Unveiling the Truth Beneath the Abyss
I had been swimming furiously upward through the Deep Sea when a mischievous thought suddenly struck me. Glancing back, I smirked at the sight of the pathetic pervert trailing me.
"Look at that pervert fiend. Trying to peek up my robe like some sneaky pervert from below."
"You were going too fast, so I was just trying my best to catch up."
"I was going plenty slowly! Weren't you deliberately trailing at an agonizing pace so you could sneak a peek up my robe?"
"I was giving it everything I've got."
A clumsy otaku virgin would've been utterly shocked and collapsed on the spot.
But as the seasoned alpha who had experienced seven women, James barely batted an eye at my crude taunt.
This was far too boring.
"Summer's already starting to feel like a vacation, and this isn't half bad."
"You might be the only one in this Deep Sea who can enjoy it like a proper beach."
The Deep Sea wasn't just home to colossal sea monsters.
There were mysterious ancient ruins, unmistakable crash-landed alien spaceships, and bizarre creatures that had adapted to the depths. But every single one of them was far too easy for me.
"Sixty-one floors, we've passed nine portals. So this must be the 70th floor. Is the Collector hiding out here?"
"Don't use that insulting nickname when we don't even know if he'll show up."
According to James, the Collector was probably lurking somewhere on the 70th or 71st floor.
Well, since he'd guided me this far, it was time to send him on his way.
"Thanks for the escort. Here's your tip."
[You have sent 50,000 coins to James.]
[Current balance: 114,800 coins]
"Wait a second, Mysterious. Is this for real?"
"What?"
"I really only gave directions and now you're offering 50,000 coins?"
"Yeah. Coins are just floating around anyway."
"You don't even know how valuable 50,000 coins actually are?"
"How valuable are they?"
"You said the Elixir can cure every illness except death and aging, right? So an Elixir costs about a million. And the regular price in the Tower shops is 10,000 coins. That means 10,000 coins equals roughly a million."
Wait, 50,000 coins equaled five million?
That might make me feel a bit guilty later.
Suddenly I felt a strange unease.
The Elixir can cure every illness except death and aging?
Then how could it possibly be worth only ten million?
"Wait, what currency is that?"
"Oh, I must've assumed too casually. It's dollars."
"Dollars? Not the Zimbabwe dollar, the American dollar?"
Oh no...
So that meant I'd made two hundred billion dollars in just the last two days combined?
And a single Virgin Detection Potion was worth over ten billion dollars?
Of course, that was because the entire Elixir had gone into it.
[James has sent you 50,000 coins.]
James had simply accepted it without making a big deal of explaining its value.
I see.
He was scared that my overwhelming power might one day make me his enemy.
I debated it for a moment, then sent the 50,000 coins back.
[You have sent 50,000 coins to James.]
Thinking about it, this kind of easy money would probably come my way a lot in the future.
So this money was far less important than my virginity.
I couldn't get the money I'd already sent back anyway.
"Money's easy to make. Just take it."
"You're too burdened by it."
[James has sent you 50,000 coins.]
[James has sent you 50,000 coins.]
"Take it if you're going to take it. I'm grateful for the guide."
"If I just accept money here,"
James started to say something but cut himself off and sent the coins back.
[James has sent you 50,000 coins.]
What was the half-finished sentence supposed to mean?
I pondered it and suddenly realized the answer.
I was an extremely powerful hunter who needed a straw inserted into him to grow... he didn't want to just accept money as the final step!
"Instead of money, you want to keep adventuring with me forever? Too bad. I can't be friends with someone who's slept with seven women."
"..."
[James has sent you 50,000 coins.]
"Anyway, our connection ends here. Bye-bye. So pocket that money before you regret it."
[James has sent you 50,000 coins.]
"I guess I won't take it. And let's not part ways here."
"What?"
"We haven't met the Collector yet. I'll keep helping you look for him."
I considered it for a moment.
There were three reasons James made me uneasy.
The first was that the guy was a degenerate who had slept with seven women.
The second was that being an alpha himself made me jealous of the attention he got.
The third was that my constant state of heightened sensitivity from Freyja's curse never let up.
"Any places you think the guy might be hiding?"
Yeah, searching together was way better than going alone.
Since I had no guarantee the Collector possessed an artifact that could lift my curse, we had to find him quickly and talk.
