The Dungeon Seeker promotion had been running for several days.
December 24th, 3 a.m.
Hanabane Rui, who had been busy with the Dungeon Seeker collaboration throughout the day and evening, was hard at work.
“…It’s Christmas Eve.”
Realizing this fact, Rui let out a small sigh of irritation.
This was the ti of year when couples nationwide were at their peak of excitent. Rui thought if they were going to be so hot and bothered, they might as well boil over to 100 degrees Celsius and die. All of them.
Not that Rui particularly wanted a partner.
Rui had never thought about wanting to experience love. No more than Aurora had.
It was just that Rui didn’t particularly like seeing people happier than her.
“Maybe I should take a break…”
Rui leaned back in her chair.
She was working on preparing materials, mostly PowerPoint slides, for an upcoming planned broadcast.
‘Everything’s going smoothly.’
That’s what Rui thought.
There were a few preliminary steps to handle before broadcasting the Aurora Showdown.
First, she needed to strengthen the camaraderie among the Leviathan team mbers. Lately, they had been frequently doing Dungeon Seeker collaboration streams together, and by now, the viewers probably assud they were close.
Still, Rui wanted to solidify this perception further. She had an idea for a simple project to build that bond, but since she didn’t have the energy to handle it herself, she planned to leave it to soone else. She had already tossed the idea to Inui Kirin, trusting that it would be taken care of.
anwhile, Rui was preparing for "Anna’s Punishnt."
“...You’ve gotten pretty good at ordering your seniors around.”
Rui chuckled despite herself, finding the situation amusing.
It was Laura’s request. She wanted to execute a specific project as Anna’s punishnt, and Rui’s involvent was deed essential. Thus, Rui was left to handle the preparations for the broadcast.
Not that it was necessarily a bad thing.
“Anna’s Punishnt” would take place on Rui’s channel, and it provided an excellent opportunity to further strengthen her connection to superstar Laura.
“…Just a little more work after a short break,” Rui murmured.
Ding!
Just then, a notification chid from Discord.
The sender was from the Leviathan server.
“...At this hour?”
Rui opened the Discord window.
【This_Code: Leviathan Server】
Online—3
Hanabane Rui: Working
Aurora: Playing Labyrinthos: Dungeon Seeker
Kaga ro: Playing Labyrinthos: Dungeon Seeker
Three people were online at this ungodly hour.
And the ssage was from none other than their superstar.
Aurora
[@Hanabane Rui]
[Co here.]
Just two sentences. That was it.
...Co where, exactly? Surely she wasn’t asking her to co to Korea? Rui had never once traveled abroad.
“Is she streaming…?”
Checking YouTube, Rui found that Laura and ro were streaming together.
It didn’t seem like a planned collaboration; it looked more like Laura had been streaming alone and called ro in midway.
Rui found this slightly surprising.
Dungeon Seeker was a harsh ga for players. If it were a typical ga, Laura wouldn’t bother calling soone else in. She’d have just obliterated the enemies on her own.
But in this ga, it seed Laura couldn’t wield her usual overwhelming power, so she must have brought in ro for assistance.
And now, apparently, even that wasn’t enough, so she was calling on Rui.
‘I’d prefer to keep working.’
Still, it was about ti for a break. “Anna’s Punishnt” broadcast was planned for next week or the week after, so while she wasn’t exactly swimming in free ti, it wasn’t a dire rush either.
Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to show the Leviathan team mbers being close and working together.
Reluctantly, Rui booted up her VR equipnt and logged into Dungeon Seeker.
【System: Aurora has used the “Summoning Stone” item.】
【System: Will you respond to the summon? Y/N】
As soon as Rui logged in, a ssage popped up.
The Summoning Stone was an item purchasable in the Dungeon Seeker shop. It cost a hefty 1,000 gold.
When Rui pressed the Y button, her vision wavered.
A rotten sll wafted through the air, tinged with the stench of blood and vomit.
The nauseating odor filled the space entirely.
“You’ve arrived?” Laura asked.
ro was nowhere in sight.
【Holy Church Heresy Tracking Unit “White Crow” Squad mber Status】
【Healer Aurora: Online】
【Scout Hanabane Rui: Online】
【Survivor Kaga ro: Unknown】
“...Where’s ro?”
“Who knows? I lost sight of her a while ago. I suppose she’s dead by now?”
“…Why do you sound so cheerful about it?”
