Chapter 620: Mysterious Voice (2)

After concluding the dungeon expedition, which ended with exploring a Mystery Dungeon and two rounds of sex with the Boss.

Unexpectedly finding myself getting off work a little early, I first returned home to sort things out.

It seemed like I needed to talk to this mysterious voice that had suddenly appeared in my head, at least for a moment, to figure out what it was.

Moreover, since it was the voice that started echoing in my head right after exiting the Mystery Dungeon, perhaps it was a voice that knew the truth about the artificial dungeon I and the Boss had entered.

Above all else, I was quite curious about the reason why it suddenly started clinging to me, calling me ‘Master’, ‘Master’, when I don’t even know its identity.

「Master, surely you aren’t thinking of not ruling out the possibility of mental contamination from this untrustworthy external access?」

「I’m not going to cause mental contamination or anything! Look at this bitch acting territorial just because she got to Master first!」

「It’s not territoriality, but rather a defense system based on objective information to ensure Master’s safety…」

‘Esila, I understand how you feel, but let’s talk first. At least after we know what this thing is, we should respond, right? If it seems dangerous, it won’t be too late to block it then.’

「…Understood.」

「As expected, you’re reasonable, just like the person I chose as Master!」

‘Since I don’t even know your identity yet, don’t arbitrarily claim to be Master.’

The fact that this thing was suspicious hadn’t changed from the moment it crawled into my head without warning.

It might have been a new type of monster, or perhaps something related to mental contamination, as Esila said.

Fortunately, it seemed like Esila could resolve it somehow, so if anything seemed off, it would be fine to block it then.

「I, I really am not a monster or anything! It’s just that… I admit I approached a bit hastily because I found someone worthy of becoming the owner of my dungeon for the first time in nearly a hundred years…」

‘…Owner of the dungeon? What are you talking about?’

「Uhm, let me introduce myself first. As for me, I’m the creator of the dungeon Master just entered with the hunter named Seo Ok-hee. By the way, that dungeon is a masterpiece among masterpieces that I spent my entire life creating. And my name is…」

‘…Your name?’

「Uh, wait a moment… That, that is…」

「Seeing as you can’t respond promptly, it undoubtedly is a mental contamination-type monster unable to reveal its identity. If you grant permission, I will immediately take action to block access…」

「N-no! It’s just that I haven’t been called for so long, I forgot! For almost a hundred years, no one has called my name, how am I supposed to remember it?!」

「Your excuse is suspicious. There’s no more value in listening, Master.」

「N-no, no! This is truly a suitable talent that has appeared in tens of thousands of years! Please don’t block me! Please!!」

Esila, with a stubborn attitude, tried to block the new voice somehow, while the mysterious voice cried out pleadingly not to block it.

Even so, pushing it away so harshly without even hearing its story made me feel somewhat sorry, so I decided to listen a little longer for now.

‘Since I don’t know its name, I’ll call you ‘Creator’ for now.’

「You, You can call me whatever you want! As long as Master uses my dungeon, it doesn’t matter what you call me!」

‘You mentioned that earlier, didn’t you? What exactly is this ‘owner of the dungeon’ you’re talking about? Are you referring to the owner of that artificial dungeon that I and the Boss entered?’

「Ah, right. I should explain what kind of dungeon it is first. If I explain everything, it seems like it will be a long story, is that okay?」

‘Try to summarize only the core points as much as possible.’

An artificial dungeon that anyone could see looked undeniably artificially made, and a suspicious voice claiming to be its creator.

That mysterious voice began explaining the dungeon it created into my mind.

「First of all, in my previous life, I was a Dungeon Technician from South Korea, born with the awakened ability called ‘Dungeon Creator’. Well, even calling myself a Dungeon Technician, back then there wasn’t even such a profession, so I was just using it to create a secret dungeon that also served as my residence.」

‘If you’re a Dungeon Technician, you seal areas that have undergone Dungeonization into dungeons, or you’re a key figure in creating artificial training dungeons, aren’t you? But why didn’t you work as a Dungeon Technician and specifically used it only to create secret dungeons for that purpose?’

