My Refrigerator Turned Into A Dungeon

Chapter 467

Rival

"Good grief already! This is seriously pissing me off!."

The owner of Murasaki had contacted me since I was in Kusatsu, saying, “We’ve reopened, so bring more ingredients again!”

So I brought dungeon ingredients for delivery and some souvenirs from Kusatsu and visited the shop, but the usually cheerful and upbeat owner was in an extremely foul mood today.

"Haa, so that happened while I was gone…."

"That’s right～! Around here, our place was the original, you know～!."

Izakaya Murasaki had been hit with a business suspension by the health department for the offense of serving dishes made from unidentified dungeon monsters.

However, during that time, regulations were significantly relaxed, and some monster ingredients deemed safe began circulating. And unbelievably, while Izakaya Murasaki was closed, a restaurant claiming to be the original monster cuisine opened right across the street.

The owner, who had been suspended over that very issue, was understandably grinding her teeth in frustration.

"Yeah. But still, it’s just bad timing…."Looking outside through the frosted glass window, banners were set up in front of the shop across the street. And on them, phrases like “The Original! Monster Cuisine” and “Delicacies from Another World!” swayed in the wind.

"But still, it’s frustrating, you know. …Sniff, we made customers happy with that and ran a proper business…. Now it’s like our credit’s been stolen!."

Yeah, the owner had been offering dishes made from the monster ingredients I supplied at very low prices.

And that was right when prices had started rising, so customers must have been thrilled. The only problem was that the ingredients being used were still unapproved monster materials in the eyes of society.

And now, just barely, imports have increased a little.

While we were in Kusatsu, things like a sumo wrestler channeling a god and a high school girl summoning a UFO happened, and the world eased up a bit, like, “Yeah, that country is crazy after all!”

That said, Japan wasn’t the only country that suffered major damage from the dungeon stampede.

Because of that, imports are still lower than before, and there isn’t a single sector—agriculture, livestock, or fisheries—that hasn’t taken damage. So right now, Japan is overwhelmingly short on food.

That’s when attention turned to dungeon monsters.

Among them are plenty that can be eaten, like giant cave crickets, giant crabs, giant mussels, and Piragorou. Well, those are just what we eat—what’s actually circulating in the market are different monster ingredients.

"Hmm…. So that means it’s finally time for the unique labyrinth ability users to take the stage, huh."

"Haa… yeah, I guess so. You’ve had it rough too, Egetsu-chan. You were in that tournament the other day, right?."

"Huh?"

"Oh come on, dressed that flashy, there’s no way I wouldn’t recognize you. Take-chan and I were cheering you on from the TV."

"Oh, I see. So that’s how it was. Come to think of it, you’ve seen me in my suit, Owner."

"Of course. You’re my lifesaver—I’m not that ungrateful."

Right. Back during the stampede, Take-chan, who looked like a yakuza, was fighting a Petit Lizardman, and I jumped in to help along with Serai-san. That’s how we met.

"But that makes things tricky. Even if this place claims to be the original, the place across the street says the same thing—it’ll just look like a copycat and could even lead to unnecessary conflict."

"Right～! It’s a real problem, seriously!."

While sipping the tea she poured me and as the owner started prepping for tonight, we both racked our brains trying to come up with a good solution.

Then, when I turned my gaze outside again, the door of the shop across the street opened, and someone who looked like the owner came out, dressed in white chef attire.

He was a tough-looking, muscular black man with a shaved head.

That man looked left and right down the street, then set up the noren curtain for opening, and went back inside. And on that white curtain, in bold black letters, was written ‘ぼぶ’.

(Ah… yeah, that definitely fits. He totally looked like a Bob…)

Izakaya Bob. It seems a powerful rival has appeared right in front of Izakaya Murasaki.