Translator: TipToe
Translator (September 26, 2024 Version): Barnnn
Live Dungeon was a free-to-play MMORPG where players fought to conquer the eponymous Dungeon, delving through its deepest layers. Kyoutani Tsutomu, a young man living alone in his apartment, was one of its dedicated players. Today, as always, he sat surrounded by five laptop computers, each displaying one of his five meticulously leveled characters.
Sipping on a jelly drink, Tsutomu watched his avatars across the screens. His oldest and most advanced character was a Healer. His physical Tank and two Attackers had already hit their level caps. Even his magical Tank, the last one he’d started building, was nearing its max level.
Though the game’s ultimate challenge was to reach the bottom of the Dungeon, it was, at heart, an MMORPG — designed around cooperation and community interaction, with parties made up of fellow players. A couple of years ago, Tsutomu had been teaming up with Clanmates, friends, and even strangers to explore the Dungeon’s depths.
But the game’s fate had been sealed by time. Live Dungeon, now seven years old, had just one month left before its servers shut down for good.
This was the first game Tsutomu had played after getting his first computer in high school. For six years, he’d been utterly devoted. He couldn’t let it fade away without a proper send-off.
That was when the idea had come to him: he would try to conquer the entire Dungeon by himself. But Live Dungeon wasn’t built for solo play. To tackle it alone, he’d had to buy a second-hand laptop and borrow three others from his college friends. Thankfully, this was a seven-year-old game — its system requirements were so minimal it could run on even a potato.
[All set…]
When his magical Tank hit the level cap, Tsutomu tossed the empty jelly packet into the trash. Then, cracking his knuckles to psych himself up, he prepared for what came next — the game’s most iconic feature: the Live Broadcast.
True to its name, Live Dungeon allowed players to stream their Dungeon runs. The in-game lore explained it as a divine feature — the Dungeon’s overseer, God Himself, had equipped the Dungeon with the ability to broadcast battles so He could watch the action. Eventually, the developers had expanded the feature to stream on actual websites, putting the game on the top of the trends and sparking the meme, “God goes to the internet.”
Today, though, Tsutomu limited his broadcast to in-game only. The servers were almost deserted, populated mostly by the developers’ bots. Broadcasting to the wider web would only invite ridicule for his lonely dedication.
“All right, let’s do this!”
Taking a deep breath and tensing up — just like how his friends used to tell him to — Tsutomu reconnected each of his characters to the same server. He teamed them together, prompting up the automated greeting message: ‘Nice to meet you!’
In Live Dungeon, there were three primary roles: Tank, Attacker, and Healer. Tsutomu had prepared one physical and one magical Tank, two Attackers, and, his favorite, the Healer.
The Dungeon itself changed biome every ten layers, culminating at layer one hundred, where the final boss awaited — the Corroded Elder Dragon.
There was also a Secret Dungeon, notoriously difficult, but Tsutomu knew he had no chance of clearing it by himself. His goal was to conquer the regular Dungeon — no more, no less.
After hours upon hours of farming and planning, the moment had finally arrived to put his strategy to the test.
“I could probably finish this if I dedicate the whole summer break,” Tsutomu muttered under his breath, fingers hovering over the keyboards. With a decisive click, he pressed Enter on all five laptops.
The first ten layers were set in the Grasslands — a fairly simple beginning. From the eleventh, the biome shifted to a dense Forest. By the twenty-first layer, the murky Swamps took over, and the thirty-first onward was a barren Wasteland. The Swamps’ poison was especially nasty, but Tsutomu was confident his characters’ levels alone would be enough to brute-force through.
Things would only start to get tricky when he reached the Beach biome at layer forty-one, where the Shell Crab, a crafty boss, waited at the end. The Crab had a frustrating habit of burrowing underground mid-battle — and if left idle for too long, it would start healing itself. Ideally, it was best to kill it before it had the chance to dig, but that wasn’t feasible for Tsutomu going solo. Instead, he had memorized its behavior — specifically, the three locations where it resurfaced based on its remaining health. With precise positioning, he predicted where it would emerge next and managed to strike it down at the second pop-up point.
From layer fifty-one, the Valley biome stretched out below him — a place where one wrong move meant instant death. The traps and enemies here specialized in knocking players off cliffs, but with wind magic enchantments, Tsutomu could nullify the threat. Carefully, he maneuvered each of his characters across narrow ledges, steering clear of the Sky Dragons circling above.
