REAPER SCANS
Mr. Magical Girl
[Translator – Kuro]
[Proofreader – ilafy]
Chapter 33: 23:59:15 (1)
“How’s the ocean, Yoomil?”
“It’s blue,” Yoomil answered beside me.
“Isn’t that obvious?”
She had gotten better at running on the ocean after falling into the salty waters a few times and could talk to me without losing concentration.
“It’s humid, and my skin stings. I just want to jump into a bath and wash myself.”
“There’s a giant bath beneath our feet.”
“Sure. I’ll jump into the salty water that made my skin sting in the first place. That’s a brilliant idea.” With her sarcastic reply and mocking tone, she was funnier than I thought.
It was a vast change compared to the day before, when she was begging for the sweet release of death. Even though she still behaved indifferently, her actions exuded an air of child-like innocence.
She even curiously observed a school of fish, thinking I wasn’t watching her. All Yoomil had in her brain was pure knowledge, she had never truly experienced anything in life herself.
‘She’ll fit right in with my disciples.’
I continued dashing under the azure sky, occasionally seeing some trash floating on the ocean water, some sailing ships, and island greenery in the distance.
‘The view is pretty nice. It would be good to occasionally spend some alone time in a quiet place like this in the future. Should I grab some fish as a gift?’
I was leisurely spending my day off.
Vwoom—
An unnatural sound echoed in my ear canals. It was the feeling of telepathy magic that I hadn’t felt in quite some time. There was only one being who would ever reach out to me telepathically…
“What’s up, Unho? All good?”
“Where are you right now?!” Unho’s voice exploded next to my eardrums.
‘No need to talk so loud, geez.’
“I’m on my way home, on the Pacific.”
‘The Pacif—?! Well, that doesn’t matter right now. Remove all of your limiters as quickly as possible! Otherwise, y—tzzzt zzzt”
Static through telepathy? Who’d use mana interference with such accurate timing, and why?
“Unho? Unho, are you there?” Unable to use telepathy myself, I could only wait for Unho to reconnect with me.
However, the line stayed quiet.
An ominous feeling overtook me.
“Yoomil, prepare for battle.”
Before Yoomil could even react to my warning, a new voice resounded in my head.
【 New Designated Common Enemy 】
My head ached. That voice, one I hadn’t heard in a few years, always announced destruction.
Unlike the composed tone of the voice that announced Otherworldly corrosions, that one had a strong sense of urgency, as though everything was in danger of being decimated.
Every hero within the affected zone would be able to hear that heralding voice of destruction.
The designation of a common enemy on its own wasn’t much of a problem. Many people believed the announcement of a common enemy equated to the appearance of an O-Rank enemy, but that wasn’t usually the case.
Often, if a hero were deemed too weak to beat their story’s enemy, the enemy would be designated a common enemy.
Thus, the heroes of old times constantly heard announcements for common enemies in their heads. In those cases, either the story’s hero died, was corrupted, or simply wasn’t strong enough.
Eventually, the Hero Association started treating the announcements differently. Initially, they viewed the announcements as urgent warnings of large-scale destruction that needed immediate action. However, as time passed, the Association treated them as simple cases where the hero was unable to finish their story without help.
Still, the Association’s top priority was always to prevent common enemy announcements. In other words, they helped every hero in finishing their stories to prevent their enemies from becoming common enemies.
Experienced heroes shared their knowledge and expertise with new heroes, and the Association created an exclusive task force in charge of rescuing unexperienced heroes in distress.
They manipulated and managed society’s view of heroes.
They even studied the concentration of Otherworld powers around the globe and found safe areas to move the heroes and enemies to forcefully end their stories early.
Despite the Association’s hard work, a new common enemy ended up getting announced. In other words, the Otherworld Invasion had intensified—the Hero Association’s worst fear.
Already, the Association had probably declared a state of emergency and issued a mobilization order to all the heroes within the designated zone.
‘I wonder where the designated zone for this common enemy is.’
I accelerated and prepared to join the others. It was good that I was out on the Pacific Ocean.
If the designated zone were small, I wouldn’t have heard the announcement and would’ve been slow to hear the news, belatedly joining the fight.
Since the Pacific Ocean was part of multiple zones, I could quickly make my way to wherever I needed to go…
【 Designated Zone: The Entirety of Earth 】
‘…What?’
Which fucking hero was in charge of a story on the entire planet’s scale?
【 Crimson★Hammer unable to match up against their antagonist. Informing everyone: annihilate the enemy. Continue living. 】
‘No, this can’t be. This isn’t possible.’
