Hmm, so.
Sitting in his gaming chair at home, Kageichi was, unusually, deep in thought as he stared at the message from his “informant.”
A few unexpected things had occurred.
One was the delay in the Labyrinth Agency’s investigation of the Gyokuryu Society.
The sniper attack on the Labyrinth Agency, the use of a Sniper Rifle that should only be obtainable in the American Dungeon. This was an issue that should have been acted upon immediately—Kageichi had expected the Gyokuryu Society to be annihilated by today…
This… there’s something fishy in the upper echelons, isn’t there?
It was the same sense of unease he had felt when The Numbers reached the “Snowfield Ice Mountain” before.
For some reason, they had accurately pinpointed the location of the derivative dungeon “Snowfield Ice Mountain,” which should have been confidential information, and headed straight for the Boss.
Even though Kageichi had wiped out the Ice Dragon, the fact that information about “Snowfield Ice Mountain” had been leaked in the first place was baffling.
The second problem was that the Gyokuryu Society’s target had shifted to Kiraboshi-san.
He hadn’t anticipated that his beloved disciple would be targeted, but… it was sooner than expected.
He would have thought it would be easier to target a single, middle-aged man than a high school girl with a family…
(Was it a mistake to let the president of the Gyokuryu Society see my movements when I took out the three members? Perhaps I got a little too carried away with my provocations.)
It was possible that they had correctly assessed Kageichi’s abilities and changed their target to Kiraboshi-san.
He didn’t understand the motive for going to such lengths to target him, though.
In any case, Kiraboshi-san’s safety was the top priority.
Considering the possibility of an attack outside the Dungeon, the optimal solution would be to watch over her for the next twenty-four hours, but… he didn’t like it.
The situation of having his actions restricted by others for twenty-four hours, with no idea when the Labyrinth Agency would move, was a major violation of Kageichi’s beloved stress-free life.
Leaving a hole in his regular work would also be unnatural, and he would be disqualified as a member of society.
And to add to that—
“I don’t want to interfere right now.”
Kiraboshi-san was at a crossroads.
She would be settling things with her friend in the near future.
For an outsider like a middle-aged man, or some insignificant group like the Gyokuryu Society, to interfere with that courageous action…
It would be the height of bad taste.
“…………Hmm.”
Kageichi pondered, unusually, and pushed up his glasses.
…
…………
His initial plans were completely ruined, but there was no helping it, Kageichi thought as he stood up—
*
“Seriously, Kageichi-san, are you planning to start a war or something?”
“Something like that. …Is production possible?”
“Nyahaha, of course. I was just a little surprised.”
The cute rabbit whiskers wiggled as Smith Nyamdoré responded to Kageichi’s unreasonable request.
He had hurried to the basement of his usual Weapon Shop ‘My Shop’—a semi-dungeonized space inhabited by the NPC weapon craftsman, Smith Nyamdoré.
Next to her, Hako-san, also a shop assistant, stood with a cheerful smile.
“Oh my, Kageichi-kun. You’ve come to order a very different weapon than usual today. …Oh, of course, there’s no problem, weapons are meant to be used properly.”
“Thank you. I know this is very sudden.”
“No, no,” she said.
He was truly grateful that she had come to work outside of business hours after hearing about Kageichi’s urgent matter.
Hako-san summoned her Inventory again.
She took out a cardboard box from it, and then, well.
“…I don’t think I need to explain, but the item you ordered is a gas bomb containing paralysis, poison, confusion, sleep, and instant death effects. When used in a closed space, it can wipe out weak Monsters. Twelve of them, right?”
“Twelve dozen, please. I’ll be filling the entire narrow Dungeon with it.”
“That’s quite the cleanup. But instant death is basically ineffective against Bosses, you know?”
“No problem. The purpose is to confuse the enemy and annihilate the Monsters in the rear.”
“But, Kageichi-san, making that many will cost you a fair amount of materials and money, you know? We’re not running a charity here.”
“How about this as payment?”
Kageichi also summoned his Inventory and took out—a large number of Magic Stones and Monster materials.
““!?””
“Here are the Behemoth’s carapace and thunder horn, as well as the Ice Dragon’s wing membrane and claws. Would that be enough?”
“…Seriously? That’s still undiscovered new material, isn’t it? It’s strange for me to say, but isn’t that weird?”
