Chapter 24
Dungeon Exploration, Day 4
There are 7 people left.
Even so, the dungeon exploration continues.
From the start, the branded elves had no choice but to move forward or commit suicide.
"Phew…."
"There's no need to drag this out. Let's proceed quickly."
"With fewer people, we have food and water to spare. Wouldn't it be all right to go a little slower?"
"Anyone listening to you would think clearing this machine means it's over. We don't even know what's ahead."
Drawing lots.
This time, the process was fair as well.
Tir called out the name of the person who had been chosen.
"Fuck…."
Derso had been chosen.
To Tir, he was an ordinary man without any particular distinguishing features.
"Ha…."
Derso's expression resembled that of a pig being dragged to the slaughterhouse.
It made sense. Everyone who had investigated the elevator had ended up dead.
His hands were trembling violently.
He squeezed his eyes shut, as if he were lost in thought.
"Lord Tir."
"Yes."
"I have a question. Whether I die riding that machine or die here fighting you lot, I'm going to die either way, right?"
Derso placed a hand on his sword sheath.
Chunks of flesh, dried corpses.
No matter how he thought about it, moving forward now was no different from suicide.
"Rather than dying inside that bizarre machine… I think dying at your hands would be a slightly better death. What do you all think?"
The terrified Derso shouted.
There was such a thing as a better death in this world.
Like peacefully meeting one's end in bed.
Or sacrificing oneself for someone one loved.
In Derso's opinion,
the death awaiting him inside that unknown machine
was far more horrifying than dying at the hands of the branded elves.
"Hey, you fucking bastard! This is the rule! Follow the rules!"
"You really think dying at our hands would be a better death!? We can make you experience pain worse than death while you're still alive!? Get into the machine right now before we skin you alive!"
Derso held the blade to his own throat.
"Don't come any closer! Before I fucking kill myself! You don't want to go in either, do you? That's why you're trying to shove me into the machine right now!"
If entering the elevator was an act of suicide anyway,
then taking his own life right now would not be so bad.
That was the reasoning behind Derso's reckless behavior.
"……."
Tir bit their lip.
All intelligent beings, humans and elves included, were not machines.
There were even cases in which minions born from a dungeon master's hand rebelled.
How much more so for branded elves who had lived harsh lives?
'I can't control them.'
Most organizations formed solely through mutual interests, without loyalty, were like that.
Tir had expected things to turn out this way if matters went badly.
But Tir had never imagined it would happen several times faster than expected.
It was because this dungeon was unpleasant.
'A gloomy, bizarre, terrifying place.'
That was how Tir described Dreamland inwardly.
"Let's kill him."
"What?"
"He says he wishes to die. Is there any reason we shouldn't grant his wish?"
"But if Derso doesn't investigate the machine, the next person will be…."
"What else can we do? We draw again. Look at that bastard's eyes. He's already beyond saving. A bastard who threw away the chance to survive with his own hands won't be of much use even if he stays alive."
The branded elves hesitated, then nodded.
Derso laughed from where he stood as if he had lost his mind,
then slit his own throat before the blade could reach him.
"Let's rest for a while."
"Yes…."
This death had been meaningless.
That fact weighed painfully on everyone.
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There were now 6 people left.
As always, the miniature camera was watching them today as well.
***
That night.
Tir gave up on clearing the dungeon.
Tir also gave up on coming back in again.
Six people.
Half of them had been lost in just four days.
They were still only at the entrance.
There was a mountain of unexplored space remaining.
They were already stuck at the entrance.
Even if they returned with all the information they had discovered so far,
there was no way they could properly succeed on their next attempt.
The reason they still had not used the escape scroll was simple.
If Tir brought back as much information as possible, it would not be a reward equivalent to a mana stone, but
perhaps the elder would give Tir a reward for loyalty?
'They're going to die anyway.'
Tir might as well make the most of them.
However.
The atmosphere was still the worst it could be.
Tir needed various methods to get the group moving.
'I should think about it tomorrow.'
Tir lay down on the cold floor.
Tir was exhausted, but fortunately, someone else was standing watch tonight.
The sentry's name was Lilia.
Lilia was quite skilled with a sword.
"It's a chaotic situation, but I'm counting on you to stand watch."
"Leave it to me."
Tir went to sleep.
And fell deeply asleep.
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Rustle, rustle.
A sound reached Tir's ears.
Tir felt someone running their hands over their body.
Tir slowly opened their eyes.
Lilia, who had been standing watch, was searching Tir's body.
"What the—"
At that moment.
Tir saw it.
Lilia had pulled out the escape scroll,
and was mocking Tir with a twisted smile.
What was going on?
Tir had definitely kept the fact that there was an escape scroll hidden.
Tir had never been careless.
There definitely shouldn't have been any opening.
