REAPER SCANS
Mr. Magical Girl
[Translator – Kuro]
[Proofreader – ilafy]
Chapter 45: Chopping a Forest with One Swing (1)
“What’s the situation?” I asked.
“Get a change of clothes first,” Infinite Castellan replied, picking a fight with me the moment I entered the meeting room.
“Mind your own fucking business.” I ignored his suggestion and sat in my seat.
“Uh… Mister? I agree. You should get a change of clothes.” Oddly enough, even Oxymoron commented on my appearance.
I looked down to check my outfit.
My magical girl’s combat outfit was torn and burned from the nuclear blast. My coat had been blown away in the explosion, but the white tights on the inside were still covering most of my skin. As far as I could see, I looked appropriate enough.
“I don’t see a problem, though?” Most of those heroes had seen me in worse states during our struggles on the battlefield over the past 30 years.
“But we have some guests…”
‘Guests?’
I turned around to inspect the room. Besides the commanders of each army and the leaders of the Association’s special forces, there were monitors around the room showing people wearing formal suits. I didn’t recognize any of them at first glance.
—What on earth are you planning? Using nuclear missiles? Are you crazy?
—Didn’t you say you could stop the enemy? There are massive commotions in every country right now. People are confused and terrified.
—Who’s going to take responsibility for the failure if the enemies break through the defense line?!
The Association’s usual meetings followed a proper order, with people taking turns to speak, but that was much more chaotic. It was loud and hectic, like a bustling market.
‘These guys are just babbling whatever they want, huh?’
I tried to closely listen to the barrage of voices, wondering if there was anything special amongst them.
Overall, their babbling could be summarized as: they were questioning why we planned to use nuclear bombs instead of maintaining the frontlines, why we had retreated, if we could really stop the enemies, why the media hadn’t been silenced, saying people were uneasy around the world about our planned usage of nuclear weapons, and threatening to pull their troops out if things continued in that manner.
"These shameless bastards." I leaned back into the chair, muttering under my breath as I slouched in the seat.
“Shush, they might hear you.”
"It doesn't matter. They don’t even know that we’re here or care about us. Most of them probably don't even recognize Macbeth."
"I agree. Nobody has mentioned Commander Macbeth yet," Supreme Sword commented. He tapped on his scabbard as he watched the scene unfold, amused by the situation.
The soldiers and staff of the Association were arguing vehemently against the nonsense pouring out of the monitors.
Commander Macbeth had stepped back, letting the deluge of words flow past him without paying them any attention.
As the meaningless meeting continued, the politicians on the screens finally appeared to have voiced all their complaints and made their final remarks.
—We will formally complain to the Association if you fail again. Keep that in mind.
Beep—
Finally, those bastards left the call.
“Complaints? They’ll be too busy dying if we fail anyway. Who’ll have time to complain to us?” I asked.
“Haha, well said, Hammer Brat. Those politicians have never even been on the front lines. They don’t have the right to say anything about the situation!”
“Exactly. They’re just trying to act tough and authoritarian. How pathetic.”
We casually conversed, and the conference room heard us, lightening the mood.
The commanders of each army, the staff from the Association; even the old heroes—everyone laughed as we criticized the politicians’ pitiful behavior.
"Still, I’m glad they aren’t actively interfering with us."
We could handle them as long as they just complained. Thankfully, they weren’t firing nuclear missiles at us, stealing the supplies being rationed, or resorting to kidnapping heroes to protect their own countries.
Clack clack—
As we joked around with each other, the sound of metal taps echoed in the meeting room.
Macbeth stood, hitting his RPG on the floor. "Are we done with the small talk?"
I hadn’t seen Macbeth in a while, and he hadn’t been in the conference a few days prior, when Infinite Castellan had replaced him. How many years had it been?
His military uniform, losing its color from extended wear, had a grayish tint to it, and his hair matched the color with patches of white mixed in, starting to turn gray.
He was still carrying an RPG like a cane, though.
Macbeth waited for the room to quiet down.
Once the noise finally died and silence reigned in the conference room, he spoke again. “We will formally begin the meeting now.”
