Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: Suddenly in the Backyard
Reiwa Year ◯, the world suddenly stopped.
――Then, 10 years later, in the Testing Northern Land.
"What is it? What is it?!"
I was panicking inside my room.
When I woke up in the morning, all the electrical appliances had stopped working.
I tried flipping the switches click-click, but there was no reaction.
I checked the breaker next to the entrance... but there was no problem.
A power outage? ――I went outside, but from a quick glance, I couldn't tell.
This is the countryside, and the distance between houses is a bit far, so I couldn't confirm it.
As I went around to the back field to check the power meter――.
"What the hell is this!"
A huge hole had opened right in front of me.
I could see a pitch-black hole gaping open... about 5 meters in diameter.
It looked quite deep, and I couldn't see the bottom, but if I went too close to the edge, it seemed like it might collapse.
I don't know what would happen if I fell into a place like this.
"Hmm..."
I didn't want to think about it too much, but the only thing I could think of was――.
"Could it be――a Dungeon?"
In the past, if I had said such a thing, people might have thought I was crazy, but now it's different.
About 10 years ago, "Dungeons" began appearing in various places around the world.
With the appearance of these alien entities, the world had stopped.
Computers, smartphones, and home appliances all became unusable, suddenly turning into junk.
It took some time to realize that all of this was the fault of the Dungeons, and the whole world fell into chaos.
It was as if everything humanity had built up was suddenly kicked down and smashed to pieces.
Humanity faced the sudden trial, and somehow, we are now slowly returning to our original lives.
Dungeons are still appearing in various places around the world, so there is a possibility one could appear in my backyard, but...
"Why, in my backyard..."
The sudden event made me feel a slight dizziness, and I crouched down.
If I discover a Dungeon, I must report it to the local government.
Since I live in the countryside, it would be the town hall...
If a Dungeon appeared behind my house, this would fall under national jurisdiction.
The police and security would probably come too.
My house...
I had heard stories online of people whose land had a Dungeon appear on it, but the buyout amount seemed to be quite small.
Even if you complain, the administration will seize it through forced execution.
In that case, it's worth two bundles and three strings (a pittance).
Since a law like that has been enacted, there's nothing to be done.
I want to complain to the government, but the world was in a panic when the Dungeons appeared.
In some places, monsters had overflowed from the Dungeons.
In that case, it's unavoidable that it becomes the country's responsibility――that's the situation, and I have no intention of complaining either.
"No, no, maybe the ground just collapsed for now."
Returning to my single-story house with the red triangular roof, I picked up a flashlight.
I pressed the switch――it didn't light up.
My smartphone――the power wouldn't turn on.
I twisted the stove knob――no fire, even though gas was flowing.
The gas burner using a cassette canister wouldn't ignite either.
Next, I tried using a disposable lighter that was by the stove.
It was the old-fashioned type that uses flint――sparks flew, but it still wouldn't light.
"...It's definitely a Dungeon."
Around a Dungeon, the laws of physics are warped, making electricity and fire unusable.
With this, it's certain that this hole is a Dungeon...
I hung my head again.
Why in my backyard... for the second time today.
Fortunately, since this is the countryside, there is distance from the neighbors.
The back field is 300 tsubo, and nothing is growing after harvesting the sweet potatoes.
There isn't much interaction with neighbors, so I might be able to hide the fact that a Dungeon appeared for a while.
I went out of the house and peered into the hole again.
What appeared before my eyes was a vertical hole, so there was no sign of monsters crawling out.
Even the most capable monsters wouldn't be able to climb up a vertical wall.
This is lucky.
If it were a normal Dungeon, I would have had to report it immediately.
I could hear the sound of wind blowing up from the depths of the earth.
No, was it the moaning of some living creature?
It felt like such a sound, but since I was peeking down from the edge of the hole, I could only see partway down.
"That's right!"
I brought a double ladder from the shed.
This one slides and overlaps, extending to about 8 meters when fully stretched.
With an 8-meter ladder for a 5-meter hole, I should be able to span the hole.
If I go to the center of the hole and look down, I might be able to see the bottom.
I extended the double ladder on the ground and dragged it slowly closer to the hole.
"Well then..."
Since I managed to lay the ladder across the hole, I placed concrete blocks on both ends to keep it from moving.
I timidly stepped onto the makeshift bridge――it seemed safe.
Crossing the ladder to the center of the hole and looking down, the black hole continued endlessly, with no end in sight.
It's probably over 100 meters deep――no, maybe more.
As a test, I carried a single concrete block and dropped it from the bridge.
The white block got smaller and smaller... but I couldn't hear the sound of it hitting the bottom.
"Hah? How deep is this thing..."
I had a good idea.
There should be binoculars in the house.
If I look down with those, maybe I'll see something.
I returned to the house and came back with the binoculars.
I peered down with them.
I adjusted the focus dial――and it looked like something was writhing in the darkness.
"Eh!?"
I pulled the binoculars away from my eyes once and peered again.
Something red seemed to be glowing... the eyes of a living creature?
I had the feeling those glowing red eyes were looking at me.
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you――such a phrase floated into my head.
Certainly, there is something there without a doubt.
