chapter01 · 015-ep15

Episode 15: A Mistake in the Lower Layers

【Whoa. She's really charging into the lower layers in a dress...】

【Is she actually going to be okay?】

【Judging by all the ridiculous stuff she's done so far, probably, but...】

【A hundred thousand viewers is a lot of pressure, though. What if she slips up...?】

【From the lower layers on, it's a real hellscape... There are loads of stories about even veteran explorers losing their lives after one moment of carelessness...】

【Watching lower-layer streams always makes me nervous...】

Chat's mood had changed completely as Karin entered the lower layers.

The excitement at passing a hundred thousand concurrents had faded, replaced mostly by comments worrying about her. That was how perilous the dungeon's lower layers were.

They were 'another world,' fundamentally different from the upper and middle layers.

For one thing, monsters in the lower layers carried vastly more mana.

Not only did that give them combat power on a different scale, but conventional physical attacks, including modern weapons, became drastically less effective against them.

It wasn't so much that they were tough as that they existed by literally different rules.

Think of a ghost: charms and prayers might work on it, but modern weapons wouldn't.

This absurd difference had routed elite military units from country after country in the lower layers when dungeons first appeared.

It was the main reason explorers fought with swords and bows that were easier to channel mana through—or with their bare hands—instead of guns. It was also why dungeon products that worked well with mana were favored as materials for weapons and armor.

On top of that, there were multiple boss rooms in the lower layers, with monsters several times stronger than the Titan Knightbone. It truly was a region worthy of being called a hellscape, a danger zone where only the top few percent of professional explorers were said to be able to operate properly.

And in this 'other world,' Karin was bitterly regretting her lack of preparation.

"...! I-I have made the mistake of a lifetime, desu wa...!"

Karin clutched her head at her fatal error.

"My tea... I've run out of tea, desu no...!"

Yes. She had run out of tea.

She'd thought she'd packed plenty in her thermos for the stream, but the audience had grown far beyond anything she'd imagined, leaving her nervous despite everything. Apparently she'd been drinking more often without realizing it, and had finished the last of it just as she entered the lower layers.

"I-I am terribly sorry, desu wa! I was completely unprepared, desu no!"

Karin hurriedly bowed toward the floating camera.

【Wait, she SERIOUSLY intended to keep up the tea challenge in the lower layers!?】

【What exactly is she apologizing to us for!?】

【She's got so much breathing room it's ridiculous lmao】

【Huh? Is this girl actually out of her mind...?】

【👺 < Took you long enough to notice】

【Nah, even she can't do a tea challenge in the lower layers, so she's pretending to have run out. ...Right?】

【Can you really imagine this ojou-sama pulling off a trick like that...?】

【Here, a clip of ojou-sama's acting when she started drinking tea at the beginning of the run → URL】

【Wooden as hell...】

【Karin Yamada, what a terrifying girl...! (because she ISN'T acting)】

【Either way, I'm relieved she won't be continuing that nonsense down here...】

【I think she'd manage, but I'd be too nervous to watch...】

【More importantly, don't bow in the lower layers! Watch your surroundings, please!】

"Ugh, I should have brought more tea... But tea has gotten expensive lately, so there was nothing I could do..."

Granted, carrying tea in the lower layers might slow her down, and a no-hits run in her dress alone could still make for a sufficiently Elegant stream.

Thankfully her viewers didn't seem dissatisfied. She'd have to accept it as prioritizing the video's pacing.

(Mafuyu did tell me not to put too much pressure on myself. And if I go all out from the start, I might run out of ideas for future streams. Still...)

Having managed to convince herself, Karin looked at her phone.

(...The viewer count just keeps rising, desu wa.)

The count that had only just passed a hundred thousand was still climbing: a hundred and one thousand, a hundred and one thousand five hundred. On top of the viral attention reported earlier in chat, the fact that Karin had actually set foot in the lower layers in a dress seemed to be attracting still more people.

(It still doesn't feel real... I'm doing much the same thing I was doing two days ago.)

Karin was remembering how she'd despaired over zero concurrents in these same lower layers only two days before, when—

"Ah, something is coming, desu wa."

Sensing a presence at the far end of the corridor, she broke off her thoughts and told the viewers about the approaching encounter.

Just as she put the now-useless teacup back into her dress, the first monster she'd met in the lower layers appeared.

A heavily muscled beast with the head of a bull.

"BRUOOOOOOOOOOH!"

【No way!?】

【The strongest lower-layer monster right off the bat!?】

【Karin ojou-sama, your luck is something else!?】

A minotaur.

The vicious monster said to be the strongest in the lower layers apart from bosses let out a roar, its nostrils snorting like a steam engine.