The World Is Pretty Small

I had to admit it once again—the ancients were truly worthy of respect. Their famous sayings, passed down through generations, were fragments of profound truth. And these were quotes that worked across entire dimensions! My nonexistent respect for them suddenly surged like a tidal wave.

The last chapter was probably something like “Life’s the same no matter where you go.” This one? “The world is pretty small.” Now that I’ve learned this shocking truth, maybe I should tweak it a bit. “The dimensions are pretty small, huh?” Nah, that sounds awkward. Let’s just stick with “The world is pretty small.”

Not only did my best friend from my previous life reincarnate in the same world as me, but she’s also my fiancée! Is this Benedict’s doing? I don’t know about anything else, but there’s no way my adoptive father Benedict hadn’t noticed that I still had memories from my past life. The possibility was close to zero, but not completely zero.

Seol Bakha—one of the people who had witnessed the same shocking truth—wasn’t even able to speak properly.

She looked like she’d genuinely turned into an idiot.

Or maybe she’d completely lost her mind. She stared at me while muttering, “Not bad, maybe?” and her eyes looked extremely dangerous.

Snap out of it, you idiot!

“This ridiculous situation is so absurd that I can’t even speak properly either. So… um.”

I almost called her by her old name but stopped myself. It felt more appropriate to use her current name. Plus, it might help me grab onto my sanity that was flying off somewhere.

“Hey, darling.”

With a bit of teasing thrown in.

See? The effect was instant.

“You said you’re my fiancée, right? That’s a pretty common pet name, isn’t it?”

Ah… that satisfying feedback I get every time I tease her. I’d missed this.

Anyway, we’d suddenly been engaged without knowing each other, completely against our will. So why was she overreacting so much? It was almost like she’d become positive about the engagement the moment she actually met her fiancé.

“If you don’t like being called darling, why don’t you tell me your name first? I told you my real name, not the alias I’m using here, didn’t I? It’s rude if I’m the only one being honest~”

For some reason, Seol Bakha showed clear reluctance at revealing her name. She didn’t seem to understand the weight and trust involved in me casually telling her my real name while hiding my identity.

I pressured her with my eyes, telling her to speak up already.

Why are you building up so much suspense over a name?

“And your last name?”

“...”

“Pfft.”

“Pffft…! Khup…!”

How the hell am I supposed to not laugh at this? Her name is literally Mint Choco…! No wonder she loved mint chocolate in both her past life and this one! It was pure self-love.

“H-how… pffft… how can someone’s name be mint choco lololol”

RUMBLEEEEEEE!!!!

In a vast cavern filled with colorful sculptures, Mint and I were sprinting at full speed. There was only one reason we were running—to escape the giant ball fiercely chasing us and reach the faint exit visible far ahead.

I glanced back and saw Mint carrying Noah on her back, struggling to keep up.

“Stop chatting and run! Once we clear this dungeon, we’ll hit our target amount!”

“You said you didn’t need it!”

What the hell is she talking about? There’s no way that frail girl—who would fly across the room if I lightly tapped her—could possibly be heavy. Unless…

“Noah, you crazy bastard! I told you to take off the training artifact before entering the dungeon!”

The moment Mint yelled at Noah to stop rainbow vomit from coming out of his mouth—

CLANG—!

A massive metal ball came flying from the front, not the back! What the hell!!

I quickly cast body reinforcement on Mint and swung my fist at the incoming metal ball, smacking it sideways. The deflected ball flew toward a green pillar quite far away.

I thought the giant ball would smash the pillar and slam into the wall. But—

Ting!

With a cheerful sound, it bounced back. Naturally, and fortunately, we hadn’t stopped running, so the ball didn’t hit us… but it joined the one already hot on our heels.

Watching that, I finally understood the concept of this dungeon that had never been cleared before and thus had no name.

It was a three-person limit dungeon where you simply had to reach the exit to clear it. It was extremely simple, but the enormous distance between the entrance and exit, along with the additional condition, made its difficulty rated S-class.