「Even just a hundred years ago, it was an era when the exact knowledge regarding the creation and destruction of dungeons wasn’t known. At that time, Dungeon Technicians were unfortunately mostly seen as people who carelessly created dungeons and left them, causing monster waves. As a result, whenever a monster wave occurred somewhere, awakened individuals involved in dungeon creation were all killed off. So naturally, we had to hide, right?」

「Ah… Right. Around a hundred years ago, I think I heard something about such conspiracy theories circulating widely across the globe…」

「Now, times have changed and the treatment of Dungeon Technicians has improved, but of course, that’s irrelevant to me back then~.」

Well, I don’t believe everything this mysterious voice is saying, but if it were true, it was a bit of an unfortunate case of an awakened ability born in the wrong era.

In this era, a profession like Dungeon Creator would be sought after by all sorts of major guilds, who’d be scrambling to recruit them.

‘…But what does this ‘owner of the dungeon’ thing have to do with your unfortunate past?’

「Just listen further. Anyway, the era I lived in was a time when even the awakened ability ‘Dungeon Manager’ was persecuted, and furthermore, women who couldn’t use their awakened abilities were all weeded out, you see?」

‘Mm-hmm.’

「Naturally, since I couldn’t reveal my awakened ability, I was treated as a woman without abilities, so naturally, I couldn’t even get a boyfriend. So, normally, I should have died an old maid, or been killed by a witch hunt because I was a Dungeon Technician. That would have been the normal outcome.」

‘Mm-hmm.’

「But that’s too unfair, no matter how I think about it. Just because I was born with the awakened ability ‘Dungeon Creator’, does it make sense to die without ever having sex? Huh?」

‘…Huh?’

It felt like the story was veering off in a strange direction at that moment, but even after that, the ‘Creator’s’ explanation continued without stopping.

She immediately explained the circumstances of why she came to create that kind of artificial dungeon.

「That’s why I made the dungeon you and that girl Seo Ok-hee entered last time. Dubbed, ‘The Dungeon You Can’t Leave Unless You Have Sex’~! Well, to be precise, it’s a dungeon I made to escape my virginity!」

‘What?’

「How did you like it after going inside? The fact that you came out without using the reset service undoubtedly means you liked it, right? Huh?」

…I never imagined the dungeon that the Boss and I explored through so much hardship was created for such a trivial reason.

The straightforward naming sense of ‘The Dungeon You Can’t Leave Unless You Have Sex’ was problematic, but rather, considering a dungeon with such a name, I, recalling how dangerous it had gotten, asked her again.

‘No, wait. But why is that dungeon ‘The Dungeon You Can’t Leave Unless You Have Sex’? If that was simply the purpose, why were there monsters and why was the dungeon collapsing?’

「Huh? Well, of course, for a man and woman who aren’t lovers to have sex, they need to be put in the mood, right? So, the dungeon’s difficulty is adjusted to match the couple’s awakened abilities, making it barely manageable, and while they overcome the dungeon together like that, the feeling of excitement towards each other is the start. Shall we call it the ‘swinging bridge effect’ in technical terms?」

‘…Then, if by mistake a life-threatening situation arises.’

「Of course, I manipulate the dungeon to narrowly escape the crisis and change things. Like a monster suddenly collapsing because its previous wounds flared up, or the collapsing dungeon temporarily stopping its collapse by getting tangled up amongst itself~!」

The events from a few hours ago, where I ran hard holding Seo Ok-hee the Boss as if it were a real crisis, felt futile.

In the end, it means it wasn’t a crisis, whether the dungeon collapsed or not, even if I had done nothing.

Even the monsters didn’t need the Boss to catch them so laboriously.

Whether she knew what I was thinking or not, the ‘Creator’ continued explaining the dungeon she created with a somewhat cheerful voice.

I too continued listening to her story and, for now, confirmed the structure of the dungeon.

「Step by step like that, as they progressed through the stages of mutual excitement, I guide them into the prepared white room, gradually increase the level of physical contact, and finally, in the end, the man and woman have relations and make them leave together. In that process, they also share love between man and woman~. And just in case the man they had sex with wasn’t to their liking, I also included a function to reset their past and memories of entering the dungeon~.」

‘So the reset service existed for that purpose…?.’

「But after dedicating my whole soul to fulfilling my mission and creating that dungeon, around the time I thought about using it for the first time, a problem arose~.」

‘What problem?’

「It’s nothing much, really. I just died~.」

…That was definitely not ‘nothing much’.

This woman simply cannot read the room.