Before Tir could even react,
Lilia casually tore the escape scroll apart.
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Tir pinched their cheek.
It was real.
Tir was half-asleep, but sleep fled in an instant.
As if unable to believe it, Tir searched their body,
but the escape scroll Tir had treasured until now was nowhere to be found.
Tir noticed a note where Lilia had disappeared.
Tir unfolded it and read it.
-Tir has an escape scroll.
Tir wore a dazed expression.
And then.
Tir spotted a slime slowly crawling toward the elevator beyond them.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
Screaming sharply enough to fill the corridor,
Tir ran like a madman and swung their sword wildly.
Unfortunately, the slime did not die.
Like that unknown machine, it was immortal.
The sword passed through the slime's body like a ghost.
Before long, it quietly disappeared.
"Aaaah, aaaah, aaaaaah, aaaah, aaaah, aaaah!!"
Right there.
Tir scratched their own body frantically with their fingernails.
The branded elves, awakened by the commotion,
tried somehow to calm Tir down, but
"Aaaah, aaaah, aaaah…."
Like an automaton whose language module had been smashed,
Tir had literally broken down.
***
1. Only ride suspicious machinery alone.
2. Avoid unlit corridors.
3. Die, you fucking bastards, just die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die, die.
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Dungeon Exploration, Day 5
There were 4 people left.
Just yesterday, Lilia had escaped using Tir's scroll.
After that.
Tir, like someone possessed by a ghost, headed toward the elevator while the others' eyes were off them, and
returned as a corpse.
"……."
No one could use magic.
The food and water had increased, but
no one wanted to eat any of it right now.
Silence was maintained among the group.
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One branded elf picked up a pen.
And added a line to the note Tir had written.
***
4. Don't do anything.
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Dungeon Exploration, Day ■■
Time passed.
It was infinite like the sea,
but since we were finite and could not possess it at will,
we could not defy the natural order.
The dungeon was quiet.
Four people remained.
When we did nothing,
no one died.
Before long, the food and water ran out.
To the starving and thirsty branded elves,
only two choices remained.
1. Move forward.
2. Commit suicide.
We looked at one another.
Yeah.
In the first place, there had been no need to draw lots or do anything.
After all.
The end had already been decided.
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Then.
No one was there.
***
Orange★ : Is Newbie the god of sowing discord???
ㄴCowhead : For real lol
ㄴTV Head : They baited them into backstabbing each other and even crushed their will to keep exploring lol
King-Boss Evil Spirit : Uuugh... Newbie is scary... Newbie's an evil spirit... I should team up with the undead today...
ㄴDIP : I'm currently huddled up with the Sanses, trembling in fear...
ㄴSkeleton Bones : I never thought it would really be this bad... Fear really is the best debuff...
ㄴGolem King : Everyone (except the Blessed) only has one life...
Anonymous Butcher : Death is the worst. Who would risk their life to investigate that elevator? Most of the people who entered the dungeon did so because they wanted to live better than they do now.
ㄴMagic Hero : H-h-h-honestly, even including the dungeon we're running now, the difference from every dungeon that has existed until now is enormous. I-I personally think Newbie's dungeon is truly one of a kind... Maybe that's why it feels even more terrifying...
ㄴNight Raven : Agreed, bb...
WhaleWhaleYeah : Legendary... This elevator in particular feels especially vicious...
ㄴPsych Ward Chief Patient : Didn't Newbie say its original purpose was to randomly spawn people in Areas 1 and 2...? It already feels like a wall from the entrance...?
Sealed Philosopher : But I'm personally really curious—what in the world is that mysterious space connected to by the elevator...?
The World Is Cold : Seriously, fuck, I'm so unbelievably jealous. I want one too. Please donate one to me later.
I Have No Minions : Newbie, can I ask you just one thing?
ㄴNewbie : Yeah?
ㄴI Have No Minions : You haven't said anything during the live stream... I'm not saying that's bad, but it feels different from usual, if that makes sense. Is something wrong?
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Hmm.
Yeah.
The reason I saved Restia back then was
because she was not an intruder in my dungeon.
Was it because of the ethics I learned in the modern world?
Maybe it was because I had not yet been directly harmed.
However.
Even if I had a softer mindset than other dungeon masters,
that did not mean I would show mercy to other intruders.
My own life came first, no matter what.
I always had to bring down a merciless hammer on intruders who harbored hostility.
That principle was being upheld. No, it had to be upheld.
Moral responsibility and ethical awareness would be useless after death anyway.
ㄴNewbie : Hmm... maybe because it disgusts me on a biological level?
The reason I had felt a little emotional during this wave
might be that, before I became the master of Dreamland—in other words, in the past—
there was a dungeon master who had been brutally murdered by the branded elves.