on Monday. And Hokkaido in winter was the capital of gourmet food. So naturally, the first thing we did was visit Susukino, the city’s entertainment and red-light district.

“This taste is heavenly!”

First place we hit was Susukino Kin Sushi, where we almost thought we ate the place out of stock. In spite of its small size—there wasn’t even enough space for ten counter seats—this was actually a rather well-known restaurant in town. The chef had been kind enough to allow us to rent the restaurant out for the night. We were hoping to fill our stomachs with delicious food tonight before delving into Sapporo Dungeon tomorrow morning.

“As the young people say, we’ll be ‘playing till we drop’ tonight. I’m sure you two know what Susukino has to offer, right?”

“Aniki, I know a good shop with plenty of really cute girls! I’ll take you guys there after this.”

“I-I’ve never really gone to places like that before, but...” He paused. “I really want to give it a try!”

“Well, it’s just us men, and we have the whole night. We’re going all out!”

Regardless of how much preparation was done in advance, dungeon delving was still a highly stressful affair. Playing hard was an integral part of coping. Just for today, let’s completely put the dungeons out of mind.

“It’s my first time eating Pacific herring sushi! This is so good!” Mutsuo gushed.

Normally, sushi was served one piece at a time, but the chef decided to start serving two when he saw how voraciously we were wolfing everything down. Even so, everything he served disappeared almost as soon as it hit the counter.

“Even after the dungeons emerged, the fishermen still go out to fish and, for the majority of people, life remains largely unchanged. And that’s because you folks are handling it, and for that, us common folk are thankful. Here ya go, cod roe gunkan maki sushi.”

The chef looked extremely happy with how much we were loving his food. I’m glad to see that today’s another peaceful day in Japan.

＊ ＊ ＊

Odori Park of Sapporo, Hokkaido extended all the way from 1-chome to 12-chome of West Chuo Ward along Odori Avenue. Starting with the Sapporo TV Tower at the 1-chome end, the park was separated into the distinct zones with unique themes named Cultural Exchange, Oasis, Gathering, Frontier, and Flowers. This was also the venue where the Sapporo Snow Festival would be hosted every year in February. It would not be an exaggeration to say that this park was at the center of the lives of the nearly two million residents of Sapporo.

During October last year, a dungeon had appeared within the 8-chome section of Odori Park. The entrance to what was dubbed Sapporo Dungeon was located on the open grassy area decorated by an artistic installation that looked like a slide. Fortunately, no one had fallen inside. Then soon after, the JSDF had arrived and sealed off both the 8-chome and 9-chome areas.

“I heard that this year’s Snow Festival is still going ahead, just without 8-chome and 9-chome. It’s not as if the monsters are coming out anytime soon, so the municipal government gave its permission.”

“Instead of worrying about monsters coming out, I think they’ll have to worry more about idiots trying to get inside for kicks or something.”

“I just want to know what they’re doing for Snow Miku this year!”

Susukino was within walking distance from Odori Park. After leaving our hotel, we headed down Sapporo-ekimae Avenue until we reached Odori Avenue, at which point we turned left and kept going until eventually arriving at the area sealed off by the JSDF. The entire 8-chome area of the park was cordoned off with a chain-link fence, and two tough-looking soldiers stood guard at the sole entrance. The three of us all took out our respective adventurer licenses.

“I am Ezoe Kazuhiko, a licensed adventurer. We have come to investigate Sapporo Dungeon upon request by the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau.”

The soldier looked between my face and the picture on my license, then saluted. “We have been waiting. A room’s been prepared. This way, please.”

The inside of the support facility at Sapporo was nowhere near as intimidating as the one in Yokohama. Part of it was because this was a park, and part of it was likely also because there was no bootcamp being hosted here. When we followed our guide into the temporary structure, everyone inside stood up and saluted us. I bowed respectfully, then followed instructions to sit in the chair facing the table with a PC on it. On the monitor was the image of an unfamiliar woman with almond eyes. I could tell who it was with a single look, though.

“Happy New Year, Ezoe-san.”

“Happy New Year, director general. Uh... When did you go to the bootcamp?”

It was none other than Director General Ishihara Yukie of the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau, except that she now looked like a version of herself who was ten years younger. She had already been quite the looker before, but now there was a certain vibrancy and a little extra formidableness to her demeanor.

“The day before yesterday, I went with the full aboveground day course. You know, it had been quite a while since I was last hit on. Becoming young again feels wonderful.”

“How badly did you push it through?! Don’t be deploying the JSDF within the first three days of the New Year! Let the poor soldiers have their time off!”

A retort inadvertently escaped my lips before I could swallow it back down. However, not only did Ishihara not take offense, she even cackled heartily.

“You didn’t know? The JSDF are on shift duty. They’re taking turns having time off and standing guard over each dungeon. There are still troops entering and leaving at regular intervals. I merely had a little talk with Major General Katsuragi, and he readily let me in.”

“Okay, that’s got to be a misuse of authority. First mention of the man in the new year and I’m already feeling bad for him...” I sighed. “All right, moving on from the matter of your having gotten younger... So, what’s the reason for this call?”

“Aside from paying my new year greetings, I have something I want you to look into for me. According to our investigations, Sapporo Dungeon seems a bit different from all the others. On Floor 1 are small slimes that can be easily killed with a stomp of the foot, but they don’t drop magic stones nor cards. It seems to prove your theory about the dungeons all belonging to a spectrum of difficulties. This would be the weakest dungeon that we’ve seen to date.”

“Slimes that you can kill with a stomp... If we take Yokohama Dungeon as a reference—so, Rank C—then it sounds like Sapporo Dungeon would be a Rank D.”

Ishihara nodded, then continued, “Our request to Dungeon Busters this time was to investigate Sapporo Dungeon. But now that this information has come to light, we wish to ask you to attempt to clear it entirely if it is at all possible. You can invoice us the additional running costs at a later date.”

I felt the corners of my mouth creeping upward in a grin. “In other words, you want us to squash it altogether?”

“A dungeon that doesn’t generate magic stones nor cards is more trouble than it’s worth. Do you want to have a guess at how much it costs just to run the monitoring facilities? Thanks to a certain mischievous president, the JSDF is going to get a lot busier in the near future. We were the first country in the world to adopt a policy for employing civilian adventurers; now, we will also be the first country to have cleared a dungeon. There’s no better way to prove to the world that we can protect ourselves just fine without Gamerica’s help. This would make for great PR towards both our own citizens and to the world at large.”

“That sounds less like PR and more like propaganda if you ask me. That said, this isn’t a bad deal for us. We would be gaining an opportunity to take a look at the lowest floor of a dungeon, and our company would gain the laurel of the world’s first dungeon clear. We accept the request.”

“The Sapporo facility should have clothes, food, and showers all ready for you and your group. There are also enough batteries and memory cards for 480 hours of filming. They’re all fast charging, so just exchange the spent ones when you return above ground. Now, about the reward for the dungeon clear...”

“The matter we talked about before; that’s all I need. Preferably before the regular session, please.”

“I’ve already gotten his agreement. The convening this year takes place on January 22. If you manage to clear this dungeon before then, I guarantee you that I can uphold my part of the bargain. Looks like we have a deal, then. I’m looking forward to good news, Dungeon Busters.”

The beautiful woman in her forties winked before turning off the feed.

Akira, who had remained quiet this whole time, sighed. “Aniki... I know I’m not the best person to say this, but your taste in women isn’t the best, is it?”

“The Guildmaster is a dominatrix! I can’t wait to get back and draw an illustration of her holding a cigar in her mouth and saying ‘Kneel!’”

So the two of them see Ishihara as a manga character? I confess I don’t know much about that sort of thing, not really being into anime or manga myself. Though I suppose I can see her saying something along the lines of “I hope you don’t misunderstand. This isn’t a request; it’s an order.” Guess I’d better think carefully about how I interact with her.

“Well, let’s get going. Our objective is the bottom floor.”

And so began Mission Sapporo Dungeon Clear.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Sapporo Dungeon — Shishido Akira]

Ezoe—who I referred to as Aniki—had previously said that the greatest challenges on the way towards our goal to clear every last dungeon on Earth wouldn’t be the monsters that lay within but the humans that would be actively obstructing our way, and that the only way to lessen their numbers was to demonstrate how clearing dungeons would be to their own benefit. That was why Aniki was accepting requests from the Japanese government for practically nothing. Furthermore, he said that he planned on passing over all dungeons we cleared to the government or to the United Nations. Busters—which was the term for someone who’d cleared a dungeon—holding personal ownership over dungeons would only lead to conflict. That was why he wanted to be the world’s first-ever Buster and to publicly pass control of that dungeon over to the government so as to set a precedent.

“I’ve brought Akane and Emily’s cards along just in case, but if it’s a Rank D dungeon, we just might be able to clear it with the three of us alone. The cameras will be rolling, so let’s try to go as far as we can without their support.”

“Sounds good to me. I’d get a lot more fired up that way too.”

“But, Ezoe-shi, it wouldn’t hurt to listen to what Akane-shi might have to say before we start, right?”

“That’s a fair point. All right, let’s have a talk with them on Floor 1 before we start filming.”

The floor of the Safety Zone on Floor 1 was covered with a tarp, and there were mattresses and batteries already laid out in wait for us. We put down all the luggage we were carrying and went straight through into Floor 1, where Aniki promptly materialized Akane, who I personally referred to as Anego.

“You require my aid, Kazuhiko-sama?”

“Akane, this here is Sapporo Dungeon. We want to take a quick loop around Floor 1 together with you and hear your opinion on the place. According to my deduction, this should be a Rank D dungeon. Please tell us whether you agree with my deduction and, if it’s correct, everything you know about Rank D dungeons.”

“As you command.”

Just as we’d heard, the monsters we found on Floor 1 were green slimes about five centimeters high that did nothing but just quiver in place. They really did disappear with a single stomp and did not drop magic stones or cards.

