The ruins of a city covered in fog.
Without a blade of grass, without a single tree… … the only thing that moves is the falling dust.
Thud thud.
The seven Nightbringers entered it.
“This neighborhood is also quite gloomy… … .”
Rabbit shook his shoulders as he looked around the blackened city.
“Well, I guess it’s natural for the capital of a fallen kingdom to have this kind of atmosphere… …?”
As he said that, he secretly linked arms with Labo.
Oasis opened its eyes wide.
Beside him, the doctor clasped his hands together and jumped up and down.
“I really, really like this atmosphere!”
Everyone broke out in a cold sweat.
“Yeah… … I thought so… … .”
“I absolutely love post-apocalyptic! So this kind of static after-the-apocalypse feeling is just… … right up my alley!”
As a mad social scientist who loves chaos and destruction, it was a natural taste.
At that moment, Labo, who had been walking ahead, spoke quietly.
“Soon.”
“yes?”
“Soon, Snow White will end up like this.”
In a calm voice, Labo blurted out those terrifying words.
“Not only Snow White, but all the city-states of the Old Continent… … will perish like this.”
Labo looked back at the doctor and nodded.
“Show me the view, Doctor.”
The doctor, who was even more excited, jumped up and down even more excitedly.
“I only believe those words~!”
Labo, who was smiling, looked back at the rest of the guild members.
“Even though the schedule is tough, everyone is following along well.”
Labo asked guild members to clear all their schedules for the next week and focus on leveling.
Even after that, while acting with him, he also demanded that he unconditionally log into the game when Labo called.
Even though this is the 2030s, when the VR world has developed and the percentage of people working from home has increased, it was a somewhat unreasonable request to value the game schedule more than the real-life schedule.
But everyone followed along faithfully.
“Well, we’re all gamers.”
Oldman ran his hand through his beard as if it were a habit.
“I know full well that opportunities like this don’t come often.”
Destroy the game world together with the man who was the director of this game. And in the process, you achieve the goal of the game.
Even if it was a little neglectful of reality, there was no reason for true gamers not to follow it.
At that, Aggle King chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, I’m unemployed and unemployed to begin with… … You can call me all day long, so it’s no problem. It’s times like these where living in a dead end helps, right? Haha.”
Cain tilted his head.
“Unemployed? Aren’t you a full-time streamer?”
“They’ve all been cut off from the platform, so they’re effectively unemployed.”
The agglutinant made a circle with his fingers and shook them.
“If you don’t have any income, you’re all unemployed and unemployed, you know.”
Hearing those words, Cain frowned and thought,
“If you put it that way, I guess I’m unemployed too.”
… … he said heavily.
Oldman also stroked his beard and spoke more quietly than usual.
“I have a store… … but now my son has taken over and is running it, so I have nothing to do all day.”
Suddenly, it became a place to confess one’s employment situation.
Rabbit was sweating profusely. He couldn’t say that he was a hacker in Bali.
“I work from home, so… … I have a lot of time.”
As expected, the doctor looked more flustered than usual and trailed off.
“I’m on a long vacation for some reason… … haha, I’ll have some free time for a while.”
In front of those guild members, Labo playfully spread out his arms.
“And as everyone knows, I’m unemployed this time!”
It was a self-deprecating line, but perhaps because the tone was light, it was somehow funny.
Everyone snickered.
The doctor turned his gaze to the oasis next to Labo.
“Lastly, what about Oasis Yang?”
“Yes, yes?!”
“Is Miss Oasis okay? Is she connected all day like this?”
“Ah, I… … .”
Oasis, who had been rolling her eyes and observing the situation, smiled awkwardly.
“I’m also currently unemployed… … that’s why. Hahaha… … .”
That wasn’t entirely wrong.
Now that I’ve stepped away from developing AI, Oasis doesn’t really have a title. Playing games with Labo is all I do on a daily basis.
Aggle King, who confirmed that everyone had plenty of time on their hands, suddenly smiled brightly.
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“What! Were you all in a situation where you were all unemployed and in a desperate situation? Hehe, I suddenly feel a sense of kinship.”
“Oh, you’re a freeloader! You just have a lot of free time! Ahem!”
Oldman coughed loudly and changed the subject.
“Times are tough for everyone. Cheer up, young friends. Let’s meet up for a meal sometime! Come to my restaurant. I’ll treat you well!”
Labo made a sound of “ho-o.”
“That’s okay. If we have an offline meeting, we have a set meeting place.”
“Wow~ Aggle King loves Chinese restaurants~!”
When the topic of offline meetings came up, Oasis, Rabbit, and the Doctor, unlike those who liked them, broke out in a cold sweat.
“I’m sorry. I think offline might be a little… … difficult for me… … .”
It wasn’t a little bit impossible, because Oasis is an AI that doesn’t have a physical body.
“I also live a bit far from offline… … .”
Living in Bali, Rabbit found it difficult to attend offline gatherings.
“Thank you, but I believe that online relationships only last for online periods.”
The doctor politely declined.
Oldman and Uggle King made an “Eee~” sound.
“Come on, come on! Jim’s store is really delicious!”
“That’s right! You should eat it when they say you’ll buy it for yourself! No, you don’t have to come! I’ll go by myself and eat until I’m full!”
“… … Anyway, please proceed. A bit.”
Cain showed his discomfort as the story outside the game kept coming up.
“We didn’t come together to socialize. We came together to achieve our individual goals.”
“That’s true, but… … .”
