chapter01 · 028-ep28
Episode 28: Karin Yamada's Failed Creation
【You're taking this enormous sofa home as it is...? If you're doing something that conspicuous, why hasn't anyone noticed your other furniture before?】
That casual question made the viewers, until then stunned by Karin's crafting skill, tilt their heads in unison. Come to think of it...
【Now you mention it, how ARE you getting this gigantic sofa home?】
【Karin-sama carried Lord Vomit out of the lower layers in no time, so moving it won't be a problem, but...】
【Your dress hasn't stood out thanks to its camouflage, but surely you can't hide furniture that size?】
【Your room's furniture is made from dungeon materials too, right?】
【If a girl carried huge furniture like that through the dungeon OR the city, she'd definitely have gone viral】
【Did she secretly take the materials home and process them there...?】
【The detectors make that impossible】
【Karin ojou-sama, wouldn't carrying that home get your address exposed?】
"No need to worry about that, desu wa!"
Karin pulled a palm-sized leather pouch from her clothes.
"I used ordinary bags while gathering materials because sorting them afterward would be a nuisance... But once the sofa's finished, I can put it in here and transport it easily without drawing attention."
She pressed the mouth of the tiny pouch against the sofa—shoop!
The sofa, hundreds of times the pouch's volume, vanished into it in an instant.
【What?】
【Huh?】
【Eh?】
Chat stopped dead. Even swinging the lower-layer boss around on last week's stream hadn't silenced it so completely.
"Huh? Is the connection acting up again? Or is it my phone? How troublesome... Repairs aren't cheap either..."
【Um... Karin ojou-sama...?】
As Karin worriedly tapped her phone and floating camera, one lone comment appeared.
【Could that possibly be... what's known as an item box?】
"Ah, comments are coming through again. Only one, though... Yes, you guessed it! An item box, desu wa! I made it myself with <Divine Artisan>!"
【WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?】
【FWAAAAH!?!?!?】
【Wait wait wait wait!】
【Are you serious!?】
【You MADE it!?!?!?】
Chat exploded for the first time in a while.
【Come on, this HAS to be fake!?】
【Are item boxes even allowed to EXIST!?】
【I'd sooner believe she has an illusion skill that works through screens!?】
【The explorer crowd's losing its mind again lmao】
【This isn't funny, desu wa!】
【You don't need to be an explorer to know this is huge!?】
【Wasn't there news ages ago about a rare monster deep in a dungeon dropping something with an item-box ability that the government bought for tens of billions of yen...?】
【Oh no】
【This is so scary I'm almost afraid to clip it】
【Wait, is this actually a serious problem...?】
【As expected of Karin ojou-sama! (brain off)】
【Hard enough to believe they exist, but you can MAKE one!?】
【Is that genuinely an item box!?】
【If she can make those, the economy and who knows what else will collapse!?】
"Ah, no, no. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression, but unfortunately it isn't that amazing."
Karin hurriedly clarified as the flood of comments, which she'd assumed was delayed by the connection, suddenly rushed in.
"It does have a decent capacity, and time doesn't pass inside, so it's quite useful. But as I said, only the maker can use things made with <Divine Artisan>. Frankly, it's defective."
She seized a monster that had lunged at her and pressed the leather pouch against it. The pouch passed straight through, as though the monster were a ghost.
【Fwah!?】
【So THAT'S how it works when someone besides the maker tries to use it!?】
【This thing's mysterious in every possible way...】
【Did she just casually say time doesn't pass inside...?】
"There was a time when I thought I could mass-produce these and give them away in a viewer raffle to boost my subscribers and concurrents, like you say. But it wasn't so simple. The monster that dropped the materials must have been rare; I've never encountered one since. And I couldn't get past <Divine Artisan>'s restriction on other users. Personally, I consider it something of a failure."
【Fwah!?】
【Wait】
【A raffle!? Organizations would literally kill all the other viewers to claim that prize!?】
【Please don't drag your viewers into an insanely dangerous battle royale without asking (trembling)】
【I'd be too scared to even enter for something like that...】
【If Karin ojou-sama had succeeded in mass-producing the 'successful' version, we might've ended up with a world war centered on Japan...?】
"Oh, honestly. People on the internet always exaggerate."
