Ch.333[Episode 333] Underworld Zone 3 Hard

“…dinosaur?”

A dinosaur suddenly jumped out of the gate that had turned red… no, a Drake.

Captain Elang knew it was a Drake from the name above the monster, but looking at the monster with its overwhelming pressure, he also realized something was wrong.

“Why, why did a Drake suddenly…?”

Captain Elang fell into panic due to this sudden variable.

Captain Elang began searching the internet diligently for information about Round 42, but there was no way there would be information about Round 42 when commanders were barely getting past Round 35.

“You don’t need to be that scared.”

Suzuki stepped forward holding a giant sword.

Though they were overshadowed by Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica and couldn’t really contribute much, their concern for the commander was stronger than anyone’s.

“That’s right. Monsters usually get stronger in 5-round increments. It just changed from Round 41 to Round 42, so it may look scary but it shouldn’t be that threaten-“

“Yeah.”

Lily and Lee, along with Suzuki, began reassuring the commander.

Although they lacked ability and couldn’t be of much help, they could at least analyze-

That’s when it happened.

The Drake suddenly began charging along the line.

“■■■■■■-!”

“Hup!”

The Drake roared and collided with Sir Dominic’s shield.

If it had been an ordinary monster, it wouldn’t have been able to properly damage Sir Dominic, but for some reason, Sir Dominic was pushed back five steps with tremendous damage.

The Drake’s overwhelming power!

“■■■■■■-!”

The Drake, as if knowing Sir Dominic’s skill, proudly roared once more.

That roar had the effect of applying a [Fear] debuff to the weak, causing the three android girls and Commander Captain Elang to immediately fall into fear.

If they had been of similar level, they might have been able to endure, but they weren’t even given the chance.

That’s how great the difference was between the Drake and the rest.

Captain Elang instantly became terrified and slumped to the ground.

And he began to plead, almost crying, to Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica who were still glaring at the Drake.

“Let’s, let’s retreat? Isn’t this enough-“

[Warning! If you retreat now, you will lose all progress made so far.]

Captain Elang’s face completely contorted.

Due to the characteristics of Area 3, rewards could only be obtained after pressing the complete button after winning a round.

If they had already received rewards, they would be considered to have cleared up to that stage, but if they ran away or lost when starting from the beginning like now, they would have to give up all rewards obtained so far and start over from the beginning.

Realizing this fact, Captain Elang could neither advance nor retreat, and could only stamp his feet.

He wanted to run away right now, but opportunities for Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica to help for free didn’t come easily…

However, Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica seemed to have somewhat different thoughts.

“…This is getting interesting again.”

Sir Dominic grinned.

“Indeed. Who would have thought such a gimmick was hidden.”

Sir Dominica smiled back.

Sir Dominic trembled thinking about the Drake’s body slam just now.

When was the last time Sir Dominic had been in real danger since obtaining the [Tanker] trait, [Knight], and [Cinematic]?

Sir Dominic thought that he hadn’t felt such a thrilling sense of crisis like this in recent times.

In that sense, the current Drake was truly a worthy opponent for Sir Dominic.

A worthy opponent that gave tension to Sir Dominic, who had become relaxed from his leisurely daily life.

Realizing this fact, Sir Dominic felt good.

“Hmph.”

Feeling so good that he smiled an unpleasant smile, Sir Dominic.

The same was true for Sir Dominica.

Since Sir Dominica was created from Sir Dominic’s data in the first place, it wasn’t strange that she resembled Sir Dominic’s personality.

“Something truly fun has happened after a long time.”

Sir Dominica said, raising her shield.

“This thrilling feeling, I might get addicted to it.”

Sir Dominic also said, raising his shield.

“■■■■■■■■■-!”

The Drake was a very arrogant being.

It was so arrogant that its pride was hurt seeing Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica full of enthusiasm when they should be bowing their heads and begging for mercy.

The Drake let out a roar as big as its broken pride, urging Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica to bow their heads again.

But were Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica the kind to crumble at such a trivial roar?

Sir Dominic and Sir Dominica took that roar as a signal, kicked off the ground, and ran toward the Drake.

That scene was like a scene from the mythical age.

…

Behind the Stage in Area 3, the monster factory.

The factory machines, which had started stamping out monsters with tremendous momentum, continued to emit thick steam.

It looked like it could explode at any moment, but the civil servant who was supposed to manage this still hadn’t recognized the situation.

Soccer? No. Soccer was already over.

The game had just ended with a goal by the team the civil servant was supporting.

Then what was the civil servant doing that he couldn’t even recognize such an urgent situation?

It was because the civil servant was playing a game on his mobile phone.

“Let’s see… if this is 3, then this is 1…”

9 cells horizontally, 9 cells vertically.

The civil servant, who was playing Sudoku composed of nine 3×3 squares, was so focused on the numbers that he didn’t notice this situation.

“Huh?”

Just then, he heard something crackling behind him.

The civil servant tilted his head at the sound and looked back.

One might ask why he didn’t notice the factory noise but noticed the crackling sound behind him, but people are naturally more sensitive to things that could be dangerous to them.

The control room where he was located was also soundproofed enough to almost perfectly block out the factory noise.

Anyway, the civil servant looked around to find the source of the crackling sound that had come from right behind him.

Crackle.

The sound was heard once more.

The civil servant now stood up and started walking toward where the sound had come from.

It was in the direction of the power outlet, where there was a terrifyingly complex wiring structure with power strips connected to power strips, and more power strips connected to those power strips.

A complex and terrifying wiring that wouldn’t be surprising if a fire broke out right away.

The crackling sound was coming from right in between them.

“What’s this? Is it reaching its limit?”

The civil servant made a serious expression while looking at those outlets.

Of course, he wasn’t concerned about this messy wiring.

He was just worried about where he would charge his phone if these outlets broke.

The civil servant looked at these outlets a bit more and thought that the wires might be reaching their limit.

That too many wires were gathered and about to break down.

In the end, the civil servant concluded that he might need to remove some wires from these outlets.

The civil servant began checking the machines connected to the wires one by one to identify which wires could be removed.

“I can’t give up the toaster, coffee pot, microwave, and induction cooker. Same with the TV and laptop charger, but giving up anything else…”

…At this point, it would be reasonable to give up, but the civil servant, worried about the progressive tax that would come if he did all this at home, didn’t think about giving up.

“…Should I remove this one?”

The civil servant contemplated looking at one wire among the outlets that he thought was relatively unimportant.

This wire supplied power to the limiter that controlled the factory’s production speed.

Without this wire, the factory might go out of control, but he didn’t want to give up his phone and laptop just to prevent such a risk.

“Yeah. Let’s pull this one out. What could possibly happen?”

The civil servant thought so and pulled out the wire responsible for the factory’s limiter.

Thinking that unless there was a problem elsewhere, the limiter was nothing but garbage that just consumed power unnecessarily.

When the civil servant pulled out the factory limiter’s wire, the crackling sound stopped.

It seemed the problem had been solved.

“Great! Now I can focus on Sudoku again.”

The civil servant said so and picked up his phone again.

To continue the Sudoku he was playing just now.

But the civil servant didn’t know.

He didn’t know that a coder had opened the distribution panel for stage inspection today, that the distribution panel was left open and exposed, and that as a result, oxygen was being supplied through the dust accumulated in the distribution panel, causing a fire to start.

That was exactly why the outlets were malfunctioning, and due to the limiter device wire that the civil servant had just pulled out and the broken distribution panel, the conveyor belts and machines inside the steam-filled factory had started operating so fast that they were overloading.