chapter04 · 096-ep96

Episode 93: World-Class Excitement

Africa had always been a continent of ceaseless conflict.

During its colonial rule by Western powers, borders were drawn with no regard for ethnic distribution, cultural regions, or religious spheres. This left little unity within each country, and civil wars over abundant resources and land raged in every corner.

Sometimes mocked as the post-apocalyptic continent, Africa's circumstances grew even worse with the appearance of dungeons.

Even developed countries suffered lasting chaos. In developing nations whose domestic affairs were in disorder after abrupt postwar independence, managing dungeons was completely impossible. People who sought power monopolized dungeons and explored without restraint, and conflict intensified as individuals gained outstanding strength.

The struggle over resources, which had previously remained within the bounds of civil war, grew into a great upheaval that ignored national borders entirely.

Existing borders lost almost all meaning. The ethnic distributions and cultural regions that had already intermingled were chaotically destroyed or consolidated.

The continent entered a warring-states era in which new warlords centered around powerful explorers ruled each region, becoming a crucible where the strong appeared one after another only to vanish.

The forces of warlords led by monsters above level 3000 remained balanced. Even after several decades since the dungeons' appearance, Africa's wars showed no sign of ending.

But—

"We've cornered you, upstart scum!"

One year, several decades after the appearance of dungeons.

A city in Egypt, in northern Africa.

A force of staggering might had surrounded it.

There were countless tanks with magic-item defenses strengthened against spells, and armed helicopters with enhanced mobility.

Multiple commanders had reached level 2000, and tens of thousands of soldiers were all veteran explorers at three-digit levels or higher.

This was the main strength of one of the warlord factions that had long remained among the largest on the African continent.

And leading that army was a brawny man whose entire body was covered in top-grade magic equipment.

"This is the end of you crushing the great warlords all over the continent and getting full of yourselves...! Once I crush you, I'll become the ruler of this continent! Prepare yourself, you little upstart bitch!"

Level 4100. A middle-aged leader whose exceptional combat power held this southern African warlord faction together.

Though unofficial, he was a genuine monster who had even accomplished a solo conquest of the deep layers several years earlier. He had crossed the "level-4000 wall," said to be the growth limit of humanity, and entered the exceptional realm of a "country-toppling explorer."

Having used that overwhelming power to exploit the weak however he pleased, the man bellowed orders at his subordinates, just as he always had.

"I charge in first and smash every last one of 'em! You deal with the small fry while stopping anyone from escaping! Pound 'em with all the magic and tank shells you have! Bullets don't work so well on high-level explorers because grunts can't load much mana into 'em, but even a grunt can do decent damage once you're firing tank shells! Let's go, ORAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

""""OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!""""

The man took the lead with inhuman physical ability, and the ruffians answered with bestial howls.

Trampling, exploitation, domination.

They licked their lips as they imagined the victor's privileges awaiting them after the battle and unleashed their violence without reserve—immediately afterward.

BISHAAAAAAAAAAAA!

DODODODODODODOOOOOOOON!!

""""GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?""""

Countless bolts of flame and lightning and mana projectiles rained down upon the charging ruffians.

Explorers above level 2000 were easily blown away without enduring even ten shots. Those below that level were annihilated in groups before they could comprehend that they had been attacked. Tanks and armed helicopters supposedly given magical resistance through monster materials and their crews' mana exploded and burned one after another. The encirclement formed by tens of thousands of elites was onesidedly torn to pieces.

"Hah...!? Wh-what the hell is this!?"

The level-4100 leader stared wide-eyed at a magical bombardment denser and more powerful than even the abyss-class <Gigant Fortress>.

"Impossible! Everyone's been swallowed by the barrage...!?"

Beyond the power and density of the fire, its precision defied belief.

Naturally, the vast army surrounding the city had not stood in formation like soldiers from some ancient war.

They had spread out to avoid being wiped away together by magical bombardment, hidden themselves through camouflage and magical effects, and approached the city from every direction.

Yet every part of that force was being precisely shot through and blown away.

All of them helplessly, onesidedly.

"What the hell is going on!? According to our intel, that little bitch didn't have this much power! Did she grow this much in such a short time!?"

Or else... had she eliminated every hostile witness whenever she fought seriously?

"...! GODDAMN IIIIIIIIT!"

DOGOOOOOOOOOOOON!

Roaring, the leader cut apart the endless magical bombardment raining down.

The aftereffects blew away his nearby subordinates, but that didn't matter.

Inhuman mana surged from his entire body. He swung his favorite greatsword hard enough to reshape the terrain and deflected every shot of the falling barrage.

"You screwed me over bad, shitty brat! But in this dungeon age, quality matters more than quantity! Before you wipe out my entire army, I'll cut you in half!"

