Chapter 10

The ranking shot up, and we've finally broken into the top 20 daily overall.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us!!

There were probably over 100 of them.

After fighting with all his might for thirty minutes, Seiki, having confirmed that there was nothing left moving, collapsed onto the ground.

A soft, squishy sensation spread from his back.

He had completely forgotten that he had been carrying a bag stuffed to the brim with meat.

His throat, body, and head were all burning hot.

Seiki desperately tried to catch his breath.

As the tension eased, his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

If he had been hit back then.

If he had let the Kill Rabbits pass.

The worst-case scenario that flashed through his mind made his body shake even more.

It was truly a relief that such a future had not come to pass.

From halfway through, Seiki had been smiling.

The battle with the monsters had been thrilling.

But excitement and fear are different things.

Like a roller coaster or a haunted house,

excitement and fear can coexist easily.

So Seiki was now laughing while trembling.

"Ah, it's good to be alive."

He felt the preciousness of being alive deeply.

"Um..."

A thin voice reached Seiki's ears, which were still heaving from his heavy breathing.

It was a gentle voice, like petting a small dog, though it was tense.

"Yes?"

"Ah!?"

When he turned his head, the girl flinched.

He had forgotten he was still wearing the strange mask.

Well, it's fine.

They noticed me without me shouting!

"So, what is it?"

"...Thank you very much for saving me."

"It's nothing—"

Seiki's words trailed off.

The girl, with her eyes wide and red, had grabbed his hand.

"Really, really... thank you. I thought I was going to die. The adventurers abandoned me... I thought it was all over..."

Sniffling, the girl repeated her words of gratitude over and over.

Ah...

I'm glad she's alive.

I'm really glad I could save her.

A warm feeling welled up from the depths of Seiki's heart.

If she had died, she wouldn't have been able to express how painful and lonely it was.

Once his breathing had calmed down, Seiki picked up the horns from the dead Kill Rabbits that covered the floor.

He couldn't carry any more meat, and the meat he had butchered without bleeding it out wouldn't be tasty. Even if he brought it back and tried to sell it, it would probably just end up being discarded and costing him money.

He had 48 horns in total.

Since they wouldn't all fit in his bag, he decided to have the girl carry some of them.

Hehehe.

This will boost my income even more!

He could recover the cost of the equipment and even turn a profit.

"...I'm Kurosaki Karen. Thank you so much for saving me."

"Ah, I'm glad you're safe."

"Um, are you one of the top-ranked adventurers in Sapporo?"

"No, I'm just a regular low-level adventurer."

There are top 100 ranked adventurers in Sapporo.

But Seiki is definitely not one of them.

"Low-level!? How could you survive the Monster Parade!?"

"Well, um... I was in a trance?"

"The Monster Parade that even adventurers active on the 9th floor of 'Chikaho' fled from? I can't believe a low-level adventurer could survive just by being in a trance."

Karen looked at Seiki with a serious expression.

"Is there a reason you can't reveal your identity?"

"Well..."

Karen was right.

Seiki had a reason he couldn't say.

The reason he could defeat the Monster Parade was because of his skill points.

He wanted to explain that.

But if just allocating points could achieve such a feat,

it would cause a huge stir.

Every adventurer would try to get their hands on this skill board.

Even if it meant killing Seiki.

"By the way, do you know those three adventurers?"

Seiki, at a loss for an answer, forcibly changed the subject.

"No..."

Karen's lips pursed, and a gloomy expression appeared on her face.

"They were people I recruited for a team on the 'become an adventurer' site. I thought they would help me with monster hunting... but they didn't."

She must have been remembering when they abandoned her.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

For a civilian, it might be understandable to abandon someone and run away.

But for adventurers, abandoning a novice like her was unforgivable.

Besides, who knows what those guys were planning...

Thinking back to their idle chatter, Seiki's stomach churned.

Adventurers are supposed to protect people.

They should never be violent or abandon someone weaker than themselves.

