A Regressor's Bucket List

Chapter 195 : Emily (7)

The Prototype was complete.

The deadline was exactly as Emily had planned.

One week.

On the morning of the exact seventh day, Emily, with dark circles etched beneath her eyes, trudged out of the basement.

"Ugh—"

Perhaps burdened by the sunlight after so long, she squinted, furrowing her brow, and searched for me.

She dragged the massive firearm, which she had brought with both hands as if pulling it across the ground, and set it before me, a corner of her mouth twitching upwards.

Thud—

"How is it?"

Judging by the slight tremor in her eyelids, it seemed she had pulled an all-nighter for a full week.

Despite that, the fact that she had rushed straight to me like this meant she was eager to hear my evaluation of the result.

To meet her expectations, I examined the Prototype.

Click—

Clack—

Vwoom—

"Hmm."

As I had expected, it was very different from the weapon I remembered.

Its appearance, for one, was different.

It had a long barrel, helical rifling etched inside the gun barrel, and a Buttstock to brace against the shoulder for firing.

In simple terms, it adopted the general form that comes to mind when one thinks of a 'rifle,' but the weapon I had used was closer to a handgun, with a short barrel and no Buttstock.

It was about the size between a pistol and a rifle.

The very fact that there was no specific name for a firearm shaped like that proved that the weapon with such a structure that I used was unique.

In other words, it was a type of weapon that didn't exist in the world at this point, so even if it was something that her future self had created, it would have been ridiculous for her to create it perfectly on the first try.

At a glance, there were more than a few parts that needed modification.

To be honest, aside from the basic structure of being a 'gun,' it bore no resemblance to the one in my memories.

Still, given her efforts, I deliberated on how to phrase my feedback.

"...Honestly?"

Nod, nod.

When I asked directly, she nodded without a moment's hesitation.

It seemed she had come prepared for some criticism, as it was a Prototype.

Or, considering her eccentric, enthusiast-like tendencies, she might even be looking forward to it.

Well, anyway.

As she wished, I laid out every single point that needed correction.

"First... it looks like you had a general structure for a Magitech Firearm in mind, right?"

"Yeah! I've wanted to make one for a while."

"..."

"I haven't made them yet, but I've also designed a Mana Bullet structure that can hold Mana. I could make them right away if I wanted to."

Shake, shake—

"You'll probably have to scrap all of that."

At my low murmur, she questioned back as if she had misheard.

"...Huh?"

It seemed she had prepared herself, but not for *that* extent of criticism.

"First, starting with this barrel."

I tilted the muzzle towards her.

So that she could see its structure clearly from her perspective.

"What I want to use isn't something that can switch between single-shot and burst fire. It's a projectile system that gathers many small projectiles and fires them all at once. So, this rifling you see here isn't really necessary."

A rebuttal immediately flew back.

"But if you do that, the rotational inertia disappears, so the projectile's trajectory will change with the surrounding airflow, and its inherent stability will be too low..."

"Stability isn't particularly necessary. We're not killing them one by one from a distance; we need to shoot down multiple Magical Beasts at close range."

"..."

"We're sacrificing accuracy for increased close-range firepower. Naturally, there's no need for such a long barrel either."

Tap, tap—

"This Buttstock for bracing isn't needed either."

It was a brief conversation, but in an instant, half of the firearm's components were dismissed.

Her expression didn't immediately accept all the criticisms, but after a moment of thought, Emily nodded as if she understood.

Of course, her method wasn't wrong.

In fact, the mass-produced version of the Magitech Firearm she completed Pre-regression.

The one made for regular anti-Magical Beast soldiers to use was indeed a rifle-shaped weapon with a long barrel.

However, this method was limited to dealing with ordinary Magical Beasts or, at best, Named-grade ones.

When it came to the Demon race, their bodies often far exceeded human standards, regardless of their durability, so powerful close-range firepower was more crucial than precise long-range shooting.

That was ultimately the reason why The Order rejected the development of Magitech Firearms.

Therefore, the Magitech Firearm Emily had made exclusively for me sacrificed length and accuracy, and instead increased firepower by using two barrels.

In simple terms, it was a close-range shotgun, meant to be pressed directly against a Magical Beast's head and fired.

Of course, the problems arising from this method weren't just about reduced accuracy.

"But... honestly, even if you did that, you wouldn't be able to put that much firepower into the Mana Bullets. And even if you could, the muzzle would quickly break down."

"That's right."

There was one more problem.

It was the issue of increasing the Mana Bullet's firepower.

No matter how much the barrel was shortened or the projectile method changed, what was most directly linked to damage was how much powerful fire the Mana Bullet could exert.

And to increase the Mana Bullet's firepower, the bullet inherently had to contain high levels of Mana.