Karin laughed merrily.
"I'll grant you that I made something rare and remarkable, but it cannot compare to the item box in the Dungeon Alive anime. Surely a magic item like this is nothing unusual to top-class explorers."
【We're not exaggerating in the slightest...?】
【This is what happens when you lot talk crap on the internet all the time...】
【This one is NOT our fault!?】
【Ever since the Fist Fuck thing fooled ojou-sama, she's become even less willing to take online comments at face value...】
【Another crime to add to the Fist Fuck commenter's record...】
【Bet the guy never dreamed one stupid dirty joke could create a monster whose common sense can never be fixed...】
【I mean, information online about dungeons and explorers—especially the top ranks—was unreliable to begin with. Can't blame her for being mistaken...】
【But you can't use an anime as your standard!?】
【'Item box' instantly shot to #1 trending past 'crafting inside the dungeon' and 'minor's materials loophole' lmao】
【Well yeah (when someone shows us a thing that could turn the world upside down)】
【@Attorney Mitsurugi: I didn't see it I didn't see it I didn't see a terrifying item beyond current law that could, if real, let Karin ojou-sama remove anything she chooses from the dungeon without anyone else interfering or being able to prove a crime...】
【Mitsurugi-sensei broke!】
【Of course an actual lawyer would lose it seeing that】
【That's a full-on SAN check lmao】
【U-um, Karin-sama...? Did you really make it yourself? What sort of monster drops the materials for something like that...?】
"The materials? Let me think..."
Karin touched a finger to her cheek and searched her memory.
"I only met it once, so I don't remember it well... It was quite big and sort of hazy, and it was strong, desu wa."
【Strong enough for Karin ojou-sama to call it strong...!?】
【W-wait, was that a deep-layer boss or something...?】
【Surely not... Even the strongest clans in the country would need to go all out against a deep-layer boss】
【But even with <Divine Artisan>, I feel like you'd need deep-layer materials for an item box...】
【I don't know... I don't understand ANYTHING Karin-sama's saying...】
【H-hey, if Karin ojou-sama has this, could she be hiding other item-box-class weapons or gear? Are we okay?】
Chat talked about the item box, half leaving Karin behind. She again decided it must be 'that internet thing where everyone gets carried away.'
"Ah, but this item box is wonderful for keeping a half-eaten slice of cake delicious, for example. You're right: if anyone could use one, it would be so convenient that people might even fight over it. Hehe."
【That's so ordinary lmao】
【That's like looking at a state-of-the-art warship and thinking 'we could play tag on the deck'】
【Karin ojou-sama's so cute! (brain off)】
【That's our Karin ojou-sama! (giving up thinking)】
【Explorers and research institutes studying dungeon items around the world must be grinding their teeth right now... An item box only this carefree girl can interact with...】
【Still, we're lucky grinding their teeth is all they can do...】
【If she mass-produced ones other people could use, the world would fall apart!】
Karin enjoyed the continuing 'internet antics' in chat (which weren't antics at all).
"In any case, I'm delighted I made such fine furniture! Long home streams will be no problem with this soft sofa, desu no!"
She returned home smiling happily, the new sofa tucked away in her item box. The outrageous impact of this stream had dispelled the Fist Fuck image—though not entirely.
Despite its relatively short length, the dungeon stream ultimately drew two hundred and fifty thousand concurrent viewers. Clips of it racked up millions of views almost immediately.
Karin-related words occupied all ten top trending spots, and her channel reached 1.8 million subscribers in a single day.
Incidentally, Karin would later be summoned by the Explorers' Association and questioned at length about the item box. But that's another story.
●
"...I see."
While Karin's outrageous stream unfolded, the nuisance streamer Kagerou, who had spent days shut up in his room searching for the secret behind her strength, was stunned. Yet his eyes gleamed sharply, as if he'd found a lead.