[Tsukuba City — Dungeon Research Center]
Inside a room with glass walls were some strange creatures. They looked like regular skeletons but wore armor and held swords. These monsters were, in fact, skeleton knights that had been obtained through the gacha system. A monster obtained this way could be materialized for as long as its master wished, and Dungeon Busters had materialized several inside this room before they’d left for Taiwan.
Isaac Roland, the most brilliant scientist in the world, entered the room and walked among the skeletons, observing them closely. He poked their arms and legs, pausing between each touch to think.
“Professor, please come back. It’s dangerous,” said Rebecca, her voice reaching Isaac through a speaker.
Isaac ignored her though, barely sparing a moment to dismiss her with a wave of his hand. The person who had materialized these monsters had ordered them not to retaliate, no matter what happened to them. Thanks to that, they didn’t budge one bit.
Rebecca stared Isaac down when he finally stepped out of the room. “It’s way too dangerous for you to stay in a room full of monsters alone, no matter what orders they received. At least take some guards with you.”
“If they were gonna kill me, they would have done so already. No need to fret. Anyway, Rebecca, did you notice? These skeletons don’t breathe.”
“Why would they? They’re a bunch of bones. They don’t have lungs.”
“How do these bones stay upright then?” Isaac asked, heading back to his laboratory.
Rebecca followed him. He entered the room and immediately took out a can of Dr. Pepsi from the fridge, sat down, and took a sip.
“Something on your mind, professor?”
“Rebecca,” Isaac said after downing his can in one gulp and letting out a dramatic burp. “Have you ever watched Resident Devil?”
“Wasn’t that movie adapted from a Japanese video game? It was about a virus made by the arms industry going out of control and turning people into zombies or something...”
“Yeah. Well, after that movie, the zombie genre blew up. Countless movies and TV shows came out. Zombies attack humans in all of them, and anyone who’s bitten turns into a zombie too. That’s a fun premise for a movie, but it doesn’t make any sense if you think about it like a scientist.”
“What do you mean?” Rebecca asked. “Plenty of Gamericans actually believe the world will meet its end because of a zombie virus.”
Isaac snorted with laughter and opened a bag of chips. His current go-to was a Japanese brand.
“Listen up. We humans walk on two legs, right? Our brain sends electrical signals to the muscles in our legs, which, in turn, makes our muscles move and support our upright stature. As long as the laws of physics still apply to this world, we need an energy intake to move. We eat and digest food so that nutrients can go through our blood and reach every part of our bodies. Our oxygen intake allows us to produce energy, and, in turn, motion. The issue with zombie movies is simple: how would their energy stores and metabolism work?”
“Well... That’s because it’s a movie.”
“If anything like that happened in real life, I’d simply shut myself inside my house for 72 hours and focus on self-defense. After three days, the zombies will have run out of energy to fuel themselves, naturally, and just fall to the ground. They don’t have any means for energy intake, so there’s no way they’d be able to move about indefinitely. Everything works the same way in the end, whether they’re zombies or battle robots.”
Isaac continued.
“Now... How do gacha monsters that have been summoned above ground sustain themselves?”
“Ah!”
“That’s right. Monsters do not require any energy intake, yet they’re able to move. I wrote a paper on the energy contained within the dungeons a while back, but my research focused on the dungeons themselves, where the flow of time is 144 times quicker. I may need to revise that paper a little. Perhaps the Monster Stampede will turn our whole planet into a dungeon.”
Rebecca pinched her arm, shivering at Isaac’s words.
✦ ✦ ✦
[Nagatacho — Kantei]
“I would now like to start the voting process. Those who agree to submit the constitutional amendment proposal to the Diet after the upcoming G20 meeting, please raise your hand.”
All of the cabinet ministers raised their hands. Suganuma Yoshiaki, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, was filled with emotion. He had supported Prime Minister Urabe for almost eight years, and his dream—a dream that had been dear to the conservatives for seventy years now—was finally on the verge of coming true.
The meeting ended. and although the ministers were leaving their seats one after the other, Urabe hadn’t moved. He looked pale. Naturally, that much was to be expected. Being prime minister was a taxing job. Many before him had passed away while in office, unable to handle the constant workload and pressure. Urabe had to deal with the dungeon crisis on top of everything else. It was impossible to know when the issue would be resolved, and the world heavily relied on Japan for help. The amount of stress the man at the top of the country had to handle was beyond imagination.
“Mr. Prime Minister, are you all right?” Suganuma whispered.
Urabe was very ill. He could complete his exhausting work by carefully monitoring and managing his health condition, but everything had its limits. Suganuma had advised Urabe to drink an Extra Potion dozens of times, but he always refused. Extra Potions were precious. People all over the world with incurable diseases clung to the hope of receiving one someday. He couldn’t make use of his influence and snatch one away just for the sake of remaining in a position of power. He had decided he would not touch a potion before he retired from his position as prime minister.
“I am. The constitutional reform is in sight. I cannot afford to collapse before I see it through.”
“Please let me speak with Ezoe-san, Mr. Prime Minister. I would be the one asking, not you...”
Urabe shook his head, stood up, and patted Suganuma’s shoulder. “We have a press conference to attend. Come on.”
Suganuma stared at the floor, shoulders shaking slightly.
That day, the press conference began five minutes later than planned.