chapter05 · 140-ep140
Episode 133: Arakawa Dungeon's Special Features and a New Weapon
Karin's lightning-fast progress through the upper layers, harvesting monster heads as she went, continued without slowing at all.
She covered every species without stopping in the middle layers and even the lower layers, where monster levels should have risen severalfold. She paused to explain enhanced variants and floor bosses, but only for a few dozen seconds at most.
Karin used delicate wind control from a partial Demonic Dragon Armor: Storm Style to lighten the burden on her dress, letting her physical abilities (or part of them) shine. She raced through Arakawa Dungeon at literally inhuman speeds.
"Phew. The final boss of the lower layers is safely defeated! Now for the deep layers. Many of the monsters here may have abilities that aren't well known, so from this point on, I shall properly broadcast each fight!"
【SO FAAAAAAAAAAAAST!?】
【How is this possible????】
【People speculated she'd reach the deep layers instantly if she used equipment from the start, but actually seeing it feels faker than a fake video...】
【How is she this fast while catching EVERY monster species!?】
【I thought catching them all would waste time, but apparently it's barely a rounding error... I don't know what I just saw, and I watched it happen...】
【Worldwide trends are full of 'fake ○○' and 'It's not fake.' Love seeing the world confused】
【Her conquest's so fast the trends can't keep up】
【Wait, she's only wearing part of Storm Style and using wind to reduce air resistance and protect her dress. Isn't her speed from her OWN body...?】
【That's terrifying...】
【You're really calling this a warm-up...?】
【Is she going to one-shot the deep layers too...?】
【No, Arakawa's deep layers are probably unlike any other dungeon!】
【I heard the tragedy occurred on the final floor, floor 4, but she can't let her guard down!】
【I heard Arakawa's deep layers also have troublesome 'challenges' besides the random bosses...】
【Be careful, Ojou-sama!】
The viewers seemed more dumbstruck than admiring in the face of Karin's absurd speed. Some still worried as she entered 'Arakawa Dungeon's deep layers' in her dress, but Karin didn't stop.
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!"
The first monster to appear on deep-layer floor 1 was a huge frog covered in viscous bodily fluid like crude oil. Its thick armor of sludge slowly dissolved even dungeon walls; a single touch would damage a weapon, and anyone touching it barehanded would find it clinging to them and eating down to the bone.
But—
"Hmm. I could touch it safely, but getting that filthy sludge on my hands would be un-Elegant... In that case, here!"
"Gwah!?"
Karin stopped her fist an inch before its eyes—BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!
The pressure of her punch scattered the sludge with greater force than even the display she'd put on while training police rookies. She slammed her fist into the newly exposed, wide-eyed frog's crown and shattered it in one blow.
"GRUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Next came a volcanic turtle radiating tremendous heat.
Its body was easily ten times larger than the one she'd encountered for frying-pan materials in Katsushika Dungeon. The heat it contained was extraordinary, distorting the air with a heat haze quite separate from its mana. A high-level explorer could sear their lungs merely by getting too close. Karin could withstand it herself, but approaching would ignite her dress.
However—
"At times like this—a rocket punch, desu wa!"
"GRUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?"
She hurled a pile bunker filled with extra mana and blasted the turtle apart from a distance.
She continued countering the abilities of the unknown deep-layer monsters and reached floor 1's boss in no time.
"GRUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
A gigantic dragon appeared with flesh rotting all over its body. Its defining ability was overwhelming vitality. Karin struck it with her usual tremendous blows, but it appeared unaffected. Even when she blew off its head and arms, each severed part moved independently and attacked her.
【Whoa, what is that!?】
【Even the fragments of its head are coming after her!?】
【I thought it looked weak for a deep-layer boss. NOPE!】
【What a pain in the ass!?】
【Ojou-sama, the standard approach to undead is to burn them!】
Viewers screamed at its grotesque appearance and ability and offered strategies.
