Earth Dungeon 150.2

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Chapter 150.2. Spring Festival

"Let's go!"

"Yeah!"

"Roger."

Pushing through the crowd, they sprinted towards the source of the sound. Inside the room with exposed concrete walls, there were simple wooden shelves with clothes neatly arranged on top. Some of the shelves were broken, causing clothes to scatter.

Three burly men with boozy, flushed faces were stomping on the clothes scattered on the floor, while a boy clung to one of their legs, glaring at them with anger in his eyes. A timid-looking girl stood behind, tears welling up in her eyes. Sou and Yo.

"Why the hell are dirty brats like you selling clothes when we've hit rock bottom?"

"Yeah, I've seen this brat before. They were lining up for rations."

"Our demolition company went bankrupt, and now you're getting cheeky!"

"That's got nothing to do with us! It's your fault!"

It was evident they were drunk. The men were ranting incoherently, paying no heed to Sou's words.

"I've seen them before, those guys who were doing demolition work in the outer town."

"Yeah, they were hiring people from the abandoned town with ration tickets."

Indeed, they were well-known demolition workers in the outer town. They hired people from the ruins with one ration ticket a day, while they drank without working. 

Their demolitions were sloppy, and many people from the ruins were crushed to death by debris, but they didn't seem to care.

"It seems like they can't earn money anymore because there's no one to work for them with ration tickets."

That's why they ended up in the abandoned town. They always drank and spent money recklessly. Even though causing a commotion here would surely attract security guards immediately, they were incapable of making rational decisions due to alcohol.

"It's because of you guys!"

One of the men raised his arm to strike Sou, who was clinging to his leg. The other men also raised their legs to kick.

"Ah!"

Seeing Hana reaching for the knife on her hip with sharp eyes, Jun hastily took out several metal scraps from his pocket. Hana had been too aggressive lately.

[Metalworking]

Using his skill, Jun transformed the metal scraps into spherical shapes and threw them with full force, using his wrist snap.

The metal spheres flew towards the man's face like pellets, making a sharp sound as they hit his skin.

"Ugh!"

"Ouch!"

Some of the shots hit Sou too, sorry. It's not that accurate. It's a throwing technique I learned from Nanbu-san, but because it's like shotgun pellets, the accuracy is poor.

The man hit by the pellets staggered back, clutching his face in pain, while Jun clenched his fist and charged forward.

"Hana! I'll handle this! Bare-handed!"

"Yeah!"

Despite having worked in demolition, these men were physically strong. But Jun had trained for this. He wasn't going to lose.

"Take this!"

As Jun took a few steps forward, Hana swiftly darted into the opponent's guard like a gust of wind and landed a punch. The man folded into a 'く' shape, groaning as he collapsed. Hana continued by kicking the floor, thrusting her foot into the stomachs of the surprised men, folding them in the same 'く' shape, effortlessly defeating them.

"Ah..."

Watching the scene, they stopped in their tracks. Hana might have become a bit too strong, Jun lamented.

"Thanks, Jun, Hana! Those metal shots hurt!"

As Sou and the others approached us joyfully, I apologized for hitting them with the metal spheres.

"As expected of our leader!"

No, I'm no match for Hana's moves.

"Yeah, those metal shots were cool! And stopping Hana too!"

Unexpected praise came from an unexpected source. I see.

"Well, uh... I heard being a leader entails that... But..."

I hesitated, tilting my head. Being a leader, huh?

Hina whispered into my ear, sensing my hesitation.

"If Hana hadn't been stopped, things would've gotten really bad."

It seemed she had noticed Hana's murderous intent. I broke into a cold sweat at the thought of the festival turning into chaos.

A leader, huh? I guess that's also part of the job.

"Alright, let's fix the shelves and resume selling!"

"Got it!"

"Yeah!"

"Later, I'll buy lots of food from the stalls! Let's eat together!"

"There were so many delicious things being sold!"

"I wanna eat too!"

After handing over the drunken men to the security guards, they began cleaning up in a relaxed atmosphere. Somehow, the little girl had joined them.

The festival had only just begun. They had to enjoy it.

Reuniting with everyone after a long time, Jun couldn't help but smile as they continued cleaning up joyfully.

Oh, I should talk to Yukihana about Hana. She seems a bit too aggressive.

After finishing cleaning up, they appealed to the people to sell clothes, and it was already evening.

They bought various items from the stalls and lined them up on the table. It's a bit cold now, but they look delicious.

"Let's eat!"

"Yeah," everyone nodded at Jun's words and started digging into the food.

"Looking at this, there are a lot of dishes with sauce."

"So delicious, so delicious."

Even though they had eaten their fill at lunch, they felt like they could eat endlessly.

"With this, we'll remodel the store!"

"That's amazing!"

"There's a clothing store on the other side here! Look, it's a secondhand store from the outskirts. We have to compete with them!"

Proudly rubbing his nose, Sou taught them. It seemed they were competing and improving.

It's been a year since last year. Everyone had become accustomed to life here and found meaning in what they were doing. Including myself.

"I'll work hard to have my own store too!"

As I declared with determination, everyone clapped, making me feel embarrassed.

They vowed in their hearts to make it even more splendid by next year's spring festival and continued to munch on takoyaki.

Yeah, the rabbit meat inside is delicious. But why is it called takoyaki?