Discussion of What Lies Ahead

I made my way to the conference room.

It was quite spacious inside.

It was probably normally used for city council meetings and the like.

Both the chairs and tables were clearly high-quality items at a glance.

(There are some people here I never wanted to see, though.)

My former coworkers were seated near Nijo.

They were the bastards who dumped overtime on Nijo and me, then posted pictures of their barbecues on Instagram.

Frankly, I didn't even want to look at their faces.

Most of the people in the conference room wore suspicious expressions as they looked at us.

Aside from Goshogawara-san, they were all students, and I was carrying a gun.

I suppose their reaction was understandable.

Only a few people didn't change their expressions.

They were probably the ones who had acted alongside Fujita-san when rescuing Nishino-kun.

They gave off the aura of capable working adults.

(They must be the main force here, without a doubt...)

Judging from the reaction of 'Search,' their levels seemed fairly decent, too.

They might even be about as strong as Nishino-kun and Rikka-chan.

(Compared to them, my former coworkers...)

Whenever I glanced over, they were grinning at me.

They were clearly looking down on us.

On top of that, there was something brazen in the way they looked at me—in my Ichinose-san form—and Rikka-chan.

(Ah, I see. So this is the kind of gaze women get from men...)

Even someone other than Rikka-chan would notice this.

Their shameless, unpleasant gazes raked over our faces, chests, and entire bodies.

I could certainly understand why that would feel unpleasant.

...I should apologize to Rikka-chan and Ichinose-san later.

(Come to think of it, these guys used to get excited over stupid topics like which of them would win over Nijo or Chief Shimizu.)

Nijo and Chief Shimizu—the company's two most popular women, apparently—

I hadn't wanted to join in on that kind of conversation, so I'd only listened from a distance, but I remembered them having those vulgar discussions.

In the end, it seemed neither of them had even gotten so much as a glance. Ha ha, serves them right.

(Well, it doesn't matter now...)

Given the situation,

they probably didn't have time to think about things like that, anyway.

We took seats toward the back of the room.

I sat in the front row with Rikka-chan and Nishino-kun.

Shibata-kun and Goshogawara-san sat in the row behind us.

"Looks like everyone's here."

Once he saw that we had taken our seats, Mayor Uesugi, standing on the platform, began to speak.

Fujita-san and Chief Shimizu stood beside him.

"Before we discuss today's plans, let's first introduce our new members."

Mayor Uesugi turned his gaze toward us.

Then the other members looked our way as well.

In response, Nishino-kun was the first to stand.

"Fujita-san and Shimizu-san already know me, but I'd like to introduce myself again to everyone else. My name is Nishino Kyoya. Nice to meet you."

He gave a brief self-introduction and bowed.

Then his gaze shifted toward us.

"The person sitting beside me is Aisaka Rikka. The one beside her is Ichinose Natsu. Sitting in the row behind us are Shibata Noriyasu and Goshogawara Hachiro-san."

"Yesterday, we were rescued by Fujita-san's group and came here. We may be newcomers, but we want to work together with all of you and survive this situation. We look forward to working with you."

He carried off the introduction with remarkable poise.

Somehow, he seemed incredibly accustomed to situations like this.

Just like at the home improvement store, Nishino-kun was surprisingly polite for someone who didn't look the part.

Regardless of what he really thought.

"Ho, I noticed this yesterday as well, but for young people these days, you've got remarkably good manners. Very impressive, very impressive."

Mayor Uesugi clapped his hands.

Fujita-san and everyone else followed suit.

Thanks to Nishino-kun, it seemed our first impression had gone pretty well.

"Um, I'm Aisaka Rikka. Nice to meet you all~"

Once Nishino-kun sat down, Rikka-chan stood and gave a brief greeting.

Huh? We had to introduce ourselves?

Nishino-kun had just introduced her.

Once Rikka-chan sat down, I reluctantly stood up.

I steeled myself.

"I-I'm Ichinose, Na...! I mean, Ichinose Natsu. Um, p-please, n-nice to meet you..."

I played Ichinose-san to the fullest.

A few derisive chuckles broke out.

The ones laughing were my former coworkers.

I'd been prepared for it, but I suppose it couldn't be helped.

Nijo was the only one who didn't laugh, but the others had clearly looked down on me.

They really were a bunch of bastards.

But Shibata-kun showed an unexpected reaction.

"Hey, who just laughed? What's so damn funny, huh?!"

As soon as I sat down, he slammed his hand down on the table and glared at the people who had laughed.

His intensity made my former coworkers hold their breath.

"...You're right. That's no way to treat comrades we'll be fighting alongside from now on. I'm sorry."

Fujita-san, who was standing on the platform, was the one who answered.

He bowed his head toward us in apology.

He didn't need to apologize, but I suppose it was a matter of maintaining the organization's decorum.

"You too. Apologize properly."

Chief Shimizu then turned her gaze toward my former coworkers.

They reluctantly stood and offered us words of apology.

It was painfully obvious that their apologies were merely for show.

Not that I have room to criticize, but were these guys really working adults?

Oh, right. I should thank Shibata-kun, too.

"...Um, thank you very much..."

"...Don't get the wrong idea. If they look down on you, they'll look down on Nishino-san and the rest of us, too. I'm not doing it for your sake."

"Even so... thank you."

"Tch... F-fine, whatever. I get it, so face forward already, idiot."

