Worthless Skill Escape (WN)

Chapter 212

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TL: ALT

Chapter 212 – In the Hospital Room

I’ll tell you briefly what happened after that.

I had joined up with Serika, but then I remembered that I had left the Men’s Association explorers at the Kandori Lab in the Umihotaru Dungeon (I had been so preoccupied with Serika that I had forgotten about them), so I had to separate from Serika again and go back to the lab.

Serika wanted to come with me, but even though he was restrained, Zatsudo was still there.

Serika decided to accompany the inspectors who were escorting Zatsudo, as it was necessary to have someone who could subdue him in an emergency.

When I returned to Kandori’s secret lab, the explorers of the Men’s Association were setting up camp and defending themselves against the monsters.

Fortunately, there seemed to be no casualties while I was going back and forth.

I also considered burning the various research materials that were in Kandori’s lab.

But now that things have calmed down, it would be a bad idea to destroy the scene.

If Kandori was doing illegal research, I want to leave evidence.

If there really was something dangerous, I thought I could burn it myself, but as far as I could tell from the Detailed Appraisal, the only thing I could find was a tube worm being cultured in a tank.

Also, there was no way to check the other purely scientific research with the Detailed Appraisal.

Even if there was a purely scientifically created virus to eradicate male genitalia, I wouldn’t know about it… It seems safer to leave that to the experts.

I was also afraid of causing a biohazard by playing around with it.

To be honest, the way back was tedious.

After all, I had to protect the 11 members of the Men’s Association as if I were their guardian and bring them back to the surface.

It seemed that they were relying on Yamato’s Schadenfreude fighting style, and when they faced the monsters on the third floor of the Umihotaru Dungeon, their fighting style was quite dangerous.

Eventually, I got fed up and had to “escort” them back to the surface, wiping out the monster hordes with a single blow as I made my way back through the dungeon.

The people I brought back were taken into custody by the police, who had received a report of the incident.

It wasn’t an arrest but a voluntary one, which made me realize how difficult it is to catch criminals in dungeons.

Some of them tried to refuse the voluntary interrogation with a defiant attitude, but when I looked at them, they became very obedient and were taken to the police station.

As for my fights on the way, I used Hypnosis to make their memories fuzzy.

Well, I didn’t do anything other than use a non-chanted area magic to turn a group of monsters into charcoal, but I had a feeling that people like Serika would say, “That’s crazy enough!

Kandori had not yet regained consciousness, so she was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

Of course, police officers and Association inspectors accompanied her to keep an eye on her.

Yamato was also asked by the police to accompany them.

Yamato looked as if his soul had been sucked out of his body, and he followed the police without any resistance.

After everyone had left, except for the few people who had to stand guard after the incident, Umihotaru’s parking lot looked deserted.

“…Well, that’s settled.”

I muttered to myself in front of the dungeon portal,

“Yeah. Thanks to Yuto, no one died this time.”

Serika praised me, but there was a complex color in her eyes.

I guess there were cases where she had to face more gruesome endings while working as an inspector.

Anyway, my first job as an emergency responder was successfully completed.

* * *

I knock on the door of a hospital room in the city.

I bow to the uniformed policeman standing at the door.

“Yes.”

The door opens to the sound of a woman’s voice.

“Oh, Kurashiki-san.”

The person who opens the hospital room door is Miho Sakurai, Yamato’s older sister.

She is also my neighbor.

“It’s you…”

Yamato said from the back of the hospital room.

Yamato had an IV in his arm and was sitting up in bed.

His arms hung limply at his sides as if he had no strength in his body.

His already pale face looked even paler as if he had lost all the blood in his body.

“How are you feeling?”

“Well… not good.”

Yamato said with a weak voice.

“Yamato, you should use polite language properly.

“U… sorry… I’m sorry, Kurashiki-san.”

“I don’t really mind either way.”

Ever since I became an explorer, I haven’t used polite speech much at work either.

As Haruka-san taught me before, being a researcher is a yakuza-like profession where you’re done if you’re disrespected.

Just like the overbearing protagonists in Internet novels, I tend to get a smug tone in my work.

“That’s not going to happen. I’ve caused you trouble in every way, Kurashiki-san. “

“It’s okay. It’s not something Miho-san needs to worry about. It’s something I do on my own.”

Miho-san is a good-hearted person, but she feels too much guilt.

I have previously saved Miho-san in the Hikarigaoka Park Dungeon, and this time, I saved her younger brother Yamato.

As for Yamato, I stopped him from going too far and committing a crime.

Miho-san, who owes me a debt of gratitude and was dealt a winning hand, only says words of apology whenever she sees me.

Even though I feel bad for her, I feel even worse when she apologizes to me over and over again, and it doesn’t make me feel good at all.

