Chapter 19
1.
At least one rule applies in the Rift.
The Mushroom Factory's rule is 'humans are mushrooms.'
That alone doesn't make much sense, but it's simple.
If you stay in this Rift for more than 24 hours, or die inside it, you're punished by being turned into a cute mushroom fairy that sings 'Mm... mm...'.
So normally, you look for the randomly spawned exit inside the Rift and start hunting the area around it.
“But is that enough to keep the supply of fairy meat steady?”
“What do you mean?”
“Fairy meat is one of Necropolis's staple foods, isn't it?”
“That's right.”
“It doesn't seem like many people would stay here for 24 hours.... If you keep catching them, won't they go extinct?”
“Ah, you worry about the oddest things. It's fine. Overnus Pharmaceuticals periodically tosses in half-broken test subjects.”
“Wow.”
As expected of Necropolis.
It always exceeds my meager imagination.
As I searched while listening to the worldbuilding explanations, I spotted an emergency exit sign.
“We found it, boss! In just an hour.”
“As expected of you, boss!”
“Lucky.”
Beside the emergency exit sign sat a huge door and a button, like a cargo elevator.
It's really an elevator to anywhere.
Anyway.
With the exit secured, I memorized the location and began the hunt in earnest.
Before that, a double-check.
“You're sure no other Fixers are going to come running when they hear gunshots, right?”
Even if the mushroom fairies can't hear, that was what I was most worried about.
In Necropolis, you can blast away with guns and nothing happens. Nobody files complaints either.
As long as you don't so blatantly cause trouble that you hurt a 'corporation', offend the high-ups (usually mages), or pick the wrong target and get an extermination order put out on you, it's fine.
But a Rift?
Anyone who comes into a Rift is, by default, a Fixer.
What happens when a Fixer meets another Fixer in a Rift? Both loaded down with loot?
There's no ending I can think of other than you and me, a hellish makgora.
Lose and die? Why is that scary?
Just win.
That said, there's a serious problem.
If the other guy is a 6th- or 5th-rank Fixer, I'd have no choice but to summon Mahoraga from the Myobeop Chungseonggyeong.
“Ah, high-rank Fixers don't come to places like this. There's nothing to gain from dealing with riffraff like us.”
Akit dismissed my worries.
“Besides, is this Rift wide enough? Drop locations almost never overlap, and even if you do meet someone, any decent Fixer can be killed by your artifact, sir.”
“So I can trust you, Akit?”
“No, if you're that scared, why did you ask us to come to the Rift? We're scared stiff too.”
“I'm not scared, idiot. I'm being cautious.”
Using Laplace's Eye, I took careful aim at the mushroom fairy's cap.
-Bang!
A fierce recoil sent the muzzle skyward.
Firepower too fierce to believe it came from a pistol.
Right from the start, it was meant to one-shot things like rhinos and bears.
The mushroom fairy's cap flew off like a wig being snatched away, and a huge hole opened up in its forehead.
-Mm... mmm...
There was no brains-and-guts spray or anything like that.
Instead, it just bled bright red, translucent blood and toppled over.
“Too slow. Even collapsing.”
:::Achievement:::
- Hunt a mushroom fairy. +1pt
Achievement unlocked right away.
Apparently it was impressive that I dropped a mushroom fairy with a single headshot, because Akit and Areng gaped and made a huge fuss.
“That artifact is seriously killer, sir.”
“Could I try firing it once?”
“Of course not, you bastards.”
If you've hunted, you should collect the loot.
After killing the mushroom fairy, we moved on to gold-dust extraction.
This, too, was easy.
“This is the collector. Just get close and it sucks everything up on its own.”
“I'll give it a try.”
There wasn't anything difficult about it.
When I took the collector Akit handed me and brought it near the corpse,
-Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh
the collector's gears turned, and the gold dust with a powdery texture like the dust floating around the Omniflora was sucked into the transparent cylinder.
:::Achievement:::
- Collect gold dust. +1pt
Another achievement unlocked in quick succession.
I blinked.
That easy?
It was enough to make me regret not doing it sooner.
Thanks to Hero, it's much easier and safer than I'd expected. Point farming is going very smoothly, too.
Even the Bios earnings aren't bad.
“Like this! Tight! You have to tie it tight to load more!”
That mushroom fairy corpse Areng is loading onto the sled can easily fetch 5,000 Bios apiece.
If you sell the extracted gold dust, it's not much, but you can still pocket another few hundred Bios per corpse.
