WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈
Chapter 158: Great Snail Empire (1)
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1.
Right after clearing the stage.
Waiting for me on the 32nd floor, where I had been forcibly transported, were my fellow hunters and [The Princess Who Strolls Through Mirages]. The Princess was hugging an oddly shaped pillow.
“Wait. Is that…?”
Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a pillow but a snail doll.
This is unexpected.
A goblin doll I could understand, but a snail doll….
“There are goblin dolls too.”
“Really?”
“Here.”
The Princess quickly pulled out a goblin doll from her bosom. It had elongated ears, nose, and even cheekbones, all remarkably replicated.
“Where did you get that…?”
“I made it.”
“Could you show me…”
Just as I was about to make a just and lawful request as the Goblin God, someone interrupted.
“What are you guys doing?”
Black Dragon Master looked at us incredulously.
“If you have time to play with a Constellation, let’s move on to the next stage. It took us twenty-four days just to clear the 31st floor. ...Or has my sense of time gone strange? It took us years to clear the 10th floor. Good grief....”
“But you’re also holding something in your arms, Black Dragon Master….”
“This, this is for research purposes.”
Black Dragon Master quickly hid her bat doll behind her.
Countess and Paladin were also fiddling with elf and mermaid dolls, respectively.
“I’m checking the product for quality. It's a rare item made by the Princess, isn't it?”
“The item descriptions are quite thorough.”
These people….
“King of Death. Here.”
“Ah, thank you.”
I took the goblin doll, hugging it tightly, and looked around.
A white world. Nothing else was visible. It was as if a blank white canvas stretched out infinitely. We were the only ones stranded in the middle of this canvas.
Hmm.
“...Is this the 32nd floor?”
I asked, though I thought it unlikely. As expected, the Princess, hugging her snail doll, shook her head.
“Think of this as a kind of waiting room. To materialize the 32nd floor, all of you first need to declare ‘Stage Clear.’ Viper, for example, spent fifteen days here waiting for the rest of you.”
“I almost thought I was going to die of boredom!”
Viper, sitting on the white floor, grimaced.
“Why were you all so late? You should've quickly taken care of the kids and come out. Here, we can't even observe what you're doing, so I spent all this time meditating.”
“Along with your dokkaebi doll, right?”
“It helps with meditation. While I’m thoroughly pragmatic and practical in my approach to the game, what were you really doing, arriving now? Always so immersed…”
“No, you’re just too detached.”
Paladin sighed.
“Didn’t the Princess say when we entered the 31st floor, [From the 31st to 40th floors, it's a race war]. It implies that the stages from the 31st to 40th floors are continuously linked. We might be governing the same tribes we chose in the 31st floor.”
“What?"
“If it’s just clearing the 31st floor, like you said, Celestial Martial Clan Leader, it would’ve been fine to casually take care of them. But if we're governing them until the 40th floor, it’s a different story. Even if [I’m not there], we need to prepare the tribes in advance to develop on their own.”
Viper blinked his single eye.
“W-Wait. Was there such a conversation?”
“It was clear enough for anyone to notice.”
Paladin’s sigh grew heavier.
“Think a little on your own, Liǎofàn. You tend to gloss over things too easily when they're not related to martial arts...."
“Really? Is that why everyone lingered in the 31st floor for weeks?”
Viper frantically looked around. His eye was desperate, as if he were hoping one of us would say, ‘No.’
Unfortunately, none of the hunters present was stupid enough to grant Viper’s wish.
“Celestial Martial Clan Leader, it's okay.”
I smiled kindly and patted Viper’s shoulder.
“King of Death... no, that can’t be right. I can't be the only one who lagged behind like an idiot, right…?”
“Even if your tribe goes extinct, there are still six tribes left.”
“Damn it!”
Viper covered his face.
Watching our comical scene, the Princess chuckled mischievously.
“Don’t worry too much. From rank one through rank seven, everyone survived at least until the ‘next era,’ the 32nd-floor stage. Thanks to all your efforts, prehistory ended quickly. From here on, it is antiquity.”
Ancient Times.
There was a temporal gap between the 31st and 32nd floors.
‘It must be thousands of years later.’
Thousands of years. During this lengthy period, I was concerned about how well the goblins fared, but hearing the Princess confirm their survival relieved me somewhat.
However, the Princess unexpectedly announced something.
“Alright! Everyone's here, so let's open the next stage.”
The Princess floated the snail doll into the air and climbed on top of it. Then, like a knight on a horse, she lifted one arm and shouted, “Oh-!”
“32nd floor is the world 200 years after the 31st floor!"
"......."
Silence fell among us. My reaction was similar.
"What?"
The Princess had just said 200 years, not 2000.
It's ‘only’ been 200 years since the Stone Age concluded and the Ancient Times began.
“200 years, Princess? Did you mean 2000 years?”
I looked dumbfounded. It made no sense.
In the past, when the Flame Emperor devoted all his points to raising the elves, the gap between the 31st and 32nd floors was over a thousand years. Even if my memory isn’t perfect, it was certainly more than five hundred years.
But only 200 years?
Did we raise our tribes so well?
“You heard right.”
The Princess beamed.
“I was surprised too. I knew you were fast, but I didn’t expect it to be this fast. Or, in this case, should I say ‘slow’? Yep. Sometimes the detour is the shortcut.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll understand once you go to the 32nd floor. Off we go.”
The Princess set down the goblin doll on the white floor and stretched out her arms.
“Now, opening the 32nd floor!”
“Wait a minute.”
Black Dragon Master interjected, clearly startled by the number 200 years.
“We haven’t all gathered yet. The Heretic Inquisitor isn’t here.”
Black Dragon Master was right. Among our group, including myself, only six were present. One of our members, the Heretic Inquisitor, was still missing.
“We should go to the 32nd floor after the Heretic Inquisitor declares ‘Stage Clear’...."
“Oh. Don’t worry about that.”
The Princess waved her hand dismissively.
“I told you already. [Everyone who is going to gather has gathered.] If by the Heretic Inquisitor you mean your rank four, he arrived on the 32nd floor first and is waiting there.”
“……What?”
“As I said.”
The Princess smiled.
“You’ll see when you get there.”
Fwaaah!
White light enveloped us.
2.
When we opened our eyes, we were floating in the sky. The world unfolded beneath our feet.
The previous world had a vast Great Forest. This time, it was different. No forests, no streams, no sunlight filtering through leaves.
Even the sky was missing.
“My goodness.”
Black Dragon Master muttered in astonishment.
“What is that…?”
The landscape beneath us, which Black Dragon Master referred to as ‘that’, was a ‘subterranean city’. There, a city unlike anything I had seen or heard of before had been established.
-The journey home from work is so long. It’s exhausting, Lime.
Voices flowed from somewhere.
-A new tavern has opened near the Great Void…
-I’d like to postpone this year’s tribute day, lime.
Something squirmed about the city. Not walking, but crawling.
Snails.
Translucent creatures scuttled about, each with a large snail shell on their back.
“Crazy…?”
The underground city, no, the underworld was entirely different from our world. Firstly, there were no roads. Instead of walking, the snails clung to walls to move.
-Don’t carelessly stick on our wall roads, lym!
-What nonsense. Every wall-road in Polis is public property, Lime! God decides where I must arrive, but I decide how I crawl there, Lime.
The snails freely moved left, right, up, and down.
A vast subterranean world.
At first glance, the 20-plus-story stone buildings were randomly erected, but nowhere to be found were stairs. Snails simply crawled up the walls and entered their homes through windows.
-Rents have skyrocketed lately, lime…
-I’m sorry to say, but this winter I’ll have to stay in an ‘old house’....
Even homeless snails existed.
The homeless huddled in small caves, burrowing into snail shells. They exchanged a blue-glowing mineral among themselves. When a snail swallowed a blue stone, its translucent body emitted a bluish light. The snail itself turned blue.
-For this one bite, I endured today, lymu….
-Seeing the bright light, it seems the kids got something good, lime.
-I got lucky. Dealers these days have no business ethics, Lime. Of all things, how can they adulterate stone tobacco? No decent person would do that, Lime.
-Just one bite for me....
And it didn’t end there.
-Hurry up and move the luggage, lime!
