IGTL Chapter 71

Chapter 71 – Hmm. I Feel Great

“Mmm. What a fine morning.”

This was the restaurant on the 11th floor of Candeo Hotel.

I took a small sip of coffee while looking out the window.

Outside, the weather was perfectly clear. A refreshing blue sky spread out before me, bright enough to put anyone in a good mood.

By now, my shitty older brother, Takahashi Yoichi, should have been barreling down the road toward becoming a decent human being.

Likewise, my shitty older brother’s bride-to-be was probably already running full speed toward marriage with him.

Using the paid item “Contract,” I had imposed four penalties on my shitty older brother.

One. He must live an honest life without causing trouble for anyone.

Two. He must repay his debt with interest at an annual rate of twenty-five percent.

Three. After repaying his debt, he must send money to our parents and care for them within reasonable limits.

Four. He must never disobey anything his relatives tell him.

All of the penalties were indefinite.

Considering how much trouble he had caused us until now, I had set some fairly heavy penalties, but I hoped he would accept that he had brought this on himself and give up.

And I had imposed four penalties on Fukuda Miki as well.

One. She must live an honest life without causing trouble for anyone.

Two. She must marry Takahashi Yoichi and maintain a harmonious marriage with him until the age of seventy.

Three. She must cooperate with Takahashi Yoichi and pay off the debt in full.

Four. She must never disobey anything her relatives tell her.

Since penalties had been imposed on her for trying to run off with the wedding gift money, apparently she had never had any romantic feelings for my shitty older brother.

Depending on how you looked at it, did that mean I had played Cupid by bringing my shitty older brother and that shitty woman together?

Ugh, gross.

I had done something completely out of character, like playing Cupid.

Well, still, letting scum roam free would only cause harm, so centralized management was better, right?

Scum like my shitty older brother were, in a certain sense, disasters to humanity…

Anyway, one way or another, my parents’ retirement was now secure. I no longer had to worry about being burdened with the obligation to support them either.

HAHAHAHA!

I felt unbelievably good.

It felt like I had been released from a worry I had carried for ages.

The sense of refreshment and liberation was no joke.

As I was laughing loudly in my heart, my smartphone went “ping.”

When I checked the screen, it seemed to be from Mom.

Apparently, my shitty older brother had gone to a job interview.

As expected of a paid item. Magnificent.

I wanted to enshrine it on a household altar and worship the hell out of it.

Maybe I should just start a company while I was at it?

There had to be demand from people whose own children had turned into monsters, or rather trash, and from people suffering because of toxic parents. I could obtain “Contracts” from the Adventurers’ Guild too.

…Well, I only thought about it. I was not going to do it right now.

Because if I wanted to make money, it was easy…

In my case, all I had to do was buy lottery tickets and I could get a fortune.

And since lottery winnings were not taxable income, they were not subject to income tax or resident tax either.

Though the tax authorities would probably start glaring at me…

No, but still.

When I thought about the future, having no marketable skill was also…

Hmm. This was difficult…

But earning money by using the paid item “Contract” also seemed like it would risk exposing all kinds of secrets, and I did not want to saddle myself with extra problems either…

And that was when a brilliant idea occurred to me.

Right. Now that I thought about it, there was no need to agonize over this.

I just had to bind the people working at the company I founded with the paid item “Contract.”

I could prepare something like a nondisclosure agreement and make them protect my secrets.

While I was at it, if I bound them so they could not commit corruption, the employees would run the company on their own after that.

I could lean back in the president’s chair and deliver the “Contracts” on a fixed day every month.

Good. Let’s go with that.

One “Contract” could be exchanged from the Adventurers’ Guild for one Advanced Recovery Potion.

Advanced Recovery Potions could be obtained while clearing dungeons, and I still had plenty of Advanced Recovery Potions in my Item Storage.

In other words, “Contracts” were effectively free.

That meant I could legally obtain a large amount of money.

Well, compared to lottery income, it would be pocket change.

However, if I bought lottery tickets every month, every week, and won every single one, the people at Mizuho Bank would definitely find it suspicious. If I kept winning first prize every time, sooner or later, they might even place some kind of purchase restriction on me.

Well, maybe I was overthinking it, but my policy and concept were now settled.

For now, I would put it into action once the punishment for the extortionist high schoolers had been decided and the matter with my former workplace had been settled.

It would be a problem if the extortionist high schoolers’ parents stormed in the moment I founded a company, or if they started making prank calls. I wanted to nip as many bad buds as possible before they could grow.

I placed my empty dishes on the tray, set the tray at the return counter, and left the restaurant.

When I entered my room and sat on the bed, an electronic “ping!” rang inside my head.

“Hmm? What was that…?”

I opened the menu bar and launched the mail function, where I found one message from “AAAA.” When I opened the message, it simply said, “Let’s go hunting.”

