I Was the Supporter of a Popular Dungeon Streamer, but the Power Harassment Was Too Much, so I Quit. I’m Useless Anyway, so It Shouldn’t Be a Problem, Right? Huh? The Views Are Dropping Like Crazy? - 75-76

Chapter 75: Theseus

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When I arrived in front of my apartment door, I noticed something was off.

“It’s open…”

Had I finally been robbed? I had always expected it to happen sooner or later. With such lousy security, anyone could break in easily. In this era, having neither an electronic lock nor a magic lock was practically an open invitation to be robbed. Maybe it was time to move. I had the money, after all.

With that thought, I stepped inside. My wallet and all my important belongings were always with me, so no matter what was stolen, it wouldn’t be a major loss. Now, what had the burglar taken?

“Yo.”

What I saw inside was—Eika Hebiya, sitting at my low table while holding a can of beer.

“You… Do you even understand what you’re doing now?”

“I came to drink with you. That’s what I’m doing here.”

“……”

If I fought here, I’d be causing trouble for the landlord and the other tenants. I also wanted to hear about Kisaragi’s situation from her… I had no choice. I sat down across from Hebiya.

“Is Kisaragi safe?”

I probed, my tone slightly firm.

“Safe as can be. Not a scratch on her.”

I couldn’t trust the words of an enemy, but I didn’t get the sense that she was lying.

“Now it’s my turn to ask. That right arm of yours… What is it?”

“It’s just a prosthetic arm.”

“That’s a lie. I heard from Ul. You took down the beastified Shuuren Araki and Atsushi Iizuka. You even fended off Ul. I know you’re a highly skilled mage, but that alone doesn’t explain how you managed to defeat those who had undergone beastification. That arm… It’s an artificial OOPArt, isn’t it?”

Beastification—so that’s the term they use when they turn Seeker into a monster.

“Don’t just go making assumptions. It was Abisu who defeated the Minotaur and Kisaragi who took down Iizuka.”

“I can accept the first one, but the second is wrong because Kisaragi Koyuki’s OOPArt hasn’t awakened yet. There’s no way she could have defeated Iizuka.”

“You’re just making your own assumptions.”

“So you really won’t talk, huh? Fine, then I’ll change the question.”

Hebiya took the cigarette from her mouth and dropped it into an empty can.

“Why does that arm of yours smell like Cyan?”

“…!?”

Only Abisu, Isshiki-san, and Yun-san should have known that Cyan’s OOPArt was embedded in this prosthetic.

“Cyan? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh? I see. No, it’s fine. I was just making a guess. I just had a feeling… That arm of yours reminded me of Cyan. Ever since the first time I met you, I’ve been feeling that way.”

So she’s really an acquaintance of Cyan, huh?

Back when I first met her, Cyan, who was in my right arm, had reacted to Hebiya. There was definitely something between these two.

“You can ask the next question.”

“…What’s your group’s objective?”

“Heh, jumping straight to that?”

“Mass production of artificial OOPArts, and turning Seekers into monsters… Or is it beastification instead of monsterization? Either way, both are technologies that turn people into weapons in an instant. What are you trying to do by amassing such power? Are you planning to destroy the Guild Association?”

“Hah! Well, we might end up blowing up the Guild Association if we have to, but that’s not the main goal.”

Hebiya pointed toward the direction of Amatsugahara, outside my window.

“Our goal is to conquer Amatsugahara.”

“-!?”

A sudden sense of déjà vu struck me. Cyan’s last words came to mind…

“If we try to conquer Amatsugahara, those old men from the Divine Order will go all out to stop us. So a fight with them is inevitable.”

“You seem to have a connection with Cyan, but was Cyan also trying to conquer Amatsugahara with you? Was Cyan involved in beastification and artificial OOPArts?”

“That’s not it.”

Hebiya said firmly.

“We were comrades at first. Cyan and we shared the same goal of conquering Amatsugahara. But along the way, our methods diverged. We chose to take any means necessary to reach Amatsugahara. But Cyan… Cyan insisted on conquering Amatsugahara without dragging anyone else in. Cyan gathered only a handful of allies and declared they would do it with just a small team.”

Her expression darkened.

“In fact, they almost made it… If only those old bastards hadn’t interfered…!”

There was hatred in her voice and that hatred was ultimately directed at the Guild Association and the Divine Order.

“What do you mean by ‘interfered’? What did they do?”

“They had the Guild Association’s dogs—the Seekers—kill him. I heard the one who killed Cyan was the strongest Seeker alive, Arashiki Boku.”

Arashiki and Cyan!?

That was a battle between the strongest of the strongest. But Cyan’s OOPArt was specialized for fighting monsters. Cyan probably wasn’t able to defeat Arashiki.

“If those guys hadn’t gotten in Cyan’s way, Cyan would have conquered Amatsugahara by now, and we’d all be living peacefully without dragging anyone else into this mess.”

“Why are you so obsessed with conquering Amatsugahara? I don’t see how anyone benefits from it.”

“Everyone benefits—except for a handful of scumbags. Hey, Hamura, imagine this.”

“Hm?”

“What do you think would happen if a dungeon disaster were to originate from Amatsugahara?”

Even a B-rank dungeon causing a disaster could wipe out an entire city. If it were an A-rank dungeon, it could take out three cities at least. There had been only one recorded case of an S-rank dungeon disaster in history. I had heard that at the time, an entire nation was on the brink of destruction. Amatsugahara was far beyond that… If I had to classify it, it would be an SSS-rank dungeon. If a disaster came from there—

“I don’t even want to think about it, but wouldn’t the whole world get destroyed?”

“Exactly.”

“Hey, what’s the point of this pointless discussion? Do you even know how many years it’s been since Amatsugahara appeared? It’s not some ticking time bomb.”

