Nobita's Time Heist

"It's too risky, who knows?" Suneo swallowed the food in his mouth and was the first to stand up and object. "None of you have seen her, but Gian and I have seen her underground. That kind of reckless madness seems to want to tear everything in her way. Even if we help her regain her memories, I don't think she'll stop there."

“However, you can’t say that. Put yourself in my shoes,” Shizuka couldn’t help but say. “If I were trapped underground for hundreds of years, I’d probably go crazy too.”

Fat Tiger shrugged. "Sun Wukong in Journey to the West was imprisoned under a mountain for five hundred years, and he's still doing just fine, isn't he?"

"So he's the real god."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Boom————!!!"

Like a comet hitting the Earth, the entire Great Archives suddenly trembled violently, shaking dust off the walls and ceiling. Suneo was the unluckiest—he was drinking hot soup when most of his face was submerged in the bowl, choking and coughing. The commotion further alarmed the already jittery crowd, who scattered like birds.

"Boom-!!"

"Boom-!!"

"Boom-!!"

……

The impacts became more frequent and violent, shaking even the large library fixed to the giant tree, demonstrating the terrifying kinetic energy they possessed. The dense crashing sounds seemed to urge people to make a quick decision. Although they hadn't yet seen the enemy, most people turned and fled in terror, running back to their wallpaper houses and closing the paper doors as if that would completely shut out the danger.

"What happened now?" Fat Tiger stood up, looked around, and saw nothing but panicked crowds. "Earthquake? Earthquakes in the desert?"

"Is that even a question, Gian? We're under attack!" Suneo coughed twice, panting heavily, his voice cracking. "Let's find cover and retreat!"

"If we've been attacked, where is the enemy?" Shizuka asked, puzzled. "I haven't seen any bugs."

Dekisugi pondered, "Perhaps it's a new tactic from the enemy, perhaps..."

"boom--!!"

While everyone was still pondering, Nobita had already taken out the [Ninja Outfit Set] from his pocket, and then took out two smoke bombs from the ornately packaged treasure chest, which he then threw heavily into the distance.

The bullet exploded, releasing smoke far exceeding its capacity. In an instant, the Great Archives' hall was almost filled with white smoke, and within the smoke, several abnormal silhouettes suddenly appeared. They were about the height of a person, looking as if they were covered in the shell of a rhinoceros beetle, and walked on two legs. They stood in a strange formation, moving forward slowly and without making a sound.

"As expected... our enemy has evolved again, this time they're invisible!" Nobita gritted his teeth and almost shouted at the top of his lungs, "Yuktrasil—!!!"

"Whoosh—"

Before the words were even finished, several vines descended from above. Dekisugi noticed that one end of these vines no longer resembled a plant; instead, they possessed a metallic sheen and texture. They pierced into the body of one of the figures from different directions, instantly impaling it with a muffled thud. Some liquid seemed to splatter out, spilling onto the nearby dining table, causing a corner of the table to vanish into thin air.

"Are even bodily fluids invisible?"

"Hiss—! Ah—!"

Their companion was abruptly stabbed to death. They seemed to understand that their secret had been exposed, so they stopped pretending, let out a roar that was somewhere between an insect and a beast, and pounced.

"Damn it..." Gian suddenly kicked the table, overturning it completely, and shouted, "Nobita—!!"

The overturned table temporarily served as cover, giving Nobita time to use his American-style iaido. Because time was of the essence, this time, he chose to directly pull out two [Instant Sticky Guns] and unleashed a round of precise bursts from both hands. In just one breath, he had pinned all the transparent enemies to the ground.

This was the first time Dekisugi had ever directly witnessed Nobita's marksmanship, and he was immediately stunned, amazed by its incredible skill.

However, this time, they did not give up. The silhouettes within the smoke began to struggle frantically, as if venting some inexplicable rage. The viscous fluid displayed remarkable resilience, yet even so, it was stretched thinner and thinner with each brute forceful tearing. Consequently, the space in which these transparent creatures moved grew larger and larger.

"This is bad!" Suneo suddenly remembered something and quickly said, "Gian and I used the Sticky Gun underground, the Mother of Insects must already be..."

Halfway through the conversation, a transparent creature broke free from the sticky liquid's restraints using brute force. Its speed was incredible; a blurry figure flashed through the smoke, lunging towards Da Xiong and the others!

A strong wind blew by.

