Chapter 4: Iron Ore, 10 Yen per Kilogram
The first thing I did after getting home was call Yae-chan.
“Hello, my phone won’t stop making noise. Help.”
[‘Okay, okay. What kind of stupid thing did you do this time?’]
“Well, a glass dragon showed up, so I smashed it to pieces.”
[‘Are they demanding compensation?’]
“I don’t think so. We settled on me owing them a favor.”
[‘Did they get it in writing?’]
“No.”
[‘Then you’re fine. Anyway, you said your phone won’t stop making noise?’]
“Yeah. Apparently my subscriber count is increasing.”
[‘Got it. I’ll send you instructions by email. School’s over too, so I’ll come to your place.’]
A while later, Yae-chan showed up.
Her name was Sashiogi Yae.
A lively high school girl in the prime of her youth.
We first met three years ago in an alleyway.
I helped her when some delinquents were harassing her.
I’m happy that she’s so nice to an old guy like me, but it also feels a little undeserved.
“Welcome. This is a real problem.”
“Let me see.”
“Your subscriber count is 10,278.”
“This is serious.”
“You need to register for ad revenue.”
She handled all sorts of procedures for me.
“Here’s today’s camera data.”
“Let’s see what kind of mess you made this time.”
As she watched the footage, Yae-chan’s expression gradually became serious.
For some reason, when Kasahata-san appeared on screen, her expression became even more severe.
“You exchanged contact information with her, right?”
“Call her.”
When I made the call, Yae-chan snatched the phone from me.
“Hello.”
“My name is Sashiogi, and I handle negotiations for Saikyo.”
“From now on, please conduct all discussions regarding Saikyo through me.”
“I’ll email you my phone number later.”
“Goodbye.”
“Thanks for acting as my negotiator.”
“I’m not very smart, so I was worried someone might trick me.”
“I’ll handle all future negotiations with her, so don’t worry.”
“You are absolutely not to call her yourself.”
“If anything complicated comes up, just pass it to me.”
Now I could mine iron ore without worrying.
I went out into the yard and entered the dungeon.
I could see slimes crawling everywhere.
Stream start.
I switched on the camera.
“Last time was an Irregular Hound, but today we’ll do a normal stream like always.”
[Irregular Hound?]
[Do you mean Irregular Bound?]
[An irregular dog sounds strong.]
[Old guy joke.]
[Don’t make such lame jokes.]
[They’re so bad they’re giving me goosebumps.]
My dumb slip of the tongue was getting laughs.
“First, let’s defeat a slime.”
I approached a slime and repeatedly beat it with the iron pipe I had brought.
After hitting it around a thousand times, the slime dissolved into goo and died.
[Old guy is weak.]
[Now it’s obvious.]
[The dragon was pure luck.]
[Probably.]
[I’m accepting the weak-point theory.]
[Still, his level should have gone up a lot from that.]
[Even after leveling up, he’s this weak.]
[Hopeless.]
[No talent.]
[I’m disappointed.]
[No way that took only thirty hits.]
Thirty hits?
Maybe they couldn’t capture all the rapid strikes.
I opened the livestream footage on my phone and rewound it a bit.
Ah.
They’re right.
Only thirty hits were visible.
I wonder what’s causing that.
Well, whatever.
It doesn’t affect me.
The slime’s magic stone and core had been smashed to pieces.
As usual.
I arrived at a gathering point.
Using an iron chisel and hammer, I mined iron ore.
I stuffed the ore into a burlap sack.
About ten kilograms, I guess.
That’s plenty for one mining trip.
Doing this twenty times a day is my routine.
Strangely enough, gathering points regenerate after some time passes.
Maybe there’s some deeper meaning to it.
It doesn’t matter to me, though.
Time to head to the Adventurers Association.
I loaded the iron ore into the basket of my bicycle and started pedaling.
It took about ten minutes to reach the association.
I went to the counter and placed the iron ore on it as usual.
“I’d like to exchange this.”
“The usual, then.”
“Let’s see.”
“Today’s rate is 10.1 yen per kilogram, so that comes to 98 yen.”
“Thanks.”
[Only 98 yen per run?]
[Now that’s rock bottom.]
[Boss, we’ve got a bottom-feeder here.]
[This can’t be real.]
[What was that subjugation last time?]
[That’s what they call a fluke.]
[Also known as beginner’s luck.]
When I checked my channel, the subscriber count had already fallen to around five thousand.
Looks like things were returning to normal.
I felt like my reason for living was fading away.
I had finally gotten some attention too.
I continued mining iron ore over and over.
My subscriber count had fallen into the three-thousand range.
Is this what they call a one-hit wonder?
My mood sank even further.
“That’s it for today’s livestream.”
[Has there ever been a worse subjugation video than this?]
[I don’t think so.]
[It’s so bad that it’s actually new.]
The comments were filled with disappointment.
I really am hopeless.
The reason I started streaming in the first place was because I found a used camera for 100 yen at a recycle shop.
Something about it stirred my emotions.
It reminded me of myself after I got fired from my part-time job.
So I started streaming.
To briefly explain everything that happened before that…
My parents died in a traffic accident when I was in middle school.
There was ten million yen in insurance money, but that wasn’t enough.
I attended school while working part-time jobs.
I was always exhausted and sleeping, so my grades—which weren’t good to begin with—became even worse.
After graduating from high school, I worked part-time.
Then a dungeon appeared in my backyard.
After I got fired from my job, I decided to become an adventurer.
My dungeon produces a lot of iron ore.
Actually, that’s all it produces.
I’ve survived all these years on ten yen per kilogram.
And that brings us to the present.
Living every day mining iron ore gives me no sense of purpose.
No hope for the future either.
If only I could defeat a C-rank monster like an Orc.
But that’s impossible for someone like me.
It’s a pretty boring story, isn’t it?