As the bombardment demonstrated, the little girl's aptitude specialized in magic. Once he closed the distance, she would be easy to deal with—and a level-4100 explorer would not be stopped by magical artillery on this scale.

Far from stopping him—

"ORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

DOOOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!

The leader lifted a burning tank that had become a useless lump of metal and hurled it into the enemy position along with everything nearby.

After crossing the level-4000 wall, the amount of growth per level also skyrocketed.

Not many years had passed since the leader became a country-toppling explorer, but the hundred levels he had gained since crossing the wall were nothing like an ordinary person's hundred. His physical abilities were nowhere near merely twice those of a level-2000 explorer. Strength outside the human realm allowed him to throw a tank weighing dozens of tons like a baseball, while his mana-infused sword strikes easily cut apart the rain of magical fire.

Thrown objects to keep the enemy in check and sword strikes as absolute defense.

Combining those two methods, the leader raced across the battlefield at full speed without stopping once, heading for the target releasing immense mana at the city's center.

But—

"I'll make up for these losses by enslaving all those precious subordinates of yours! Prepare yourself, you little shi—"

In that instant, the war cry he had thundered to intimidate his enemy cut off.

His surroundings had suddenly gone dark.

What appeared overhead was an abnormal mass of mana incomparable with the previous barrage.

"Hah...?"

The leader looked up at the sky and lost his words.

There was no sky there.

In its place hung a gigantic, blazing volcanic projectile.

A mass of murderous intent resembling a Dragon Cannon shot from the deep layers magnified dozens of times over was falling at the speed of a meteor.

"H-hey...!?"

It had surpassed any question of whether or not it could be dodged.

"You've gotta be...!?"

As the leader prepared to draw upon every last ounce of himself to intercept it, he noticed something else.

Several more gigantic volcanic projectiles had been prepared.

And then he understood.

In the dungeon age, quality mattered more than quantity—those very words were now rebounding upon him.

The next instant—DOGOGOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

Multiple volcanic projectiles struck in rapid succession with enough force to obliterate everything.

Through overwhelming mana, shockwaves that would ordinarily have erased the entire surrounding region were forcibly compressed into their impact points, forming a vast hole that seemed to reach all the way to hell.

—Those who later witnessed the battle from afar spoke of it this way: Fire and lightning descended from heaven and swallowed the southern African warlord faction whole. It was the very fire of heaven that had once burned Sodom and Gomorrah.

And so, on that day, one of the greatest powers to tyrannize the continent for decades was annihilated.

That became the impetus for the remaining small and medium warlord factions to abandon the war and surrender unconditionally.

Excepting the few nations that had somehow avoided the state of war, the African continent was completely unified. It rapidly transitioned into a federation, granting self-rule to the regions previously controlled by warlords.

Though countless problems remained for the hastily assembled unified nation, the people regained their vitality when decades of warlord rule collapsed. By their hands, the country began walking a path toward becoming a giant nation on par with China and India.

—And several years after that.

"Aaaaaah, I'm so boooooored."

A city in Egypt, capital of the African Federation.

In a room of a building best described as a giant white palace, a single girl groaned.

She was a beautiful, dark-skinned girl with silver hair and the young appearance of a child around ten.

In one hand she held an enormous bone-in cut of meat longer than she was tall. She lay on the bed, rudely munching away at it.

The bed was fluffy. The meat was delicious. But dissatisfaction remained plainly written across her face.

The reason was simple: she was just so very bored.

"Haaaah. There is seriously nothing to do lately, ja yo. Domestic policy is frankly outside my specialty, so I leave it all to my capable retainers. There haven't even been any fools in need of purging lately. I tried staying in a dungeon for two weeks and rampaging through the abyss, but just as expected, every last subordinate gave up partway through, so it was practically the same as playing by myself."

It wasn't that she disliked dungeon exploration... but being alone simply wasn't the same.

"Haaah. If we had another dungeon collapse or rebellion from the warlord remnants, that might be entertaining for a while... But that would cause at least some harm to my people, so it would be rather problematic. No choice, then. I suppose I shall look at the internet."

Mumbling vacantly about nothing of consequence, the girl sat up on the bed.

She smoothly operated her smartphone, ready to wander the ocean of the internet, which she had recently discovered was perfect for killing time.

The internet changed quickly. After two weeks away from the surface, every form of content had been renewed. Merely checking it all should kill quite some time, she thought, tapping at the smartphone for a while—until her hand suddenly stopped.

"Hm? What is this?"

It was a video posted on one of the world's largest video sites.

Apparently, it had spread several days ago through a dungeon streamer popular primarily in the West as the "Samurai Girl," and now had a view count that made one doubt their eyes.

Something had clearly caused a massive stir. Looking closer, she found that every social media platform and news site was filled with talk of the video. Apparently, some extraordinary explorer had been discovered in an island nation called a dungeon developing country.