It was a thick wooden stick made of solid guaiac wood and Dendrobium officinale, woven in a spiral shape, which created a gust of wind when swung from bottom to top.

"Thump—!!!"

With an incredibly solid blow, the invisible assassin was sent flying like a baseball.

……

Everyone looked around and saw... a tree-man, easily five meters tall, standing beside them, wielding a solid long staff in one hand. He was similar to the tree-men in fantasy works, only more "robust," and the material that made up his body was the hardest white oak in nature. Large, dense blocks of wood covered his surface, making him look like a heavily armored knight, giving people a great sense of security.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

……

With each landing sound, more Treant warriors fell from the heights, like dumplings being poured into a pot, quickly forming an encirclement that surrounded the invisible Zerg assassins in the center.

Chapter 127: A Stroll on the Moon?

"Bang bang bang bang..."

Realizing the opponent's new tactic, Nobita immediately took out the Weather Box, set the local weather to "heavy rain," and turned the setting to its maximum.

In the pouring rain, the enemy's figures were finally exposed, their movements and trajectories becoming clearly visible. With this aid, Yggdrasil quickly changed tactics, causing clusters of bursting pea pods to sprout from the bark.

When they explode, they no longer shoot beans, but modified projectiles indistinguishable from metal, essentially adding an air defense system to the bark, sweeping from all angles and quickly tearing the intruders to shreds.

If any manage to slip through, it immediately sprays colored dust, making them instantly visible. Then, the burly treant soldiers deal with them. These cloaked insectoids excel at stealth, their main strategy being to approach silently like assassins and kill with a single blow. In close combat, they are no match for the treants and are dispatched in no time.

Perhaps sensing that Nobita's side had changed its tactics, the Mother of Insects also decided to stop sending troops there, and the two sides returned to the initial delicate balance.

“Yuktrahiel has already disassembled it and studied it in detail.” Dekisugi’s tone was as if he had taken apart a car. “It is unlike any of the Zerg we have seen before. Its genetic pattern is quite new. It should be a newly produced species. From its shell to its limbs to its bodily fluids, it can achieve complete invisibility.”

"Its outer shell can also emit a special frequency band to interfere with the radar monitoring of the invincible turret... This is probably a new function that has evolved after continuous trial and error over the past few days."

After a few words, everyone's expressions turned grim. Although their opponent had lost her mind, she was still a formidable adversary, without a doubt. Give her a little more time, and who knows what kind of Zerg units she might evolve?

"Nobita..."

"Hmm, we can't delay any longer." At the crucial moment, Da Xiong quickly made the final decision. "Xiao Shan, how's your marksmanship?"

"Me? I...I'm a little..."

This was probably the only topic that made Dekisugi feel hesitant to talk about. From childhood to adulthood, whether in sports or studies, he and Nobita were like two sides of the same coin, as if they were born to be each other's antonyms. Forget about chasing him, Nobita couldn't even see his shadow, and he was lucky if he could leave any marks on his test papers.

However, having witnessed Da Xiong's marksmanship firsthand, he dared not boast at this moment. He simply said, "My dad took me to a shooting range in Hokkaido before, and let me try it out a bit. It wasn't live ammunition, and I mostly scored between nine and eight rings."

Not quite reaching the top level immediately, but not too bad either; that's what makes a well-rounded player so formidable.

"This [Heat Gun] is yours. Follow the vines upwards and have Yggdrasil arrange a spot for you high enough, then..."

Nobita hesitated for a moment. He wanted to say, "Our lives are in your hands," but then he felt that saying that would be tantamount to shifting the pressure and responsibility of killing onto Dekisugi. After a slight hesitation, he didn't say the words. He just patted him on the shoulder and instructed him, "Act according to the situation. We're counting on you."

……

Asur watched this scene from behind the crowd and couldn't help but sigh.

"Has he always been this hopeless?" Shuten-dōji couldn't help but ask.

“Ah, that’s right, most of the time…yes…” Asur rarely shared the same opinion as the demon girl on this matter. “He’s not assertive at all, yet he can become a popular team leader. I have to say, he’s quite good at this.”

……

"Hey, hey, why are you all ready to charge in right now? This isn't right, is it?" Seeing the situation gradually escalating into the direction of a shonen manga, Suneo quickly slammed on the brakes, pointed to the satellite projection not far away, and shouted, "Look at the map, our territory is only this small."

