[Ministry of Dungeons — Ishihara Yukie]
The Ministry of Dungeons had been established thanks to Urabe Seiichirou, the ninety-eighth prime minister of Japan. The dungeons were akin to a Sword of Damocles hanging over the world, but at the same time, they had the potential to trigger an economic revival in Japan. Naturally, this meant that the minister in charge of the dungeons would be particularly influential during cabinet meetings. Most people thought that Urabe himself would serve as the head of this ministry, but he ended up appointing an unexpected individual.
“I just received word from the Taiwanese government. They would like to offer an informal apology to Dungeon Busters for the issues they faced due to the demonstrators. Ezoe, the leader of the Busters, also contacted us in order to inform us he did not wish for this to get blown out of proportion,” I explained.
“All right, then we won’t push this either. Did they enter the dungeon already?”
“They have. Taipei Dungeon seems to be Rank C.”
Minister Senba Masaru nodded. He remained silent as he picked up the little model of a wyvern that had been lying on his desk.
I didn’t know how to handle him. The man in front of me was not very well-liked by the rest of the ruling party, but he was a military fanatic and a total fan of subculture trends. For instance, I could see dozens of fantasy light novels and MAMORI magazines—magazines that were basically PR brochures for the JSDF—lined up on his bookshelves.
“In the future,” he began, “foreign military sales won’t focus on weapons anymore. We’ll buy and sell the services of adventurers. This will be the cheapest alternative when attempting to clear dungeons as well, and... Well, modern weapons are far from being very effective on monsters in the first place. Even the F-35, which is said to be the finest aircraft currently in existence, was built to fight in regular wars. Its stealth functions, for instance, would be completely useless against wyverns. We need to start producing weapons designed to fight monsters.”
“Our research center in Tsukuba has already started working on it with the Ministry of Defense,” I said.
Minister Senba acknowledged my answer before changing the topic to the new video that had been released two days ago. The footage showed the Brezilian army struggling against monsters, and Minister Senba thought it was an extremely interesting study from a military standpoint.
“The goblins were using A-47s. These guns are fairly easy to use, but some training is still required. The monsters we see in games and light novels have no relation to the ones we’re facing in real life. They’re intelligent, able to improve, and learn new skills. On top of this, they’re usually in card form, which means they barely cost anything. Acquiring the cards comes at almost no cost as well, since they can be found in the dungeons. I expect poor countries in the Middle East and Africa to switch to monster-based armies as soon as they’re able.”
“Will we also go down this path?”
“That’s impossible. Picture it. Five hundred one-meter-tall goblins armed with automatic rifles. Orcs wearing camouflage uniforms. Transporter erector launchers carrying wyverns... Do you think the Japanese people would accept such an army? Even if they tell themselves that it’s a necessary step to face monsters, they still wouldn’t be able to stomach such a sight.”
I honestly had no idea why we were even having this conversation in the first place. We work at the Ministry of Dungeons, not the Ministry of Defense... The composition of the JSDF has nothing to do with us... I suddenly understood what the minister was getting at.
“So... What you mean to say is that we need another deterrent force, one separate from the JSDF, right?”
“Can I ask you to gather data so we can decide what form this force should take? We also need to figure out the best way to manage it and get the citizens to accept it.”
At this point, having one of our unofficial research teams lay the foundations of the project would be best. This project would certainly remain in the shadows for a while. To be honest, I was having some trouble wrapping my head around it. National defense should be handled by the JSDF, yet at the same time, I had to admit that I did not believe the JSDF would be able to face the Monster Stampede on its own.