Chapter 44
A lock.
In fact, perhaps I should have thought of this from the very beginning.
Treasure Keeper was holding six different keys.
The only thing that was ‘locked’ in this space was that golden chest.
But there was no visible lock on the chest.
Then it made sense to assume that six keyholes were hidden somewhere.
And if that somewhere was…
- There are tons of places to hide in there…!
It had to be somewhere in these piles of gold coins.
Three had already been used, so those locks should be open. If I killed Treasure Keeper and inserted the keys into the remaining three locked ones, the chest would open.
“… ”
And then, here.
I thought of one more thing.
“The lock is like your body, so you’re hiding it well, aren’t you?”
<Of course! As expected, Inspector, you know everything!>
‘As expected.’
My hypothesis had been confirmed.
I had used the idiom ‘something like your body,’ meaning something as precious as your own body, but it wouldn’t have taken it that way.
Because it must have understood me literally, not metaphorically.
The locks were part of Treasure Keeper’s body.
I had the following reasons for making that deduction.
Treasure Keeper had said that more than a hundred intruders had killed it.
But only one man—the one wearing a hood—had opened the chest.
Wasn’t that an impossible ratio?
What could have been so difficult?
If they had killed Treasure Keeper, they should have had plenty of time to find the locks.
The reason was simple.
‘It must have been a time attack.’
A Tower monster’s corpse disappeared within a few dozen seconds.
If the locks had been part of Treasure Keeper’s body, everything fit.
Even if they killed Treasure Keeper, if the keys or locks disappeared, there would be no way to open the golden chest. They probably never even learned that the locks existed.
‘Good.’
I no longer had to attempt any forced persuasion.
The plan was complete.
‘Find the locks, then kill Treasure Keeper and use the keys directly.’
Clean and simple.
And I already had a way to find the locks.
Treasure Keeper spoke again in an excited, childlike voice.
<Then we can start the game right away!>
‘Hide-and-seek.’
If I hadn’t suggested this game, how would I have confirmed that the locks existed?
Even if I had known about the locks, I couldn’t imagine how I would have gotten permission to rummage through the piles of gold coins right in front of it.
It was an idea I never could have come up with on my own. The last time I’d played hide-and-seek had been more than ten years ago.
Listening to all the gallery’s opinions had truly been the right choice.
“Yeah, okay! I’ll hide first!”
When I said that, Treasure Keeper completely covered its face with its six enormous hands.
I immediately turned around and headed toward the opposite side.
I threw myself onto a pile of gold coins in a secluded corner.
Shrrrattle!
The feel of metal wrapped around my entire body.
It was the moment the gallery users’ dreams came true.
I was swimming in a sea of gold coins.
More accurately, I was diving.
I began digging into the pile with both hands.
I focused all my sense of touch on my fingertips.
‘What shape will it be?’
Imagining the shape of the lock, I searched every inch of the area around me.
It was daunting.
This cavern was enormous, and the amount of gold was staggering.
<I shall find you now!>
It began.
I felt the vibrations of Treasure Keeper approaching after finishing its count.
‘As expected, it isn’t planning to use its detection wave…’
If it did, I wouldn’t have to find the locks myself.
Pak-pak-pak-pak-pak-pak!!!
The sound of its six hands digging through the coins was like excavators at work.
Twenty minutes later.
It was frighteningly close already.
Flash!
The gold coins covering my view were swept aside, and its massive body appeared.
<I have found you! Hahahaha!>
“Aah! You found me already?”
It was faster than I’d expected.
‘Isn’t it finding me a little too easily…?’
I took ten thousand gold coins from my inventory and scattered them across the floor.
“Here, your prize.”
<Ooooooooooh! Thank you so much!>
‘It didn’t count them, even though I scattered them on the floor…’
Apparently, as it had said earlier, it intended to settle the count after I left.
Treasure Keeper trembled all over and bounced up and down.
To someone with human aesthetic sensibilities like me, it was a visual shock, but judged solely by its behavior, it looked like a child.
<This is so much fun, Inspector!>
‘……’
Still, it was good to see it enjoying itself this much.
As long as the game continued, I would have a reason to keep rummaging through the gold coins.
But.
‘I think I set the amount a little too high.’
The problem, if there was one, was that I had set the stakes too high.
I’d heard there were 8.1 billion gold coins in this cavern, so my attempt to match that scale as closely as possible had turned into a miscalculation.
I had roughly 590,000 gold coins left in my inventory.
If I lost ten thousand gold coins every time, I had fewer than sixty chances left.
No.
I didn’t need to worry about that.
‘If it doesn’t count them, I can give it as much as I want, right?’
And in fact, the real game was only beginning now.
The seeker’s turn was the real one.
I had explained that the time limit was three hours.
“Now it’s my turn to seek, right?”
<Yes! I shall hide!>
Treasure Keeper replied in an excited voice and turned its enormous body around.
Rumble, rumble! Shrrrattleeeee!
I heard the uproarious sound of it digging through the piles of gold coins in search of a hiding spot.
I faced the wall of the golden chest and covered my eyes with both hands.
Before long, the vibrations stopped.
“You’re hidden, right? I’m coming!”
As soon as I turned around, I ran toward the side directly opposite the area where I’d heard its noises.
Then I pictured the floor of this enormous cavern in my mind.
I intended to search it by process of elimination.
‘Divide the circle into fan-shaped sectors like slices of pizza.’