“These are baby slimes, Kazuhiko-sama. At this strength, they are considered below even Rank F. Based on this, I also agree that this is likely a Rank D dungeon. The large majority of monsters that appear within Rank D dungeons are only Rank D or lower and do not provide much Enhancement Element, if at all. These dungeons are always the first ones to be cleared. It should not be more than seven floors deep.”

“How possible is it for the three of us to clear the place on our own?”

“There might be some variance in difficulty based on the monsters you encounter, but generally speaking, I think it more than possible. However, a warning, if I may. At the deepest part of the dungeon, you will find the Dungeon Core—an offshoot of the Dungeon System—which will be guarded by a special type of monster called a Guardian. If this is truly a Rank D dungeon, then the Guardian will only be Rank C at the highest. However, there is no guarantee that there is only one Guardian; it could be a whole group of them, all Rank C. If that happens to be the case, please do not hesitate to use us.”

Aniki nodded, stroking his chin. “I see. It’s often the case in games and light novels that there is only one Dungeon Master in each dungeon, but apparently that is not so in reality. Well, it only makes sense once you think about it. All right. Thank you, Akane. You’ve been a great help. Please return to your card form.”

Anego bowed, then cardified herself. As I watched Aniki putting her card away, I remembered another thing that he had said—busters would gain the ability to materialize cards even above ground and that there was a need to carefully decide who to grant this power to.

One time, when we had gone drinking at a club in Mizue, Aniki had suddenly said, “Humans change when they gain power. Normally, people like us who’ve surpassed the limits of what it means to be human are not supposed to exist. The Dungeon System may be something intended to help us humans evolve as a race, but if the direction of our evolution is simply more power, then we will definitely turn around and wipe ourselves out with that very power. I actually think that we humans are fine as we are. We don’t need this otherworldly system that’s trying to make us evolve.”

I had always been someone who’d sought strength for the sake of more strength. What Aniki was trying to say to me was that I also had to think about what I would be using that strength for. Just being strong meant nothing in and of itself.

It was precisely because this was the kind of person he was that I called him Aniki.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Sapporo Dungeon — Tanaka Mutsuo]

If we really could get the world’s first ever dungeon clear on tape, it would surely rock the entire world. After that happened, I planned on dedicating myself to handling the IT management side of the company. While down here in Sapporo Dungeon, I realized that I really wasn’t suited for staying on the front lines and killing monsters. When I looked at the quivering slimes, I just couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. This was why I planned on quitting as an adventurer after we cleared Sapporo Dungeon.

“We’ve all got small cameras attached to our helmets, but because those will be shaking around a lot, I’ll also be recording with a handheld cam. I’m not all that useful in a fight, so I’m afraid it’s going to be mostly on you two.”

“The recording is actually the most important part of this mission. You just focus on keeping the camera running, Mutsuo. Akira, you take point. I’ll be protecting our rear.”

“Gotcha. It’s not like I’ll be going all that fast, as I’ll be mapping while progressing. Leave everything up front to me; so long as the monsters aren’t above Rank E, I’ll be able to handle everything by myself. Make sure you make me look cool, all right, Mucchii?”

“Y-You got it.”

At the moment, humanity knew almost nothing about the dungeons. Countries all over the world were sending soldiers—and civilians, from what I’d read on the internet—inside to gain even the smallest slivers of information. Footage depicting the deepest part of a dungeon and the entire way there would be simply priceless. Governments, armies, and mass media around the globe would all be referencing what I was shooting. The responsibility of being the cameraman was incredibly heavy.

When I’d first become an adventurer, Ezoe-shi had said to me, “There is no job in this world that is fulfilling in and of itself, and neither is there a job that other people can tell you is fulfilling. What value do you see in what you are doing at the moment? How fulfilling a job is is nothing more than the value that you yourself assign to it. If you work for me, I’m not the one who’s going to tell you how rewarding this job is. What I will do, however, is explain things in an understandable and transparent manner and create an environment that ultimately makes it easy for you to determine how much value you see in what you’ll be doing for us.

“If you still think that killing monsters really doesn’t suit you after having tried it for a while,” he’d continued, “you can simply do something else. All I want is for you to find your own meaning in being a part of Dungeon Busters. We are not a company that’s entering the dungeons for monetary gain. Dungeon Busters, Inc. exists to learn as much as we can about the dungeons and to clear as many of them as possible so as to soften the blow of the impending Monster Stampede as much as possible. To achieve this, we need more than just adventurers who’d do the actual delving; we also need experts who can accurately record the information they bring back and disseminate it to the other adventurers out there. Would you be willing to take on that role for us, Mutsuo?”

Ezoe-shi planned on eventually gathering more than a hundred adventurers to form what he called a clan. He’d need to hire a large variety of back office staff for the adventurers and the headquarters, such as managers, people to work on logistics, a marketing team to do public relations, and techs to process all the information. Instead of fighting the monsters directly, these positions would be providing the support needed by the heroes that would be gathered from all over the world.

Ezoe-shi, I’ve found my meaning in being a member of Dungeon Busters, Inc.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Sapporo Dungeon — Ezoe Kazuhiko]

The baby slimes on Floor 1 weren’t even enemies for us. We checked out the entire floor, just in case, but it didn’t feel like a fight. After giving it two hours and confirming that the baby slimes really were not dropping anything, we headed down to Floor 2.

“Floor 2 is also slimes,” I noted.

The monster waiting for us was about thirty centimeters in height, bluish in color, seemed half-transparent, and was similarly jiggling. Akira continued walking towards it, not bothering to stop.

“Going by light novels, these should possess some resistance to physical attacks, but how about this!”

He kicked the monster like a soccer ball. It slammed into the far wall, then simply turned into smoke. Unsurprisingly, it did not drop anything.

I stroked my chin. “I see. So this is also considered weaker than Rank F. If the ones on Floor 1 were baby slimes, then these would be kid slimes, I suppose. From what I see, the layout of this floor is grid-like, just like above. Just in case, we’ll dedicate two hours to exploring, rest up in the Safety Zone, then head for Floor 3.”

“Gotcha.”

“All right.”

The bluish, jiggly masses continued to bounce towards us. We were having no trouble at all, but this was indeed a dungeon that was unsuitable for hosting the bootcamp. Even at top speed, it would take a whole hour to reach Floor 3. Just as Ishihara said, this is very likely a dungeon that would be more trouble left alone than erased.

“You two, time to eat.”

When we discovered the Safety Zone on Floor 2, we decided to stop to have our lunch. So we opened up an outdoor folding table to cook on top of. Each of us used our own gas burner to cook our soup and our meals.

“Getting proper meals inside the dungeon is very important,” Mutsuo said to the camera. “So, what we’re eating is a bit on the fancy side, because camping tools are quite accessible in Japan. As you can see, I’m having hashed beef rice. We ordered these boil-in-the-bag packages by the dozen from a high-class restaurant named Hirosue in Ginza. Then this is vegetable egg drop soup, which is Sinese soup stock with domestically sourced dried vegetables and egg beaten in. There’s cabbage, carrots, shiitake mushrooms, and dried spring onion inside.”

There was no problem showing Magic Pouch and Magic Water Bottle on screen, as they were only of Uncommon rarity, and we had already confirmed that the JSDF already had these cards. We only had to take care to put away the Other-dimensional Pouch, which was a Rare card.

After eating, we rested for a short while, then tackled Floor 3. Almost immediately, a monster came out to greet us. We weren’t particularly alarmed, though, as we were very familiar with this monster.

“Ah, so it’s goblins on Floor 3.”

This species, which occupied Floor 1 in Abyss, a Rank A dungeon in Shishibone, had appeared on Floor 3 here in Sapporo Dungeon. This only went to illustrate just how wide the gulf between a Rank A and Rank D dungeon was. Akira mercilessly dispatched the opponent standing in our way, looking slightly bored.

Only after coming this far did we finally see magic stones and cards being dropped. However, the stone was extremely tiny. I picked up the speck—which was around the size of a green pea—to roughly gauge its weight.

“This is less than three grams. That’s even lighter than the ones dropped on Floor 1 in Yokohama Dungeon. Ah, I see. So different dungeons have different cost-to-performance ratios. But now that we know that it is possible to harvest magic stones from this place, should we still erase it? Guess I’ll have to consult the director general.”

As we continued walking, with me occupied by calculating the drop rates of the magic stones and cards here, Akira suddenly stopped.

“It’s a dead end.”

The basic layout of Floor 3 was still grid-like, but there were dead-ends here and there that made the place somewhat like a labyrinth.

“Hmm, just to be safe, let’s first retrace our steps and return to the stairs going up. Akira, double check the details of the map as we go.”

Once we were back at the entrance to Floor 3, I turned to my other companion and asked, “Mutsuo, is it possible to develop an app that automatically maps these labyrinthian floors?”

“I think so, but the accuracy wouldn’t be 100%. It could be set up to register the average length of the user’s stride, then generate a map based on the number of steps they take. A voice command function could be added for them to pause the recording when entering a fight. Oh, and we could enable it to link up to a laptop or tablet for making amendments on the fly. I think it’d be more of a mapping assistant tool than a complete taking on of the mapping process. That said, I kind of feel like the gacha just might give us an automatic mapping item...”

“The problem with gacha items is that they’re not commonly available. What I want is a tool that any adventurer from anywhere in the world could use freely. Well, I suppose this is just something to add to our list of future ideas. Guess we’re stuck with pen and paper for a while longer.”

Then we resumed our exploration of Floor 3.

◇ ◇ ◇

Whereas Floor 3 was occupied by goblins, the residents of Floor 4 turned out to be hobgoblins, a Rank E monster. These were larger than normal goblins, but because they were not wielding weapons, they weren’t that much harder to deal with.

