Narakino Rakuna was looking down, grinning creepily.
In her hand she held a shiny new explorer license card.The face photo printed on it also wore the same stiff, strained smile.
“…First expedition… first dungeon… heh… hehehe…”
She muttered softly and lifted her gaze forward.
In front of her was a dungeon entrance that looked like the mouth of a cave.Next to it, a red drone hovered in the air like a gatekeeper.
Rakuna swallowed hard, then held her license card up to the red drone with a trembling hand.
『――Beep. Explorer license confirmed. Rank E. Narakino Rakuna. Authentication complete. Entry to beginner-grade dungeon approved.』
As the voice came from the drone, Rakuna let out a small yelp and jerked backward.Then she landed on her backside on the ground.
Rakuna was wearing a thin white T-shirt and carrying a huge backpack that looked twice the size of her body.It was hardly an outfit suited for walking into a dangerous dungeon swarming with monsters.
Fumbling a little, she managed to regain her posture and stand up.She shoved the license card into the pocket of her khaki pants and, while she was at it, briskly wiped her sweaty palms on them.
“Okay… first expedition… first dungeon…”
Chanting the same words like a spell, she took a step into the depths of the cave.
『――Bee-bee. Warning. Activation of a tracking drone is mandatory inside dungeons. This is stipulated in Article 6, Paragraph 1 of the Exploration Regulation Act. Violations are punishable by a 30-day suspension of your license, or—』
“…Ah. Right.”
A warning tone blared from the red drone.Rakuna hastily pulled a white drone out of the backpack on her back.
When exploring a dungeon, it is mandatory for each person to be accompanied by one tracking drone, which is issued by the state to explorers upon obtaining their license.
The primary purpose is the explorer’s safety.Dungeons are full of dangers such as monsters and unknown mechanisms.If a tracking drone senses its user is in danger, it can immediately send out a distress signal, allowing rescuers to head straight there using its built-in GPS.
In addition, its onboard camera can be used to record exploration data or even to stream the expedition.For the record, streaming is optional.
When she pressed the power button, it emitted an electronic tone and immediately began to follow Rakuna.She let out a small “Ohh…” of awe, then—
“…A-all right then! First expedition! First dungeon! Beginning my very first stream!”
Facing the drone’s display, she raised both fists in front of her.On the screen, a mirrored Rakuna struck the same pose with both hands, along with the words 『0 viewers』.
“…Right, no one’s watching. Well, of course they aren’t.”
She exhaled with a disappointed, yet somehow relieved expression.Gripping the straps of her backpack with both hands, she finally started walking deeper into the dungeon.
§
Hakone Town, Kanagawa Prefecture.
In this nature-rich town, Narakino Rakuna was born and raised.
She had been shy since she was little and had a hard time making friends.Basically, she was always alone.She was terrible at working with other people.At sports day relay races, she had never once managed to take the baton smoothly.
But deciding she could not go on like that, when she started elementary school she made a firm resolve to make friends.
She tried all sorts of ways of going to school: wearing a full suit of armor they had at home; wrapping an enormous thick snake she met on the way around her like a scarf; going together with a crow perched on her head; and so on—showing off a wide variety of “entrance styles.”
The result was that everyone around her was completely put off.
As her isolation at elementary school only deepened, the popular kids formed their own circle and were cheerfully chatting away as usual.Lowering her gaze in envy, she discreetly listened in on what they were talking about.
Apparently, streamers were all the rage among them.A bolt of lightning shot through Rakuna’s mind.
“I get it. If I become a streamer, I can be popular. That means I’ll be able to make lots of friends. But I am not cute like her, and I don’t have any special talents. What on earth would someone like me, a mere Mijinko, have to do to become popular…?”
So Rakuna decided to look into streamers.
That said, Rakuna did not own a smartphone.Even at home, she did not have internet access.So she chose instead to secretly observe the smartphones of the popular kids chattering excitedly right in front of her.
It looked like they were watching a famous streamer.
On the screen was not a stunningly beautiful girl, nor a strikingly handsome pretty boy.It was a burly middle-aged man with unkempt stubble and dead-fish eyes.
The man, the streamer, was silently mowing down approaching monsters one after another.Her classmates grew excited just watching his back on the screen.
It was then that she learned about explorers.
The dungeons—those unknown phenomena that suddenly began appearing a hundred years ago, which she had learned about in social studies class.And the existence of explorers, who delve into those dungeons and stream their adventures.
“I see. Explorers stream too. If I become an explorer, I can be popular and make friends. And I don’t need to be cute. I don’t even need to be funny. In that case, maybe even I could do it…!”
Without delay she headed straight to the library to research explorers.There she learned that you can only obtain an explorer license from the age of sixteen.
That was the moment her dream was set.
“I’ll train to become an explorer until I’m sixteen, and the moment I turn sixteen, I’ll get my license right away!”
Murmuring this, she clenched a small fist pump, her eyes shining.
…However. In other words, it was also the same as “giving up on making friends until I’m sixteen”…
Of course, there was no one around to point that out.Least of all did such a thought ever cross her own mind.
Heart brimming with excitement, she devoured the stack of books on explorers.
Before she knew it, the sun had set and classes were long over.Having crammed her head full of knowledge about explorers while completely neglecting her lessons, she then found a cave along the mountain path on her way home.
Right away, she began training there in secret.
Time passed like this, and now—
Rakuna had, just as planned, obtained her explorer license on her sixteenth birthday.
However, she did not know.
That the cave where she had been training was, due to certain circumstances, a bona fide dungeon outside of government jurisdiction.
And furthermore, that it was part of an ultra–high-difficulty dungeon—commonly known as 『Abyss』…