WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈
Chapter 64
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Thud!
A person went flying through the air.
They struck a rock jutting from the ground, their body folding at a right angle before bouncing once and dropping to the ground.
Were they dead?
They were not moving, at least.
Juggernaut rested his club on his shoulder.
“...”
The area was quiet.
Only moments ago, they had been charging in while shouting. Now, no one could easily speak or step forward.
Juggernaut.
And five Avatars.
The Wolves positioned behind them.
More precisely, not just behind them. Wolves filled the spaces between the trees and beyond the bushes.
A complete encirclement.
The Wolves crouched low, their eyes gleaming as they watched them.
‘Twenty-three.’
Watching the scene from above, Seo Hajin counted the people remaining.
There had been a little over thirty at first.
Then the number dropped sharply, starting with those Repair No. 1 had carried up and dropped, followed by those sent flying after being shot.
The fight had not even lasted long.
No, it had not been a fight to begin with.
They wore miserable yet somewhat aggrieved expressions.
That was only natural, in a way.
They had not come after Juggernaut.
They had only come to rob Hogu and Miyu-chan.
But then Juggernaut showed up.
And he had not come alone.
“...Scatter!”
Someone squeezed out a shout.
As though it were a signal, five or six people turned in different directions almost at once.
If they could not break through in one place, they seemed to think they should scatter and let at least a few escape.
It was not a bad decision.
Their opponent was the problem.
Grrr!
Wolves blocked the path of those fleeing left.
A person holding a shield in front charged ahead, managing to shove aside perhaps one Wolf.
But another Wolf lunging at their flank was the problem. It was a blind spot the shield could not cover. The companion who should have covered that side ignored them and fled alone.
“Fuck! Aagh!”
Their limbs were bitten in an instant.
They had long since dropped their shield.
While screaming, covered in blood, they felt a shallow satisfaction even through the pain when they saw that the companion who had abandoned them was in much the same state.
The other side was no different.
Stone appeared before someone leaping over the bushes.
“Die!”
The axe swung desperately.
Without even raising a shield, Stone simply held out an arm covered by simple leather armor.
Thwack!
The axe strike could have cut through the bone of most monsters. Yet it did not even sever Stone's arm. It only cut slightly through the armor.
His flesh split a little and blood ran, but Stone showed no reaction. He reached out with his other hand and grabbed the axe wielder by the face.
Crunch!
He drove the body down headfirst.
The man buried in the ground did not get back up.
‘Only that one left.’
Seo Hajin turned his gaze.
The person who had gotten farthest away was running into a tributary. The water was not deep, so they seemed to be trying to cross it.
Fortunately, there were no Crocodiles on this side.
But there was something they had overlooked.
Whoosh!
A large shadow descended from above.
Repair No. 1 pierced the man's body with its talons. Rather than fly into the sky as before, it pressed him straight into the water.
Water splashed up.
Blood slowly spread through the water.
The man thrashed fiercely, but soon went still. Only then did Repair No. 1 flap into the sky and carelessly drop the corpse.
“Drop your weapons.”
When everyone fell silent, Juggernaut's low voice rang out.
No one answered.
But someone dropped the spear in their hand. Starting with them, swords, axes, and bows fell to the ground all around.
Someone quietly put their weapon into their Inventory instead. But after noticing the eyes around them, they seemed uneasy about standing there unarmed. They took it back out and laid it down in front of them.
Some still refused to drop theirs.
Their eyes were full of hostility. They looked ready to attack anyone who came close, but when Sangun sauntered over, their gaze gradually softened.
Once everyone had dropped their weapons, Juggernaut spoke again.
“Get down.”
This time, they moved quickly.
Everyone hurriedly lay flat on the ground.
The Wolves moved between them, sniffing them or growling at any hands or feet that moved.
They had not even managed to fight.
It had simply ended like this.
Juggernaut looked around, then his gaze settled on one side.
Hogu and Miyu-chan had been watching from a distance.
They were approaching Juggernaut as well. Behind them came injured Wolves and Wolf Beastkin.
“We're fine. The kids got hurt a little.”
“There are fewer of them.”
“...They're still waiting to be resummoned.”
Hogu's side was much the same.
Some Wolves were dead and waiting to be resummoned, while none of the rest were uninjured.
Juggernaut looked over the pets.
Then he spoke.
“Are any of them the ones who came before?”
Hogu nodded.
He pointed out several people with a finger.