“Exciting, isn’t it? Making weapons using materials that no one else in the world has used yet.”
Both Nyamdoré-san and Hako-san were genuine weapon maniacs.
They valued creating excellent weapons that could unleash impulse, and didn’t care about anything else—the ethics of the law, the source of the materials, or their illegality.
For them, new materials were far too attractive.
“Oh, and while I’m at it, I’d like to ask you something else…”
Kageichi took out the “Kamui Blade,” which had been sleeping deep in his Inventory.
As the one person and one animal widened their eyes, Kageichi asked as an aside.
“If possible, could you consider whether this can be modified?”
“Mo-modified!? Something like this…?”
“It’s hard for me to use, or rather, it doesn’t suit me. I haven’t thought about what kind of weapon to modify it into at this point… but first, I’d like to know if it can be modified, and what kind of materials would be needed to modify it.”
At present, there were no enemies that Kageichi felt he couldn’t handle.
However, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to prepare for the formidable enemies that Kageichi himself might not be able to handle, which would appear in the future.
“I wonder… what kind of enemies does Kageichi-san envision?”
“The most likely candidate is the Final Boss. Next, the final Boss of an S-class Dungeon. And finally, an irregular reincarnator with a high level like me.”
“Reincarnation…?”
“I’ve only met one person so far, but if another one appears in the future, and one who is hostile to me, it could be troublesome.”
“Well, this has nothing to do with this matter,” Kageichi said, returning to the topic.
“Finally… Hako-san, Nyamdoré-san. I have one more request. Would it be possible to borrow the warehouse in the basement of this Weapon Shop ‘My Shop’?”
“I don’t mind… but why?”
“I want to temporarily empty my Inventory. This time, it’s going to be a large-scale operation… and I’m planning to use a special move as well. If you cooperate, I promise to give priority to the main store ‘My Shop’ as much as possible with the new materials I acquire in the future.”
Kageichi’s proposal seemed extravagant at first glance, but it was actually different.
It was hush money.
New materials sounded good, but if they were to put Behemoth’s thunder horns or Ice Dragon’s wing membranes on display, the Labyrinth Agency would rush over and ask where they got them.
The fact that you can’t easily create weapons with rare items is what differentiates games from reality.
Also, Kageichi had ordered a large number of bombs from them now…
If Kageichi made a mistake for some reason, and they were asked about the source of the bombs, the Weapon Shop ‘My Shop’ could be damaged.
In other words, the moment they accepted this offer, Kageichi and they were in the same boat—if things went badly, they could both fall.
Normally, they wouldn’t accept it.
No matter how new the materials were, it wouldn’t be a business if they couldn’t be sold in stores.
However—
“What do you think?”
“Eh, we have no choice but to get on board, Kageichi-san.”
“That’s right. I’m in too.”
Money, safety, arrest, crime, etc.—Nyamdoré-san, who was originally a Monster, and even Hako-san, had no interest in them.
There was only one thing they were interested in.
Excellent weapons, that’s all.
If you’re a true gamer, you’ll know what I mean.
More than a mountain of money.
More than a large number of Skill Points, experience points, or levels, they dreamed of—creating the strongest weapon using new materials.
They were fanatics who wanted to pursue it even if their own or other people’s save data was destroyed.
That’s why they could be trusted.
Their values were too simple, and they were closer to Monsters than humans.
He had guessed that they would accept, but Kageichi bowed again.
“Thank you for your cooperation. I will do my best to ensure that you are not inconvenienced.”
“No, no, Kageichi-san. We’ll take care of our side, so don’t worry. More importantly, this is such a big job. Are you sure you have enough money?”
Kageichi slowly shook his head.
This time, everything was Kageichi’s overtime work.
It wouldn’t make him a penny, and would only increase his own risk, but even so, Kageichi didn’t lose his gentle smile.
“This is for my cute disciple. And to maintain the richness of my life. Well, since I was the one who sowed the seeds of the fire in the first place, it’s a grown-up’s job to take responsibility.”
He muttered to no one in particular, and then, well, Kageichi straightened his tie.
Tomorrow would be a grand cleaning.
Well, I guess I can think of it as getting one troublesome thing out of the way before Golden Week,” Kageichi thought, diligently starting to organize his Inventory in the borrowed warehouse.