Humble Salaryman

[“We, the Red Devils, have hijacked this kindergarten bus! You will now be educated as Red Devil fighters and reborn as monsters! Guhahaha!!!!”]

[“Ooooh, ooooh! I’m scared, Mommy!”]

[“Wait!]

[“(thud!) Guhah! What the hell is this attack?]

[“Smoothmanjuganigeruge! Let go of the young children!”]

[“Who are you? Who are you?”]

[“Strong decomposition with the power of acid! Strong acid! Warrior! (Shubaba!) Acid man!! (Boom)”]

I’m a simple businessman. But in my true form,  I’m an invincible warrior with an amazing acid power in my hands. As I swayed on the morning commuter train, I was intoxicated with dreams of becoming a righteous hero and fighting.

However, my facial muscles may have been too relaxed amid such dreaming, and a young female office worker who met my eyes turned her face away with a very unpleasant expression.

(Ugh, I’m so embarrassed. I must have been too engrossed in my thoughts. My face was smiling.)

I cough one more time and change my face into an expressionless one.

Recently, since my refrigerator became a dungeon, I can’t stop being amused and excited. The world of the game I played as a child is right in front of me. And now I can enjoy it as if it were real. How could I not be excited?

Of course, some dangers come with this, and if I’m not careful, I may even die. But on the other hand, the benefits are immeasurable. The more I work hard, the more I will be committed to the results. That is the dungeon, if I don’t dive, I’m missing out.

In just one day, my muscle strength nearly doubled. My muscles are already muscular. When I get to the office today, I’m sure my co-workers will confront me about it.

But I don’t have anyone close to me at work, and once I start working, I rarely have conversations with them. And since no one is interested in me, I can tell them I’ve gained weight recently if they ask.

Above all, I want to finish my work as soon as possible and dive into the dungeon again today. I want to try this and that. Because of that my imagination is inflated and unbearable.

That’s why I haven’t used the [Acid] skill yet.

It is not that I can’t use it yet, but I dare not use it yet. I would like to use this skill brilliantly from the very beginning, without trying to test it out. So I thought it was necessary to learn more about [Acid] before using the skill.

It would not be funny if I got severe chemical burns from the acid I created.

So, I got off the train and dashed up the station stairs.

(Oh, great…!)

Before, I would have been out of breath just doing this. But now, look at me. I’m fine! But that’s no wonder, my agility has improved, and my strength has nearly doubled. That’s why I feel so light! Feeling good, I arrived at the office, stamped my time card in high spirits, and went to my desk to start work.

…….

But here, too, the benefits of the dungeon have changed.

[“Katatatatatat! Katata…tan! Katatatata…!”]]

My typing has become incomparably faster than before. It’s not a blind touch, but it’s still quite fast. That is also a benefit of the dungeon, I guess.

As I was tapping away at the keyboard on my computer, someone called out my name from behind me.

“Hey, hey~, Egetsu-chin? Isn’t your body getting thicker somehow~?”

(Damn, what the heck. I was just about to go to work feeling good)

Our company is not that big. So all the departments are on one floor, and each department has its area, so it’s easy to talk to people in other departments like this.

I already knew that, but when I turned around and looked up, there was, as I expected, Keimyou belongs to the sales department. Keimyou is what you might call a cheerful and sociable person. He is cheerful, sociable, and popular with his bosses and female employees. In short, he is the complete opposite of my otaku self.

But if that’s all there is to it, there’s no need to dislike him that much.

I need to treat him like normal. This guy has been working with female employees and talking about me behind my back, calling me a dark-rooted otaku. I know that he is the one who is trying to get me to do all this.

“What’s going on all of a sudden? Are you trying to show off your muscularity to the girls at the beach for the summer?”

(Oh, come on, that’s your wish list. Don’t think everyone thinks like you.)

What pisses me off, even more, is that he even talks to me when he has no business with me like he’s the same age as me.

Even though we belong to different departments. But I was more concerned about Keimyou because I was a junior mid-career hire, and he was always trying to act like he was my senior even though he was younger than me.

“Really? Maybe I just got fat…”

I turn to the computer again and return it with a disinterested look. Because I also know why he’s talking to me.

“Oh, no, you don’t! Oh, the gym? You’re going to the gym in secret, aren’t you? You’re not wearing your glasses today, so it’s obvious that you’re trying to get a makeover, right?”

