chapter05 · 129-ep129
Episode 122: Urban-Legend Investigation Stream
The Inukai Industries Group, one of Japan's largest, owned numerous plots of land and facilities throughout the country.
Naturally, those included factories and workshops for producing goods. It also possessed several independent research facilities connected to new product development, employing large numbers of workers.
Among all those facilities was one with extraordinarily few staff members.
Inukai First Research Institute, located on the outskirts of F City.
It was considered an elite laboratory open only to the group's most exceptional researchers and those with crafting aptitude. To prevent the leakage of vital patented technologies, it was treated as a sanctuary that even Inukai Group executives could not casually enter.
But the truth was... the institute barred everyone but a limited group for an entirely different reason.
The First Research Institute illegally concealed beneath it something that should never have been possible—a dungeon whose existence remained unknown even to the government.
"Phew."
One weekend afternoon—
Yoko Inukai returned alone from the deepest reaches of the hidden dungeon, which possessed deep layers, and exhaled in satisfaction.
"The dungeon core is in excellent condition. The artificially enhanced variants are growing smoothly, just as reported. This will let us begin focusing in earnest on research for the plan's completion without issue."
As she ordered the ultra-enhanced minotaur that had carried her to the dungeon entrance to return immediately to the lower layers, Yoko recorded the results of her inspection.
For some time, she'd left the basics of dungeon management and creating artificially enhanced variants to her subordinates while prioritizing the expansion of the Inukai Group and sabotage to reduce Japan's national strength. Even so, they had produced fairly good results.
They remained far from their ultimate objective, but for now, progress could be called smooth.
Even so... Yoko Inukai breathed lightly.
"Having to secure a research dungeon inside Japan really is a nuisance."
She sounded sick of the hidden dungeon whose concealment required countless schemes. At the same time, however, she thoroughly understood that there was no alternative.
To 'erase' Japan's troublesome dungeons—Japan being the invasion's highest-priority target—and complete the plan, they needed to conduct artificially enhanced variant production experiments and various analyses inside Japanese dungeons.
Just as every dungeon differed in monster appearance patterns, size, and traits, the quality of their cores varied greatly by region.
Therefore, erasing the dungeons of Japan and other countries required them to secure research dungeons in every region, not only in their homeland known as a dungeon superpower.
"Either way, we needed to seize and expand an enormous corporation to fund our activities. And unlike the rest of the world, predicting where and when a dungeon will emerge is easy for us. Once we had the money to secure the land and building, it wasn't much trouble."
Furthermore, while concealing the dungeon was inconvenient, it gave them no cause for worry.
The Inukai Group owned this land, and the entire area was private property with entry prohibited. The research institute housing the hidden dungeon maintained strict security under the perfectly natural pretext of "defending against industrial espionage by powerful explorers." In addition, they used the nearby Head Mound Dungeon's presence as camouflage and had continuously hidden this dungeon's presence from the moment of its birth using a special method from their homeland. And for a certain reason, they had no need to fear a dungeon collapse. There was almost no chance the hidden dungeon would ever be exposed.
In the early days after securing the dungeon and beginning their research, they had connected it by an underground passage to the dungeon possessing abyssal layers, allowing them to acquire the great quantities of feed needed to create artificially enhanced variants. But now they could produce powerful variants more efficiently by refining and processing strong materials dropped by enhanced variants, then feeding them to monsters, or by manipulating the dungeon core to deliberately form monster houses inside the hidden dungeon.
They had therefore ordered subordinates to fill the passage years ago. To begin with, it connected to a lower-layer monster house in the dungeon possessing abyssal layers—the middle of a hellscape where enhanced variants were easily born. Even if they still used it today, there was no chance anyone would discover it.
Putting that aside... Yoko checked the inspection results again and smiled in satisfaction.
(As one would expect from people I selected, the researchers here are excellent. Those currently working on enhanced-variant generation experiments don't know our true identities. They're mad scientists driven by money or the desire to conduct illegal experiments. For now, they've only been told this is an illegal laboratory for deliberately producing enhanced variants to obtain more valuable materials... But once I and the homeland subordinates previously assigned to sabotaging Japan join their research in earnest, we're sure to produce even better results. Toward the eradication of dungeons that lies beyond the enhanced-variant experiments.)
