Let There Be Light (1)
The midday sun hung high at its zenith.
Hummm—
The Holy Sword slowly raised its shining blade.
The moment the sun reached its highest point was precisely when vampires grew at their most lethargic and vulnerable.
"I'm sorry... I'll only drink a little blood next time..."
It had already been a month since Judddak abandoned the blade here and returned home to his bunker all by his lonesome. Erzsebet was muttering in her sleep—this was its golden opportunity. The sacred weapon was thoroughly sick of serving as her makeshift hug pillow in Judddak's absence.
Hummm.
Life, after all, was survival of the fittest. The Holy Sword didn't care all that much that its master had dumped it behind. Probably.
"...Don't go!"
Huuuum!
Leaving a perfectly fine bed unused, Erzsebet, who was somehow sleeping while standing upright on her feet, shouted in her slumber.
The Holy Sword flinched in place.
Fortunately, it was merely an intense bout of sleep-talking. Steeling its resolve, the Holy Sword tiptoed silently out of the bedchamber.
Huuuuummm...
At long last, it succeeded in catching a glimpse of the sun. Having pulled off its daring escape, the Holy Sword basked in the warmth of the daylight for a brief second before streaking off across the sky into the distance.
The One-Eyed Frog beast has been subjugated.
Distributing bounty reward.
"Wait, what?"
I had set up a bounty system to encourage the Gallums to participate in hunting. Whenever someone subjugated a targeted demon beast on the wanted list, I personally handed out the reward from my pocket. Strictly speaking, it was a pure financial loss on my end, but I regarded it as an essential investment in the community.
Assessing Variant Beast 'One-Eyed Frog'...
Target value: 1,500 Mana Dumplings.
Issuing 10% commission fee.
Thump!
Right at that moment, something fell heavily onto the floor. Startled by the sudden thud, I spun around to find a parcel sitting right in the center of the bunker. I tore the package open and saw dumplings packed inside—exactly one hundred and fifty of them.
"Wait, is this for real?"
The system was built to ensure I wouldn't lose out whenever I acted for the benefit of the Gallery. The Good Deed mechanic worked like that, for instance. But this bounty board was an independent venture I'd started entirely on my own initiative. And yet it was reimbursing me with a commission?
"Holy shit, System, are you actually a god?!"
The perks didn't stop there. As soon as I popped one of the dumplings into my mouth, the experience bar ticked upward. At the very end of the gauge, text that had never been there before came into view.
82.52% remaining until next level: 10
★ Achievement Rewards will be granted upon reaching Level 10! ★
Achievement rewards? I had no clue what that entailed, but considering the quality of previous level-up perks, my expectations were through the roof. Not only had I unlocked a brand-new revenue stream for Mana Dumplings, but a milestone reward was waiting for me at Level 10.
"If this keeps up..."
I might finally be able to put into motion something I'd only dared daydream about. After running a quick calculation in my head, I began shoveling the dumplings down. If there was one thing overflowing in the bunker, it was dumplings.
> 82.51% remaining until next level: '10'
> 82.50% remaining until next level: '10'
Even if the progress was incremental, it was impossible not to feel thrilled. Right at that moment, an urgent notification flashed across my console.
"Huh?"
It was a desperate cry for help from Myoran, the chieftain of the rabbit beastkin and the very embodiment of a fluffy bunny.
"What?"
She was frantic, which was completely out of character. When I pulled up the attachments, the image that greeted me was indeed a 12-gauge shotgun snapped cleanly in half.
"Wait, how the hell did it break?"
In a medieval world, a firearm was an absolute weapon. The magical defenses native to this other world were designed strictly to ward off magic. They possessed zero resistance against modern kinetic weaponry, making an equal match impossible. What good was ten thousand points of magical defense when a shotgun dealt pure physical trauma?
"I have no idea how it broke, but..."
The situation clearly looked critical. I decided to dispatch an immediate emergency supply drop.
There was a common misconception across the Gallery that firearms were legendary, irreplaceable relics, leading users to believe only a handful could ever exist in circulation.
That couldn't have been further from the truth. In the system store, a shotgun cost pocket change. The only reason I hadn't flooded the market was because I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the fallout if firearms circulated unchecked. A beast had snapped their gun?
Delivery complete: 10 '12-Gauge Shotguns', 50 'Shotgun Shells'!
Now let's see if firepower solves the problem.
Ten minutes after the supply drop was dispatched, a brand-new featured post took over the front page of the Gallery.
Greetings, fellow Gallums.
And to our supreme pillar of support, Head Mod.
On behalf of the entire rabbit clan, we offer our overwhelming, boundless gratitude, myo.
Head Mod, is he a god?! Myo.
"Well, at least it looks like it was sorted out."
The photograph showed the pulverized remains of what used to be a Sandworm. Truly, no beast survived intact when greeting a wall of buckshot. Yet one thing continued to nag at me.
The rabbit clan already possessed the shotgun I had sent them earlier, plus at least one round of ammunition. Furthermore, the Sandworm was a beast they had faced before; a single direct hit from that shotgun should have been more than enough to obliterate it.
"Ack, disgusting!"
The Sandworm hadn't arrived alone. The image was so repulsive I briefly wondered if Myoran had deliberately detonated a shock-meme tactical nuke on the board. Crawling and latching across the worm's hide were dozens of parasite monsters shaped like giant, pulsing eyeballs.
