arc1 · 003-ch3

Episode 3: Parallel World

Well, hello there. My name is Suzuka Jozenji.

I'm that middle-aged guy—Suzuka Jozenji—who fell into despair after losing his entire fortune in FX, then woke up having time-leaped back to being a third-year middle schooler.

I was confused at first about having time-leaped, but once I realized I could make a fortune in stocks using future information as a cheat, the joy outweighed the confusion. Of course. Being able to not worry about money in this day and age is unexpected happiness. That happiness lies ahead. Anyone would get carried away.

But everyone. Things are starting to look suspicious.

"What the hell is this history..."

Despite final exams being over, Suzuka had a social studies textbook open and was holding his head. The content written there was completely different from the history Suzuka knew from some point onward. At first, he'd been checking on his computer, but the content was so extreme he thought it might be a joke, so he opened the textbook, but it was written the same way there too.

Up until the 19th century, it was no different from the history Suzuka knew. Heian-kyō existed, the Kamakura shogunate was established in 1192 according to this textbook, and the Tokugawa clan ruled the Edo shogunate.

But the 20th century was strange. In the history Suzuka knew, World War II ended in 1945. After that, GHQ came, the San Francisco Peace Treaty was signed, before you knew it came the period of high economic growth, then the bubble, and then I was born. I was pretty uneducated about history so there's a lot I'm fuzzy on, but the main outline should be right.

However, in this worldline, it was different. World War II ending in 1945 was the same. But five years later, in 1950, dungeons appeared in the world. This isn't some kind of code word or metaphor. Those dungeons that appear in manga and light novels appeared in this world.

Now there are over 100 dungeons, but when they first appeared, the number was 10. They appeared not just in countries called the great powers, but also in Africa, South America, and even in Japan, which bore deep scars from defeat.

Since the brutal war that was World War II had just ended, every country was exhausted. At this crucial time when they should have been recovering national strength, gates to another world—later called dungeon gates—suddenly appeared. And by passing through those gates, you could go to a new world.

At first, the rulers rejoiced. New territory had suddenly appeared. There was no need to take it from other countries. The world inside was unknown, but abundant resources might be sleeping there. Every country immediately dispatched troops to these dungeons that might become gold mines in the future.

There was certainly vast land inside the gates. The weather was stable, and it was an environment where you could probably even build a resort area.

If only there weren't any monsters.

In that vast land lived completely different creatures that weren't Earth's creatures. They weren't cute creatures. With temperaments that were several times more ferocious than wild animals, and bodies one or two sizes larger, these creatures came to be called "monsters," a different term from Earth's creatures.

All monsters had the nature of swarming to attack the moment a human came into view, so they rushed the invading armies. However, the strength of monsters near the gate entrance was only so much, so while the armed forces were surprised and somewhat disordered, they could easily suppress them.

Thinking they could occupy it if this was the case, they advanced further, but it didn't go that well. The deeper they advanced, the stronger the monsters became, and they couldn't kill them all with firearms, so they suffered counterattacks and damage increased. The dungeons were still very deep, and the strength of monsters at the furthest reaches was unimaginable.

Furthermore, even though they should have killed all the monsters near the entrance, the next day monsters would appear as if nothing had happened. It wasn't a coincidence. This continued for several days. Once it went that far, they understood it wasn't just happenstance, and an unspeakable eeriness dominated the army.

What you get by defeating monsters near the entrance is only so much. More than that, the cost of moving the army was higher. To defeat enemies, you consume bullets, and you need logistics too. Moreover, if a powerful monster suddenly appeared, soldiers would die even though the war had just ended.

Therefore, many countries started moving in the direction of leaving dungeons alone. The deciding factor was that it turned out monsters couldn't come out of dungeons. When they caught monsters near the entrance for investigation and tried to pass through the gate, only the monsters couldn't pass through and disappeared.

Monsters are a threat, but if they can't come out of dungeons, they're not a threat. They decided to temporarily scale down dungeon investigations and focus on recovering the national strength lost in the war. Of course, around dungeons they built military bases just in case monsters came out, but internal investigations were sluggish while each country focused on other movements.