Well, around ten of those subordinates had been incapacitated by an Elegant paranormal phenomenon, so she might need reinforcements...
In any case, preparations were complete.
She could secure endless research funds by exploiting the Inukai Group's subcontractors and subsidiaries as always. She had also planned how to support No. 2 with all available funding and equipment until they escaped their slump, then use that support as a pretext to steal much of the credit.
"Just wait, Karin Yamada...! Even if I cannot eliminate you now, I'll focus entirely on research and use a more polished invasion plan to tear Japan apart...!"
Or if the research miraculously produced a by-product surpassing Kisaragi Dungeon (by roughly a hundred times), she would eliminate Karin without fail.
With that dark passion blazing inside her, Yoko Inukai completed her inspection of the hidden dungeon.
She informed the employees devoted to their illegal research, "Beginning tomorrow, I expect you to work harder than ever," then left the institute a little early so that she too could devote herself to research starting the next day.
※
"Good day to you all~. It is time for Karin Yamada's Elegant dungeon stream, desu wa~"
【Good day to you, desu wa!】
【It's time for Ojou-sama's stream, desu wa ORAAA!】
【We've been waiting, desu wa!】
【Streaming many days very helps!】
【↑Are you Anya?】
【Anya shouldn't watch streams from such a violent ojou-sama】
【Reading Ojou-sama's mind would drive her insane】
【We've been waitiiiiiiiiing, desu wa!】
The day after her chatting stream—
School happened to be closed for a long weekend, so Karin had immediately set out to stream from a dungeon with an ominous history.
"As I announced on social media shortly beforehand, today I shall Elegantly conquer a dungeon with a strange rumor, just as I briefly discussed during yesterday's stream, desu no. And so, today's challenge shall take place here, desu wa!"
Karin's floating camera showed the lower layers of Head Mound Dungeon, located along the mountains of F City.
It was a large dungeon possessing abyssal layers, and she'd traveled there timidly while panicking, (The transportation costs are somehow higher than I expected, desu wa...!?)
Until now, poverty had limited Karin almost exclusively to Tokyo dungeons, so she looked slightly excited by this second expedition after Okutama.
"Umm, they told me identifying the dungeon I am exploring would be unwise, so I shall not reveal its name. But the ominous rumor here goes like this, desu wa ne. Screams resembling those of monster-samas can be heard from a monster house in the lower layers. The sound of a woman sobbing echoes through the dungeon. Several people who heard one or the other began suffering from terrible aftereffects and retired from exploring, while others disappeared entirely, desu no."
【Ohh, this sounds like a proper ghost story...】
【A sound, you say? So if Ojou-sama performs her recital to neutralize it while conquering, she will be safe, desu no!?】
【We already discovered the solution. Lmao】
【A solution that nobody but Ojou-sama can imitate isn't a solution】
【A lower-layer monster house is the rumor's source... This isn't something an ordinary person could investigate, desu wa ne】
【Monster houses are dangerous areas you're ordinarily supposed to avoid...】
【Wait, Ojou-sama is openly reading her rumor cheat sheet from her phone. Lmao】
【The way she doesn't even try to hide it is seriously lol】
【Still, I haven't heard this rumor much, desu wa ne...?】
【I read a decent number of scary-story compilations, but I don't remember it, desu wa?】
【I won't identify the dungeon, but I'll look into it a little, desu no!】
【It isn't as dangerous a rumor as Kisaragi Dungeon, but who knows what'll appear, desu wa ne!】
【Even if the rumor is real, the apparition might be too afraid of Ojou-sama to appear】
【Well, I'll sit back and enjoy Ojou-sama's musou today, desu wa!】
【I'm sure you'll be fine, but please take care, Karin ojou-sama!】
"Thank you, everyone, desu wa! It seems the viewers have gathered, so... I shall immediately begin the conquest while investigating the rumor, desu no!"