The boss here was the Fire Dragon, a relentless creature that stayed airborne, pelting the ground with breath attacks. Without flight, players would be roasted alive. Fortunately, it had a weakness — hitting its wings with well-aimed ranged attacks could bring it crashing down. Tsutomu managed to ground the beast, allowing his team to swarm it and take it out with relative ease.
The Volcano biome loomed next at layer sixty-one. Heat-resistant gear was a must here, as the environment was rife with deadly lava traps. The mid-boss, a massive creature swimming through molten rock, posed a particular challenge. But it was the final boss, an enormous Golem whose lava splatter attacks caused instant death, that truly tested his Tanks. Still, with proper heat resistance, Tsutomu managed to pull through.
Layers seventy-one and onward brought him to the Snow Field biome. Cold resistance and anti-freeze measures kept his team safe from the biting chill, but it was the endless onslaught of Snow Wolves that worried him most. Operating five characters solo in the midst of a never-ending army was the one thing he had dreaded.
Still, after an exhausting fight that left his fingers aching, he broke through. Rubbing his cramped hands, Tsutomu paused for a moment. He was closer than he’d expected. Could he actually clear the whole Dungeon on his first attempt?
Layer eighty-one marked the beginning of the abstract Light and Darkness biome, where Fiends masqueraded as Angels — servants of the God that had created the Dungeon — and fallen Angels wandered as Undead. Holy and Dark magic were essential here, as were countermeasures against confusion and other debilitating status effects.
The boss of this region was a husk — once the Archangel, now a corrupted shell. Its ranged attacks were a deadly combination of Holy and Dark spells, and it crippled victims by disabling their ability to use magic. As it was infamous for easily killing off Healers, the battle would hinge on how well Tsutomu could protect his main account’s character from those devastating strikes.
Finally, the last stretch: the Ancient Castle, spanning layers ninety-one to one hundred. The entrance required items dropped by previous bosses, and if those had been used for crafting, players would be forced to hunt for replacements. Inside, the castle was crawling with every type of monster he had faced so far.
And at the end, in the castle’s arena, waited the Corroded Elder Dragon. To defeat it was to conquer the Dungeon.
The Dragon’s breath attacks eroded the durability of weapons and armor. Even attacking it was a gamble, as its rotting flesh had the same corrosive effect on everything it touched. Its high magic resistance spelled disaster for Attackers, but there was one critical weakness — Holy-elemental magic. For once, the Healer became an essential damage dealer, helping to offset the team’s loss of power.
In the end, Tsutomu triumphed over the Corroded Elder Dragon with his flawless control and razor-sharp instincts.
A message blinked onto the screens of his four newer characters: ‘Secret Dungeon Unlocked!’ Upon reading it, Tsutomu’s tense, exhausted expression softened into a smile.
[Man, I’ve sure been through a lot…]
He recalled his first venture into the Dungeon, going in alone, only to be utterly crushed. Upon respawning, he’d been mercilessly mocked by random players, spamming ‘taunt’ emotes until his face had flushed with embarrassment.
His first time as a Healer in a party hadn’t gone much better. He had mismanaged his aggro and ended up pulling enemies to himself — earning the humiliating title of a ‘landmine’ from his team.
His early Clan experiences weren’t much smoother. One had disbanded after a bitter argument over whether or not to use voice chat. Another had imploded when a dating couple’s offline meetup went horribly wrong. Eventually, Tsutomu had created his own Clan, and though it had its ups and downs, he’d enjoyed it — at least until everyone slowly drifted away from the game, moving on with their lives.
He still remembered his first Defensive Battle event, where a rival player had killed him, resulting in the loss of almost all his gear — everything except his rarest items.
His first successful Dungeon raid had not been the triumph it ought to be, too. He had barely contributed, essentially leeching off his team, which resulted in some fancy language from the Attackers and Tanks over voice chat.
[Waaaait… did I even have fun? No, that can’t be right… there’s got to be some nice moments somewhere…]
Despite everything, he had enjoyed himself — eventually mastering the Healer role and finding his rhythm as a Tank and Attacker too. At least, that was what he tried to convince himself as he waited for the game to send him back to the hub area. When it did, something odd caught his attention — There, in the plaza, was a character he didn’t recognize. The figure stood in place, playing the ‘clapping’ gesture on loop.
[No name displayed… Is this an NPC? But nothing’s supposed to appear after a Dungeon clear…]
Amused, he had his five characters perform the ‘conspiring’ gesture, their avatars huddling together as if in secret conversation. Then, a message popped up in the private chat of his main account.
