Chapter 54: Monsters sacrifice themselves

The three organizers exchanged smiles in response. Then the regional federation head, who was the oldest among them, replied, "It's not a lot, but it's a start. By doing many calculations and experiments, we reached an important conclusion that could help reduce casualties."

One of the other family heads asked, "Oh, I didn't expect that. Could you explain more?"

The Verma family head, also curious, smiled, "It sounds like you're planning something big. Why not tell us more?"

"Why not be patient for a moment?" replied the regional federation head. He took a deep breath and continued, "Our country's situation is quite serious, which is why I decided to take this approach and run some experiments."

He then looked at the school head and security personnel and quickly explained, "We got some results. If we implement these plans, we can reduce casualties, but it will take a while to make them work."

Glancing at the speaker, he continued, "He's going to explain all the details, so let's listen."

"Hmm," and their focus went toward the speaker.

…..

Seeing the sudden silence, the speaker cleared his throat and said, "Since everyone seems to have some idea, I'll explain in one go."

"The table on the screen shows the death rate due to accidents and misfortunes. I can't cover all the details because we're short on time, but I'll discuss one incident to give you an example."

He looked around the audience and explained, "You may have seen the news last month, and since you're all educated students, you probably know what I'm talking about."

"What was the incident last month?"

"Didn't you guys hear about the incident last month? It was a really tragic event that occurred in a dungeon."

"Yeah, it happened in the neighboring country."

"What was the incident last month?"

"Even an S-rank player died in that incident."

"It was reported that the cause of the tragedy was bad luck," someone said.

"Bad luck? What kind of bad luck?" someone else asked.

The speaker took over, saying, "The misfortune was that the dungeon was upgraded by one rank, even though it had been cleared regularly. The odds of this happening are one in a million."

He paused, then added, "There are 300 dungeons above S-rank under the Federation's control, so theoretically, the chance of an upgrade happening is 0.0003."

He took a breath and continued, "But since these dungeons are high-ranking, the possibility of them upgrading in real life is almost nonexistent because a special team inspects them regularly. This has never happened before."

Seeing that the audience was listening intently, the speaker gave a small smile and continued, "But do you all know the real reason dungeons upgrade?"

The competition avenue went silent; no one knew the answer, and people started whispering to each other.

"Does anyone know?"

"Hey, how could we know? That happens in another country."

"Yeah, he's right. How can we know when we don't even get proper news about our own country?"

A loud cough echoed across the room, followed by the sound of water spilling. A guy who had been drinking water started coughing. "Hey, I'm drinking here. Could you avoid making jokes while I do?"

"Oh, sorry about that," someone replied, sounding embarrassed.

"The other guy's statement might be correct, but how can we know for sure? Wait," he said, turning to Ansh. "Bro, you must know something."

Ansh just smiled and replied, "It's hard to find information when it's related to the death of high-ranking players, especially when it happened in another country." At that point, everyone in the audience understood that they didn't know the reason.

Even among the participants, the topic was being discussed, but nobody had an answer to the question.

...

Even among the family heads, there was a lot of curiosity about what was going on. Eventually, they couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Sir, do you know why this happened?"

The regional federation head nodded, "I found out because I'm the head of this region, so I got to know the information to raise awareness." Then, looking at the head of the family, he added, "And as for how—well, the Federation is raising awareness among students that in dungeons, even if certain situations are rare or next to impossible, they can still happen if you're unlucky."

The family head and the other two organizers agreed, having seen many talented people fall from the sky due to arrogance, bad luck, or other reasons.

"Okay, let's see," the Verma family head said. "I think the speaker is about to explain why." He glanced at the regional federation head, "There might be some important points related to the incident, so we should focus on the speaker." The regional federation head just smiled, and they all turned their attention to the stage.

....

The speaker stretched out the words, "As for the reason for the incident, it was monsters."

"What? Monsters?"

"How is that even possible?"

"Yeah, that can't be right."

"But didn't we come here to watch the competition? What's happening?"

"You idiot! This is part of the culture."

"Yeah, it's been happening for decades, and the Federation uses this event to raise awareness among students."

"You're right. A lot of people were even watching it live from home."

"Hmm, the Federation mainly brings up these topics because students often forget about them, but when these incidents happen, the damage can be serious."

"Oh, but I read somewhere that the imperial family passed this law in our country to reduce casualties among the players through awareness."

….

"Okay, okay, please be quiet and let me explain," the speaker interrupted the audience and continued, "The reason is monsters because they sacrifice themselves to forcefully upgrade the dungeon." Taking a glance in every direction of the competition avenue, he added, "But the occurrence of these events is next to impossible, yet it still happened. That's why misfortune can strike anywhere."

Everyone gasped. Even though they were family heads or other organizers, even the regional federation head shivered upon hearing those reasons because it represented many possibilities that could happen in the future, and in a serious outcome, it could cause heavy damage to humankind.