【 Sharing detailed information. Good luck, and survive. 】
My head ached horrendously when the giant wave of information flooded my brain. Enduring my splitting head, I culled the trivial information and kept what was most relevant.
A boss enemy single handedly pierced a hole to our realm.
A large army is invading.
Designated danger zone: the entire world.
Enemy route: the ocean.
Enemy numbers: unknown.
I was so dumbfounded I could only chuckle in astonishment.
‘Enemy numbers unknown…?’ Even the mysterious entity behind the announcement was unable to determine everything regarding the relevant enemy.
The last time the word ‘unknown’ was used, humanity lost the Atlantic Ocean.
Bending over, I put more power into my legs and shot forward.
Boom—
My propulsion left rising pillars of water behind me. There was no time to enjoy my day jogging across the ocean. I had to reach the Hero Association as fast as fast to prepare for the attack…
“…It’s too late.” For the first time in ten years, a horrifying sense of dread spread across my body.
That nasty, rotten smell. The feeling of my knowledge and common sense decaying… They were coming. The enemies of my story. The beings that transcended physicality.
I used to miss the days I fought them and sometimes wished for all of them to show up simultaneously so I could finish my story once and for all.
I immediately realized how arrogant I was. The ten years of peace had erased my fear of them. They were, by no means, weaklings I could look down upon.
They were a nightmare. A single vanguard could easily annihilate humanity, let alone a commander-class one.
Their powers of corruption and erosion were fitting as invaders, and a commander-class monster was showing up.
【 The ocean’s existence is a single life. 】
【 Power transcends distance. 】
Two corrosions?
Deep in the ocean, beneath my feet, a dark shadow appeared.
My survival instinct, honed on countless battlefields, suddenly warned me—the shadow was the entity that had pierced the hole in the ocean to trigger the invasion.
“Run away, Yoomil!” It wasn’t something she could handle.
“What?” the monster quietly following me asked in confusion.
“Run to Korea! Hide yourself on land and find Danger Rifle! Hurry and run! You’ll die!” No matter what, I had to face the boss enemy there. Even if I couldn’t exterminate it, I had to hold it back.
There was no branch of the Hero Association that could stop the enemy unprepared, so I had to…
“I’ll fight with you.” A crimson crowbar materialized in Yoomil’s hand. She had figured out what I was planning, probably thanks to having inherited everything from me.
Everything from me wasn’t enough. My knowledge, my experience, the blood I had spilled… None of it.
“I order you, as Linshua’s father, run! Quickly!”
‘I can’t stop them any longer. They’re here.’
* * *
Reaper Scans
Translator - Kuro
Proofreader - ilafy
Join our discord for updates on releases!!
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Clink clunk—
The hammer in my grip rapidly grew in size and transformed, changing into an afterburner with a stake.
Fwooooo—
The afterburner let out a deep, rumbling cry as a pillar of flames burst out. The overwhelming heat spread to my surroundings.
Tssshhhh—
Seawater evaporated, leaving me sticky and covered in salt and moisture.
The scorching heat left a circular crater in the water, which was soon refilled by more water, only to evaporate again in an endless cycle of vapor.
‘Stronger… This isn’t enough.’ That hammer had eviscerated countless enemies, but my instincts screamed that it still wasn’t enough against my foe.
Clank clunk—
Having sensed my thoughts, the hammer formed numerous engine cylinders around the afterburner. The devices were meant for detonating all the mana I had accumulated in a single strike.
After the main engine’s impact, the cylinders would activate to deliver a secondary impact for extra damage.
As more cylinders formed, I tightly gripped the rocket-engine-esque hammer.
A staggering amount of power reverberated through my hands and arms into my body, but I couldn’t let it activate yet.
I could only swing it at the perfect time, when I was certain to stop the bastard beneath the sea.
Thump thump thump thump thump—
The vibrations inside the cylinders accelerated and went into overload. That was how much mana I was pouring into my weapon.
The shadow under my feet got darker.
‘It’s rising.’
The continuation of my story I had waited for so long for was finally upon me in the form of a monster that spawned as a common enemy.
A gigantic horn pierced through the surface of the water, ascending into the air.
“DIEEE!” I swung the hammer toward the base of the horn.
BOOM—
The seawater touching the hammer instantly vaporized, deepening the water crater. Falling through the air, I shifted to the side to avoid the impact.
Inside the hemisphere of air was the entity that had been hiding in the ocean.
The thing’s gray exterior was covered in eyeballs with extra fins and limbs, and the horn started from the tail and followed the spine all the way up—protruding from the head as a spearhead.
It looked like your typical O-Rank colossal monster, but wriggling in gaps in its gray shell were lava-colored tentacles, indicating it was indeed an enemy from my story.
