| > Gramps is here! > Alright! Time to bring down the hammer! > They’ve been letting him do whatever he wants for far too long. > Took you long enough to show up. > The Hero is finished. > Show us the original Hell Gate! > But… the Hero actually liked that smell, didn’t he? > Can the old man really win this? > Even Otin got taken out… |
The viewer count was skyrocketing. 7.5 million viewers. It felt like I only just passed five million, yet before I knew it, the audience had exploded to an almost unbelievable size. At this rate, breaking ten million concurrent viewers wouldn’t even be surprising.
T-that’s amazing…
“Hah! I know how you operate, you damn Nether King!. You’re a slave to your own rules! You won’t fight anyone unless they make it all the way down to the hundredth floor where you sit on your throne!”
The Hero looked like he was bluffing through a cold sweat, but now that I thought about it, Ades had said something along those lines when I fought him.
Still, after watching someone turn the dungeon he’d spent so long managing completely upside down, I couldn’t imagine the old man would simply stand by and do nothing.
So… how’s the old man going to handle this?
“Hmph. You know me well enough, you insolent brat. What you said is indeed true.”
…Huh?
Wait, was old man Nether King really just here to threaten him?
I’d be really happy if he’d just get rid of that villainous Hero already.
“Then quit wasting my time and get lost, you senile old bastard! I’ll deal with you later. Go take a dump and sleep it off!”
In a way, we had to admire the Hero’s nerve. To keep spewing lies and bluffs one after another like this… that took real talent. Judging by how drenched in sweat he was, he clearly understood that he’d stand absolutely no chance in a straight fight. He was desperately trying to scare the Nether King into leaving.
…Except I’d really rather he didn’t leave.
At the very least, could you lend me a hand here, gramps?
“I came only because I had business with that young lad. I have no business with you.”
The Nether King said calmly.
No, no, no, no!
You absolutely have business with him!
“Ajiri Daishi. Can you hear me?”
“Y-Yes… I can.”
“It is true that I cannot strike this wretch down with my own hands. Therefore, you shall defeat him.”
“Uhm… I mean… I’d love to do that…”
I muttered under my breath as I glanced toward the AI Hero, trying to silently convey,
(The real one’s over there. This guy’s the fake.)
The AI Hero, meanwhile, seemed to have completely given up on fighting. He simply stood there with his arms folded and his eyes closed, saying nothing.
Seriously… who cares about your precious rules?
Why don’t you just walk over there and crush the real Hero instead, gramps?
“First, return to the Nether cass Dungeon. My authority cannot reach you there.”
Authority?
Did he mean he’d actually help me once I got back?
“…Don’t go giving away more than you already have, you damn old man. I’m cutting the transmission.”
The Hero snapped.
“Once… you… return… my…”
“Ah!”
The connection went dead.
Well, I’d been planning to return to the Nether-Class Dungeon anyway, so that part wasn’t really the problem… the issue is that Return could only send me back to the first floor.
The Hero had already advanced much deeper into the dungeon. How was I supposed to catch up and defeat him then?
It wasn’t as if he’d politely stand around waiting for me to arrive.
Sigh… what am I supposed to do?
“Hurry up and get out of here, you damn priest. I’m sick of looking at your face.”
Without even opening his eyes, the AI Hero lazily flicked his right hand in a dismissive shooing motion.
He’d completely lost the will to fight.
“…What happens to you now?”
“Units that fail their mission don’t have the right to live. Once I report back, Headquarters will probably scrap me.”
He answered as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world.
“Headquarters…?”
“The Guild Headquarters.”
The AI Hero had just dropped a bombshell as casually as if he were commenting on the weather.
I suspected something like that all along, but I never expected him to admit it so readily. Maybe he’d stopped caring because he’d already accepted that he was as good as dead.
…I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for him.
| > What exactly is Guild Headquarters trying to accomplish? > They’re definitely watching this fight, aren’t they? > Any insiders here? Spill the beans! > Just how many AI Heroes are there? > Who’s to say the one in the Nether class dungeon is even the real one? > This is seriously creepy. > What the hell are they plotting? > Leave our Daishi alone! > Alright, I’m heading to Guild Headquarters. > Keep us updated! |
“Hah. The idiots swarming your stream are as entertaining as ever.”
So he’s still watching my livestream…
Even though he knew he was doomed, he seemed surprisingly calm.
“So what’s the relationship between you and Guild Headquarters?”
I decided to ask the question head-on. There wasn’t much point playing mind games anymore.
“Hm? I figured you’d already put it together. Guess you’re even dumber than you look.”
“Quit dodging the question. Just tell me.”
“We’re allies. Partners in the pursuit of world peace.”
“…”
That wasn’t exactly the kind of joke you should be making with death staring you in the face.
World peace?
What the hell was he talking about?
“…What?”
He looked at me with a hint of pity.
“Tell me something, old man. Do you honestly believe this world, where dungeons have spread everywhere, is the way history was supposed to unfold?”
“W-what do you mean?”
When he put it like that… I realized I didn’t really have an answer. If I remembered correctly, the dungeons had originally been created as nothing more than one of that loli goddess’s games.
But monsters weren’t pouring out and overrunning civilization or anything like that. If anything, the new resources and energy harvested from dungeons had made the world wealthier and more prosperous than ever before.
So… what was the problem?
“The dungeons the goddess created are slowly eroding the world’s causality. Guild Headquarters’ true mission is to restore that broken chain of cause and effect—to return the world to the way it was meant to be. Explorers are nothing more than tools to achieve that.”
It sounded profound… yet it still didn’t answer my question. I asked about his relationship with Guild Headquarters.
What did he mean by “partners”?
Causality… the Guild’s true mission…
No. Actually, that wasn’t something I could just brush aside.
“…Could you explain it from the beginning? In terms an idiot like me can understand?”
Rumble…rumble…
“Huh?”
Another earthquake?
“…Looks like time’s up.”
The AI Hero let out a dry laugh.
“It seems Headquarters has decided to dispose of me… along with this entire space.”
“W-what?! That’s bad!”
“Hurry up and use your skill to get out of here. If it’s this bad over here, you’d better save your friends too. Otherwise they’ll all go boom together.”
“…”
“Why are you making that face? Just go already.”
“Hero…”
“I’m not a Hero.”
For the first time, his expression softened.
“I’m just… a fake.”
“…I’m sorry.”
I didn’t even know why I apologized. I couldn’t explain it. I just felt that I had to.
“【Return】”
Carrying that unbearable weight in my heart, I stepped into the vortex of space-time and returned to the Nether class dungeon.
As my consciousness faded, I thought I caught one last glimpse of the Hero’s eyes shining with tears….
This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeneijiworks.com
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