Nifonium dungeon, fifth floor underground.
　I was hunting Red Skeletons, which are three times faster than normal in the midst of the dungeon's snowfall.

　The Red Skeleton's speed is three times faster than a normal skeleton. The hit rate of the bullets is clearly poor.
　It's something that can shoot at other monsters and hit almost 100% of the time, but with this guy, it's about 90% or not.
　Clearly, it misses so often that you can feel it.

'd*mn!

　It's not just fast, Red Skeleton has a characteristic that accelerates even more if you fail to defeat it.
　If you miss the first shot, it becomes even more untouchable, and the hit rate after the second shot drops to a whopping 70%.
　That's one in three misses.

　However, even at 70%, it's still high.
　And since it's an infinite number of thunderbolts, it doesn't matter how many misses are used--

No, no, that would be arrogance.

　I hurriedly changed my thinking from thinking that if I was firing wildly, I could eventually hit and defeat them - I changed my thinking in a hurry.
　Just like when my HP and stamina became S and most of my attacks were ineffective, when I got S or infinite or some other new and powerful power, I'd start coasting and become proud of myself.

　That's not a good idea, I steeled myself.
　I counted in my mind, starting with 90% of the experience for now, 10 shots and 9 hits.

　I get a surprise attack from the wall, unique to Nihonium, a Red Skeleton appears out of the wall and attacks me out of nowhere.
　I calmly avoid it and shoot it out with one shot.
　That's 10 of 11, 90.9%. That's an increase of about 1%.

　Pick up the seeds and raise 1 MP to find the next target.
　This time it's a surprise attack from the ceiling, which I aim calmly and shoot out with a single shot.
　I'm at 11 of 12, 91.6%.

　As I was about to pick up the seeds, a new red skeleton targeted me there.
　I avoided the attack and rushed back - and when I did, the bullet missed.

　The bullets were 11/13, and the hit rate dropped to 84.6% at once.

''Muu...... phew.''

　My hit rate dropped quickly, but if I panicked here, it would drop further and spiral negative.
　I stop, take a deep breath to calm myself down, and focus even more.

　I take down the one that comes out, I aim and shoot down until the last minute.
　I always calculated the hit rate and tried to give it a shot.

　Strangely enough, when I was conscious of the numbers, my ability to concentrate clearly increased.
　Not only that, I was more motivated than usual.
　Concentration and motivation.

　With those two things riding on my high status, I was a warrior on the fifth basement floor of Nifongnium.
　By the time it was noon, my MP had risen from C to B, and my hit rate was over 98%.

　　　　　☆

　He left Nifonium and returned to the house once more.

'Thanks for your help,'
You are welcome home.

　Elsa and Emily were in the garage on the first floor.
　They were sitting across the table, drinking tea.
　There were sandwiches and bite-sized sweets on the table.
　The time is noon, but the atmosphere and the menu are just like tea time.

The menu and the atmosphere are just like tea time.
I'll go make a cup of tea.

　Emily said and ran upstairs in a flurry.
　The rest of me stood next to Elsa, bent down and picked up one of the sandwiches.
　It's a strawberry jam sandwich. It was moderately sweet and provided a nice boost of energy to my over-focused and depleted body.

'Do you like it?'
Yeah, what?
That ...... sandwich tastes like.
It's really good, I'm pretty tired after just this morning, so it's perfect.
...... yada.

　For some reason, Elsa gave a modest gut-punch at her chest.

'Why are you gutted?'
'What?　No, that's not--
That sandwich was made by Elsa.

　Emily answered for me. She comes down from upstairs with a cup of tea for me, smiling more than usual.

'Emily didn't make this,'
'Yes, me and Elsa-san made it together. What you are eating now, Yoda, is 100% made by Elsa.
Yeah.

　I took another sandwich of strawberry jam and threw it in my mouth.

'Yeah, I knew it was good. I'm usually convinced that Emily made it, but Elsa is a very good cook too.
Oh, thank you.

　Elsa's cheeks stained and depressed.

'Um ...... can I make another ......?'
'You'll make it for me?　That's nice to hear.
I'll make it!　I'm going to make a lot of good food.

