An Old Man Restaurant Owner Is Unparalleled by Relying on His Old Tricks. It Turns Out, He’s the Legendary Dungeon Conqueror. - 1

Chapter 1: At This Rate I Will Go Bankrupt

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“Man, this is bad. I literally have no customers.”

I, Kenichi Nishida, was at my wits’ end. I had quit the company I had worked at since I graduated and opened a restaurant with great enthusiasm. I had always loved cooking and opening a restaurant had been my dream. I was moved to tears on the opening day. However, it took less than a month for those tears of joy to turn into tears of sorrow. I didn’t have a single customer. I was confident in my cooking. I had traveled across the country and tried out the popular restaurants when I was still working as a salaryman and to be honest? My cooking tastes better than those restaurants.

But the quality of cooking wouldn’t have any use if I didn’t have any customers coming to my restaurant. Could it be… The location of my restaurant was not good? No, while it was true that my restaurant was located near a station with low traffic and there weren’t many people passing by this area, but the other restaurant in this area seemed to have a decent number of customers. Could it be… The price? No, considering the market rates, my prices were not too high. In fact, given the quality of the ingredients I used, I barely broke even. My prices were on the cheaper side.

“My restaurant is not earning any profit and my expenses keep piling up… Rent, utilities, food…”

I had already spent most of my savings to start this restaurant and I still had to pay the bank loan. Sure, the loan wasn’t that big, but I really didn’t have any customers. 

“At this rate, I’m going to go bankrupt.”

Facing a potential financial collapse at the age of 40, I became desperate. I reached out to old friends of mine for advice and one of them, Kawakita, said.

“Why not promote your restaurant on social media? Post photos of the food you made. But, don’t just post ordinary food. You need to be unique, like using ingredients from the dungeon.”

Dungeon. It was the name of a mysterious space that suddenly appeared in this world 20 years ago. Dungeons were filled with vicious monsters, but there some of the monsters were quite delicious. Still, I never heard of any restaurants using serving dishes made from ingredients sourced from the dungeon. 

“Oi,oi. Don’t just say anything you want just because this is not your problem.”

“No, no, I’m being real here. I think my suggestion is pretty good, you know? Ingredients from dungeons are extremely expensive and it’s difficult to have a steady supply of it. That’s why there aren’t many places that offer dungeon dishes. However, you did dungeon exploration when you were young, right? You can just hunt the ingredients yourself and serve them at your restaurant.”

I was skeptical but I was at my wits’ end, so I decided to give it a try. I was on the brink of bankruptcy, any shot was worth doing. When was the last time I entered a dungeon? I was just a university student back then… Almost 20 years ago, huh. I had aged.

There was a dungeon called Tachihi Dungeon about a 20 minute walk north from Tachikawa Station in Tachikawa City, Tokyo. The dungeon used to be a large shopping mall. The remains of the building were still maintained to serve as the dungeon entrance. The government had placed strict security at the entrance all day long.

I would need permission from the Dungeon Management Agency to enter a dungeon. It was a bureau under the central government. So, I went to the Tamagawa Regional Office in Kokubunji to obtain an explorer license. After going through a two hour short course and a test to confirm that I was an ‘Awakened,’ I finally received the permission to enter the dungeon.

Back when I used to explore dungeons, the government was still struggling to know the correct approach to deal with this enigma. There was no registration system like this. There were many casualties since people could freely enter the dungeon back then. Most new explorers were young people, mostly in their teens to early 20s. I definitely stood out among them since I was already an old man. 

“Oi, oi… Look at that old guy. He’s picking up dungeon exploring at his age?”

“He must be from the early dungeon generation, huh?”

“Isn’t it a bit too late for him to start dungeon diving?”

I could hear those kinds of whispers from all around me. Explorers had ranks, starting from F rank as the lowest. Explorers could rise in rank by taking exams and based on their achievements. Of course, this system also didn’t exist back when I was young. By the way, ‘Awakened’ referred to people with special abilities that suddenly emerge at the same time when dungeons started appearing in the world. 

Awakened people were significantly stronger than normal people thanks to the existence of magic power circulating  within their bodies. The existence of magic power in one’s body made it easy for the government to identify if someone was Awakened or not. 

“Umm… I’d like to enter the dungeon.”

I approached a young woman at the counter of the Tachikawa Dungeon. She must be one of the staff under the Dungeon Management Agency.

“An explorer, huh. I see. Please allow me to check your license… Alright. Everything seems to be in order.”

I handed over the license and she checked it with a device I had never seen before. 

“Tachikawa Dungeon is a Class 4 dungeon so the dungeon is pretty deep. There are lower levels in this dungeon, but since you’re still an F-rank, please limit your exploration to the upper levels only.”

Dungeons were classified according to their difficulty level with Class 1 being the easiest. The more difficult the dungeon was, the higher the class number. Dungeons were generally designed like a basement. It kept going down and down and their depth was categorized into upper levels, middle levels, lower levels and deep levels. Tachikawa Dungeon was a Class 4 dungeon that extended to the lower level. This dungeon was a medium difficulty, but monsters at the upper levels were relatively easy to defeat. Even a beginner F-rank explorer like me could enter it freely, but…

“Especially since this is your first time entering a dungeon. Please gain more experience and get the hang of it on the first floor. Better be safe than be sorry. After all, you only have one life.”

The staff member advised me out of the goodness of her heart. 

“I will be fine. I won’t be reckless.”

I nodded in response and entered the dungeon. 

“Alright. Let’s head straight to the lower levels!”

I didn’t have the slightest intention to listen to the staff’s warnings from the start 

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T/N: MC is me except I’m not OP. Just stupid.