Chapter 81
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 81
Chapter Title: Scale (5)
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"This is delicious. What is this dish?"
"It's mapo tofu."
"Whoa... it's seriously so good?"
The wall was slowly pushing forward, needing another two or three hours to reach its destination.
In the meantime, with nothing else to do, we had chosen to...
"Glad it suits your taste."
"What's next?"
"You want more?"
"Something this tasty has to be eaten nonstop."
"How many days have you gone without eating?"
"Yeah. About twelve days?"
"Oof... Let me get the next dish for you."
It was refrigerator-style omakase playtime.
"The next dish is sirloin steak. It's from beef that frolicked in vast grasslands, so the texture is incredibly tender. Our fridge chef grilled it well-done. Since it's cold, you can savor that firmness even more deliciously."
"Whoa... You can tell just by looking?"
"No?"
"Oh, does it come with a separate description?"
"No?"
"Then how do you know?"
"I don't?"
"...So what was that long-winded explanation?"
"Just something I made up on the spot."
"I see... Well, I should've realized from the part about the tender texture feeling firm..."
"I'll warm it up for you."
"Kuh! This place really is the best...? Uwooo...!"
After warming the steak with the flamethrower...
"...This guy's seriously insane?"
"Pardon?"
I watched the elf for a bit as she started cutting into the meat using the key like a fork and knife.
"...Nothing. Just spare my life..."
She used the slightly elongated key like a fork to pin the steak down, slicing it with the sharp end—schwick schwick.
In this absurd yet amusing situation, I wondered if this was why people watched mukbangs, and kept watching the elf.
Creaaak...
A sudden ominous noise made me turn toward the source.
"...Huh?"
I could see the door in the wall advancing toward the opponent's scale slowly opening.
At that moment...
"Elf!"
I realized the monster beyond the door was opening it.
I urgently alerted the elf and immediately opened my status window, ready to hit Return if things went south.
"..."
Beyond the open door... a balloon-like monster with two huge eyes and one mouth was using thread-like tentacles to open the door.
'...What is that? Doesn't look too tough?'
Compared to the nightmarish monsters I'd seen so far... this balloon one looked frail, giving me a sense that it might be manageable—
Pok—
"?"
In the blink of an eye... a very thin thread pierced right into the center of my heart.
Fortunately, my armor blocked the balloon monster's thin thread.
I immediately turned on the flamethrower without hesitation to burn the thread attacking me.
Shhh...
I watched the thread-like tentacle from the balloon monster disintegrate into dust.
Which meant...
"Staying away from that open door was the right call."
When the door opened, moving toward the opponent's side caused that body part to vanish into dust upon entry.
"Let's run for now."
I put on the helmet made from the mannequin monster I'd stored in my inventory.
To get as far from the open door as possible, I turned and dashed toward the opposite wall.
Whoosh—
As expected, the balloon monster extended another ultra-thin tentacle to attack me, but...
Shhh...
'It's short...!'
Fortunately, even at its maximum reach, the balloon monster's tentacle fell just short and failed to hit me.
"Phew... We should be safe from attacks here."
With a bit of relief, I reached the opposite wall, crouched down immediately, and assumed a posture protecting my vitals.
Whoosh—shhh...
Whoosh—shhh...
The sounds of ultra-thin tentacles trying to attack me kept coming.
But the short ones couldn't reach, disintegrating into dust with those sounds echoing in my ears.
Still refusing to let my guard down, I maintained the vital-protecting posture.
"Elf, you crouch down too, head low, hands over your neck."
I instructed the elf to do the same—wait, where'd she go?
"Elf?"
Suddenly not seeing the elf, I turned and...
Whoosh—shhh...
Whoosh—shhhh...
"It's not hitting me?"
"...Pardon?"
"Seems like it's only mad at you."
"...Why?"
"It knows. The one who messed with it isn't the elf."
"...How?"
"Only that monster knows."
What the...
Even so...
"And it's fine. I can see it coming."
"...You can see it?"
"Yeah. I can dodge if I try. So I'll eat this steak while dodging casually."
"...Okay."
As the elf said... the balloon monster kept launching tentacles only at me.
"..."
Watching the scene was a bit ridiculous.
But the monster seemed to know via its own ability that I was the culprit.
Whoosh—shhh...
Whoosh—shhhh...
I watched the monster's persistent attempts to attack me for a bit...
'Yeah, it definitely can't reach.'
Convinced no matter what it did, it couldn't hit me.
"Sigh... You're just scaring me for nothing, you punk."
I relaxed my vital-protecting posture.
Leaning openly against the wall, I stared blankly at the monster futilely firing tentacles at me.
Then...
Click—
Not giving up, it kept firing at me, so I snapped a photo.
The camera's delete button...
"Tsk..."
Hmm...
"Delete, huh..."
Hmmm...
"But deleting means I can't farm the monster corpse..."
"...What are you even saying, human?"
"It'll die anyway if I leave it like that, right?"
"...You're talking like you could kill it right now?"
"Umm..."
"...No way?"
"Ummm..."
How many monster corpses had I missed so far?
Right now, I had God's Bone, and the wife monster had a few stored in her roleplay tale, so materials were overflowing...
But with no plans to tackle tales soon, I intended to stay in the safe zone crafting items nonstop for months.
"Gotta collect that monster corpse."
In a position where securing monster corpses was tough, I needed as many as possible.
Deciding not to use the camera delete, I watched the balloon monster still trying to attack me...
Just...
"Elf."
