Chapter 0162: Arrival in DanMachi World
Location: DanMachi World.
Position: Outside Orario.
Time: A few days before the Astrea Familia massacre, prior to the main story's events.
"A brand-new world!"
Dressed in adventurer gear, Erina struck a dashing pose with a hand on her sheathed sword, eagerly surveying their surroundings. "So this is the world where heroes and gods dance together? I can't wait!"
"I advise you not to get your hopes up too much—" Hayashi stretched his body as he spoke, "Our current physical abilities in this world would start at least at Lv.8—no, probably Lv.9 or above. We're already at the pinnacle of the pyramid."
"I wasn't talking about expecting much from the combat abilities of this world's residents—" Erina shot Hayashi a glance, her charming little expression making his heart skip a beat. "I'm looking forward to what new ingredients this world has to offer!"
New ingredients meant new textures and fresh culinary experiences—things other chefs could only dream of. Cooking dragon meat? Could Alice even manage that?
"Haha, that's definitely something Erina would say—"
Hayashi shook his head with an amused chuckle, then turned to the fourteen guardians behind him. "Proceed as planned. You're in charge of Orario."
"As you command—" x14
In the next moment, the fourteen guardians swiftly dispersed, heading toward the currently chaotic Orario—their mission was to locate and protect the members of the Astrea Familia within the city.
Hisako approached with a sigh. "Although the original work mentioned the Astrea Familia, it didn't describe this period in detail. We only know that out of its eleven members, ten died in the lower levels of the dungeon. But we have no clue where they are now."
Not just the whereabouts of those eleven members—even the location of the goddess Astrea herself was unknown. Hayashi could only vaguely sense her general direction outside Orario through the Interdimensional Gate's "initial lock" function, but couldn't pinpoint her exact location.
The original work's fourteenth volume detailed how the eleven members of the Astrea Familia clashed with the Rudra Familia in the dungeon's lower levels, ultimately leading to all but Ryuu Lion perishing due to certain circumstances. The surviving Ryuu later retrieved her comrades' belongings and buried them on the 18th floor. Afterward, Ryuu fell into darkness seeking revenge before being found by Syr and taken into the Hostess of Fertility, too ashamed to face Goddess Astrea again.
"No big deal. We have Violet's portable mechanical factory—" Hayashi removed the backpack from his shoulders and pulled out a one-meter cubic metal case. "We just need to wait for the mechanical scouts to locate Goddess Astrea's whereabouts."
Erina looked up at the swarm of mechanical scouts (flies this time) dispersing into the sky like black mist and couldn't help commenting, "Even though I know these things are ours, it still feels kind of creepy—what's it called again? Trypophobia?"
"You know what?" Hayashi twitched his lips and covered his forehead. "Last time at Sky City, when I saw swarms of mosquitoes flying out right in front of me, I had to politely suggest to Violet—could we maybe not use mosquitoes?"
Hearing Hayashi's words, Yunyun silently watched the last swarm of flies in the sky and asked, "So, Sister Violet changed the design of the mechanical scouts from mosquitoes to flies?"
Hayashi let out a long sigh and nodded heavily. "I'm wondering whether I should keep giving her feedback about this. Mainly, I'm a bit worried things might get worse."
"Theoretically, it shouldn't, right?" Hisako rubbed her temples. "I can't think of any other tiny flying creatures off the top of my head—maybe ladybugs? Well, at least I think ladybugs would be much better than flies and mosquitoes."
Hayashi twitched his lips. "If it were ladybugs, that'd be fine. But I'm worried Violet might choose another flying insect."
"?" x3
Under the questioning gazes of the three girls, Hayashi smiled and uttered the name of a creature that would make most humans scream: "Cockroaches."
"Eek!" x3
Erina, Hisako, and Yunyun shuddered in unison before angrily rushing up to Hayashi and unleashing a flurry of tiny fists on him.
Erina: "Stupid Hayashi, don't say such creepy things!"
Hisako: "Stupid young master, I got a whole pound of goosebumps!"
Yunyun: "Bad brother! No cockroaches, absolutely not!"
"Hahaha, don't worry." Hayashi planted his hands on his hips and laughed heartily. "I swear on Erina's perfectly sculpted legs—there's no way I'll let Violet make cockroach-shaped scout robots! I'd rather have spiders!"
Erina gasped in horror. "Spiders are a no-go too!"