Of course, there are times when it's unavoidable to abandon a stranger.

There might even be situations where you have to abandon a team member.

But they had abandoned a job they had taken on.

That's why Seiki felt sick.

He couldn't tolerate their behavior, which insulted the rankers he admired and other adventurers.

* * *

"Look, look. My store's revenue. It's over 200% of last year's!"

"Grrrr..."

Aoi Susa, the branch manager, had closed her weapon shop a little before five and come to the neighboring material buyback store to chat.

She waved the paper with the day's sales in front of the branch manager, Ooi Susae.

"Hey, how's your store doing? How's it going?"

"Annoying. Really annoying! Just because we're both branch managers, I'm still your senior. Don't you think there's a certain way you should act?"

The world is all about results. Between a young, beautiful me who can produce results and an ordinary-looking, slightly older Ooi Susa with ordinary performance, which one is better, I wonder?

"Who said I'm old!?"

What a petty person.

To turn red just from a little provocation...

Yeah. Best feeling ever!

"If you're jealous, try to beat me in something other than age?"

"Grrrrrr"

Of course, it's not that Aoi Susa is mean to Aoi Susae...

or at least, it shouldn't be.

She's being manipulated by a younger person.

That resentment will be the catalyst for Ooi Susa to work harder and improve her performance in the future.

In other words, all of this is for the good of the company.

...Probably.

As Aoi Susa was taunting, a pair of male and female adventurers entered the store.

"Welcome!"

Ooi Susa, who had been red-faced from Aoi Susa's taunting, now had a business smile and spoke in a soothing voice.

Normally, Aoi Susa would have thrown in a taunt or two at this point.

But Aoi Susa was distracted by the male adventurer.

The man was wearing a mask that would make anyone flinch.

He was a customer who had come to her store today—no, not a customer, a mark.

He must have tested his equipment in the dungeon right away.

His armor was a little dirty.

And he was still wearing the cursed-looking mask she had practically forced on him.

Fearless, indeed.

And the branch manager, who didn't change her tone of voice even when she saw the man with the special mask, was impressive.

She was definitely more seasoned than Aoi Susa.

So, what kind of materials did he bring back from the dungeon?

Aoi Susa was curious.

If she could find out, she would have a more accurate idea of his skills and wealth.

And she could sell him even more suitable products.

Hiding behind a wall, she watched as the materials were being bought back.

A large number of horns were taken out of the man's bag and the girl's bag next to him.

Those were definitely Kill Rabbit horns...

Kill Rabbits are intelligent creatures that take evasive and feinting actions, which are not seen in previous floors, in addition to their high attack power.

To defeat them, combat skills are necessary, making it difficult for complete beginners.

Even for fast-growing adventurers, it would probably take about a month to defeat a Kill Rabbit from scratch.

He had over 100 horns.

Since females don't have horns, if he only hunted males, that would be 100 rabbits.

If the male-to-female ratio was 1:1, he must have defeated 200 rabbits.

If he had collected all of that in just one day, he was definitely not a bronze-level adventurer.

Because if he could deliver 100 horns every day, he would meet the minimum requirement for silver—two million yen—in just 10 days.

So the man was at least a silver-class adventurer.

He might even be a gold-class adventurer.

"Thank you very much for your business today. The buyback price for 101 Kill Rabbit horns is 202,000 yen. Is this evaluation acceptable?"

"Yes!"

"...Um, will you be using the team distribution function?"

"Huh? What's that?"

He must have always adventured solo.

It seemed he didn't know about the team distribution function.

The IC card manages all income and expenses.

Even if you distribute the money later, if the leader receives the team's income, the card will count it as personal income.

Of course, you can directly deduct the team's share from the IC card, but it will be flagged as a tax evasion measure and cannot be treated as an expense.

As a result, the leader would end up paying an extraordinary amount of tax.

The team distribution function covers this.

By inputting the money earned from material sales at the register, you can charge each member's share individually.