“Hmm… ‘Congratulations on conquering the Dungeon all by yourself! Let us reward you for this achievement!'”
As he read, the NPC went through the animation of handing over an item. Tsutomu’s breath caught when he saw the words ‘all by yourself’ — then the realization hit him.
[So at least someone was watching…]
Anyone who had played Live Dungeon long enough could tell he was running solo, especially with how his characters froze up every so often. Still, the nameless character was a mystery — everyone else left on the server was just a bot.
[Is this… an admin? Man, they’re really considerate.]
With a lump in his throat, he accepted the item. Moved almost to the point of tears, he decided he’d make a post about it on the official forums later, just to brag.
“Let’s see here… ‘You have obtained an Invitation from God…’ Huh.”
The moment the notification appeared, Tsutomu’s laptop — the one he owned, not the borrowed ones — suddenly flared with a blinding light.
[What the–!? Why’d it have to crash now!?] The thought barely crossed his mind before everything went black, his consciousness snapping off as if someone had pulled the plug on reality itself.
――▽▽――
Tsutomu opened his eyes to find himself standing in an ancient, forgotten arena within the depths of a crumbling castle.
“Ugh… where… am I?”
As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, a familiar thought pierced through his muddled mind:
[This place… it sure looks a lot like the hundredth layer of Live Dungeon…]
He stood up and brushed the dust off his legs, only to hear the clink of metal. Glancing down, he realized he was dressed in red leather pants, a chainmail shirt, a black robe over top, and sturdy brown boots. In his hand, he held a staff with a black crystal ball mounted at the tip.
[Just like my loadout in the game…] A grin tugged at his lips. [This has to be some kind of lucid dream. All right, let’s try casting some spells!]
He barely raised his staff to strike a dramatic pose when a deafening roar split the sky. The sheer force of the sound knocked him off his feet, and he stared upwards, dazed, as the clouds swirled above.
A black dot appeared in the distance, growing rapidly larger — then he realized it was falling straight toward him.
Tsutomu clutched his ears against the deafening roar, his heart pounding, as he scrambled to his feet, his legs heavy as lead. The ground trembled beneath him as the enormous figure descended with a crushing gust of wind, landing in the center of the arena.
When the dust cleared, it revealed itself: an Elder Dragon. But not just any Dragon — its hollow eye sockets, decaying flesh, and body riddled with festering holes made that clear.
[That’s… the Corroded Elder Dragon, right?]
Terror seized him, but a small part of him clung to disbelief. He clutched at the ground, repeating, “It’s a dream, it’s a dream,” under his breath. Yet, rough dirt slipping between his fingers felt terrifyingly real.
The Dragon turned its eyeless gaze toward him. Slowly, it reared back, then spewed a wave of noxious, corrosive breath. The vomit-like substance fanned out across the arena, devouring everything in its path like a tidal wave.
Tsutomu tried to run away, but his body was frozen, rooted to the spot. The breath struck him, engulfing his hands first. His skin began to melt, sliding off like syrup. He stared in horror as his flesh dissolved, his bones exposed and vanishing in mere seconds.
“GAHHHHHHH!!” A scream tore from his throat as the corrosion consumed him, every inch of his body disintegrating.
The pain was like being devoured alive by thousands of man-eating bugs. His legs gave out, and he collapsed as if sinking into a swamp. His senses dulled as the rot went for his head — first his vision, then his hearing and smell, until only the sense of touch — searing pain — remained.
And then, even that was gone.
In his final moments, his body dissolved into faint particles of light, slowly vanishing from the Ancient Castle’s arena.
The Corroded Elder Dragon stood still, its breath subsiding. In the silence that followed, only Tsutomu’s empty robes lay strewn on the ground.
Silavin: Another novel. This one is Japanese in nature. If you enjoy Log Horizon, then you can expect yourself to enjoy this one.
Also, we will be posting this for 2 Chapters a week. This novel is pretty long though. So, it’s equivalent to 4 Chapters of Martial Peak.
What’s the two ‘PAR’ mean? It looks like there’s a chunk of text missing.
Paralyzed
Are you sure it’s Paralyzed and not a placeholder for a Paragraph? Paralyzed makes no sense in that context.
I asked the translator, and that was what he said. Though, since it does not make sense, then I’ll just remove it
Thanks for picking up this series!!!
Thanks a mill!
Holy shit, thanks for picking up the series guys, I’m looking forward to it!