Amidst this, there was one country that explored dungeons like crazy. Japan.

Japan was proceeding with the reconstruction of Tokyo, which had been scorched earth. Suddenly, a dungeon appeared there.

As a defeated country at the time, Japan was being demilitarized, so unlike other countries, it couldn't proceed with organized investigation. Completely exhausted Japan. And then the appearance of a dungeon that dealt a further blow. In other countries, soldiers took the lead in investigating, but in Japan, civilians went into the dungeons.

Regardless of women and children, if they set foot in the dungeons, they could easily confirm that monsters were crowded together, which confused people.

There, several Japanese people stood up. Not by order from the country. Nor was it instructions from the Allied Powers. People in whom the Yamato spirit manifested, wanting to protect the children who would shoulder the next generation and not let their beloved motherland be harmed any further. Unlike the Allied Powers, at that time Japan didn't have firearms either—due to sword hunts, they didn't even have Japanese swords, let daggers. In that state, they dove into dungeons. To not let their country be ravaged.

As a result, while producing several deaths, Japan was able to proceed with developing the dungeons. GHQ took advantage of this, leaving Japan to voluntarily explore the dungeon's condition and such, and built an environment where they could obtain information effortlessly.

Japan, which proceeded with dungeon exploration. And the Allied Powers, who obtained only information from such Japan and strove to recover national strength. To the Allied Powers, Japan, which wasted human resources on its own while frantically bringing information, must have looked laughable.

But the Allied Powers' leeway would collapse before long.

As a result of Japan conducting dungeon exploration, the existence of special items, levels, skills, and so on became public. Items obtainable in dungeons were items that couldn't be reproduced with modern technology, and levels and skills gave power that was too strong for individuals to obtain. That information was by no means something that could be ignored, and countries where dungeons had appeared also took the lead in setting out for dungeon exploration.

However, the situation would change abruptly.

One year after dungeons appeared. A dungeon break occurred.

A massive number of monsters overflowed from the dungeon, destroying and sweeping away military bases and the like that had been set up for defense like a tsunami. The monsters coming out weren't just the weak monsters near the gate, but also powerful ones like those seen in the depths that Japanese explorers had discovered.

Dungeons appeared simultaneously around the world, but the places they appeared were urban areas and other places with large populations. A dungeon break occurring in such places. The damage was horrific, and it didn't take long for urban areas to be occupied by monsters.

While the world was wrapped in screaming chaos, only Japan was different. While dungeon breaks occurred simultaneously in various countries without any time difference, monsters didn't overflow from Japan's dungeon. The conclusion later reached by experts is that it was because Japan had proceeded with dungeon exploration.

Each country also looked at Japan's situation and worked on dungeon exploration, but that was more than half a year after dungeons appeared. While other countries were watching the situation, Japan continued conquering. The conclusion for the non-occurrence of dungeon breaks is extremely vague: that by conducting a certain amount of dungeon exploration and having a certain amount of people explore dungeons, it's prevented.

It's unknown whether that's correct or not, but taking dungeon breaks as an opportunity, countries made dungeon exploration full-scale, and since then, a dungeon break has never occurred once.

And then, the global disaster that was dungeon break became a major stepping stone for Japan's recovery.

Countries around the world, transcending national borders, moved to subjugate the monsters overflowing from dungeons. However, the overflowing monsters exceeded the power they had assumed. Firearms were ineffective, and some monsters wouldn't die even when hit with missiles, not even getting wounded. It was later discovered that as monster levels rise, attacks not accompanied by magic power become less effective, but at that time there was no way of knowing that. Faced with monsters they couldn't handle, they were in such a bind that the option of dropping atomic bombs on their own cities was seriously discussed.

Amidst this, the explorers at the forefront of Japanese dungeons volunteered for rescue operations. They were those who continued hunting monsters in the depths of dungeons. There was no one better than them at how to kill monsters. They were dispatched around the world and fought with all their might. As a result, they exterminated the monsters rampant in urban areas and succeeded in recapturing cities in various regions.

With this achievement, Japan's independence was recognized, and even today they continue contributing to the world's development as a dungeon-advanced country.