“Death is common in this ga, isn’t it? Either way, go find ro’s corpse.”
That was Laura’s order. From a junior who had been active for less than half a year.
The treatnt from her junior was still rough.
Not that Rui particularly disliked it.
“I’ll head this way; you take the other direction,” Laura instructed.
“You sure you’ll be okay on your own?”
“Are you asking out of concern for , or are you just scared of being separated from ?”
Laura smirked and walked off. …Why did Rui feel like she’d just lost sothing by showing concern?
Well, it was more efficient to split up and search.
‘Laura will be fine.’
Laura’s class was Healer, which had incredibly low survivability, yet sohow, she inspired trust. Since starting the ga, Laura hadn’t died even once. How was that even possible?
Rui began her exploration.
Dungeon Seeker had six classes, which could be grouped into three categories:
Scout/Explorer: For map navigation.
Survivor/Protector: For combating monsters.
Collector/Healer: For earning money.
Rui’s class, Scout, specialized in detecting creatures and objects in the vicinity.
She carefully moved forward, picking up faint sounds in the distance. Footsteps. From the sound alone, Rui could tell the person was slightly taller than her and humanoid.
‘Is it ro’s footsteps?’
They matched her mory of ro’s steps, but Rui wasn’t careless enough to approach without caution.
“….”
She opened a door.
The room resembled a laboratory.
Toppled shelves held broken test tubes, and fragnts of flasks littered the floor. The workbench was destroyed, with moss growing in patches.
In the corner of the room, however, a locker remained intact.
While lockers in gas like this often held surprises, Rui’s Scout skill confird it was safe. She slipped inside.
‘I’ll wait here for now.’
The owner of the footsteps would eventually pass by. Rui decided to remain hidden and wait.
The footsteps grew louder.
Click. Click.
Even though she listened several tis, the sound was clearly that of shoes. Naturally, it wasn’t a monster that would be wearing shoes.
However, the figure that soon appeared was not human.
It was ro. But not ro.
Sothing was embedded in her chest. A leech-like thing. Not just one—upon closer inspection, there were more black objects attached to her crown and the back of her neck.
Spiderweb-like black veins spread across her skin, covering her entire body. Her pupils were unfocused, her gaze empty.
“Ah… ugh…”
A dry, rasping voice.
Rui had seen ro infected during one of Laura’s previous Ace Assault streams, but this was similar, yet distinctly different.
She’d been overpowered by so kind of monster.
“…I’ve found ro.”
Rui quickly pulled out her radio to contact Laura.
[Really? Can you describe where you are?]
“…It looks like a laboratory. I’m hiding in a locker right now, and ro seems to be parasitized by so kind of strange creature.”
[What does the creature look like?]
“Well… it looks like a leech…”
[That’s troubleso. You can’t kill those things unless you burn them. Can you get out of there?]
Rui cautiously peeked outside to assess the situation.
“Not sure… she’s practically right in front of …”
[No helping it, then.]
Through the radio, Rui heard Laura sigh.
CRACK!
ro’s head twisted suddenly.
Sohow, Laura had already entered the laboratory. She was holding a steel pipe.
“Ah… ugh…”
WHACK! CRUNCH!
The sound of sothing breaking echoed loudly.
ro, despite being struck, didn’t seem to feel pain. Like a zombie, she simply reached out toward Laura.
Laura, looking irritated, continued to swing the steel pipe with force.
WHACK!
Another resounding blow, and…
Suddenly, sothing snake-like popped out from ro’s waist. It looked like a tail.
The tail, sharp at the tip, slithered into Laura’s blind spot and lunged toward her leg.
“Hm.”
THUMP!
Laura nonchalantly stomped on it, pinning it to the ground. That alone was enough to block the attack.
WHACK! CRUNCH! WHACK! CRUNCH!
The steel pipe swung freely, creating deep bruises all over ro’s body.
The pipe gradually bent out of shape, and as it did, ro’s movents began to falter. Her body seed unable to bear its own weight.
“Rui, do you have any rope?”
Apparently deciding the pipe was no longer useful, Laura casually tossed it aside and picked up what looked like a broken table leg. …Was she planning to fight with that now?
“Rope…? I don’t have any on , but I’ll look around.”
Rui stepped out of the locker and used her Scout skill to locate so rope. Luckily, she found so nearby.
When Rui returned with the rope, ro was crawling on the floor, completely subdued.
