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*Disclaimer: Please don’t post this chapter in novelupdates since I don’t want to mislead other translators.

Chapter 81: 1st Nightmare After – 1

——

“This is…”

I was sent back to the last place I was in the community map after my fight with Sukuna.

“““————-!!”””

“Huh?!”

And I was swallowed by cheers for some reason.

“Good work, Taru.”

“Great work there, Taru-sama.”

“Eh? Ah? Zaria and Storas-san? Thanks. And so, uhm…what’s this situation?”

There were dozens of people around me by the time I noticed, and they were making a ruckus.

Their voices were so overlapped that I can’t discern what they are saying, but it doesn’t feel like there’s a bad response here.

I thought the two of them would know what’s going on here, so I grabbed the hand of Zaria to stand up easily, and asked the two about what’s going on here after I thanked the two of them.

Storas-san answered when I did.

“The Floating users stayed in this place after you went off to the tournament, Taru-sama, and were cheering for you. That at some point in time gathered more people…leading to this situation.”

“I see.”

Does that mean the people here are mostly my fans?

Well, there seems to be a good number of players here who look like they want to ask me stuff though.

“Taru, let’s go to our room for now. It doesn’t seem like it would be possible to calm down here and Blakuro might have returned.”

“Right. Let’s do that.”

“Can I accompany you?”

“If it is just Storas-san.”

And so, we moved to the room of Zaria and the others to relax, and the people that were most likely my fans dispersed.

“Now then, first of all, congratulations on getting 3rd place in the tournament, Taru.”

“Thanks, Zaria.”

I returned to the room of Zaria and the others, and the first thing I got were the congratulations from Zaria first and then Octohead-san and the others.

This time’s tournament won’t be having a match to decide the 3rd place, so I am automatically 3rd after losing the semi-finals.

“But that was close. Even though your Sorcery landed.”

“It is too bad, but it wasn’t close at all. The poison I hit him with was not as much as I calculated because my eyes were crushed. I most likely would have lost even without Sukuna having to do a daring move like that.”

“Fumu. It looked like it was a close battle when watching it from the outside, but this is the perspective of the related parties, I guess.”

“Something like that. Aah, there’s always someone above you, huh.”

The remaining match is with Blakuro vs Lightrose. The winner there will be going to the finals against Sukuna.

The match of Blakuro vs Lightrose was being shown on the TV in the room, and it seems to be a heated battle.

Blakuro was this strong…? I never thought that was the case.

“And so, what will you be doing after this?”

“I will be spectating here for now. Also, I am thinking about writing a few comments in the bulletin boards.”

“Comments?”

“Yeah, about equipment that can allow a player with an initial Monstrosity Degree of 16 or more to come out of the dungeon. I won’t go as far as writing about what method was used to make it, but it would be convenient to know about the materials at least.”

Anyways, the main event is over, so let’s do what I have to do.

First would be writing on the bulletin board.

“…Those clothes were boss materials?”

“That’s right.”

“You went hunting bosses solo, Taru-sama…?”

“I don’t know if to be impressed or think that’s just like her…”

“Eeeeeh…”

They must have seen my post. All the people here were looking at me with eyes as if they were looking at something unbelievable.

But…

“If you know your own strengths and weaknesses, investigate the patterns of the boss, make countermeasures for them, and do enough preparations, it is unexpectedly possible, you know -though circumstantial luck is also involved. On the contrary, I think defeating the mobs that came before that was harder.”

“““…”””

“Even though she is not saying anything weird here, she sometimes feels strangely unfair…”

I already know by experience that I can manage somehow.

There’s no way other players can’t do what I managed to do.

They can cooperate with other players after all.

“What do you plan on doing about the Sorcery?”

“I of course won’t write about it. From what I can see in the bulletin board, there’s other players putting their hands on Sorcery, so there’s no need for me to go out of my way to write it. Everyone can infer what I did to obtain it after the beverage from before anyways.”

“Aah, it became a topic of discussion in that bulletin board…”

Shirowhi seems to be curious about the Sorcery, but there’s nothing for me to say about the whole picture.

I went through the trouble of making something for myself and haven’t gotten enough of an advantage from it, so there’s no need for me to go out of my way to let go of it.

If I am going to put it out there, I want it to be after I have obtained the next Sorcery.

“It feels like there’s a lot regarding Sorcery… There’s ones that look like they would be used by your conventional mage, and then there’s ones like that of Taru. I should aim for something, too.”

“Then how about setting needles in your sword or something, Zaria? If you match Sorcery with that, your sword will become like a part of you, making it easier to utilize, and might even increase the power of it.”

“Right… I will think of it for a bit.”

Well, it is fine to give some ideas if it is Zaria.

“Yaay, I won!!”

“Ah, he is back.”

“So you won. Talk about unexpected.”

“Congratulations on getting to the finals, Blakuro-kun.”

That’s when Blakuro showed up in the room with happiness.

I wasn’t watching cause I didn’t have enough eyes, but it seems like he won.

“Uo, Taru?!”

“Hi, Blakuro.”

Blakuro was blatantly surprised after seeing me.

And then, he pondered for a bit and spoke.

“Taru, do you have any advice for how to fight against Sukuna? I will pay you after the event.”

Advice… Advice, huh…

I can tell just by looking at his face that he has the spirit to face Sukuna despite knowing of his strength.

“The price will be to show me a good match against him. As for advice, I don’t know if this will serve as advice, so temper your expectations.”

“Got it.”

Then, I shall answer seriously, too.

“First of all, don’t think about taking distance. Rather than not being able to get close to him ever again, you will have your brain pierced the moment you try to move back, and that would be the end.”

“That spear, huh… Well, that makes sense.”

“It is not about just the spear. He simply has no wasteful movements. I don’t know if to call him an absolute perfectionist, but there’s a difference in movements, as if he does 4 actions by the time you do 3. He most likely can move to that degree in whatever he does.”

“Seriously…?”

“It is almost certain he has real life experience in martial arts and is used to that avatar… No, he has created a martial art that is suitable for that avatar. The fact that he managed to pull off something like that in 2 weeks means that he doesn’t have a bad head and observation skills. In other words, he is superior in all aspects.”

“I see.”

“As such, you should compare your own specs to those of Sukuna, see where you win and where you lose, and where your winning condition is. After you are aware of those points beforehand, you will have to take advantage of that and move faster in battle than you usually do by reflex, or you won’t have a chance to win. Well, that’s basically it.”

“Got it. I will think about it for a bit.”

Blakuro said this and moved to a corner of the room, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began thinking.

We naturally went silent at that.

And then, the finals began.

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