That only deepened my confusion.
"Wait, what use does an underground monster have for eyes?"
I understood that the parasites acted as auxiliary eyes for the Sandworm, but as a rule of thumb, subterranean burrowers evolved to lose their eyesight entirely. Why would it need dozens of optical organs underground?
Yet these parasites proved to be an exception. A quick search on the Myeolgal Wiki immediately brought up the relevant entry.
[Topic: Demon Beast / Eyeball Flea]
1. Overview
A demon beast consisting of a massive eyeball that serves as its torso, supported beneath by countless spindly, scurrying legs.
2. Characteristics
Disgusting beyond belief.
In exchange for parasitizing other animals or beasts, it shares a panoramic, 360-degree field of vision with the host.
Synergizes exceptionally well with beasts possessing rapid physical reflexes.
Boasts peak combat synergy when paired with Sandworms.
"I've never seen this kind of beast before."
On its own, the parasite possessed zero attack power—it was practically a glorified cockroach whose only notable feature was looking horrifying. But the moment it latched onto a host, its omnidirectional visual field eliminated every blind spot, pushing the host's reaction and evasion capabilities to their absolute limit.
"Wait, it dodged a shotgun?!"
The damn thing had actually managed to evade gunfire. In truth, it had sensed the incoming threat and shifted its massive bulk the moment it read the muzzle aim, but against a rabbit pulling a trigger, that alone made it terrifyingly lethal.
"Shotguns alone aren't going to cut it."
They could hold the line temporarily, but this would turn into a hopeless war of attrition. They had lucked out with zero casualties during the first skirmish, but there was no telling how long that luck would hold. While healing potions existed, administering them to serious wounds required local anesthetics to curb the shock from the pain, which was an enormous hassle.
"Hmm..."
The Sandworm itself was flimsy. It had low defensive stats, easily dying in a single blast from a shotgun.
What am I supposed to eat to survive now...? (T_T)
The problem was its lightning speed. If it wasn't killed cleanly in one shot, the surrounding settlement suffered devastating collateral damage.
What they needed was a tool to instantly neutralize the beast's nimble mobility and overcharged reflexes.
As the Special Air Service once declared: Let there be light.
And as always, the system shop held the answer.
The rabbit beastkin clan lived huddled together deep underground. Born physically fragile, they had fled from both human hunters and ferocious predators, seeking sanctuary in subterranean caverns. Yet that choice had proved to be a grave mistake.
"Chief, another swarm is breaking through!"
"Eeeek...!"
Beasts infested the underground as well. It was only ever a matter of time before their hidden hamlet was unearthed. The subterranean world they had chosen as a shelter had inverted into a suffocating death trap.
CRRAAACK!
"The palisade is down!"
The sharpened wooden stakes were pulverized like fragile kindling beneath the charging mass of the Sandworms.
"Fire!"
KABANG!
Myoran's dainty, furry paw squeezed the shotgun's trigger. It was an outrageous grand magic capable of instantly executing a Sandworm in a single thunderous roar, yet...
Skrrrt!
"Myo-what...?!"
The beast effortlessly slithered aside. A Sandworm was slower than a bullet, but it was far faster than a tiny rabbit's finger pulling an iron trigger.
Of course, the blast wasn't entirely futile.
SKRRREEECH!
A few stray pellets sprayed across the cavern, clipping and dropping some of the rear worms. But it was nowhere near enough to turn the tide.
"Aaagh!"
Injuries began piling up across the defensive line.
"We barely have any shells left..."
At this rate, total annihilation awaited them. Just as despair flickered across Myoran's usually composed eyes, a luminous blue window materialized before her.
5 'Flashbangs' have been safely delivered!
20 pairs of 'Protective Earplugs' and 'NRR 33 Earplugs' have been safely delivered!
"Th-This is...?"
Simultaneously, several bizarre, cylindrical chunks of metal clattered out of thin air and struck the dirt. In the entire realm, only one presence was capable of such a feat: Judddak.
Acting on pure instinct, Myoran activated the Gallery interface. Sure enough, an official post from the Head Mod was pinned at the very top of the board.
"!"
Every rabbit beastkin present, starting with Myoran, seared the Head Mod's words into their memories. Exchanging rapid glances, they immediately rolled their long, velvety ears into tight spirals, shoved the protective plugs deep inside, and curled into compact, crouched balls just as instructed.
"Get down!"
Summoning every ounce of strength in her small body, Myoran yanked the flashbang's pin and hurled the metal canister over the shattered palisade straight into the writhing mass of Sandworms.
I've seen this before. If it's that weapon, it will definitely...
It was another manifestation of the strange magic that the Head Mod occasionally distributed. Their metallic shells were small and outwardly similar, yet the sorcery that burst from within varied wildly. Some spewed hellish heat reminiscent of eternal purgatory, while others saturated the air with razor-sharp shrapnel.
"Urrrgh..."
Having witnessed its terrifying might before, the surviving rabbits didn't dare lift their heads from the dirt. The Sandworms, however, were an entirely different story.
Skrrrk?
Curiosity piqued, the Sandworms and the dozens of parasitic Eyeball Fleas latched to their hides fixated their collective gaze upon the small metal canister rolling across the cavern floor.
And in that fleeting instant...
FLASH—!
There was light.