In other words, this is a sweet side gig where ten kills can net 50,000 to 60,000 Bios.
The rest of the journey was easy, too.
-Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
You could barely call it hunting.
I would just wander around like I was on a stroll, and when I spotted a mushroom fairy I'd line up the shot between its eyebrows, bang.
The fights ended in under three seconds, and most of the time was spent finding the mushroom fairies.
Seven hours had passed since entering the Mushroom Factory.
By the time we'd taken down ten mushroom fairies, smiles were blooming all over Akit and Areng's faces.
“With you, sir, a place like the Mushroom Factory isn't scary at all.”
“The sled's already full. We should empty it once.”
But by then, my increasingly stiff expression had already turned serious.
“What's wrong?”
At first, it was good.
But as time went on, I came to realize.
This dungeon's farming efficiency is worse than I'd expected.
Of course, compared to when I was doing side jobs in the previous run, it's absurdly efficient.
If I simply empty the sled, go back in, and run it twice a day....
That would leave me with about 400,000 Bios a week.
Last run, even while pulling three jobs a day, I barely made around 230,000 Bios, so that's a little under twice as much.
But there's a crucial problem here.
Refilling a 20-round Magnum cartridge box takes 1 pt.
Thanks to Hero, I'm pulling off hunting that's unbelievably easy and carries no risk at all....
Bullets aren't free.
“The achievements are stingier than I expected....”
You get points for killing one, one for collecting gold dust, and that's it.
What I'm doing is basically turning points into cash.
My goal of farming achievements while making money—getting two Arbels with one stone—was drifting farther away.
I could do this for a month or two....
Could I keep this up until I saved up 12.5 million Bios?
And Arbel's life-extension costs are 200,000 Bios a week, too?
“My head's getting complicated....”
Maybe I need to think about a different playstyle.
“Boss? We need to empty the sled....”
“Yeah, let's go, let's go.”
Just as I was about to hand ten mushroom fairy corpses over to the broker and empty the sled.
Areng, dragging the sled along, called me over.
“Oh! Lucky! Boss! Look at this!”
“The boss is thinking.”
“No, but you still need to see this!”
“What is it?”
I shuffled over and looked where Areng was pointing.
Inside a giant furnace that could probably hold 500 Arbels, blue-glowing moss sparkled like the Milky Way.
It was a truly unreal, dreamlike sight.
“Oh, can this make money?”
“Probably not.”
“...? Then why did you call me?”
“...? Still, isn't it pretty?”
My eyes narrowed to slits.
Oh-ho, just when I was unsettled, a vicious feeling was surging up.
I was wondering how to put this brat in his place when—
-Ding!
:::Achievement(New!):::
- Discover the hidden 'Glowing Moss Colony.' +1pt
“Wow, beautiful! Areng! In my opinion, you've got a pretty good eye for aesthetics!”
“Right? If I'd been born in Aden, I would've become a painter.”
“Yeah, yeah, your starting point matters. If I'd picked the right choices early on, I might've been building a harem at the academy.”
“Puhahaha! That's funny, boss!”
Yes! This was what I wanted.
I was expecting achievement points to come this stupidly free and easy!
If only every achievement were this easy to eat raw!
Wait.
“...Raw? Eat raw... eat...?”
At that moment.
It felt like lightning struck my frontal lobe.
“Aha-ha!”
“Boss?”
“Aha-ha-ha! Aha-ha-ha-ha!!!!”
I sometimes share the same worries as the philosopher Nietzsche, whom I respect.
Ah, why am I so smart! Why am I so clever!
Now, let's think about it.
What are achievements?
Rewards for actions that users should commemorate—things they don't usually do, are hard to do, or require taking risks or even losses to perform.
They're the reward for accomplishing such things.
For example, clear the achievement 'Obtain an Omniflora,' and you get 1 pt.
But 'Kiss your older sister' gives a whopping 10 pt.
Anyone as wise as me would understand the implications hidden in this.
Remember.
Genre conventions.
Half of achievements are pointless nonsense.
And the rarer the nonsense, the more valuable it is.
“Huh? Boss, if you touch that with your hand...!”
I plucked one flashy mushroom from among those blooming throughout the Mushroom Factory.
A poisonous mushroom with a red background and white spots, the kind Super Mario would go crazy for—
Haaap....
I ate it in one bite.
“S-sir?!”
“What are you doing?! That's a poisonous mushroom!”
A tingling numbness spreading through my mouth, the nauseating texture and smell of chewing rotten cardboard.