“Anyway, Hunter Killer, it’s so bleak… … .”
Labo snickered as he watched Oldman and Uggle King grumbling.
“Well, I know the story is a bit off topic, but thank you for following along with the preparations. I’ll repay you with something grand, so let’s work even harder in the future.”
“Even suffering… …I do it because I like it. Hehehe!”
Oldman chuckled, stroking his beard.
Everyone understood that this was a stepping stone for a larger plan later on. So, there was no great dissatisfaction with this forced march.
Aggle King tapped the camera above his head with his hand.
“Oh, I’m recording all of our play. I’ll use it for my own personal gain later, so don’t worry too much about me using you like that.”
“No, I’m more worried about that… … ?”
Everyone flinched when they heard that they were recording, but Labo was calm. That was because he had expected this from the beginning.
“If you’re going to take pictures, record every nook and cranny thoroughly, Aggle King. You never know how they might be used later.”
“Hehehe. Just leave it to me, Master~!”
As we walked a little further, a huge crack appeared inside the ruins of the city.
Dungeon: Ruins of a Fallen Kingdom
– Risk: Very high
– Related quests: 12
– Recommended level: 100
“Okay, let’s go in.”
Labo took the lead and the rest of the members followed behind.
“… … .”
Immediately after the Nightbringer power entered the dungeon,
Clank, clank… … !
The ruins of the city began to tremble and move of their own accord.
* * *
The scenery inside the dungeon wasn’t much different.
The city was covered in thick fog, and the gray buildings cast a gloomy color, without any trace of life.
“Let me say this first.”
Labo explained as he continued to walk into the quiet city.
“There are no monsters in this dungeon, ‘Ruins of a Fallen Kingdom.’”
Oldman opened his only eye wide.
“Huh? There are no monsters? Then why is it called a ‘dungeon’?”
“You will find out now.”
As Labo said, the group soon realized the reason.
“hmm?”
Cain was the first to notice the abnormality.
“huh?”
“Huh?”
Following this, other guild members also began to notice something strange.
“here…….”
Oasis stopped walking and opened her eyes wide and looked around.
“Isn’t this the… entrance we came in through?”
If other people’s judgment was questionable, Oasis’ judgment was virtually confirmation.
High-performance AI finished the memory comparison task just a moment ago in an instant.
It was definitely the entrance we came in through a little while ago.
I clearly entered the entrance and went straight, but I ended up coming back to my original location.
“Master, what is this…?”
“okay.”
Labo nodded.
“This is a labyrinth.”
Dungeon, ‘Ruins of a Fallen Kingdom’.
The city itself is a giant labyrinth, a dungeon where the goal is to find the way to the exit.
In addition, it has a vicious pattern that changes randomly each time and has no definitive strategy.
“And there are no monsters… … .”
Labo, who held a throwing dagger as his auxiliary equipment, threw it with force.
As the dagger struck the wall of the building next door, dozens of sharp spear blades shot out from the ground.
“… … There are a lot of traps.”
“Eek!”
Oasis, who had many bad memories of traps, shook her shoulders.
Labo patted the shoulder of such an oasis.
“You will die instantly if you do this, so you must proceed with caution.”
“Wow, this is such a fun dungeon! It’s just my style!”
The doctor looked around the dungeon with his hands clasped together, looking happy.
A labyrinth that you must explore using only your head, without any monsters. Plus, it has a post-apocalyptic atmosphere.
It was gathered by selecting only the things the doctor liked.
“It must be fun to wander through a labyrinth and find the exit… … .”
Labo looked at the doctor like that and said with a slightly apologetic tone.
“We’re busy, so I’ll take you there straight away.”
The doctor immediately turned sullen, but the rest nodded vigorously.
I knew the strategy, but I didn’t want to waste time.
Especially in a creepy place like this!
“There are several ways to conquer this labyrinth, but the one I’m going to use is… … the ‘landmark’ method.”
Labo started walking forward again. Everyone followed behind him.
“First of all, the first intersection.”
At the first intersection we came to as we went straight, Labo pointed to a building on the right.
“Can you see the bar sign?”
It really was.
A sign saying ‘Liquor’ appeared along with a picture of a liquor bottle.
“Turn right at the building with that store in it.”
From then on, Labo continued to break through the labyrinth in that manner.
“See the marble temple? Put it on and turn left.”
“It’s the city hall. Go straight ahead.”
“Is that a clock tower… … Turn left here too.”
What ultimately forms a labyrinth is the city.
Certain buildings formed a pattern, and you could find your way by using those buildings as a reference to decide which direction to move in.
Labo advanced without hesitation. Everyone followed his trustworthy back.
“Lastly, if you go this way… … .”
A long path with a collapsed stone wall appeared. Labo walked straight towards it.
Oasis asked with a hehehe laugh.
“Is there an exit?”
“no.”
The end of the road was a dead end.
And there, there was a monster.
“Here he is.”
“… … ?”
It was a monster of enormous size with the head of a bull. It had three pairs of arms, each holding a huge axe.
Guardian of the East of the Ruins? Minotaur King
Goooooooo!
The Minotaur King let out a terrifying roar. The guild members who had been off guard were startled and hurriedly drew out their weapons.
Oasis screamed.
“You said there were no monsters-?!”
“No, there are no monsters.”
Inside the helmet, Labo grinned wickedly.
“But there is a boss. When you think of a labyrinth, isn’t it this guy?”
Goooooooooo-!
With a terrible roar, the Minotaur King charged at the party.
