* * *
Two minutes later.
In the middle of the dungeon, stained red like a socialist paradise. The only people still breathing were me and the country bumpkin.
Hans, who had been cursing his cheap armor, had become a human lotus root riddled with holes.
He sought holes and ended up full of them – perhaps a satisfying end in its own way.
Jamie looked like he’d been operated on by a drunk surgeon using a blender instead of a scalpel.
Being agile as an archer, he tried to dodge what could have been finished in one strike, resulting in being slashed dozens of times.
The stench of blood, urine, and entrails was so overwhelming it made me dizzy.
And then, there was John.
“P-please spare me…!”
He was begging for his life, trembling with my sword lodged in his shoulder.
“I just… they threatened me! They said they’d kill me first if I didn’t help…!”
Ah, so you were threatened?
Well, that’s plausible.
It’s much easier and faster to threaten a newbie adventurer’s life than to sweet-talk them into becoming a looter.
“Oh, really? If that was the case, you should have said so earlier.”
I shrugged lightly and nodded as if I understood.
Perhaps thinking I had accepted his excuse, John looked at me with an expectant gaze, a servile smile on his face.
“A-are you going to spare me?”
“Huh? Why would I?”
This is why wooden token novices are like this. Logically, how could I possibly spare him?
“But why…!”
“I told you. You should have said it earlier. Before they attacked me. That’s when you should have spoken up. Telling me that those two were planning to ambush me. Warning me to be careful.”
That was what he should have done as a party member. Even if he couldn’t shout it out openly, there were plenty of opportunities to give me a subtle hint.
“That’s… I mean…!”
“Don’t make excuses. I get it well enough.”
The fact that he didn’t meant…
“A two-against-two fight with uncertain odds must have been daunting. You probably thought it was better to side with them and share in the spoils they offered.”
With a surprise attack and three-against-one odds, they must have been certain of victory.
“It’s so obvious, just shut up. Your breath stinks, you know.”
“No, please…! I just, I just—!”
Crack.
With the cervical vertebrae and vocal cords severed, the head drooped down and fell with a thud between the legs of the soaked country bumpkin.
“Haah…”
Really, what a dog-eat-dog world.
I sighed, shook the blood off my sword, gathered what loot might be sellable, and left the dungeon.
The red-tinged twilight sky was extremely unpleasant.
* * *
“…So, you killed all your party members again? This time too?”
The receptionist girl at the request office sighed as if in disbelief and shook her head.
Perhaps due to the strange emphasis on the words ‘this time too,’ the gazes of the adventurers chatting at the tables in the request office building subtly turned towards me.
“…See, didn’t I tell you? I knew she’d do it again this time.”
“Damn it. Wasn’t she with old man Hans? That old man was pretty reliable for someone from the next village…”
“Who trusts a guy who always loses when gambling? Come on, hurry up and pay up. It was 2 silver coins, right?”
…There were even people betting on me.
I wanted to say something, but seeing their silver tokens, I decided to hold back since I’d probably lose if I picked a fight.
Besides, even if I were lucky enough to win, it would only cause trouble for me.
“…Miss Hilde. Are you listening to me? If you keep killing your party members like this, it’s going to be very troublesome for us too, you know?”
The receptionist girl admonished me in a gentle tone. Of course, I felt wronged.
“They weren’t party members, they were looters.”
“Miss Hilde, the return rate of adventurers who join your party is less than 60%. Are you saying they were all looters?”
I know. Even I, the victim, can see that’s an unreasonable number. But what can I do if it’s the truth?
“Listen, Miss Hilde. Do you know what people are saying upstairs? They’re openly suggesting that a woman who kills half of her party members might be a looter herself.”
“Uh… really…?”
Well, honestly, if I were in their shoes, I’d probably be suspicious too.
An outsider woman with an unclear face, past, and identity, who has killed four out of ten party members she’s met so far.
Wouldn’t anyone think she’s a looter or a witch? I would have thought so too, if it wasn’t my own story.
“Of course, I know you’re not that kind of person, but others don’t know that, right? There’s a limit to how much I can defend you.”