Keimyou looks down on me and talks about me behind my back, but look, look, look. I’m not afraid to talk to this dark-skinned otaku. How’s that? Isn’t he so sweet? He just wants to appeal to the female employees as nice guy.

No, it’s my prejudice, isn’t it? No, no, no.

When you have affection and respect for someone, it will naturally show in your behavior and attitude. In the same way, if you look down on someone or make fun of them, it will naturally show in your actions and attitude.

By the way, Keimyou is two years younger than me, but I have never been called “san” by him. I’ve always ignored it because I don’t think it’s right to be obsessed with being older or younger even after you’ve become a working adult.

But I get a little annoyed when people talk to me to make fun of me in my spare time.

“I’ve been feeling tired lately, so I’ve been watching videos of bodybuilder distributors to improve my strength. If it bothers you so much, I’ll tell you. How about you start too, Keimyou-chan?”

I’m polite enough to call everyone by their first name. But here, I dare to call him “chan” and make a big fist to show him off and smile at him.

“Hmmm…yeah, right! Then I’ll ask you just in case…?”

Then, Keimyou’s brown bangs, which must be very depressing to have in his eyes, are raised to his chin and brushed away, his smile twitching.

Keimyou, if you had established a solid relationship with me, your face would have been the first thing I would have thought of when I was considering the scale of my dungeon attack project. But that didn’t happen. When I was thinking about the dungeon project, I didn’t even think of your face.

So I said, “Well, my home is near a dungeon. I’m training there.”

Because talking to him is the same as shouting into a loudspeaker. And he’d be blabbing about it as if it were his achievement, and in the end, he’d have to take a bunch of people who have nothing to do with me to the secret dungeon.

“Eh~, Egetsu-san’s mood is different from usual, and I was wondering about it~. I want to know too~”

And while Keimyou and I were bickering behind the scenes. A female employee, who didn’t read the atmosphere at all, joined the conversation. This girl, when I had no choice but to turn down a job because I couldn’t get around to it, she made a disgusting face and stuck her tongue out at me. I was so sorry. Why is this coming in at this point? And, well, I guess she wants to talk to Keimyou.

“Oh yeah, I’ll tell you the content creator’s name.”

I just said the name of the video creator at random and left the place to have lunch.

……….

9:00 pm. I was on the train and the bus heading home.

I finished my work early, but it was awkward to leave before my boss, who was still working overtime, so I went home at this hour.

The refrigerator is now a dungeon and unusable. So I got off the bus two stops ahead, stopped at a supermarket, bought a bargain box lunch and some sparkling wine, and headed home.

As soon as I arrived at my room, I took off my suit, put on a pair of pants, and dived into the refrigerator dungeon.

What I want to try today is improving my agility numbers at the higher levels. For starters, I’ll use the springs in my knees and ankles to jump around on the spot. Then, reminiscent of club activities in my school days, I dash back and forth from wall to wall in a large front room as fast as I can. To finish, I did an endurance high-speed repetitive horizontal jump for three minutes, tiring myself until my lower body was stiff.

“Hah…hah…hah…ah~ I’ll die…”

Dizzily, I returned to my room and took a shower to wash off the sweat. If I put on my gear while sweating, my helmet and leather gloves, which I can’t wash, will soon smell bad.

I would then spend the time I would spend lounging around drinking sparkling wine, eating, and studying to recover from the fatigue in my lower body.

Then it’s time to go slime hunting.

Tomorrow I have to work again, so I’m going to try to get one more level tonight. It’s no use being greedy, and I’d like to find out how actions that improve the status of one ability in one place will be reflected in others. I want to look into those areas one at a time.

……….

Today, I pounded the slimes into the chlorine one after another with no change whatsoever, and after submerging 8 of them in the chlorine, my level went up.

Current  Previous

Level                        8         3

Race: Human

Strength:                 22       22

Stamina:                 20       18

Knowledge:            18       17

Mental Strength:     17      16

Agility:                    20      16

Luck:                         3         3

Helplessness:         141      123

“Oh! My agility went up by 4! Yay!

Now I can move twice as fast numerically compared to when I was at level 1. Wow.

But lately, my work at the company has been boring. Perhaps because of my lack of motivation in terms of ability.

It seems that I can’t seem to find anything that I can do to make my efforts bear fruit and produce a tangible result. Of course, for those who compete against each other in terms of performance and quotas. They’re working hard every month to meet those numbers.

However, I find it much more interesting and rewarding to develop my skills in the dungeon than to work hard in a company that does not give much recognition even if I do my best.