A snail waved its tentacles. Squelch! A squishy sound echoed. The creature struck by the tentacle groaned and heaved heavy stones onto a cart.
The Ghost Tribe.
The dokkaebi, once governed by Viper, struggled with their labor.
-Really, the Ghost Tribe are all lazy! lime!
A snail, apparently a manager, grumbled.
-Despite being expensive, they slack off at the slightest distraction. Lymu. We feed, clothe, shelter, and save them, yet I can’t understand their complaints.
-Right. Slaves always try to climb up if you treat them slightly well, lime. A lower species without shells, how dare they act so arrogantly.
-Hey, slave. Try saying ‘lime’. If you can pronounce it correctly, I’ll let you off.
The snail was much smaller than the Ghost Tribe. The Ghost Tribe members were large like orcs, with a horn in the middle of their foreheads. Yet, they were at the mercy of the tiny snails.
-La, Lymy.
-Look at that! Slaves can't even pronounce lime properly! Born low, they can't even utter our sacred words, lime. Lowly creatures! Hurry up and move those stones!
-Ugh...
Incredible.
Could these snails actually be enslaving the Ghost Tribe?
“No... What is that…”
Viper was dumbstruck.
In the blink of an eye, Viper’s tribe had been reduced to slavery.
“N-no matter what, this makes no sense! I did look after them in my own way before leaving the 31st floor! I made swords for them, and spears, and taught them how to fight.... What is this? Slaves? Did my tribe really become slaves?!”
“Huh.”
Then, a familiar voice sounded.
"What a pleasure to see familiar faces!”
It was the Heretic Inquisitor.
“Ahaha. Indeed, now we have finally entered a new era. Hmm, slow yet fast. No. Objectively, it’s still fast!”
The Heretic Inquisitor looked exactly as usual. He wore his usual black priestly robes and smiled as brightly as ever. Seeing nothing unusual, Viper rushed at him.
“Hey! You psychopath!”
“Ah, yes.”
“Why has my tribe been turned into your tribe’s lackeys?!”
Viper grabbed the Heretic Inquisitor by the collar and shook him.
Despite being shaken, the Heretic Inquisitor’s smile never faded.
“That is easy to explain! The [Snail Civilization] I built requires a highly concentrated labor force. Slavery is quite a useful system for supplying one! As it happened, the Ghost Tribe launched a large-scale invasion 112 years ago, so after repelling them, I captured every one of them!”
“What, what…?”
“Aha, don’t worry. They are a very proud tribe, so taming was hard, and still is, but I managed to subdue them somewhat! Maybe in three generations, their nature will change.”
"......."
Viper was at a loss for words, failing to comprehend the Heretic Inquisitor’s explanation. Meanwhile, the other hunter colleagues exchanged glances, realizing the situation.
“…Heretic Inquisitor.”
I stepped forward to speak.
“I have a question.”
“Aah, King of Death! Yes! Ask me anything.”
The Heretic Inquisitor beamed. If he had possessed a puppy’s tail, it would have been wagging furiously by now. His smile was lively enough to inspire the thought.
“We declared 'Stage Clear' on the 31st floor and moved to the waiting room. You weren’t there. The Princess said you arrived at the 32nd floor first… What does that mean?”
“Hmm? Ah, I see. Ahaha.”
The Heretic Inquisitor tilted his head three or four times.
“Strictly speaking, that’s incorrect. I didn’t arrive at the 32nd floor first! I’ve been on the 31st floor the whole time!”
"......."
Silence.
"…What?”
"Exactly as I said. King of Death! Everyone! I knew you were declaring 'Stage Clear' one by one. The Tower told me. However, I thought, if the 31st floor is connected to the next, there’s no need to declare clear, right?”
"......."
“I’m somewhat knowledgeable about the course of human history. This knowledge was sure to help the [Snail Civilization] advance! So, I told the Tower I wouldn’t declare 'Stage Clear'.”
“So that means…"
“Yes! I have spent all this time circling around the Mountain Snail Tribe and looking after them!”
The Heretic Inquisitor beamed.
“Welcome, everyone! Aha! It has been 200 years, 6 months, and 21 days! I am delighted to see you again after so long!”
Insane.
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