Sora-san's Dungeon Stream: The Expressionless Girl Is Actually a 38-Year-Old Salaryman - An expressionless first cry.

The morning sun was blinding, and Souji grimaced. White light streamed through the curtains of the old apartment. The silver hair spread across the pillow sparkled and gleamed. (...Ah, right.) It had been three days. Since this happened. Souji slowly sat up. The sleeves of a white blouse hung down to their wrists. Even though it was their own, it felt like someone else's clothing. They lifted a small hand and stared at it intently. Thin, pale fingers without a single rough scratch. Not the hands of a thirty-eight-year-old system engineer. They got out of bed and headed to the washroom. The hems of their pajamas dragged along the floor. Each time, a sense of wrongness enveloped their body. The familiar room felt terribly spacious. They stood before the mirror. Large gray eyes stared back, unblinking. The long, straight silver hair was a mess of bedhead. They tried to tie it low into a single bunch, but their fingers wouldn't move properly. They still weren't used to this body. Pale, slightly sickly skin. A scrawny girl, 148 centimeters tall. "Huh." Muttering just that, Souji nodded, expressionless. Honestly, they didn't know what kind of face they should make. Because they didn't know, it was always like this. The emotions were there, but the expressions wouldn't follow. It had been that way for a long time. Their boss often asked them, "Do you even want to be here?" Only the sound of water dripping from the faucet echoed in the quiet room. (Now then, let's sort out the situation.) In their head, Souji lined up information as if opening an Excel sheet. First, the company. They had worked at a mid-sized system development company for over fifteen years. But if they showed up at the office in this body, someone would naturally call the police. It had been three days since they reported a family member in critical condition. They'd likely start getting suspicious soon. Next, the government office. Even if they tried to handle resident registration or family registry procedures at Minase City Hall, identity verification would be a hundred percent impossible. All of their photo IDs showed the face of a thirty-eight-year-old man. The hospital was out of the question too. There was no way they could explain, "I woke up in the morning and I'd turned into a girl." "Checkmate, checkmate, checkmate..." They muttered in a small voice. A thirty-eight-year-old cut off from society. But there was one loophole. Souji headed to the small desk in the corner of the room. They opened their laptop and stared intently at the screen. While it booted up, the sound of a bicycle from outside the window felt strangely loud. (This is my only lifeline.) An icon displayed on the desktop. "Deep Cast Streamer Management System." Three years ago, work stress had been brutal, and they'd gotten a dungeon streamer license on a whim to blow off steam—a D-Cast License. It was a permit established fifteen years ago by the Dungeon Agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, allowing dungeon streaming. There was a written exam and a practical test, with a pass rate of about thirty-two percent. Souji passed on the first try thanks to gaming experience and logical thinking. At the time, they'd meant it as stress relief, but in the end, they'd only dived a few times. (License renewal... age verification is just a photo match. No biometrics.) In other words, even if their face had changed, as long as it somewhat resembled the registered photo on the renewal website, it would pass. The Dungeon Agency's system didn't meticulously check apparent age. It was a meritocracy, so age verification was lax. Dungeon streamers—Diver Casters. About twelve thousand were registered nationwide. The median annual income was around 2.8 million yen, but the top one percent exceeded thirty million. In other words, if you had the skills, you could make a living. "...Efficient." Souji gave a small nod. Minase City was a satellite city with a population of 280,000. Forty minutes from the city center by train. A bedroom community spread across hilly terrain, the city had two dungeon entrances. One was "Twilight Hollow," the other "Kagura Crevasse." Twilight Hollow, in particular, was inside a hill park, a twenty-five-minute bus ride from Minase Station. It had floors one through eight, but relay antennas for streaming were set up down to the fifth floor, allowing for stable video delivery. (You can sell materials too. Glow Moss goes for three thousand yen per kilo, Azure Crystals for fifteen thousand each. I should be able to earn enough for living expenses.) Souji took out their smartphone and started calculating. Rent: 48,000 yen, food: 30,000, utilities and communications: 12,000—they could survive on 90,000 yen a month. Rather than shopping at a supermarket, the late-night hours at a convenience store would draw less attention. Lower risk of being seen. "...Alright." They had decided what to do. First, get equipped. They had to go to a dungeon supply shop. Souji put on a white blouse and a black pleated skirt. They checked in the mirror. The pale skin bothered them, but oh well. They'd hide it with a mask and hood, so it wouldn't be a problem. (Even so, skirts are hard to move in.) Holding down the pleats of the skirt with one hand, they headed for the front door. Their shoes were too big. The sneakers they'd worn before obviously didn't fit. They reluctantly slipped on sandals bought at a hundred-yen shop and stepped outside. They went down the stairs of the apartment building "Corpo Sakura-dai." It was an old building, twenty-five years old, with paint peeling off the walls. The landlord was an old lady nearing eighty, and they hardly saw her lately. That was a blessing. The residential area before noon was quiet. Crows cawed in the distance. A twelve-minute walk to Minase Station. Walking with this small body, the scenery looked different. The road that was their usual commute felt terribly wide, and they became conscious