"I see, an undead monster. Then as a more serious warm-up... I shall test how finely I must crush it before it stops moving and provide that data Elegantly to the surface!"
"Gwah!? GRUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
DOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!
Smash, smash, and smash some more. She punched relentlessly, as if she meant to pulverize even the viewers' comments about using fire on zombies. Not one piece of the dismembered deep-layer boss remained free of the wall as a stain.
GAGON! The door to the next floor opened, signaling the boss's death. The viewers recoiled.
【No no no no!】
【GAGON! (dead serious)】
【Is she brute force personified?】
【You can't call that a 'person'...】
【I thought she'd heat her fists like in the mist fight with 'frictional heat' (lol), but she just hammered it down with raw strength...】
【Wait, can brute force even beat undead!?】
【And why has she been smashing all the OTHER monsters with her fists too, when most look hard to fight barehanded!? Okutama wasn't even this bad!?】
【W-well, she used cheat equipment instead of her bare hands on the hot turtle...】
【Pile bunker (thrown weapon)】
【She's using it WRONG】
【Actually, hasn't she stopped using Storm Style's wind control now that she isn't 'jogging'? Yet she's STILL advancing at this speed???】
【Ojou-sama's very existence is a bug in the world...】
¥5,000
【Bad News】 Mitsuki-sama was giving quite serious, family-friendly commentary on Ojou-sama's TV broadcast while completely suppressing her Dark Mitsuki-sama side because of the situation. After Karin ojou-sama's deep-layer rush, she's acting weird
【I turned on the TV to see what you meant and Mitsuki-sama's fidgeting on national television lmao】
【Every time Karin ojou-sama kills another deep-layer monster in a ridiculous way, Mitsuki-sama breathes louder...】
【FYI Mitsuki-sama is commentating for a network simulcasting Karin ojou-sama to people less familiar with the internet】
【Why did they invite her】
【She was keeping her inner Dark Mitsuki-sama under control through the lower layers...】
【Mitsuki-sama's become a chuunibyou character fighting her inner demon for control!】
【Both comment sections are roasting her lmao】
【Hey! Mitsuki-sama is taking this seriously—she wants to help Ojou-sama, so she's covering defensive duties for the Arakawa collapse AND doing TV commentary for the public until the last possible minute!】
【And this is the result!】
【Are Dark Mitsuki-sama and Mitsuki-sama going to collide in her head and make it explode? Is she okay?】
【Why is Mitsuki-sama in more danger in the studio than Karin ojou-sama soloing Arakawa...?】
【Honestly I was worried sick about Karin ojou-sama, but after seeing Mitsuki-sama I've calmed down a little...】
【Seeing someone even less okay than you can calm you down】
"Let us proceed!"
While viewers struggled to make sense of Karin's usual ridiculous fighting and posted about events beyond the stream, Karin advanced smoothly through deep-layer floor 2. She only stopped to explain unfamiliar monsters' abilities, proceeding almost nonstop, until—
"Oh?"
At the far end of floor 2, Karin stopped before the boss-room door. It wouldn't open when she pushed (gently, by her standards) or pulled it. And there were words carved into it:
'If you wish to advance, slay every monster on this floor.'
"Ahh. I was told about these beforehand, but here one is. A so-called challenge door."
【Whoa, a challenge door!】
【I heard Arakawa's deep layers had them, but it was true!?】
【Random bosses AND challenge doors? Either one would make it a special dungeon!】
【Wait, dungeons can have these!?】
【I know it's late to say this, but dungeons are bizarre places...】
【The challenges somehow appear in local languages and change regularly. People use them to argue dungeons are designed by some intelligence...】
【Oh man, Arakawa Dungeon may genuinely be the nation's trashiest dungeon...】
The writing Karin showed them drew a flurry of comments. A challenge door was an extremely rare dungeon feature: to open a boss-room entrance, explorers had to fulfill the condition carved on it.
