Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 197

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TL: ALT

Chapter 197 – Suspicion

The first room on the third floor was occupied by a man whose lower body was covered in blood.

The man, whose back was against the wall, had his right leg bitten off at the base.

It seemed that he had just managed to stop the bleeding, but considering the amount of blood he’d lost, it was surprising that he was still conscious.

After some hesitation, I took an elixir from my item box and sprinkled it on the man’s body.

Whether drunk or sprinkled, the elixir has the same effect.

The sight of the tourniquet breaking and the man’s bare leg regenerating is a bit eerie.

“Eh, elixir!?”

The man is surprised.

There’s no need to repeat it now, but elixir is a valuable item.

I’ve changed my mind about elixirs.

I’ve always thought that elixirs are valuable.

However, after completing the A-Rank Dungeon Tour, I was forced to revise my opinion of the value of elixirs upward.

And why is that?

Because even though I completed 20 A-rank dungeons, I didn’t encounter a single monster that dropped an elixir.

According to Serika and Haitani-san, the floor boss on the first floor of the Shinjuku Station Underground Dungeon, an S-rank dungeon, sometimes drops an elixir.

There are only a few other places in the country where elixirs are reported to drop.

I finally understand the significance of elixirs being considered valuable and a national treasure.

However, there is something I can’t accept.

I got the elixir from the Black Swan Forest Water Park Dungeon, a C-rank dungeon near my parents’ house.

It was a difficult item to obtain because it was the third drop of the dungeon boss, but I was able to obtain the elixir in that dungeon.

However, after that, there was not a single dungeon boss in the A-rank dungeons that I entered that had the elixir as a drop item.

It seems that the illegal explorers who tried to trick Honoka-chan in the Water Park Dungeon had told her that the boss there would drop an elixir with a low probability.

Since there was an elixir in the third slot, I thought that maybe the story about the illegal explorers wasn’t a hoax.

But in this case, it’s more natural to think that the story was a hoax.

The mystery has only deepened, but in any case, the value of the elixir has greatly increased in my eyes.

That is why I hesitated for a moment before using the elixir.

However, there is no way to ignore the severely injured person in front of me and save the elixir.

I asked the man who was touching the leg that had just been cut off as if to check it, “Are you a member of the Men’s Association?”

“Y-yes… that’s right.”

“Did the megalodon get your leg?”

“Yes… I somehow managed to jump into the portal to the third floor, but I can’t walk, and I’m in this condition.”

“Did they leave you behind?”

“No! The Men’s Association is a group of proud Japanese men! How could they abandon their comrades?”

I don’t think you can call people who threaten innocent women “proud” or anything like that.

“I think leaving you here is the same as abandoning you.”

“If we don’t stop the Women’s Association’s Kandori, all the men in the world will be killed! That’s why you came here, isn’t it?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m just here to stop those who have come to lynch people based on rumors on the Internet.”

“W-what?!”

The man stood up and tried to raise his sword at me.

But then he stopped moving.

That’s because I used Spiritual Pressure on him.

The effect of Spiritual Pressure is only to slow down movement, but it should be enough to discourage the man.

“Don’t do that.”

“Ugh…”

“What kind of Japanese man are you talking about, the kind who forgets the kindness he’s received in a matter of seconds?”

“Tsk… Damn, that’s true.”

The man sheathed his sword surprisingly obediently.

“…Are you the Black Tengu they speak of?”

“You know about me?”

“There are also some guys from Rakan in the Men’s Association. I heard that they were saved by the Black Tengu during the flood in Hikarigaoka Park.”

Oh, that’s right.

“You said you came to stop the Men’s Association, right?”

“Yes. …You’re not going to fight, are you?”

“Of course not. I can’t fight a monster that can come all the way here by himself.”

“So you can make that kind of judgment, huh?”

The man glared at me, unable to resist the sarcasm.

“…You think I’m just a fool being manipulated by internet rumors, right?”