I couldn’t tell whether the monster and the tentacles were one and the same, whether the tentacles had parasitized a giant monster, or whether the tentacles were the main body of the monster, but regardless, those tentacles were indication enough.
Innumerable tentacles flew at me—an enemy that threatened their existence. However, they were merely tentacles.
The overwhelming force of the hammer pulverized the tentacles and dropped down.
Stab stab stab—
The hammer wasn’t perfect either. The tentacles that dodged and survived proceeded to skewer me.
‘It burns.’ The flesh around the puncture wounds started melting.
The tentacles wiggled around, trying to stop my attack from connecting with its mark.
Unable to handle the torturous pain, my body unleashed a deafening scream. It begged me to run and survive, unable to handle the agony.
‘Fuck.’
“This level of pain used to be a daily occurrence, you sons of bitches! Tear off all my limbs if you want to stop me!”
SLAM—
The hammer finally connected with the monster, channeling the immense power and energy within.
‘Nice, it landed. I can at least incapacitate this boss…’
Thud thud psssht—
‘What?’
Several crimson columns of seawater mixed with blood rose into the sky. The deep-red water columns were like beautiful pillars of wine, but I saw pieces of flesh floating within the water.
‘No way. Did they tank the blow instead of the boss enemy?’
My first attack ended up being a critical failure and mistake. I was in too much of a rush and failed to analyze the situation.
Crunch—
Sudden, intense agony assaulted me.
The giant monster closed the distance and bit into my stomach. The fangs weren’t satisfied with simply penetrating me, and the hooks and barbs started tearing me apart from the inside, destroying my internal organs.
The numerous eyeballs attached to the monster’s head all stared me down. I saw more eyeballs inside the eyeballs. The giant pupils also consisted of more eyeballs, each one turning and facing different directions.
That was only until the fang pierced me. The eyeballs inside the eyeballs inside the eyeballs all stared at me.
It was a sentient gaze—one that had realized I was its opponent.
Vwoooooom—
The blast of a horn echoed in all directions, originating from the giant monster.
It sounded the beginning of the war.
Seriously injuried, I shifted my gaze from the eyeballs to where I last saw Yoomil. Unable to find her there, I looked beyond and saw a black monster running in the distance.
She was getting chased by countless gray crustacean lifeforms, but they couldn’t catch up to her. Yoomil was ignoring the enemies and following my orders, sprinting to Korea as fast as possible.
‘Good thinking.’
A hero must know when to run away.
I turned back to the monster before me. The entity from my story had no visible injuries despite receiving my blow head on.
Its jaws suddenly tightened in a move meant to finish me off.
“Fuck off.” I unsummoned my hammer and grabbed onto the fangs around me. The barbs stabbed into my hand and tore away my skin, but that was nothing.
Removing all of my limiters, I poured my power into my grip, channeling sensations I hadn’t felt in years.
Thank goodness we were in the middle of nowhere on the ocean. No bystanders would get swept up in our fight, no matter how much power I used.
The monster sensed my intentions and fiercely tried to end my life.
“You can’t beat me in a battle of pure strength, you dumb lizard.”
‘Try tearing a hole through dimensions with just your physical strength before coming at me again.’
Fwoosh—
Shockwaves rippled in the sea as I strained all of my muscles and slowly opened the monster’s jaws.
Grrrrrrr—
I couldn’t understand the meaning behind the deep rumbling. Was it pain? Anger?
Well, it didn’t matter. I was just there to kill my enemy.
Swoosh—
I steeled myself, and my clothes automatically tore themselves and bandaged the large wound to stop the bleeding.
I hadn’t seen that special power activate in a long time either. In fact, I hadn’t spilled blood in a while. It was a strange special power that had no healing effect but simply put pressure on injuries to stop the bleeding.
‘Let’s see.’
Plenty of organs inside my abdomen had melted away in the puncture wound, alongside my left hand.
As I inspected my injuries, the white cloth wrapped itself around my left palm and tied itself up with a pretty blue ribbon.
It didn’t bandage my fingers, though, as if saying it was pointless to bandage a bunch of raw bones with no flesh.
I was still good to go. How much longer did I have to face it?
If I could communicate with the Hero Association to figure out how much time they needed, that would’ve been best, but in that urgent situation, all I could do was block the bastard’s path on my own.
The Association’s usual plan of action in such situations was to build a defense line, which took hours.
Was it generally 24 hours?
That meant I just had to hold on for a day.
I grabbed the white stick in my chest pocket with my left hand since my right was busy clenching tightly on the hammer.
Crunch—
Biting down on the stick, I declared, “Here goes round two.”
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