“If I recall correctly, Floor 1 of Osaka Dungeon is occupied by kobolds equipped with swords. Here in Sapporo, though, we’re on Floor 4, and the opponents are still unarmed. I am going to have to check out Osaka in person one of these days.”

“The labyrinth’s starting to get a bit complicated. Aniki, I’m going to adopt the left hand rule. Can you take over the mapping for me?”

“Sure thing,” I replied as I accepted the graph paper pad Akira was holding out.

We then continued on as before. Every once in a while, a hobgoblin approached from behind me, but I easily dispatched it with a single back kick. Judging by our progress, a Rank D dungeon seemed quite clearable by a mixed team of Rank C and Rank D adventurers.

When we turned, I would write down the number of steps we took. This was how we figured out the distance to fill in on the map. The way to perform this older method of mapping definitely needed to go onto the list of things that we’d need to teach future adventurers.

“The left hand rule really does take time and isn’t very suitable for getting a comprehensive understanding of the entire floor layout. I can see why the idea for the app came to you, Ezoe-shi. I’ll ask my friends when we return to the surface.”

Mutsuo was walking around the entire time while holding the camera up. Maintaining the same pose for two hours should have been quite tiring, but he had yet to make a single complaint despite how badly he was sweating. I almost expected him to get a rank up from doing this alone.

Four hours in, we finally found Floor 4’s Safety Zone, so we stopped for a breather. At this rate, we would be done mapping out the floor after another four hours.

“We’ll call it a day after finishing up Floor 4 and return above ground to enjoy a good bath.”

“Even Floor 4 isn’t a challenge for us. Perhaps we really won’t need Anego’s help after all. Oh, oops, please cut that part out later, Mucchii.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I turn off the camera when we’re resting. I only record things like what we’re eating.”

“Mutsuo, would you be able to edit a short video out of this footage and then upload it on our website together with the map we’re making? I’m sure this could prove useful to other adventurers.”

“Of course. Speaking of which, do we have more ideas for content? If possible, I’d like to at least have something to populate the ‘Coming Soon’ page on our site.”

Dungeon Busters’s website had gone live on January 1, but the content on it was quite scarce, mainly boiling down to information on cards up to Uncommon rarity and articles about Yokohama Dungeon. Even so, the number of worldwide visits had shot through the roof. If I hadn’t chosen to host it with Japan’s biggest IT firm, the site’s server just might have crashed.

“Let’s give it a big revamp once the headquarters is finished at the end of March. At that time, you’ll be focusing solely on managing the website and creating and uploading content. I do want more staff, but you guys know how it is...”

In a way, the requirements for joining Dungeon Busters, Inc. were quite strict. With the exception of the battle-loving Akira, I was looking for people who wanted to enter the dungeons not for self-serving reasons like monetary gain and fame but for someone else’s sake. The reason why I weighed motivation so heavily was out of worry for how a person would use the power they’d obtained through the dungeon. There was no telling what a selfish person would do with, say, magic that could control other people’s minds. The only sure thing was that it wouldn’t be to other people’s benefit.

I doubted that such people could even endure what it had taken me to reach Rank C in the first place. Rank D was more than enough for those who wanted to delve into the dungeons for money. A very specific reason and motivation was necessary in order to persevere through the purgatory that guarded the gates to surpassing the limits of being human. Self-serving ambitions were nowhere near enough to pull someone through such hellish tribulation.

Members of Dungeon Busters are forbidden from using their skills and magic above ground for self-serving reasons. Usage is allowed only to protect oneself and/or other people.

This was something that all four current members of Dungeon Busters, Inc. had talked over and agreed on, despite it not being on the employment contract.

“How about letting JSDF members in? They’re working for the non-selfish motivation of national defense, so they technically fit the bill, right?”

“I agree with Shishido-shi. More specifically, I want a big-breasted JSDF lady soldier wearing a camo uniform to join our party!”

“Now that’s a self-serving motivation if I’ve heard one!”

I watched my two companions laughing together with their straight man exchange. It’s true that the JSDF do meet my requirements, but I’m just not sure whether it’d be a good idea to get that close with them. They belong to the Ministry of Defense, so getting too close with them runs the risk of turning Dungeon Busters into a semi-governmental organization. If doing so could guarantee that we thwart what’s coming in ten years, then I wouldn’t mind. But as with most semi-governmental organizations, the other side would likely just send us previously high-ranking officials looking for a cushy after-retirement position and I simply can’t imagine such a system working out well for an organization like ours.

“Maybe if it’s just currently employed JSDF members... Or we restrict it to a select few, make them transfer their affiliation... Hmm...”

I continued mumbling to myself as I bit into a corned beef sandwich containing finely diced onion and pickles mixed with corned beef in mayonnaise sauce.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Roppongi, Tokyo — Ishihara Yukie]

We’re going a little back in time. Although it was called the New Year holiday, the time off at the end of the previous year and start of the next was still filled with work-related matters for Urabe Seiichirou, the ninety-eighth prime minister of Japan. On January 2, he went golfing in Chigasaki with the chairman of the Japan Business Federation, accepted interviews with various news companies, then, at the hotel in Roppongi where he was supposed to rest up, delivered that speech he gave to the citizens. The next day, January 3, was a full day off for him, consisting of activities such as strolling around the vicinity of the hotel with his wife and reading a book back in his hotel room. All of this had been on The Prime Minister’s Movements. Every waking moment of his every day was spent surrounded by journalists, with his every action broadcasted to the public on a minute-by-minute basis. There was zero privacy in being the Japanese prime minister.

Or so it would seem, when actually, he did have time alone. After the walk around the hotel in the morning, there were five hours that he spent inside the hotel before eventually returning to his home in Tomigaya. During that time, The Prime Minister’s Movements only said “Lunch,” but he had actually been meeting a certain person. When he had been outside and pulling the throngs of journalists away, a woman had slipped into the presidential suite that he was staying in. Naturally, this was something that had been arranged beforehand through the minister’s secretary.

“I am Ishihara Yukie, Director General of the Defense Ministry’s Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau. I am deeply grateful for this time on your day off.”

The woman, Ishihara, had waited in the meeting room that was part of the 290-square-meter suite. After hearing what Ezoe had shared with her on December 31, she had immediately contacted the prime minister’s secretary the next day and passed along the message that she had urgent and top-secret intelligence. Seeing as it was related to the dungeons, Urabe had immediately decided to make time to meet her.

This was precious time that the prime minister had cut into his own day off for her sake. Ishihara could easily see her own head flying if she failed to make him see the importance of what she was bringing to his attention. After she nervously sat down, Urabe, in a relatively casual outfit of a black turtleneck and chino pants, also grabbed a seat. The expression on his face was mild, but his eyes were entirely devoid of warmth.

“The Ministry of Defense’s first-ever female director general and first-ever to make the post under forty. I’ve heard the rumors. Young blood like yours is indeed needed to face a crisis such as the Dungeon Outbreak Phenomenon. So, what do you have for me?”

“First of all, please allow me to preface by saying that I have no evidence whatsoever for what I’m about to share. All I can do is relay what I saw with my own eyes and what I heard with my own ears to the best of my ability. I beg of you to listen with that in mind and give me your instruction.”

After seeing Urabe’s silent nod, the woman who clearly had the appearance of a forty-something-year-old began speaking at length.

＊ ＊ ＊

“A Monster Stampede, you say...”

“Ezoe Kazuhiko-shi said that it was his knowledge of this fact that drove him to register as a civilian adventurer and found Dungeon Busters, Inc. Furthermore, the reason why he kept this a secret this whole time was because of the weight of the matter...”

“From your account, at the very least, this man has admitted to committing tax evasion. As the prime minister, and as a fellow Japanese citizen, I cannot simply close my eyes to another man’s criminal acts.”

“But, Prime Minister...!”

Urabe raised a hand to curb Ishihara’s protest.

“Let’s say that neither you nor I thought to ask what it was that this dungeon in Shishibone dropped. You were indeed shown the place, but were told nothing that corrected your assumption that it dropped the same black stones that were being found in all the other dungeons.”

“So you’re saying...”

“But then eventually this dungeon in Edogawa City was cleared, and it was converted into a dungeon that did in fact produce magic stones. Ezoe-shi, who lives in Edogawa City, discovered it by accident and, because it was located within a residential area, decided to clear it in secret so as to suppress any possible disorder. When the Monster Stampede has been stopped, or when we have sure means of stopping it without needing him anymore, his crime will be ‘discovered,’ and he will be judged according to the law.”

Ishihara’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. She realized once again who it was that she was facing. As the man expected to hold the longest term in constitutional history, Urabe Seiichirou was the man who, through his steadfast leadership, immaculate record, and being mild mannered, had managed to maintain an approval rating around the 50% mark with a voter base that ranged from conservatives to swing voters. However, being sincere and free from scandal was far from enough to keep a man in the position of prime minister. He needed a certain flexibility of morals, a certain craftiness, and a certain amount of blackheartedness to retain his grip on power.

“You mean to use him for what he’s worth and then discard him?”

“If he is the man you described him to be, I’m sure he resolved himself to this fate when he decided to share what he did with you. Furthermore, the statute of limitations for tax evasion is seven years. How much he manages to achieve by then and how much he would have contributed to society and to humanity as a whole might play a large part in what happens to him.”

“He’s definitely not doing what he’s doing for self-serving motivations...”

“All I have at the moment is your impression of this man. I have yet to meet him myself; even if or when I do, I still would not be able to trust him entirely. Director General Ishihara, I remind you that I am currently shouldering the lives of 120 million Japanese citizens. I cannot afford to easily trust anyone on a matter of such import.”

After several beats of silence, Ishihara nodded. It was true that if she were the prime minister, she, too, would not have dared to easily believe what she had just shared. Anyone whose head was so empty as to swallow such a narrative at face value had no place being responsible for so many people.

