The next morning, my smartphone was vibrating as if it were broken.
Six in the morning.
When I opened my eyes in the nap room after the night shift, notifications filled the screen.
Missed calls. Messages. News apps. Notifications from social media apps I did not know.
Almost all of them contained the exact same word.
White Line Niki.
“Who on earth is that?”
I muttered with a sleepy head and opened the screen.
The first thing displayed was the archive of Mio Asakura’s stream.
The title had been changed.
[Everyone Survived] The Shinjuku Station Underground Dungeon Collapse Accident, Rescued by a Mysterious Guide.
The view count had increased by a whole digit the moment I looked at it.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
I sat straight up in surprise.
The video thumbnail showed me wrapped in a blanket.
My face was half-hidden, but my uniform and employee ID were clearly visible.
The comment section had already grown to an unbelievable size.
Is that the guy who screamed not to go into the red pathway? The persuasion after the drone was instantly killed was amazing. White Line Niki, the station employee class is way too broken. Wait, wasn’t the Guide a useless job class? Returning everyone with zero combat is more valuable than clearing it. He did not even defeat a monster, yet he is the coolest one here.
An itchy feeling spread across my chest.
Because I am not used to being praised, just looking at the screen made me feel uncomfortable.
However, not all of it was teasing.
My younger brother got lost in the lower levels once. I wish someone like this existed. A rescue specialist is definitely more necessary than a clearer. Mio’s judgment was also good. If she had treated him like an amateur there, it would have been a total wipe. The cooperation between a guide and an explorer should seriously be used as a textbook.
Mio’s evaluation was rising as well.
Seeing that made me feel a little relieved.
She is a celebrity.
Her decision to trust the words of a complete stranger during a live stream would have normally gotten her flamed if it had failed.
Because everyone survived, she was finally being praised for making a quick judgment and prioritizing lives.
If that is the flow, it is still fine even if I am being lifted up a bit weirdly.
No, actually, it is not fine.
At the bottom of the screen, a message board summary was displayed.
I ended up opening it anyway.
Thread title:
[Shinjuku Collapse] White Line Niki Who Saved Mio Asakura is Actually a Guide Theory.
The replies had already exceeded one thousand.
1: Nameless Explorer Did anyone watch yesterday’s stream? That station-employee-looking guy screamed “Do not go to the red pathway” and saved everyone.
14: Nameless Explorer It was way too terrifying when the drone got crushed the moment it entered the red pathway.
27: Nameless Explorer He said he could see a white line, right? Does the Guide class even have a skill like that?
39: Nameless Explorer The Guide is a useless job class. At the training school, it is the kind of bracket where people are mocked and told to go to the lost and found.
52: Nameless Explorer But yesterday’s guy could clearly see the survival route no matter how you look at it.
89: Nameless Explorer Has the era of combat classes clearing dungeons shifted to an era where survival classes are valued?
103: Nameless Explorer White Line Niki, station employee cheat mode lol.
118: Nameless Explorer Stop joking around. Holding a kid and staying behind until the very end is genuinely amazing.
I closed the screen.
This is impossible.
It is way too much to take in first thing in the morning.
When I stepped out of the nap room to wash my face, I bumped into my coworker, Makoto Aoshima, in the hallway.
He is a friend from my university days and currently works at the same underground management company. Unlike me, he is a guy who remains strangely energetic even after a night shift.
“Morning, White Line Niki.”
“Cut it out.”
“You are trending, you know. White Line Niki, strongest guide, station underground rescue. Three whole trends.”
“Please, I am begging you, do not say that at work.”
“It is already too late.”
Aoshima showed me his smartphone.
Even the company chat was filled with talk about me.
Yesterday’s rescue log. News articles. Clips from Mio’s stream.
Among them was a scene where I was shouting with a desperate expression: “There are no spare lives!”
“This is being treated as a famous quote.”
“Please stop, seriously.”
“Still, I am glad for you. Your job class finally proved its worth, did it not?”
Only Aoshima’s voice carried a warmth that could not be brushed off as mere teasing.
He also knows the day I received the lowest evaluation in the explorer qualification exam.
On that day, the examiner laughed and said:
A 《Guide》? Then go hand out brochures next to the reception desk.
The examinees who were there laughed as well.
I had no choice but to laugh along.
An explorer without combat ability holds no value.
I had always believed that.
“It is not really proving its worth. It just happened to be visible.”
“Can a mere accident silence one hundred and fifty thousand people?”
When Aoshima shrugged his shoulders, a low voice echoed from deep down the hallway.
“Minase. What are you making a fuss about?”
When I turned around, Saegusa, the management section manager, was standing there.
Short cropped hair. A work uniform without a single wrinkle. His face showed clear displeasure.
“Manager. If this is about yesterday’s incident, the report is ready.”
“Before the report, write an incident report.”
The air in the hallway turned cold.
Aoshima opened his mouth to speak.
I stopped him with my hand.
“May I ask why?”
