- 03. Opened My Eyes -
[Athena. Athena!]
After taking down the Beast-Type Heuksu and recovering the Materia Crystals that came from them.
Gunshin left the battlefield where blood and death had settled and set up a small camp on a nearby hill.
Having instantly created a suitably sized military-green tent through the grace of Materia Magic, he was passing the night with the voice in his head for company.
[Athena. What are you thinking about?]
"Nothing. Just shedding some manly tears for a bit."
[Athena is not a man, though?]
"Exactly. That's why I'm shedding tears."
Gunshin— no, Athena let out a long, deep sigh.
Huh? Why suddenly Athena? You're throwing away the name your parents gave you?
There was a reason for all of it.
Gunshin looked at the mirror floating in front of him, created with Materia Magic.
What was reflected there was someone completely different from the original Gunshin.
The original Jang Gunshin was an extremely ordinary South Korean male.
Black hair, black eyes. Decent height. Didn't wear glasses.
A young man who wasn't a fat pig, thanks to doing push-ups every day in his own way.
And so, reflected in the mirror before his eyes...
A stunningly beautiful woman with gold-dust hair and dawn-colored eyes (with the cross-shaped pupils befitting a weeb gacha game) glaring sullenly back at him was just too painfully cruel.
If he'd seen a woman like this back on Earth during his hot-blooded high school days, she'd have been exactly his type—the kind he'd have confessed to on the spot without a shred of shame.
And then he would've bawled his eyes out after getting rejected.
But that kind of beauty is me. Goddammit...
"Haa..."
Right.
From the moment he'd realized this body had become an 'Automata,' Gunshin had been resigned to it to some degree.
<Automata>
Before humanity fled to the sky.
The answer humanity produced amid the endless war of attrition that began with the war against the <Heuksu>.
For some reason, most of them were female-type, and male-types were extremely rare.
The Lore Miners who picked the setting apart figured there had to be more to it than just weeb shit, capitalism, and “adult circumstances”—
some in-universe reason for it. But for most players, it was a story they couldn’t care less about.
That's weeb gacha games for you~ I mean, would you drop hundreds of thousands of won on the gacha just to pull a male character?
And now he was paying the price for letting it slide like that.
My poor junior. Never even got to use it once...
Don't tell me that thing about male virgins being able to use magic was actually this? Damn it.
If he thought about it any more deeply, the tears felt ready to pour out—so Athena waved the mirror away and lay down on the ground.
The mattress and blanket she'd created with Materia Magic felt reasonably cozy.
Athena closed her eyes.
Her first night in another world.
Quite naturally, sleep did not come.
No matter how good he was at letting things roll off him, too much had happened in a single day to simply brush aside.
Nike spoke to Athena as she lay there.
[What are you going to do from now on, Athena?]
"Well. I'm thinking about it."
The most important event, <Black Mountain>, was already over.
Unless Athena gathered six Infinity Stones and snapped her fingers, the Human Alliance was bound to be pushed off the northern continent.
"Still, it's not... the worst."
[You're saying this situation isn't the worst?]
"Right."
[How can that be—]
Letting Nike's voice, laden with shock, wash over her, Athena continued her thoughts.
If she compared humanity's current situation to stocks, this was the starting point of an endless bear market.
No technical rebound, no boom—just a straight plunge all the way to delisting for Abyss Flood Humanity Inc.
But put another way, that meant it hadn't hit rock bottom yet.
"Meaning there's still something left to salvage."
If this really were the stock market, she'd have happily used future knowledge to pull a <Big Short>, but unlike the stock market, you can't short humanity's fate.
So what should she do?
According to the Lore Miners, in the original history, the troops that survived this <Great Retreat> amounted to less than 10 percent.
The elite soldiers and Automata who had honed their strength and experience fighting the Heuksu for years, the seasoned officers who led them, the heroes who led those officers.
An Avengers Assemble that the humanity of <Abyss Flood> had created by combining all their strength—one that probably could never have existed without the calamity of the Heuksu.
That force had pushed the Heuksu all the way to the northern edge of the continent— but if she could save even half of the strength that had melted away during the <Great Retreat>?
If humanity didn't completely lose and flee to the sky, but instead managed to hold at least the southern continent, history would change dramatically.
[But Athena... no matter how powerful the new weapon you created is, Athena is only one person.]
"Yeah, I'm alone. But I won't be alone forever, right?"
[That's...]
The 'gun' Athena had created was not some exclusive weapon that only Athena could wield.
Why had firearms surpassed every existing weapon to become the king of all arms?
Range? Destructive power?
No.
It was the extremely low barrier to entry—a four-year-old child could go finger-snap! and send the mightiest warriors of history, Xiang Yu and Lü Bu, straight to the afterlife.
The 'ease' of it: even an ignoramus who didn't know the first letter of the word gun could, after a few days of bleeding, grinding their teeth, and getting the hang of it, kill a person without much trouble.
That was exactly why the gun was the king of all weapons.