Handing her the fruit I brought for Yamato, I said,

“Yamato, how are you mentally?”

I ask him about something that’s been bothering me.

――It has been a week since the clash between the Men’s Association and Kandori in the Umihotaru Dungeon.

Many things have happened since then, and one of them was the cancellation of Yamato’s last “strategy.”

As a result of the “strategy” that Seiji Tozaki is said to have implemented, Yamato’s mental state became unstable.

To repeat, I will post the “strategy” again.

Info──────────────────

Strategy “Burn Your Life”

Those who set this strategy will have their HP automatically restored and be able to ignore the negative effects of physical fatigue and illness. As a secondary effect, they will receive all the fatigue and negative effects they have accumulated up to that point after the strategy is canceled.

────────────────────

Info──────────────────

Strategy ”Don’t Choose Your Means”

Those who set this strategy will have their thinking speed increased by S.Lv x 10%, and will have a 2% chance of realizing options that they would not have thought of under normal circumstances. As a side effect, their ability to make ethical judgments will decrease, and they will take actions that would normally be morally repugnant without hesitation.

────────────────────

Info──────────────────

Strategy “Squeeze Out Every Last Drop”

Those who are assigned this mission can take HP and MP from any target they recognize as their leader. As a secondary effect, they lose their ability to empathize with the mental and physical pain of others.

────────────────────

Info──────────────────

Strategy “Strength is Everything”

Those who set this strategy will have their attack power and magic power increase by S.Lv x 30%, and their defense and spirit power decrease by S.Lv x 20%. As a side effect, they will have a stronger tendency to obey those who are stronger than them and to oppress those who are weaker than them.

────────────────────

The three I removed from Umihotaru were “Don’t Choose Your Means,” “Squeeze Out Every Last Drop,” and “Strength is Everything.”

The reason I didn’t remove “Burn Your Life” was because there was a description that said, “As a side effect, you will receive all the fatigue and negative effects you have accumulated up to that point after the strategy is removed.”

I had heard from Miho-san that Yamato was not very strong to begin with.

However, ever since he became active as a voice-based MyTuber? he has been in better shape.

There was also talk that he had obtained an item that compensated for his weak constitution, but that kind of thing was in Seiji Tozaki’s “strategy.”

I also broke the last “strategy” the other day.

I told Minazawa-san what had happened and had this hospital room prepared, and in the presence of the doctor, Minazawa-san, and Miho-san, who is the guardian, I canceled the “Burn Your Life” strategy.

The reason we prepared a hospital room and had a doctor present was to counteract the ‘side effects.’

The reason I had Minazawa-san stand up was to show the before and after of the ‘strategy’ being lifted, and to have him testify that Yamato was indeed under the ‘strategy.’

The ‘strategy’ can only be seen in my Detailed Appraisal at the moment.

The moment I removed the “Burn Your Life Away” strategy, Yamato immediately became exhausted.

He was unable to move at all and ended up sleeping for three whole days.

Of course, his sister Miho stayed with him all the time.

There was a possibility that the situation could have become even more dangerous depending on the ‘side effects,’ but in that case, I planned to use the elixir.

Even though I didn’t make the ‘strategy,’ it would be too bad if he died.

So when Miho-san told me that Yamato had calmed down, I visited his hospital room today.

“Yes. My head feels so clear, it’s unbelievable… No, it is.”

Miho-san looks at him, and Yamato hastily corrects the end of his sentence.

“How do you feel?”

It’s hard to answer, but there’s no other good way to ask.

“I’m not trying to avoid responsibility…”

“I know.”

“Now that it’s happened, I can’t believe I was so calm about this plan… I can’t believe myself.”

I have not yet told Yamato the specific details of the “strategy” I learned from the Detailed Appraisal.

If I told him, there was a possibility that he would organize his testimony according to the “side effects” of the strategy.

After all, only he could know the extent to which the “side effects” of the “strategy” had impaired his judgment.

Taking advantage of this, he could blame everything on the “strategy” and claim that he was not responsible for it――

In terms of escaping criminal responsibility, that would be the best course of action.

“What else?”

“I don’t know how to put it, but looking down on other people and using them for your own ends… it feels good, but that’s not quite the right word…”

Yamato says, hesitating.

“A decline in ethical judgment,” “taking morally reprehensible actions without hesitation,” “a loss of empathy for the pain of others,” “a tendency to submit to those who are stronger than you and to oppress those who are weaker than you”…

When you put it like that, it means you start acting like the psychopaths in horror movies, right?

“I am not saying that everything is because of this strategy. I don’t think I had those tendencies originally. Things like looking down on other people and taking advantage of them.”

It was hard to comment, so I just nodded slightly.

As a MyTuber, he made money by manipulating others and playing with “speech” that he didn’t even believe in himself.

