Ch.4747. Howling Darkness

In the footsteps of one with a clear goal, hesitation cannot exist.

Proving this saying, Amon’s party explored without any hesitation.

Unconditionally swift conquest.

They couldn’t afford to proceed cautiously anymore, not knowing when corporations might stab them in the back.

But that didn’t mean they had abandoned their strength of prudence.

Cautious, yet swift.

Safe, yet bold.

It meant they no longer hesitated to act a bit faster and more boldly within reasonable limits.

They had been steadily descending one floor every two days.

This was a pace only achievable by experienced mid-tier parties confident in their abilities.

Since parties typically rested a day after spending two days in a dungeon, they were effectively descending two floors per week.

Under these circumstances, today was the party’s rest day.

However, even on rest days, party leader Amon remained busy.

On rest days, his role was to purchase supplies in advance, with food being the most important.

At the Three Dollar Meat section of Three Dollar Mart located near the dungeon, Amon examined the meat and spoke.

“Kathy. Was that ham we had last time okay?”

He asked Kathy, who was pushing the cart beside him.

Kathy’s response was negative.

“It tasted like garbage. Wasn’t it supposed to be expensive?”

“Honestly, I thought it tasted bad too. Should we go with what we bought the time before that?”

“Sounds good.”

Amon entered [Ham 350 X 18] into the kiosk.

The 3D printer on the opposite side printed ham in 350g portions.

‘Higgjen Group was really something.’

High-speed 3D printing technology.

With that technology alone, they could dominate most retailers, including butcher shops.

No labor costs, minimal maintenance costs, and the ability to operate 24 hours a day.

No wonder ordinary distribution companies couldn’t compete.

‘But now it belongs to Three Dollar.’

Three Dollar Group took Higgjen’s technology and converted all of Higgjen’s large marts into Three Dollar Marts.

A meat franchise suddenly rose to become a major distribution company.

Afterward, Three Dollar Group installed meat 3D printers in all Three Dollar Marts, and the machine making ham in front of Amon was one of them.

For an additional fee, it could print custom shapes accompanied by cheesy music, but hardly anyone except children used this feature.

While printing was in progress, a doll in a suit mounted above the 3D printer solemnly displayed three fingers.

[Three dollars!]

Amon chuckled and operated his phone to transfer 54 dollars.

[Thank you!]

The robot extended its hand for a handshake.

Amon lightly tapped the robot’s hand and tossed the ham into the cart.

He actually had a Three Dollar Group executive card sleeping in his pocket, but since he was with Kathy today, he opted for a transfer instead.

It might seem excessive to hide this, but in this world, corporate executives were viewed unfavorably, making it necessary.

In this world, “corporate executive” was synonymous with “evil nobleman.”

Corporations had committed so many atrocities against civilians that merely revealing one was a corporate executive or family member could destroy social relationships.

It wasn’t without reason that corporate people socialized with other corporate people, and non-corporate people with their own kind.

Moreover, Amon’s party was currently being pursued by corporations.

In this situation, if Amon were to pull out an executive card?

It wouldn’t be strange if party members immediately severed ties with him.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Amon stopped his unnecessary thoughts and patted Kathy’s back.

Kathy pushed the cart.

Their cart was piled high with various items.

Not just food, but ammunition too.

True to the Higg… no, Three Dollar Group’s motto of selling everything, they could purchase all necessary supplies here.

After buying all the supplies needed for this exploration, the two packed everything into boxes and loaded them into Kathy’s car.

“Thanks as always. I don’t know how I’d move all this without you.”

“Don’t mention it. Get in.”

Kathy took the wheel.

Before getting into the passenger seat, Amon shook the mud off his shoe soles.

Soon, Kathy’s car departed.

In the car, Amon muttered.

“I wonder when I’ll be able to buy a car like this…”

“Why? Short on cash?”

“Yeah. I’m broke. Spent it all on equipment and mana crystals.”

Strictly speaking, some equipment had been “borrowed” from Higgjen Group, and the mana crystals had gone toward treatment costs for his former party, but expenses had been high regardless.