“Ezoe-shi said that he wishes to invite you to the dungeon located in Shishibone, sir. It would be underground, which means thirty aboveground seconds would actually be seventy-two minutes long. If I may, I would also recommend that you hear all this directly from the mouths of the character cards that are supposedly part of the Dungeon System.”

“My schedule is packed before the regular session, but I’m sure I can spare thirty seconds. If I summon him to the Kantei, he can then bring me over using his Teleportation skill. I would need a pretext, though.”

“Tomorrow, Dungeon Busters will be beginning their investigation into Sapporo Dungeon. The monsters in this dungeon are reported to be weaker than in the others, and it is my expectation that they are capable of actually clearing it altogether. If Dungeon Busters successfully clears Sapporo Dungeon, or if they manage to bring back some crucial evidence from the lowest layer, would that suffice as a pretext?”

“That will do. I will summon him to the Kantei to commend him publicly. If he then announces that he possesses important information about the dungeons when we meet face-to-face, I would have no choice but to clear the room. If he can produce sufficiently convincing evidence, then the Japanese government may publicly acknowledge the possibility of this Monster Stampede. We will not confirm it definitively as, just as Ezoe-shi feared, doing so would indeed provoke substantial mayhem. Naturally, the time frame of ten years will remain top-secret.”

“I fully understand, sir. I will request him to clear Sapporo Dungeon tomorrow. Knowing him, he will produce some form of result within a few days at the most. I apologize sincerely for taking up so much of your time today.”

Ishihara understood that she would not be able to gain anything anymore today. Having successfully obtained the prime minister’s promise, she determined it a good time to pull back and end the audience. After Urabe and his wife headed out for lunch together and, in so doing, pulled the journalists away once again, Ishihara slipped out through a side door.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Sapporo Dungeon — Ezoe Kazuhiko]

On Floor 5 of Sapporo Dungeon, we encountered a Rank D monster that we had never seen before. A fifty-centimeter-tall, one-meter-wide jiggly form was slowly crawling towards us, looking not unlike a piece of jelly-like candy. Within its half-transparent blue body, we could spy a round ball roughly fifteen centimeters in diameter.

“It’s a proper slime. Let’s give this another shot,” Akira murmured as he rushed towards it and, just as he had on Floor 2, unleashed a soccer ball kick. This time, however, his foot merely sunk in a little before being bounced back.

“Whoa there!”

In order to disperse the force from the bounce back, Akira retreated a few steps in a fluster. The slime merely shook itself a little before reverting to its previous state, looking none the worse for wear. Clearly, it had some degree of resistance against physical or blunt damage. However, resistance did not equate to immunity, which meant that all we had to do was deal it more damage than it could resist. I gripped my shovel.

“Aniki, let me test this out.”

Before I could step forward, however, Akira retrieved a Steel Spear Card from his waist pouch. As I myself had no idea how to use this Uncommon card—being a complete novice in martial arts—I had handed it to Akira for a rainy day, thinking he might know what to do with it. I watched as he materialized it with a soft poof, spun it a few times above his head, and then adopted a double-handed stance with it.

“Hup!”

The moment I registered Akira’s movement, his spear had already impaled the slime, with the spearhead precisely piercing the ball inside.

“When I was in high school, I went on a short exchange trip to Sina, where they taught me a little of the spear. It’s been a while since I held one last, but it looks like I haven’t forgotten the lessons.”

Akira sounded nonchalant about it, but he was talking about recalling something he had learned more than ten years ago at a high enough level of mastery as to be applicable in actual battle. No normal person can do something like that. I guess this is what pure talent looks like.

“You really are a genius, Akira. When you reach Rank C, you’ll be way stronger than I am.”

After all, I was nothing more than a former consultant. Fighting with pure stats and no technique was going to reach a limit one day. This was just the truth.

“In regards to fighting monsters, maybe. But I don’t think I can ever obtain the strength that you possess, Aniki,” Akira replied with a laugh.

Within the big picture of adding value to a service, the role of an enterprise manager was, well, to manage things, be it people, roles, or overall vision. When I was no longer able to fight, I would then dedicate myself to gathering those who could and managing them. That was what I’d thought at the start.

But the longer I continued being an adventurer myself, the more I understood how impractical that idea had been. Being one of those standing on the front lines was absolutely crucial in bringing multiple adventurer parties together into a clan. Adventurers weren’t salarymen with a cushy nine-to-five schedule. There was no way that men and women fighting days on end with their lives literally on the line would listen to instructions delivered from an armchair position inside a comfy office.

“Should I also start taking up a martial art...?”

“You’re going to become a clan head, Ezoe-shi. Do you really need to be that strong?” Mutsuo asked, still holding up his camera.

A slime approached us from behind, so I thrust my shovel towards the nucleus suspended within its body. The monster disappeared in a puff of smoke and dropped a card and a four-gram magic stone.

Name: Blue Slime

Title: None

Rank: D

Rarity: Uncommon

Skills: Blunt Damage Resistance (Lvl. 1), ______, ______

“So it doesn’t have resistance against slicing damage. How about this?”

I turned my shovel back into a card and switched it out with Cosmic Zantetsuken, which appeared with a cold glint. I swung this Super Rare weapon that was said to be “capable of cutting anything in this world with one exception.” It dug into the slime’s blue body, then...

Boing.

“Does it have to be this faithful to the source material?!”

As expected, Zantetsuken could not cut the slime!

＊ ＊ ＊

“So magic stones do appear starting on Floor 3 in Sapporo Dungeon. I see.”

The woman on the screen narrowed her eyes while nodding. Ah, I think I see what Mutsuo was talking about. Depending on the angle, I think I can see a certain Rushian mafia boss from a certain manga who smokes cigars and orders men around with her chin in her.

“What? Is there something on my face?”

“Ah, no, sorry. So, what do you want us to do? We reached Floor 5 before coming back up. If we keep going, we’ll reach the lowest floor before long. Do you really want us to erase the place?”

“What do you think? You’re the CEO of Dungeon Busters and the man who’s the most knowledgeable about dungeons in this entire world. Any good ideas?”

Returning my question with a question. Tsk. This woman really is hard to deal with. “My recommendation would be to withhold judgment until there is more information. We could take footage and bring it back for you to examine. I’m sure this would greatly affect the running of the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau going forward.”

“Very well, let’s do that, then. But be careful. Even you don’t know exactly what will be involved in actually clearing a dungeon, do you? As in, you don’t know what’s on the lowest floor, right? If the situation seems impossible, pull back immediately. Understood?”

After the screen went dark, I turned towards Akira and Mutsuo.

“For now, let’s rest up inside the dungeon. Then tomorrow, we’ll be powering through to Sapporo Dungeon’s bottom floor.”

The two of them nodded soberly.

＊ ＊ ＊

On Floor 6, we were assaulted by large bats that came in droves. Akira put away his spear and switched back to using his knuckle-dusters. Judging from the high-speed jabs that he was unleashing, this genius martial artist had apparently mastered boxing as well.

“Mucchii! Duck!”

Mutsuo squatted obediently, still keeping his camera rolling. From our positions in front of and behind him, Akira and I steadily worked our way through the hundreds of bats, him with his fists, me with Cosmic Zantetsuken. I felt almost no feedback at all from my weapon, but the monsters before my eyes were indeed all turning into smoke one by one.

“Monsters that can fly are troublesome, but these bats are lacking in both speed and strength. Makes sense for being Rank D,” I noted.

“Agreed,” Akira replied. “It’s annoying how they come in a group, but they aren’t actually that much of a threat. Hold on. I think I can finally...”

He trailed off and tucked a fist to his waist, then punched out towards the incoming bats. “Four Simultaneous Punches!”

With the sound of a balloon popping, four bats burst into smoke at the same time. The corners of Akira’s mouth climbed up into a broad grin. “I’ve finally surpassed the limits of being human!”

“Congratulations! But wait till later to check your Status; let’s finish up here first!”

After that, we continued fighting against bats for quite a while longer.

＊ ＊ ＊

Name: Shishido Akira

Title: Species Limit Breaker

Rank: C

Possession Limit: 10 / 25

Skills: Card Gacha, Striking (Lvl. 5), Body Strengthening (Lvl. 4)

We managed to find the Safety Zone on Floor 6, so we ducked inside for a breather. Akira brought up his Status, and sure enough, he had reached Rank C and received the title for it.

“So, I went through Shishibone, Yokohama, and now, Sapporo, and I’ve finally reached Rank C! Just how many monsters have I fought...?”

“In order to rank up, you need to fight monsters at the same rank as yourself. In other words, you’d need to fight Rank C monsters to get to the next rank—so, Rank B. Hundreds of thousands of them.”

“I can’t even imagine it. But with this, we should now be able to make more progress into Abyss, right?”

Next to Akira, who was smiling wryly, Mutsuo was also checking his Status screen. Although he had done almost no fighting, he had been wearing weights on both his hands and feet. The hope was that doing this, paired with the effects of Enhancement Element, would be enough to help him grow stronger.

“Ezoe-shi, I’ve also ranked up! I’m Rank E now!”

“Really?” Could he have maybe earned a new skill? If it’s a magic skill, then we might be able to make even better progress through Sapporo Dungeon. With my heart beating expectantly, I peered over at Mutsuo’s Status screen.

Name: Tanaka Mutsuo

Title: None

Rank: E

Possession Limit: 15 / 28

Skills: Card Gacha, ______, ______

“It does say Rank E. Congratulations. But there’s no new skill.”

“I-Is it because I didn’t do any fighting?”

“How about asking Anego? She might know something.”

We stopped our cameras and summoned Akane. She took a look at Mutsuo’s Status, then nodded as if it were normal.

“Sometimes you do get a skill when ranking up, but normally, it’d be something the Dungeon System grants you based on something you’ve mastered with years of experience, or you’d have to find a Skill Orb. Kazuhiko-sama is an exception, being First Contacter and all, but in Akira-san’s case, his skills are derived from his mastery over martial arts.”

