After the school’s on-site learning experience concluded with a soldier wasp uproar.
What subtly bothers Mary’s heart is…
The monster alarm that hasn’t gone off from Sunday to Monday.
As if to keep an eye on the atmosphere between the two.
Still, it’s better that it doesn’t appear, she thinks lightly as she goes through her day.
Of course, there are no strange occurrences without reason.
The story momentarily shifts to the monsters’ spaceship.
Inside a room of the spaceship, which showed no signs of bright colors.
There, many monsters of various sizes and unique appearances were gathered, sitting together in a pitiful circle, exuding a gloomy atmosphere.
“Alright then, the 142nd session…”
These beings, always aggressive and ranking themselves through battle, have gathered so seriously to discuss…
A meeting that was quite recently established, according to the monsters’ standards.
The reason for the meeting’s establishment and ultimate goal.
What is the main topic of discussion and the core subject?
“To wisely survive against Sun, we will have a meeting.”
Wisely surviving against Sun.
To be precise, to die comfortably without suffering.
For the monsters, either way bore the same meaning.
A huge room filled with about 300 monsters.
In that place, the voices of exhausted monsters resonated like any classroom in a school.
“Uwoo…”
“Where did !@#% and &&■* go?”
A monster resembling a slug, who was in charge of the proceedings, stretched a peach-colored tentacle from its body and pointed at the empty spot.
It was a noticeable empty spot, different from the last time during the personnel check.
The monster beside that spot drooped its three heads low.
The central head seemed unwilling to speak, but the left head spoke out with a thin voice.
“That guy was taken down by Sun…”
“What?!”
With the shocking statement from the left head, the approximately 300 monsters present began to stir.
That brave fist and beautifully shining hard shell had been an inspiration to all present.
Yet it had become a former monster, one who can never return to that place.
From the opposite body of the slug-like host, another tentacle shot out and gathered its hands.
“With a heavy fist and shell, having been a spear and shield of the monsters, let us wish for his well-being and quick recovery with a moment of silence…”
At the host’s words, all monsters remaining in that place bowed, bent down, or stood still with their heads lowered in accordance with the etiquette of their respective home planets.
They earnestly expressed their feelings, knowing that the empty spot might be theirs at any moment.
“Now…”
The host’s short voice rang out, pulling the monsters’ heads back up.
“Alright, let’s soon look at the intelligence transmitted from Earth…”
Following the host’s words and actions, a mechanical sound echoed in the wide room.
One wall began to inscribe the news in their language, delivering updates from Earth to the monsters as well.
Naturally, the main topic was about the magical girls.
Among those, in line with the meeting’s theme, were news regarding Sun.
The monsters carefully engraved the new information into their eyes.
“There’s a monster that held out against him for 27 minutes…?!”
“Not a masked face, but his bare face!”
“I can’t believe it! That face did such terrible and cruel acts!”
Even on Earth, Sun’s bare face was causing a ruckus.
And recently, regarding the 27 minutes it took to defeat a monster, the monsters could not hide their shock.
After some commotion, they began to share their theories and strategies they had prepared, either by brainstorming or through prior discussions.
“How about preparing self-destruct methods in advance?”
“To finish it off before suffering? Hmm… that might not be a bad idea.”
“Who’s going to prepare that many bombs and detonation buttons?”
“Could that maybe expose weaknesses to other magical girls…?”
“Then, just allocate it to those who go to the ‘Black Zone.'”
“I think it’s worth positively considering. Let’s hold this for now and hear the next opinion.”
Following the smooth proceedings of the host, the exchange of opinions among the monsters became lively.
Unlike the forced meetings held at school, the monsters were animatedly expressing themselves.
This was only natural, as the anxiety of not knowing when they might head to the ‘Black Zone’ weighed heavily on them.
Thus, before it was their turn to go to the ‘Black Zone’!
Somehow, at least one useful opinion had to come out.
For the sake of their own safety.
“Then, how about this?”