of people's gazes. A salaryman passing by glanced at Souji for a moment, then immediately averted his eyes. (Well, I shouldn't seem suspicious, probably.) A silver-haired girl walking alone stood out, but this town had quite a few dungeon streamers. There were plenty with outlandish appearances, so they were likely being taken for one of them. They arrived at the station building "Forte Minase." An eight-story station building, with commercial floors from the first to the third. Unfortunately, midday meant heavy foot traffic, and Souji walked with their small body pressed close to the walls. They took the escalator to the third floor. Their destination was "Gear Station." A national chain for dungeon supplies, and this Minase branch also stocked streaming equipment. The automatic doors opened, and cool air flowed out. The store was spacious, with swords and armor lining an entire wall. The electronics corner was in the back. Souji headed straight for the mask section. A white half-mask. Made of resin, 1,800 yen. It could hide the upper half of the face. Visibility wasn't bad either. Next, a voice changer, the "Muse Link." 24,000 yen. An excellent device that could convert pitch and tone in real time. It could change their voice to a neutral, boyish one. Then, a black cape with a hood. They tossed the items into the shopping basket one after another and headed for the register. The clerk—whose name tag read "Kawai"—looked at Souji with a slightly surprised expression. "Young lady, are you going to be a streamer?" Souji nodded, expressionless. "Yes." "Did your big brother or someone ask you to come buy these?" "...They're for me." Kawai tilted her head a little, but didn't ask anything more. In the world of dungeon streamers, age and gender didn't matter. That was the rule. After paying, they left the store immediately. Back home, they set up the equipment right away. They connected the Muse Link to their smartphone and tested it. When they spoke, a slightly low, boyish voice came back through the speaker. "Testing, testing." Not bad. They registered the streamer name as "Sora." The profile picture was them wearing the white mask. With this, no one would find them out. Souji picked up the white half-mask. (Now then, with this, I am—) They stood before the mirror. Put on the mask. Pulled up the hood. Reflected there was an expressionless, silver-haired girl. Inorganic, quiet, impossible to read. But deep inside, a thirty-eight-year-old engineer was calculating at a furious pace. (Prioritize efficiency above all. Move without waste, collect materials reliably. Emotions are unnecessary.) That became the concept of the streamer called Sora. Souji shouldered a small backpack. Inside were a mobile battery, a spare mask, and the Muse Link. They left the apartment and headed for the bus stop. The evening sky was beginning to turn orange. While waiting for the bus, they sat on a bench and opened their smartphone. They checked the dungeon's internal map and drilled today's route into their head. (Floor one Stone Rats are danger level E. Thirty centimeters long, rock-gnawing rat types. Their movements are simple; if you read the pattern, you won't get hit. The spots where you can harvest Glow Moss are mostly on the western walls. The route is counter-clockwise for efficiency—) The bus came. They got on; the interior was empty. Sitting in the very back seat, they gazed out the window. The buildings thinned out, and greenery increased. Soon, the entrance to the hill park came into view. "Minase Hill Park." Here was the entrance to Minase City's largest dungeon, "Twilight Hollow." At the management gate, they held up their license. An electronic beep sounded, and a young staff member glanced at Souji for a moment. "...Um, you're alone, young lady?" Without saying anything, Souji showed their streaming equipment. "I'm a streamer." At the boyish voice coming through the voice changer, the staff member looked dumbfounded. But if the license was genuine, there was no reason to stop them. It was the rules. "...Be careful, okay?" The entrance was a large hole gaping open in the ground. Stairs continued down into the underground. A cold wind blew up from below, making the silver hair sway softly. Souji took a step forward. Inside the dungeon, it was dim. In the passageways of bare rock, Glow Moss shone pale blue here and there. The air was damp, with a faint smell of earth and metal. They started the stream on their smartphone. Viewer count—zero. Naturally. They were a nameless streamer who had just registered. But that was fine. Souji began walking in silence. Ahead in the passage, there was a rustling sound of pebbles crumbling. Three black shadows leaped out from behind a rock. Rats about thirty centimeters long—Stone Rats. Baring sharp fangs, they charged straight ahead. (First one, coming from the right. Second one, left, a little delayed. Third one, front—planning a simple pincer attack, are they?) Souji shifted just half a step sideways. The first one's fangs cut through empty air. Without pause, they lightly tapped its head with a short stick taken from their waist pouch—a tonfa for dungeon exploration. With a satisfying *clunk*, the Stone Rat collapsed on the spot. The second one pounced. Souji crouched to dodge, spun around, and jabbed its back. For the third one, they read the trajectory of its leap off the rock wall and placed the tonfa at its landing point. *Thwack.* All three stopped moving in about thirty seconds. Their bodies turned into light and vanished, leaving behind only three small fangs. (Fangs, two hundred yen each. Three makes six hundred. Efficiency isn't bad.) Expressionless, Souji picked up the fangs and put them in their pouch. There was still no one on the stream screen. Zero comments. For the next two hours, they continued exploring methodically. They peeled off Glow Mo

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Name: Sora-san's Dungeon Stream: The Expressionless Girl Is Actually a 38-Year-Old Salaryman
Author: Novelia

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