Chương 106: Chapter 31 The Briefing(Part 1)

"Cut, crush, smash, stab, and pierce. Oh dear, what a pity. Full of holes... Fufufu, cleaning is nice. Silence is my only friend, but if I keep moving forward, surely there will be voices." Though the Witch called it annihilation, each floor was so vast that I could only clean the areas within my line of sight and within the range reached by the smoke. The dog happily ran around, biting into the trash lying here and there as though it were a ball or a Frisbee, and slaughtering it one after another. A voice, huh...

Both when I first encountered the dog and after it became a dog, it would sometimes speak in some language I couldn't understand. Inside the trash can that the Sorts didn't manage, did the monsters have a culture of their own?

"In the beginning, words were born..." I can't remember where I heard it, but language was something that separated oneself from others. After all, if there was no one else, there would be no need to speak. Even the Sorts had spun words, despite saying that it was troublesome. Thinking about it that way, I suppose both the Witch and the Sage could be categorized as others. Sensory-wise, I think we probably share things. Or rather, we do.

Every time the Witch walked forward and slaughtered the trash, I found myself enjoying it more and more, while the Sage seemed to be lounging around, yet somehow I felt like he was doing some kind of work.

"It's fun, but it's not enough. Couldn't something at least as tough as Bite come along? Even if we're just playing around, they're far too fragile."

"Impossible. It's still too shallow. But he won't forgive you." The Witch and the Sage were talking, but I certainly wouldn't allow it. I didn't care if they changed the terrain inside the trash can or annihilated the monsters, but for the time being, I had no intention of going beyond the 35th floor. Of course, I wanted to indulge in entertainment. However, entertainment was entertainment. Since cleaning it alone was impossible, I also had to do the work I'd been asked to do.

Beyond the 15th floor, the terrain became canyon-like, just as I'd seen in the video, with considerable differences in elevation. I'd changed the terrain quite a bit in the process of annihilating the monsters, but it was trash anyway, so the terrain would probably change again soon. I didn't particularly care. However, once I crossed the 20th floor, where the exit gate had been, relatively flat areas became more noticeable, and mechanical debris began appearing here and there.

Unfortunately, there was no safe space, but water, plants, and creatures whose reason for being made that way I couldn't understand were mixed in among the monsters. Why would anyone think a pill bug should fly through the air instead of curling itself into a ball? Its belly was soft, so since it was flying, taking it down from directly underneath was easy, but its shell was harder than I'd expected.

I didn't know whether any of it would be useful, but for the time being, I stored everything, including the boxes, inside my ring, and collected the monsters' spoils as well. Around this area, the monsters had started dropping small bones fairly often, and there were even some whose original forms I couldn't recognize. Were they new models? We'd had the observation type, the bombardment type, the pig-faced type, and the sphere type. So, could the newly appeared one be called a bird?

It flew despite having no verniers and never even flapping its wings. And despite that, it wasn't a long-range type. It was a full-on close-combat type. It approached as smoothly as though it were sliding, then thrust out six telescoping arms like spears without even drawing them back to swing. On top of that, perhaps because it had absorbed the bombardment type, it also fired beams indiscriminately, making it troublesome beyond belief. Its speed was probably faster than Akamine's straight punch.

Because of this guy, my clothes had been torn up quite badly, leaving me half-naked. There were other varieties as well. There were mantis-like creatures, and there were things that I approached thinking were part of the terrain, only for them to suddenly shatter and unleash a storm of blades, trying to carve me to pieces while whipping them around like funnels. The variety was really starting to increase. However, I had one thought. It was about time I wanted some armor. Defeating the monsters wasn't a problem.

When it came to the small bones, I could deal with them somehow or another. As for the damage to the surroundings, that wasn't something I needed to worry about. But there was nothing I could do about my clothes. Among the plants I'd collected, there had been something that looked like a cocoon. I wonder if I could make thread from that... This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Hey, Sage. Don't we have any armor?"

