My Refrigerator Turned Into A Dungeon

Chapter 229:

Dungeon Stampede 2.0 Undeads

A hard-working me patrolling the dungeon until evening. I won't make the same mistake twice.

I cleared out the refrigerator dungeon down to the 6th floor and carded a ton of obedient giant cockroaches. I have over 200 cards, but with no use for them, the number will likely keep growing.

I also checked the crab dungeon down to the 2nd floor.

As usual, there were tons of giant mudskippers with piranha-like teeth, but surprisingly no monsters bigger than the giant crabs. The crab dungeon seems to be relatively young, suggesting it might not have deep floors, but the existing floors are quite spacious.

Given that, I threw salt sorcerers from solid ground to thin out the mudskippers. Knowing the terror of their slime, I was careful never to step into swampy areas.

After spending my day this way and turning on the TV in the evening, it seemed that thanks to the Self-Defense Forces' efforts, more reports from various areas were being broadcast. TV stations were using their ingenuity to provide information via recorded broadcasts that felt like live coverage.

Information about monsters was particularly useful.

Apparently, undead monsters stop moving shortly after leaving the dungeon. Zombies and skeletons collapse and stop moving entirely, while intangible undead like ghosts disappear like mist.

But they don’t disappear completely; they resume activity at nightfall. Surveillance footage showed skeletons reassembling and standing up slowly.

("Hmm, interesting…")

With my hand on my chin, I pondered deeply while watching the footage.

In Japan, there's a phrase ‘Ouma ga Toki,' suggesting that at twilight, the boundary between day and night, you might encounter otherworldly beings.

"Hmm… if so, perhaps there are parallel worlds close to our 3D world, like 2.8D or 3.1D."

"Hey, so it's like the difference between land and water?" said Serai-san, emerging from the shower, drying her wet hair with a towel.

"Indeed, land and water are usually separated by the water's surface. You're quite smart, as expected from a university student."

"Hehe. So, you're thinking undead monsters retreat to another dimension when they can't maintain their state in this world, right?"

"Yes. And when the conditions for activity are met, they return from their refuge. That's my theory."

"So, if we had a tool like a submarine, we might be able to see into that other world."

I see, a dimensional submarine.

This is a common setting in sci-fi. But now I have spatial skills and a space monkey familiar. With some experimentation, I might find a clue.

"But don't do anything dangerous again, okay?"

"Yeah, I got it."

Oops, she read my mind again. There's a lot I want to try, but dealing with spatial stuff is risky. Yeah, ‘inside a rock' would be a nightmare.

…..

[(Whirl… rustle)]

Now, what am I doing? I'm packaging food processed in the dungeon.

Across the table, Serai-san, now in her nightwear, is rolling up dried giant mussel tentacles and stuffing them into plastic bags. They look like hoses coiled in a fire hydrant.

[Please stay away from monster carcasses, as they may still be dangerous even if they appear dead. Numerous reports of monsters resembling human corpses have also been received. What looks like a human corpse might actually be a zombie. Please be cautious and avoid unknown objects.]

Hmm, the TV is repeatedly broadcasting warnings. The news anchors must be having a hard time repeating the same content over and over.

"Hey, Egetsu-san, why do undead monsters move? They're dead, right?"

While extracting cheese-like crab meat from giant crab legs, Serai-san asked me that question.

"Hmm, the undead. They're probably cursed. But since the dead body is forcibly bound to a soul, the soul becomes horribly distorted."

"Distorted??"

"Yeah, like inverted or something… well, something like that."

"Hmm, I don't quite get it. What do you mean??"

Serai-san tilted her head, furrowing her brow and pouting. Even making a funny face, she's adorably unfair.

"Oh, maybe my explanation was bad? Sorry, um, let's see… Oh, I know. Here, we have this cheese-like crab meat."

"What does that have to do with the undead?"

"Well, let's see. Cheese is a fermented food. Normally, it ferments from milk with bacteria, right? But this isn't fermented. Probably due to the dungeon's breakdown and absorption mechanism, the crab meat broke down into various amino acids, resulting in this state."

"I see. The breakdown and absorption increased the umami, making it tasty. But that explains why the food tastes good, not why undead can move, right??"

"Yeah, so let's talk about magic. Magic and mana were once just fantasy, but the advent of dungeons changed everything. The effects of mana are diverse. It can create acid, make crab meat like this overnight…"

I shook the cheese-like crab meat in front of my face. Does this make me look a bit smart and cool??

"Hmm. But I could also explain it as ‘undead move due to magic and mana,' you know."

But Serai-san didn’t acknowledge it at all. Hmm…

"Well, well. Here's the main point. While ‘undead move due to magic and mana' is true, let's be more specific and say ‘undead are dead bodies bound to souls by skills, magic, or curses.'"

"Without knowing why they're undead, you can't pinpoint the reason."

"Exactly. So, if we assume ‘undead are dead bodies forcibly bound to souls by some effect,' then ‘undead don't die again, hence invincible!' doesn’t follow."

"Yeah. The zombies in town were easily defeated by your salt, Edzuki-san."

"Right, but it felt more like the holy salt disrupted the undead effect itself, causing dysfunction, rather than just physical damage."

"Uh… like destroying a device not by breaking it physically, but by disrupting its program with a strong magnet??"

"Exactly! And when I focus with aura vision, I see their souls twisted and distorted. Recently, I realized that ‘the soul is like an engine,' an internal combustion engine."

"You often say that during meditation training too. ‘Calm your mind, but ignite the engine in your soul.'"

"Yes. The heart is the internal combustion engine for the body, and the soul is for consciousness. The energy source allows organisms to function, and the body and mind to recover. But the undead can't do that."

"They don't have an internal combustion engine? Then they can't move. Having just a soul… wait, huh!?"

"Yeah. So, they're probably twisted to forcibly absorb energy from their surroundings…"

""………."""

In other words, undead are beings that can't maintain their state without stealing energy from their surroundings.

"Didn't you say before that there were ghost-like things? You saw them in the dungeon."

"Yeah, on the 4th floor of the kobold dungeon. I call them Lesser Ghosts. They look like white misty human shapes, and they're undead monsters too."

"What about them? Did you see twisted souls?"

"No, I didn’t see them. They had no bodies, so their souls probably thinned out into that misty state."

[―Numerous reports of monsters resembling human corpses have also been received. What looks like a human corpse might actually be a zombie. Please be cautious and avoid unknown objects.]

The news anchor repeats the same script on TV. It’s like a scene from a zombie apocalypse movie.

But that’s the current reality. When I offered the crab meat to Serai-san, she declined, saying she had already brushed her teeth.

So I bit into the cheese-flavored crab meat myself, looking at the clock nearing 11 PM, thinking it was time to brush my teeth and get ready for bed.