The Mana contained within the bullet and the damage it inflicted were so directly linked that they could almost be considered the same thing.

However, this part was tied to a phenomenon that Magitek had not yet solved.

That was the 'Mana-Twist Phenomenon.'

When high levels of Mana flowed through a material, the Mana-Twist Phenomenon, where the material's original composition mutated, was a Magitek conundrum that even the brilliant Emily had yet to solve.

And the field where this Mana-Twist Phenomenon manifested most strongly was Mana Bullets.

Due to the nature of Magitek, which requires combining various Traits, alloys have inherently been used from the beginning.

In the case of Mana Bullets, given their small size and the need to embed various properties, special alloys were refined from the greatest variety of metals.

However, the Mana-Twist Phenomenon, no matter how precisely refined the alloy, caused a phenomenon that damaged its integrity and made it brittle.

Especially, if Mana flowed through any material, the twisting phenomenon would appear to some degree.

Moreover, Mana Bullets were objects that had to contain Mana.

To increase firepower, they naturally had to contain higher Mana, and the longer that state persisted, the more the twisting phenomenon would be maximized.

In other words.

I didn't know the exact alloy ratio or structure of the bullets Emily was envisioning, but theoretically, it was impossible to use firepower stronger than that.

Furthermore.

The Mana-Twist Phenomenon didn't just appear in Mana Bullets.

As mentioned, if Mana flowed through a material, the Mana-Twist Phenomenon would appear in any of them, differing only in degree.

Even The Order's Guardian Train, hailed as the pinnacle of Magitek, had its engine inspected every time it ran.

How could it possibly be contained in a firearm, which, to be used as a weapon, inevitably had to increase its Mana flow?

Even setting aside the Mana Bullet problem, the moment the barrel was shortened to increase the firearm's firepower, the instability of the bullet's trajectory already increased, and due to the combination of that instability and the scatter-shot method, the firearm's durability inevitably weakened.

No matter how magnificent a weapon, if it was a mechanical weapon rather than a cold weapon, it was useless if it broke down.

In other words, Magitek weapons already had poor durability, so increasing firepower while decreasing durability would inevitably sound like completely abandoning the weapon's structural integrity.

Therefore, if the Mana-Twist Phenomenon could not be solved, creating a Magitek Firearm with high firepower and sustainable use was virtually impossible.

'...That's what Emily would have to think.'

In this general context, Emily would inevitably doubt the practical possibility of the Magitek weapon I described.

Because it was a structure that completely overturned existing common sense.

However.

"What if the Mana-Twist Phenomenon could be solved?"

...If it had been impossible, that weapon wouldn't have existed in my past life in the first place.

It must have been possible somehow, which is why it existed.

"...What?"

Emily's eyes widened.

"Setting aside the durability issue for now, the urgent problem is the bullets, isn't it?"

"...Yes. That's true, but..."

"We won't pre-load Mana into the bullets."

"......!"

The weapon Emily had created.

The 'Dragun' was a weapon so powerful in terms of firepower and versatility that it was unparalleled.

Not only Artifacts, but in my case, I even found it easier to use than Holy Relics.

If it hadn't been that powerful, there would have been no reason for me to bother trying to create that weapon, leaving Holy Relics aside, just because I had Regressed and was being sentimental.

But despite that, I was the only one who used that weapon.

No one, including the Suicide Squad, used a 'Dragun' like mine on the battlefield.

The reason was simpler than expected.

'...Because only I could use it.'

It wasn't a metaphor or an expression of arrogance.

From the very beginning, the Dragun was structurally designed to be used only by me—literally, a 'personal weapon.'

Some of the Members of the Suicide Squad who coveted my weapon asked to borrow it and tried using it themselves, but none of them could use it like I did.

And that 'personalization' originated from none other than the method of bullet production.

"My inherent unique Trait is a bit unusual; I can change Mana Circuits at will."

"......!"

"Although it's at a much weaker level, it's possible even for targets I come into contact with externally. So, for Mana Bullets, we just need to create a circuit through which Mana can flow, and they don't have to contain actual Mana beforehand."

Using this 'Mana Infusion' method meant that the bullets didn't contain Mana for long periods, and even if a slight Mana-Twist Phenomenon occurred, the bullet would have already been fired before it became serious, thus completely preventing problems caused by the Mana-Twist Phenomenon.

Pfft—

"How about it? Doesn't this make it feasible?"

Honestly, the durability issue was Emily's unique domain, so I didn't know how I had managed to use it without breaking it.

But this Emily was still Emily, so I figured she could probably do it.

"..."

Emily, who had been staring at the floor with wide eyes, seemingly calculating something.

Soon after.

Thud—

Without a word, she hastily dragged the firearm and returned to the basement.

I could see a slight upturn at the corner of her lips on her retreating back.