“Is that so?”

Hebiya stood up and walked toward the door.

“Oh yeah, one last thing.”

She turned back to face me.

“Our organization is called ‘The Conquerors—Theseus.’ And the ten executives are known as ‘Ariadne’s Ten Threads.’ Both Ul and I are among them. You get what that means, right?”

That means there are eight more people on the same level as Hebiya and Ul.

“If you come at us half-heartedly, you’ll die.”

“If I don’t come at you half-heartedly, I won’t die, right? Then there’s no problem.”

Hebiya smirked and shrugged.

“Theseus… The hero who conquered the labyrinth, huh?”

“That’s right and we are the thread leading the way to conquering the labyrinth.”

Theseus was the name of a legendary hero. The story goes that he was given a thread and a dagger by a woman named Ariadne, which he used to navigate and conquer the labyrinth. It was a fitting name for an organization dedicated to conquering Amatsugahara.

“See you around.”

Hebiya left the room. I followed after her, stepping outside—but by the time I did, she was already gone.

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Chapter 76: Advice

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I was at a café, sitting alone while drinking a good cup of coffee. It was a chain café, and there were a decent number of people inside even in the morning. Their specialty seemed to be pancakes, but I’d save that for when Kisaragi returned. Someone might wonder why I was taking it so easy when Kisaragi had been kidnapped. But I needed a moment to calm down. I’d been bombarded with so much information in such a short time that my mind was in chaos.

For now, I already know what I need to do before the operation.

I looked down at my gloved right hand.

I have to bring Kurogane back.

The last time I tried to summon Kurogane, Kurogane didn’t appear. Come to think of it, I hadn’t used Kurogane since my fight with Iizuka. Why? Why hadn’t I even attempted to summon Kurogane until I faced Ul and the others? While exploring dungeons, I had been hiding the fact that I was a Seeker, so I avoided using Kurogane, which was obviously an OOPArt. But there had been plenty of chances to test it when I was alone in my room. And yet, I never even tried. Wasn’t it because, deep down, I already knew? I already understood—unconsciously—that I couldn’t summon Kurogane anymore.

To solve this issue, I had messaged Yun-san, the developer of this prosthetic arm.

Her reply was:

『Based on the data, all conditions for summoning Kurogane have been met. Therefore, the reason you can’t summon it lies beyond measurable parameters—in other words, it’s dependent on your soul. I believe some kind of psychological condition is required to elevate your Origin into Kurogane.』

A psychological condition… In manga, the protagonist often awakens their power through emotions like anger, sorrow, hope, or despair. If that were the case, then maybe some kind of emotion was necessary to transform my Origin into Kurogane. What was I feeling when I got wrecked by Iizuka? Anger… No, that wasn’t it. I had been angry at Iizuka, sure, but at that moment, I was too focused on reacting to the situation to dwell on emotions like that. Despair… That was a possibility. The overwhelming difference in power, the sheer hopelessness of the situation—I had definitely felt despair. But I didn’t think I had awakened through something so negative. To fight Theseus, I needed Kurogane, the anti-Seeker OOPArt. I had to find a way to summon it before the operation.

“Hm?”

My phone buzzed. I opened it to find a new message.

『11:00 AM. Meet at HQ, first-floor training room. – Yako Asahina.』

When did she get my contact info…? Did Isshiki-san give it to her? The training room, huh? I already knew why. Perfect timing. With Kisaragi missing, I couldn’t dive into dungeons anyway and the best way to get back into shape was through real combat.

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Arriving at the training room on time, I found myself surrounded by stone walls and a ceiling resembling the interior of an ancient structure.

“The inside of a pyramid, huh?”

“That’s right.”

Yako and Yuna-san entered the open space.

“Yuna-san… Are you fully recovered now?”

“Yeah. My body is fine.”

Only her “body,” huh…

“I’ve heard about you. The strongest supporter chosen by the Origin—Shibuki Hamura-kun.”

“‘Strongest supporter’ might be a bit of an exaggeration…”

“Wait, Onee-chan! I didn’t know anything about this guy! Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“I put it in the shared folder. You just didn’t check.”

“Ugh…!”

Yuna-san had probably been teaching Yako how to use her OOPArt.

“Shibuki-kun.”

“Y-yes?”

She was unbelievably beautiful. Just hearing her say my name made me nervous.

“I want you to be Yako’s sparring partner. Honestly, I’d rather keep her off the front lines, but she’s not the type to listen. At the very least, I want her to be strong enough to defend herself.”

“I understand. Though, in exchange, could I ask you something later?”

“Hm? …Sure, I don’t mind.”

I should ask Yuna-san about Kurogane. She’s an experienced Seeker, after all.

“Also, Yako—before we start, can I give you some advice?”

“Advice?”

“Yeah. There’s a fighting style only someone who transitioned from Supporter to Seeker can use.”

Both Yako and I had started as Supporters before becoming OOPArt users. That meant my experience could be useful to her.

“Oh? That sounds interesting. Let’s hear it.”

I explained my own method of using Cloche Hunt to Yako. She listened carefully and, after a moment, smiled.

“I see…! Yeah, that really does work perfectly with Cloche Hunt.”

“I had heard about your skills, but you really are impressive, Shibuki-kun. That’s a technique I couldn’t pull off myself.”

“Your technique requires precision, Yuna-san. If Yako tried to use it the same way you do, she’d just be a weaker version of you. She needs to find her own approach to Cloche Hunt.”

“…The way you said that kinda pisses me off, but whatever.”

After that, I spent the rest of the day training with Yako and Yuna-san. I coached Yako and got my own body back into fighting shape.

By the time we finished, I had spent the entire day training with Yako.

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