After several days of hard work, the green representing plants has indeed secured a place, but compared to the gray symbolizing the insectoid race, which covers almost the entire Golden Country, it is still just a small corner.

In this proxy war where both sides are constantly swarming with troops, the border between the gray and green factions is changing every moment. The Zerg, with their terrifying numbers, are slowly tightening their encirclement, while Yggdrasil is constantly shooting out plant seeds to put up a strong resistance.

The people sitting in the Great Archives, with plenty to eat and drink every day and nothing of great importance to do, were naturally unaware of the tension in the situation. But in fact, even now, they were still the weaker party.

"Then, look here!"

Suneo switched the view, and a spy satellite took an image of the holy site from a distance, making it completely unrecognizable.

The enemy's heartland naturally had the largest troop deployment, and the quality of its soldiers was also exceptionally high. A dark, swarming insect mass blanketed the holy land, so dense it was practically impenetrable. Da Xiong used the weather box to conjure a downpour, but even this light drizzle couldn't withstand a single drop; it was all blocked by the sea of ​​insects in the air.

The sheer number of them sent chills down the spines of everyone present, especially Shizuka. Anyone with trypophobia would probably lose half their life if they dared to look at them.

"Our only area to move around in is this... here! The area covered by vegetation!" To bring everyone to their senses, Xiao Fu even jumped, though he still didn't quite reach it, but everyone understood what he meant. "Beyond this area, the enemy's numbers on the ground and in the air far exceed ours. Going there would be suicide."

The peaceful days in the Great Archives can easily make one overlook the fact that we are at a disadvantage. Battle reports may be deceiving, but the battle lines will not. With such a tense battle line, even if we wanted to extend it to the Holy Land, it would probably take a month or two of protracted fighting.

In a sense, Suneo's concerns are quite reasonable: Nobita's emphasis on a quick victory and decapitation has no strategic basis.

but……

The moment Nobita smiled, those who knew him were already popping champagne.

He pulled a photo from his pocket. It showed Nobita, a fourth-grader, wearing a backpack and waving at the camera with a smile. What was truly astonishing was that he was walking in a beam of light rising from the ground and pointing directly at the moon, while he strolled within it, suspended in mid-air. If this photo were shown to anyone else, eleven out of ten would say it was photoshopped.

“Does anyone remember? I used to have a really silly wish—that in this life, I should do something great that will go down in history. I planned to walk to the moon, take a few pictures along the way, or try to say hello to Luca and the others.”

He pulled a searchlight from his pocket and placed it on the ground with a thud.

"[Street Lights] --!!"

(Road Light: As the name suggests, when turned on, the beam of light will form a "road" in which the user can walk. The light path will move in a straight line, and people in the light path can ignore any obstacles and attacks until the user actively jumps out of the light path.)

Chapter 128: The Rainbow Bridge Arrives!

“So it seems the legend is true… You really do come from another world…” Hargunda raised his neck, which was made of flames, trying to look up at the sky. He saw nothing but an endless sea of ​​insects, and murmured, “A world with magic.”

At this moment, He was trapped in the center of an eight-star-shaped magic circle, His hands and feet bound by chains formed from incantations. Countless tiny crimson runes arranged themselves in circles around the magic circle, slowly moving, forming dense concentric circles on the ground. Some were clockwise, some counterclockwise. In the cycle of magic, the Fire Spirit was demoted from "He" to "He," becoming an entity that could be restrained and killed.

Today, the sacred land of the Golden Village people is overrun with insects and is no longer holy. The sky is shrouded in a sea of ​​black insects, and huge insects crawl on the nine stone pillars. Scorpions, centipedes, spiders... their size is generally dozens of times larger. Like the dark evil spirits that are essential in every fairy tale, they crawl out of the sand one after another and head to the front line in an orderly manner.

In this land, not a single patch of green can be seen; even the tiny seeds of the rootless duckweed, as small as sand, have been swept away. Yggdrasil attempted to airdrop plants, but before they could even land, they were devoured by the swarm of insects floating in the air. To it, the sacred ground where the Mother of Insects resided was the only mist shrouding its entire map.

In this tiny world almost entirely constructed of insects, the only place that could be considered "clean" was beside the Mother of Insects. There stood a massive inverted triangular crystal cluster, and the girl, barefoot, stood on the sand, one hand outstretched, touching the surface of the crystal cluster, seemingly trying to read some information from it. Since the start of the war, she had maintained this posture without eating or drinking, and the Fire Spirit guessed that it was her method of controlling the insect swarm.

