As Long as You Have the [Shop] Skill, the Dungeonized World Is a Breeze ~The Bullied Youth’s Payback

Chapter 28 – Just a Whim

The next day arrived.

I left Sol at the Fukuzawa residence and went alone to a certain location.

Reiwa University General Hospital―the place where Jouichirou worked. As for why I was here, well, even I wasn’t completely sure to be honest.

I was just a bit curious, so I visited in the form of Bouchi Hiro. The waiting room was always packed, and the emergency room was probably also really busy, seeing as sirens were going off nonstop.

The receptionists and nurses did their best not to show it, but it was obvious that they were all busy and short on time.

“…Hah, why the hell am I even here?”
Even I found it ridiculous myself. The purpose for coming here… I knew what it was.

After Jouichirou told me that Totoki Koine was brought here, I was curious. I had completely parted ways with her back at the community center, so I had no idea what in the world I was doing.

Besides, I didn’t even know which ward she was in, and it was a bit difficult to ask the nurses. Having said that, it would be weird to go searching from one hospital room to the next. I decided to cool my head a bit, so I headed to the roof of the hospital.

There was an area large enough to take a short walk, and there were greenery and flower beds, making it a great place to relax. Patients were sitting on the benches, taking in the breeze.

“Hoh, the view is pretty good from up here. It’s really high up. As expected of a large hospital.”
I approached the fence and marveled at the view. Then, I casually turned my head to the left and saw someone sitting there underneath a tarp roof set up to block the rain.

….! ….It was Totoki.

It was her. She had a cast on her right leg and a crutch propped up beside her. She was dressed in pink pajamas, and her head was hanging down, her expression dispirited.

Not expecting to meet her so suddenly, I was startled for a moment. But my expression quickly stiffened as I approached her from behind.

“….Sob…” (Totoki)
Suddenly, Totoki started weeping, and I reflexively stopped in my tracks. Covering her face with both hands, Totoki began to speak to herself in between sobs.

“…M-Mahina…” (Totoki)
Mahina was the name of her little sister.

“Somebody…. God… please, do something…! My little sister… Please… Save Mahinaaa!” (Totoki)
All she could do now was pray. In her current state, she couldn’t even walk properly.

But no one could expect God to fulfill such prayers. If that were the case, the world wouldn’t have fallen to such a state, and her precious sister wouldn’t have been exposed to danger.

The world would’ve been a much more peaceful place, full of nothing but smiles. And yet, she could only cling onto a hope that didn’t exist.

I remained motionless, hidden behind a pillar. Then unexpectedly, Totoki started to repent.

“….Maybe… This is also my punishment for doing the worst thing I’ve ever done… I abandoned Bouchi-kun… for my own sake…” (Totoki)

!? …What a fool. How long are you planning to keep dragging that out?

“Sorry… I’m so sorry… Bouchi-kun… Sorry, Mahina…” (Totoki)
Hearing those words for the last time, I quietly left that place behind.

—

After leaving the hospital, the place I went towards was―the community center. It seemed that the police hadn’t taken any action here yet, and there wasn’t a single barricade in place.

Because of that, there were no people around the community center, and there were several monsters wandering about. But fortunately, there wasn’t a countless number of monsters being spawned as there was a limit to the number of monsters in the dungeon. They could only respawn a certain amount of time after their numbers had been decreased.

As a result, the monsters’ numbers didn’t increase infinitely and roam free throughout the city.

However, perhaps that limit would be lifted in the future. If that happened, it would result in a dangerous situation where if even a single dungeon was overlooked, monsters would continue to spawn endlessly. Then, humans would really be trapped in the absolute worst situation.

“If I’m going to clear this, I should probably leave the monsters alone if possible and go straight for the Core first.”
The community center was on a fairly large scale. There was a library in it so it was larger than a normal community center. It was a three-story building with a basement floor.

The first floor had a gallery with paintings and other works of art as well as some conference rooms, and the second floor was a multipurpose hall. There were also meeting rooms, a music room, and a children’s room. The third floor was a library and event hall.

