[Taipei City — Rank C Dungeon — Ezoe Kazuhiko]
It was our first time entering a dungeon outside of Japan, but it turned out that the structure was exactly the same. The only differences were the monsters we encountered.
“These are zombies. If they bite you, you will be infected with a deadly poison. They won’t stop moving, even if their limbs are cut off. The only way to kill them is to destroy their heads.”
“I... You know, I get why there would be zombie monsters, but why do they look like humans? Couldn’t they have been zombie orcs or zombie goblins instead?”
The smell of rotten flesh was so horrendous that the very act of breathing became difficult. As soon as we reached the Safety Zone, I handed out gas masks to everyone. The masks didn’t only cover our mouths and noses but rather our full faces. We could switch out the chemical cartridge located near the mouth to block out different poisonous gases.
“Aniki, why did you think to bring these along?” Akira asked.
“I didn’t go out of my way to bring them this time. I always have masks on hand, you know. We dive inside dungeons. Who knows when we’ll encounter a poisonous gas trap or something similar? The chemical cartridges I got are the same ones NATO soldiers use, and the filters are very effective. They even work on viruses, radioactive particles, VX, and sarin. That said, our field of vision will be greatly reduced, so be careful.”
These multi-gas filter cartridges developed by an Italian arms manufacturer sold for twenty thousand yen each, but Dungeon Busters had purchased grosses of them and kept them in stock nonetheless. Most people probably pictured gas masks as making you breathe ominously, like the black-clad villain of some extremely famous sci-fi movie. In real life, however, breathing in a gas mask barely made any sound. Your voice would merely sound a little muffled at most.
“At any rate,” I said, changing the topic, “are zombies dead or alive? Some people call them the walking dead, so I would assume they’re dead, but—”
“Kazu-san!” Rinko suddenly cut me off. “They’re coming!”
She cut off their heads, one after the other. This was much faster than using fire magic to burn them to death. After all, the burning process did take some time.
“I don’t think I can stomach anything with this stench.”
We decided to have our meal in the Safety Zone of the floor where skeleton knights appeared instead. We lined up the dishes we had bought at the night market, which included a few xiaolongbaos, some lo bah png, and some ji pai, a kind of Taiwanese fried chicken breast. Once we were done clearing the dungeon, I wanted to take a walk and eat some street food.
“Aniki, have you ever had boba? It’s full of sugar, so it’s a good way to boost your energy levels fast.”
“Let me try...”
I had heard the name because the drink was incredibly popular in Japan too, but I had never tasted it myself. If I remember correctly, there’s a boba place next to Koiwa Station. I don’t really like putting sugar in my tea though, and I’m not fond of sweet drinks in general.
“That’s Assam tea, right?” I asked after taking a sip. “The leaves are such bad quality, though! On top of that, the milk has such a low fat content... That’s pretty cheap milk tea. Well, the tapioca itself doesn’t taste bad, I guess. Does it have brown sugar? It has a very peculiar aftertaste.”
I was very particular about tea, so I couldn’t say it was a great drink. In the end, I could taste the brown sugar more than the tea leaves. Maybe this is how boba is supposed to taste.
“Anyway,” Akira said cheerfully as he drank a sip from his one-liter cup of milk tea. “Foreign dungeons are pretty much the same as Japanese ones. We should be able to make things work if we send separate teams to handle dungeons that are Rank C and under.”
He was right. The Crusaders had already informed us that dungeons were roughly the same regardless of the region, but I still wanted to check that out myself. The way we handled things before and after clearing the dungeon would be different when abroad, though. There was some equipment we couldn’t get when traveling out of the country, and we needed to find a better way to bring cards into foreign countries. Obviously, if the carry-on baggage inspection became too lax, the risk of terrorist attacks would increase as well. I intended to write a few lines on the issue in my future report.
“All right. Let’s get through this in one go,” I said.
Break time was over. It was now time to aim for the Final Floor.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Taipei City — Rank C Dungeon Final Floor — Kusakabe Rinko]
Taipei’s dungeon had seven floors in total. We currently stood on the single path located on the Final Floor, taking in the reliefs on the ceiling, where I saw a person brandishing a card at a strange monster.
“Aniki, that card is...” Akira-san trailed off.
“It’s very likely an LR card. That’s not the issue, though.”
Kazu-san was right. The problem was something else—the looks of the person brandishing the card. The face that had been carved in the stone ceiling was not very detailed, but the general appearance of their body and hairstyle looked strikingly similar to those of that person.
“Why is Akane pictured here as a card user?” Kazu-san finally asked, a scary look on his face.
No matter how much we looked at it, the shape of the breast, the hairstyle, the clothes... It had to be Akane-san. But Akane-san was part of the Dungeon System; she was a Legend Rare character card. Her mission was to aid the owner of her card in their quest to clear the dungeons. In other words, she was a supporting character. But here, she was pictured as a card user... A player. What can it mean?
Akane-san stared at her depiction on the relief and hugged herself, shaking. Kazu-san seemed to be lost in thought for a minute, but he eventually decided we would head back to the Safety Zone on Floor 6 to discuss the situation.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Akane must have been a Dungeon Buster in a previous world... That’s my current theory, at least,” Kazu-san explained as we had a light snack in the Safety Zone.
“I...also think that might be the case,” Akane-san agreed.
“But then...” Akira-san hesitated. “Why would Anego become an LR card? The worlds where the Dungeon System was activated have all been destroyed, right? That means that even you weren’t able to stop the Monster Stampede, Anego.”
“There must have been people who fought to prevent the Monster Stampede, just like us, in previous worlds too. I assume some of them must have been turned into LR cards afterward,” I said, trying to answer Akira-san’s question with my own hypothesis.
This was nothing more than a theory at this point as I had no idea how the system decided who became an LR card. Just to be sure, Kazu-san asked Akane-san if she remembered anything, but she had no memory of this. Everyone discussed their thoughts, but Kazu-san remained silent.
“Being Limit Breaker...” he finally murmured after a while.
I had heard these words in the past from the Dungeon System. When someone reached Rank C—or in other words, when someone became a Species Limit Breaker—the voice would speak to them. After that, the Species Limit Breaker title had not changed, even when someone reached Rank B or A. That’s why Kazu-san and the rest of us had forgotten about it.
“I believe that the Dungeon System exists to make humanity evolve. We have already surpassed human limits. But then, how does one become a Being Limit Breaker? Is Akane’s existence as a card that limit?”
“No, that would be strange,” Akira-san said. “The voice said to strive toward becoming a Being Limit Breaker, didn’t it? I’m sorry if this hurts your feelings, Anego, but I don’t want to become a card.”
I nodded in agreement. Becoming stronger was a good thing, but I had no intention of giving up being a living person. I wanted to face the dungeons as a human and stop the Monster Stampede. Apparently, everyone else agreed.
After a while, Kazu-san shook his head and stood up.
“We just don’t have enough information. There’s no point overthinking this right now. Let’s finish things in this dungeon first. Can someone check whether the footage we got of the reliefs is good enough? And don’t worry, Akane. Regardless of your past, you’re a member of Dungeon Busters and one of our precious allies. We will stop the Monster Stampede in this world. Please lend me your strength,” Kazu-san said, his words softer and tone more relaxed.
Akane-san nodded happily.