The distribution can be done by direct input of numbers or by percentage.

If the amount doesn't divide evenly, the store can make up the difference in the single digits. This is a service offered by the store.

Of course, this store also offers this service.

"Then, I'll use the distribution function."

"No, that's not right! I didn't do anything."

"But you carried the horns, right?"

"I only carried them. I didn't help with the battle."

Maybe the girl was just a porter?

The two customers started arguing.

This kind of thing happens occasionally.

But usually, it's the porter who demands money...

"Then, let's split the money for the horns that Karen carried. If Karen hadn't carried them, we wouldn't have had any income for that part, so it's all thanks to Karen, right?"

"But..."

As the girl, called Karen, was about to protest, the man leaned in and whispered something in her ear.

Karen readily agreed to the man's proposal.

However...

Watching the two of them, Aoi Susa felt a sweet tingling sensation.

She had assumed that the two of them had defeated the Kill Rabbits together.

But that wasn't the case.

The man with the strange mask had collected all the Kill Rabbit horns by himself!

On average, adventurers can defeat about 50 monsters a day.

Even top-ranked adventurers or so-called hardcore players can only manage up to 100.

To defeat twice that number...

It was incredible.

Of course, Aoi Susa considered the possibility that he had brought in horns from several days.

But if that were the case, he wouldn't have said, "If we hadn't brought them, we wouldn't have had any income."

So he had done it all in just one day...

Aoi Susa's eyes gleamed.

If he became a regular customer, the store's profits would increase even more.

She licked her lips.

"I'm very sorry, but we can't distribute the evaluation for just 48 horns."

"Wait a minute!!"

At the branch manager's words, Aoi Susa couldn't help but jump in.

(What's going on all of a sudden?)

(Why aren't you doing the calculation?)

(If we re-evaluate the materials, it will definitely lead to overtime.)

(What!?)

(I'm strict about overtime. I don't want to get in trouble later.)

(Are you stupid? Are you stupid!?!)

Aoi Susa shook the branch manager by the collar.

They were definitely high-value customers.

To not meet their requests was unacceptable!

If the evaluation was refused, they would go to a strong competitor like Kawamae or Banma.

The 101 horns they could have gotten would be lost!

And they would be giving a leg up to the competition!!

"I'm very sorry, but could you please wait a moment?"

"Ah, um... Yes, that's fine."

The man, surprised by Aoi Susa's appearance, opened his eyes wide and nodded awkwardly.

If she could do them a favor here, he would come to the store more often.

The opportunity was right in front of her.

She couldn't let it slip away!

Aoi Susa immediately re-evaluated the 48 horns.

She transferred 53% of the total to the man's account and the remaining amount to the girl's IC card.

"Here you go."

As the adventurers left the store after the distribution, Aoi Susa waved goodbye.

Next to her, Ooi Susa was trembling.

"You... What are you doing in my store without permission!"

"You don't understand these things, which is why you can't make a profit."

Ooi Susa's actions were by the book.

Re-evaluating the materials would be a lot of work.

The profit from the evaluation would be minimal compared to the time spent.

Moreover, working overtime would get her in trouble with headquarters or the area manager.

So, in the short term, it was more appropriate and easier to guide them to change the distribution method.

But that was for her convenience.

The customers didn't care about that.

Focusing on short-term profits and letting a big fish slip away would be meaningless.

By providing such meticulous service, the big reward—though not a golden flower—would bloom in the future.

If she had the confidence that it would come back to her, even if she got scolded by her superiors, she should take action.

"I'll report this to the higher-ups."

"Fine, whatever. You'll end up crying and thanking me when you secure a high-value customer because of me. By then, it will be too late."

"Really, you never stop talking."

Of course, Ooi Susa would never cry and thank Aoi Susa.

Because the big flower would always bloom above Aoi Susa.

Specifically, in the near future.

A bouquet of flowers would be sent to Aoi Susa.

The one delivering the bouquet would be a harbinger of misfortune...