In the past, I could have bought a drone and lowered it to test――but I can't do that now.
If even a flashlight won't light up, a drone shouldn't move either.
Even if there is something there, there probably aren't any living creatures climbing up a 100-meter vertical hole――probably.
"Hmm..."
I thought for a while.
Filling it in――that's impossible, isn't it?
To fill such a hole, how much earth and sand would be needed?
Also, since electrical appliances don't work, cars won't move either.
Dump trucks and heavy machinery for transporting earth and sand can't be used.
Old-fashioned manual labor――if I gather that many people, they'll find out a Dungeon appeared here.
――In a case like this, first comes information gathering.
I left the hole for now, returned to the house, and went outside with my smartphone.
I walked around looking for a place where the terminal works.
When I got out to the driveway in front of the house, the smartphone worked.
The garage is in a slightly distant spot, but I found out that electricity works there.
I opened the shutter of the garage, which has a slanted roof and is surrounded by tin, where my kei truck is parked.
I started the generator inside and tried turning on the lights――it was fine.
As a test, I tried starting the engine of my partner, the kei truck.
This one started up safely too.
"This is troublesome... I guess I'll have to live in the garage for a while――this is it."
For now, it seems there's no impact on the road in front of the house, so it's unlikely anyone will notice the car stopping and realize it's a Dungeon.
I cleaned the chair that had been left covered in dust inside the garage and sat down, starting to search on my smartphone.
I drifted for a while in the sea of the internet and found an interesting article.
It was a story from a foreign country where a hole-type Dungeon had appeared in a yard, just like my house.
Apparently, goblins had spawned in a shallow vertical hole.
Goblins are monsters like little green or blue-skinned oni.
They said that by throwing stones at them from outside the hole, they defeated them and the hole was sealed.
"But foreign countries have guns, right?"
But you can't use guns near a Dungeon.
Fire won't burn, and gunpowder won't combust.
If fire could be used, there would be the option of pouring gasoline and setting it ablaze, but...
Next is a water siege.
However, with pumps and such unusable, it's a bit difficult.
Even drawing water from a nearby river would be quite difficult without heavy machinery.
After all, heavy machinery doesn't move near a Dungeon.
Well, thinking about various things, it seems the choice came down to "throwing stones"――the most primitive attack.
Bows or crossbows could be considered, but I suppose I didn't have any on hand.
"――That means my only choice is that too..."
For now, if I kill whatever is at the bottom of the hole, the Dungeon will close――that's it!
I don't know if that thing will really die, though.
If I fail, I'll sigh at my own bad luck and report the Dungeon to the town hall.
I found something to do, but you can't fight on an empty stomach.
I brought preserved food from the house.
It was prepared for earthquakes and disasters, but now is the time for it.
I boiled water with a portable oil stove in the shed and boiled the stored sweet potatoes.
This stove was installed for heating when working in the shed during winter.
"..."
For now, I ate the boiled sweet potatoes.
Since I grow sweet potatoes in my field, I have plenty of them――but I'm getting tired of them by now.
More importantly, what method of attack would be best?
Concrete block attacks like before seem good, but...
How about a lump of iron?
An anvil used by a blacksmith――.
I searched for "anvil" on my smartphone, but a 25kg one costs over 20,000 yen.
It might have been cheaper in the past, but inflation is high now.
If I drop 10 shots a day, that's over 200,000 yen?
It might be sold at the local home center, but it's a bit expensive.
Where would I get that kind of money?
If I had unlimited money and could use heavy machinery, I'd throw in concrete scrap or steel beams.
It would be a powerful attack, but I don't have that money, and cars don't work near a Dungeon.
I need something I can carry by hand, with high power――and a low price.
That's what I need.
"Hmm..."
I racked my brain.
That's it――how about single-pipe scaffolding?
It's a steel pipe used to build scaffolding at construction sites.
Those shouldn't be that expensive.
I'll make a makeshift spear out of an iron pipe and throw it in.
Besides, since it's something I'll discard anyway, used ones, or even rusty and broken ones, are fine.
Wouldn't that be cheap?
I immediately searched the internet.
I was looking for a dealer nearby selling single-pipe scaffolding.
"Found it, found it."
It seems a dealer dealing in used construction machinery also handles used single-pipe scaffolding.
After finishing my meal――I immediately got into my beloved kei truck and visited the dealer I found online.
I drove the kei truck along a mountain road, and once I reached the flatlands, I came near the sea.
"Hi there."
"Welcome~"
The man who greeted me was a middle-aged, slightly chubby man with a punch-perm, wearing gray work clothes.
No, I'm an old man too, but.
Looking around, yellow and blue heavy machines were lined up everywhere in a vast plot of land with bare soil.
I could see several warehouses painted green.
There were various things lined up, but many were rusted.
Well, maybe for this kind of thing, as long as it works, it's fine.
"Heh~, there's a lot of stuff."
"What are you looking for?"
"Um, I heard there's used single-pipe scaffolding here..."
"We've got 'em! There's plenty of them, so take them, hahaha."
The man led me to the back of the warehouse, where single-pipes bundled with wire were piled up.