Hisako nodded vigorously. "No spiders, no cockroaches, no centipedes—none of them!"
Yunyun was so terrified just imagining hundreds of spiders crawling in all directions in front of her that she couldn't even speak, only helplessly nodding her head: 'No spiders, no centipedes, no cockroaches, no bugs, waaah...'
Hayashi laughed. "Hahaha, don't worry! Even I can't stand the sight of a bunch of spiders and centipedes crawling around! Alright, alright, let's drop this creepy topic—what do you all want to do next? Go explore the area, or...?"
Erina quickly raised her hand. "Hayashi, I want to go hunting with Yunyun and see what the ingredients in this world are like!"
Hayashi thought for a moment. "Sure, then Hisako and I will stay behind and set up camp."
The Astraea Familia should still be in a situation where they're being hunted by dark factions and constantly on the run, so it probably won't be easy for the mechanical scouts to find them. Might as well take a break and slack off for a bit.
...
...
An hour later, Yunyun and the young lady, now splattered with blood, returned to the camp.
Seeing the blood on Erina, Hayashi—who had been lounging on a recliner while petting Sylveon—quickly sat up and asked, "What happened?"
Noticing his worried expression, Yunyun hurriedly explained, "Just as Hayashi-nii guessed, we were ambushed in the forest—they attacked us outright! But they didn't seem very strong, so we took them down instead."
Erina nodded beside her, then dragged the prey in her hands—a massive wild boar—forward and said, "Just a bunch of insignificant clowns. Most of them couldn't even break through Yunyun's automatic defense magic."
It had been a six-member squad from Evilus. When they launched their attack, four of them were instantly killed by Yunyun's automatic defense spell, Elemental Barrier. The remaining two only managed to rush up to Erina before she immobilized them midair with her psychic powers. However, just as she was about to interrogate them about their origins, one of them suddenly turned red all over, entering a berserk state. He forcibly broke free from Erina's still-developing psychic grip—only to be instantly decapitated by her swift counterattack.
"...That's all there was to it."
As she spoke, Erina looked down at the blood on her clothes with distaste and muttered, "I really liked the style of this outfit too. It's only been a day, and it's already ruined. So annoying."
"Don't worry, don't worry! When we get the chance, we'll visit the Hephaestus Familia and have them craft armor for all of us using the materials we collected from the Overlord world!" Hayashi comforted the sulking young lady. "We'll get you three sets so you can switch them out!"
"Deal!" Erina nodded happily, then patted the giant boar beside her. "Then I'll go with Hisako to handle this big guy first—wild boars this size are rare. We're in for a treat!"
"I'll be looking forward to Erina's cooking!" Hayashi licked his lips. "Can you make some curry pork cutlets?"
"If you want it, it's no problem at all!"
"Hell yeah!"
Beside them, Hisako shook her head helplessly. 'Young lady, you really spoil the young master too much...'
...
...
"Aah—"
Hayashi rubbed his full belly with satisfaction and let out a blissful sigh. "Let me tell you, Erina's cooking is amazing. There may be countless Earths out there, but there's only one Erina. Absolute perfection!"
Once again, he felt grateful that the first teammate he recruited was a top-tier chef—damn, if he hadn't brought her along, the otherworldly squad's meals would probably just be grilled meat, grilled meat, and more grilled meat, right?
Well, maybe they could boil some vegetable soup too?
To be honest, Hayashi wasn't completely opposed to everyday meals like grilled meat or meat stew. After all, he was someone who could have noodle soup in the morning and then munch on steamed buns dipped in the same soup broth for dinner—at least grilled meat and vegetable soup offered a balanced diet, right?
The problem was, some things just couldn't stand comparison. After experiencing the sheer delight of Erina's daily culinary offerings, Hayashi's stomach had thoroughly molded itself to Erina's style—he could no longer live without her cooking.
Thus, the saying—"The way to a man's heart is through his stomach"—proved absolutely true.
Beside him, Yunyun nodded in agreement—she even felt that the most appealing aspect of Hayashi's "Otherworld Squad" wasn't the ability to travel between worlds, but rather Erina's incredible cooking skills!
Faced with Hayashi and Yunyun's praise, Erina crossed her arms, tilted her head up, and flashed a proud little smirk. Her adorable expression made Hayashi's fingers twitch with the urge to do something.
So cute. He wanted to devour Erina.