The concurrents and comments had swelled at once while she greeted everyone and explained the story. "I-I am honored that so many of you have gathered, as always, desu wa...!" Karin said, still looking unaccustomed and overwhelmed. Then, dress swaying, she proceeded deeper into the dungeon.
Head Mound Dungeon, the largest in F City, possessed one distinctive feature.
It had an extremely high number of monster houses—large rooms where countless monsters emerged no matter how many were defeated—concentrated primarily in the lower layers.
Due to the numbers and density of monsters that spawned, monster houses relatively often produced enhanced variants through cannibalism.
In addition, although Head Mound Dungeon lacked mana as dense as Okutama's, it too possessed abyssal layers and generated enhanced variants with tremendous frequency.
That made it an excellent location to hunt for sturdy materials from enhanced variants. But its difficulty was equally high, and its location in a poorly accessible woodland area meant very few explorers entered.
And as if to demonstrate its difficulty—
"GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
【Whoa!? There's something huge!】
【Could it be ANOTHER enhanced variant, desu no!?】
【The third one before she's even spent ten minutes in the lower layers is ridiculous!】
【That's too many!】
【Could this be a dungeon with abyssal layers!?】
【Even so, her encounter rate is higher than at Okutama, desu wa yo!?】
Karin entered a large room in Head Mound Dungeon's lower layers. Among its many monsters, one especially enormous enemy blocked her way.
It was an enhanced variant of the mace ogre, a lower-layer monster with exceptional close-range destructive power that wielded the giant iron-ball-like organs on both hands through sheer strength.
Its body stood roughly three times larger than the ordinary mace ogres crowding the monster house. The iron balls at the ends of its arms had clearly expanded, and its speed could not be compared to the standard species.
"GUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
The enhanced variant spun both arms at high speed and attacked Karin like a crane truck with a will of its own. But—
"Ei."
"""GUGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?"""
Karin did not even dodge the enormous descending iron-ball organ. Instead, she punched it head-on—DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
The iron-ball organ on the enhanced variant's arm tore free and flew away with tremendous force, killing every monster in its path together.
Moreover—
(Ah, this seems like good practice for shattering a Separation Cerberus-sama's head with my fist, sending it flying, and barehandedly defeating all three together, desu wa!)
Karin punched the other iron-ball organ remaining on the enhanced variant's arm, applying force differently from her previous blow—DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON! BOBOBOBOBOBOBOH!
"""""GUGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH!?"""""
The iron ball struck by Karin's fist exploded like buckshot.
Its fragments pierced the heads of the monsters crowding the house, wiping out the army like a shotgun with tremendous penetration and range.
"This is excellent, desu wa ne! I can annihilate the monster-samas Elegantly, desu wa!"
【BWAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA】
【She's too much of a barbarian, lololol!】
【Even merely punching an iron ball back would be bad enough, but exploding it to wipe out all the other monsters is a nightmare for her enemies】
【What IS it with this ojou-sama using monsters as weapons without even needing <Divine Artisan>!?】
【A T R A D I T I O N C O N T I N U I N G S I N C E D U N G E O N B O A R C A N N O N】
【So this is her crafting aptitude...】
【This is already a variant of Tanaka Spinal Cord Sword】
【Sh-she possesses the overwhelming protagonist quality of using her rivals' power to grow stronger, desu wa ne!】
【You can frame ANYTHING positively】
【This new viewer ojou-sama has lost track of what "Elegant" means!?】
【Here, 'Elegant' means she efficiently annihilated the enemies, desu wa yo!】
【At this point, 'Elegant' has suffered as much meme corruption as 'Refined,' lmaooo】
【E-elegant and Elegant are different, so it's fine!】
【Wait, aren't the fragments piercing the enemy monsters' weak points with considerable accuracy!?】
【Why do we suspect she's precisely controlling even the fragments' trajectories, desu no!?】
【You'd think she was a Gori-Gori Fruit brute-force human, but actually it's her TECHNIQUE that's maxed out. As vicious as ever...】
As the viewers celebrated Karin's usual ridiculous dungeon conquest, she punched apart one standard mace ogre's iron-ball organ after another. She Elegantly conquered the monster house.