The fact that the security forces weren’t knocking on my door with ropes in hand, despite the situation, was entirely thanks to the receptionist girl in front of me.
Most of the request office staff didn’t care what happened to low-ranked adventurers, but this receptionist girl was one of the few who paid some attention to me.
“Ah, I’m grateful for that.”
“You should be grateful. Do you know how difficult it is to find a party for you, Miss Hilde? Rumors have already spread throughout our branch, to the point where no one except newly arrived outsiders is willing to form a party with you.”
…Isn’t that why I keep encountering looters so often?
“But still, honestly, it’s not my fault, right? I’m the victim here. The victim. It’s just that every time I form a party, these looters…”
“Then why don’t you at least take off that armor? Don’t you think you’re becoming a target for looters by wearing such armor when you’re still at the iron token rank?”
Take off my armor?
That’s out of the question. This is my lifeline.
Even this time, without this armor, it would have been impossible to return without a single scratch like I did.
I would have come back with at least a couple of sword wounds and an arrow or two.
So how could I possibly give up my armor?
“That would be difficult.”
“Yes, well, I suppose so.”
I thought she would say more, but the receptionist unexpectedly nodded in agreement.
Well, is it even reasonable to tell someone who lives by the sword to go around without armor?
She must know it’s an absurd suggestion.
Rather than sincere advice, it was probably just a joke implying that there’s no other solution.
“Life is more important than reputation, after all.”
As she said, the most important virtue for an adventurer was to tenaciously protect their own life by any means necessary.
Reputation, fame, wealth – as long as you’re alive, you can naturally obtain these things someday.
Those who didn’t understand this and lived the opposite way usually ended up as corpses before they turned thirty.
Losing both fame and life, in other words.
“Anyway, don’t take any requests for a while and take a break. My superior said that if there are any more casualties, they might just kick you out, regardless of promotion or anything.”
“…I see. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Don’t mention it. Take care on your way back.”
She probably meant don’t cause any trouble on the way.
I nodded, let out a deep sigh, then trudged out of the request office building with my share of the reward.
Since the request was to exterminate about a dozen goblins, the reward was merely 20 copper coins. Barely enough to cover a day’s food expenses.
In reality, there were forty goblins and even a higher species showed up… but would the request office take that into account? Not likely.
No matter how tough the situation at the site was, the reward was always the predetermined amount set by the client.
Unless the client had posted a false request from the start.
In exchange, so to speak.
There was a benefit that if you obtained loot unrelated to the request content, they would recognize your ownership without any interference, regardless of what it was…
But that was only beneficial for those who were at least at the copper token rank.
What good loot could iron token or lower adventurers, who only sweep through goblin dens, possibly obtain?
The loot they could get was at best some rusty metal scraps, which wouldn’t even cover the cost of a single meal.
The life of an unskilled day laborer was that miserable.
“Life is really…”
I stuffed the almost weightless pouch into the small bag attached to my belt and let out another deep sigh.
Actually, the lightness of the pouch wasn’t something to be too concerned about.
What I wanted wasn’t the reward, but the merit points for promotion to copper token.
But didn’t the receptionist girl just warn me? To forget about taking on requests for a while. That was the problem.
How could I accumulate merit points if I wasn’t working? It was impossible.
And it’s not like I could sneak into dungeons or cause a scene in front of the receptionist demanding requests…
In short, I had suddenly become an unemployed person with money.
And I couldn’t even guess when I’d be able to work again.
…Isn’t that a good thing, you ask?
Ah, yes. If this were Earth, it would be. If it were Earth, that is.
In my peaceful homeland, of course, the life of a wealthy unemployed person would be the ideal life that everyone dreams of and desires.
But this wasn’t Earth.
This was the world inside an adult-oriented novel full of regret, devastation, and obsession, titled [I Became the Protagonist of an NTR Game].
…Probably.
* * *
I was possessed into a novel.
I realized this fact less than three minutes after being suddenly possessed.
It was about two minutes after that when I realized I was screwed and ran away.
It was a truly bewildering experience. And desperate too.
So, this is how it happened…