Maybe about 20 pipes per bundle.
Due to being exposed to the elements, there was quite a bit of rust, but it wasn't a problem.
When I asked the price, it was a throwaway price.
"There's a lot."
"In the past, solar power generation was popular, wasn't it?"
"Yes, yes."
"They used single-pipe scaffolding to mount the panels. It was cheap."
"Oh, I see..."
Since the Dungeons appeared, semiconductors around the world have become unusable, and the reason for that is――.
Elements like silicon and germanium stopped functioning as they used to.
The same goes for solar panels.
Silicon was used in the panels.
Once those changed, solar power generation became impossible.
Well, there are materials that haven't been affected, so development of alternatives is progressing, but all existing panels are now garbage.
Suddenly, the symbol of eco-friendliness around the world became garbage, and neither disposal nor recycling was possible.
Piles of garbage accumulated everywhere, causing a major problem worldwide.
"In the past, didn't iron things like this cost quite a bit? Scrap collectors used to come around in circles."
"Yeah, look――when the Dungeons appeared, countries that were buying that kind of iron got into trouble and couldn't worry about it anymore."
"I see..."
A certain country that was enjoying its springtime had the bubble burst, and then the Dungeon incident overlapped, causing the country to collapse.
Plus, a political coup made things terrible.
Having a large population is a weapon, but it's also a weakness.
Detailed information seems to be concealed, but there are rumors that half to a third of the population disappeared.
Well, that's none of my business――that's the gist of it.
I don't care about what happens in countries across the sea.
For now, I purchased 60 2-meter single-pipe scaffolding poles.
I paid with electronic money.
They said they could load them onto my kei truck.
"I'm an amateur, but when driving single-pipe scaffolding into the ground, how do you do it?"
"You use missiles or piles..."
"Missiles?"
"Haha, I don't know what they call it elsewhere, but we call them that."
The man showed it to me.
"Oh, I see."
There's an attachment that fits perfectly into the hole of the single-pipe scaffolding.
The "missile" is made of thin iron and is hollow inside.
It looks cheaply made.
In contrast, the "pile" seems sturdy, with its inside properly filled.
Naturally, the pile is more expensive.
Since I'm trying to make a spear out of the single-pipe scaffolding, if I'm buying, I'll go with the pile.
I also purchased about 60 rusty piles.
Next, I need a lid to close the opposite side of the single-pipe scaffolding.
Anything will do as long as it's closed, but I made this one out of metal too.
They loaded the bundle of single-pipe scaffolding onto a forklift.
"I'll come back to buy more."
"Oh~, buy as much as you want. We have plenty left over, hahaha~"
I loaded the 60 single-pipe scaffolding poles onto my kei truck and sped back home.
Suddenly, looking at the mountains――the solar panels installed by cutting into the mountain were left as ruins.
The company that was running the power generation business had fled, leaving it in a hopeless state.
There are ways to deal with garbage disposal.
"If only we could throw all that garbage into the Dungeons..."
Items put into a Dungeon are absorbed by the Dungeon.
Cleanly and completely.
See, it's simple, right?
――I think that, but it's not that simple.
In a Dungeon, internal combustion engines don't work, and motors don't work either.
Everything must be transported in manually.
Considering the labor costs and cost-effectiveness――garbage remains piled up everywhere.
In fact, there are countries that buy garbage from other countries and dispose of it in their own Dungeons.
Whether it's toxic substances or radioactive materials, if you shove them into a Dungeon, they are absorbed and disappear.
Getting it there is difficult, but the countries doing this are developing nations with extremely cheap labor costs.
Human rights? What's that? Is it delicious? Such countries use their citizens at low wages and use Dungeons as trash dumps.
"Now that I think about it――"
If it's a vertical hole in my backyard, I could easily throw garbage in.
It seems like I could make a fortune as a scrap collector, but they'd probably find out it's a Dungeon immediately.
It's amazing that society starts turning again even after a paradigm shift like a Dungeon suddenly appearing in the neighborhood.
The fact that PCs and smartphones became unusable because of the Dungeons is also an example.
Living without smartphones or electrical appliances in modern Japan is unthinkable.
Naturally, the development of alternative semiconductors was rushed, and suddenly, a gospel was brought.
The source of that――was, surprisingly, the Dungeon.
It was discovered that Magic Stones dropped by Dungeon monsters could be used as semiconductor material, and they spread rapidly as alternative semiconductors.
PCs can be used as is simply by swapping the CPU to one using monsters-derived semiconductors.
The sudden surge in demand for semiconductor replacement put the semiconductor industry into a bubble state.
The more they made, the more they could sell, but the raw material was Magic Stones taken from monsters.
They weren't easy to come by.
Thus, currently, the business of diving into Dungeons, defeating monsters, and collecting Magic Stones is thriving.
Naturally, it involves danger, and everything is at your own risk.
It would seem profitable to broadcast live footage of the fighting on video sites, but cameras don't work inside Dungeons.
Still, since old-fashioned film cameras from a long time ago work, some people are taking photos inside Dungeons.
That's about all the information there is.
While driving while thinking about Dungeons, I arrived home.
Well, there's quite a bit to do.