“What about Mari and her Holy Magic skill, then? She’s never had experience with any type of magic.”

“In her case, I believe it was due to affinity. When it comes to magic skills, affinity is more important than mastery. She just happened to be suited for Holy Magic.”

“So, in my case...”

“You do not have much experience fighting, and you do not possess any particular affinity for magic. I believe that to be the reason why you did not gain any new skills when ranking up.”

“Oh ma gawd, so orz,” Mutsuo moaned while falling to his knees and planting both hands on the ground in a pose that distinctly conveyed his depression.

Akane bowed elegantly, then returned to her card form. As I picked her up and returned her to my case, my mind whirled furiously. What are the available skills based off of? There are ones useful for battle, such as Striking and magic, but there are also supernatural ones, like my Teleportation. Akane even has Sex Technique, of all things. However, the number of available skills is clearly far too limited.

“The way I understand it, ‘skills’ are reflections of ‘technical skills.’ And in our modern society, there are practically an infinite number of technical skills. If we take Mutsuo as an example, I’m sure he qualifies for, say, Programming, 3D Printing, or Figure Crafting. If skills are reflective of mastery and experience, why didn’t he then gain a Programming skill?”

“Uh, Aniki, aren’t you reading too deeply into this?”

“Why wouldn’t I read into it as deeply as I can? This is the real world here. From what we’ve seen so far, many parts of this Dungeon System are reflective of this world of ours. And yet, the same does not appear to be true of the skills. Why are there so few skills? It’s almost as if this were a game and someone had to actually go to the trouble of creating new skills. And why are there two conditions of ‘mastery’ and ‘affinity’? Why isn’t it consolidated? This conundrum seems like a hint towards something. Can it be that the designer of the Dungeon System does not understand the meaning of the word programming? Hmm. But it wouldn’t make sense to know about gacha and not programming...”

Words like “Inventory” and “Alchemy” often appeared in light novels as skill names. However, even in a medieval European setting, technical skills like bookkeeping, weaving, and firewood chopping existed. Although such skills were too drab to merit mention in light novels, life back then should also have involved at least several million technical skills that bore names.

As I dove into my own world of thoughts, I saw from the corner of my eye Akira approach Mutsuo, who was still on all fours in the so-called orz pose, and place a supportive hand on his shoulder.

“Hey, Mutsuo, regardless, let’s eat, yeah? I mean, don’t take it to heart so much, man. Maybe instead of Programming or Figure Crafting, you’ll be getting something like Handiness or Handicraft in the future.”

“If I have any say, I’d rather have Hacking or Modeling.”

“Bro, getting Hacking as a skill from a fantasy dungeon would just be plain weird!”

“I was just joking.”

The two laughed at their exchange. I sighed and got started preparing our next meal.

＊ ＊ ＊

The moment we reached Floor 7, I knew without a doubt that it was the lowest floor. Its layout was completely different from that of all the other dungeon floors I’d ever been to.

“You two, stay sharp. This would be a bad place to get pincered from the front and back.”

This floor was just a straight, two-meter-wide path. We proceeded slowly and vigilantly. When we’d made it roughly halfway through, Mutsuo suddenly stopped in his tracks.

“Ezoe-shi, look up!”

Mutsuo was pointing his camera upwards, so Akira and I also looked up. We gasped. Is that a relief on the ceiling?!

“It’s too dark to see clearly. I think I’ve got a flashlight in here somewhere...”

I eventually found my flashlight inside my Magic Pouch and shone it on the ceiling. The carved image which stood out from the rest of the ceiling turned out to be a depiction of a hand holding what looked like a billiard ball and was just about to place it onto a table-like surface.

“What does this mean?”

“Ezoe-shi, this might be a creation myth scene! That ball is our universe, and when it bangs onto our table, the big bang occurs. At least, that’s what it looks like to me.”

“Wait, God has hands? No, no, no. More importantly, why is there a relief down here?!”

Akira has a point. The meaning of the relief is important, sure, but equally important is why something so suggestive is down here in the first place. This is undeniable proof that the Dungeon System is something created by an entity with intention as opposed to being a natural phenomenon. And if that’s the case, then there should be significance in the very fact of there being a relief on the lowest floor.

“Mutsuo, take a few still images of it, too, just in case.”

“On it.”

Mutsuo switched the mode on his handheld cam to snap a few pictures. Akira and I kept a lookout, but the lowest floor appeared to be free of monster spawns.

“Aniki, what should we do? Should we return above ground?”

“Let’s check out the end of the hall first. Then we’ll decide.”

Our group walked to the double doors on the far end. It looked exactly the same as the ones at the entrance to the dungeon on Floor 1. So that’s the entrance and this is the exit?

“You two, turn off your cameras for a bit.”

Once everything was off, I told them, “Let’s first see if Akane and Emily know anything about the relief before heading back up.”

Then I took out the two character cards and summoned them.

＊ ＊ ＊

“So... Do you two know anything about this?”

Akane and Emily were both silent as they stared up at the ceiling intensely. Both of them looked slightly sick. It was my first time seeing them like this. Neither seemed to have heard me, so I stayed quiet and let them have their space. Only after a full minute of waiting did they finally look back down.

“I’m terribly sorry, Kazuhiko-sama. Nothing is coming to mind.”

“Me neither. It’s like... It’s like it’s pulling at something inside of me, but nothing’s coming out. It’s such a frustrating feeling.”

So it’s not that they forgot but that they’ve flat-out lost those memories. They’re still Legend Rare cards, though, and the very core of their being is still reacting in some way to seeing the relief. Is that what’s happening?

“In all likelihood, Emily and I have both seen something similar to this in the past, but our memories of the time have been erased by the Dungeon System. At the same time, our hearts are desperately trying to tell us that it’s something really important, something that we really mustn’t forget. I believe these emotions to be the result of that discrepancy.”

“That’s it; that’s exactly it! This painting is just...! I don’t remember it, but I feel like it’s super, super important. But I can’t recall why it’s so important!”

Akira offered, “Would it help to examine the other dungeons? We still have more than ten years. That’s plenty of time to think about it.”

“I agree with Akira-shi. And we can also ask other character cards when we meet them in the future. Maybe something will shake loose sometime.”

“The two of them make a fair point. Akane, Emily, your reaction itself is helpful as a hint. The fact that two of the 108 Pillars of Destiny find this relief so crucially important already helps narrow down the possibilities quite a bit. It’s probably related to how to erase the Dungeon System itself or to the identity of the designer of the System.”

“Yeah... I’m sorry... I’m not getting anything.”

“My apologies, Kazuhiko-sama...”

“Don’t worry about it. Thanks for coming out. It seems like it would be wiser to err on the side of not erasing these dungeons. Just having learned that is in itself a huge gain. Akira, Mutsuo, we’re heading back up and showing the director general this footage.”

I returned Akane and Emily to their card forms and teleported to the Safety Zone on Floor 1 together with my companions.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Ministry of Defense — Ishihara Yukie]

January 4 was a sort of rehabilitation for workers just getting back from holiday for most civilian businesses. At Kasumigaseki, however, we had no room for such leisures. In fact, the entire Ministry of Defense was on pins and needles, with many not even having been able to take the time off. On the first day of the year, Gamerica’s king of controversy had declared on social media that he was “revising the US-Japan Security Treaty.” Thanks to that, the Bureau of Defense Policy was in a state of pandemonium. From what I could gather, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wasn’t faring much better. The moment Gamerica’s influence was gone from the Far Eastern sphere, the Oriental Republic of Sina would immediately move to expand its influence over the South and the East Sina Sea. Dealing with the dungeons was important, but the monsters weren’t coming out. It was only natural to prioritize “visible” threats such as Sina and Ko.

“This is quite troubling indeed. The JSDF is already stretched thin enough as is, and now we have to redirect more forces towards the western front? We still have to keep our guard up against the Rushian Federation, and more and more dungeons keep appearing. Lack of manpower is our greatest problem right now. How much easier would it be if only we could outsource some of these duties to private companies?”

I could not help but grumble a little. The Dungeon Adventurer Administration Bureau, which had been established just last year, did not have a deputy director general. Its previous form, the Special Dungeon Countermeasure Department, had been a hodgepodge of personnel gathered from the Bureau of Defense Buildup Planning, the Bureau of Personnel and Education, and the Bureau of Local Cooperation. Once a dungeon appeared, we needed to build up facilities in the nearby vicinity in order to guard and monitor it and, in case we were assigning troops, calculate salary and manage other personnel details based on dungeon time. After all, we couldn’t very well treat soldiers living according to a whole different time axis and fighting against enemies from another world the same way we did soldiers assigned elsewhere in the country.

Due to the background of the founding of the bureau, the Dungeon Adventurer Administration Bureau was actually still scrambling to get many things in order.

“You’ve gotten so much younger over the break, Director General Ishihara!”

Admittedly, I looked entirely out of place within this meeting called by Nishida Kenichi, the administrative vice-minister of the Ministry of Defense. Going by appearances, it was me, a thirty-something woman (late twenties, thank you!) among a panel of men in their sixties. Depending on the context, the administrative vice-minister’s words could have been construed as sexual harassment. He wasn’t saying it in a snide way, though, so I was generous enough to let it slide.

“Much obliged, Administrative Vice-Minister Nishida. While I surveyed Yokohama Dungeon at the start of the year, I saw the need to personally experience the bootcamp that we were offering to the citizens and availed myself.”

“Oh, no, I’m not reprimanding you or anything. Rather, thank you for working so hard even over New Year’s. But that is quite the drastic change indeed. Maybe I should also consider participating with the missus.”

Nishida Kenichi had assumed the office of administrative vice-minister the year before last. Although convention at the government administration office normally called for a change in this position every year or two, this had not happened last year due to the commotion of dealing with the Dungeon Outbreak Phenomenon. He was now on his way to challenge the record of Moriyama Masaru, the so-called “Emperor of the Defense Ministry” who had sat in the very same position for four years straight. Funnily enough, the personalities of the two men are like night and day.

“If you wish, I can arrange it for you any time.”

“Thank you. I’ll talk it over with the missus. So, I heard that the Dungeon Busters people are currently in Sapporo Dungeon. How is progress?”

“We have asked them to investigate the dungeon and, if it seemed possible, clear it outright. At the moment, they are the best dungeon specialists we have. I have faith that they will soon be back with tangible results.”

Unlike Moriyama Masaru, who had clawed his way into the seat by kicking his rivals down with scandals and malicious gossip, Nishida Kenichi had assumed the position with the blessings and support of many of his former subordinates. He was frank and candid, never put on airs, was tight-lipped, and was an extremely good listener. As a result, even today, there were directors who preferred going straight to him for advice instead of the deputy director generals or the director generals who were their direct superiors.

“I think this is probably going to be another tough year, so feel free to come talk to me if you need help. The same goes for everyone else. I think we’re all going to get a lot busier because of what Howard-san said, but it is exactly in times like these that we should be helping each other out. Knock on my door anytime if you need me to help put in a word with another ministry, you want something pushed through, or if I can make things easier for you in any way.”

This effectively served as the opener for the meeting. Today, we director generals were here to report ongoing concerns and possible upcoming issues relevant to our respective bureaus as part of the groundwork for the defense minister’s New Year’s address, which would be happening Monday. The meeting lasted the entire morning.

As soon as I got back to my own office, I received a report from my secretary.

“Director general, we received contact from the civilian adventurer Ezoe Kazuhiko-shi. I informed him that you were in a meeting, to which he replied that he would be waiting above ground for you to get back to him.”

“Above ground? Does that mean he finished clearing the dungeon?” If so, that’s much faster than I’d expected.

I settled into my office chair and started up my computer, my heart beating with expectation.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Long story short, I believe it wise to not erase the dungeons, Sapporo Dungeon included. Based on what we know at the moment, that is.”

This was the first thing that the man who’d come up on my screen said. One thing that I highly appreciated about him was how he always got straight to the point. He would start right off the bat with what concerned me most, delivered in a succinct and straightforward way without using unnecessary qualifiers like “We’ve discovered something big,” or “Something happened that we had not expected.” Only after making sure I understood the most important point would he then fill in the whys and hows to my satisfaction.

On the screen, beside Ezoe’s face, were several pictures. This is...a relief from somewhere?

“This relief was found on the ceiling of the lowest floor of the dungeon. We have no way of figuring out what it means. However, this gives us cause to suspect that other dungeons might have something similar. This needs confirming.”

“This is the first time I’ve received a report of anything resembling a sign of civilization within the dungeons. This indicates that they are not simply natural phenomena. Hmm, and the fact that this is on the lowest floor seems meaningful somehow. What do your two partners think about this?”

What I wanted to know was the input from the two women supposedly part of the Dungeon System who had told Ezoe much of what he knew about the background of the dungeons. I figured that he’d catch on if I used “partner” to refer to them.

“They might have seen it before. Very likely to be very important. But not sure how it is important. That’s what they said.”

As hoped, Ezoe’s response indicated that he did pick up on the subtext in my question. And that answer was all I needed. If this relief was truly that important, then I agreed with Ezoe that we probably should not erase the place.

“Please go ahead and clear it. But don’t erase it; secure the right of ownership instead.”

The man on the screen nodded, then left the call. Now I have to attend an in-bureau meeting. With the time difference, Ezoe just might be done when I get back.

I stood up and headed to the room where my directors were waiting.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Sapporo Dungeon — Ezoe Kazuhiko]

“Kazuhiko-sama, the Guardian is lying in wait behind this door. When you defeat it, the Dungeon Core will appear. The first person who touches the Core will be given the choice to erase the dungeon or obtain administrative rights over it.”

“Be careful, master. There might be multiple Guardians, and the dungeons in this world have already proved to be different from what we know in multiple ways. There’s no telling how this would turn out.”

“Don’t worry. If push comes to shove, I’ll summon you two even if the cameras are still rolling. Akira, Mutsuo, you two ready?”

“You bet, Aniki!”

“I’m good to go.”

I returned Akane and Emily to card form, and we all switched our cameras back on. We verbally confirmed all our preparations, then I placed my hands on the double doors that, just like their counterparts on Floor 1, opened to the left and right. After we stepped inside the dimly lit room, the doors closed behind us. Illumination flared on close by and spread towards the far end of the room, eventually revealing a gigantic form with a bull’s head, blue skin, and a battle-ax in its left hand.

“Aniki... Is that monster really Rank C?”

“Th-Th-That appearance... It’s a minotaur! It looks exactly like a character I’ve drawn in a doujinshi before!”

“I’m switching to using Cosmic Zantetsuken. Mutsuo, you stay as close to the door as possible and keep the camera rolling. Akira, let’s do this!”

“ROOOOAAAAARRRRR!”

The moment we took a step forward, the blue monster stood up and roared at the top of its lungs. The bellow from the three-meter-tall giant sent trembles through the air. A smile came over Akira’s face. I suspected it was the same for me.

As we charged forward, the monster swung its ax horizontally as if to mow us down, but we ducked below the attack. Right after, the ax was brought back to bear.

“I’ll cut down its weapon!”

I intercepted the incoming ax with Zantetsuken. Contrary to my expectation, however, the two weapons ended up locking, screaming with the sound of metal on metal. I felt myself slowly sliding backwards despite all my efforts at bracing my legs. In short, the monster’s one arm was generating more strength than my two. However, stopping its weapon did create an opening for Akira to get in close. He tucked both his fists to his waist, exhaled sharply, then leaped into the air.

“Shinmyoukan-style Secret Technique: Centerline Meridian Six Consecutive Punch!”

Almost simultaneously, punches landed on the monster’s counterpart to the six vitals on the human body of glabella, nose, throat, solar plexus, dantian, and groin. However, Akira’s body was sent flying by the monster’s right backhand the very next instant. He flew for about ten meters before crashing to the ground.

Mutsuo shouted his name in alarm, but Akira sat back up almost immediately. There was a bit of blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth, seemingly from a wound he’d suffered inside his mouth.

“I’m fine. I managed to block it with my shoulder in time. But damn. It took no damage at all from my secret technique? I’d been pretty confident in that move!”

“That might not be the case.”

It was hard to tell from the monster’s face, but its movements had definitely gotten a bit duller. As proof, it was no longer swinging around the battle-ax in its left hand. I held Zantetsuken in front of me warily as Akira wobbled to his feet.

“Aniki, we really should call—”

“No, we’ll do this ourselves. If we can’t defeat a monster like this, then there’s no going forward for us.”

I gritted my teeth. Every single one of my muscles was thrumming, and even I was aware that I was in a charged state. In all likelihood, this monster was Rank C but on the far end of the spectrum, close to Rank B. That was why it was equipped with a Super Rare weapon on par with Zantetsuken. If we let such an opponent stand in our way, we could forget about clearing Rank C dungeons, much less Rank B. I hardened my resolve. I’m not going to get out of this unscathed.

“ROOOOAAARRR!”

The minotaur grabbed its battle-ax with both hands and lifted it high. I dashed straight in, not bothering with a stance. The battle-ax rushed straight down, but instead of stopping, I dodged it with the thinnest of margins. A searing heat assaulted my left shoulder. However, the minotaur was now leaning over with its ax dug into the ground. This was the perfect opportunity.

“HAAAAAAHHHHH!”

I grabbed Zantetsuken with both my hands and swung it down right onto the minotaur’s head. The blade sliced into its forehead, nose, throat, then torso.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!” I did it! I won!

The minotaur, which had been bisected straight down the middle from the top of its head, disappeared into smoke, staring straight at me to the very end. I screamed victoriously, then gulped in a huge gasp of air within the roiling fumes. We managed to get through this somehow, but there’s still a long way ahead of us. It took two Rank Cs everything we had just to clear a Rank D dungeon. When we’re done here, let’s get back to Abyss and aim to rank up to B.

“Mucchii! Extra Potion!”

“Ezoe-shiii! That was far too reckless!”

I watched Akira and Mutsuo running towards me as my shoulders heaved with heavy breathing. Why do they look so panicked? I don’t think I suffered an injury serious enough to merit using a Rare potion...

This was when my brain finally registered the state I was in. Whereas I had thought I had been holding onto Zantetsuken with both hands, the only hand gripping it was my right one. I turned my face to my left side and found my entire left arm gone from the shoulder and blood gushing out like a fountain. Then the pain hit me like a truck.

＊ ＊ ＊

Put the cut-off arm against the place it had been detached from and pour Extra Potion onto the wound. See, now that was easy to put into words, but the pain—there were no words to describe the pain. Agony coursed through my body during the several minutes that were required for my wound to heal.

“Aniki, please hang in there...”

I nodded, glaring daggers as cold sweat ran down my forehead in rivulets as I lay on my back with my mouth gagged. The Extra Potion on my wound felt as excruciating as what I imagined it would feel like having a tooth drilled without anesthesia.

“Hnnnnngggggg!”

Akira held me down as my body struggled desperately to escape the agony, allowing Mutsuo to continue applying the potion. In my pain-fogged mind, I resolved to demand that the Dungeon Adventurer Administration Bureau maintain a stock of anesthesia.

After several minutes that felt like an eternity, the pain finally receded. Akira released his grip and my gag was removed. There was still some pain, but it was at a tolerable level. My left arm had been perfectly reattached without even a scar. When I staggered to my feet, Akira grabbed me by my collar.

“Aniki, you went way too far! There are plenty of people who can replace Mucchii and me, but nobody can ever replace you! Please don’t overdo it like that ever again!”

“Sorry...”

“Ezoe-shi! Shishido-shi! Look!”

We turned to look where Mutsuo was pointing. There, in the middle of the room, a black octahedron was floating in midair, rotating leisurely. It looked like some sort of crystal.

“That’s definitely the Dungeon Core! We did it! We cleared Sapporo Dungeon!” Mutsuo shouted excitedly.

The three of us approached it slowly and warily.

“Here goes, all right?”

After exchanging looks with my companions, I placed a hand on the Dungeon Core. A black window similar to our Status windows popped up.

Dungeon No.: 103

Rank: D

Master: None

Qty. of Floors: 007

Supplied DE: 717

Resource: Black Magic Crystal

Stampede: On

<Do you wish to claim administrative rights? Y / N>

<Do you wish to erase this dungeon? Y / N>

“I have a lot of questions, but before anything else, ‘Yes’ to claiming administrative rights.”

When I pressed the “Y” button, a voice rang out within the dungeon. Seeing Akira and Mutsuo both looking around restlessly informed me that I wasn’t just hearing it inside my head.

<Dungeon No. 103 has been cleared. The Buster, Ezoe Kazuhiko, has claimed administrative rights. The Buster-only ability Card Materialization has been granted. Furthermore, as reward for being First Buster, you are hereby granted the character card “Liu Fengguang the Fist Emperor.”>

The third Legend Rare card I had ever seen appeared before my eyes, floating and glowing as the other two had. I reached for it and turned it over.

Name: Liu Fengguang

Title: Fist Emperor

Rank: F

Rarity: Legend Rare

Skills: Bare-Handed Fighting Technique (Lvl. 1), Armed Fighting Technique (Lvl. 1), Disciple Cultivation (Lvl. 1)

“Incarnation of martial arts; master over every form of physical combat. Had often lost himself to the thrill of battle in his youth, but now focuses his efforts at raising successive generations. Age of 103 years old?! He’s an old geezer?!”

“Ho ho ho... Who do you think you’re calling a geezer?”

The character card shone brighter and brighter until the light took on the form of an old man. At close to two meters tall, he towered above even Akira and was so muscular that it was hard to imagine him being older than a hundred.

“My name is Liu Fengguang. It is true that I am over a hundred, but I have yet to regress so far as to be made light of by young whippersnappers like yourselves.”

Seeing Liu extend a hand towards me, I thought, He might be a Legend Rare character card, but he’s still Rank F. If he tries anything funny, I’ll just turn the tables on him.

At least, I did until Akira slid in between the two of us and deflected the hand with a mawashi uke move, warning me, “Aniki, you really should apologize. This guy’s bad news.”

“I see... I apologize for my disrespect.”

When it came to fighting, I fully trusted Akira’s judgment. The grave look on his face was all I needed to tell how dangerous this old man was. As an amateur, the best thing I could do was to obediently listen to someone who knew what he was talking about. I corrected my posture and bowed my head.

“Hmm, I see. A man who knows himself, trusts his followers, and promptly corrects his own wrongs. You are a good leader. I accept your apology. You all may name yourselves.”

“My name is Ezoe Kazuhiko. I am a Rank C dungeon adventurer.”

“I’m Shishido Akira, also a Rank C dungeon adventurer. I’m a martial artist.”

“I-I am Tanaka Mutsuo. I’m only Rank E, and I’m not so much an adventurer as I am an IT manager.”

Liu examined each of us in turn, then focused on Akira.

“If you’ve reached Rank C, your bodies must be quite tempered. But technique is something else entirely. From what I see, you are the only one who knows how to truly fight.”

Seeing how Akira was standing at attention with his back straight, it was clear that he had received some sort of shock from the old man before our eyes. However, I had to interrupt the conversation, as we were still in the middle of something.

“I’m sorry. We have yet to completely clear this dungeon. Could you return to card form for now and save the details for another time? That is, if you are willing to accept me as your master...”

“I serve no one, and I call no one master. However, if you wish to challenge the dungeons, then I am willing to lend my aid. Call me again when you have need of my power.”

Leaving those words hanging in the air, Liu Fengguang reverted to card form. I sighed and turned towards my two companions.

“Let’s finish up here. I’m turning Stampede off.”

◇ ◇ ◇

[Ministry of Defense — Ishihara Yukie]

After the man in the video said, “Let’s finish up here. I’m turning Stampede off,” he once again turned towards the Dungeon Core management window. When he pressed the field marked “Stampede,” the screen changed to one indicating the remaining time until the Stampede. It read “45,441,973,440 seconds” and was not moving.

“What does this mean?” I asked, looking up from the video towards Ezoe Kazuhiko, who I was on a call with.

He shrugged his shoulders and replied, “As it says, it’s probably a countdown to the Monster Stampede. One revolution of our planet around the sun is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds, which works out to a total of 31,556,926 seconds. The displayed time is exactly 1,440 years. But that’s in dungeon time; in aboveground time, that’s ten years.”

“The reason why the number is not moving is because the dungeons haven’t all fully appeared yet...?”

“Yes, most likely. What do you think? Is this enough to serve as evidence of the impending Monster Stampede?”

“That is indeed more than enough to imply the possibility. But we can’t base our decisions on Sapporo Dungeon alone. We’ll need to check other dungeons as well...”

“Fair enough. Furthermore, this video reveals the existence of the character cards. If you’re going to be publicizing it, I recommend you be careful how you go about it.”

“Anyone who clears a dungeon gains the ability to materialize cards above ground, is it? If we don’t manage it carefully, this could very easily be used for terrorism. Honestly, this is way above even my pay grade. I’ll have to discuss it with Administrative Vice-Minister Nishida and wait for orders from above.”

“This does sound like an ability that extremists in the Middle East would love to get their hands on. In any case, the dungeon has been officially cleared. The rest is all yours.”

I sighed and slumped my shoulders. I wish I could be as carefree as this man. The year’s only just begun, and he’s already dumped problem after problem on my desk. Can he try being in my shoes a bit?

In fact, I could not help venting some of my frustration. “Goodness, it’s just one thing after another. As if the Ministry of Defense isn’t already entirely swamped. It’s far too late now, but I seriously regret having volunteered myself as director back when Anti-Dungeon was being established.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. If you weren’t here, we probably wouldn’t have been able to get inside Sapporo Dungeon. Powerful adventurers are important, but good administrators who can manage them properly are even more important. When I accept my next interview, I’ll make sure to say so.”

“Wow, I’m so touched. Truly. Anyways, I confirm that the request from us has been fulfilled. Feel free to rest up for the rest of the day. I’ll hear the detailed report when you get back to Tokyo. Good work down there.”

After ending the call, I sighed heavily and leaned back in my chair, looking up at the ceiling. There was no longer any doubt as to the veracity of what Ezoe Kazuhiko had said on December 31. If nothing was done, all of humanity would be wiped out by a Monster Stampede. In order to prevent this from happening, every last dungeon that appeared on Earth needed to be cleared.

“If this is truly the work of a god, then that god is definitely an evil god. Just what does he think he’s doing to this world of ours...?”

My first order of business was to reconfirm the content of the video and write a report about it. But before I started the task, I needed a short break. All seventy-six indoor smoking rooms within the Ministry of Defense had been closed down, leaving only the twelve that were outdoors. It was a bit of a distance, but I didn’t really have a choice. I pulled open one of my desk drawers and took out a thin cigar.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Edogawa City — Kinouchi Mari]

<Breaking news: Three civilian adventurers have just cleared Sapporo Dungeon. The Ministry of Defense will be holding an emergency press conference at 18:30 today.>

There was a long-standing Western confectionery store named Shells located a short distance down Showa Dori from the south exit of Koiwa Station that female high school students like my friends and me loved to sit and chat in. At ¥250 a slice for strawberry cake, ¥300 a slice for Sachertorte, and ¥500 for a cake set together with a drink, it was extremely affordable for students on allowances. What’s more, everything was delicious and homemade. Until a short while ago, even ¥500 seemed like an incredible expense to me. Now, when I equated the amount to a single goblin, it didn’t seem so out of reach anymore. My monthly allowance was now worth a hundred goblins, or ¥50,000, which was more than enough for me to hang out with my friends. (As an aside, Kazu-san was like, “That’s too much money for a high schooler to be holding,” and had taken to giving my salary to my mom directly!)

“Mari, it’s your uncle that the news is talking about, isn’t it?”

“Mh-hmm. He did say that he’s visiting Sapporo, so it’s very likely him and those in his company.”

“That’s the world’s first ever dungeon clear! They’re amazing! Mari, watch out. The guys trying to get into Dungeon Busters are going to flock to you again.”

As my friend had mentioned, the head of Dungeon Busters, Inc., Ezoe Kazuhiko, was my relative on my mother’s side, and this was a fact that my entire school knew. Last year, Kazu-san had saved me when I’d been accosted by some scary-looking people. It just so happened to have been around the time when news about the boot camp was all over on TV; the friends who had been with me at the time recognized him immediately. The boys in my class pestered me to introduce him so much that I had no choice but to give him a call on the spot. I still remembered how disappointed all the boys had looked when Kazu-san had immediately replied with “Tell them to register as adventurers first.” We high school students could not register as adventurers.

“Are you going to become a dungeon adventurer when you graduate, Mari?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. Mom told me to do whatever I want, but Kazu-san... My uncle is against it. He told me to go to college, and that I could still be an adventurer on the side while studying.”

“In your case, you can even make it big as an idol. Ugh, who was it that said everyone is born equal?! The heavens are clearly picking favorites here!”

My friends and I continued chattering for a while longer, then went to karaoke together. Utayuuen, which was close to the station’s north exit, offered a student package of only ¥125 for thirty minutes, complete with all-you-could-drink. I really loved these times.