Miyu-chan also looked them over with a similar expression. Among those Hogu had not pointed out, she identified two more.
“That person... and the person lying over there came before too.”
Seven in total.
One of them hurriedly raised their head.
“Wait! There's been a misunderstanding.”
“What misunderstanding?”
“We only came to talk! They attacked first.”
Hogu looked at them indifferently.
“You said the same thing last time.”
“That time, we really...!”
“Then you killed my Wolf.”
“...”
The man closed his mouth.
Juggernaut walked among those lying on the ground.
Blood dripped from the club, which was stuck with bits of flesh and bone.
“Who told you this place's location?”
No one answered.
“Do I have to count to three? One.”
Thump.
The end of the club struck the ground.
The Wolves pushed their faces toward the necks of those nearby and growled.
“Two.”
“...It came from our Clan.”
Someone spoke.
It was a woman with her eyes squeezed shut.
She was one of the people Hogu had pointed out.
“Which Clan?”
The woman gave the Clan's name.
It was the place Juggernaut had originally intended to visit.
“I heard you were expelled.”
“...They only removed our names.”
“Why go that far?”
“Th-they said that if Juggernaut came looking for us, it would look like we acted on our own... But I don't know the details. That's what they decided at the top.”
“Then why did you come here?”
“...”
“Talk.”
“They said that if we took those two with us, we could use them for negotiations.”
“Hostages?”
“Yes.”
Hogu nodded, as though it was exactly what he had expected.
But several people glared at the woman.
Someone even cursed, saying they had never heard of that.
That was also as Hogu expected.
They had not all come from the same place. They had merely gathered for similar reasons.
Their specific goals were different.
Some wanted hostages. Some coveted Hogu's fishing spot. Some simply wanted to rob users and take their pets.
But broadly speaking, they were alike.
Whether by process or result, they had intended to strip the two of what they owned.
“Who ordered it?”
“I didn't hear it directly.”
“So who?”
“...”
“Where were you supposed to take them if you caught them?”
“The Clan base.”
“The main camp?”
“Yes.”
“Who were you handing them over to?”
The woman hesitated.
But when she saw Juggernaut's club, now before her, she hurriedly opened her mouth.
“The Deputy Master!”
“What about the Master?”
“I don't know that. Really! I heard it from an executive under the Deputy Master's line.”
“Username.”
“Uh...”
The woman stammered.
He could not simply believe her.
But it did not really matter even if she was lying.
Nothing would change much either way.
“Anyone who has been here before, get up.”
No one got up.
Not exactly surprising.
He decided to pick them out himself.
The seven Hogu and Miyu-chan had identified.
One of them had already died while fleeing from Stone, leaving six.
“W-we only did it because those above told us to...”
“I thought you said you only came to talk.”
“...”
“You keep changing your story.”
The man clenched his teeth but scanned his surroundings as though searching for an opportunity. Beside him, a woman squeezed her eyes shut.
Juggernaut turned away without a word.
But the two of them, along with the remaining attackers, realized too late that the club would have been better.
The Wolves pounced.
Without receiving any particular order, they attacked only the selected people and tore out their throats.
Screams followed.
Birds perched in the bushes and by the water flew into the air.
“...”
Gulp.
The rest held their breath in silence.
Someone had been bitten to death right beside them, yet some looked relieved that they themselves were still alive.
“Should we let them go?”
Juggernaut asked.
Hogu, meeting his gaze, sighed and nodded. Killing them all might have felt satisfying, but he knew it would only create more enemies.
“You can go.”
They carefully got to their feet.
Someone tried to pick up a weapon left on the ground, but quickly pulled their hand back and retreated when the Wolves growled.
After the people left, Seo Hajin had his Avatars and pets gather the Personal Effects Bags and equipment left on the ground into Subspace.
This was separate from the compensation he had intended to collect.
This should count as compensation for the damage done to the two of them.
“Will you keep staying here?”
At his question, Miyu-chan looked at the ruined hut and its surroundings.
Part of one wall had been torn away, and part of the roof had collapsed. It would have been faster to find an intact palisade or trap than to find one that had not been damaged.
Even the small vegetable garden she had carefully tended had been trampled and ruined in places.
Her eyes welled up a little.
“We can't stay here anymore.”
She spoke.
“Our location has been exposed. Those people went back, but we don't know when others might come.”
“The same people might come again too.”
Hogu added.
Then he looked at Juggernaut.
“Can we go north?”
“North?”
“Yes.”