I remembered this community center because I had once visited here on a social studies field trip during elementary school.

“Fortunately, there are no other people around.”
This way, I wouldn’t have to worry about other people seeing me exert a bit of my superhuman strength. But just to be completely safe, I used a [Shapeshifting Potion] to transform into a sporty kind of guy with slim, well-defined muscles.

I approached the community center while keeping a cautious eye on my surroundings and saw that there were two monsters at the entrance. It would be difficult to enter without being noticed. I used the [Appraisal Looking-Glass] and found that those two were soldier goblins, a higher species of goblin.

Appearance-wise, they certainly did resemble goblins, but they were a size bigger and were wielding dangerous-looking swords in their hands.

“E-Rank, huh? Sol, can you do it?” (Bouchi)
“Yes!” (Sol)
Before coming here, I had stopped by the Fukuzawa residence to pick up Sol. Under my command, Sol flew off in a flash and pierced through the chests of the two soldier goblins, defeating them in an instant.

Nice. As expected of Sol.

Meeting up with Sol at the entrance, we quickly went in.

“Sol, go up from here and scout the second floor. If there’s anything, let me know through telepathy. If there are no problems, then I’ll directly leave the third floor to you as well.” (Bouchi)
“You can count on me!” (Sol)
Sol was C-Rank. She wouldn’t be held up by any common run-of-the-mill monster. I split up with Sol and began to search around the first floor, but…

“This is horrible…” (Bouchi)
There were bloodstains all over the place, and there were even bones scattered about. Without a doubt, those were the bones of humans that had been eaten by the monsters.

In front of a door before me, there was another soldier goblin wandering about.

…I need to take it out as quietly as possible… I’ll use this one.

From the <Box>, I took out a cube-shaped object.

Then, I threw the object the moment it turned its back to me, scoring a hit on its body. Immediately after, a fissure appeared right down the middle of the cube, and the two halves separated, compressing and sucking the soldier goblin into it until it disappeared.

The cube returned to its original shape and fell to the floor with a clunk. With only a small sound, the cube tumbled around a bit and let out a bit of light.

After a bit, the luminescence faded, and I let out the breath I was holding. Just now, that was a fantasy item called a [Monster Cube].

It might have been evident, but the item was activated by hitting a monster, and it was used for capturing purposes. It was possible to trap a monster inside of the cube. However, there was obviously a chance for it to fail, and it was up to luck and the rank of the monster.

With the soldier goblin gone, I could proceed to the door beyond. But before I touched the door, I once again took out an apparatus from the <Box>.

It was a clock-shaped device which was called a [Trap Watch].

As the name suggested, it could detect and notify me of traps, and it could also disarm them. Since there were often traps on doors, I used this item to check it first. The device would emit a red light which would allow me to determine if there was a trap or not.

Sure enough, there was a response on the screen, indicating that there was a trap in place. I pressed the ‘disarm’ button on the device, and this time, a blue light came out and interacted with the door. After a few moments, the word ‘OK’ appeared on the device’s screen, which meant that the trap had been successfully disarmed.

When I opened the door and went inside, I found myself in a gallery space with various exhibits. As I walked cautiously around the gallery, I passed by a portrait painting on the right wall. All of a sudden, the figure jumped out of the painting like in a 3D movie and began to strangle my neck.

“Gguurk…T-This!”
I punched the figure in the face, and it went straight back into the painting. However, after that exchange, the things depicted in the paintings in the gallery began to come to life. .

It seemed that somehow the paintings themselves had turned into monsters. If Sol were here, she would’ve been able to burn them all to the ground, but that was naturally impossible for me. And with this many, the [Monster Cube] wouldn’t be able to keep up.

But these guys weren’t that strong, and they moved rather slowly, so I could punch and kick them one after the other, sending them flying. It soon came to the conclusion that there wasn’t anyone in here. After realizing that, I turned back the way I came and left the room.