“…Why isn’t anyone chatting?”
ㄴAlcoholIsLife: Want a drink too?
“If I drink, I’ll die before I make it inside.”
As I headed toward the weapons factory, the comments from the regulars suddenly disappeared.
Except for AlcoholIsLife, a regular I’d seen a few times before.
“Do you know why no one’s chatting?”
ㄴAlcoholIsLife: I’m out at sea, so I don’t know for sure. But there’s probably a royal investiture ceremony going on.
A royal investiture ceremony… How very fantasy-like.
Back on Earth, there were hardly any countries left with absolute monarchies.
Hearing the regular say that made it hit me again that this place really was fantasy.
Since I spent all day wandering around the dim deep sea, it felt closer to an apocalypse to me.
As I walked along, letting those idle thoughts drift through my head, the weapons factory came into view in the distance.
Maybe because the Reaper was gone now, there were even more Cyclopes than before.
“Their numbers… roughly seven, I guess.”
There were probably more hidden behind the buildings, but I wasn’t worried.
My equipment was better than before, and my swordsmanship had become faster and more precise.
Still, I could die if they ganged up on me, so I put some distance between us and steadied my stance.
I planted both legs firmly and condensed mana into my sword.
Hissss—.
Green smoke rose from the blade, filled with an immense amount of mana.
The scabbard heated up, and light began to spill over from the sword’s body.
The hilt gripped tightly in my hand obeyed my will, from start to finish, in a single instant.
Engraving a chillingly beautiful green light through the air like a meteor, it was drawn.
Slice.
The sword qi advanced straight ahead and cut through.
Cut, and cut again. The Cyclopes were carved into pieces.
With a single stroke, the pack of Cyclopes was simply sliced apart.
Like a sniper shot, before they could even perceive it.
“Whew…”
The remaining Cyclopes turned to look at me, but there were only three at most.
Since Cyclopes knew no fear, they swung their hands at me.
A formless, transparent slash with no light whatsoever flew toward me.
The heated blade returned once more to its home.
Clack.
Just before the slash reached me, mana burst from the sheathed sword.
The slash that had been flying straight ahead lost its momentum and bent away.
The Cyclops tried to send another slash.
Tap!
But it was slower than me as I dashed forward with the acceleration device.
Buildings flickered past behind me, and the Cyclops rushed into view before my eyes.
Vwoooom!!
The engine spewing mana moved violently.
Matching it, I shifted my feet this way and that.
Iaido, a single cut.
One flash—after the green light sparkled—
Thud, thud, thud.
The creatures collapsed.
In other words, you could call it one strike, three kills.
“Ugh…”
I pushed the now motionless Cyclops far away with my foot.
Then the weapons factory in front of me came into view.
When I lifted my head, I saw a rather tall building.
It looked as though countless squares had been stacked together, each square a different size.
And what stood out was…
ㄴAlcoholIsLife: Looks like I’m watching a heartbeat.
“…Is that mana flowing like that?”
A passage like green roots extending down from the very top.
Carved into the black squares, making it stand out even more, it intermittently glowed as it plunged downward.
Mana driving down like a beating heart.
At the sight, my sleeping intuition began to stir.
Creeeak.
The door was an ordinary iron door.
Unbefitting the name “factory,” there were only two connected doors.
Factories usually produced and moved large amounts of goods, so they tended to have big sliding doors, but…
“It’s kind of… gloomy.”
Muttering to myself for no reason, I stepped beyond the open door.
Then the faint light flowing from inside washed over my body.
My pupils widened as much as they could to see into the dark interior.
As I began to adjust to the darkness, I started to make out what was inside.
The first thing that entered my eyes was…
“Gah!!”
A security robot like the one I’d seen at the food factory.
Except.
“Ah, it’s broken.”
ㄴAlcoholIsLife: Hahahahahaha.
“Beep beep!!”
I suddenly felt incredibly embarrassed. I mean, why wasn’t it intact?
Jui followed me in and laughed at me from behind.
Once my eyes adjusted a little more to the darkness, I could see why the security robot had been destroyed.
Factory equipment was piled on top of the broken security robot.
As if it had collapsed from the ceiling, the equipment was tangled together haphazardly.
I looked around, but I couldn’t see any stairs leading to the upper floor.
Probably… the collapsed debris of the factory was covering them.
“Hmm…”
I was conflicted. The current me could easily cut through equipment like this and get past it.
But if I did that, another biological fighter jet might appear.
There was no need to willingly take on that risk. Besides, this visit was closer to a quick stop.
I planned to dig through the wreckage after I made more weapons like the “mana emission rifle.”
So I looked around at the surrounding debris.
The wreckage that had collapsed from the upper floor seemed to be rails that had transported finished products.
I could see black rails and the machines that moved them.
