Chapter 47

There can be no hesitation in the steps of one with a clear goal.

As if to prove that, there was no hesitation in Amon’s party’s exploration.

Unconditionally fast conquest.

Now, they couldn’t afford to take it slow and prioritize safety, not knowing when the corporations might stab them in the back.

But that didn’t mean they lost their strength of caution.

Cautious, yet fast.

Safe, yet bold.

It meant they were willing to act a little faster and bolder within sufficient grounds.

They were steadily descending one floor every two days.

It was a pace only possible for mid-tier parties confident in their abilities.

Usually, after spending two days in the dungeon, they would rest for a day, effectively descending two floors per week.

In that situation, today was the party’s rest day.

However, even on the party’s rest day, Party Leader Amon was busy.

On rest days, it was his role to stock up on supplies, especially the most important one: food.

At the 3 Dollar Mart near the dungeon, in the meat section, Amon, who was inspecting the meat, spoke.

“Cash. How was the ham we had last time?”

He asked Cash, who was pulling a cart beside him.

Cash’s reaction was negative.

“It was disgustingly bad. And expensive.”

“Honestly, I thought it was bad too. Should we get the one we bought the time before that?”

“Sure.”

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

The 3D printer on the other side of the kiosk printed the ham in 350g portions.

‘Hixen Group really nailed it.’

Ultra-fast 3D printing technology.

With just that one technology, they could outcompete most retailers, including butcher shops.

No labor costs, low maintenance, and it could run 24/7.

No wonder most distributors couldn’t compete.

‘But now it’s 3 Dollar Group’s.’

After taking Hixen Group’s technology, 3 Dollar Group converted all of Hixen’s large marts into 3 Dollar Marts.

A meat franchise suddenly skyrocketed into a major distribution corporation.

Since then, 3 Dollar Group installed meat 3D printers in all 3 Dollar Marts, like the one printing ham in front of Amon.

By the way, if you pay extra, it prints the desired shape with a catchy tune, but hardly anyone uses it except kids.

While the printing was in progress, a doll in a suit on top of the 3D printer made a solemn expression and held up three fingers.

[3 Dollars!]

Amon chuckled and transferred $54 via his phone.

[Thank you!]

A robot offering a handshake.

Amon lightly slapped the robot’s hand and threw the ham into the cart.

Originally, Amon had a 3 Dollar Group executive card in his pocket, but since he was with Cash today, he used a transfer instead.

It might seem like overkill, but in this world, the public’s view of corporate executives isn’t favorable, so it couldn’t be helped.

In this world, corporate executives are synonymous with corrupt nobles.

Since corporations often wreak havoc on civilians, just being known as a corporate executive or their family could ruin friendships.

No wonder corporate executives stick with other executives, and non-executives stick with non-executives.

Moreover, Amon’s party is currently being pursued by that corporation.

In this situation, if Amon pulled out his executive card?

It wouldn’t be strange if the party members suddenly declared they were cutting ties with him.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Amon stopped his unnecessary thoughts and patted Cash on the back.

Cash pushed the cart.

Both carts were piled high with various items.

Not just food, but ammunition too.

True to Hixen… no, 3 Dollar Group’s motto of selling everything, they could buy all the necessary items here.

After stocking up on all the supplies needed for this exploration, the two packed them into boxes and loaded them into Cash’s car.

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

“Don’t mention it. Get in.”

Cash took the wheel.

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

Soon, Cash’s car started moving.

In the car, Amon muttered.

“When will I ever buy a car like this…”

“Why? No money?”

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

Strictly speaking, some of the equipment was looted from Hixen Group, and the essence was spent on the entire party’s healing, but either way, the expenses were high.

At Amon’s words, Cash burst out laughing.

“Just don’t overdo it and hitch a ride. I’ll lend you the keys if you need them.”

“I can’t keep doing this forever. Speaking of which, how did you buy this? Your parents?”

“My dad bought it. He got it with the alimony from when he divorced my mom, who got into a cult.”

“Uh… um…”

Confucian boy Amon was at a loss for words.

Even if he weren’t a Confucian boy, it wasn’t an easy question to answer.

But Cash, who had spoken, didn’t seem bothered.

To her, the past was just the past.

“Still, it’s a good thing. My mom divorced before she could give all the alimony money to the cult.”

“That… sorry.”

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

“You can curse that priest all you want.”

“I already am.”

Cash turned the steering wheel.

The car was heading to Amon’s house.

As they got closer to Amon’s house, the traffic got heavier, and the car couldn’t move.

Bored in the usual traffic jam, Cash spoke again.

“By the way, don’t you do missionary work?”

“Sounds grand when you call it that. I do, though. Why?”

“For someone who does, I’ve never seen you proselytizing.”

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

After being saved from death by Amon once, they truly started believing in the goddess.

Recalling their meeting at the church last weekend, Amon responded to Cash’s question with another question.

“What do you think proselytizing is?”

“Stuff like ‘saintly heaven, unbelievers go to hell.'”

“I do it, but not the way you think.”

“Honestly, I can’t imagine you doing that. So how do you do it?”

“Heaven isn’t something you force. I have to become the other person’s heaven and approach them.”

“That sounds really cool.”

