Chapter 65
Finger Man adjusted the position of his sunglasses slightly and lifted them, locking eyes with the tal monster.
The tal monster scraped its thick, sharp, hardened steel claws together with a grinding "gachin, gachin," sending off aggressive sparks and sound.
Then, in the very next instant, the tal monster's form vanished.
Faster than the wind, like a hamr striking down, a slash of steel ca crashing in.
Behind the black lenses, his gaze shifted. Downward.
Finger Man reacted with lightning speed, twisting his upper body back instinctively.
The steel claws sliced through empty air.
Tracking its path with his eyes, Finger Man muttered, "Fast..."
The second strike followed imdiately, unleashed by the tal monster.
A sharp blow swung down from above.
Finger Man tracked the blow with his eyes——smack. He caught the steel wrist barehanded.
The impact from the overhead strike surged through Finger Man's elbow, shoulder, waist, knee, and ankle in an instant, then flowed straight into the dungeon floor.
As a result, radial cracks burst out beneath Finger Man's feet with a loud "beki beki beki!"
The scale of the cracks told the story of how much energy had gone into that attack.
"Heavy..." Finger Man muttered in a tone of surprised awe.
But the one who was truly shocked was the tal monster.
The tal monster tried to retreat and pull its arm back.
It clearly hadn't expected to be caught.
Finger Man clenched harder, trying to keep his grip on the arm. Veins bulged from the wrist peeking out of his coat sleeve, and the crushing grip strength was obvious even at a glance.
However, the enemy was a deep monster.
Even Finger Man, for all his strength, after one second, two, three——couldn't hold it, and the monster broke free.
"Tch—damn, it got away."
"Chii chii!"
"Gii!"
Tsuruo Hasegawa widened his eyes, doubting what he had just seen.
(That young man... did he just stop the tal monster's attack? Can he see it that clearly? Enough to catch it barehanded? No, it's more than that. Even his Power is at a level to match it...?!)
Tsuruo Hasegawa turned his gaze toward the tal monster that had taken distance from Finger Man.
And then he noticed sothing even more incredible.
Its forearm was warped.
As if it had been gripped tightly and crushed inward.
(No way...!)
It was obvious that the cause of that warping was Finger Man's grip strength.
(What kind of Power would you need to do that...?!)
He looked back at Finger Man.
His expression was unreadable behind the sunglasses.
Tilting his head, he murmured, "Its shape changed...? Is that a transformation ability... (*It's not)," looking thoughtful yet slightly frustrated as he flexed his hand.
"If I beat it inside the magic circle, I get double the experience points... I'm not letting it go."
"Chii chii chii!!"
"Gii!"
The tal monster raised its arm and stared intently at the warped spot—then spun on its heel and bolted.
""Huh?""
Both Finger Man and Tsuruo Hasegawa let out baffled voices.
The tal monster's back shrank rapidly into the distance.
Apparently, the tal monster had decided to do what it did best—run away.
"You've gotta be kidding ?! Like hell I'm letting you escape, you bastard!!"
"Chii chii!!"
"Giiyeh!!"
Team Finger Man erupted into chaos.
"Wait, young man!!"
"What is it, Violence-san! We don't have ti to talk right now!"
Finger Man shouted back irritably as Tsuruo Hasegawa called out to him.
"I don't know why, but if it's retreating, isn't that enough...? That thing is an unimaginably dangerous monster."
"An unimaginably dangerous monster... (True. If we leave it alone, it's obvious it'll trigger ugly conflicts that expose the worst of humanity.)"
"That's why you should pull back here. I know you're strong. You got to A-rank in no ti—that makes you a prodigy. Your grip strength is a national treasure for Japanese explorers. You've got talent. So please, don't throw your life away here."
It was a heartfelt warning from Tsuruo Hasegawa.
This young man was strong. Incredibly strong. That much was clear.
But even so, he couldn't believe Finger Man could take down a Wandering Boss.
That was the current assessnt.
Finger Man pursed his lips and kept adjusting his sunglasses.
"There's no stopping now—nobody can stop."
"Y-You... what kind of person are you...?"
"(Yeah, there's no way anyone could stop in front of the tal monster.)"
Finger Man's coat fluttered as he ran down the ruined corridor.
"W-Wait! That's reckless! I know you're strong! But there are things in this world that one person simply can't do alone! That monster is beyond what any individual can handle!"