And…
“This looks like a pistol.”
As befitted a weapons factory, finished products were scattered across the floor.
It was a black, angular pistol.
I reached out to pick it up, then stopped.
Maybe because of the security robot, I felt like I shouldn’t just pick things up.
I immediately took the scanner from my waist and scanned the gun.
After using the scanner so much, whenever I saw something for the first time now, I took out the scanner first.
A short while passed.
Soon, information related to the pistol appeared on the screen.
-Magic-Bullet Pistol by E███s Co., Ltd.
-A weapon utilizing magic bullets. As an early model, it was focused on lethality.
The explanation was simpler than I expected. Well, at least there were no warning messages.
But a familiar company name appeared.
It was the same name as the company I’d seen last time at the food factory.
It seemed they had probably been quite a massive corporation.
But in the end, they had fallen.
Even a giant corporation, even people on the scale of a nation that could create a city like this.
…A bitter taste rose in my mouth.
Swallowing that bitterness down, I picked up the pistol.
Seen up close, the pistol was quite different from a modern handgun.
A pistol made of black rectangles.
Because of its angular shape, it actually gave off a futuristic feeling.
On the black surface, there were also mana channels like the ones I’d seen on the weapons factory.
Lines faintly emitting green light.
Clack.
I removed the magazine to check it, but there were no bullets inside.
Looking around, I saw something glittering gold a little distance away.
When I went closer, it was a pile of bullets.
At a glance, there seemed to be about fifty of them.
I took out the scanner and scanned them, and their identity became even clearer.
-Shattering Magic Bullet by E███s Co., Ltd.
-A bullet manufactured by E███s Co., Ltd. for the purpose of shattering. Upon hitting a target, it spreads out and deals wide-area damage behind it.
Clink.
I picked up one from the pile of bullets and examined it closely.
When I held it near my eye, I saw a magic circle engraved on the warhead.
True to the name “magic bullet,” magic had been cast on the bullet.
ㄴTruthScholar: What on earth is this?? Magic bullets!
ㄴChooseGradSchoolCarefully: How did they manage to inscribe magic on it? They can control mana that precisely?
The regulars, who had been silent for a while, began commenting actively again.
Looks like the royal succession ceremony was over.
“But what’s so special about engraving magic onto bullets?”
To be honest, I thought it made sense that you could engrave magic onto bullets.
And if they were magic bullets, maybe even an ordinary person could kill a knight.
At that question, asked with that intention, TruthScholar immediately answered.
ㄴTruthScholar: Of course it’s special! The magic has to be engraved only on the warhead for it to mean anything after being fired, right? So…
The explanation continued for quite a long time after that.
It was a little hard to read, but to summarize:
Engraving magic on such a small warhead required archmage-level mana control.
Naturally, magic bullets became so expensive it was hard to even imagine the price.
But here, they had mass-produced those magic bullets.
Therefore, the ancient era had achieved a civilization overwhelmingly superior to the present.
As I read that, I loaded the magic bullets into the pistol.
Maybe because they had been made in the same factory, thankfully, they fit well.
ㄴTruthScholar: Try firing it once?
“There aren’t that many, so I’ll only test-fire it once or twice.”
I picked up all the bullets scattered on the floor, took them, and went outside.
Ah, I also brought out the other two guns that were in another spot.
Click-clack.
When I pulled the slide, a heavy sound rang out.
It was a sound that made my heart pound—the sound of pure cool.
Holding the gun loaded with ten rounds, I began walking.
I wasn’t heading toward the submarine; I walked toward the food factory.
“Since there are a lot of Cyclopes there…”
Thinking that as I walked, eventually—
“Beeep!”
“There they are.”
I saw a pack of Cyclopes scratching at the wall around the food factory.
As I aimed at the pack, I recalled the description.
“Upon hitting a target, it spreads backward, huh…”
Just in time, I spotted one Cyclops with the rest of the pack behind it.
Like billiards, one was in front and several were behind it.
“This better not be bullshit…”
Thinking that if something went wrong, I’d immediately draw my sword,
I placed the front sight on the Cyclops.
The barrel gleamed coldly.
Watching it with one eye, I pulled the trigger.
Vwoooom! Bang!!
After mana gathered, it fired with an orange flower blooming from the muzzle.
The bullet engraved with magic left a red dot on the Cyclops’s torso.
And the bullet did not stop there.
Craaaash!!
True to the name “shattering bullet,” fragments spread out behind it,
“Ugh…”
And turned the pack of Cyclopes into lumps of flesh.
A bullet that had literally shredded them.
Looking at the gun faintly trailing smoke, I felt something.
If they could mass-produce guns like this, how did they fall?
With that unanswered question still lingering, I awkwardly turned my steps back toward the submarine.