Dungeon's Final Boss: Banished by My Boss, the Goddess, to Earth—So I'll Continue My Past Life - 79

Chapter 79: Everyday Life

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I was requested to clear a dungeon immediately. Today’s location was Miyagi Prefecture.

“Miyagi… Isn’t that the place known for their beef tongue?”

“They also have zunda mochi, right?”

We chatted like that inside the helicopter during our trip to the dungeon.

“Come to think of it, we’ve never bought any souvenirs before, have we? Are we not allowed to buy souvenirs?”

“Well, we’re on official duty after all.”

Shuji Hadano, leader of the Ministry of D’s Dungeon Capture Team, answered with a wry smile.

“Ordinary employees usually bring back souvenirs after business trips, though.”

“But we’re public servants.”

He added, with the same wry smile on his face. I suppose he was being mindful of the fact that their salaries came from taxes. But then again, no company created money out of nothing either, so I felt that being too uptight about it might be unnecessarily restrictive.

I noticed that they were all wearing DC rings. Curious whether those were allowed, I asked, and apparently they were classified as permitted personal items. Since they could only be purchased with magic stones, the normal procurement process was said to be a hassle. The easiest procurement method was to get them approved as personal property.

Combat in dungeons didn’t allow for standardized equipment use, so apparently such exceptions existed exclusively for awakened individuals. We entered the dungeon that had opened near Sendai Station and completed the mission in about six hours. Afterwards, I alone entered the station and bought beef tongue bento for everyone at the shop.

On the way, someone pointed a smartphone camera at me and asked.

“Aren’t you on official duty? Is it really okay to be buying station bento like that?”

“I’m not a public servant and besides, what’s wrong with buying a little reward for finishing work?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you ever do that?”

“Uh, well…”

“Claiming that only public servants aren’t allowed to do that… Wouldn’t that be discrimination against public servants?”

“Ugh…”

“Public servants are people too. Please don’t forget that.”

“…Okay.”

“Are you going to upload this video? If so, feel free to post it unedited. If something weird starts circulating, I’ll post a video myself to explain the whole situation.”

With a smile, I walked away from the now-silent person and made sure to acknowledge everyone else pointing cameras at me by flashing them all a smile.

“You’re quite the celebrity now, Hasegawa-san.”

When I returned to the Dungeon Capture Team, Hadano-san said that to me.

“Am I?”

“Yes, you handled that very smoothly. Looks like you’ve gotten used to it, huh?”

“Ah, that might be true.”

Maybe it was because I showed my face in videos, but I had started receiving insults on social media.

Honestly, popularity from others doesn’t matter to how I live, so I’d rather not have any of it. Still, people nowadays really care about gaining popularity on social media. 

I didn’t actively use it myself, but I did maintain an account to avoid being impersonated. I uploaded a photo of the beef tongue bento on one of the social media platforms, X-Star. X-Star was the short-posting type of social  media. 

『A little post-work treat. Please excuse the delayed return time for the sake of this purchase.』

The beef tongue bento I had purchased was enough for the whole team (including the pilot), but I didn’t specify who was eating them. Besides, an awakened person could easily devour this much food. In other words, I didn’t specify who would be eating them, so there shouldn’t be any issue. 

“So with that, let’s dig in.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“It’s fine. I’m making good money from this job anyway.”

“Hahaha.”

As I ate beef tongue bento with them, I checked their status.

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• • • • Shuji Hadano

Strength: 25

Body: 28

Endurance: 35

Speed: 30

Magic: 10

Awakening Type: Combat

Aptitude: A

Skills: Item Box / Swordsmanship Bonus +3 / Firearm Bonus +2 / Squad Command +3

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That was the status of the leader, Shuji Hadano. The other members had similarly tailored stats, depending on their roles, but all of them had simple and unexciting data. With an Aptitude of A, he should have more skills. But he had practically none. It seemed like he obtained these skills because he frequently used swords and guns, and because he was a leader.

He could have had some less useful skills too, but perhaps that absence reflected the no-nonsense nature of military-style combat. Once people started getting aura-based skills that could amplify their current abilities or allowed them to have another means of attack, people’s perception of skills might change. 

So, when would that happen? Should I wait for people to realize it on their own? Or would it be okay for me to reveal that information myself? I was leaning toward the idea that I should do it, but I still questioned whether that was truly the right thing to do.

At the very least, I thought that knowing how to correctly assess one’s own abilities would never be a disadvantage. Encouraging someone to focus on their skills and search for ways to manifest them should be acceptable. The rest depended on timing.

Another issue was that, currently, only Japan and the United States had access to the Dungeon Convenience Stores. That needed to change. I had started this to earn magic stones, but after attaining the status of an Awakened and this operation proved to be a pretty lucrative source of magic stones, I found it hard to motivate myself to go even further. 

It seemed I wasn’t suited to be the CEO of a large company as I didn’t feel the need to earn more. It was strange. After all, I used to be very passionate about making myself stronger back then.

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