The additional condition was to reach the exit from the entrance without using mana.

I’d heard at the reception desk that you had to shake off the pursuing metal balls using only pure physical ability and run toward the exit.

…It was only half the strategy.

Just like what our party was experiencing, after passing certain sections, balls would shoot out from the front. And even if you somehow dodged them, if the balls hit the green pillars, they’d bounce back at unexpected angles.

I knew something like this. Mint knew it too.

See? She knows it well.

After roaming various dungeons for the past few months, I’d learned one thing: every dungeon had a concept.

Remember how the Alchemy Hero’s purification device was involved in creating dungeons? Because of that, it seemed the concepts of these dungeons were based on the Alchemy Hero’s memories.

…Mostly from games.

The Alchemy Hero was definitely both an engineering nerd and a gaming nerd back on Earth. And not a picky one—he enjoyed everything evenly. Otherwise, this wouldn’t make sense.

Dungeons that simply involved beating monsters usually had rock-bottom ratings. Of course, ones with strong bosses and powerful monsters had higher ratings, but those were extremely rare.

The majority of high-rated dungeons were gimmick-based, requiring you to fulfill specific conditions. Like the dungeon where you had to smash all the chandeliers on the ceiling without ever dropping the ball (it was Breakout). Or the one where you had to beat up monsters moderately, capture them in the subspace pouches provided by the dungeon, tame and evolve them, then make them fight the boss (it was basically PokéOmonster). Or the ones with insane concepts so ridiculous that they broke your spirit before you even tried (the tentacle dungeon)!

That was why people who challenged dungeons were called adventurers rather than explorers or hunters.

If this were Earth, they’d probably be called players.

Mint, who had started her adventurer life a year before me, was naturally very close to the truth.

By the way, watch your mouth! You idiot! Because of you, Noah just heard that you and I are reincarnators!

A strangely irrefutable question came flying back.

We do know a lot. Even though it’s a virtual world that doesn’t exist in reality. Since there’s no such thing as “games” in this world, it was awkward to explain in detail.

I’d once compared it to illusion magic, phantasm, or fantasy magic, and he understood it as an apocalyptic world where all of humanity was under a mass illusion spell. A scary world.

Is this Infinite Tsukuyomi or something?!

Why is the spot next to your ear reserved for me?

“Shut up and focus. This time five of them are coming from the front!”

I stacked body reinforcement on myself and Mint once more, boosting our speed and strength, and dodged all the giant balls flying indiscriminately as well as the ones bouncing back from unexpected angles.

Finally reaching the exit, we became the first party to clear what would later be recorded as the Pinball Dungeon and received our reward.

However…

For an S-rank dungeon, the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reward was utterly pathetic. All we got was a letter and a key. Mint and Noah looked just as dumbfounded.

“That’s blasphemy!”

Look at this kid committing a sin! Telling someone not to use the power they possess! If you can use it, why wouldn’t you? If you’re upset, just get blessed and use divine power, right?

Shifting the blame for her own lack of effort onto others’ ignorance. How foolish, Mint Choco.

“Dunno lol.”

I really don’t know. How do you explain something that just works?

“And I trained more than you, not less, okay?”

“It’s true? I used to wear three times more than what Noah’s wearing right now.”

Maybe because I’m not human but some unknown species? I don’t even know my own identity.

Suddenly, I thought of Cheska. She used to sit me on her lap while I was wearing all that and sniff the top of my head.

…She really was a monster faithful to her desires.

Noah offered a rather plausible deduction.

“That’s possible. Shall we read the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠letter then?”

I snapped the wax seal and unfolded the letter.

I couldn’t help but get angry the moment I read the letter. The Alchemy Hero had thrown shit at me. In other words, he’d dumped his chores on me. If you’re going to dump chores, dump them on another Hero! Why dump them on a Saintess candidate?!

Trembling with rage, I glared at the letter as if it were the Alchemy Hero himself.

The beginning of the letter read like this: