Monster Company Tycoon Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

The dry, hard floor, the crackling sound of embers chewing through firewood……

As the sensations in my body gradually returned one by one, my consciousness slowly began to awaken.

When I opened my eyes, I found that my surroundings were quite dark.

Did I pass out until nighttime?

I recalled my last memories before losing consciousness and pushed myself up.

At the same time, I casually looked around while thinking about the things I needed to do once I got home, but something felt off.

“Where am I?”

No matter how I looked at it, this wasn’t the neighborhood where my studio apartment was located.

I was standing inside an unfamiliar space.

Ash-gray stone walls stretched seamlessly from the floor to the ceiling, making the place feel so suffocating that it was almost hard to breathe. It gave me the strange sensation of being trapped inside an empty container.

Then, a memory suddenly flashed through my mind, jolting me fully awake.

A hole had appeared out of thin air, sucked in my résumé, and I’d fallen into a pit that opened beneath my feet.

And then I’d ended up in some unknown place. What on earth was going on?

“Awake, are you?”

The strange voice I’d heard from beyond the hole was now coming from behind me.

With my heart trembling, I slowly turned around.

“Eek…!”

A gigantic being was sitting on an equally enormous chair, looking down at me.

It was covered from head to toe in something resembling a shroud, making it impossible to see its appearance clearly.

However, two bright yellow lights were gleaming from beneath the shroud, in the places where its eyes should have been.

“Congratulations on your new employment at the Hermit’s Dungeon, new employee Chihuahua–”

“…Pardon?”

For a moment, I’d been trembling in fear of the bizarre creature, but the appearance of such an ordinary phrase left me experiencing a brief sense of cognitive dissonance.

I wondered whether I’d heard it correctly or whether my terror had caused me to hallucinate.

Chihuahua? Of all things, why the nickname I hated the most?

“Starting today, you shall become the general manager responsible for operating this dungeon.”

“Is this a dream…?”

I came to a rational conclusion in an attempt to make sense of this bizarre situation.

Apparently, my awakening had been an illusion, and I was undoubtedly still wandering around in a dream. In reality, I’d been chasing after my résumé when I fell into an open manhole or a sinkhole or something. Perhaps I’d lost consciousness from the impact of the fall and still hadn’t woken up.

However, the deep, rumbling voice sternly denied my words.

“This is not a dream. I wish to finalize the contract with you quickly and return to a long slumber, so refrain from unnecessary words and actions.”

“A contract?”

Just then, something suddenly shot up from the ground and blocked my view.

“Ahem! Did His Majesty the Demon King not just tell you to refrain from unnecessary words and actions?”

It was a living creature about the size of my fist, resembling a little doll molded out of dirt.

Its head was round and oversized in proportion to its body, while its short torso barely managed to support a pair of tiny arms and legs.

It looked like a little potato fairy that had just been dug out of the ground.

“What is this thing now…?”

“Hurry up and sign the contract. Hurry. Please.”

The little doll flew around my head, urging me on in an increasingly frantic voice.

Its voice sounded just like a fly buzzing around.

As I thought……

“I really think this is a dream.”

A dream in which I got kidnapped and hired by monsters. Perhaps my desire to change jobs had become too strong.

I nodded lightly and politely bowed to the being that might have been a ghost or a demon king.

“I’m terribly sorry, but I believe I’ve come to the wrong interview location. I apologize for the disturbance. I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Wouldn’t I wake up if I simply refused the job?

That was what I thought as I turned around. At that moment, a sheet of paper suddenly materialized in front of my eyes and gently floated down.

“You expressed your desire to apply for a position here.”

“Uh, why is this here……?”

It was the résumé I’d written with my own hands. The one on which I’d mistakenly written my real name as Chihuahua!

The moment I held an object that should have existed in reality in my hands, a chill ran down my spine. Its texture felt far too real.

At the same time, the gigantic being began emanating an overwhelming sense of intimidation.

“You submitted an application of your own accord, and now you wish to go back on your word?”

My spine stiffened.

I still couldn’t completely shake off the suspicion that this was a dream, but even in a dream, I felt that antagonizing the being in front of me was a bad idea.

I stammered out a response.

