c21-c40 · 040-ch40

Chapter 40: The Afterglow of Defeat — POV: Sandai

"Shibasaki-san was soooo cool~~~!!"

"How long are you gonna keep saying that, Sandai-san? I'm already sick of it."

"Just give up, Anju. Accept her as this kind of creature and move on."

We made our way through the 31st floor's Pluto Jungle, defeating monsters as they spawned. Just as intel suggested, they were weaker than those in Shibuya. ...Ah right, in the deep layer, unless corpses are in immediate danger, I need to crush them.

"By the way, Sandai-san, I recorded that duel from earlier. Wanna see?"

"...You idiot."

"Anju..."

"H-Huh? Was that not okay?"

As we were crushing corpses into mush, Anju suddenly said that.

No, well, yeah, she's still only 18. Teenagers often don't understand those kinds of boundaries. Anju has veteran-level strength, so I keep forgetting she's only been a rookie for just over a year.

"It's not that it's not okay... at least get Shibasaki-san's permission first. We're not a rival clan or anything."

"Ah...! I'm sorry..."

"It's my fault for not educating Anju properly... Though I suppose it's fortunate this was the deep layer."

"? What do you mean by that, Ririka-san?"

"You'll see if you look. Anju, hand over the camera."

Anju hesitantly held out the camera. It was a high-end dungeon-use model. Wait, isn't this the one we recently acquired?

I turned it on and checked the recording. The footage started from when Shibasaki-san was chanting his explosion magic.

It showed our beautiful exchange of attacks, but partway through, noise started running through the image repeatedly until it became completely unwatchable.

"Huh, it's all messed up."

"...Figures."

"It was expensive too..."

We were in an environment with intense mana fluctuations. This outcome was understandable.

When mana saturates materials, it strongly enhances their performance. In other words, devices like precision machinery—collections of small parts—have their internals heavily affected when mana saturates them, rendering them unusable.

Recent technological advances have produced many devices that can function in middle layer-level mana concentrations. However, cameras that can operate stably in the deep layer, where mana concentration waves are severe, simply don't exist.

Let alone live streaming, which requires external communication—that's impossible.

"...Or so I thought."

"So we can't see it like Negomin's stream, huh?"

Yes, the stream we watched while waiting below was always crystal clear, with comments appearing in real-time. Even when being pulled up by the floor 31 ascension drop caused by mana fluctuations.

...It's beyond common sense.

If something like that is possible, it must be equipment using technology we don't know about, or extremely rare deep layer magic tools... or perhaps her own skill.

And Shibasaki-san saw through that and approached her. Otherwise, that person who goes out of his way to avoid standing out to the point of asking us to keep things secret wouldn't proactively appear on a stream.

So what was Shibasaki-san aiming for...? Even if reaching the deep layer was his predetermined route, there's no benefit to publishing that online. Video records from beyond the deep layer are something every faction desperately wants. It makes much more sense to keep them exclusive.

Could it be he did it all without knowing? ...No way, there's no way Shibasaki-san doesn't know about streaming.

Either way, it's her turn to be targeted now.

Right now, mid-tier and smaller clans desperate for immediate combat power have gathered in Shinjuku. But this boom will end soon. They probably won't be able to contact Shibasaki-san, and that person wouldn't be swayed by people like them anyway.

However, only clans with real capability have noticed her true value. Starting tomorrow, they'll flock to her en masse. When that happens, Shinjuku Dungeon will become even more chaotic than it is now.

What on earth does that person want to do with Shinjuku Dungeon...?

"Honestly, Shibasaki-san finds the most incredible hidden gems..."

"Yes."

"Hey, don't go off into your own little world, you two!"

"So anyway, since I found her, how about we call it even for mobilizing Sandai-ren?"

"Say that after you succeed in recruiting her. Besides, searching and recruiting isn't even your job. We're returning to Shibuya immediately after today's exploration ends."

"Yes..."