Dungeon Gacha Life Chapter 18

 Chapter 18: The Billion-Yen Retirement Plan

I'd finished up today's exploring and made it back home.

A twenty-year-old two-room apartment in Hachioji City. I'd picked this place for being close to my university but now that I was an Explorer, it turned out to be a great find for a whole different reason.

The rent was 60,000 yen. With that said, I was still living off my allowance so I owed my parents plenty of thanks for that. I was already earning income as an Explorer so it wasn't like I couldn't cover it myself... but I figured I'd let myself mooch off them a little longer.

I stepped into my room and sank into the sofa.

Normally, I'd feel a fair amount of fatigue after getting back from the dungeon, but not today.

Right — I'd finally lifted the ban on taking a taxi home. Shimotsuki-san had given me an exasperated look over it. I even got a "Must be nice, being so well-off" out of her. Nice.

Today's income was 28,900 yen. At that rate, spending a bit of money on transportation would still leave me comfortably in the black. The fare came to just under 3,000 yen one way, so I wanted to make good use of it through the rest of summer.

By the time summer was over, my income would likely have grown even more than it was now. At that point, making taxis my default mode of transport wouldn't be a problem at all.

"Alright, then, I've got some thinking to do."

About my finances going forward. Or more specifically, about the direction of my whole career as an Explorer.

"Touya-saaan, can I watch 'Puicure'?"

The moment we'd gotten home, Lapis had dived straight into her own bed, and now she looked up.

How many times is she going to watch the same show?

Well, it's not like it costs me anything. She can do as she likes.

"Yay! Now, what should I watch today?"

Lapis worked the TV remote with surprising skill, hunting down the show she wanted. At her size, even pressing the buttons on a remote must count as a full workout.

Dazzling flashes of light and cute music filled the whole room. I asked her to turn the volume down a bit and sank into my own thoughts.

Let her watch anime and she will quiet right down. Makes things easy on me.

* * *

One by one, I thought about the situation surrounding me. Like I was interrogating myself, I searched for the right words.

Why did I become an Explorer, a job with real danger to my life?

It was because I'd failed at job hunting and that there was a real possibility of ending up at a black company. To avoid that, I'd chosen a job with no nagging boss and no unpaid overtime — being an Explorer.

Why work at all?

To make a living, plain and simple. After being put through university and everything, I couldn't bring myself to just become a NEET and freeload off my parents forever.

So, once I've made my money as an Explorer, what then?

I wanted a stable life and a happy one. Concretely speaking, I wanted to earn around a billion yen and retire. With that much, I could keep up a decent standard of living just off investment returns from then on.

Was that actually possible?

Yes. I had my Unique Skill, "Gacha." I had plenty of complaints about it but even I understood it was an absurdly powerful Skill, a stroke of luck beyond anything I could've hoped for.

My combat strength would keep climbing at an accelerating rate going forward. All I had to do was gradually shift my hunting grounds from the Upper Levels I was in now, to the Middle Levels, and eventually the Lower Levels. By then, I'd also be able to sell off all the gacha-sourced magic stones, unused equipment, and other items I'd stockpiled along the way.

A billion yen wasn't some reckless, out-of-reach goal at all. Honestly, just selling off the Skill Orbs I'd gotten from SR pulls alone would probably get me there eventually.

So why haven't I done that already?

Because I didn't want to draw attention. These days, the "fame tax" just kept getting steeper and steeper. If word got out that I had some extraordinary ability, every random opportunist out there would come swarming.

Could that be avoided?

...Honestly, I think it'd be tough.

To begin with, it was already common knowledge that I had a Unique Skill. If someone like that suddenly started coming into serious money, people were bound to catch on eventually.

On top of that, there was always the risk of someone seeing me actually hunt. I'd managed to keep it hidden well enough for now, but there was no guarantee I could keep doing that forever.

Even at this point, I was already able to steamroll everything with an excessive stack of Skills. The further I pushed forward, the higher the risk that someone would notice just how abnormal that was.

So what would I do if it got out?

Own up to it and push my combat strength as far as it could possibly go. Keep training until I reached a level where nothing could touch me, not multiple A-Ranks at once and not even one of the handful of S-Ranks in the entire world.

A strong enough Explorer can get VIP treatment based on strength alone. From the standpoint of national interest and national defense alike, the country would never let go of such a top-tier Explorer.

That's how I'd carve out my place in the world, fighting tooth and nail for it if I had to.

With combat strength that surpassed even S-Rank and the social standing that came with being an A-Rank Explorer. With both of those in hand, I should be able to sidestep most of the trouble that will come my way.

But would things really go that smoothly, though?

I'd just have to make sure they did. I had no hero complex and I didn't want to be famous either.

But being used and exploited by someone else, that was one thing I'd absolutely never accept.

Not even if it killed me.

* * *

"Lapis, got a minute?"

Surfacing from my own thoughts, I said my partner's name. Lapis, who'd been happily watching TV, hit pause on the remote and turned to face me.

"Yes? What's up?"

She'd probably picked up on how serious my tone was. Unlike usual, her expression had gone tight and focused.

"We're going to start preparing to move up to C-Rank."

"This is really it, huh. But what kind of preparation are we talking about?"

Lapis tilted her head, looking a little puzzled. Fair enough — with my current strength, actually reaching C-Rank wasn't hard at all.

The requirement for C-Rank was defeating the Floor 20 boss, the "Minotaur." But that thing was just big, strong and tough, it didn't have any nasty special attacks to worry about. With my current strength, I'd win in a landslide anyway.

"What I'm talking about is what comes after the boss. Starting in the Middle Levels, traps start showing up inside the dungeon."

"Ohh, right, Ryouka-san mentioned that too,that Explorers who just moved up to C-Rank get hurt by traps more than anything else."

Lapis nodded along, agreeing.

Just like she said, traps started appearing from Floor 21 onward, the main stomping ground for C-Rank Explorers. Apparently they were surprisingly vicious, to the point that people actually died if they weren't careful.

Even with the system barrier called HP, once it hit zero, a lethal hit would kill a person just like that.

Bringing along someone with scouting skills became standard practice for a party once you hit C-Rank. Which meant solo Explorers only got rarer from here.

"But you're planning to keep going solo, aren't you, Touya-san?"

"Of course. This is exactly what this preparation is for, to stockpile SP and pick up the right Skills."

But I had Gacha. Or rather, the SP cheat that came as a side effect of it.

"Right now, I'd been prioritizing Skills that were useful for combat and everyday life, but from here on, I figured I'd start building up scouting Skills too."

"While I'm at it, I want to hit the pity cap one more time, too. There's a Skill among the next batch of SSR exchange options that I've been wanting lately."

Honestly, my Skills have gotten to the point where there are just... way too many of them to keep track of. I'm pretty sure whoever's running this gacha knows exactly what state I'm in.

"Huh? Was there something new?"

"What, you don't remember? Well then, just save it as a surprise for later."

"Ehh, come on, you could just tell me, couldn't you?"

I answered the pouting fairy with a smile.

"Well, your head's so small... I bet you'd just forget it right away anyway."

"That's just an insult!?"

Lapis let out an extra-large shocked reaction.

After that, I ended up watching the anime together with her just to smooth things over.

...Wait, she's a magical girl and this is a hand-to-hand brawler show?