◇ ◇ ◇

[Sapporo — Ezoe Kazuhiko]

On January 4, at 18:30, Director General Ishihara of the Dungeon Adventurer Administrative Bureau was hosting a press conference regarding our successful dungeon clear from the press conference room within the Ministry of Defense. The three of us were having dinner while watching the broadcast on 1-seg.

“This is so good! Mongolian barbeque is delicious!”

We were having what the locals called Jingisukan or Genghis Khan in a restaurant named Beer Keller Sapporo Pioneer Story within Sapporo Factory mall. We had started by ordering ten peoples’ portions right off the bat. Due to being a beer hall, the place had an extremely extensive menu. In addition to crab salad and eisbein (a German dish of pickled ham hock), we even ordered a platter of twenty coarse ground sausages. Of course, we did not forget the craft beer. We even had it served in special beer mugs.

Sapporo had numerous Genghis Khan restaurants of renown, but most of them only had counter seats. We ended up going to this one because it had VIP rooms—not so much because we were worried about being recognized, but because we wanted to watch the broadcast.

“Mucchii, you’ve gotta eat the vegetables too! And I was the one who put that meat on the grill!”

“I need to consume more protein now that I’ve reached Rank E. Haven’t you heard of ‘first come first served’?”

“You two... Why fight when we can just order more? Let’s order ten more portions for now.”

My two companions seemed more focused on the meat than the TV. Mutsuo was as hearty an eater as he always had been. At this rate, he just might return to his former size by next year. Then again, he could just lose it all again in the dungeon, so it wasn’t all that big a problem. I also reached towards the grill plate—fully loaded with vegetables and meat as it was—with my chopsticks.

<The three civilian adventurers’ names are Ezoe Kazuhiko, Shishido Akira, and Tanaka Mutsuo. Together, they formed the Dungeon Busters team and entered Sapporo Dungeon for investigative purposes. At the time, we, as the Adventurer Administrative Bureau, requested that they ‘clear the dungeon if possible.’ This afternoon, they reached the lowest floor in Sapporo Dungeon—the seventh floor—and came into contact with the object called the Dungeon Core and, in so doing, obtained administrative rights over the dungeon.>

On the tablet propped up at the edge of the table, Director General Ishihara was currently giving an outline of what had happened. However, she did not go into detail. Most noticeably, there was no mention whatsoever of the character cards. The only thing she was focusing on was the dungeon clear.

<As the dungeon clear has happened just today, there are many details that we are still in the middle of confirming. That said, there is one piece of information that we feel the need to share with urgency.>

As handouts were passed among the reporters, an image appeared on-screen. It was one of the pictures we’d taken of the Dungeon Core.

<This is an object discovered on Floor 7 of Sapporo Dungeon which we are tentatively referring to as a Dungeon Core. When it is touched, the following screen shows up.>

The next image sent the reporters all abuzz. This was the very moment when the Status of a dungeon was publicized for the first time in history.

<According to this window, Sapporo Dungeon’s official name appears to be No. 103. Its rank is D. This proves the theory that dungeons are also ranked according to the strength of their monsters. The biggest issue is the field below it that reads ‘Monster Stampede.’ We are still in the process of confirmation and therefore cannot say the following with certainty, but this does appear to be strong support for the Monster Stampede Theory.>

“I see. She’s aiming to instill a sense of crisis in the people now. Then, while the bureau continues their confirmations and whatever, the government will use the time to decide how it will react to this information. And I see they’ve edited the footage to hide the Stampede countdown.”

“Which means we should also do so when producing our own video. Do we have a computer with powerful enough specs...?”

On the screen, Ishihara wrapped up her announcement by declaring that all other details were currently under investigation and that the Dungeon Administrative Bureau would continue dedicating all its efforts into clearing dungeons. She then moved onto Q&A, but ended up answering “That is currently under investigation” or “I’m not at liberty to say” to most of the questions. There wasn’t much “A” in the Q&A going on.

Then a reporter from Keisan Shimbun asked, <As I’m sure you’re aware, the United Nations is currently setting up the preparatory committee for the IDAO, or the International Dungeon Adventurer Organization. Would you be sharing the information obtained from this dungeon clear with the UN and, by extension, the world at large?>

<Naturally, we will. This is not an issue that involves Japan alone. Our preliminary understanding leads us to believe that each of the dungeons scattered across our planet has the potential to set off a Monster Stampede. We will need literally every country on Earth working together to face this threat.>

<However, this is information that was obtained only after spending significant taxpayer money in setting up our country’s civilian adventurer initiative. How will you justify sharing it with the world for no compensation in return?>

It’s true that from a short-term perspective, it might look like Japan is one-sidedly providing for the world. The other countries don’t have to do anything and can simply lap up all the information Japan is sharing. I can see people being afraid of this dynamic. After all, we’re even hearing rumors that Gamerica is considering acknowledging civilian ownership over dungeons. If that really comes to pass, then expecting information from them would be futile.

<It is true that this might seem like we are setting ourselves up to be taken advantage of by the rest of the world. However, this disparity in dynamic is because our government was the first to adopt a civilian adventurer initiative. Every other country will be doing the same thing going forward, and as the framework for global cooperation is set up, our experience and contributions will give us much more authority and speaking power.>

<Furthermore,> Ishihara continued, <Dungeon Busters themselves had asked for almost no compensation in their investigation and clearing of Sapporo Dungeon, and then had even unconditionally transferred administrative control over the dungeon to the Japanese government. If these men who have put their own lives on the line to challenge the dungeon are being so selfless, then how can we do any less? In the face of this danger that threatens all of humanity, we must not allow ourselves to be blinded by short-sighted self-interest.>

“Uh-oh. Aniki, she’s really painting us as heroes. How’re we supposed to continue enjoying Susukino after this?”

“If someone uploads photos of us going wild and playing with girls onto the internet, it might negatively affect Dungeon Busters’s reputation!”

“Like I care... We fought, and we’re tired. What’s wrong with warriors seeking relief? When we’re done eating, we’re going to hit the streets. We’re partying for the second night in a row!”

“So you’re just going to embrace it, huh. I don’t dislike that part of you, Aniki. Then again, I suppose there’s no point worrying too much about something like this.”

“YOLO!”

Ishihara’s press conference was still going on, but we had seen enough. I turned off the screen and directed my full and undivided attention to the sizzling meat.

＊ ＊ ＊

“So, the very same day you finished clearing a dungeon, all of you went partying at a high-class club and even brought girls back for the night? You do realize that you’re famous now, right? What were you thinking?”

“Like I care. Unlike entertainers, our careers don’t rely on popularity. Neither do we have to curry favor with fans like professional baseball athletes. We’re adventurers. We couldn’t care less how people look at us.”

The next day, I was made to listen to Director General Ishihara’s sarcasm in the JSDF facility set up within Odori Park. When I told her that we had been stuffing our faces with Mongolian barbeque while watching her press conference, her face went through a million different colors within a split second. I couldn’t blame Akira and Mutsuo for surreptitiously moving out of frame.

“In regards to the next step, we’re currently forming an investigative team. We’ll be asking you to help guide them to the lowest floor. However, it’s going to take two-to-three weeks to gather the personnel and get things in order. Come back to Tokyo for now. I’d also like to hear your opinion about where we should go from this point forward.”

“How was the response from the other civilian adventurers?”

“There are currently twenty-nine registered civilian adventurers. We’re in the middle of checking in with them one by one. There are some who haven’t responded yet, but the ones who we reached generally seemed fine. Some of them even said they’d already accepted the possibility of a Stampede.”

“Then again, most of them are delving just to gather magic stones, so I suppose it doesn’t really make a difference either way. But that is an important role in and of itself. How’re the power plants coming along?”

“Mitsuba Nitachi Power Systems has succeeded in developing what they called a ‘large-scale hydrogen single fuel firing gas turbine’ that runs on 100% hydrogen with suppressed backfiring. At the same time, there are plans being drafted for a new one million kilowatt plant in Chiba Prefecture based on the results obtained from the prototype in Tsukuba. The completion date is scheduled for some time within August this year. Once the turbines are finished, the rest is quick. These plants have zero carbon emissions, don’t create nuclear waste, are extremely simple and easy to provide maintenance for, and are very accident-proof. We are only a short step away from the dream energy source.”

“Now that you mention it, a thought occurred to me when I was down in the dungeon. What do you think about dumping nuclear waste inside the dungeons?”

“Now that’s a daring suggestion if I’ve ever heard one... But this is definitely beyond what I can decide alone. When you put it that way, I guess the matter of the dungeons is steadily ballooning beyond what a mere bureau can handle.”

“I heard that the US is setting up their own dungeon-managing bureau within the Pentagon, but I think they’re going to bump into the same issues you’re facing now. I believe that our government needs to set up a Ministry of Dungeons and consolidate all administrative rights and deciding power together under one umbrella.”

“I’m still in the middle of working out the exact schedule for the talk you were promised. You’ll probably have to wait until early next week to get word. When it happens, you should bring it up yourself. Naturally, I’ll also do what I can in advance to lay the groundwork for you, but ‘he’ leans more on executive policy making, so it’d be much more effective to discuss it with him directly.”

I nodded and ended the call. When I left the building, the crowd gathered outside was in an uproar. Among the reporters that hailed from every part of Japan, I even spotted those who appeared to be from Woori and Sina. This area of Odori Park was currently sealed off by the JSDF and had only one exit. If we simply walked out like this, we would be completely surrounded and subjected to a never-ending barrage of pointless questions.

“You two, you’ve got your luggage? We’re teleporting out of here.”

“Ezoe-shi, weren’t we going to eat at Ebisoba after this?”

“There’s a branch at New Chitose Airport too, Mucchii. Oh, wait. Would we be mobbed there too?”

The three of us ducked back indoors as if going into hiding.