Even if <Abyss Flood> was a fantasy world where magic existed and heroes who single-handedly turned the tide of battle strutted around openly, the gun's value did not diminish.
If an ordinary soldier could produce more firepower in one week of training than ten knights who had trained in martial arts their whole lives, who could resist that?
And there was also the miracle-water 3D printer. In this world with Materia Magic, mass-producing firearms would not be difficult.
This was still the <Great Retreat> period, when even the Heuksu were mainly 'Beast-Type.'
In an era where steel swords and plate armor made with Materia Magic—surpassing medieval ironworking—were the pinnacle of armament, what if gunners armed with breech-loading rifled guns appeared, not even line infantry?
There was no need to go all the way to 21st-century modern assault rifles. Even just pre-World War bolt-action rifles—how much would combat power rise?
Need I say more?
Within half a year, a renewed advance on 'Black Mountain' would be possible.
Filled with grand dreams, Athena poured out her thoughts to Nike.
"How's that?"
[...]
But Nike's reaction was a little different from what Athena had imagined.
She hadn't expected a primitive discovering fire—'Eeeek~?! Amazing! You're the best!'—with infinite headpats, but Athena had at least thought fervent support and applause would follow.
But her 'woman in the chair' Nike spoke in a grave, cool voice.
[Athena. In other words, you're saying you intend to spread the methods for making firearms and ammunition to other Materia Mages. Is that correct?]
"Uh... yeah. So?"
[You absolutely must not do that. Athena.]
"What?"
Nike's reaction went beyond Athena's expectations—it was the complete opposite.
Nande?! Doshite?! How come?!! Why?!
[At the very least, the ammunition manufacturing method must be kept secret no matter what. Athena. You must not tell anyone. It must be something only Athena can make.]
"..."
[Even that may not be enough. Ammunition must be reduced back to Materia particles the moment it's used, leaving no trace, and you must not make it in advance and store it either.]
"That far? If that happens, the gun's advantage..."
This was a world where, thanks to the cheat that was Materia Magic, there was a possibility of instantly mass-producing the firearms and ammunition that required high-quality steel and precision machining in the medieval era.
But in such a world, mass production and large-scale deployment as a primary weapon...
Give up the overwhelming power that would let every marine become a 3-3 Jim Raynor against no-upgrade Zerglings the instant they finished upgrading?
How fatal a loss was that?
If Athena alone had to produce the firearms... no, just the ammunition, the limits were clear.
A weapon that could overturn the war itself would plummet to the level of merely guaranteeing victory on a single battlefield.
[But even so, that is better. Athena.]
At Nike's utterly resolute voice, Athena fell silent.
[The gun and ammunition Athena created are clearly objects that did not exist in this world.]
"?"
[The 'gunpowder' and 'primer' that allow a tiny piece of metal no bigger than a fingernail to produce enough power to pierce even plate armor like it's nothing... are Athena's miracle alone. But—]
"But...?"
Nike paused for a moment before continuing.
[The moment Athena spreads that to others... the story changes completely.]
At that moment, it would no longer be one person's 'miracle' but 'magic.'
Magic that anyone could learn if only they had the effort and talent...
In other words.
Humanity's 'enemies' could use it as much as they pleased.
[Keep this in mind, Athena. In this world, the greatest and most powerful Materia Mages are none other than the Heuksu.]
Firearms and ammunition. And the magic that creates them. Even if the secret were kept as thoroughly as possible, could it really be prevented from leaking to the enemy?
Even if you stopped it 100 times, even if you stopped it 1,000 times, the moment it leaked once, hell would arrive.
And if that happened—
"The gun's overwhelming advantage would apply to the enemy just the same."
[That's right, Athena. It would be a terrible catastrophe for humanity.]
"Ngh..."
Nike's advice was extremely realistic.
In the world of <Abyss Flood>, the true masters of Materia Magic were not humanity but the Heuksu.
When both sides possessed the same technology, the ones who could draw it out to its absolute limit were clearly the other side.
In the end, Athena had no choice but to scrap the plan to arm the entire Human Alliance with firearms.
"Haa—"
Nothing ever goes the easy way, seriously.
The plan to supply firearms and finish off the Heuksu quickly, and the plan to leech off military logistics from the rear—both had gone straight to hell.
Goddammit.
If so—
"The problem's changed, so the answer has to change too."
Athena still had hope.
If you can't secure quantity, raising quality was the standard of standards.
If it couldn't be mass-produced, then maximize the firepower each individual gun—each person holding a gun—could produce.
And on modern Earth, there was a very exemplary answer.
The first weapon of mass destruction ever created by Earth's humanity.
The starting point where mere dozens or hundreds of humans could overwhelm thousands or tens of thousands of enemies.
One of the Infinity Stones of modern weaponry that could grind down hundreds or thousands of enemies—even enemies using the same firearms—like nothing.
The machine gun.
Athena would summon the Time Stone into this cold-weapon fantasy world.
Of course, there was still a long way to go.