Dungeon Defense (WN)

Chapter 44: Quest Breaker (1)

“Chief, please review this report.”

A young man put down a pile of documents.

After seeing the mountain of paper piled on top of her desk, the woman narrowed her eyes. She was in the middle of reading a manga series she found to be entertaining. She had just got to an exciting scene where the protagonist, who used to always flirt and play with women, was suddenly changed into a female and was now being flirted with instead.

The people whom this woman hates the most are the ones who interrupt her when she’s reading manga. The people whom she hates the second most are the ones who give her work to do. Coincidentally, the young man in front of her had met both of these conditions. Therefore, the woman’s face contorted greatly.

“Huh? Fuck, you want to get your nose smashed into the Jordan River?”

It wasn’t surprising that she would glare at the youngster and react like this.

“Haa…….”

The blonde man let out a heavy sigh.

“I put in quite a lot of effort to make this report, you know?”

“Even if you put in quite a lot of effort to build a tower or to throw around shit, why should I look at it? Want me to paint your head pink? If I do, then maybe your gray brain will finally be able to think for a change.”

“Chief, if you don’t set a deadline and finish your work before it, then…….”

The woman closed her manga.

“Ha, look at this brat. Set a deadline and finish my work? When you were in your mother’s stomach, did you tell her that you wanted to come out at a certain month, day, hour, and second, before telling her to open her hole up and wait till then? You’re the type of bastard who can only do things when the time is right and can’t get erect if you don’t schedule it beforehand. If you like deadlines so much, then do you want me to make a deadline for you as well? Huh? How have you lived life when you don’t know when the deadline of your life is? You’ve got quite the mug on you. I’m very curious as to if you have one testicle or two, so do you mind if I personally confirm it?”

The young man thought in his head.

Holy Christ, she’s terrifying.

The Chief is a beauty. She claims that her black, straight hair isn’t simple hair but is actually rather luxurious, so I should appreciate it accordingly. Although she wears a gray hoodie that is absolutely not appropriate for work, since it was on her body, it looked like some aristocrat’s dress. It’s still hard for me to get used to hearing the words ‘bastard’ and ‘testicle’ come out of this beauty’s mouth.

‘I-I won’t back down today!’

The young man gulped. It’s because of this personality of hers that, despite being so talented, she was pushed out of the central office and sent to the countryside.

Normally, I would apologize for interrupting her and back away, but I wanted to come out victorious today.

“Chief! When exactly will you look at the report then?”

“I don’t know. Your mother must have known when you were going to be born when she had you, huh, you undutiful brat? For now, I’ll think about it after I finish reading this, so zip your lips and go sit in a corner.”

“Didn’t you say you’ll think about it after you finish reading yesterday, the day before that, and the day before that!? How long do you intend to read that manga for!?”

The woman answered cooly.

“Until the day I run out of manga to read.”

“New manga come out monthly and annually…….”

“Then I’ll keep reading until manga disappears from the world.”

“Do you have no intention to work!?”

“Yup. So don’t give me work to do.”

I am certain now. My superior is the worst piece of trash in the world. If you toss her in the sea next to Incheon, then I’m sure that the ocean will freak out and spit her back out. If you throw her out into space, then the Solar System itself will panic because of the piece of trash and leave the Earth behind as it runs off to Andromeda…….

The young man felt as if his will would break the moment he came to this realization. In the past, he used to be proud of the fact that this woman was his superior. However, he only held resignation and disappointment now. If he didn’t make the resolve that he was sacrificing himself for the sake of the Earth and outer space, then he would have hung himself on a utility pole a long time ago. Nevertheless, why was he the one who had to sacrifice himself……? Although the young man had asked himself this question thousands of times already, he had yet to find an answer. One thing was clear, though. Whether it be God’s mischief or fate, he was the only one who could educate this rotten superior.

The young man snatched away all of the manga that was on the desk. The woman opened her mouth in surprise.