“I’ve got the rope.”
“Hand it over.”
Laura snatched the rope from Rui and skillfully bound ro’s hands and feet.
ro struggled, but it was futile. Laura had tied her up so securely that she couldn’t put up any resistance.
“You’re good at tying knots…”
“I read about it in books. Knowing how to tie knots can be quite advantageous in survival situations.”
“Survival? Oh, right, you used to be into camping, didn’t you?”
“Not really. I’ve just had a lot of experience sleeping outdoors.”
“For a noblewoman, why would you sleep outside so often? …Anyway, what are we going to do about this?”
Rui gestured at ro with her eyes.
Laura had said the parasites could only be killed with fire, but there didn’t seem to be any tools for starting a fire nearby. Though, given how good Laura was at making fires, it probably wouldn’t be a problem.
“There’s sothing I want to try. Will you help ?”
“Sothing you want to try?”
Rui tilted her head in curiosity.
Ten minutes later.
Laura was carrying ro (along with the parasitic creatures) on her back as they left the dungeon.
“Ugh…”
Drool dripped from ro’s mouth, soaking Rui’s shoulder.
…How had it co to this?
Dungeon Seeker, like RE:sir Company, Phasmophobia, and Content Watching, was ultimately a ga about making money. Strictly speaking, Content Watching was a bit different, but the premise was similar.
In Dungeon Seeker, players were reconnaissance agents sent ahead to gather information for raiding parties tasked with clearing dungeons. Because of this, all dungeon-related data was valuable.
Records of dungeon ecosystems.
Mapping information.
Rare ores or items unique to dungeons.
Even parts of monsters’ bodies.
‘If you could bring back an entire monster intact, wouldn’t that be worth a lot of money?’
With that thought, Laura had ordered Rui to bring ro back.
As for herself, Laura stayed behind in the dungeon.
There was no need for both of them to leave when just one person could handle transporting ro. It made more sense for Laura to stay and continue collecting valuable resources.
As she explored the map, updating mapping data and stuffing her bag with found items:
【Exploration Results】
Dungeon Creature Submission: 50,000G
Party mber Resurrection Fee (Employee Discount): -100G
It seed Rui had safely brought ro out of the dungeon.
Fifty thousand gold.
Not bad at all.
‘Usually, a single exploration earns around 10,000 gold.’
Whether it was RE:sir Company, Phasmophobia, or Content Watching, gas of this genre often treated monsters as sothing to avoid.
Dungeon Seeker was no exception, with most monsters being extrely difficult to kill. Even those that could be killed often required specific thods.
Given the difficulty of subduing monsters, their body parts—or entire corpses—fetched high prices. Capturing them alive seed to be even more lucrative.
【Summoning Stone (1,000G)】
【Weight: 0.5 / Consumable】
【Use this item to summon a party mber. If the party is full or the mber refuses, the item will be consud without effect.】
【System: Kaga ro has been summoned using a Summoning Stone.】
“You’ve got to be kidding . Selling off like this?”
ro’s voice was filled with disbelief the mont she was summoned.
“Beating soone like a sandbag! Do you have any idea how scary that was? It was like watching a Yakuza movie! Seriously, tell the truth. Did you used to be so kind of thug, my lady?”
“Oh my, you’ve got such wild ideas, ro.”
“Wild ideas? WILD IDEAS?! You sold off like a slave, beat without hesitation when I got parasitized, and you expect to believe you’re not holding a grudge against ?!”
“How could I ever hate you? I treasure you so much.”
Laura put an arm around ro’s shoulder. They were friends, after all.
“ro, think about it. Who else has such close physical contact with ?”
“…No one, really. But this still feels like being a lackey…”
“And who else in the world would stay up playing a ga with you at this hour? That’s what makes us truly close friends, don’t you think?”
“Hmm.”
ro seed like she wanted to retort but couldn’t think of anything to say. She looked both frustrated and a little pleased to be called a friend.
Laura had recently noticed that ro was a bit of an "I-noticed" type—soone who secretly craved attention and connection.
“Ahem. Then as a friend, could you treat a little more gently?”
“Of course.”
When ro sneakily reached for her backside, Laura swatted her hand away with a smile.
“My dearest friend, ro. I have one more favor to ask of you.”
“A favor?”
“Yes.”
Laura nodded.
“Get parasitized one more ti.”
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