It did not look like the two had discussed it beforehand.
It was a somewhat impulsive thought, but after exchanging glances, they nodded in agreement.
“It's hard to stay here any longer anyway... Considering everything, I think the north might actually be safer.”
“It could be.”
“But... is there water like this there too?”
“Well. There is water.”
At his answer, Hogu nodded.
Miyu-chan asked next.
“What about land where we could make a garden like that?”
“There is land everywhere. For a vegetable garden... there are a few good spots.”
The north was not filled with nothing but trees.
There was a river flowing down from the mountain range, as well as small tributaries branching from it.
The current was rough and the terrain rugged near the waterfall, but farther away, there were places where the current slowed and the depth was suitable.
Some of those places had small clearings where sunlight filtered through the trees. They would have more than enough room to fish and tend a vegetable garden.
There was just one problem.
“Monsters will spawn, right?”
“Yes. They will.”
“Hmm...”
The two showed faintly tense expressions at the thought of the infamous monsters in Northern Forest.
“But my hunting team passes through there. Even if they respawn, they won't last long.”
“Then it should be fine.”
Miyu-chan nodded.
Hogu did not seem to disagree.
“Then, do you want to leave today?”
At Juggernaut's question, the two looked around at the wrecked area again.
They had not rested properly for the past few days.
Their pets were injured, their eyelids heavy.
They did not want to spend another night here, keeping watch.
“Can we go right away?”
“Yes. Sure.”
“Then I want to go now.”
Seo Hajin retrieved the remaining Avatars and pets into Subspace one after another.
Then he left Steel behind.
“This guy will help you.”
Juggernaut had somewhere else to go.
Steel would handle the two's move.
‘It won't take long with only two people.’
Juggernaut summoned Sangun, mounted him, and rode away from the area.
Steel, left at the scene, headed for Miyu-chan's hut.
“Can we really take this too?”
Miyu-chan looked at the half-collapsed hut.
Steel had said they could, but she had trouble believing it.
“You can build a new one if you prefer, but even though the Rainy Season has passed, it still rains fairly often.”
“I'd prefer to repair it if we can.”
It was a small house made from interwoven logs.
Part of the wall was torn away and the roof had collapsed, but with a little work, it could still be used for a long time. There was no reason to throw it away.
They first removed the palisades and traps connected around it.
The pets, which had returned before anyone noticed, joined in the work.
They sorted the usable wood and rope separately, while gathering the completely broken pieces as Firewood.
Miyu-chan's Beastkin helped as well.
They seemed to feel a sense of kinship with Seo Hajin's Beastkin, while still keeping a little distance. It was probably because they had different masters.
“Looks about done.”
They dug out the dirt beneath the hut and severed the sections connected to the ground one by one.
The hut's slanted walls shook, but it did not collapse.
Then, at Steel's touch, the hut vanished into empty air.
“Wow...”
Miyu-chan looked at the empty place where everything had been.
Only packed earth and cut tree roots remained, making it feel strangely lonely.
“We're taking the garden too?”
“No. We're not taking the whole garden. We're digging up the crops and bringing them along. It would be a waste otherwise.”
“Ah.”
The vegetable garden was next.
Some crops had already been trampled to death, but more remained intact.
Miyu-chan and her Beastkin dug them up by their roots.
This time, Steel did not need to step in. They put them directly into her Inventory.
She did not know how many would survive, but she would take them and try replanting them.
While she was at it, she gathered the flowers too.
The work ended faster than expected.
The injured pets went into their owners' Inventories. After the remaining belongings were organized, Steel placed the heavy items in Subspace.
Whoosh!
Repair No. 1, which had been circling overhead, descended.
Steel took a large basket and connecting ropes from Subspace, then attached them to the Eagle.
It resembled the setup used for an Eagle Taxi, and was spacious enough for two people to ride comfortably.
Several layers of Wolf Pelts had been laid across the bottom to soften impacts. After getting in and sitting down, Miyu-chan said it was more comfortable than expected and that she felt like she could fall asleep immediately.
“It feels that way because we're still on the ground. It will be a little different once we're up in the air.”
“Ah. Right.”
Before they took off, Hogu said there was somewhere he wanted to stop by.
His old home.
He said it would be a waste of materials to leave the hut there behind as well.
“That won't be a problem.”
Steel nodded and told them to check the safety equipment once more.
“Uh... There isn't a problem.”
“...I didn't see these on the Eagle Taxi.”