“I’ll be confiscating these until you read the report!”

“…….”

The woman glared at the man. Naturally, he didn’t avert his gaze. He didn’t move after raising the manga books up in the air.

There was a moment of silence.

“Fine.”

The woman relented.

“I’ll have a look.”

“R-Really!?”

The young man couldn’t believe that he had succeeded as he opened his eyes wide. He was also in awe. Faith can move mountains, right? Even if she’s human garbage, a blob of greed, a salary stealer, and a shut-in, there are no trees that won’t fall after a few hundred swings.

“Thank you very much, Chief! I knew that you would one day understand my sincerity…….”

“If it isn’t anything important, I’m going to kill you. Seriously.”

“…….”

The issue was that the tree was about to fall on top of the lumberjack as well.

The woman fixed her posture. She sat in her chair properly and straightened her back. She stretched her neck slightly before she reached out and started to flip through the pages.

At first, it took her less than 5 seconds to flip a page. However, as she continued, she gradually slowed down before she took nearly 5 minutes before flipping a page. The young man stood directly in front of the woman’s desk just in case she had any questions.

30 minutes passed.

“……Hm.”

The woman raised her gaze on the last page. She looked up at the man with bleary eyes.

“You’re lucky that your lifespan has extended.”

“Thank you very much.”

“Who knew that he would use his Acting skill to succeed like this.”

The woman tossed the document on her desk. She then leaned back against her chair. She leaned back so far that it almost looked like she intended to lie down. The woman looked up at the plain and white ceiling as if something interesting was stuck to it. The young man was well aware that this was what she did when in deep thought.

“When did you start observing him?”

“Since the tutorial. It was starting then that the player managed to utilize his talent efficiently.”

“I thought he died a long time ago.”

The woman closed her mouth. A few seconds later.

“It isn’t surprising since he’s always been good with his words.”

She commented before closing her mouth again. The young man waited silently. However, once the woman continued to stare at the ceiling for over 20 minutes, the young man became impatient.

He spoke up.

“There might actually be a chance. This player should be more than capable of entering the top ranks. It would also be considered our branch’s achievement.”

“…….”

“I know you sent him there out of a fit of rage, but shouldn’t you give him some aftercare? No, if anything, you should be more considerate. Give me the order. I’ll tell the player all the necessary pieces of information. I’m confident that I can do it without lowering our points.”

“No.”

The woman shook her head.

“Chief!”

“Don’t misunderstand. I read your report attentively.”

“Huh? Then why……?”

The woman gave the young man a sidelong look.

“Don’t give him any information whatsoever. Not even the tiniest bit of information. We’ll lose points just from the mere fact that we came in contact with the player. From now on, I forbid you from doing anything that could lower our points. Just don’t get involved and leave him be.”

“H-Huh?”

“The difficulty is currently set to lunatic, right? Hmm, can I raise the difficulty any further?”

Once the woman was about to tilt her head and fall into deep thought, the young man spoke up in a panic.

“Uhm, Chief. I don’t get it. Why shouldn’t we give him any information?”

“Are you deaf? We’ll lose 10 points the instant we come in contact with him to give him information.”

“……It’s only 10 points.”

“Jeez, you imbecile.”

The woman let out a sigh.

“Do you know what the point difference is between the world 1st and world 2nd? It’s 132 points. Only 132 points. If we start to intervene with the intent to just give him tiny bits of information, then we’ll lose a hundred points in a matter of seconds.”

“But isn’t that only for the highest ranks? Be it a hundred or a thousand points, entering the top 1000 should still be a…….”

The young man stopped in the middle of his sentence as if he realized something.

“D-Don’t tell me. Do you think this player can reach the top 100?”

“Are you crazy?”

The woman smiled.

“He’ll make it to the top 10 if he plays his cards right. Idiot, this is why you’re still lacking. Even though you’re the one who wrote this entire report, you failed to recognize the player’s actual talent.”