Kathy snickered at Amon’s words.

“Just don’t push yourself and catch rides with me. I’ll even lend you the car keys if you need them.”

“I can’t keep doing this forever. Come to think of it, how did you afford this? Your parents?”

“My dad bought it for me. He bought it with the settlement money when he divorced my mom after she joined a cult.”

“Uh… um…”

Confucian boy Amon was at a loss for words.

Even if he weren’t a Confucian boy, it wouldn’t have been easy to respond.

But Kathy, who had brought it up, seemed unbothered.

For her, the past was simply the past.

“It’s fortunate though. At least they divorced before my mom could donate the settlement money to the cult too.”

“I’m… sorry.”

“No, no. You don’t have to hide your cross necklace. After meeting you, I realized that priest was just a weird guy. I used to think all religious people were strange, but after meeting you, I realized that’s not always the case.”

“Feel free to curse that priest all you want.”

“I already do.”

Kathy turned the steering wheel.

The car was heading toward Amon’s house.

As they approached Amon’s home, traffic increased and the car slowed down.

Perhaps bored by the congested road, an everyday occurrence, Kathy spoke again.

“By the way, don’t you evangelize?”

“Calling it evangelism makes it sound grand. But yes, I do. Why?”

“For someone who does, I’ve never seen you trying to convert others.”

At her words, Amon thought of Paul’s party.

Paul’s party, who truly came to believe in the Goddess after being saved from death by Amon.

Recalling how he had met them at church just this weekend, Amon answered Kathy’s question with another question.

“What do you think conversion looks like?”

“You know, saints go to heaven, non-believers go to hell, that kind of thing.”

“I do that, but not in the way you’re thinking.”

“I definitely can’t imagine you going around saying that. So how do you do it?”

“Heaven isn’t something to be forced on others. I need to become their heaven and approach them that way.”

“That sounds really cool.”

“It’s a line I’ve been crafting for years.”

Kathy chuckled at Amon’s playful response and continued driving.

Eventually, they arrived at Amon’s house.

“Leave the supplies in the car. See you tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

Amon got out of the passenger seat.

Watching Amon’s retreating back, Kathy murmured.

“Heaven, huh…”

Then, with a slight smile, she drove off again.

Toward the more crowded downtown.

***

The next day.

Having completed their resupply, Amon’s party headed to the dungeon as usual.

After several battles and while taking a break, they assessed their position.

Amon asked Hen, the party’s brain and versatile mage.

“Where did we get to last time?”

“The middle layer. The floor where elite ghouls appear.”

“How many floors are left until the current record, by our count?”

“About 10 floors. That party hasn’t encountered the lich yet either.”

“Then depending on the circumstances, what we call the middle layer might actually be the upper layer.”

“That’s right.”

The versatile mage didn’t deny it.

The party that discovered the lich failed to defeat it, and as a result, the lich retreated deeper into hiding.

Since then, no one had seen the lich, leading some to claim that the information about the boss being a lich might be false.

But Amon’s party was convinced it was a lich.

At least according to the information they had, the lich was certain.

“Perhaps the party that first discovered the lich was also a corporate pawn.”

“That possibility isn’t zero.”

After all, a dungeon boss was necessary to apply the Special Dungeon Law.

Amon and the versatile mage continued to check possible scenarios.

While the party’s two brains were busy thinking, the other members checked their status in their own ways.

[How were those ghouls just now?]

The mute sniper asked using telepathy along with sign language.

One might wonder about the point of sign language when telepathy was available, but she said it was a habit she couldn’t break.

Thanks to this, the party members had learned a few signs, albeit just a little.

The bull-like tank responded to her question.

“What do you mean, how were they?”

[Did it feel like my bullets weren’t penetrating well?]

“You’re the only one using guns here.”

[Ah, right.]

Embarrassed by the tank’s point, the sniper shared what she felt during the recent battle.

[The bullets didn’t seem to penetrate as well as expected.]

“That’s because we’ve descended to lower floors.”

[No, it’s not just that. It was like leather specialized against bullets.]