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

At Amon’s smug expression, Cash chuckled and drove on.

Soon, the two arrived at Amon’s house.

“Leave the stuff in the car, see you tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

Amon got out of the passenger seat.

Watching Amon’s retreating back, Cash muttered.

“Heaven, huh…”

Then, she chuckled and drove off again.

Into the bustling city center.

***

The next day.

After stocking up, Amon’s party headed to the dungeon as usual.

After a few battles and taking breaks, they checked their position.

Amon asked the party’s brain, the Bisexual Mage Hen.

“Where did we get to last time?”

“The middle layer. We reached the floor where elite ghouls appear.”

“How many floors are left to our current record?”

“About 10 floors. That party hasn’t met the Lich yet either.”

“Then depending on the situation, the current middle layer might be the upper layer.”

“Right.”

The Bisexual Mage didn’t deny it.

The party that discovered the Lich couldn’t defeat it, and as a result, the Lich hid even deeper.

Since then, no one has seen the Lich, leading some to argue that the information about the Lich being the boss might be false.

But Amon’s party was sure it was the Lich.

At least according to the information they had, it was definitely the Lich.

“Maybe the party that first discovered the Lich was also a corporate pawn.”

“Possibility isn’t zero.”

To apply the Dungeon Special Law, a dungeon boss is necessary.

Amon and the Bisexual Mage continued to check possible scenarios.

While the two brains of the party were hard at work, the other members also checked their conditions in their own ways.

[How was the ghoul just now?]

The Mute Sniper spoke in sign language along with telepathy.

At the point where there’s telepathy, it might seem meaningless, but it’s a habit, so what can you do?

Thanks to that, the party members had also learned a bit of sign language.

The Water Buffalo Tanker responded to her.

“What do you mean, how was it?”

[I felt like my bullets weren’t penetrating well.]

“You’re the only one using a gun here.”

[Oh, right.]

Embarrassed by the Tanker’s remark, the Sniper shared her thoughts on the recent battle.

[The bullets didn’t penetrate as well as I thought.]

“That’s because we’ve gone down a floor.”

[No, it felt like their skin was specialized against bullets.]

“…Can you elaborate?”

[The ghouls were quick, so even considering the floor, the bullets weren’t very effective. It might just be my imagination, but it felt like the ghouls were targeting my gun, not me.]

At her words, the Water Buffalo Tanker’s eyes narrowed.

An ordinary party might have overlooked this, but this party, tightly bound by caution, didn’t.

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

The Tanker asked for permission to join the discussion between the Bisexual Mage and Amon.

Amon, who was writing down scenarios, looked up.

“What’s up?”

“It’s about the ghouls just now. Miss Bens said the bullets didn’t penetrate well. It might just be her imagination, but she said it felt like the ghouls were made to target her weapon.”

Amon and the Bisexual Mage’s expressions darkened.

A brief silence fell between the three.

Amon first sent the Tanker back to the others and exchanged a few words with the Bisexual Mage.

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

“What’s going on?”

Cash, sensing the unusual atmosphere, asked.

Amon and the Bisexual Mage, still with serious expressions, first relayed the Mute Sniper’s words.

Then, based on her words, they proposed a hypothesis.

“Maybe the boss has a gimmick of destroying specific equipment on each floor.”

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

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

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

The Bisexual Mage added to Amon’s speculation.

“Depending on the situation, there might also be floors that neutralize specific positions. No, the possibility is high.”

If I were the Lich, I would have set it up like that, said the Mage.

The party members’ expressions also darkened.

They couldn’t deny it.

“If that’s the case, it makes sense why this dungeon hasn’t been conquered yet…”

[If they filter out one person per floor, no one would reach the Lich.]

“Previous parties haven’t shared information. They must have been stuck on specific floors, so they didn’t know. Or they knew but didn’t share. Vox thinks the latter is more likely.”

Finally, Cash clicked her tongue.

It wasn’t exactly welcome news.

As a party that needed to conquer the dungeon as soon as possible, a structure that would drag things out was the last thing they wanted.

So, Amon proposed to the party.

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

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

It was a rule set for safety and caution, but there was something more they needed to confirm.

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

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

Going to the next floor without adapting through exploration on this floor could be reckless.

But the party members didn’t scold him for suggesting to break the rules.

If the ominous预感 was true, breaking the rules once to check below was a much wiser choice.

Especially now, when they had some leeway, might be the optimal time.

After exchanging glances, Cash finally spoke on behalf of the group.

“Alright. Let’s check it out.”

“Thanks. But everyone, prepare to retreat immediately after.”

Soon, the party descended to the next floor.

What appeared on the next floor was…

“Be careful, Torso! Those slimes have a substance that discharges cyberware!”

Slimes specialized in neutralizing tanks with cyberware enhancements.

Fortunately, thanks to Amon and Cash, who hadn’t undergone mechanical enhancement procedures, the slimes were quickly dealt with, but they couldn’t celebrate.

The slimes surrounded them and approached.

“Prepare to retreat immediately.”

At Amon’s words, the party quickly headed back to the surface.

They safely reached the surface.

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

But Amon’s party didn’t regret cutting today’s exploration short.

Life is always more precious than money.

Amon spoke to the party.

“Good work today. Let’s not enter 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.

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