At that moment, a monster with coral-like arms raised them to the sky.
The monster was known as one of the most foolish species among monsters.
Thus, the host did not have high expectations but, after a brief silence, allowed it to speak, considering it a valuable opinion.
“…Go ahead.”
“Let’s save the transmission energy and send about seven or eight at once to the Black Zone!”
The bold suggestion was presented as the coral-like palm clenched tightly.
As soon as the words ended, the monsters began to unleash their criticisms as if they had been waiting for the nonsense to finish.
“Don’t you all die together, you idiot!”
“Are you ready to become a group dish?!”
“Seriously, all you Hett species…! Think this through seriously! You still want to try and beat that crazy girl?!”
“Okay, okay, everyone calm down.”
Amidst the hurled items of derision, the host managed to cool down the heated atmosphere alongside the monsters.
“They were just doing their best to come up with that. If we only criticize each other’s opinions, really good ideas will remain buried and not come to light.”
In the perked up room, one of the monsters attentively listened to the Hett species’ words.
The Brain species.
He pondered that the Hett species’ suggestion was not as bad as it seemed and began to visualize the scene of monsters heading to the Black Zone in his head.
Why do humans focus on the time it takes to defeat monsters?
The news from Earth had reflected that as well.
In the spaceship, each time transmission energy charges, they send one monster to Earth.
Is there really a need to do so?
He was aware that sending organic matter requires a significant amount of energy.
Still, one could charge enough maximum energy to at least send two or three at once.
Finishing his thoughts, he stretched his blue-spined back to the sky.
“Then how about sending this suggestion to the Transmission Room?”
The Brain species proposed an idea known for its cleverness.
Seeing the raised spine, the host displayed a hopeful expression and urged him to speak quickly.
“Oh, go on.”
“Send them individually but sequentially, each to different locations in the Black Zone during one invasion.”
According to him, for some unknown reason, many people on Earth focus on the time it takes to eliminate monsters.
Explaining that point as if to convince those monsters that had just jeered at the Hett species, they calmed down.
The monsters head to the Black Zone sequentially.
The magical girls have to deal with the emerged monsters and quickly go to the next.
If this is repeated five or six times, they won’t know when the next monster will show up, allowing the last monster to die without torture or pain as well.
The more you hear it, the more plausible it sounds.
‘This might actually be possible?’
The monsters present soon started to expect a hopeful death from that suggestion.
Hopeful death; even the dumbest monster would understand the unnaturalness of those two words combined.
Nevertheless, for the limited context of the Black Zone, a death without torture or pain was like a hope they wished for.
“Uwoo!! Let’s go with this!”
“Let’s hurry to tell the Transmission Room!”
The 142nd meeting on wisely surviving against Sun.
It began with a few words from one foolish monster and ultimately made its way to a significant and refreshing idea akin to a rain for drought.
At the end of it, whether it awaited the hopeful death anticipated by the monsters or the pent-up rage of a magical girl sharpening her blade of vengeance, would have to be seen for now.
The narrative returns once more to Sun.
“Yawn…”
The monster alarm hasn’t gone off for several days.
Though the silence now breeds anxiety, the body relishes the comfort instead.
Finally lying sprawled out in the room, a long yawn escaped.
Have they finally given up on sending monsters to this area?
‘It wouldn’t be surprising.’
As he nodded in agreement while lying down, he arranged his thoughts.
Counting the monsters that had been burned by his hands and cane, it reached comfortably into the triple digits.
‘If they have any sense, they wouldn’t want to come here.’
“…Mary?”
One should have thought not to think such things.
Hearing a voice calling him as if something was wanted brought him to gradually rise.
And that day felt different.
“Uh, uh-oh?”
“What’s wrong?”
The panicked voice of the Gomtaengi turned red.
While gathering his mask, he thought it must not be anything significant and asked what was up.
However, the following words from the Gomtaengi were unmistakably serious news.
“One, two, three… There’s more than one reaction?”
“What the hell?”
