One thing’s for sure.
“If I just leave this as it is, I’m screwed.”
Whether it’s an otherworldly being or not doesn’t matter.
Otherworldly beings show up only in tiny amounts, so maybe it wouldn’t matter at all.
But the problem is that these tiny pests don’t only come for me.
Even cockroaches, who outclass me in physique, get involved.
If something like a Level 100 cockroach were to spawn…
“…Nope. Not doing that.”
I’ve seen it myself—cockroaches crawling around at night. The big American kind too.
Apparently, some Indian exchange students lived in this one-room apartment before me.
Because of that, there were even rumors about bedbugs being around.
Can pest control fix this?
Do I even have the money to call in a professional exterminator?
The answer to both is no.
So when I’m asleep or away, the little things that come out of the gate get eaten by other pests.
I might be Level 50, but what if a Level 100 something shows up?
And what if it goes berserk like that Level 33 mosquito earlier?
“If I leave this as it is, I’m screwed.”
Another hole showed up in the wall to the neighbor’s place. This one’s smaller, shaped kind of like a mosquito hole.
“If I leave that alone too, I’m screwed.”
Well, at least I get to use up the leftover plaster and wallpaper.
Lucky me.
I’m so happy I could die. Really.
I haven’t chosen Blink or Flight yet.
If I can’t break through barriers, I should probably pick one of the two, since I may need to visit the neighbor’s place often.
***
So, in the middle of the night, I snuck back into the neighbor’s place, filled it up with plasterboard, put up plywood, and wallpapered it again.
Maybe I’ve got a knack for wallpapering?
Strangely enough, I feel like I’ve gotten faster at it.
It could just be the experience of doing it three times, but maybe my Dexterity stat actually went up.
When I came back, I still had my own room’s wallpaper to do, but I decided to put that off for now.
“Whew!”
Still, it’s obvious the landlord would say something if he saw the wallpaper shredded like rags, so I’d better cover it with something.
“Here we go.”
My phone is purple.
I just liked purple.
I wasn’t rebellious enough to intentionally miss that literature test question about “liking purple” being a symbol of death in a novel, but anyway—I just liked it.
But when I bought that purple phone…
“…Seriously? This was the only option?”
It came bundled with posters from some boy idol group whose theme color was purple.
Then, when I applied for the buyer’s free gift from Samsung.com, I won another poster.
I’d been keeping them, thinking I’d hand them out as gifts if some Incan girl in South America—where K-POP is popular—asked to take a picture with me.
But right now, they’re perfect for covering up the holes in my room.
“Ahem.”
Why’d they take these photos highlighting the guy’s lips like that?
Honestly, I do have swimsuit posters of light novel heroines I used to collect back in the day, but I’m saving those for when I actually buy my own house.
“Looks flawless.”
So after slapping up two posters of some random idol guys, I managed to patch things up…
Or did I?
“…What about that hole?”
That crack emitting light—something’s coming out of it.
If I leave that thing open while I’m gone or asleep, there’s no guarantee another disaster like that Level 33 mosquito won’t happen.
Maybe if I just cover it with a cardboard box, nothing can come out?
I rummaged through the kitchen.
There’s a pot I use for boiling pasta.
The top part seems like it might just fit.
I carried it over and covered the glowing crack.
“Oh, perfect. Just right.”
Sure, something might still crawl out through the gap between the pot and the floor, but maybe whatever comes out gets blocked inside.
“…Huh?”
< Pot Dungeon LV1 >
It is merely a dark cavity. Thanks to its ceramic coating, explorers clinging to the walls may slip off. Depending on how well it’s washed, toxicity may be added.
What the hell…?
Too bad I already washed it.
If I’d left some ramen stains, would those otherworldly creatures have surrendered, lured in by the smell?
Still, covering it with the pot keeps the light trapped inside.
Maybe I can just collect them all and wipe them out later?
At least now I have some breathing room.
Otherwise, I wouldn’t even have been able to go to work—
“…Wait. No. That’s not it.”
I should probably quit while I can.
The appearance of a Level 100 cockroach.
A Level 100 mosquito.
A Level 100 bedbug.
No way.
Even if it’s not a cockroach, who knows what else might come out of there?
What if, say, a giant shows up from some miniature world and ends up rampaging in my room under that pot lid?
What then?
“Damn it. Well, it’s not like I can just ignore it… Tch. It’ll probably be fine.”
Anxious, but trusting in the ceramic effect of the pot, I headed out.
Actually, what worries me more than max-level pests is my strength control.
I feel like I’ve gotten strong enough to smash through walls, but I need a space to test how strong I’ve really become.
Somewhere with no people and no CCTV.
“Hm.”
Conveniently, there was a paving block sticking up like a loose tooth.
I threw a casual punch at it.
And before my fist even touched—
Crack.
“…Holy crap.”
It actually worked?
Is this the legendary hadouken?
Next, since it was still early morning, I ran all the way out to where the eco-restoration stream near the one-room flows into the river.
They’d been crying about drought not long ago, but now the water was overflowing.
