arc1 · 025-ch25

Episode 25: Editing the Kokushi Musou Strategy Video

"Thank you truly. Thanks to SS-san, Shizuka's life was saved. I thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Having successfully completed the strategy and exited the dungeon, we were gathered together, surrounded at a distance by several adventurer parties just as when we had arrived. At the center of it all was my drone.

Shinonome-san, the leader, was expressing his gratitude to me. The leader of Japan's #1 party, saying thank you to this me, who until recently had been a shut-in.

"Man, seriously helped us out! If 'n-chan hadn't been there, it would've been bad! Oh, looking forward to the video too!"

"I owe you one."

"I heard that it was thanks to the potion you prepared in advance that my life was saved. Thank you so much."

One after another, the other members also expressed their gratitude. Despite other parties watching, they were people who could honestly express their thanks without trying to show off. Their incredible coolness almost made me fall for them.

Since I couldn't speak, I blinked the drone's lights twice, then gently lifted it into the air. As if that were a signal, the members of Kokushi Musou waved their hands to see us off.

As if to express my own sense of accomplishment, the drone took off vigorously and flew straight back to me.

▽▽▽

"Man, this time turned out great! I got to see Kokushi Musou fight for real, and the potions I prepared came in handy too. But I also saw some issues. My reflexes can't keep up with their real speed. But since I have no combat ability myself, leveling up would be difficult too... maybe I could ask Himehana to power-level me? No, that'd be too dangerous. Even if they weakened them as much as possible, I probably wouldn't be able to deal any damage."

Overcome with such a great sense of accomplishment, I conducted a review session while speaking aloud to myself. But just as I had analyzed myself, I somehow need to level up or I won't be able to keep up with their movements. I don't have any ideas right now, but let's think about whether there's some method.

Anyway, I'll leave the review at that and move on to editing the video. This time it was a long journey spanning three days. While the video inevitably becoming longer is unavoidable, I want to fit it into three videos of three hours each, totaling nine hours. While making plans like that, I began the initial editing work.

This time starting from capturing the moment of passing through the gate from the front, we begin with the drone passing directly under me and entering the dungeon. It's already cool.

When the dungeon interior was displayed on screen, I remembered that until just a moment ago, I had been there myself. Even though I hadn't actually entered the dungeon, at that time, I felt as though I had become a member of the Kokushi Musou party.

As I edited feverishly, midway through my sister Umi brought me a late-night snack. At that time, she seemed interested in the screen I was editing and observed it for a short while. I had thought Umi wasn't very knowledgeable about explorers, but triggered by our recent shopping trip, she had apparently been talking about explorers with friends at school and had become more knowledgeable than me. Naturally, she knew about Kokushi Musou too, and I ended up being told how jealous she was.

As expected, I ended up pulling an all-nighter, but this time too, a wonderfully made video was completed. After all, since the footage was so good, I ended up wanting to use this and that, making it difficult to cut things down. Even so, I completed three three-hour videos, a total of nine hours of a mega-production, so I immediately sent it to Shinonome-san.

Then, while rubbing my sleepy eyes, I worked hard to check my email.

The 1.5 million yen commission fee had already been transferred to my account, and after that, 20% of the revenue from the stream is set to enter my account. Actually, besides that, Shinonome-san had said he wanted to express his gratitude, so I made one request. It was whether it might be possible to obtain a high-grade potion.

High-grade potions apparently get listed at auctions very rarely, but since their absolute numbers are so few, they don't appear that easily. So, thinking that if it's Japan's #1 party, they might have a higher chance of obtaining one than me, I asked.

Of course, not for free—I intended to pay from the revenue. The market price is said to be 50 million yen, so I just hope I can somehow manage with this time's revenue.

A reply to that had also arrived. It's impossible right away, but they have a lead so they'll ask around. This means I might be able to obtain a high-grade potion sooner than I thought. Excessive expectations might be forbidden, but it's clearly much more likely than me searching for one myself.

Then an email also came from Himehana. She wanted me to accompany them when they dive into the Tokyo Skyscraper Dungeon three days from now. Ah, of course, what's accompanying is just my drone.

The Tokyo Skyscraper Dungeon is a dungeon they dive so often that it could be called Hyakka Ryouran's home ground. It's a D-rank dungeon the same as the Mount Fuji Dungeon we dove together recently, and apparently their highest reached point is the 21st floor.

This time with the intention of defeating C-rank monsters that appear on the 21st floor and beyond, it was an email full of fighting spirit. By the way, although the Tokyo Skyscraper Dungeon looks like a tower, it's apparently a dungeon where you descend into it. Since only weak monsters appear on the shallower floors, it's classified as D-rank, but actually, B-rank and A-rank monsters seem to appear on the deeper floors. Hyakka Ryouran has declared their ultimate goal to be the complete conquest of this Tokyo Skyscraper Dungeon. If possible, I'd like to capture that moment on camera too.

I replied to Himehana that there's no problem, then looked at the clock. The time was already past eight o'clock. Umi has already left home and is heading to school. Today I have one lecture at the university in the afternoon, so I set an alarm for twelve and crawled under the covers.

While hoping the Kokushi Musou stream video goes viral and that I can obtain a high-grade potion, I let go of consciousness.