"Hmmm. But she is doubtless nothing special."

Individual explorers had become major topics now and then in the past.

But naturally, all of them were merely exceptional "in the public world" and never struck a chord with the girl. She was about to ignore this one too, but—

"...It is receiving a strangely vast amount of attention. Everywhere I look, there is nothing but this."

Moreover, incomprehensible phrases like nuclear-weapon ojou-sama, anime-character propaganda, and Genocide Girl were scattered throughout. It was all rather chaotic.

And so—

"...Well, perhaps it will serve to pass the time."

Expecting little, the girl tapped the video with a vacant expression.

—Several minutes later.

"HAAH!? What manner of IDIOT is this!?"

Her boredom of moments earlier was gone.

The girl shot upright on the bed and stared wide-eyed.

The girl in the video was simply too insane.

A Japanese high school girl from a dungeon developing nation. Sixteen years old. Exploring dungeons in a dress. Soloed all the way through abyssal floor 1 almost unharmed, then defeated a rare abyssal boss. Onesidedly trampled one of the country's strongest clans—

Faced with content so far removed from reality, many English and Chinese speakers in the comments insisted, "This has to be a sophisticated fake."

But the girl knew. Even through a screen, she could sense that enormous mana. Her detection aptitude was only moderate, so she couldn't measure the girl's exact level, but she could still state with absolute certainty that this monster was a genuine country-toppling explorer.

And precisely because she knew the video was real, the girl shouted again, "Is this woman a fool!?"

Looking up to a fictional character and exploring a dungeon without a scratch while dressed in a gown was already mad enough. But the very fact that an explorer this powerful openly streamed was abnormal.

An explorer who reached the country-toppling level almost never revealed their power or identity.

Being identified by enemy countries and targeted by other country-toppling explorers, standing out too much and disrupting everyday life—there were simply far too many inconveniences and harmful effects. So although governments flattered such beings, they almost never acted aggressively and conspicuously. Thanks to that, the world preserved a certain amount of common sense and an approximation of order.

Crossing the level-4000 wall required madness, talent, and a caution at odds with that madness. Almost without exception, the country-toppling explorers hidden in each nation did not drown in their own strength and instead concealed themselves in the underworld. Those with talent but no caution were usually swallowed by a dungeon's malice and died young, vanishing before they accumulated enough power to shake the world.

There was, admittedly, some queen or other who actively spread tales of her "heroic deeds" to deter Western nations and domestic dissidents and boost national prestige... But in any case, a country-toppling explorer broadcasting a solo abyssal conquest to the entire world was unprecedented.

"But with this strength... I have crushed two country-toppling explorers before, but even within the parts shown in the video, this madwoman is vastly stronger than either of them, and I cannot see her limits. No country-toppling explorer would dream of attacking one such as this, and if a hypothetical enemy learned her identity, it would scarcely matter. Just as I pay little heed to spreading my 'heroic deeds'... Could it be that she foresaw all this?"

The girl tilted her head while staring carefully at the video, then immediately concluded, "No, that is absolutely the face of someone who has thought of nothing!"

From a quick review of the videos, there appeared to be a strategist working behind the scenes. But this charge into the abyss had undoubtedly been an independent decision. The girl seemed to confuse anime and reality and had genuinely streamed from the abyss while believing it nothing extraordinary.

"...Kuhu—WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Is this fool SERIOUS!?"

The girl burst into laughter.

Forgetting her earlier boredom, she clutched her stomach on the bed.

I see. So there is still one such as this in the world.

She had evidently grown complacent in this provisional peace, and before she knew it, her awareness had dulled.

With this much strength and this regrettable a brain, perhaps this one could even provide what she sought—

"Perhaps I may allow myself some small expectation."

The girl wiped away the tears her laughter had drawn to the corners of her eyes, picked up the meter-long bone-in meat lying beside her, and GULP! swallowed it whole, bone and all.

"I shall be away at play for some time, ja. Traveling officially to another country is a great bother and leaves one no flexibility, so I go incognito!"

After leaving that note and completing various preparations, she leapt from the white palace, filled with excitement.

"Her Majesty has gone somewhere without permission agaaaaain!" her subordinates screamed behind her.

"My apologies!" she called back once as the girl known as the African Unification Dungeon Queen (age twenty-seven) raced toward a distant island nation at tremendous speed.

―――――――――――――――――――

And so, the new character is a silver-haired, dark-skinned, legal noja-loli glutton, a magic-specialized one-woman army and continent-conquering queen, desu wa.

It appears the unification of Africa was relatively recent—probably eight or nine years ago. (That is how great the impact of dungeons was, and the chaos must have persisted in some regions. Africa alone has public order and a worldview closer to isekai fantasy, desu no.)

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