"Magic also exists in our world, but it hasn't been fully developed. Humans outside prefer to rely on something called 'science'."

……

The Mother of Insects ignored him, gazing intently at the reflection in the crystal cluster.

"That boy has mastered the ultimate form of what is called 'science,' which is so advanced that it is no different from magic."

"Before he can even reach me, ten thousand insects will gnaw at his insides." The Mother of Insects did not turn around, but spoke in a monotone, sinister tone, as if chanting a spell. "Rain will fall on his corpse, hastening his decay."

"Let's assume... and note, this is just my assumption." The Fire Spirit paused, and only continued after confirming that the other party was listening, "You ultimately won the battle, your insects devoured all the plants, and you completely possessed this oasis in the desert. And then? What happened next?"

"Leave here, continue to expand my army in the no-man's-land, and then send scouts to investigate the human world. The humans in this world are oblivious; they won't even notice what a few tiny flying insects mean. They can serve as my eyes and ears, helping me to keep track of the world's movements. In the meantime, their armaments, technology, tactics—everything—will be completely transparent to me."

"Once everything is ready, I will launch a full-scale attack and take over the continent with an absolutely swift decapitation strike."

"You... want to turn this world into your incubation ground?" the Fire Spirit said in a deep voice. "If you have even a shred of reason left, think it over! Although the world isn't entirely peaceful right now, it's generally in a state of 'peace.' If you rashly start a war, you'll shatter this stability with your own hands, threatening the lives of billions of people, leaving them living in constant fear!"

His response was met with an unbearable silence.

“Narniadis, I can sense that you are not inherently evil.” Unable to defeat her in a direct confrontation, the Fire Spirit could only continue to persuade her with words, “Can you really bear to see such a scene of devastation unfold under your watch?”

……

The Mother of Insects slowly turned around, looking at him expressionlessly. Her long, maroon hair and beautiful face always made people subconsciously overlook her danger.

She shook her head.

"It's okay, it's all the same."

"What do you mean...the same?" Confused, Fire Spirit read a terrifying deeper meaning behind the words.

“If we can’t stop the Demon King from descending, then the outcome will be the same.” She said this as if nothing in the world could be more certain. “In their eyes, humans are just a kind of creature that is very similar to them, but much inferior. Such creatures should be replaced… They will not seek peace, will not negotiate, and will not accept surrender. This planet is the prey they have spent thousands of years searching for, and they will not give it up easily.”

She stroked the crystal cluster standing in the center of the sacred site, murmuring, "I have witnessed the weakness of humanity. Weakness stems from self-interest, and self-interest breeds traitors. To contend with the army of demons, everything on this planet must be united into one force, one fist! This fist will be swung under the control of a unified will, smashing down on the demons in the starry sky!"

"Only in this way can we grasp the slim chance of victory..."

"..."

Halfway through her sentence, she seemed to suddenly sense something, stopped speaking, and quickly raised her head to look at the sky.

The dark sky was shrouded in swarms of insects, allowing not a single ray of light to penetrate; it was no exaggeration to describe it as a "chaotic dance of demons."

but……

She had a vague sense of unease; it seemed that something was stirring on the other side of that darkness.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"boom----!!"

In her original world, magic existed in a rather flamboyant way, and various myths were a mixture of truth and fiction. Narniadis clearly remembered that the gods in Norse mythology would descend upon the Nine Realms on the Rainbow Bridge—a rainbow-colored beam of light that descended from the sky, demonstrating their absolute power as gods, something she had always envied greatly. Although this seemed too high-profile compared to later magic, it was still a method that royalty and nobles eagerly imitated.

At that moment, a beam of light pierced through the dark swarm of insects hovering above the sacred land, like a spider's thread lowered by Buddha to hell, carrying an inexplicable sacred aura. It was as if the Rainbow Bridge had reappeared, causing the girl's pupils to dilate involuntarily.

The figures within the light gradually became clearer. They seemed to exist in a different space from the surrounding world; neither their biting nor their venomous spitting was effective. They easily traversed the swarm of insects and landed in the heart of the enemy's fountain.

In the instant light and darkness met, Nobita and the Mother of Insects' gazes collided. Through their eyes, across a distant time and space, they saw each other's truest selves. It was a brief moment, yet it felt as long as an eternity.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.