An Old Man Restaurant Owner Is Unparalleled by Relying on His Old Tricks. It Turns Out, He’s the Legendary Dungeon Conqueror. - 8

Chapter 8: I’m Still a Beginner

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After listening to the female idol’s detailed explanation, the female manager bowed her head deeply at me. 

“Thank you so much for your help. My name is Reika Kaga. I’m Miku’s manager.”

“I’m Nishida… No, I mean, just call me Ken.

〈He’s definitely a Nishida. 〉

〈There’s no point in correcting yourself, old man.〉

〈Nishida-san, huh?〉

〈Maybe he’s Ken Nishida?〉

〈Guess I will start calling him Nishida from now on. 〉

“However, this is strange. Why are lower level monsters appearing in the middle level?”

“Yes. There must be some kind of irregularity in place. Miku is a D-rank explorer and I’m a B-rank. So, we should be able to explore the middle level without any trouble, but given the current situation…”

“Yeah. It’s best if you return to the surface immediately.”

“…I know it’s a lot to ask after you’ve already helped us this much, but could you please accompany us to the surface?”

“I-I would like to ask the same! It would be reassuring to have someone as strong as Ken-san with us…”

〈But, he will refuse.〉

〈No, there’s no way he will refuse.〉

〈Who would refuse a request from a beautiful woman and a cute girl?!〉

〈But this is Nishida we’re talking about. He always goes beyond our expectations.〉

〈If it were me, I wouldn’t be able to hide my excitement.〉

Of course, there was no way I could leave these two given the current situation.

“Of course. I don’t mind. We can’t cross the possibility of encountering another lower level monster again after all.”

I turned my attention to the drone. 

“Well, that’s how it is. We’ll be returning back now. We couldn’t make it to the lower levels, but since we already accomplished our original goal, which was to show you guys how I defeat the high orc and minotaur, I think it’s fine to return to the surface now.”

〈He definitely achieved his goal.〉

〈What a lucky bastard.〉

〈We got to see something good though.〉

〈You’re the real deal man. Sorry for doubting you.〉

〈No way you guys believe this shit. LOLOL This video is fake. LOLOL〉

〈I don’t think you can put a real idol in a fake video.〉

〈Exactly. You might be able to make a fake video with deepfake technology, but there’s no way anyone would dare to make something like that with a real idol. The repercussion would be insane.〉

〈No, wait, the viewer count is over 30.000 now?〉

〈Maybe people are coming to this channel from Miku’s channel.〉

〈Yes. I came from Miku-chan’s livestream. 〉

〈Confirmed. He’s legit. 〉

“Wait, why are there so many comments coming in?!”

Now that things had settled down, I could finally check the stream. The comments were pouring in at an unbelievable speed and upon closer inspection, the viewer count was also off the charts. 

〈You just realized?〉

〈Yaaay~ Old man, are you seeing this?〉

〈This stream is spreading everywhere. The view counts is going to keep increasing. 〉

〈Thank you for saving Miku-chan!〉

〈Thank you for saving Kaga-san’s life. Really. Thank you. 〉

〈I’ve become Nishida-san’s fan!〉

〈I want to donate, but I can’t!〉

“Hahaha, looks like my fans are causing a bit of a commotion in Ken-san’s stream.”

Miku Kanamoto said with a wry smile as she peeked at my screen.

〈Miku-chan and the old man in the same shoot!〉

〈They look good together.〉

〈You two should start dating. 〉

〈The old man is definitely still single, right?〉

“Wai-… Pl-Please stop commenting weird things!”

〈But the age gap between them is way too big.〉 

〈They look like a father and a daughter. 〉

〈I’d be seriously creeped out if that old man dares to make a move on Miku-chan.〉

〈Stop dreaming.〉

“I-I mean, I-I personally don’t really care about age or things like that…”

〈Wait, does that mean the old man actually has a chance?〉

〈This is…〉

〈No-No way… Miku-chan…〉

〈I mean, he did save her life.〉

The comment section was starting to go into a strange direction.

“Alright. I will wrap up the stream. The high orc and minotaur that I hunted today will be available at the restaurant starting tomorrow. For more details, check my Y account. That’s all for now.”

〈I’m definitely going to your restaurant!〉

〈Never had monster meat before, but I hear it’s delish!~〉

〈I want to try it too…〉

〈Thanks for the stream. 〉

〈Looking forward to your next stream. 〉

〈Byeee!~〉

I ended the stream. I had set up the setting so the comment section would be closed after the stream ended to prevent any new comments from coming in.

“Sorry about that. I actually started this stream because I got viral in a bad way, that’s why the viewers aren’t civilized, to say the least.”

“No-No. I should be the one apologizing for talking with Ken-san’s viewers…”

“Miku, let’s end your stream too.”

Reika Kaga pointed out, making Miku Kanamoto to widen her eyes. It seemed she had forgot about her stream. 

“Umm… Because there are some irregularities happening, we will be ending the stream now! Thank you for watching!”

After that, we headed to the surface together. Since we couldn’t use the teleportation trap to return to the first level, we had to take the stairs the old-fashioned way. 

“BUHIIIIIIII!!”

“Another high orc? Good thing I came along with you two.”

We encountered several lower level monsters on our way back up. Just like usual, I defeated them all in an instant. However, these monsters were basically creatures out of a nightmare for middle level explorers like them. 

“I didn’t know you could take down minotaurs and high orc that easily…”

“Even A-rank explorers would be having a hard time defeating them…”

“He must be a very famous explorer.”

“But we should recognize him right away if that’s the case. Oh? Maybe he’s an old timer? Maybe he used to be a famous explorer back when dungeons only started popping up. That makes sense, given his age.”

I was just an unknown rookie explorer though. While it was true that I used to explore dungeons during the early days of dungeon exploring, but it had been nearly 20 years since I last went into a dungeon. We eventually made it back to the surface safe and sound. We were quickly welcomed by the staff from the Dungeon Management Agency.

“Survivors! There are three of them!”

“Thank goodness. With this, all the explorers who were in the dungeon have all returned.”

It seemed the other explorer had sensed the irregularity and returned early. The staff asked me what had happened and I told them everything without hiding anything. 

“I see. So you encountered high orcs and minotaurs in the middle levels? Good job on making it back alive. Those are difficult monsters to defeat even for a B-rank explorer, let alone D-rank or F-rank…. WAIT?! What are you doing in the middle level?! You’re just an F-rank! Didn’t they warn you beforehand to only explore the upper levels?!”

This was a different staff member. I had never seen this staff member before. This staff member wasn’t there when I came back with minotaur and high orc before, hence why I got yelled at. 

“”F-rank?””

Miku Kanamoto and Reika Kaga tilted their heads to the side in unison. 

“Ah, that’s me. You see, I’m still a beginner.”

“”What..?””

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