Honestly, I wanted to divide it conveniently from the upper left to the lower right.
But that would arouse suspicion. Treasure Keeper was so large that it wouldn’t need to search every inch.
I had to run around pretending to look for it, dividing my route into irregular fan-shaped sectors as I went.
After dividing the area into sections, I buried myself in a pile of gold coins.
Rustle.
First, I felt along the floor with my hands, one spot at a time.
This vast space.
The sheer quantity of gold coins piled up haphazardly.
It was a little overwhelming.
But I had been prepared for this from the start.
And.
‘If I have to search all of this by hand, even 300 hours won’t be enough.’
I already had a method in mind.
‘I’ll imitate what Treasure Keeper did.’
Wave detection.
When that vibration swept through the room, I hadn’t simply stood there staring blankly.
My Sense stat was currently 85.
I was a superhuman who had left ordinary humans far behind long ago.
I closed both eyes.
I thrust both palms deep into the pile of gold coins.
Then, with a little mana wrapped around my fingertips, I lightly shook my hands.
Clink. Clink.
Imagining Treasure Keeper’s wave, I rotated the Circle.
Vrrr-
A faint vibration of mana spread out from my fingertips, traveling through the gold coins.
I felt it.
The echo of the vibration bouncing off the gold coins and returning to me.
Tens of thousands of small, round outlines began to appear in my mind like a pointillist painting.
‘It works…’
The range and performance were tiny compared to Treasure Keeper’s, but I had successfully imitated it.
To confirm it, I prepared an experiment on the spot.
I took a half-eaten bag of snacks from my inventory and buried it deep beneath the pile of gold coins.
Then I stepped back three paces and tapped the floor.
Tap. Tap.
Vrrr-
Within the returning echo, I recognized the shape of crumpled plastic among countless round outlines.
“Good.”
With this method, I could find the shape of anything that wasn’t a gold coin without seeing it or scraping the coins aside by hand.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
I swam through the gold coins, continuously vibrating my hand.
Erasing sections from the map in my mind, I searched each area along an irregular route.
Just like that, three hours flew by.
“I can’t find you! You win!”
<Hahaha! This humble one has won!>
When I surrendered, it burst up through a distant pile of gold coins and cheered.
It showed no sign at all of having been bored.
‘As expected.’
Three hours was no time at all to it.
After all, it had stood alone for five hundred years.
Anyway, my calculations were as follows.
‘Ten percent.’
The area I had finished searching so far.
Originally, I’d thought I should be grateful if I managed to search just five percent in three hours.
But as I got the hang of it, the range of the waves widened, and my search speed became twice as fast as I’d expected.
‘At this speed, I can search this entire cavern in ten turns.’
My heart pounded. For a different reason, but just like that creature’s.
After that, the game proceeded according to the routine I had designed.
Its turn as the seeker.
I hid as quickly as possible in an easy-to-find spot.
It caught me immediately.
“Ah, caught again. Here, ten thousand gold for your prize.”
I scattered gold coins across the floor.
It cheered and bounced up and down.
Then it was my turn as the seeker again.
It was around the halfway point.
Tap.
Vrrr-
‘…!’
My closed eyes flew open.
The waveform that returned along my fingertips registered something out of place in an instant.
Amid the sea of repeating, small, round outlines,
there was a rectangular object sitting inexplicably at the very center.
‘Found it.’
Holding my breath, I dug through the pile of gold coins and felt around that spot directly.
I felt something.
I pulled it out and examined it.
‘This is a lock…!’
It was exactly the right size for one of the keys Treasure Keeper had been holding. A long, rectangular groove had been carved deeply into it.
It was locked, too.
‘The first one…’
I wanted to place some kind of marker here, but I couldn’t.
Instead, I turned on the hologram and recorded the coordinates in a gallery post.
Then I resumed searching without delay.
‘The second one!’
Near the end of the same turn, I found the second lock.
But this time, the hasp was twisted.
One of the three keys that had already been used up had opened this lock.
It was already open.
The turns continued to pass.
The routine repeated itself.
I got caught, scattered money, then lay face down and sent out the waves again.
And finally, my seventh turn as the seeker.
The number of locks I’d recorded totaled five.
Three open locks.
Two still locked.
Only ten percent of the unexplored area remained.
On the next turn, I would definitely find the last locked one.
Then came Treasure Keeper’s turn as the seeker.
I wedged myself into a shallow spot.
All I could think about was getting caught quickly, scattering the money, then finding the last keyhole and inserting Death Mark into it.
Just as I settled into a comfortable position beneath the pile of gold coins.
Screeeeeech—!! Shrrrattle—
I heard the gold coins being pushed aside.
I turned my head toward the sound.
“…!”
It was coming from the door.
The door was opening as it pushed the gold coins aside.
[Warning. An intruder has reached this floor.]
[The defensive battle will now begin.]
“……Now?”
I couldn’t believe it.
It was far too soon.
It would make sense if the intruder had come straight here as soon as the blockade on Floor 60 ended, but that was the fastest possible speed in theory.
And if the intruder had defeated the monsters and arrived this quickly, it would be strong.
The intruder had to be much stronger than the Blood Knight.
Thinking that, I remained still, buried in the pile of gold coins.
‘Maybe I should stay hidden like this and feel things out…’
Floor 100 wasn’t under my jurisdiction yet.
‘Treasure Keeper… you can do it!’