Chapter 11: Dungeon Conquest Complete

"Hey, you alive?"

The Black Dragon was gone, erased by the finishing moves of my two summons.

In the sudden silence that filled the dungeon's altar room, I called out to the man currently losing his mind on the floor.

"Wh-who the hell are you!?"

"Uh, well... just a Passerby Black Robe?"

I couldn't exactly give him my real name, so that was the best I could come up with on the fly. He looked shaken, but he also gave me a look that said he wasn't buying my bullshit for a second.

[Ryuzuka has been conquered. The Dungeon will disappear in ten minutes.]

It happened right at that moment. A voice rang out, echoing through the interior of the dungeon.

"...Wait, disappear? Dungeons can do that?"

"That's right—this is an Otherworld-type! If we don't move, we're going down with the ship—"

The man started spouting terms I didn't know, panicking to a degree that seemed physically impossible. I didn't really grasp the gravity of the situation yet, so my tone was a lot flatter than his.

"So, uh... what actually happens if we get caught in the disappearance?"

"Are you stupid!? You'll die! Obviously!"

"Well... that sounds bad."

"Where's the [Warp Gate]!?"

I had a million questions, but finding this [Warp Gate] seemed like the priority. If the entire space was about to be deleted, even I was out of options. I felt a prickle of genuine anxiety.

[Concurrent viewers have exceeded 200,000!]

Just as we were about to start searching, a mechanical voice chirped from the smartphone-like device floating near the man.

Concurrent viewers? As in, live viewers? Was that the abbreviation for the number of people watching a stream?

"Look, I know you're busy panicking, but... are you streaming this?"

"Does it look like I care about that right now!?"

"Wait, hold on. This is a massive deal for me. Is this going out to the whole world? Am I being dumped into the ocean of the internet as we speak?"

"Yes, I am! Now shut up and find the [Warp Gate]!"

The blood drained from my face.

I'd been so careful about hiding my strength, and now I was being broadcast to the entire planet. This was bad. I was panicking so hard I was losing my ability to form coherent sentences.

I forced myself to focus and scanned for mana signatures. In a dungeon stripped of its monsters, one spot stood out like a beacon.

"The mana is pooling behind the altar. Use that."

"H-how did you—?"

"Never mind that. Just go. As for me... I'm out of here!"

I kicked [Physical Enhancement] into high gear and bolted in the opposite direction of the [Warp Gate].

I didn't know if my summons understood my plan, but they followed my lead. I hopped onto Luna and ordered her to use [Stealth]. Since Sol couldn't hide, I unsummoned him. We tore through the dungeon, Luna's speed approaching the sound barrier, a sonic boom echoing behind us as we raced for the exit.

"The entrance—alright, out, and we're... done!"

We cleared the entrance and—shit. A massive crowd was waiting outside. I could sense a lot of high-level mana signatures in the mix. I even spotted Ayane among them.

I put all my faith in [Stealth] and made a beeline for home. Please don't let me become a trending topic, I prayed. I slipped through my bedroom window and collapsed onto the bed, bone-weary.

"I'm exhausted... Was that guy really a Dungeon Streamer? I hope he made it out."

That floating phone was something else, I thought, as my consciousness slipped away into a deep sleep.

At that moment, Reima was being incredibly naive about the reality of Dungeon Streaming.

〔Who the hell was that guy in the black robe?〕 〔A Summoner just bullied a Black Dragon!?〕 〔His name and his vocabulary are... unique.〕 〔The sheer energy of that guy.〕 〔His power level and his IQ are definitely not proportional.〕

The man he had saved was Ryuga, one of the most notorious "nuisance streamers" of the younger generation. His stream, titled "Illegal Entry: Conquering the Forbidden Dungeon," had already pulled in tens of thousands of viewers. By the time the dust settled, the recording of the entire incident had pushed the concurrent count over 200,000.

Clips of the "legendary" and "idiotic" moments were already being uploaded in droves. While Reima slept, they racked up millions of views. He had snatched the number one trending spot. Every social media platform and internet board was obsessed with the "Passerby Black Robe."

More importantly, he had conquered Ryuzuka—a feat no one else had managed. There was no way the world was going to let that slide. While the [Identification Team] worked through the night to unmask him, Reima remained blissfully unaware, dead to the world in his bed.