ch1-ch20 · 006-ch6

Chapter 6

Having successfully obtained his adventurer license, Sai came to Shinjuku Tower.

Looking at Shinjuku Tower anew, its perimeter was surrounded by a large wall, and a net was spread around the tower as well.

Things he'd learned in the training course.

The wall was a barrier in case monsters overflowed, and the net was apparently made to absorb impact in case of falls from the tower.

The Adventurer's Guild was built attached to this barrier wall.

In emergencies, there was apparently a system allowing guild staff to respond immediately.

Also, part of that barrier wall served as a reception area for entering Shinjuku Tower.

The first thing adventurers entering Shinjuku Tower did at the Adventurer's Guild was change clothes.

You couldn't exactly wear full-on weapons violating the Swords and Firearms Control Law and bulky armor while commuting to Shinjuku Tower by train.

So they changed in the large changing room inside the guild.

Incidentally, they had to hold onto their own civilian clothes after changing.

Though called a changing room, there were no lockers. It was an unusual changing room with desks set up in a spacious area, and instead of lockers, it had washbasins and a public bath attached.

There were thousands of adventurers in Shinjuku Tower.

If they installed lockers, there'd be no end to it.

They couldn't exactly put their civilian clothes back on while still covered in sweat and blood from battle.

Responding to those needs, it had probably taken this form.

That said, it seemed some adventurers just wore armor over their civilian clothes.

Sai was startled seeing a young adventurer heading toward Shinjuku Tower wearing nothing but a chest piece over their civilian clothes. From Sai's perspective, he couldn't help thinking "what'll you do when that gets dirty," but there was no point worrying about it.

This was Sai's first Shinjuku Tower conquest, but Sai was a veteran adventurer. He possessed high-performance weapons and armor used in the other world.

But he decided to keep those sealed away for a while.

Armor from the other world might stand out too much. If he wore armor considered high-performance even in that world while fighting around floors 1 and 2, where beginners were plentiful, he'd definitely draw attention.

So he decided to buy Japanese-made armor.

Leather armor made from the hides of monsters appearing in the tower, and a chest piece made from ordinary steel.

As adventurer armor, and as beginner gear, it wasn't bad. Still, it was a bit pricey, so he might be seen as a beginner living beyond his means. But from Sai's perspective, if the armor he used in the other world had a defense of 500, the leather armor he'd just bought felt like it had less than 10 defense.

It had no resistances imbued in it at all.

One blast of a lesser dragon's breath and it'd probably burn to ashes.

That's the kind of thought crossing his mind.

Instead, he decided to go all out on accessories.

Bracelets that improved various resistances, an arrow-deflecting necklace, a ring that supported barrier deployment through magic power.

His belt was also a strength-enhancing type.

With this, it probably wouldn't be obvious to those around him.

He'd deliberated over weapons but decided to go unarmed.

Sai was good at punching things.

So he also removed his shield. Because it got in the way when punching.

Just in case, he also equipped a cheap short sword purchased at the Adventurer's Guild on his hip. This was out of consideration for those around him.

It was a kind of dress code. If Sai saw a beginner attacking a dungeon without any weapon at all, he'd definitely call them out on it.

Whether in a dungeon or a restaurant, you'd get scolded if you weren't dressed appropriately.

That was just how the world worked.

Once he'd finished his preparations, he headed toward the Shinjuku Tower entrance.

He held his adventurer license up to the reception counter.

It was like an automatic ticket gate at a train station.

He also showed his adventurer license to the attendant at the counter.

The double-check system was apparently to prevent fraud.

Also, if someone's equipment was dangerous, they'd apparently be flagged at this counter.

Walking along the path from the entrance toward Shinjuku Tower—

"Hey, isn't that the old guy from the training course?"

He looked toward the voice and saw the young people from the other day's beginner training.

"Uh, you going in alone?"

"Yeah. Just scoping things out today."

"Take care~"

"Yeah. Let's both make it through without injury."

He felt a little happy to have been spoken to so casually.

He was that kind of middle-aged guy—in his forties—who got a bit happy when young people talked to him in a friendly way.

Between the tower and the barrier wall, he could see the clear sky.

"Heh heh. Alright, let's go."

And so Sai, the adventurer from another world, entered Shinjuku Tower—Japan's dungeon.

Shinjuku Tower, Floor 1.

Surrounded by ordinary stone walls. According to the training, the first floor had Giant Rats, Petit Goblins, and such. Apparently each floor had roughly eight to ten types of monsters.

An orthodox dungeon, the kind he'd seen plenty of in the other world.

Bright despite having no electric lights or candle flames—some kind of trick.

The stone itself seemed to be a faint light source.

Confirming such things, he headed toward the large hall just inside the entrance.

It was quite crowded, with adventurer parties discussing various things—probably strategy meetings.

He walked through the large hall without any particular concern, step by step.

He spotted monsters along the way, but beginner parties were fighting them for the most part. When the path was blocked by combat, he waited for them to finish before passing by.

Since the first floor had apparently been conquered in the earliest days of Shinjuku Tower's emergence, it matched the shared map exactly. Without anything particularly worth seeing, he headed toward the second floor without even checking the rooms with treasure chests.

The second floor was also quite lively, with about as many people as the first floor.

He also advanced here while checking the shared map.

He punched and knocked down Giant Rats and Dungeon Rabbits.

Here, a question occurred to Sai.

The monsters in the other world and the monsters in Shinjuku Tower looked like the same species.

The pattern of the Dungeon Rabbit's fur was identical to that of the other world's Dungeon Rabbit.

He'd seen many monsters in the adventurers' streams up to now, and all of them were the same as the monsters Sai had seen in the other world.

Hypothetically, maybe monster evolution was the same across all worlds.

Chimeras—mythological beings from Earth—also existed in the other world as chimeras. There might be some kind of causal relationship.

However, there was one big difference.

It was about what happened after a monster was defeated.

In Shinjuku Tower, when a monster was defeated, it disappeared after a while.

At that point, the monster dropped a small stone called a magic stone.

Magic stones were masses of magical power, something any monster would certainly possess in its body.

Along with that, depending on the enemy, other items apparently dropped with a probability.

It felt rather game-like, which struck Sai as odd.

Because in the other world, disposing of monster corpses was mandatory.

For example, suppose there was a goblin nest and you defeated all the goblins.

In that case, you'd have to haul dozens of goblin corpses out of the nest, dig a hole in the ground, and burn them.

After burning, you'd use cleaning magic or items to fill the dirt back in.

It was a tedious task, but leaving corpses unattended would spread disease or attract other monsters as food, so it was mandatory—there were even rules to ensure it wasn't neglected.

But in Shinjuku Tower, there was none of that corpse disposal hassle.

That might have been a blessing, but it only applied to low-value monsters.

The bad part was that even the corpses of large monsters—a major income source for adventurers—disappeared. The meat was one thing, but the horns, fangs, hides, and bones served as materials for powerful weapons and armor. Sometimes internal organs became ingredients for potions.

As a result, even defeating a single large monster was a good source of income, which drove other-world adventurers to struggle hard. But in Shinjuku Tower, even after working hard to defeat one, you couldn't obtain a full set of materials from the entire corpse.

In the other world, that would be quite wasteful.

Which parts dropped in what quantities.

He'd need to check that sort of thing as he conquered the tower.

As he was thinking about such things, he found the stairs leading to the third floor.

Before he knew it, Sai had already cleared the second floor with nothing but punches and kicks.

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Thank you for reading.

Today marks a two-chapter update.

Thank you very much.