"What's that?"

"No, I mean something to protect the body. I can deploy barriers. But I'm asking whether there's something we can actually put on and use for protection."

"Hmm... In the first place, none of us have bodies. Everyone took theirs off because they were in the way, and since there's no need for such a primitive thing, almost everyone got rid of them. If you want to make some, why don't you ask the blacksmith and the ornamenter? The Witch can spin the fibers. If you don't want to do that, you can give the grass to the alchemist and have them concoct something from it."

"Wait, you can spin it?"

"I can spin it, you know? Was it thread, I think? Magic is fine, and that grass from earlier should work too. If you can use magic, you can do it. Either way, it's up to you." Apparently, although it looked like I had a long way to go, it was possible to make something resembling armor. But why would thread come from an alchemist? Come to think of it, I hadn't asked for the details. I'd ask Takatsuki when I saw him.

"You perceive something called magic as a phenomenon, after all. If you're just cleaning, that's fine, but if you're going to make something with magic, you'd better do it properly. Otherwise, it'll unravel and you'll end up naked." The Sage said something I really didn't want to hear. I didn't know where or how that might happen, but I really didn't want to end up stripping in front of the public.... I had ended up stripped naked in an empty place in Akihabara, but that wasn't something I wanted to do voluntarily.

Even while I was walking and thinking about that, the cleaning of the surrounding area steadily progressed. Eventually, I arrived in front of the exit gate on the 35th floor. Not having to worry about collateral damage was unexpectedly easy. And fun. I'd been diving with the understanding that this was supposed to be a practical-format class, but I didn't know whether thirty people could actually make it this far.

Probably, the people on the side sending them in had selected those who were capable, so they might be able to manage it as individual parties. But making people risk their lives in a class was a different matter. Recklessness and foolhardiness, unless you choose the right time and place for them, were nothing more than pointless deaths. I'd have a problem if they got carried away despite this being a class. Fools don't avoid catching colds because they're fools.

They're fools because they don't realize they've caught one. I changed my clothes and took a smoke. Being half-naked was obviously a problem, so I removed the troublesome camera and put it somewhere it couldn't see me. I changed my underwear as well as the killer-whale hoodie and the shorts I'd been wearing that morning, put on my hat, and retrieved the camera. The dog's smoke dissipated, and it returned to being an ordinary dog, sitting at my feet. The Witch whispered that we should go farther, but I ignored her.

Of course it was fun. And of course it was interesting. But entertainment was entertainment. I couldn't simply indulge in it because I was having fun, and adults had things they needed to do. I retrieved the camera and exited through the gate. The morning sun was visible. When I checked the time and date, it was around six in the morning on the day of the meeting. Apparently, I'd been cleaning inside for almost two and a half days without taking a proper break.

I'd proceeded while aiming for the gate on each floor, but if exploration rather than cleaning were the main objective, no amount of time would ever be enough. At this point, perhaps I should consider bringing vehicles inside, like the foreign groups were doing. After all, not everyone could fly. More importantly, there hadn't been a single safe space before the exit on the 35th floor. Besides, ordinary people needed to rest. They couldn't undertake a forced march like I could.

"Well, what should I do... It's getting late. Bite, let's head back to the hotel."

"Woof!" I walked through the city in the morning glow with Bite. Someone was probably going to complain about the fact that I didn't have a leash... Actually, I hadn't even put a collar on this guy. Could I even get him vaccinated? If I was going to keep him, vaccinations were an obligation, so I figured I probably needed to have it done. Thinking about things like that as I walked, I eventually arrived at the hotel where I was staying.

I almost got lost on the way, but I searched for the route on my smartphone and managed to get there without any trouble. I sent an email to Mochida, took a shower in my room, and rested for a while in my underwear. When I puffed on my kiseru, the drifting smoke stretched out like a ribbon. A lot had happened since I came here, but exploring the Gate alone had been quite enjoyable. This was exactly what entertainment was supposed to be. The pleasure of being freed from work...

