Magi Craft Meister

It was natural to think that No. 13 would have left behind some means to cause another Ether Stampede even after its passing.
Destroying the magical brain that had called itself “Head” was entirely possible at this moment. But if its destruction were to be the trigger that unleashed an Ether Stampede on a global scale, Jin’s life would be at grave risk.
At any rate, unleashing an Ether Stampede would take less than a second.
And destroying the “Head” that was in the lower levels of the base would take at least a few seconds.
There would be no way to prevent its activation. Besides, the location and number of Ether Stampede bombs was still unknown.
And “Head” would probably not hesitate to unleash an Ether Stampede, even if it knew that it would mean its own end to do so.




After putting a plan together in less than a second, Laojun reached out to Jin for his permission.


“Hmm? …I understand. Permission granted.”
Jin quickly gave Laojun clearance to go on with his plan. After all, he didn’t seem to be able to find any other way to deal with this difficult situation, and there was no time for deliberation.


Thus Laojun arranged for a briefing session with Reiko through the Mana Comm, since it was a fast means of communication that human ears would not be able to percieve.
“Understood.”
Using Capricorn 1’s Warp Gate, Reiko moved to “Shinkai”, then to Hourai Island, and from there she relocated herself to No. 13’s base via transfer machine.
In the meantime, Laojun was buying her some time by keeping “Head” busy.

























Laozi realized that there must be some kind of surveillance device in the room from which “Head” was currently looking at him. That wasn’t surprising, as “Head” would have needed it to verify what had happened to No. 13 upon its activation.
















Here’s where Laojun decided to play his trump card.
















It had taken the bait.












.












With a clever use of sophistry, Laojun had managed to luring “Head” into thinking what he wanted it to think.
The processing power of “Head” wouldn’t make it possible to detect Laojun’s true intentions with such limited time.





















This was a paradox known as the “sorites paradox”. Jin happened to learn about it on the internet back when he was still in his original world, and that knowledge was passed on to Laojun.






While “Head” was busy doing his internal processing, Reiko was transferred to Laozi’s side.
“Reiko, it is below us.”
“Understood.”
After those few words between them, Reiko slashed at the floor with her Peach Blossom twice in quick succession, then a third time, and so on.
By the tenth slash, a square hole had been opened on the floor. Beyond it was pure darkness. However, Laozi and Reiko could see clearly what lay below them.
“Here I go.”
Without hesitation, Reiko jumped into the hole in the floor. “Head” was still thinking.
There was a lower level roughly ten meters below the hole. Reiko, who had landed there safe, stared into the darkness.
There she found a lackluster silver cylinder.
It was about 1 meter tall and had a diameter of 1 meter as well. It was the main body of the magical brain “Head”.
The moment Reiko noticed it, Reiko instantly pointed her Magic Canceller towards it and activated it.
Not even a second later, “Head” fell completely silent. Almost at the same time, “Head” was silent.
“It seems it worked perfectly, Reiko.”
Laozi had jumped down the hole as well and walked towards Reiko.
“Let’s destroy it before it has time to reboot.”
Reiko couldn’t help but picture the worst-case scenario where “Head” wakes up and unleashes a global Ether Stampede that results in something terrible happening to Jin.
As soon as she stopped her Magic Canceller, she rushed in and slashed at it with her Peach Blossom at an output of 50%.
The cylinder, which seemed to have been made of aluminum, offered as much resistance as a piece of paper, resulting in it exposing its contents.
“Hmm… Just as I thought, My Lord is better skilled when it comes to magical brains.”
Laozi peered inside the cylinder and voiced his thoughts about it.
“That’s because my Father is the best there is in this entire world.”
After following up on Laozi’s comment, Reiko reached inside the cylinder for the exposed Magi Crystal and crushed it with her bare hand.
It was an unfortunate end for “Head”, having been awakened into this world a mere moments ago, but Laojun didn’t feel sorry for it. Neither did Reiko, of course.
“With this, ‘Head’ should stop working for good.”
“Yes, certainly.”
Then Reiko destroyed its Control Core.
And so, “Head” was completely incapacitated.
“Let’s collect its memory device and so on, and analyze them later.”
Laozi then decided to summon the Land units that were on the surface right above them to help them collect as much as they could.
＊ ＊ ＊
“…What’s happening?”
After the Barrier Bomb, the demons were unable to follow what was going on.
The Land units formed a line and started jumping into a hole in the ground.
Reiko, who was considerably noticeable due to her conspicuous appearance, had disappeared before their very eyes, causing their confusion to grow even deeper.
After the Land units were gone, Reiko came back from that same hole and spoke to the demons.
“Everyone, the danger is gone.”
But the demons were so confused that not even her words made any sense to them.