I was at a loss for words to answer this difficult question.

“Yes, I am stupid. My parents, my school teachers, and my boss at my part-time job have all told me that I’m stupid. Not only that, my step-sister and the high school girls at my part-time job have also made fun of me. I can’t study, I’m stupid, I can’t remember my work, I can’t keep it up… Do you know what the Women’s Association calls someone like me?”

“No…”

“They call me a trash man. They say that incompetent men are just like trash and that they should disappear to make way for women’s advancement in society. After I give my place to women, where will I go? It’s the way of these landmine women to take a man’s place and then say, with a triumphant look on their faces, that discrimination has decreased!”

“I’m sorry, but…”

I don’t have time to listen to this guy’s self-indulgent monologue that started out of nowhere.

I don’t have time to pick apart his warped ideas and beliefs one by one.

“Well, just listen a little longer. Even you don’t know the location of Kandori’s lab, do you?”

That’s right, I don’t know the location of Kandori’s secret laboratory.

The only thing I can find out with my Dungeon Master skills is the structure of the floor.

Even if there are facilities artificially added to the floor afterward, I can’t figure out where they are.

It’s one thing if they’re near the boss room or the portal, but if they’re in the corner of the floor, it’s going to be hard to find them.

The man seemed to take my silence as confirmation.

“I’m an idiot, so I don’t know what to believe. Even if you tell me to think for myself, whatever I think is bound to be wrong. This shitty world is run by rules made by people with more brains than me, and I can’t understand them.”

“…You could talk to someone.”

“I don’t know who to trust. All the people around me are idiots, and I can’t understand what the smart people are saying. On TV and the Internet, everyone just says whatever they want, so I don’t know what’s true. I’ve never read any books or magazines, but I bet they’re all full of lies, right? So, I’ve decided to believe what I want to believe. I’ve decided to believe only what the people I want to believe in say.”

“…What if the person you want to believe in is wrong?”

“I don’t care. If that happens, we’ll just be wrong together. The person I wanted to believe in is wrong. Then I guess I can give up.”

Well, I guess he has a point.

I can’t imagine that any woman who felt disgust or fear at the radical street propaganda of the Men’s Association would accept such an argument.

“Are all the members of the Men’s Association like that?”

“Of course not. They’re all different. Some of them have nowhere else to go, while others just want to cause trouble. There are also a lot of bad guys, but they’re all members of the Men’s Association.”

“Aren’t you all gathered together because you agree with the thinking of the Men’s Association?”

“There are all kinds of groups within the Men’s Association. We’re the group that decided to follow Yamato. He sympathized with our situation and stood up for us. No matter how much he was bashed by women and smart people on the Internet, he turned our anger into ‘Genron.’ He may look soft, but he’s got a chivalrous streak.”

“…I see.”

I don’t think it matters to this guy whether Yamato’s opinion is right or wrong.

He just decided to follow Yamato because he thinks he’s reliable.

I guess that’s what it comes down to.

Well, I think if you’re part of a group that boasts that there are a lot of bad guys out there, then when they hear someone talk about chivalry, the majority of society will just raise their eyebrows.

In the end, their sense of camaraderie is completely inward-looking.

“Kurotengu-san, are you a hero of justice?”

“I’m not that great.”

“Keh, who would use an elixir on an injured stranger if they weren’t?”

Well, that may be true.

“I’ll tell you where the Men’s Association captured the lab, but I have a request.”

“…There are things you can ask and things you can’t.”

“What would you do if Kandori of the Women’s Association was serious about what she was planning?”

“You mean the one who’s cultivating a virus that only kills men with a Y chromosome?”

“I don’t know the details, but it’s a virus that will kill all men.”

“If it’s true, I would stop it. If it’s true.”

It is possible that Kandori wants to cultivate and research such a virus.

However, I doubt that Kandori currently has the technology to do so.

It’s also doubtful that she will be able to do so in the future.