“Unauthorized entry into a restricted zone. Acting on your own authority before the arrival of the Dungeon Agency. Unnecessary contact with a streamer. Unauthorized exposure with the company name visible.”
Saegusa listed them off smoothly.
He is not wrong.
Looking strictly at the rules, I violated them in multiple ways.
Even so, words slipped out of my mouth.
“There were people inside.”
“Even so, that does not give you a reason to enter.”
“If we had waited for the rescue team, we would not have made it in time.”
“You are not in the position to judge that.”
It was a completely logical argument.
However, people cannot be saved by logic alone.
Yesterday, the red line was closing in right up to the feet of Mio and the others.
If we had waited in that place, Renta would never have been able to meet his mother.
“It is fortunate that everyone was saved in the end, but if there had been fatalities, it would be a serious liability issue for the company.”
“If it is about responsibility, I will take it.”
“Do you think you can take it?”
Saegusa’s voice grew sharp.
“A useless guide was egged on by a streamer and entered a restricted zone. What do you think happens if it is reported that way? The company does not exist for the sake of your hero play.”
Hero play.
At those words, the heat in my chest cooled down instantly.
I never wanted to become a hero.
It was just that the path was visible.
There were people who were lost.
So I guided them.
That was all.
“Starting today, you are removed from field duty. You are to stay home until your disciplinary action is decided.”
“Manager, that is unfair.”
Aoshima raised his voice.
“Aoshima, do not go spreading unnecessary information either. I will consider it a leak of internal company information.”
Aoshima closed his mouth with a frustrated expression.
I let out a small sigh.
I knew this possibility existed.
I saved lives.
But I broke the rules.
The company only looks at the latter.
That is also a single reality.
“Understood. I will write the incident report.”
That was when I said those words.
The end of the hallway became chaotic.
Several security guards hurriedly cleared a path.
Right down the center of it, Mio Asakura walked toward us.
Different civilian clothes from yesterday. A black coat and a white blouse. However, she carried a dagger-shaped device at her waist and a small camera fixed to her shoulder.
Just by her appearing there, the atmosphere in the workplace shifted completely.
“Mr. Minase.”
“Ms. Asakura? Why are you here?”
“To express my thanks, and to confirm something.”
Mio stood in front of me and then shifted her gaze to Saegusa.
“Are you the person in charge here?”
“I am Saegusa, the management section manager. Unauthorized persons are not allowed to enter.”
“I am an authorized person.”
Mio held up her smartphone.
The screen displayed the broadcast start indicator.
A red lamp was lit.
“As someone whose life was saved yesterday.”
Saegusa’s complexion changed.
“Ms. Asakura, filming inside the company is problematic.”
“Then please do not talk about things that make you uncomfortable when being filmed.”
Mio’s voice was calm.
She was not shouting.
That was precisely why it carried so much weight.
“Yesterday, I returned safely thanks to Mr. Minase’s guidance. My party members, the lost boy, all of us. The stream logs, the drone logs, and the location data all remain intact.”
“I am aware of that. However, under our company’s rules, this is a violation.”
“Is it a rule to treat a lifesaver like a con artist?”
The hallway fell silent.
Comments scrolled past on the live stream screen.
It has begun. Mio is completely serious. Company, do not mess up your response here. Rules are important, but punishment is totally wrong. Do not crush White Line Niki.
Sweat appeared on Saegusa’s forehead.
“I did not say he was a con artist.”
“I heard you call it a hero play.”
I instinctively looked at Mio.
Since when was she listening?
Even when she noticed my gaze, her expression did not break.
“Mr. Minase was not fighting. He did not defeat monsters, nor did he try to stand out on a stream. He simply guided us along the path where we could survive and make it home. If you call that a hero play, then the entire job of rescue work is the same thing.”
Saegusa could not formulate a counterargument.
I could not say anything either.
A different kind of warmth than yesterday returned to the depths of my chest.
I did not do this to be recognized by anyone.
Even so, there are people who watched.
Just thinking that made it a little easier to stand tall.
“Mr. Minase.”
Mio turned to face me.
“Yesterday’s white line, you could still see it, right?”
My heart skipped a beat.
I reflexively looked down at my feet.
The white line was still faintly running across the floor of the hallway.
Toward the other side of the disaster shutter.
Toward the sealed-off station underground.
And beyond that, a red line was approaching like it was intertwining.
“I can see it,” I replied.
Mio’s eyes narrowed.
“Then I have a request.”
“A request?”
“In yesterday’s collapse accident, there are still explorers who have not returned.”
The hallway grew restless.
Saegusa let out a low voice.
“That falls under the jurisdiction of the Dungeon Agency and the rescue team.”
“Yes. That is why I am making it a formal request.”
Mio operated her smartphone and showed me the screen.
Explorer Rescue Request.
Client: Mio Asakura. Target: Missing persons from the Shinjuku Station Underground Gate D collapse accident. Reward: Open to negotiation.
The field for my name was currently blank.
“Toru Minase.”
Mio said:
“I am requesting you for this rescue.”
The white line shone brightly right beneath my feet.
As if it had been waiting for that exact request all along.