April 1st.
Another day, another trip to the dungeon in high spirits.
"Good morning, Hinata-san!"
"Mm, morning, Takeo-kun."
I met up with Hinata-san in the Association lobby and we headed to the locker room as usual. Afterward, we reunited in front of the Dungeon Gate and stepped inside.
"Hinata-san, I was thinking of carrying you on my back starting from Floor 1 today. Is that okay?"
"Um... because it’s faster that way, right?"
"Exactly!"
"Hmm... if you’re okay with it, Takeo-kun, then I'll leave it to you."
"You can count on me!"
To cut down on travel time, I decided to carry Hinata-san toward Floor 4 right from the beginning.
I formed a party with her at the Black Obelisk on Floor 1 before we set off. Hinata-san mentioned that she planned to start today's stream once we arrived at the Monster Room on Floor 4.
Until then, we were just traveling. There wouldn't be any footage of her running to get the viewers excited like yesterday, so there wasn't much point in filming the commute anyway.
And so, I focused on running while carrying her on my back.
I had to activate my Fighting Spirit a few times along the way to lose some packs of Goblins, but we didn't run into any real trouble. About two and a half hours after starting, we arrived at the entrance of the Monster Room on Floor 4 of the Shinjuku Dungeon.
Between my level going up and the resulting boost to my stamina and status, I managed to make it this far in that amount of time even while carrying another person.
Still, we'd spent almost the entire morning just traveling.
The travel time would only increase the deeper we went. Eventually, I’d have to start thinking about multi-day dungeon dives.
For today, I planned to take our lunch break inside the Monster Room.
The rules for a Monster Room were simple: once all the monsters were defeated, they wouldn't respawn as long as everyone remained inside. As long as we didn't step out, it served as a makeshift Safety Room.
"We're here."
"Thanks, Takeo-kun. Are you sure you aren't tired? You don't need a break?"
"I'm totally fine! Let's get inside!"
Let's get to leveling!! Faster, faster!!
"I—I get it already...! Just wait a second, let me start the stream."
Oh, right.
I waited restlessly for Hinata-san to launch the drone camera. And then—
"Morning!" "Mornin'." "Hey hey." "It's here!" "It started!" "Hinata-chan is cute today, too!!" "Huh?" "I thought the stream was starting late, but are they already on Floor 4?" "Isn't this in front of a Monster Room?"
The VOICEROID voices reading the comments from the drone began to chime in.
"Hello, everyone. I'm Hinata. I'll be streaming with Takeo-kun again today."
"Yo! Nice to meet you guys!"
"Leveling Junkie Bro!" "Leveling Junkie Bro is here!" "Are we getting another of his insane Monster Room loop endurance streams?" "Yesterday's stream went viral." "The clips of him from yesterday are everywhere." "I came from the clips! Is this where I can see Inabauer Bro!?"
"Um, it seems some of you already figured it out, so I'll just say it. We're starting today's stream from the entrance of the Floor 4 Monster Room."
"I knew it." "Good heavens...!!" "We don't get to see Hinata-chan running!?" "No way...!!" "The clips of her from yesterday are spreading like crazy!" "I came from the clips! Is this the stream where Hinata-chan's chest goes boing-boing while she runs!?"
"We've already finished our commute for the day, so I won't be running. Actually, Takeo-kun carried me the whole way from Floor 1, so I haven't run at all..."
"Leveling Junkie Bro!?" "Curse you, Leveling Junkie Bro! You did something totally unnecessary!!" "Wait, he carried her all the way from Floor 1!?" "Whoa, an explorer's stamina is something else...!!" "The fact that he doesn't even look tired proves he's superhuman lol."
"Since we plan to loop the Monster Room for the rest of the day, the stream is mostly going to be footage of Takeo-kun fighting. If you're okay with that, please stick around and watch."
"LOL" "Even though it's Hinata-chan's channel lol." "I love how she's just accepted that her channel's been hijacked lol." "It's fine by me." "I wanted to see Hinata-chan's boing-boing, but I'm here for the Leveling Junkie Bro's insanity too." "There are certain nutrients you can only get from a crazy Junkie."
Apparently, the viewers were staying for the show.
"Well then, shall we head in, Takeo-kun?"
"Yes!"
With that, I began my leveling grind in high spirits.
Round One.
I wiped out the pack led by the Goblin Commander with room to spare.
"S-So strong!!" "Daaaamn!!" "He’s seriously soloing them!!" "Wasn't Leveling Junkie Bro a beginner...?" "Wait, is he actually a beast?" "Seriously, stop soloing Monster Room mobs... (trembling voice)."
The viewer reactions were great.
But that was secondary.
"Okay, Hinata-san, let's grab the magic stones and step outside."
"Yeah, sounds good."
I called out to Hinata-san, and the two of us began gathering the magic stones scattered across the room.
"He's trying to loop it like it’s the most natural thing in the world..." "So the Monster Room loop was for real..." "I thought only top-tier explorers did crazy stuff like this." "No, normally that's true lol." "He's clearly more used to killing them than he was yesterday." "Seriously, how many rounds is he going to—"
And then.