And full of bugs too.
I climbed onto a bridge over the stream, looked down at the water, and punched.
Splaasshhh!
It was like a meteorite had crashed into the river.
The water shot up violently.
What if a whale lived in this stream? Let’s try again, harder this time.
Splaassssshhhh!!
This time, a hand-shaped crater opened up, almost exposing the riverbed, and water blasted out in all directions.
“……”
Of course, it drenched me too.
Guess I just bathed in green algae.
Then I tried lifting an illegally parked car.
It lifted.
A sedan came up in one hand, a van too, and even a truck…
“…This is insane.”
My Strength stat is showing as 137, but I don’t know what the scale means.
Still, if I can lift trucks, I guess that says enough.
I wandered around—down shady forest paths near the university observatory, through empty lots—smashing bits of terrain.
Turns out I can control it.
If I intend to go easy, the impact isn’t enough to break walls.
If I intend to go hard, like before, I can blow water sky-high.
I even shattered the concrete walls of an abandoned demolition site like they were nothing.
Sure, it looked like property damage, but legally? Even if I was on CCTV, how could they prove it?
I didn’t even touch the wall, and it “just so happened” to collapse.
The real problem is…
“…What the hell am I supposed to use this for?”
With physical evidence, I could get away with murder or destruction by just playing dumb.
But where do you actually use power like this?
Maybe on a battlefield, or as a demolition worker?
But who’s going to hire a lunatic who says, “Don’t worry, I’ll tear down the building with my bare fists”?
That leaves only two options:
—Become a hitman.
—Or keep using it to beat up the weird things spilling into my room.
“…Hmm.”
The Flight skill I got from that Level 33 mosquito works fine.
I can’t soar that high, but I can hover just before hitting the ground.
Combined with my strength, I can even carry pretty heavy stuff while floating.
“Super strength plus levitation… sounds perfect for founding a cult.”
My stats keep going up, but the ones I can actually feel are Strength and Vitality.
I haven’t tested Luck or Charisma in a social setting, and my Magic hasn’t gone up at all.
Magic should obviously tie into spells, right?
If leveling up gave me magic too, life would be way more fun.
Am I just a muggle?
Anyway, after a day of outdoor “testing,” I came back inside—
< The Pot Dungeon has been destroyed >
It can no longer function as a dungeon.
“…Those bastards ripped up a dungeon?”
The pot was cracked.
A triangular hole had formed, and from it, several pale figures crawled out.
Zooming in—skeletons.
[We’ve finally escaped.]
[So humanity in this world can manipulate dungeons, it seems.]
[The Mutant King should have had a safe passage. What did he fall victim to?]
[I heard humans here have weapons powerful enough to burn down entire cities.]
That was mom’s beloved pot…
She’d gotten it free at the supermarket for spending over 100,000 won.
She liked it so much she spent 200,000 to get another and gave me one when I moved out.
And now these skeletons went and trashed it.
When the dungeon formed, I had this silly idea—use a fan as an automatic defense turret.
But then I thought, what if it explodes?
Still, maybe if I hadn’t pressed “Limit Break,” I’d still have the electric flyswatter.
Anyway, I turned on the fan.
[Ugh, t-this storm…!]
[What a powerful gale!]
[Endure it! Forward!]
The three skeletons encouraged each other, trudging forward against the wind.
They could actually withstand level 1 fan mode?
[Graaaahhhhhh!!]
But at level 2, their brittle bodies got swept up and slammed into the wall by my bed and the wall by the electric kettle.
They shattered into pieces.
The wallpaper—previously pristine—was now riddled with holes where the bones had pierced through.
Ding.
[M.E. 10]
[You’ve acquired the skill “Trap Hunting.”]
[Your level has increased to 53.]
[The fan has been upgraded.]
[You may attempt a Limit Break on the fan.]
…Great. But my wallpaper looks like Swiss cheese again.
“……”
This isn’t working.
Either I start a street-performance strongman act, or I put points into Blink and turn into some shady burglar.
Maybe then I could afford to buy this one-room outright.
Summary:
Small monsters crawl out of the gates.
They destroy stuff in the process.
If I don’t kill them, bugs eat them, level up, and then attack me.
Problem is, I can’t predict when they’ll appear.
So sleeping and going out are both risky.
If I block the gate with something, it becomes a dungeon.
But sometimes, they break even that.
So the best option?
Hunt them myself, level up, and maybe discover a new path in life.
“…Should I use the rice cooker?”
That Sunday night, while I was trying to sleep, I found a new object to turn into a dungeon block.
Perfect candidates: the rice cooker and the microwave.
I lined one up over the glowing gate.
Plugged it in with a power strip.
Turned on “Keep Warm.”
“If you folks from the gate want a sauna, enjoy.”
< Ancient Human Skeleton LV40 >
After smashing them, I swept up the debris.
Among the white bone dust—like crushed calcium pills—something gleamed.
“…017?”
Not just something shiny.
Gold.
Not just gold-colored, but actual gold.
A coin about the size of a miniature nugget, practically placer-gold quality.