As Long as You Have the [Shop] Skill, the Dungeonized World Is a Breeze ~The Bullied Youth’s Payback Lifestyle~ - Chapter 180 – Meeting the Founder

I didn’t know what I had done, but I didn’t blame them either. After all, if my line of thinking was correct, I could understand their feelings a little bit.

I had also been betrayed by those I trusted and counted on. People I had been friendly with until the day before had suddenly turned their backs on me. It would have been fine if they had just ignored me, but then they went and joined hands with the bully to hurt me.

This would be a traumatic experience for anyone. And in fact, it was because of this that I stopped expecting anything from humans. I learned to one-sidedly use people instead of trusting them.

Well, I had never gone out of my way to kill others like Ohsaka had done. While I didn’t trust people, I’d never developed an overwhelming desire to kill. This may have been due to my personality, or perhaps it was because the betrayal I experienced wasn’t that bad of a betrayal. That said, there were people who had been betrayed just like I’d been and now wanted to kill everyone. But in reality, that wasn’t practical.

These women held strong feelings of hatred towards men and wanted to eliminate them from this world. That wasn’t possible. Although the population had been greatly reduced due to the dungeonization, there were still billions of men out there.

Regardless of how many men there were, it wasn’t like every single man treated women poorly, so they couldn’t simply exterminate all men. It would be impossible, unless they spread some killer virus that only infected men.

…Then again, a lot of people from Earth had died so far, but as if to compensate for that, more and more otherworlders were appearing in succession.

I suddenly thought of what would’ve happened if none of the people of Earth had died and the Earth and the other world merged into one.

If the size of the planet didn’t change, then there would obviously be a problem with overcapacity. I didn’t know how many otherworlders there would be, but it certainly would be more than one or two million.

What would happen if several billion people were added to Earth’s existing population all at once?

Wars would probably erupt all over the place as people fought for places to live. The food situation would also be difficult, and the global circumstances would most likely deteriorate rapidly. If that happened, the world itself might really come to an end.

If someone was trying to merge Earth and the other world, it was highly likely that they would try to reduce the number of people on Earth to compensate for the people coming in from the other world.

…No, I’m overthinking things.

I had to discard this outlandish idea. Something to that extent could only have been carried out by a god. The people of Earth and the otherworlders couldn’t do something so large-scale like that.

It would have to be a god or some being with god-like power.

At that moment, the car stopped and I was ordered to get out.

When I stepped out of the car, I finally saw what kind of place I was in. There was a large church rising imposingly in front of me.

…I see. So this is their base.

I was instructed to follow the woman with the blue bandana, and we went straight into the church.

The inside of the church was filled with a solemn and sacred atmosphere. Just standing within made my body feel purified.

I had never been to a church before. Similar to whatI had seen in some pictures, the pews were lined up neatly along the left and right sides. Laid out between the pews was a red carpet, which stretched to the end of the church hall.

At the back of the church hall, there was an altar, with a dazzling stained glass window spilling light down upon it. There were many women sitting among the pews, hands folded in prayer, as if they were in the middle of mass.

My gaze fell on the figure standing in front of the altar, looking over the women. The figure was dressed in pure white, and even their face was covered with a strange white mask. In their right hand was what looked like a pewter staff. A cross hung from their neck.

…Is that person the founder?

The masked figure also seemed to have noticed us and pounded the pewter staff once firmly into the ground, producing a clear, pleasant ringing sound. All of the people who were in the middle of prayer looked up.

In the reigning silence, the masked figure said, ‘come, right this way’.

….Huh? This voice… Where have I heard it before…?

The voice was somewhat muffled by the mask, but I felt that it sounded somewhat familiar.

The woman in the blue bandana led the way forward again, and I slowly made my way down the red carpeted path. Everyone sitting in the pews glared at me with looks of animosity.

All of them were women, so it was really quite intimidating.

I wonder if this is what it feels like going into a girl’s school all alone as a man.

Some people might enjoy such a situation, but I felt uncomfortable being under the gazes of so many women.

As we approached the altar, the woman in the blue bandana commanded me to stop. Then, another woman wearing the same kind of blue bandana appeared from my left and the two of them stood next to the masked woman.

The distance between me and the masked woman was about 5 meters. This amount of distance made it so that even if I tried to do something, it was far enough that they would have time to react to it.

“―Thank you for coming,” the masked person said, addressing me.

…I really have heard this voice somewhere before.

I was becoming more and more convinced every time I heard the voice, but I just couldn’t place my finger on whose voice it was. In other words, that meant it was someone whom I hadn’t exchanged words with that often…

When I frowned slightly, the masked figure let out a laugh.

“You wouldn’t recognize who I am now, would you? Torimoto-san.” (Masked Figure)

Those words were spoken as if they were directed at an acquaintance. In the next moment, they removed the white mask from their face.

“―?! You’re—” (Torimoto)

At that moment, I became aware of the identity of the person standing before me.

If you appreciate the translation or want to sponsor a chapter, please consider supporting me on Ko-Fi!