"Yeah? What's up?"
"Could you bring the fridge over here, by any chance?"
"Sure. But what for?"
"To keep the omakase play going."
"Oh, nice!"
I decided to keep taunting it right in front of the monster.
...
Time passed, and two hours had flown by since the wall started pushing.
"It's gotten huge."
"Yeah."
Thanks to the continuous wall push, the clearing was much larger than when we arrived.
Now, we could even see the opponent's scale beyond the open door.
"Should we prepare something at least?"
"Prepare what?"
"The opponent's scale looks like it'll break in about five minutes, so let's gear up for whatever happens then."
Stopping the long taunt-omakase play.
Preparing for combat in case the balloon monster's scale breaks—
"...What are you talking about?"
"Huh?"
"Human... you're saying..."
"What?"
"Prepare to fight just in case..."
"Yes."
"What kind of talk is that? Against a monster, you run, not fight."
"Uh... Elf, you can see its attacks, so you could land effective hits... right...?"
"...Are you really human?"
"...Yes."
Hmm...
Thinking about it, yeah.
This monster fired ultra-thin tentacles like needles at speeds I couldn't even react to.
And I was planning a frontal fight?...
'Guess I'll just hold the camera.'
Reflecting on having such reckless thoughts when I needed to prioritize safety.
I picked up the camera, ready to delete the monster if needed.
Then, the nearly finished advancing wall reached right in front of the balloon monster's space scale.
"It's about to break."
And so... the moment the wall was about to smash the opponent's scale approached.
"...Hm?"
Suddenly, the wall stopped advancing...
Boom!!!
A massive roar and shockwave that shook the entire space hit us in an instant.
"...!"
It happened so fast, my body was flung 1 meter into the air by the impact.
"Shit..!"
So I was about to crash headfirst into the ground.
Somehow manage a roll—
'Oh right, I don't know how to roll.'
Should've practiced taekwondo harder as a kid...!
Thud...
"Ow... Thanks."
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Whew... That scared me."
"Definitely human. Can't even react to this."
"Definitely elf. Finally useful."
"Right? ...Wait, is that a compliment?"
"For humans, that's high praise."
"Really? Ahem... Ah, no need for such praise..."
Fortunately, the elf caught me as I was tumbling headfirst, letting me stand safely on both feet without much shock.
Checking what happened, I first looked at our scale.
"Good, it's intact."
Our side's scale looked perfectly fine.
But beyond the open door... the balloon monster's side...
"...What the...?"
Like it had been crushed by a massive hydraulic press...
Everything was completely flattened. Including the balloon monster.
At that moment...
'...Dead?'
Unclear if the balloon monster was dead or faking it.
To check, I opened the DL system in my status window...
'What? This many dolls came in?'
Seeing the massive influx of dolls from the balloon monster...
Confirmed it was definitely dead.
"Hey, human!"
"Yes?"
"It's dead."
"Yeah."
"You check your account?"
"Yes."
"I got 30k dolls."
"I got about 280k."
I honestly told the elf about my account influx, then headed toward the door to recover the opponent's corpse...
Suddenly recalling how the balloon monster's body vanished into dust upon crossing.
Looking around...
"Elf."
"Throw something—" "You go in first."
"...Huh?"
"Oh, right? I was thinking of tossing something too."
"...Doesn't seem like it?"
"No, I definitely was."
"...Sure?"
I pulled out the parcel bomb from inventory, took out a stick firecracker, and lightly tossed it beyond the door.
Thud...
The stick firecracker landed right where the balloon monster fell.
Watching it, no changes happened to the firecracker.
"Hmm... Looks safe to pass?"
It felt okay to cross.
Against the elf's instinct, I asked her casually.
"Let's go."
'Okay, better not.'
Hmm, still danger—
"No...!"
"Huh?"
The elf walked straight beyond the open door without hesitation.
And so...
"I said no...!"
The elf crossing turned to dust.
"Argh...! My artifact...!"
Not regret over the artifact...
The pain of losing a comrade I'd shared long times with stabbed my heart—
"...Huh?"
Human. That's the exit for sure.
Huh?
I'm back in the safe zone now.
For real?
Yeah, really.
Proof.
...What proof?
Proof you're the elf first. What if you're a monster tricking me?
Uh... how do I do that?
Tell me something only we know.
Hmm... I have an artifact that fixes Sanity?
The value?
Around 650.
Phew... So that door really was the exit.
Told you. That door is the exit.
Only recognized as exit after smashing opponent's scale. Trap before that.
But I escaped?
"Argh... That pointy-eared jerk."
Seeing the elf messaging fine, that door must really be the exit.
However...
"Crossing it auto-returns to safe zone..."
If I crossed, I'd return to safe zone automatically.
Then... I couldn't recover the balloon monster's corpse.
Resolved not to miss any more monster corpses, I stayed put and vowed to retrieve it without crossing.
Drag drag drag...
I extended the flamethrower's nozzle beyond the door, dragging the monster's corpse right to me...
'Oh, there it is.'
From the balloon-like monster's head, my meat cleaver it had swallowed spilled out undigested.
Seeing that, I almost laughed for a moment.
For now, to return to safe zone too, I stored the corpse in inventory.
"Whew, almost left the fridge."
I walked toward the fridge on the opposite wall to store it too.
Due to the earlier massive shock, items on the scale had fallen to the floor...
"...Huh? What's this?"
Behind the paper where the monster wrote 'Give to that punk'...
Like a memo, countless scribbles covered it.
"What is this...?"