　Erza is enthusiastic.
　Her motivation suddenly makes me look forward to what she's going to make this time.

　I drank the tea Emily had brewed for me and picked up some more sandwiches to replenish my energy.

''Yeah, just in case you want to do some bookkeeping.

　And then he held out the bankbook to Elsa.

'Bookkeeping?'
'Yeah, I'd like to hunt this afternoon with the numbers in hand.

　In the morning, we hunted while calculating the hit ratio.

　Every time I killed one of them, I felt a small sense of accomplishment, and it felt good to increase my hit rate.
　The good feeling was reflected in my ability to concentrate, and I worked hard to increase it even more, and as a result, I was able to increase my hit rate to 98% without missing a single shot since then.

　I wanted to do that same thing in the afternoon.
　I wanted to keep track of the numbers and see what would happen with the small increments of accomplishment.
　Yesterday's was a huge accomplishment with a bang, and it felt good to write it down afterwards and see the numbers increase all at once.
　It was good, but it's true that I was a bit bored by the end.

　I figured that if I could build on that small sense of accomplishment, I could keep my focus all the way through, and I'd make more money as a result.

'Okay, just give me a minute.'

　Elsa took my bankbook and made a note of it.

'Sorry for the wait. Your balance has increased.'
More?　It's not less.
It's growing. About 500,000.
"Huh?

　For a moment, "Why? I thought.

　I haven't earned anything since last night.
　The only reason I dared to make a note of it was because I filed a report here and there as much as I could think of, so there's a possibility that something might have been withdrawn this morning.
　There is a possibility that it will decrease, but not increase, as it should be: .......

It's true, there's almost half a million more, nominally ...... indole?
It's the name of a city.
...... Oh, taxes.

　Haha.
　I remember it was said that Indor was going to give me some of the tax money.
　So that's what came in as soon as it came in.

"Taxes?

　Elsa nods her head.
　I explained to her what happened to Indor and how it ended up.

'I see, so that's why it's a tax. But that's great, isn't this unearned income?
Well, now that you mention it, I suppose.

　Unearned income, sounds good to me.
　I'm the one who conquered Indor's dungeon and doubled the dungeon drop even more, so it's a fair reward, but it's still unearned income, I'm sure.

　The money will continue to come in from Indor even if I don't tell anyone.
　Winning lottery tickets and living on interest, building a condo and earning rent, or holding lots of stocks and living on gift certificates.
　That's the kind of unearned income you dream of.

　It's exciting to see this clearly expressed in numbers.

I'm not going to be able to get my hands on any more of these things. It's just that Yoda-san is a taxpayer, and he's a left-handed fan.
'I'll go to the dungeon, though, even if this one keeps going in.
It's even more awesome!
I--

　Suddenly, Elsa clapped her hands as if she remembered something.

'What's going on?'
'We've received another deposit: ...... Wow, this is amazing.'
What the hell is wrong with you?
'It's a refund. Mr. Lyota, my taxes will drop a little bit because the purchase price this year exceeded 30 million. It's effective from yesterday, so we got the difference back.
Back?　Aren't they going to go up?

　I handed Elsa a bankbook for a deposit, and she quickly wrote it down in her familiar hand.
　The deposit itself was 20,000 piro, which wasn't a large amount of money.

'Yes, I'll drop it. Is the city Lyota-san was in before going up?
It's more like a city: ...... sort of.

　Often times, with progressive tax rates, if you make some money, it's the other way around and you lose money by raising your taxes.
　It was the same when I was a student.
　I didn't get taxed up to 1,000,000 yen a year as a part-time job, but if it is over 1,000,000 yen, the tax will be taken away and I will lose money.
　That's why I adjusted it appropriately and made sure I didn't make any money.

Cyclo's tax rate goes down as the purchase price goes up. That way, adventurers will be more eager to dive the dungeons.
I see.

　That's a more humanistic story. I don't know what the side effects will be.

　The 20,000 piro entered in my passbook, though it's a pretty small amount.
　The 20,000 pirouette was the result of my hard work, and it gave me a great sense of accomplishment.