"Hmm?"
"Eh?"
Suddenly, the comments cut off unnaturally.
At almost the exact same moment, the door to the Monster Room swung open and several people walked in.
"Hi~ Hinata-chan, it's been a while~!"
"You been doing well?"
It wasn't just one person.
There were about ten of them. A group of rough-looking men with smirks on their faces filed into the room.
The two who had spoken first looked familiar for some reason.
As I was wondering where I'd seen them, Hinata-san called their names with a trembling voice.
"Matsuda-san, Aoyama-san...!!"
Matsuda-shi and Aoyama-shi.
I remembered now. They were the members of Hinata-san's old party—the ones who had abandoned her and Goda-shi to flee when they were attacked by the Goblin Knight.
"W-Why are you here...!?"
Hinata-san’s face had gone completely bloodless. She was shaking.
The two of them smirked at her.
"Well, we just wanted to get close with Hinata-chan, y'know? Thought we'd bond through a little skinship."
"Yeah, exactly. Sorry, but would you mind entertaining everyone here? We're counting on you, Hinata-chan."
Skinship and "entertaining" them, huh?
As a sense of crisis began to settle in my gut, the other men started to chime in.
"Whew! She really is cute. Her chest is huge, too—looks like she'd be fun to hold!"
"Doing whatever we want with this girl starting today is gonna be the best. I'm seriously getting fired up."
"Hey, hey, she's a precious Healing Magic user, you know? We need her to earn for us from now on. Don't break her."
"I know, I know."
"But we're gonna pump her full of drugs anyway, right? If her head's gonna go stupid, it shouldn't matter if we're a little rough."
"She can use Healing Magic on herself, anyway. She's got a sturdier constitution than normal women."
I wasn't exactly dense. It was easy to tell what was about to happen here from their tone and their words.
Hinata-san realized it too.
"D-Don't be ridiculous!! Who would ever do anything with people like you!!"
Shouting, she tried to back away to put some distance between herself and the men. But the thugs didn't bother chasing her immediately.
They were blocking the only exit. They knew she had nowhere to go.
"Besides, your faces are being shown on camera!! You'll be caught immediately! I won't pursue you if you leave now, so please just get out!!"
The men looked at each other in stunned silence as if she'd said something hilarious. And then—
"Pfft, gah, ha-ha-ha-ha...!!"
"Ahahahaha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!"
They all burst out laughing.
That confirmed it for me. They hadn't tried to sneak up or break the camera; they had walked in through the front door. There was no way scum like this wouldn't have a countermeasure against an explorer's camera.
"Too bad, Hinata-chan!"
"The camera isn't showing anything right now."
"We're jamming the signal."
One of the men raised his right hand ostentatiously. On his palm sat a metallic, softball-sized sphere.
The mechanical design made it look like a machine, but it was actually a type of magic item.
A Magic-comms Jammer.
The magic-comms systems spreading across the world are extremely fast and can communicate perfectly even deep underground. They are a direct upgrade to the radio communications they are currently replacing.
However, they share the same vulnerability.
Namely, it's relatively easy to jam them if you know what you're doing.
Of course, using one—or even just possessing one—is currently illegal and grounds for arrest. But apparently, the devices are easy to make. In short, if you build something that indiscriminately scatters powerful magic waves, it becomes a jammer.
The comment stream had cut off because the connection was being blocked by that device.
"No way..." Hinata-san whispered, her face pale. Their attitude made it clear that they weren't bluffing.
"Hey, how long are you gonna play around?"
"Ah, Kanzaki-san."
"S-Sorry!"
A particularly well-built man covered in tattoos stepped forward. The others called him Kanzaki.
This guy was the real problem. It wasn't just that he was leading them; I felt a sensation that made the hairs on my neck stand up.
The same intuition that had somehow made me certain of victory before my first Monster Room was now screaming at me that I couldn't beat this guy.
On top of that, there were eleven of them in total. I didn't stand a chance.
For some reason—well, I knew the reason—the men were ignoring me, but I decided to ask anyway.
I raised my hand.
"Excuse me."
"Huh?"
I kept my eyes on the man named Kanzaki.
"What do you plan to do with me?"
"Ah... I've got no use for you."
"...Meaning?"
"I have no use for you, so I’m gonna kill you. You’ve seen our faces; it's obvious, right? What, did you actually think you'd be let go?"
See?
I knew from the start that they had no intention of letting me walk.
That meant, nine times out of ten—no, almost certainly—I was going to be killed here.
Unfortunately, I didn't feel like I could win in the slightest. My intuition was telling me I'd almost certainly lose.
This guy... Kanzaki. He was definitely a much higher level than me.
Of course, even if I could run away, abandoning Hinata-san wasn't an option, so it didn't really matter.
The situation was desperate.
"Phew..."
So, I steeled my resolve.
The resolve to kill, and the resolve that I might be killed.
Because it was a desperate situation, my mind settled into place with surprising clarity.
But there was something even more mysterious.
Even though I knew I stood no chance.
—Why am I so excited?