Usually, the challenges were troublesome but feasible—killing a fixed number of particular monsters or solving some puzzle, for example. But—
【What the hell does 'slay EVERY monster on the floor' mean!?】
【Trashiest challenge of all...】
【Even if the monsters don't respawn, this challenge doesn't want anyone passing!】
【Slaying every monster on a floor wouldn't be realistic even in the upper layers!】
【You're allowed to cut through the dungeon wall this time!】
【Good thing Ojou-sama has Mongo-Death... Otherwise she'd be stuck here】
【That's the first time I've seen anyone shorten Mongolian Desu-Worm-chan to Mongo-Death】
【Time for a short 'cut,' Ojou-sama!】
The viewers' proposal was perfectly reasonable. Killing every monster on a deep-layer floor was scarcely possible, and even if it could be done, it would take far too much time. There appeared to be only one choice.
Yet Karin frowned at the door.
"Hmm... I see your point, but if I cut through dungeon walls, it won't feel as though I've properly conquered the dungeon, will it? I could overlook that through the lower layers, but in the deep layers it feels a little like running away. Not very Elegant. I'd rather complete the challenge before advancing."
【Eh?】
【Hah?】
【What is this idi—Ojou-sama talking about?】
【Audio glitch?】
【No, the glitch is in Ojou-sama's brain...】
Everyone stared in confusion at her response to what ought to have been a simple decision. But Karin folded her arms, still perfectly serious.
"That said, taking too long under these circumstances would also be un-Elegant, but so would ignoring the challenge... Which means THAT is the best option!"
From the item box in her breast, she suddenly drew out a piece of magic equipment shaped like a rifle.
This inhuman weapon had been made by stacking hundreds of materials from dragon species that breathed powerful blasts. A firepower-focused magical armament she'd set aside during her fight against the mist because it was 'too powerful to use'—and mana far beyond anything in her Elegatling guns gathered inside its barrel.
【Eh】
【Wait, new gear!?】
【Ojou-sama, what are you—】
【I can sense the mana even through the screen! What are you planning!?】
"Its power and range are difficult to adjust, so it is a little unwieldy, and it makes for poor training. I haven't had many chances to use it... But it is convenient now! Fire, desu waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
As the viewers cried out in confusion—DOGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!
A scorching torrent erupted from the muzzle charged with an extraordinary amount of mana, filling the broad deep-layer passage completely.
It could only be called a river of fire. Its power was abnormal. Beyond the width of the corridor it filled, the dungeon walls blistered and melted beneath it. Hellfire raged as if to reduce all creation to ash.
And this magical flamethrower's 'abnormality' did not end at its firepower.
【WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?】
【What is that new weapon!?】
【The firepower's insane!?】
【Time to disinfect the filth, desu wa!?】
【Is that Shin Godzilla's flamethrower that burned Tokyo!?】
【Wait, hold on, this...】
【How LONG is it going to last!?】
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
It did not stop. The inferno pouring from a gun small enough to fit in Karin's hands showed no sign of ending.
For several minutes, flames continued to fill the corridors of Arakawa Dungeon's second deep-layer floor. Karin, sheltered from the heat by Storm Style's wind control, finally said, "That should do it!" and stopped firing.
GAGON!
As if confirming that every monster on floor 2 was dead, the challenge door opened. The sound rang in the ears of more than fifteen million concurrent viewers.
―――――――――――――――――――――――――――
It looks like the Genocide Ojou-sama title may make a comeback.
Incidentally, this new weapon was hinted at during the mist fight in Episode 66, desu wa!
Perhaps because the flames are magical, they don't seem to have depleted the oxygen (though Ojou-sama would be fine even if they did).
As Karin says, she rarely uses this weapon of mass destruction because it doesn't train her skills or combat technique (it was probably one of the things she made to experiment with how high she could push its firepower). So this 'kill everything at once and rack up tons of experience' isn't much of a factor in her current strength, desu no.