21-40 · 028

Chapter 27: The Trigger

Side: Koji Goda

Shinjuku Dungeon Guild Headquarters, first-floor appraisal counter.

In the spacious lobby floored with marble, I, Koji Goda, glared at the middle-aged appraiser sitting across the counter.

“…Hey. What did you just say?”

“As I’ve told you, no matter how many times I appraise it, the result is the same. It’s just an ominous-looking stone fragment. I can sense a trace of residual magic power, but it has absolutely no value as a material. Therefore, the purchase price is zero yen.”

The appraiser’s voice was mechanical, cold—to put it harshly, he was treating me like a complete pest. And the ‘reddish-black crystal fragment’ I had risked my life to bring back from the deepest part of the middle layer was pushed back to me on a tray as if it were filth.

“Do-don’t screw with me! Don’t give me that crap! I risked my life to take this from a Blood Ogre deep in the middle layer, you old hack! Do your damn job!”

I leaned over the counter, shouting. This stone was my last hope. If I couldn’t sell this for hundreds of millions—hell, even tens of millions would do—I was finished.

“Sir, please lower your voice. If you continue to cause a disturbance inside the guild, I will have security escort you out in accordance with the rules.”

The appraiser didn’t flinch in the slightest, fixing me with an icy stare.

“And besides, the middle layer is extremely dangerous these days, with deep-layer monsters roaming about. You flee from such a place, then try to strike it rich with a piece of rubble of unknown origin. You’re gravely underestimating the profession of explorer. People like you, who don’t know their place, only wastefully lose their lives and increase the guild’s administrative costs.”

“Why… you…!”

I raised my fist. But I didn’t bring it down. I noticed that the explorers around us had stopped and were watching with expressions mixed with sneers and pity. Once regarded as a promising candidate on the verge of B-Rank, now I was just a nuisance, a target of ridicule.

If I made more of a scene, I really might end up on the guild’s blacklist, possibly facing restrictions on dungeon entry. Grinding my teeth so hard I thought they might shatter, I snatched the stone fragment from the tray and fled the guild headquarters.

◇

Walking through an alley away from the guild, I kept clicking my tongue. My smartphone in my pocket vibrated repeatedly. Looking at the screen, beyond the cracks, the name “Tashiro’s Mother” appeared.

“…Tch, annoying.”

I rejected the call and shoved the phone back into my pocket. The mage Tashiro had been struck by the Blood Ogre in the middle layer, suffering severe injuries with multiple broken bones, and was still in the ICU. I heard that the damage was beyond what potions could heal and would require enormous treatment costs. Tashiro’s parents had been coming to me, the party leader, begging me to pay.

As if I could pay. My prized greatsword, bought with all my savings, had shattered in that middle-layer cave, leaving only the pathetic hilt. My current funds amounted to a few 1,000-yen bills and a little loose change. I couldn’t even afford a new weapon—today’s meal was uncertain.

The healer Rin had betrayed us and vanished. If she were still here, maybe our finances and recovery would have been manageable.

“It’s her fault… If she hadn’t selfishly left…!”

The petty grudge spilled from my lips. But what was truly eating away at my heart wasn’t just anger toward Rin.

Back in my 4.5-tatami room in a rundown fifty-year-old wooden apartment, I popped open a cheap strong chuhai from the convenience store, gulping down half in one go. Empty cans and convenience store bento trash littered the floor, and a musty smell rose from my unmade futon.

“Damn it… Damn it! Why am I in this situation…!”

Slumping against the wall, I poured the remaining alcohol down my throat. Even as the alcohol tried to numb my brain, one memory kept flashing back vividly.

Those inexperienced beginner-party kids who’d helped us in the middle layer. The cheap, few-thousand-yen longsword they’d carried. Its abnormal sharpness that had easily sliced through an A-Rank monster—the same one that had shattered my multi-million-yen sword—like cutting butter. And etched into it was the ‘Master_Eye’ logo.

“Everyone’s a pain in the ass! I don’t know any Master Eye or whatever, but some amateur who just got lucky is getting way too full of himself…!”

I hurled the empty can at the wall with all my might. A hollow clang echoed, and a thump from the next room came with a yell of “Shut up!” If this were the old me, I’d have barged in and beaten them senseless, but now I didn’t even have the energy for that.

Frustration and despair were driving me insane. Weaker people were living better than me. Kids who started after me were buying weapons better than my entire fortune for a few thousand yen on flea market sites. And worst of all, that ‘useless pack mule’ Toru Soma, whom I’d cast out myself. He was surely dead somewhere, or crawling in the mud, lapping up filthy water. No, it had to be that way. Otherwise, it wasn’t fair. I was suffering so much; I absolutely couldn’t tolerate him living in peace.

“I’m special… I have talent! I just had some bad luck!”

Drunk, I staggered to my feet and roughly grabbed the ‘reddish-black crystal fragment’ lying on the low table. The hateful piece of trash the guild appraiser had dismissed as worthless. If only this had sold for hundreds of millions, I could have bought the strongest weapon again, started over. I could have gotten back at those beginners, been promoted to B-Rank, become rich.

“It’s because of this… because of this!”

My pent-up anger, envy, despair, and a bottomless misery that refused to let me look away from my own powerlessness. I poured all my hatred into my right hand and hurled the reddish-black crystal fragment at the wall with all my might.

CRASH!!

The stone fragment hit the wall and shattered into pieces. Breathing heavily, I looked down at the scattered fragments on the floor with vacant eyes.

Or so I thought.

“…Huh?”

The pieces that should have scattered didn’t fall to the floor. Countless fragments suspended in mid-air began to emit a reddish-black light, as if they had their own will, as if trembling with joy after drinking blood.

Thump.

An ominous sound like a heartbeat echoed through the 4.5-tatami room.