If he didn't have the answer, I'd have to head for the very top of the Tower anyway.
"For now, I have some leads. Let's go find them with everything we've got."
* * *
The 70th and 71st floors of the Tower remained areas humanity had not yet fully conquered.
If everyone pooled their strength completely, maybe. But information was a resource, and not every expedition team was willing to cooperate.
As a result, quite a few mysteries still lingered in this space.
And mysteries were dangerous.
Even today, multiple people were being killed here.
The Collector was a man who thoroughly enjoyed such spaces.
"Help me!"
The giant mimic version of a shipwreck. A hunter who had been hypnotized by the glittering gold and treasure aboard had foolishly lost his life again.
Sergey Ivanovich, the Collector, filmed the entire scene with his camera.
He was an artifact collector, but he also had another hobby: filming pretty girls as they died.
Another star had fallen today.
A radiant, young, beautiful star who could have become a great hero and saved the world.
Sergey gave a satisfied smile as he praised the mimic.
"Well done. Sharik."
In truth, the mimic shipwreck was Sergey's pet.
Sergey wanted to kill people in varied ways, and the monster wanted to devour high-rank hunters, so they had struck a mutually beneficial deal.
A new meal had just appeared.
Sergey used an artifact seal to sense hunters approaching from the surroundings.
He transformed Sharik back into a normal shipwreck and hid it in a corner, preparing to receive his guests.
One man, one woman.
The woman wore sunglasses and a mask, her face completely hidden, and even her loose robe couldn't conceal her voluptuous figure.
If I stripped her and killed her in a gruesome way, I could probably get a perfect photo.
"Mysterious! What are you doing! The second I meet someone I kill them?!"
Sergey looked at his own chest.
A long spear had pierced straight through his heart.
And he saw where it had come from.
The woman he had just decided would taste delicious.
'Run.'
Sergey had an extra life.
He owned an artifact that let him revive once per day.
But no one knew that.
The moment he revived, he activated a teleportation scroll and fled.
"Where are you running off to?"
The arm that had been secretly retrieving the scroll was severed.
It was obvious he had tried to sneak away while I was busy questioning the man.
And this time he had his brain pierced.
"Does dying twice kill you? You're not going to revive again?"
I gave his corpse a few confirmatory stabs for good measure.
"Probably not going to revive this time."
"What the hell? I came looking to talk!"
"No, this bitch is definitely a serial killer. One hundred percent serial killer."
* * *
I had just killed the Collector and felt incredibly refreshed.
It was time to wrap things up.
The Tower's villain.
I had been wondering why no villain ever appeared. Maybe I was the villain?
I never imagined James would actually not strike at me.
I never thought he was a veteran hunter who actually liked newbies.
He might have changed his strategy because my power was just too over-the-top and he thought inserting a straw would work.
But a story without any villains was impossible. If no one was the villain, then I had to be.
It was actually fortunate that a real villain showed up.
I really was on the side of justice.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Before I came here I drank a Unicorn Potion. Nothing makes it easier to judge a person."
"Wait, you didn't kill him because he has a lot of experience, did you?"
"Yeah."
The Collector's experience count was 7,334.
This number could never be reached through normal means.
He was clearly committing crimes like rape and serial murder.
If an artifact collector like him was also a pervert, the obvious thing was to strike first and win.
"Hey, James. Do you really think I'm a crazy person? I've talked to plenty of people with big numbers. But 7,334 means he's definitely a criminal."
"7,334? That's a huge number. You couldn't reach it in a normal life, but what if he's not a criminal and just some special case? Like he's just rich enough to sleep with multiple women at once?"
"7,334 women? The world still doesn't understand? And even if he's not a serial killer, sleeping with 7,334 women is grounds for execution, right?"
"This is... really hard to understand."
James clearly didn't agree with me.
"Hah. I'll show you whether I'm really the victim or not. Just wait and see."
I wasn't completely without countermeasures against the Collector either.
Freyja was the goddess of beauty and love.
The goddess of abundance and fortune.
The goddess of gold and misfortune.
And the goddess of war, death, magic, and prophecy.
What a wide range of domains she covered?
The ability she granted me was Seiðr.
A collection of all sorts of mysterious magic, including necromancy effects.
I could actually get more from the dead than from the living.
So now, shall we reveal the truth?