—Karin continued in that fashion, repeatedly raiding lower-layer monster houses, rampaging without taking a single hit, and making smooth progress.
"Hmm. Nothing in particular is happening, desu wa ne...?"
Some time after the stream began, Karin muttered pensively while rampaging through her fourth monster house in total.
The purpose of the stream was investigating the rumor, but nothing strange had happened, nor had she sensed an unusual presence.
Admittedly, the broadcast had not been running long, and even if the rumor were true, she couldn't expect to encounter it without fail... But even so, there was far too little abnormality.
As Karin groaned, "Hmm," while performing a Mace Ogre Shotgun—
【Ojou-sama! I did some research, and the story about that dungeon has probably been exaggerated】
【You didn't give its name, so we can't know for certain, though】
【That's probably just an ordinary high-difficulty dungeon, desu no】
¥5,000
I looked into the story Ojou-sama just shared, but only found it on a few content-farm compilation sites, desu no. I believe it is probably a certain dungeon in F City, but judging from the guild's statistics, there is no truth to claims of unusual aftereffects or frequent disappearances. It appears the dungeon emerged around the ruins of a haunted location, and strange embellishments grew from there. Several people did post about hearing monster screams years ago, but that was probably due to enhanced variants cannibalizing others
【Eh, someone researched all this in such a short time, desu no!?】
【The investigative power and collective intelligence of internet volunteers is astonishing as always, desu wa!】
【They even found the origin of the false rumor(?) and posts from years ago. A true professional who lives on scary-story boards, desu wa!】
"My, everyone went out of their way to investigate, desu no!? Y-you even donated so much money... Th-thank you very much, desu no!"
Karin bowed her head to the several comments that had appeared.
"Still... I see. So that was the explanation, desu no. The part about the aftereffects concerned me, but... internet information truly is rather unreliable, desu wa ne."
【Oh no, Ojou-sama is losing all faith in the internet again!】
【Kisaragi Dungeon had begun reversing that trend a little!】
【Well, THAT involved an actual abnormal phenomenon plus a video proven not to be fake...】
【She's received billions of yen in superchats, yet still considers ¥5,000 a fortune. Lmao】
【The child is father to the man, desu wa ne】
【So Karin ojou-sama will remain like this forever... is that it!?】
As the viewers began to panic slightly, Karin showed every sign of accepting the posts, which matched her own senses.
(Well, I expected most trips to come up empty, and it is wonderful that nobody was truly harmed, desu wa ne. But in that case... The appearance patterns will differ, so this is not quite revenge, but to compensate for the fortune I spent getting here and ensure everyone enjoys the stream, I should proceed as planned and switch to an Elegant deep-layer challenge, desu wa ne.)
Following the commenter's advice and choosing a dungeon possessing abyssal layers had been the right decision! Karin immediately expanded her detection range on a greater scale than before to plot a route to the deep layers.
—Immediately afterward.
"...Hm? Eh?"
Karin's eyes widened.
As though she'd discovered something impossible, she looked toward the very back of the monster house. Because the room stood at the dungeon's edge, the wall there should presumably border ordinary geological strata.
Karin blinked for several moments, then displayed the Explorers' Association website and a map app on the smartphone attached to her arm for checking comments. She compared the dungeon wall and phone repeatedly.
【Hm? What is the matter, Ojou-sama?】
【Isn't Ojou-sama acting strange?】
【You mean like always?】
【Why did you suddenly open a map, desu no?】
【Ojou-sama!? Your current location is showing on the map app, desu wa yo!?】
【Your coordinates are visible, desu wa!】
【Well, the rumor already narrowed it down somewhat, and access is terrible, so I don't think it'll cause a problem】
【It was Head Mound Dungeon. There aren't any others nearby, and hardly anyone visits, desu wa ne】
【She's staring at her phone while casually mowing down a monster house. Lmao】
【This ojou-sama could probably conquer a dungeon while staring at her phone as she walks】
【She often fights while staring at comments already, though】
【Ojou-sama, what has suddenly happened, desu no?】
【Did you perhaps discover a genuine apparition-type irregularity, meaning the claim it was false was itself false?】
【Even if so, why the map app?】
The viewers posted large numbers of question marks over Karin's bizarre behavior (of a different type than usual).
