The Villainous Me Turned the Losers into Blackened Bosses – Chapter 114

VIP Chapter 112: The Emperor
Will quickly swallowed the vegetables in his mouth and began to explain to Iaar.
“Because this dungeon is quite useful, especially now that it’s being used as a novice level. We have to keep it around for a while longer. Otherwise, every time for the novice trials, we’d have to find a brand new dungeon, and we couldn’t guarantee survival rates and quality. It would be too time-consuming and labor-intensive.”
“But useful dungeons don’t affect clearing them, do they? We can completely keep going further down.”
Will shook the fork in his hand.
“Green Wilderness Trace isn’t deep enough. If we try to clear it further down, it will be completely cleared, and then this dungeon will disappear.”
“…Disappear?!”
Iaar’s fur stood on end in fright.
It seemed like the first time she had heard the phrase “a dungeon can disappear,” and her surprise exceeded Will’s expectations.
“Does it mean disappearing in a way that you can no longer enter, everything inside completely vanishes, and even the monsters are gone?!”
“Hmm…”
Will reflected for a moment.
This knowledge was common sense for those from Entak Academy, but for Iaar, who hadn’t received systematic education since childhood—or rather, for most of the public far from dungeons—this was extremely remote knowledge.
It was no wonder that when forming a new Adventuring Team, they usually had to complete a knowledge questionnaire to ensure at least one person in the team had basic common sense. This time, Will had skipped it with a green card.
“Oh~ Iaar, you didn’t know?”
Teacher Liya was a little surprised, but her tone was very relaxed. After all, it was a pleasant day for everyone to eat together happily.
“Will, this won’t do. Policies now require proper education for one’s servants.”
“My fault, my fault.”
Will scratched his head.
“Then, Teacher Liya, could I trouble you to explain it well to little Iaar?”
“Although I already know this knowledge, I can still listen to the dungeon knowledge again to reinforce it.”
Treya was very serious, almost taking out her notebook at the dining table.
“As expected, it’s up to me.”
Teacher Liya proudly puffed out her chest, the smallest among them, then stacked the leaves from her plate and speared them with her fork. The stacked leaves were thus combined by the fork into a thick small piece.
“Since recorded history began, this world has seen the existence of something called ‘dungeons.’ Because they only have one above-ground entrance, they extend in layers once entered. Each layer is as thin as these leaves, possessing boundaries, but there is no physical connection between layers. Moreover, like these leaves, two leaves might be similar, but they will never be exactly the same.”
She explained it in great detail and used the leaves to make it easy to understand, as if she were giving a dungeon科普 lesson to kindergarten children.
This was more teacher-like than her actual classes.
For Will, this was something he was already accustomed to from novels—this kind of thing was just transplanted directly from game settings into books.
However…
Hearing a “local” explain it using readily available items at hand was somewhat novel.
“I see… Before, I felt like going in was just a *whoosh*, then another *whoosh*.”
Iaar leaned closer to the table, staring intently at the leaves in Teacher Liya’s hand, both her ears perked up. Will knew she was thinking hard—after all, she had only been this serious when studying “Yandere 300 Questions.”
“But just like these stacked leaves can stably form a whole because my fork strings them together, the ‘birth’ and ‘existence’ of a dungeon are actually determined by one thing—or rather, one person.”
Before Teacher Liya could reveal the answer, Treya, the top student at the table, subconsciously chimed in.
“The ‘Emperor’ of the dungeon. It could be an ‘Empress,’ an ‘Emperor,’ or perhaps an ‘Emperor-level monster.'”
“Students who know the answer can wait a bit before saying it~”
Teacher Liya pouted, fully embodying the role of a teacher.
This was indeed a setting Will already knew. From the original work, this character was not only the one who caused the dungeon’s birth and maintained its existence but also performed the job described by ‘Emperor’—leading other ‘beings’ in their own dungeon.
Of course, even though people in this world constantly said, “There are males and females, and possibly not even humans”!
In the original work, 80% of the appearing “Emperors” were female!
The author’s subtle intentions were crystal clear.
“Hmm… Iaar still can’t understand, what’s the use of this ‘Emperor’ for a dungeon? And its disappearance…”
“Firstly, it’s usually on the last floor, just like the tail of this fork is far above the entire leaf-layered structure. Its position is above them; it’s the final BOSS of the dungeon.”
“Secondly, although the reason is unknown, but…”
As Teacher Liya spoke, she reached out and lifted the fork from above. The leaves, which had been tightly pressed together by the fork, sprang apart loosely. Then, the just-stacked leaves fell apart.
She also took the opportunity to spear a piece and put it in her mouth.
“When it dies, the dungeon collapses. No matter how many layers it had, no matter what BOSSes it had, it will disappear from this world. It’s like… being eaten by the world.”
“Of course, clearing the last floor is considered clearing the entire dungeon. So… it’s also a necessary path.”
“Hmm… Mhmm…”
The ears on top of Iaar’s head separated and closed, then separated again, as if she were thinking at high speed.
“I think I understand! As long as we defeat the BOSS on the twentieth floor—which seems to be the final floor—then this dungeon, Green Wilderness Trace, will disappear! But… we don’t seem to want to do that, so we have to stop at the tenth floor!”
“That’s right!”
“Your skewers and steak have arrived—”
Just as Teacher Liya’s mini-lesson was underway, the main course finally arrived at the restaurant—though it seemed to be a bit slow due to the large number of people.
Looking at the dish, Will couldn’t help but ponder.
Dungeons disappear…
But… the team shouldn’t disappear…
I’m still so bothered… What exactly caused “Shining Star” to be a brand new team name now, and according to the Guild Master, this team never even existed. “Shining Star” is a completely new name.
Has the plot’s direction changed?
Or has someone tampered with the records?
But…
Because of this coincidence, this name has fallen back onto my head—it seems to imply that the path I’m on must be walked to the very end.
If, in these four years, I had truly changed the course of the plot, changed the life and death of some things.
At this moment, I might be more confident, believing that the disappeared “former Shining Star” was a good omen.
Unfortunately, whether it was the death of my pet dog named Sanqi, the ambush I thought I had avoided but still suffered, or the engagement I thought would be successful but ultimately only delayed instead of canceled…
They all told me that fate is not so easily changed.
I could only sadly think that “Shining Star,” which has now returned to me, is a bad omen.
With that thought, Will picked up his knife, preparing to cut a piece of beef from the plate.
But…
As soon as he thought this, a fork with a small piece of leaf on it placed a slice of beef onto his plate.
“Hmm… Classmate Will, you really… have something on your mind, don’t you?”
He turned his head and saw Teacher Liya’s bright and shining, deep red eyes.