The magic moss that Kandori is so interested in is not what she’s expecting.

However, if she really is doing such research, I want to take Kandori alive and bury the results of her research in the dark.

Some people might say it’s a waste of valuable research.

But it’s better for the world if we pretend that this kind of research never happened.

…Is that not my decision? Who cares?

“Is that what you call a request?”

“No, it’s not a request. Even if I didn’t ask you, you were going to do it anyway, weren’t you?”

“…So what?”

“I’m talking about Yamato. This time, he was the one who had suggested it, so we decided to go along with him. But… he’s acting strange now. No, he’s been acting strange lately.”

“What do you mean by strange?”

“He looks like he’s possessed by something. He can’t see what’s going on around him.”

“Isn’t that always the case?”

“Before, he seemed to have more time on his hands. For better or worse, he seemed to enjoy arguing, or at least he had the time to make fun of other people.”

“…Hmm.”

According to his sister Miho-san, Yamato originally started his speech activities (or whatever you want to call it) to earn some pocket money.

By his own account, he would just “write things that would make some people happy.”

He also said things like, “These guys don’t even check the sources, and they just believe whatever convenient delusion pops into their heads. It’s an easy business.”

As the man said, there was probably an element of making fun of other people.

Yamato, who would take his own “arguments” at face value and take the lead in attacks at the risk of his own life…

When you put it like that, it sounds a little strange.

“It was after he met that bastard on the Internet show that he started going crazy.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“That guy, the father of the cruel woman who was the boss of the Rakans.”

“…Seiji Tozaki?”

“That’s the guy. I don’t like that bitch either, but her father is even worse. He fires people he deems useless from his own company and then makes them explorers in his daughter’s guild after starving them. The ex-Rakans said that a lot of people like that have died.”

“But it seems that Genron.net is also deeply involved with the Rakans’ group of companies. The Men’s Association and Yamato are just being manipulated by Seiji Tozaki in the end, aren’t they?”

“I-is that so…? But Yamato said it was just a conspiracy theory, so don’t worry about it…”

“…Hmm?”

Is Yamato being tricked by Seiji Tozaki?

No, that’s not it.

I remember how Yamato reacted when he came across Seiji Tozaki’s street speech before.

Yamato hates Seiji Tozaki.

That’s because Rakan treats his sister Miho-san badly.

If you combine that with what the man said earlier, it’s possible that she used to work for a company affiliated with Rakan.

If that’s the case, she was mistreated and fired by a black company, and now she’s forced to go on a life-destroying search for a black guild.

And all to raise her younger brother Yamato…

I can’t believe that smart Yamato doesn’t know about the underhanded tricks that man just told me about.

Sensing something fishy, I asked the man.

“And what about Yamato? Is he on his way to the laboratory?”

“Will you help him? That’s the condition!”

“…You have no right to make conditions. But even if he has committed a crime, I won’t kill him on the spot, and I won’t let anyone else do it. I’ll take him back to the surface and let him face justice.”

“Damn, you’re always so touchy about everything!”

“I don’t really need your guidance. I’m just going along because it might save time. If you continue to be reluctant, I’ll just leave you here since you’re just stalling for time.”

Even though his injuries have healed, I don’t think this guy can escape from here on his own.

The monsters in the water channel on the second floor have just been defeated, so he should be able to go back the way he came.

However, Serika and the Association inspectors should be in front of the waterway.

On the other hand, it would be even more difficult to complete the dungeon solo and escape through the back portal.

This is a judgment based on a look at the man’s status.

Also, the reason my tone is more theatrical than usual is because I’m wearing a mask.

I’m trying to speak a little more forcefully, but it seems that the psychological effect of hiding my face is even greater than that.

I can’t take such a cool attitude with my face uncovered.

“Ah, crap. All right, that’s fine. This way, follow me.”

Following the man who started running with one side exposed, I headed into the depths of the third floor of the Umihotaru Dungeon.

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