REAPER SCANS
Mr. Magical Girl
[Translator – Kuro]
[Proofreader – ilafy]
Chapter 34: 23:59:15 (2)
“Fuck.” I cursed under my breath in the pure-gray world.
I would’ve preferred to have my brain or eyes destroyed instead. At the very least, I would have a good laugh about it, reminiscing on the previous time it happened.
Everything was dyed gray in that never-ending world. My enemies swallowed all colors and sensations, leaving only achromatic color behind.
Their shells were not truly gray; their bodies were simply affected by their powers.
A gray ocean undulated to the horizon; a gray sky shone over me. Torn pieces of gray shell and flesh flew through the achromatic space.
The only hues in that world were the lava-colored tentacles and myself—proof of my existence. My blood spilled red, and my flesh split to reveal red muscle.
The Otherworld enemies continued assailing me in the monotonous world we found ourselves in.
When they died, they exploded in the same dull colors as everything else, blurring into the scenery.
Eventually, my vision learned to ignore the gray meat.
The boundaries between each individual monster blurred even further—their gray shells merged with the rest of the world. The blood they spurted blended with the seawater; the flesh they lost mixed with clouds in the sky.
This wasn’t their Otherworld’s power of corrosion. Rather, it was simply an innate, passive trait they all possessed.
Vwooooom—
The boss enemy let out another deep rumble, resembling a ship’s horn as it communicated with its minions.
They never tried to use tactics or work together. Instead, they ignored all gaps in my defenses and attacked straightforwardly.
They truly embodied the pinnacle of boredom and simplicity, and that simplicity was how I quickly deduced their characteristics.
They were individual organisms and also a collective army sharing a unified simplicity. As a species, they composed everything of their world, each individual being one yet all.
Absorbing all colors was merely a by-product of them being in our world.
How did I know all that? Perhaps it was because I was, in a way, becoming one with them.
My senses had dulled quite some time prior, and the sound of my flesh bursting and ripping apart had muffled into a lackluster ‘poof’. The saltiness of my own blood trickling down my throat was merely a minor prick on my tongue.
The grayscale world even dumbed down my attacks—the splendid twirling of my hammer rotations devolved into plain and boring spins.
I could easily destroy the enemies’ shells with my strength, but that wouldn’t work forever.
It didn’t make much sense, but the strange creatures that didn’t obey the laws of our world. They weren’t trying to merge into the world. Instead, they were merging the world into themselves.
They were completely different on a fundamental level compared to the monsters that simply wore masks and left graffiti—they were true invaders.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at the absurdity of it all.
“Aaaaaaaah.” Oh, even my laugh had turned dull.
Regardless, it was hilarious to see such fearsome invaders appear only after human society had become a mockery of itself.
I had to act faster. I had to rectify the heroes’ sense of justice before more enemies of that caliber showed up.
I regretted my inaction thus far, and my enemies suddenly turned to me with more intensity. Having sensed my moment of weakness, countless eyeballs stared into my soul.
So far, the boss monster had left its minions to deal with me and simply stared at the horizon. Despite receiving countless blows from my hammer, its gray shell remained intact.
In a moment, it directed its gaze at me, intending to finish me off once and for all.
My right hand stiffened—a numbness that soon spread to my entire body. It had used the moment of vulnerability to dig deep into my soul.
‘Was I always this weak-willed? To think I’d ever submit to these weaklings.’
Those enemies weren’t particularly strong—their attacks weren’t too much of a threat due to their simplicity; their movements were relatively slow as well.
There was also the factor that they never tried to use deceptive tricks. Their strength was quite menacing, sure, but such strength didn’t stand a chance against my physical prowess.
If I were to compare enemies, the invading vanguard monster from ten years prior was more threatening—the tentacle with the power to suck my emotions away.
How could those enemies beat me? Why did the announcement deem me too weak? How did they get designated as a common enemy?
Hm… Didn’t someone once say, ‘To win the war, start by winning in numbers’?
I don’t remember who it was, but if that person were watching me, they’d surely be celebrating. Someone showed up and proved their theory correct—that ‘someone’ being an invading monster trying to eradicate humanity.
The enemy leader survived our battle by sacrificing its minions, who endlessly threw themselves at me with their infinite numbers.
Even if I gathered my power to decimate all the enemies surrounding me, the monsters would deflect the damage to a portion of them to keep the cooperative army alive.
They overwhelmed their opponents with pure numbers—something every military strategist feared facing. No matter how powerful their opponent, no matter what tricks they fell for, the monsters would simply never falter.
The only way to beat the invaders was to fight them with an equal number of forces.