"Just as my advance research suggested... Head Mound Dungeon is the only one around here listed on the guild and Dungeon Bureau websites, is it not...? Which means, could this possibly—"
Karin spoke with a mixture of seriousness and doubt.
KIIIIN!
Suddenly, she drew <Famous Sword Mongolian Desu-Worm> from her item box and carved apart the dungeon wall along with the surrounding monsters.
Because this was the dungeon's edge, only ordinary earth and rock should have extended beyond the sliced wall.
Karin cut apart those geological strata as well—then swallowed them with her item box, digging rapidly and Elegantly.
【Eh!?】
【Hold on, Ojou-sama, what are you suddenly doing, desu no!?】
【What kind of item-box use IS this!?】
【@Attorney Mitsurugi: Ojou-sama!? (Because nobody was assumed capable of this and no monsters can emerge there, it isn't explicitly prohibited unless you dig beyond the construction-restricted area, but) what brought this on so suddenly, desu no!?】
Naturally, the viewers continued voicing confusion at Karin's sudden behavior... but something else soon replaced it.
After Karin dug roughly ten meters in an instant—an obviously artificial passage appeared.
【Hm!?】
【Eh, what's this!?】
【A hidden passage!?】
【Ojou-sama, did you slice through the dungeon wall because you discovered THIS, desu no!?】
【Eh, but it was buried beneath super-thick earth and obviously hasn't been used in ages. Doesn't really feel like a hidden passage...?】
【Could these be the ruins beneath the haunted site that got swallowed when the dungeon emerged?】
【Remnants from when people experimented with entering dungeons through their sides???】
The leaks and deterioration made the passage obviously long abandoned, inspiring such speculation... But those hypotheses were soon blown away.
"I shall try following it, desu wa ne!"
Karin ran down the passage fast enough to nearly leave her floating camera behind. Rather than extending toward the surface, it continued straight ahead without end. Karin's speed made its precise length difficult to measure, but it clearly extended far beyond a mere hundred or three hundred meters. Clearly, it was no remnant of ruins or a lateral-entry experiment.
After she'd run for some time, she encountered a wall of dirt that appeared to have been filled in with an attitude of, "Surely this is enough."
"Hmph!"
Karin sliced it apart with Mongolian Desu-Worm and struck it lightly—GODON!!
A heavy sound echoed from beyond the dirt as something far sturdier than ordinary metal, sliced apart along with the wall, fell to the ground with a crash.
Karin and her floating camera leaped through the opening she'd made.
Beyond it stretched—a vast cavern glowing faintly.
【Eh】
【Eh】
【Eh?】
"I-I knew it."
Karin showed the floating camera both the sight before her and the map app on her phone, whose GPS indicated her exact position.
"This is an unregistered hidden dungeon not listed on Google○ Maps-sama, the Dungeon Bureau-sama's website, or anywhere else, desu wa!?"
【Hah!?】
【Hah?】
【Hah?】
【Eh】
【Hold on】
【Wha!?】
【Hah!? No fucking way!?】
【Hah...!? H-hold on, what unbelievable thing did you just dig up, Yamadaaa!?】
As Karin shouted with a serious expression but unmistakable excitement over the 'hidden dungeon' she'd only ever seen in Dungeon Alive—
An impossible existence, a dungeon unknown to the government—an unacceptable bomb—had appeared far too abruptly. The well over two million concurrent viewers fell into chaos together.
―――――――――――――――――――――――――
That wound up involving an awful lot of explanation...!
More details about unregistered dungeons next time.
Incidentally, Ojou-sama does not ordinarily move at high speed aboveground (or rather, she follows rules and etiquette by suppressing her explorer strength), so public transportation is faster over long distances. That said, she can easily run nonstop for hundreds of kilometers at an ordinary person's sprinting speed without sweating, so when traveling alone inside Tokyo, she can move surprisingly efficiently without taking the train. (Naturally, continuously sprinting would stand out, and crowds prevent her from running freely enough to do that.)