Mad Scientist
The room was pitch-dark, lit only by the restless flicker of a reddish candle.
A lever.
A red lever stood right in front of my eyes. I reached up, wrapped my fingers around it, and pulled it slowly downward.
Clunk!
KUUUUNG!
Something slammed down with a majestic crash, and then a rapidly spinning roar filled the air.
WIIIIIIIIING—
Click-click!
A moment later, lights blazed on throughout the entire ruined temple.
"Kyshishishishishi!!"
I threw my head back and laughed. Like a complete madman.
Three months after walking into the Lord of the Underworld's Mausoleum Temple, I had finally given the place electricity. No more groping around in the dark only to shove my hand straight into a zombie's guts!
It was my "small" victory.
"Victory!!"
The zombies stared at me blankly, still clutching their heavy lengths of rebar. Then, with their usual sluggish shuffle, they sidestepped around me and went on their way.
"You rotting corpses! Show reverence for my achievement!! On your knees and praise me! Kyshishishi!!"
I bellowed it like a genuine lunatic. The real reason I was so insanely happy, though, was something else entirely.
There was no way a dungeon buried in some mountain valley of South Korea was going to have electricity. So I built one.
A compact mid-size nuclear fusion reactor!!
"Truly remarkable, Doctor Lee."
Noir's voice drifted from behind me.
"Or should I call you Messat now?"
An abbreviation of Mad Scientist. Being addressed by my real name, Lee Dogwang, was so mortifying I thought I would die of shame, so I had requested the change myself.
But the joy did not last.
Three entire months……
I had been locked inside Articetia's dungeon, the Mausoleum Temple, for three months already. No weekends. No holidays. No clocking out. A life no different from a prisoner's.
No, this is just slavery, isn't it!
"Incidentally, I have never seen a reactor quite this compact."
"Tut-tut. Merely small, you say? Comparing it to humanity's nuclear power plants would be a grave mistake, Noir. Those crude reactors that burn more than half their output just to cool a tokamak exist on an entirely different plane! This is a room-temperature superconductor! This is Mes—sat!!"
The pretentious words tumbled out of my mouth so easily now they might as well have been a habit.
"By the way… where did you acquire the reactor's core components, Noir?"
"Hm? Ah, I tore a few from a nuclear power plant in the human world."
Had I just misheard that?
"……You tore them from a nuclear power plant?"
"Yes. I took a few Mains with me in the dead of night and handled it quietly."
Fuck.
An image of South Korea being reduced to ash in a nuclear fireball flashed through my mind.
"Was there… any trouble at the site?"
"Trouble? Ah, there were a few security guards, but we resolved everything peacefully. Why do you ask……?"
The terror packed into the word peacefully.
If you don't hand over the gold willingly, there will be bloodshed.
Yeah. That was peaceful too, in a sense.
Goddammit.
"No, no. I was merely admiring your resourcefulness, Noir! Absolutely magnificent!!"
"Heh. You flatter me."
Afterward I slipped back to my room and secretly checked my smartphone. Fortunately, there was no breaking news about a nuclear power plant exploding. Maybe they had taken it from a decommissioned facility.
Yeah. That had to be it.
A smile spread across my face again. While I was at it building a fusion reactor, I had also put up a radio tower. I planned to use it to call for rescue.
"Kyshishishishi!"
Calling the Hero dispatch hotline at 211 outright carried too much risk of being discovered. Zombies listened during the day, and ghosts listened at night!
So I posted on a community forum instead.
Comments rolled in.
These fucking bastards!
The replies stacked up underneath.
These sons of bitches—I've logged every last IP address! Just you wait!
Still, one comment among them caught my eye.
Fair enough.
I photographed my surroundings and uploaded the pictures.
The comments came flooding back.
Why the hell won't anyone believe me!!
This wasn't working. A zombie came shuffling slowly past, and I decided I needed to photograph it and upload that instead.
Click!
Now I just had to hit upload. I mashed the button. Nothing happened.
That can't be right…?
Wait. No signal?
Why all of a sudden? It had been working just a second ago!!
"……Found something amusing?"
My heart nearly stopped. I spun around to find Noir floating there with his hands clasped behind his back, translucent as a ghost.
"Well now! Noir! You're most welcome, of course. But what brings you to my room……?"
"I was passing through the wall when I noticed Messat's room, so I thought I would drop in. I happen to have a message to deliver as well."
Noir's eyes locked onto the smartphone in my hand.
"And what… were you doing with that?"
I crushed the panic down and let out a hysterical laugh.
"Kyshishit! Why, I was analyzing the heroes, of course! Their patterns, their weaknesses, their tactics!"