I had never imagined losing to my foes just by being outnumbered. I always believed in quality over quantity, but I had to admit my mistake that day.
“Fine, it’s my loss, you goddamn shrimps. You win this one.” I raised my right arm in defeat, yet still firmly held my hammer—my only remaining hand since I had purposefully protected it to keep fighting.
My left hand had long since vanished, but surely the seafood wouldn’t mind me not raising it. It wasn’t something I could help, after all.
Takatakatakak—
For the first time since the beginning of our battle, the crustacean monsters expressed an emotion. Perhaps they understood that I was surrendering?
They clicked their claws together and slowly approached me—intending to eliminate their antagonist and resume their invasion.
I slowly lowered my arm and glanced at the stopwatch hanging on the hammer’s handle.
26 hours and 23 minutes since the beginning of the battle…
I had bought enough time.
“I only said that I lost. Nothing more, nothing less.” My defeat didn’t spell humanity’s defeat. I couldn’t hand over my life just yet.
Fwoooooosh—
Inside the monotonous world, I heard a familiar non-monotonous sound—the sound of a projectile.
Boom— Crackle—! Boom—!
As I thought, countless explosions followed. It was the sound of a military bombardment sent as supportive fire.
I didn’t enjoy the noise and commotion, but I couldn’t have asked for a better sound to hear at that moment.
“Sorry for being late.” A robotic voice came from a huge, gray, metal suit of armor. Librarian, the S-Rank hero who guarded the Association.
“You better be, Motherfucker. Over 4 hours 23 minutes late. You told me to hang on just for 22 hours, remember?”
I allowed him to carry me away in his metal arms and asked questions regarding humanity’s counterattack. “Did you record my fight?”
“Everything’s recorded.”
“And the defense line?”
“We’re done setting up on the coastlines that lead to the Pacific Ocean.”
“How many are joining the fight?”
“Everyone.”
“Good.”
The gray knight brandished a laser sword in his right hand and held me to his left flank to protect me.
“…” I didn’t enjoy feeling like a ball stuck in a rugby player’s armpit. “Didn’t you bring a protective carry case? Or aren’t some carrier forces coming to help?”
In other words, I wanted someone or something else to carry me to safety.
“The gray area distorted the senses of everyone who made contact. There are only a handful of people who could fight on this battlefield.”
“Ah, izzat so?” To be fair, if even I couldn’t handle the fight, then ordinary soldiers wouldn’t last a minute there.
“Hold on tight. We’re breaking through.”
* * *
Reaper Scans
Translator - Kuro
Proofreader - ilafy
Join our discord for updates on releases!!
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* * *
Fwooooosh—
My senses shook and turned hazy as though I were in a dream—Librarian’s ‘Reality Manipulation’.
My perception blurred like a filter had been placed around me. Slowly, the sky and sea regained their colors, and my senses fully returned to normal.
Only a small range of space around us regained its color, but it was more than enough to stabilize our mental states.
Looking down, I saw bits and pieces of gray crustacean flesh floating in the ocean.
“Test complete. I have confirmed my ability’s capability to restore the world and counter the enemies’ power,” Librarian said.
“That’s great news.”
The jetpack on Librarian’s back ignited. We accelerated and charged into the wall of crustaceans blocking our path.
I was slightly concerned about whether Librarian’s offensive would work. He specialized in supporting others, after all.
My worries were for naught.
Every time the right gauntlet swung the purple laser sword, it sliced apart every gray monster standing in our way.
‘Right… They aren’t particularly strong, after all… as long as we figure out how to deal with their numbers…’ Feeling relieved, a wave of fatigue hit me like a truck.
How many years had it been since I last felt so exhausted?
‘Better sleep as much as I can before the next fight… I’ll take a break… since my colleague is here…’
My thoughts trailed away, and my eyes gently closed as I lay in my colleague’s arms.
* * *
A certain woman dressed in light gray techwear with countless syringes in her pockets grabbed me as I ran out of the medical room.
She was Oxymoron, the healing-type hero in charge of treating me. “You can’t get up yet, you haven’t fully reco—”
“I’m fine. I know my own body best…” We bickered as we always used to in the past.
I understood her concerns as a healer, but we always had the same discussion every time I got injured. I wished she’d finally give up on changing my mind.
“Rather, why aren’t you at the meeting? Everyone was summoned to the general assembly,” I said.
“Because I’m a non-combatant. I also wouldn’t understand their discussions, even if I joined the meeting.”
Her? A non-combatant? ‘I’m sure plenty of monsters would argue otherwise. Too bad they can’t after getting their spines ripped out.’
I did agree with Oxymoron’s comment about not understanding the contents of the meeting, though. Her personality and intelligence were a bit lacking for that.