I don’t know the circumstances of the Sakurai siblings, but there must be a reason why the older sister, not the parents, became the guardian.

Since his sister Miho-san was being exploited by the Black Guild, Yamato wanted to contribute to the family finances himself.

I admire him for that.

From my point of view, having been a hikikomori myself, I think it’s amazing that he’s doing so much, even though he’s still in high school.

However, it cannot be denied that there was a criminal aspect to Yamato’s “speech activities.”

Since he was noticed by Seiji Tozaki because he started his activities, there should have been no effect of the “strategy” at the time he started.

In other words, at the beginning, regardless of the end, it must have been his own words and actions based on his own will.

“…I know, Kurashiki-san.”

Yamato said.

“Even if it’s true that I was under a negative mental influence, my thoughts and words still came from me. If I deny that, I’d be letting down the people who followed me at the risk of their lives.”

“…This is unexpected.”

I couldn’t help but blurt out.

“Is it that I don’t blame the strategy? Or that I feel responsible for what I said?”

“You’re being stubborn. I thought you wouldn’t admit to being influenced by the strategy.”

If he blamed it all on the strategy, Yamato would have admitted that Seiji Tozaki had used him.

Blaming it on Tozaki would probably be the best way to avoid legal responsibility, but I had a feeling that he would still be stubborn.

“…I met Samukawa-san. “

“Samukawa…? “

“Don’t you remember? He said he was saved by an elixir when he almost died in the Umihotaru Dungeon.”

Yamato asks in a tone that makes me involuntarily return to my normal self.

“Ah, the guy who said he was the representative of the Men’s Association?”

That’s the explorer from the Men’s Association I rescued in the dungeon, right?

“You used an elixir on him, but you don’t even have him in your sights…”

Yamato mumbles, looking both horrified and dumbfounded.

“Yamato, watch your language.”

“Um, sorry…”

Yamato bows his head slightly in response to Miho-san’s warning.

“So what’s wrong with him?”

This is the guy he tried to trick and deceive.

It’s better than getting beaten.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to kill Yamato.

…Or rather, how did they meet?

Maybe he barged into the hospital room.

But Yamato’s answer was unexpected.

“Samukawa-san didn’t say a single word to blame me. He just listened to me… even though I tricked him and almost killed him.”

“I see…”

He said he decided to follow Yamato because he didn’t understand difficult things, but he could speak for their feelings.

“He also persuaded the Men’s Association explorers not to file a complaint against me. He said that he had decided to believe me, so I hadn’t done anything wrong.”

“He said that…?”

For me, it was a story that left me with a mixed feeling.

At first glance, it seems like a touching story… but is it really?

If you use the kind of language they like, you could say they “showed their manhood.”

But they were the kind of people who took their frustration with society and turned it into hatred of women and threatening innocent women.

To be honest, I’m not sure how they could justify such behavior as “manly” in their minds.

It’s a story that makes you want to say, “How small-minded can you be?” like they can’t accept things like Ladies’ Days or women-only gyms.

But the complicated thing about people is that even bad people can sometimes make sense in their own way, and small-minded people can sometimes show their generosity depending on the time, situation, and person.

I think that’s what gave Yamato its core.

…Just to be clear, this doesn’t mean I’m going to start praising Samukawa.

It’s just that it was a shocking experience for Yamato.

“Kurashiki-san.”

“What?”

“I… I’m going to turn myself in to the police.”

Yamato said, staring at me intently.

“After going through all this trouble, I can’t just let it go without any consequences. It’s true that Samukawa-san and the others didn’t report it to the police. But if I let them get away with it, I’ll never be able to face them again.”

“I guess you’re right…”

I honestly don’t know if Yamato’s decision is the right one or not.

If I were a lawyer, I’d tell him not to do it.

There’s no point in waking a sleeping giant.

But I didn’t want to dampen Yamato’s determination.

I looked at Miho-san.

Miho-san was looking down, but she didn’t seem to have anything against Yamato.

I guess she’d been told before.

“I know I don’t have the right to ask you to do this… Kurashiki-san, please take care of my sister.”

“Ya-Yamato?”

Miho-san said.

“It’s okay if you do it as a neighbor. I said I was doing it for my sister, but it ended up like this. I feel ashamed. To be honest, I hate Seiji Tozaki. I hated him before, but now I hate him even more…”

“…I can understand that.”

I don’t know what his goal was, but he was using Yamato, who hated him even more and playing with his feelings.

Yamato, whose strength had not yet fully returned, clenched his fists tightly.

“That’s why I surrender. If I pretend that this never happened, it will only benefit Seiji Tozaki.”

That was certainly true.

“The only person who can do something about Seiji Tozaki―or the explorers he has―is probably you, Kurashiki-san. That’s why I’m going to tell you everything I know.”

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