Noir smiled with satisfaction.
"Know thy enemy and know thyself, and you shall win a hundred battles. You appear to possess the talent of a Main."
A chill ran straight through me.
"While we are on the subject… what do you say? To dying and becoming a Main? Durakh Han has been bragging about a rather fine guillotine."
I'm fucked. I'm fucked. I'm fucked.
At this rate I was going to end up like that headless guy, or a rotting corpse like those zombies over there. I tried to organize my thoughts. Should I get on my knees like a child and beg for my life?
The company commander is disappointed in you. Summary execution.
Anything but that!
I needed a way out. Any way out……
Yep! There was no logical way to refuse!
Ah, to hell with it.
"Pfft!"
Noir looked bewildered.
"Noir. Do I still look human to you?"
"……Well, yes. You do appear that way?"
Noir looked me over from head to toe.
Yes, that's correct. I am human. No matter how hard you look, I'm human.
"Non, non, no! Wrong, wrong."
I wagged my finger from side to side.
"My intellect has already transcended the bounds of humanity! An IQ of 999, no less!"
I pinched my own cheek as I said it.
"This is merely a shell, nothing but organic matter! My true form is the cerebrum! In other words, I am already no different from a Main! Kyshishishi!!"
Noir thought for a long moment, then slowly nodded.
"Hrm… you are quite right. I spoke out of turn. My apologies."
"Oh! Not at all. We are family! Coming from a fellow Main, was that not the highest of compliments?! Kyshishit!"
Somehow, I had survived another day. At this rate my heart was not going to last.
Noir snapped his fingers.
Snap!
A mannequin in a maid outfit approached. Its face was covered in ridiculous scribbles, as if someone had drawn on it with a marker—and that only made it more unsettling. I plastered on a mad grin to hide how completely frozen my expression had gone. I still could not get used to a mannequin with no mechanical parts moving on its own.
"Her name is Hongryeon. A virgin ghost who died during the Imjin War, in the year 1596."
The mannequin bowed its head in a grotesque, lurching motion.
Clack—
At that exact moment, my smartphone vibrated.
Bzzzzzzzz—
An incoming call. Caller ID restricted.
But I still have no signal—how the hell is a call coming through!
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
What was going on? I could not make sense of it. I clenched my jaw to stop it from trembling and answered.
"Kh… hello?"
A thin, feminine voice crackled through the static.
"It is… *crackle*… an honor to make your acquaintance. This humble girl… *crackle*… is called Hongryeon."
A shiver ran down my spine. I could not even speak. I just tilted my head.
Noir explained promptly.
"Lady Articetia has assigned you a personal maid in recognition of your recent achievement, Messat."
In recognition of my achievement?
Yeah, right! She must have meant surveillance!
To hide the tremor in my voice, I buried it beneath a mad laugh.
"Kyshishishi! I was growing quite frustrated with those anencephalic zombies. At last, a proper pair of hands! I welcome you most enthusiastically as my personal assistant!"
Hongryeon fidgeted, then shuffled over to stand beside me.
Noir cleared his throat and changed the subject.
"Come to think of it, I hear the lesser dungeons under our command are being cleared at a rapid pace as of late."
"Hrm…… is that so?"
"Yes. Even the mid-tier dungeons are under threat now."
Something clicked when I heard that. Three months had passed since my kidnapping. It had been March then, so it was June now.
In the web novel I Became a Hero with 10,000x Experience…… this was when the episode began where the protagonist, Ultimate, fell into a trap in an upper-tier dungeon and dropped into the Mausoleum Temple.
A thrill surged through me. After that, Ultimate would go on to slay Articetia, the dungeon lord of the Mausoleum Temple.
Which meant liberation.
At last! I just had to hold on a little longer. Soon the strongest hero in the world would come to save me!
"Did you just smile?"
Noir asked.
"When the Mausoleum Temple is under threat……"
Oh no. Those narrowed eyes. This was not the time to lose my grip. I immediately slipped back into my Messat act.
"Ahh! There seems to be a misunderstanding. The rapid fall of our subordinate dungeons is clearly proof that a powerful hero is on the offensive!"
I swallowed hard.
"If we were to dissect him at this opportunity, we would surely obtain excellent research data! Kihikit!"
Noir burst out laughing.
"You truly are a Main down to the marrow. I have lived for several centuries, and yet I find myself in awe of you. Heh heh heh."
No, no. Please don't compliment me like that. I'm not happy about it at all.
"In that spirit…… Lady Articetia has appointed you as administrator of an upper-tier dungeon under her command."
"……?!"
I stopped dead in my tracks and froze solid.
What the hell kind of bullshit was that?