Book 1: Chapter 1

1 When the discounted apartment was connected to a dungeon. 

「A 2LDK apartment for 30 thousand yen…….Is it possible that…….this room…….is haunted by ghosts or something? Hahaha」 [1. TL Note: A ‘2LDK’ apartment in Japan is an apartment with two rooms in addition to a living, dining and kitchen area.]

I used the word「ghosts」, which I admit is unrealistic. A bit embarrassed, I played it off as a joke. 

Being naturally bad at communication, I couldn’t be confident in whether I played it off well. But it seemed that the real estate agent took it as a joke. 

「Hahaha, Sir, there you go again with the jokes. There’s no way there would be something like ghosts, right?」

He’s right. There was nothing to worry about. I think I remember hearing that tenants were required by law to be informed about any crimes or other past incidents that have occurred in rental buildings like apartments or rooms.

Sure, the real estate agent seemed kind of fishy, even though he was dressed in a suit. But this being Japan, there was a possibility that he could be punished by law, so he probably wouldn’t just thoughtlessly lie about something like this. 

「I guess you’re right. Hahaha」

「Whispers (Although they did say some goblins and slimes might show up)」

Wait a second. I heard that. 

In response to my cordial smile, this man spoke softly, but there was no doubt he said something really strange.

「Um……did you say something?」

「Well the, please write your name largely on the contract here. Please kindly place your seal here~」

This definitely gave off the feeling that something was wrong. 

Goblins? Slimes? Weren’t these the names of the monsters that appeared in the games and light novels that I liked?

This is bad, this is bad, this is bad! That’s what my sixth sense was telling me. But, even if this was a first floor apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo, this was still a 2LDK apartment within the city for only 30 thousand yen. It was just too attractive for me to resist. 

That’s right. I quit university because of that incident. I was a sad part-time job warrior. [2. TL Note: A ‘part-time job warrior’ is with reference to the nickname of a character in the game ‘steins:gate’ ] The cheaper my rent is, the better. 

I took a quick glance at the man who stood in front of me. 

He was a man wearing a gangster-style suit who came from a dreary-looking office that seemed to be brimming with a sense of reality. There was no way the word 「goblin」could have come out of this man’s mouth. 

There was a time when I thought that. 

I pressed the seal with my name on the contract. 

Suzuki Tooru.

♦︎                      ♦︎                       ♦︎ 

「Allright. I see that’s how it is.」

Once I got of the front door of my apartment, the corridors became 

「dungeons」.

What is a dungeon, you might ask?

「When I opened my front door it was completely dark, so I used the torchlight function of my smartphone to light things up. When I did, the corridors looked just like a pavement of natural rocks……isn’t that basically a dungeon?!」

Something definitely happened in this building. Or rather, this was on a whole new level. No, no. Wait a minute. This might be some sort of mistake. Let’s think about this calmly. 

I came to the apartment with the fishy real estate agent in the afternoon. He gave me the key……

「Ah, thinking about it, that guy left like he was running away!」

The real estate agent definitely knew about this.

After the workers from the moving company who came later were done moving my belongings, I had been busy unpacking my luggage and tidying up all by myself the entire time. 

It was already night and I was starting to get hungry. I was trying to go to the convenience store to buy my dinner. 

ーAnd, when I tried to go out from my front door, my corridor had become a dungeon. 

In the end, my conclusion stayed the same even after I calmed down. No wonder I was rushed to sign the contract.

I guess it makes sense, because I also heard that they didn’t have to inform tenants that something happened in the property as long as someone lived in it before you. 

That fishy real estate agent probably was trying to warn me when he whispered that thing about goblins. 

「Can I even come home alive if I go out there? Ah…….I’m already thinking if I can come 「home」alive. This really is my home now……」

I quietly closed the front door and locked it with a key. 

The front door seems sturdy enough. 

It should serve its purpose well if there were to be a thug. 

「But even if it can ward of thugs, I wonder how it would fare against goblins and slimes, ah, or maybe even……dragons…….」

I had checked out the area left and right of the corridor of my apartment, or to be more accurate, this dungeon walkway. From what I saw, there weren’t any goblins or slimes nearby.

But this felt like a world where it wouldn’t be strange even if I find not just a goblin, but a dragon, at the turn of a corner. 

I couldn’t seem to feel at ease at all.

I sat down on a chair in the living room cum dining room of my 2LDK apartment and held my head in my hands. 

Thinking about it, I had forgotten to turn on the lights in my room after panicking around since the evening. 

The light from the streetlamps entered my pitch-black room through the windows. 

「Lights from the streetlamps!?」

As I lifted my head and looked out the window……There were streetlamps on the utility poles and the unmistakable scenery of Japan. 

「What’s going on? Could it be?!」

I took my shoes from the front gate and left the house through the large window of the Japanese-style room that I was planning on using to store my otaku goods. 

It was the amazing smell of exhaust fumes found only in the city.

There was light from the buildings as well as the streetlamps, the headlights of cars and the light from the convenience store and the general discount store, Tons Quijote [3. TL Note: ‘Tons Quijote’ is a spin-off of the name ‘Don Quijote’, the biggest discount store in Japan] which was right around the corner. All that light made the glow of the stars in the night sky seem much dimmer. 

It looked completely different from the world with the stone pavement, that looked completely consumed by the darkness. 

「It’s the normal Japan……the streets of Tachikawa city……. What on earth is going on with this apartment?」

I returned to the Japanese-style room of my apartment through the window I went out of just now. Everything had returned to normal. 

「Could it be that the front door is connected to that dungeon? But what does that mean? In other words……」

Did it mean that this 2LDK apartment, located in the city, cost only 30 thousand yen just because of the disadvantage of being only able to leave and enter the house through the window?

Maybe this wasn’t just some crime-scene apartment. This might just be a good apartment. 

Actually, wouldn’t a dungeon actually be a lot of fun?

Isn’t exploring a dungeon every man’s dream?

I was surprised myself by how calm I was in this situation.

「Maybe the only reason I’m so calm now is because I’ve been drowning myself in too many games and light novels. If it were that gangster……I mean that real-estate agent, he probably would’ve just peed his pants. He could never be able to stay in this room for an entire day. Fufufu.」

In high spirits, I headed to the convenience store and Tons Quijote.