“…Tell me more.”

[I don’t know if it’s because the ghouls were fast, but even considering we’re on a lower floor, bullets weren’t very effective. It might be my imagination, but it seemed like the ghouls were targeting my gun rather than me.]

The bull tank’s eyes narrowed at her words.

An ordinary party might overlook this, but this party, known for its prudence, didn’t ignore it.

“Leader. Excuse me. I have something to say.”

The tank asked permission to interrupt the discussion between the versatile mage and Amon.

Amon, who had been writing scenarios, looked up.

“What is it?”

“About the ghouls just now. According to Miss Vans, bullets didn’t seem to penetrate well. She says it felt like the ghouls were designed to target her weapon, though it might be her imagination.”

Amon and the versatile mage’s expressions darkened.

Silence fell between the three for a moment.

Amon first sent the tank back to the others, then exchanged a few words with the versatile mage.

Then he tore a piece of paper, wrote something on it, and called the party together again.

“What’s going on?”

Kathy, sensing the unusual atmosphere, asked.

With serious expressions, Amon and the versatile mage first relayed what the mute sniper had said.

Based on her words, they presented a hypothesis.

“The boss might have placed mechanisms on each floor designed to destroy specific equipment.”

If this were the case, the difficulty of conquering this dungeon would increase exponentially.

For example, what if this floor was filled with ghouls specialized in destroying guns, and the next floor with ghouls specialized in destroying swords?

By the floor after that, there would be few humans with proper weapons left.

Adding to Amon’s speculation, the versatile mage elaborated.

“Depending on the case, there might also be floors designed to neutralize specific positions. No, that’s highly likely.”

The mage said that if he were the lich, that’s exactly what he would have done.

The expressions of all party members darkened.

They couldn’t deny it.

“This explains why this dungeon hasn’t been conquered yet…”

[If one person gets filtered out on each floor, no one will reach the lich.]

“Previous parties haven’t shared information until now. They’d be stuck on specific floors, so they wouldn’t have known this. Or they might have known but didn’t tell. Vox thinks the latter is more likely.”

Finally, Kathy clicked her tongue in disapproval.

It wasn’t welcome news.

For those who needed to conquer the dungeon as quickly as possible, a structure that would inevitably drag things out was undesirable.

Therefore, Amon proposed to the party:

“Let’s break the rule just once today and check one floor below.”

Amon suggested breaking their rule of descending only one floor per day.

It was a rule established for safety and prudence, but there was something more important to confirm.

“If such monsters appear on the lower floor, it’s better to prepare as quickly as possible.”

Amon suggested fighting just once on the next floor and then retreating.

Heading directly to the lower floor without exploring and adapting to the current floor could be reckless.

But the party members didn’t reproach him for arbitrarily breaking the rules.

If their ominous premonition was true, breaking the rule once to check below would be a much wiser choice.

Especially now, when they had the luxury to do so, might be the optimal time.

After exchanging glances, Kathy finally spoke as their representative.

“Alright. Let’s check it out.”

“Thanks. Still, everyone prepare thoroughly and be ready to retreat immediately.”

Soon, the party descended to the next floor.

What appeared on the next floor was…

“Be careful, Torso! Those slimes discharge a substance that shorts out cyberware on contact!”

They were slimes clearly specialized in neutralizing the tank who had obviously undergone cyberware surgery.

Fortunately, thanks to Amon and Kathy who hadn’t received mechanical modifications, they quickly dispatched the slimes, but they couldn’t call it a victory.

More slimes approached, surrounding them.

“Prepare to retreat immediately.”

At Amon’s command, the party headed straight for the surface.

They safely reached the surface.

Since they hadn’t conducted a proper exploration, the sun was still rising high.

But Amon’s party didn’t regret today’s abbreviated exploration.

Life was always more precious than money.

Amon addressed the party:

“Good work on today’s exploration. Let’s skip the dungeon tomorrow and have a strategy meeting instead.”

No one objected.

With a promise to meet at Amon’s training ground the next day, the party disbanded.