“T-Top 10!?”

The woman got up and patted the man’s cheek.

“Your thoughts are as clear as day. Hey, do you know why he didn’t make Paimon pay for her transgression?”

“Well……wasn’t it because Paimon was pitiful and he felt sympathy?”

“What? Sympathy?”

The woman opened her eyes wide before breaking out into a laugh. Her entire body shook as she laughed, so she nearly fell off of her chair.

“Kuhahahaha! Sympathy, he says! Kahaha, sympathy, of all things!”

She continued to laugh for a while.

The young man’s face became red as he realized he was being mocked. He then asked back in an upset tone.

“Sheesh. Then why didn’t he?”

“My God, you’re such an imbecile that even that grandpa Buddha can’t fix you. You don’t know A from B. Hey, what could he possibly earn from punishing Paimon? Pride? Money? There’s something much more valuable than that next to those things. It’s the support of high-ranking Demon Lords. Of course, he could stand proudly and be immediately compensated, but who would look at a low-ranking Demon Lord who had rebuked a high-ranking Demon Lord with welcoming eyes? It’d be a relief if he didn’t get bullied by the other Demon Lords.”

“Are you saying that he had calculated all of this?”

“Obviously.”

The young man looked as if he failed to understand.

“I personally don’t think this player is that calculating. Look at that time with Jack Oland. He could have killed him, but he didn’t.”

“Say it right. Since that guy was such a small fry that it didn’t matter whether he died or not, he didn’t go out of his way to kill him.

The woman’s smile grew bigger.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover. Are there any certainties that a person is kind just because he didn’t kill someone? Are there any certainties that a person is evil just because he did kill someone? It’s psychological. Read into their mentality as deeply as possible.”

“But the player definitely got sad after Jack died!”

“I’d be sad if you died too.”

The young man tilted his head. He then blushed once he realized that she had indirectly told him that she cherished him.

“Eh, eeh?”

“But if there is a need to kill you, then I will. Without any hesitation whatsoever.”

She grinned.

“…….”

“There are all sorts of personalities. Even if they don’t seem reasonable at glance, they could be perfect on the inside. Anyone could. Jeez, it’s been a long time since I laughed like this. Sympathy? Hahaha. What kind of utter nonsense is that?”

The woman looked up at the ceiling again.

“This is why humans are fun. Most of them are unbearably boring, but they very rarely show unthinkable potential. This is what I’m betting on as well. I was wondering what sort of bastard would complain to me about <Dungeon Attack>’s system, but he’s exceeded my expectations……. Hey, raise the difficulties of everything you can raise.”

“Uhm, Chief? It’s already in Lunatic Mode.”

“He can do it.”

She declared.

“My eyes never lie. This guy’s special.”

“Then the chances of him gaining hostile relationships will increase and too many events will occur. Well, his current affection with the people he’s met already won’t change, but still…….”

“Just do what I tell you to do and stop complaining. Do you want me to let you shower in the Jordan River?”

“Haa. Understood.”

The young man returned to his desk and started to type away at his keyboard. In order to raise the difficulty.

He mentally apologized to the player. I’m sorry, I took a liking to you so I wanted to lessen your burden a bit, but I ended up increasing it. I’m dealing with an irresistible force. Please understand…….

After the young man finished, he raised his head. The woman had raised her feet on her desk as she was now reading her manga in the most comfortable position possible. The thought that only he was working hard caused him to raise his voice.

“Again, again with the manga? Stop reading those already.”

“I read manga when I’m bored.”

“You read manga every second of the day, Chief!”

“Yeah.”

The woman didn’t add anything more after that.

She simply raised the corners of her lips slightly.

***

TL note: Thanks for reading the chapter. This ‘Quest Breaker’ section only has 3 chapters, so I will most likely continue translating on to the next section before going back to Handholding. Other than that, I don’t have much else to say, so I’ll see you guys in the next chapter!