Thud—
The RPG hit the floor, and a small magical screen appeared in the center of the room. It displayed maps of the Pacific front, satellite photos, and various graphs.
It was a complicated mess of data that I couldn’t understand at first glance, but I didn’t need to interpret it.
Eventually, Macbeth or Infinite Castellan would explain it all.
“How many of you have yet to be briefed on the situation and our future plan of action?”
"Representative of the Bering Sea Sector here. I only received an emergency summons and rushed here."
"Oceania sector here. That applies to us as well."
"The same goes for the South Pacific forces."
Apart from the Bering Sea Sector’s forces, the other units had suffered little to no damage.
Since most of the enemies in the southern hemisphere were wiped out by my initial attack, there had likely been minimal casualties.
"Quite a few of you, then. In that case, I shall explain." Commander Macbeth swung his cane, and the data on the magic screen shifted around. "Originally, the plan was to set up the second defense line in these locations."
On the map, the first defense line encompassing the Pacific Ocean turned black. Behind this black line, a new red line was drawn and traced out, representing the previously planned second defense line.
The secondary line stretched across East Asia from Tsushima Island to North America, passing through the coast of California.
"If we were to follow this plan, it’s unlikely that we would be able to block the enemy. The chances of the enemy forces breaking through this second defense line are high."
Then, more lines of various colors appeared on the map, representing the third and fourth defense lines that were originally planned. We were also shown marks that indicated the deployments and strategies we were going to use.
By the time the enemies reached the fourth defense line, the mainland USA would already be annihilated and East Asia entirely wiped out, starting from all the coastal regions.
"Initially, we planned to evacuate civilians and conduct most of the fighting at sea."
As long as the people survived, humanity could recover from the devastating losses one way or another. Houses and buildings could be rebuilt, but lives could not be replaced.
"However, following Hero Haram Lee's suggestion, this plan was discarded."
Beep—
* * *
Reaper Scans
Translator - Kuro
Proofreader - ilafy
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All of the lines on the map vanished, and a new, thicker, red line appeared in their place in a looping formation resembling an hourglass, with the Kanto Plain of Japan at the center.
"Henceforth, we will abandon the defensive operation and begin an offensive. We will face them on the sea and push them back as much as possible."
The looping red line gradually shrunk on itself, and in the end, only the waters off Japan and the Kanto Plain remained inside the red circle.
"We will gather all the enemies here in the Kanto Plain and wipe them out. Any objections?"
A staff member from the Association, who had referred to himself earlier as the commander of the Oceania sector, stood up and raised a document. "According to this report, a siege operation would be meaningless. The laws of this Otherworld Corrosion make large-scale annihilation impossible. The original strategy was to minimize our losses while gradually reducing the enemy’s numbers because of the corrosion, was it not?”
Even if the land was contaminated and took a long time to purify, the Association’s and the heroes’ priority was always to reduce casualties.
Obviously, the higher-ups disagreed with our mindset.
Losing a country’s territory? Then they would never win their next election.
We didn’t care about that.
"Therefore, I would like to know why we switched to a strategy involving nuclear weapons and a risky, all-encompassing siege."
Clang— Thud thud— Clang—
Macbeth swung his RPG around, striking the ground repeatedly. The soldiers in the room, lacking any special powers, anxiously monitored it in case it would explode.
Commander Macbeth increased the speed of his swings, seemingly in a good mood, before finally answering, "Very good point."
His expression didn't change at all, but a soft chuckle spread amongst the older generation of heroes.
That was the look he got when drilling tactics and strategy into the heads of Awakeners.
"Let’s take a look at the screen."
Beep beep—
The recording of a nuclear explosion appeared on the screen—the moment my finisher turned the enemies in the southern hemisphere to ashes.
The graph adjacent to it zoomed in, showing the theorized number of enemy casualties.
"Huh, this large-scale attack appears to have been effective. This result doesn’t align with my predictions, based on my experience and the data we’ve gathered," the young commander from the Association remarked.
"Why do you think that is?"