Tsuruo Hasegawa shouted.
He scread with all his might.
But Finger Man didn't stop.
Soon, Finger Man's silhouette vanished from sight.
"Ahh, what have I done... He tried to save , and in return... a young talent with such a bright future—no, a truly special talent—is going to be lost..."
It was precisely because Tsuruo Hasegawa had once failed and had his spirit broken that he understood.
Because he too had once lived recklessly, chasing his lofty ambitions, he understood why a young man like that couldn't stop once he started running.
That's exactly why he had wanted to stop him.
(I couldn't even save one young person... How powerless I am...)
——Gagon! Vagon! Zugagon!
"It's... it's started..."
From the other end of the corridor ca an incredible roar.
Tsuruo Hasegawa could easily imagine that the young man and the tal monster were fighting.
All he could do was lean against the wall, pressing on his wounds, stiffening at the shocks and explosions he felt through the stone, eyes closed, silently praying for it to end.
Eventually, things grew quiet.
Had the battle ended?
Thinking that, he cracked his eyes open slightly.
And then, he heard it.
——Snap!
A crisp sound.
A well-dried, clean snap.
What followed imdiately after was a trendous explosion.
No, more than a sound—it felt like lightning... no, a shockwave.
It was visible to the eye—space itself trembled, light bent, and with a piercing scream, a scorching wind blasted through the corridor, as if to push out all the air. Tsuruo Hasegawa braced himself.
"Ugh!"
The heat burned his face.
Tsuruo Hasegawa ducked behind rubble and endured.
The walls, ceiling, and floor of the corridor cracked, eroded, collapsed, and were blown away.
The roar of destruction, the heat, the light, and the shockwave churned in a frenzy of ruin.
Crash.
Amid the confusion of vibration, light, and sound, Tsuruo Hasegawa thought sothing had fallen next to him.
Eventually the light and heat faded, and even the ringing in his ears subsided.
Once the shaking stopped completely, stable footing returned.
Strangely, that stable footing now felt unnatural.
The chaos had made trembling feel like the default state of balance.
Tsuruo Hasegawa cracked his eyes open slightly.
Dust was swirling all around, making it hard to see.
Still, it was clear that an enormous crater had ford right in front of him.
"What the..."
He couldn't tell the exact size of the crater.
But by diater alone, it easily exceeded 100 ters.
The ceiling and the floor had also been gouged out significantly.
However, since the dungeon floors were separated by dozens of ters of earth layers, it hadn't gone so far as to connect to the upper or lower floors.
Even so, Tsuruo Hasegawa had never seen or heard of such an outrageous scene.
Suddenly, as if rembering sothing, he glanced to the side.
It was the spot where he'd felt like sothing had fallen.
"Hhk"
His eyes flew open.
What had been beside Tsuruo Hasegawa—
It was a red-hot sothing.
It was making a sizzling noise and had a smooth shape.
Upon close observation, the faint remnants of its original form suggested it had once been humanoid and made of a tallic substance.
The barely preserved silhouette.
The size, the circumstances—
Each served as a clue, and Tsuruo Hasegawa arrived at the identity of the red-hot object.
But even knowing, it was beyond belief.
No words ca out.
He didn't know what he was supposed to say.
It was utterly unacceptable as reality.
Tap tap tap.
Footsteps echoed.
Through the dusty haze, a silhouette appeared. It was coming this way.
A human-shaped silhouette, a slug perched on the shoulder, and small birds flapping nearby.
As expected, that young man returned, cutting through the dusty air with his shoulders.
Tsuruo Hasegawa stared in shock.
The young man flipped open his Zippo lighter.
The red-hot object—the remains of the tal monster—shattered, turned into particles of light, and were drawn into the lighter.
Watching him work so matter-of-factly, as if there were nothing unusual about it, Tsuruo Hasegawa couldn't help but let out a wry chuckle. His shoulders trembled slightly. It was just too funny. What had he even been worried about—?
"Young man... was it you who defeated that monster?"
"Yes, I took care of it properly."
"I see."
(How ambitious, how exhilarating...)
"Young man, may I ask your na?"
With a slightly troubled expression—"Giving my real na to Violence-san, huh..." he seed to ponder, then as if struck by inspiration, he opened his mouth.
"Finger Man."
"Hhk... I see. So it was you. You were that Finger Man."
To Tsuruo Hasegawa, that was a perfectly satisfactory answer.
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