There were plausible-looking safety belts and extra fasteners. There were also Parachute Packs hanging inside the basket in case of an emergency.
From what Steel explained, they were not on the level of the parachutes back home. They merely reduced fall damage by a considerable amount.
“Even that would be good!”
“I'm curious.”
Hogu said he had gone skydiving before.
Not as a civilian, but as part of military training. Since they had parachutes, he suggested that perhaps they could try it here as well.
“It looks like we'd have to improve the parachutes a little more before we could attempt that.”
Steel climbed into the saddle.
Repair No. 1, which had been growling low, spread its wings. A powerful wind swept through the clearing.
The basket floated up from the ground.
After stopping by Hogu's home and dismantling and collecting the remains of the hut there as well, the two rose into the sky again.
Their destination was the northern Field.
No. Now that every Field except the central one had been integrated, it would be more accurate to call it simply the northern forest.
“Wow...”
Miyu-chan said it was her first time riding an Eagle Taxi.
The wide surface of Giant Lake slowly receded in the distance. Forests, hills, and branching waterways passed beneath them.
The sun had nearly set.
Ahead, the dense forest of the north stretched far into the distance, gradually drawing closer.
As they had heard, and as they already somewhat knew, there was a river there too.
And somewhere below, they could see a fairly sturdy-looking fortress.
“That must be the place.”
“Ah. D-Day Clan.”
The Eagle was headed somewhere farther from that camp.
They passed the waterfall and crossed the broad current, watching it gradually narrow.
Then they found it.
A small clearing and a gently sloping shore.
The two immediately guessed that this was the place Juggernaut had told them about.
“Wow... It's nice.”
“Mm.”
It seemed they would become neighbors from now on, but neither of them particularly disliked that.
* * *
Juggernaut rode on Sangun's back, racing across the plains.
Small monsters, aggressive and non-aggressive alike, fled to either side and cleared the way.
At the same time, he checked the clearing visible through Steel's vision once more.
‘I only caught a glimpse of it before, but now that I see it again, it's better than I thought.’
It was not quite suitable for a settlement on the scale of a Clan.
But it was perfect for a small settlement of a few households.
‘They landed safely... If I send some workers over there for rebuilding, it should be done by tonight.’
Seeing two distant places at once.
Unlike before, his vision had not split further after the Fields merged. Still, perhaps because the distance was so great, some decrease in ability could not be helped.
Even so, it was not a serious problem.
Here, he rode Sangun at full speed. There, he directed the pet workers to prepare the site and position the two huts.
Hogu's hut needed to be rebuilt, but there was already an abundance of raw lumber for that.
‘Should I put up some palisades around them too?’
The hunting team would pass through and deal with the small monsters, but some would still slip through.
A wooden fence might help a little, though they would need to leave the waterway open anyway. Maybe it would not make much difference.
‘Well. They have guard pets too.’
He nodded and gripped the reins tightly.
Even without any special riding skill, Sangun naturally avoided the bushes and rocks with practiced ease.
There were occasional traps, but they seemed meant for small monsters and did not do much damage to Sangun.
And large traps were impossible to miss from above, since anything different from the surroundings stood out immediately.
“Riding an Eagle would have been faster.”
That was obvious.
But he had another purpose in riding Sangun like this.
He wanted them to know he was coming.
Even now, it was being broadcast on social media almost in real time. Quite a few people were even filming from the sky while riding Eagles.
Some sent him messages, telling him where the Clan in question was like a navigation system.
They seemed worried that he might head to the wrong place after the sun set.
‘I already know where it is.’
He might take a slight detour along the way, but his destination had been set from the beginning.
Were they still there now?
If they were, what excuse would they have prepared?
That it was the deviation of a few members?
That this had gone too far?
That their losses were greater than Juggernaut's?
“They're running away?”
Among the live coverage were posts reporting their current situation.
Quite a few people were leaving the Clan base in question.
“Doesn't matter.”
People could leave, but the buildings and facilities would remain.
Others might not be able to, but he could take those too.
If he dismantled them, he could at least use the materials.
‘And there is plenty of room in Subspace.’
How long had he been running?
Beyond the darkening scenery in the distance, a tall palisade came into view, with torches burning along its top.
The Clan base in question.
Someone in a Watchtower seemed to have spotted him and was moving about in a panic.
Juggernaut did not stop.
He had given them enough time to prepare.
Now it was time to hear their answer.
Then they moved.
“I guess that's their answer.”
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