Though what I was doing was ultimately still work.

"Good morning."

"Good morning, Kaori." While I was idly lost in thought, Mochida came into the room. Since she was an SP, I didn't mind her entering and leaving my room as she pleased. Still, I would have appreciated at least a knock. I was still wearing nothing but my underwear.

"Tsukasa. Going off on your own like that... Wait, why are you in your underwear!?"

"Because I just took a shower?"

"Anyway, clothes! Please put some clothes on! It's a feast for the eyes."

"Wouldn't you normally call that poison...?" It looked like it was going to be a hot day, but I also had to meet the instructors, so I put on the suit I'd been wearing when I was abducted. I'd washed it properly, so it didn't smell. Besides, was there really any need to frequently wash clothes worn by a body that didn't have metabolism? Well, I did it because it was a habit.

"I'm dressed. Is the person playing the instructor role already at the Meguro Garrison?"

"No, not yet. The reason we're here early this time is because I'm angry. Why would you leave your SP behind and charge straight into a dangerous Gate!? You could at least have said something to me."

"... I'm sorry. My frustration exploded." Considering that I'd been told about the degenerate reactor and that it could take as long as a year before I could return, it was only natural that my capacity had been pushed far beyond its limit. Apparently, I could make a temporary trip home, so I should go back during Obon. And then, with my wife, go to a hot spring and set off fireworks at her grave...

"Haaah... Please be more careful next time. I'm your personal SP, after all. I've also become a Sweeper. Somehow, I've even gotten promoted without realizing it."

"Promoted?" Just being a member of the Metropolitan Police Department already gave me the impression that she was an elite, but had her rank actually gone up? No. Since she was an S-class, perhaps the government had provided her with some sort of reward.

"Believe it or not, I've become a security officer directly under the Cabinet Office!"

"Ohhh! Does that change anything compared with before?"

"I've gone from being with the police to being a government employee. Other than that, not really... Ah, Chiyoda-san is my direct superior." Chiyoda, huh. Becoming a negotiator, getting subordinates, punching some unknown politician, forcing them to resign... He's certainly a busy guy. But if Chiyoda was Mochida's superior, did that mean she'd left Public Security? Well, regardless of which organization you belonged to, civil servants were ultimately people of the country.

If that's the case, am I a government employee too? Then would it be easier to dump everything on the government? No. I'd only just played the tanuki-and-fox game with them the other day. I'd better proceed carefully.

"For this study group, I'll be attending both as a bodyguard and as a participant, so please give me your guidance." Mochida bowed her head to me. Guidance or not, I was only supposed to serve as an advisor. I'd help arrange things, but I had no intention of interfering with the actual instruction so readily. In the first place, the classroom lectures would probably be about laws, while the practical portion was based on actually entering the Gate.

Even if we were going to do that, we'd probably start with those who had already reached the 15th floor.

"I'm only an advisor. I'm completely useless when it comes to classroom lectures, so let's have the instructor work hard. By the way, who is the instructor?"

"It's Miyafuji-san, isn't it? Didn't you, Tsukasa, suggest hiring her? Well, since the classroom lectures are mainly about reading documents, putting it badly, anyone would have been fine. Or rather, as long as they weren't someone under the influence of a particular party, that was enough. The original instructor was from the Self-Defense Forces, but Chiyoda-san pushed back, saying that their practical combat ability wasn't sufficient." I had indeed suggested hiring her, but they'd moved quickly.

The fact that there were quite a few women among them also raised the possibility of a honey trap. This whole thing had originally been government-sponsored. The personnel had consisted only of police officers and Self-Defense Force personnel, but apparently there were some movements taking place behind the scenes as well, rather than this being merely about advice.

Among the people coming this time, the only ones I currently knew personally were Hyodo, Akamine, and Miyafuji, along with the three people Mochida had managed to squeeze in.