“I’m truly sorry, but I don’t even know what kind of company… this is. The résumé I intended to submit was meant for another company that better matched my abilities…”

“This is a dungeon. A place that must earn notoriety by presenting trials to the adventurers who recklessly venture inside. You possess more than enough potential to carry out that mission. Your power to attract all kinds of people, regardless of who they are, is exactly what this dungeon needs.”

This was hopeless. I had a feeling that no excuse I made would work on it in the slightest.

A demon king, a dungeon. I had absolutely no idea what was going on.

In that case…

“I-I’m terribly sorryyyyy!”

“Ah! Where are you goingggg?!”

I gave up trying to deal with the strange creatures and took off running in the opposite direction.

I believed that if this really was a dream, I’d wake up if I acted however I wanted. But the farther I ran, the stronger my ominous feeling that this might not be a dream became.

In dreams, you usually couldn’t run this smoothly. More often than not, you’d move sluggishly as though running underwater, or your legs simply wouldn’t obey you.

“Huff, huff……”

But I could feel myself getting out of breath and sweating. My thigh muscles, suddenly subjected to such strenuous exercise, trembled uncontrollably.

Still…… there was no way this wasn’t a dream, right?

I ran blindly until I found an exit. Even though I’d been running as hard as I could, it felt as though I was circling around the same space… but at some point, I spotted a direction from which bright light was streaming in.

“There’s the exit!”

My ankles ached, but I gritted my teeth and kept running. At long last, I managed to escape the strange space.

As I emerged outside, dazzling sunlight poured down on me.

But……

“Where… on earth am I?”

Lush greenery and soft grass. The trees were dense, and a lake shimmered as it reflected the sunlight.

No matter how carefully I looked around, this wasn’t the alley I’d last walked through.

Looking more closely, I noticed that even the plants had strangely unfamiliar appearances. It felt as though I’d stepped into a fantasy illustration, with everything just slightly out of alignment with reality.

“Why won’t I wake up from this dream? How am I supposed to get home…”

That was when it happened. I heard the sound of rustling grass, and something emerged from the bushes, pushing its way through the undergrowth.

The moment I saw it, I barely managed to clap a hand over my mouth to suppress the scream that threatened to escape.

“Grrr……”

It was a gigantic, bipedal monster that looked three times my height. Its entire body was covered in green skin, and, incredibly, a boar’s head sat atop its shoulders.

Its sharp tusks, the saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth, and the hot vapor rising from its nostrils…… Everything was far too vivid.

The monster slowly approached me, holding an enormous club. From the moment it spotted me, it had been licking its lips, looking exactly like a predator eyeing its prey.

“KUWAAAAAA!”

“Aaaah!”

When the monster let out a terrifying roar, my legs gave way, and I collapsed onto the ground.

I was so frightened that I couldn’t even bring myself to run away.

The monster raised its club high above its head and charged at me.

And just as it was about to bring the club down on my head……

“Oh, you’re an employee of the dungeon? My apologies. I mistook you for an ordinary human who’d gotten lost.”

The monster suddenly dispelled its savage aura and bowed politely. It even spoke in a human voice…!

“…??”

I looked up at the monster with tears welling in my eyes. I was utterly confused.

“These days, I’ve been working hard to prepare for employment at a dungeon, so I got a little too immersed in the role and failed to recognize you right away. Um… but how was my performance just now? Would I be suitable for guarding the entrance, even if I might not be cut out for the deeper levels of the dungeon? If you were to give me a score, what would it be…?”

“……”

Despite its grotesque appearance, its manner of speaking was far too normal, which somehow made it feel even more unsettling.

“I was presumptuous. I apologize. Um… if a position ever opens up at the dungeon, please contact me at any time. I sincerely ask you to keep me in mind.”

The monster even rummaged around inside its ragged, underwear-like clothing and handed me… a business card.

I accepted it using only my fingertips as much as possible. Honestly, I wanted to minimize the area of contact.

But why on earth was a monster carrying around something like a business card?

“Then, take care.”

With that, the monster dragged its club along the ground and disappeared back into the bushes.

“……”

So this really was reality.

That encounter had completely robbed me of the courage to run away.

“Outside… is dangerous.”

In the end, I had no choice but to return to that strange space… in other words, the dark, cavern-like chamber.