The unpleasant bitterness, and a throat that felt like it was burning every time I swallowed.
Dry heaves surged up, my diaphragm clamped down hard, and my whole body heated up.
Every cell in my body was screaming, 'What are you doing!!! Spit it out already, idiot!!!!!!'
“Gulp... gulp!”
Ignoring all those signals, I swallowed it.
“No way! He ate the poisonous mushroom!”
“Now his facial muscles are going to twist up and he'll die coughing blood from all seven apertures!”
Beside me, Akit and Areng clutched their heads and screamed like Guan Yu.
“Phew....”
But I was fine.
For a moment I thought the nausea might hit, but my body quickly returned to its original condition.
“So this is what poison mushrooms taste like....”
This is the effect of 'Sturdy Stomach.'
- Grants ironclad digestive power. 'Anything you eat' won't make you ill.
Of course, 'anything you eat' naturally includes
that poisonous mushroom that makes you foam at the mouth and die from a single bite, doesn't it?
And....
:::Achievement(New!):::
- Consume the mottled poisonous mushroom. +1pt
Yes, this is it!!!
Special deaths in games are obviously achievements!
“A-are you okay?”
“Guys, just wait a little bit.”
Before my eyes, mushrooms filled the entire Mushroom Factory.
Shiny white mushrooms like human skulls, mushrooms dripping purple spores, mushrooms glowing neon and oozing sticky slime.
The mushrooms I'd treated up until now as part of the background or as annoying obstacles now looked beautiful to me, like a neatly woven carpet.
Ah, that's right.
Because this is the red carpet that will lead me to free achievement points.
I unbuckled my belt.
“Hehe... come on!”
I'm going to gobble up a ton!
======
:::Achievement(New!):::
- Consume the Cluster Camouflage Mushroom. +1pt
- Consume the Clown Mushroom. +1pt
- Consume the Hallucinogenic Mushroom and experience intense hallucinations. +1pt
- Consume the Venom-Scale Moss Mushroom. +1pt
- Eat the Skull-Growth Mushroom. +1pt
.
.
.
:::Title Acquired(New!):::
Good heavens, you ate all the Mushroom Factory's specialties?
Your stomach and mental fortitude are worthy of respect!
But... I don't really want to have a meal with you.
▶ Title : 「Poison Mushroom Connoisseur」 acquired
- 'Drug resistance' increases slightly.
- 'Mother of the Silent Forest' takes a small liking to you.
- 30pt awarded.
======
Drug resistance.
Favorability.
Title acquired.
A total of 86 pt earned, including title rewards.
“You're not human....”
“Mom, I'm scared....”
Akit and Areng looked at me like I was a monster, patting their bellies.
“Uuuu... I'm full....”
Actually, I knew all of it.
That there's no such thing as a bad relic in this world.
A relic that grants poison immunity—only when eating—and even lets you get on friendly terms with goats.
Even if it looks useless, SR is SR for a reason.
Thanks to that, I didn't just sweep up achievements; I even unlocked a title.
I want to free-ride like this every day.
“...But where do titles get used?”
The titles I currently have are 「Gourmand」 and 「Poison Mushroom Connoisseur」.
Unlike ordinary achievements, titles seem to give a large number of points and small stat bonuses and such....
Do they have any use beyond that?
Achievements give relic gacha coupons, but titles don't really seem to give you anything.
Or....
I checked the status window.
======
[ Death Game(LV.0) ]
▶ User: Cedric Montraven
▶ Achievements Earned: 「0th Death」 「Lucky for Now」
▶ Owned Titles: 「Gourmand」 「Poison Mushroom Connoisseur」
▶ POINT: 101pt
▶ Display Shelf: [ Sturdy Stomach ] [ Laplace's Eye ] [ ]
◆ Shop
◆ Playground (Locked)
◆ Enhancement (Locked)
※ Death penalty is active ※
[ Late Response ]
======
Hmm....
Maybe these can be used in the locked 'Playground' or 'Enhancement' menus.
That really scratches my curiosity.
I was lost in thought when—
-Ding!
Along with the alert sound, an elevator door suddenly appeared in midair, and a hulking man stepped out.
“Huh?”
A blue changpao.
A huge hammer in his hand.
The bastard who had started trouble in the hotel lobby a few hours earlier.
It was Rank 7 Fixer Sunming.
After looking around, he spotted us and laughed heartily.
“What the hell? These motherfuckers actually came in? You're all dea...”
“Irasshaimase!!!”
-Bang!
I immediately pulled Hero's trigger.
Another achievement!