"Even when we fired multiple missiles and artillery into the enemy forces’ center, there wasn’t much of an effect. However, Hero Crimson★Hammer’s grand technique, the nuclear strike, appears to have dealt significant damage to them. How strange."
The young commander fell into deep thought as he rubbed his temples.
That was one of Macbeth’s bad habits: he unnecessarily turned operation meetings into debates, wasting our precious time.
I assumed that the others let him do so since we had more than enough time that day.
The Oceania sector’s commander wasn’t the only confused person there. The others who hadn’t received the full information also fell into deep thought.
Their unintentional murmurs of contemplation audibly filled the conference room.
Clang—
“I shall reveal why that is," Macbeth said with the tone of a teacher explaining something to their students. "It’s simply a matter of sheer power, a question of how much the enemy can actually endure."
He swung his RPG again.
Beep—
New data appeared on the screen, showing the total energy output of my attack, followed by calculation formulas, graphs, and images of the damage.
There was also a clear explanation, backed by evidence, as to why the attack succeeded and why the damage was on an entirely different level.
"I verified and demonstrated the theory myself," Librarian whispered to me.
"In the middle of battle?"
"Yes."
As always, his brain was incredible.
"In other words, if the attack has enough power, we can exploit the enemy's Otherworld Corrosion, forcing them to suffer tremendous losses."
Beep—
Macbeth showed the results of the simulations, confirming his point.
He displayed the number of surviving enemies, the number of boss-class creatures and gigantic creatures, the necessary attack power to eliminate all the enemies, and the required distance for such an attack.
"I calculated all that as well."
Why couldn’t the genius just show off on his own? Why did he indirectly ask for praise every time? Did he want me to praise him by patting him on the head with my hammer?
"Well done." I gave him some simple praise so we could move on from the topic.
"The conclusion is that we can minimize casualties by driving the reduced enemy forces into the Kanto Plain and striking them all at once. However, this plan requires the East Asian defense line to remain unbreached until we manage to funnel the enemies into the right position. Therefore, I will concentrate most of our forces there."
The screen changed again, showing the number of A and S-Rank heroes assigned to each front; then, arrows popped up, showing the directions in which each army would move.
"Having mostly wiped out the smaller entities, this unit of regular soldiers will not be very helpful on the frontlines, so it will be reorganized into heavy artillery units."
The map zoomed out to reveal the entire Pacific region and how to structure the hourglass-shaped encirclement.
"These forces will be responsible for tightening the siege. They will push the enemy back with overwhelming firepower. I want the Oceania and South Pacific units, which have sustained the fewest casualties so far, to take the lead in this operation."
A brief murmur of discussion followed, an exchange of opinions between those directly leading the troops, and a reconsideration of their plans.
Thud thud—
After a short period of consultation, the RPG struck the floor again.
"Any objections?"
Everyone silently stared at Macbeth, not uttering a word.
"Okay, let's move on to the details."
I could finally rest my eyes for a bit. Having presented a simple outline of the plan, it was time for the commanders of each army to exchange their opinions and figure out the details.
They would mostly discuss troop deployments, weapon usage, and communication protocols—things I wouldn't understand.
Just as I was about to drift off to sleep…
"I have a question." A voice I didn’t recognize awoke the room.
"According to this plan, a tremendous force beyond imagination must strike the besieged enemy at the end of the operation. Do you intend to use nuclear weapons on land?"
‘What’s the problem with that?’
I slowly summoned my hammer and lifted it above my head.
"There’s your answer," Commander Macbeth replied as he pointed at me. Well, to be precise, he pointed at the hammer I held above me.
The room’s attention shifted to the hammer, and I sensed mixed reactions—some people understood his point while others stared, utterly confused.
"Just to make sure, can you use it a second time, Haram Lee?"
"Yes."
That was why I had told Unho to lift my restrictions for a strange timespan of 13 seconds—all so that I could use that power again.
As long as Unho didn’t die of starvation after losing so much weight, I could do it again without issue.
“Any other questions? If not, we will continue on with the meeting.”
I had no reason to continue listening.
‘Let’s take a nap.’
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