Still, I didn’t dare voice my thoughts. I didn’t want to get more injured, after all. “Just come with me. I’m sure they’re all chatting about shit without understanding anything either.”
“Fine, but if your condition gets worse, I’m bringing you back by force, no matter what you say.”
‘I’m sure you would. After sedating me with your fists.’
We walked down the hallway together and soon reached our destination—the room where everything began 15 years prior, the birthplace of the Hero Association, the meeting room of the Association’s founders.
Clunk—
The old door clanked open, and the gazes of veteran heroes who had been active for at least ten years focused on me.
I stood in the conference of lunatics; the lunatics who delayed their retirement—whether by choice or by force—and gave their everything for the protection of humanity.
“Would you look at this? The loser is finally here.”
“Shut up, Infinite Castellan,” I shot back.
“You won’t even call me ‘old man’ anymore? Kids these days…”
I walked past the empty seats and sat on the one at the very front and center.
“Why are you sitting there, brat?”
‘Geez, he sure has a lot of complaints today.’
“Why, got a problem, Junior Castellan? If so, come back when you have the seniority, Mr. 26-Years-of-Service.”
“You darn brat.”
Anyway, moving on from the old man…
“How’s the situation?” I asked.
“Don’t ask that after being tardy. Go read the documents or something.”
“Then you go get beaten up in my stead, Supreme Sword.”
“I don’t fight like you, getting beat half to death. You’re an embarrassment to martial artists, you know? A real martial artist should be avoiding attacks and…”
‘Anyways, moving on from Supreme Sword, this dumbass…’
“Please quiet down, Mr. Kung Jianpyung. You’re too old to be making such a fuss.”
“You shut up too, Calavera!”
Weirdly enough, Supreme Sword and Calavera started bickering with each other, even though he was initially picking a fight with me.
‘Aren’t you two too old to be fighting like kids?’ I wondered,
Supreme Sword kept babbling away—his martial arts uniform fluttering in the air from his wild gestures—but I simply ignored him and read the meeting documents on my tablet.
‘Civilian evacuation routes, locations of the temporary barricades for the defense line, potential areas to build the proper barricade wall, the number of heroes who responded to the mobilization order…’
‘Hm?’
Over 90% of heroes were joining the fray?
“There are way too many heroes who answered the summons. 90% mobilizing? That doesn’t make sense,” I said.
“Huh? What are you on about? There’s no way we’d get over 90%. Is your eyesight finally going… eh?”
“You sure can be funny sometimes, Crimson Hammer, 90% can’t be ri—”
Tap tap tap tap tap—
Everyone went silent in disbelief as they tapped away on their tablets.
‘These goddamn morons. They didn’t check the documents themselves but still told me to read them?’
Infinite Castellan knocked on the table with his walking stick to grab our attention and clarify the situation. “I gave the order to falsify the data before publicizing it. It’s clear as day what would happen if we shared the info this brat got us. Those punks would all run away and hide like before.”
The old man chuckled to himself. As his laughter echoed in the meeting room, most of us nodded and agreed with him.
“How much did you falsify it?” I asked.
“I changed the contents, including the existence of the commander-class enemy, its rank, and the bizarre gray space you experienced.”
“Speaking of, what are the results of our analysis on that gray space?”
“According to Librarian, it’s a similar ability to his reality manipulation. Right now, the researcher-type and officer-type awakeners are studying it as a top priority.”
No wonder Librarian was absent from the meeting. If all the researchers and officer-type heroes were also absent… then all those who remained were the pea-brained imbeciles.
So that was why it was so chaotic.
“Have you decided on our plan of action?”
“You joined us at a great time since I was about to bring it up. Now I won’t have to repeat myself.”
Beep—
With a couple of taps on his tablet, Infinite Castellan changed the contents of the large screen at the front of the room.
It shifted from scenes of my fight against the gray crustaceans to a satellite image.
At first glance, it was an ordinary satellite image, but I noticed something at the center of the Pacific Ocean—a large, gray patch of water.
“Are they prioritizing spreading out and taking over as much land as possible instead of moving straight to the nearest piece of land?”
If that were the case, we had more time than initially estimated before they reached our defense lines. If they maintained their speed, they’d arrive in another two to three days.
“Indeed, they care more about gaining territory than advancing and winning the war.” Infinite Castellan spoke with a pinch of excitement. “No matter how much they rampage, they’re just mindless beasts, in the end.”
Kekekek—
The old geezer snickered to himself. “So our strategy is very simple… We build a proper barricade with my power, and then we reduce their numbers. That’s all.”
“That’s just the same as usual.”
“That’s why it’s simple and easy, you brat.”
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