He looked away. That hurt.

Mayor Uesugi clapped his hands.

"Now that we've finished introductions, let's get down to business."

The cheerful expression he had worn until just moments ago vanished, and a sharpness entered Mayor Uesugi's eyes.

"As I mentioned yesterday, thanks to all of your efforts, I was able to raise the level of my Skill. First, let me once again express my gratitude for that."

Mayor Uesugi looked around at us.

"And yesterday, new conditions for leveling up were presented. I'd like to share information about those conditions with all of you."

Mayor Uesugi told us about what he and Fujita-san had discussed the previous day.

Securing personnel.

Obtaining magic stones.

And subjugating two designated monsters.

The people who had remained calm at first finally changed expressions when the mayor mentioned the last condition.

"You're kidding..." "What the hell is that?" "Monsters have names?" "We have to subjugate designated monsters?" "The Golem—that's the one that wrecked our company, right?" "You expect us to fight something like that?" "No, before that, what about the magic stones and the people? Can we even fulfill either condition?" "But a lot of people came here after that, right? If we're only counting numbers, shouldn't we be able to meet that condition?" "What good is having the numbers if that doesn't mean anything? We're the ones who actually have to fight!"

As everyone grew agitated, Rikka-chan looked at me.

(Big bro, you knew about this?)

(Yeah.)

I had wanted to tell Rikka-chan as soon as possible, but I hadn't had the chance.

(I've already told Ichinose-san by email.)

(What did Nattsun say?)

(Nattsun's response was, 'What kind of shitty game is this?')

(That sounds like Nattsun.)

Rikka-chan wore a wry smile.

Well, I agreed with Ichinose-san, too.

The conditions were far too harsh.

"Quiet, please."

Mayor Uesugi clapped his hands several times, silencing everyone's voices.

"I understand how you feel. The conditions are clearly far harsher than before. I'm sure you have plenty to say, but please hear us out to the end first."

When Mayor Uesugi looked at Fujita-san, he nodded.

"All right, I'll take over from here. I'm the one in charge of field operations, after all."

He wrote the conditions the mayor had just explained on the whiteboard mounted behind him.

"For now, the first two conditions—the magic stones and the number of people—are the same as before. Fortunately, now that we have electricity again, more people will probably make their way here. In fact, eight people arrived here this morning. That brings the current number of people here to eighty-four. We may even be able to fulfill the headcount requirement today."

Of course, that assumes we don't suffer any more casualties.

"As for the two designated monsters, the ants... we have a reasonable chance against them."

That must be what he was talking about yesterday... What could it be?

He took something out of the plastic shopping bag he was carrying and placed it on the platform.

"You've all seen this before. It's a smoke-type insecticide."

In simple terms, it's a bug bomb.

"Yesterday, I tried several more types of insecticide, and we discovered that this type was also effective against the ants to a certain degree."

A murmur of surprise rose from the conference room.

"It's less effective than Magnum Blaster, which you spray directly on them, but it has far greater dispersal power. We're going to stuff it into their nest."

"And wipe them all out with that?"

One of the members of Fujita-san's team called out.

"No. Even I doubt we can go that far. But it should weaken them. We'll start near the entrance, then move inside the nest and gradually clear it out while using this alongside Magnum Blaster."

"In that case, wouldn't gasoline be better? Even if they're monsters, they're still living creatures. Heat and smoke should be effective tactics, too..."

"That would probably work, but trying it before we know how deep the nest is would be dangerous. Gas could build up, too. This insecticide, on the other hand, shouldn't affect us nearly as much. ...Still, we'll keep fire in mind as a last resort."

"I see. Understood."

"That's why we need to secure as much of both types of insecticide as possible. There are a lot of them, after all. During today's exploration, I want you to prioritize collecting these two types. At the same time, we'll begin our assault on the nest. ...Is everyone with me so far?"

Everyone who had been murmuring moments ago was now listening closely to Fujita-san.

The conditions had seemed impossibly unreasonable, but Fujita-san's proposed strategy was practical and realistic.

Perhaps a faint hope that this might actually be doable had begun to form among them.

"Next, there's the Golem..."

Everyone waited for Fujita-san to continue.

He paused, then declared it clearly.

"To put it bluntly, this thing is beyond us as we are now."

"What?!"

"Based on everything we've heard from those who saw it, it's a monster like a massive building moving under its own power. Even if all of us attacked it together, we wouldn't have one chance in ten thousand of winning."

The conference room began to buzz again.

Everyone wore expressions of despair.

"F-Fujita-san, you're joking, right?"

"You think I'm joking? It'd be a different story if we had a powerful bomb or a Skill with serious firepower."

"T-then what are we supposed to do?! My family is here! That's why I've been risking my life to fight! We've finally made it this far... we've come this far, and now..."

"Yeah, exactly. We can't beat it by fighting it head-on. In that case, we'll have to rely on people who might be able to win."

"...Huh?"

Fujita-san put a cigarette in his mouth.

He exhaled a long stream of smoke,

"I'll say this upfront: it's a gamble. We don't know what's going on over there, and even if we reach them, we don't know whether they'll answer our request. Even so, I believe this is the only way we can survive."

Fujita-san looked at everyone in the conference room and made his proposal.

"The Ground Self-Defense Force garrison in the neighboring town. We'll request aid from them."