“Mmm…”

Dive into a dungeon with that guy, huh…

Somehow, I really did not want to…

The last time I had seen “AAAA,” he had been showing off his masochist side, delighted to be beaten to a pulp by Mob-Utan while shouting, “Fwahahaha! Useless, useless, useless, useless! Attacks like that do not work on me!” If I acted together with him, people might start thinking I had the same masochist attribute as “AAAA.”

For the time being, I replied, “Please ask someone else,” then muttered, “—Connect ‘Different World,’” and logged into the world of DW.

“Now then, what should I do…?”

Root, the vice leader of the Transfer Group, had said this.

Central Kingdom’s advanced dungeon “Desert Cradle,” Ligion Empire’s advanced dungeon “Dragon Clay,” and Midgard Holy Nation’s advanced dungeon “Ice Abyss.” By clearing the special dungeon “Ymir,” which appeared after those three advanced dungeons were cleared, a path to the new world “Svartálfaheim” would open at Transfer Gate “Yggdrasil,” or so he had said…

When this world became reality, every player’s stats had been reset. The same should have applied to the players on the Ligion Empire and Midgard Holy Nation sides.

The recommended level for advanced dungeons was roughly 150.

At present, I was probably the only one who had reached that level, thanks to my ability to use paid items in abundance.

Now that this world had become reality, raising one’s level was no easy task.

In fact, in the tavern attached to the Adventurers’ Guild, there were plenty of players who had given up on “going to the world where Odin was and returning to the original world.”

Some had lost all motivation because their stats had been reset.

Some did not feel like taking the lowest-rank requests after coming this far.

There were all sorts of people, including those suffering from homesickness and those afraid of fighting monsters.

In that regard, I had the strongest Elementals serving as my guards, and I could power level as much as I wanted. Maybe because this world only treated me like I was still under game mechanics, I did not feel pain either.

Well, I could taste food, so I did not understand how that worked, but basically, most of the things other players feared did not apply to me.

Through paid-item leveling, I had covered the stat reset and maintained my position as an S-rank adventurer. Since I could return to the real world, I did not suffer from homesickness. And because I did not feel pain, I was not afraid of fighting monsters.

Thinking about it that way, I felt like I was being given absurdly preferential treatment.

It felt as if I had become the protagonist of one of those isekai reincarnation or transfer stories from anime and novels. Was this what people commonly called “Narou-style”?

Well, whatever.

The problem for me right now was that until the three advanced dungeons in each country were cleared, the special dungeon “Ymir” would not appear, and the path to the new world would not open.

This was a grave issue.

Considering the current situation of the other players, some might think it was ethically or morally questionable for me alone to talk about this world as if it were still a game, but since I had never really cared much about that kind of thing, it did not matter to me all that much.

To begin with, if people learned that I alone was in such a special situation, my life might be in danger.

Besides, I placed my own life and lifestyle first and foremost.

If I judged someone to be a threat to my life or lifestyle, I was willing to bind that person’s freedom with a “Contract,” just as I had done with my shitty older brother…

That was precisely why I would not tell anyone that I could return to the original world or that I possessed a huge number of paid items.

With that in mind, I thought about what I should do in order to clear the three advanced dungeons and make the special dungeon “Ymir” appear.

The ideal outcome would be for the world to unlock on its own while I lazed around in the real world or over here. However, the current situation was complicated.

To make the special dungeon “Ymir” appear, the advanced dungeons in other countries also had to be cleared. On top of that, the fact that the stats of the players in those other countries had been reset was also a problem. At this rate, the new world would never be unlocked.

Now then, what to do…

Should I just release paid items into the Adventurers’ Guild?

If I released things like “Monster Respawn” and “EXP Gain +500% (24h),” they would probably level up on their own after that…

However, if I released those items and they ended up in the hands of the Transfer Group, that insane group of people who were happy about being trapped in this world, and also a criminal organization that used liberation efforts from this world as a shield to extort money and goods, it would be a problem if they leveled up and gained troublesome power.

…In that case, was leveling myself the thing I should do first?

If I raised my level, my stats would rise too.

Good. First, I would level up, then release paid items into the Adventurers’ Guild when the timing looked right.

I would get money, and they would clear the dungeons on their own. Probably. A total win.

I left the room, exited the “Drowsing Inn” that I managed, and headed for Transfer Gate “Yggdrasil.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

Everything was ready. The Elementals were also brimming with motivation.

After arriving at Transfer Gate “Yggdrasil,” I opened the menu bar and selected the dungeon I wanted to enter.

“Teleport. Desert Cradle.”

When I muttered that in front of the Transfer Gate, blue light enveloped my body, and I was transferred to the vast desert dungeon “Desert Cradle.”

Once I was transferred, the hustle and bustle of the town I had been in moments ago disappeared, replaced by low sounds that resembled sand singing, along with the cries of monsters.

“Now then, let’s get started…”

Just as I tried to take “Monster Respawn,” “EXP Gain +500%,” and “Rare Drop Rate +500%” out of my Item Storage, a voice came from somewhere.