Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

  Everyone continued deeper into the castle.

  As expected, they met zombie girls again… five of them!

  Seiji gripped his magic longsword tightly and activated its defense-piercing mode, preparing for combat.

  He wasn't going to fight all five of the zombie girls alone. He would do this together with his companions.

  Three… two… one.

  *Rip!*

  Seiji and Matsutani simultaneously broke through the paper door and into the wide room.

  The pudgy middle-aged man tossed out five magic grenades that he earlier prepared!

  The zombie girls instantly reacted and blocked the grenades with their weapons.

  *Boom boom boom…* There was the sound of simultaneous explosions.

  Three of the magic grenades had been successfully deflected, while two successfully exploded on the zombie girls!

  The two zombie girls that took the magic grenade attacks started glowing yellow, and their movements were temporarily sealed.

  Seiji speedily rushed towards one of them and sliced the zombie girl in half!

  Whoosh! The chill of steel thrust towards Seiji.

  It was the spearhead of a long spear.

  The zombie girl standing next to the sliced-in-half zombie girl was wielding a long spear. She immediately started attacking Seiji after successfully deflecting the magic grenade. Her attacks made her seem like a flowing dragon, and she aimed directly for Seiji's head!

  *Thud!*

  Her spear was blocked by Seiji's [Evolved Mana Barrier].

  The zombie girl withdrew her spear and began a new barrage of attacks!

  Seiji blocked the attacks with his sword and retreated.

  At the same time, the other two zombie girls that were still capable of movement started attacking Matsutani. Their weapons were dual swords and a naginata. Both zombie girls were extremely fast!

  The moment they rushed at him, Matsutani activated another spell that he had previously prepared. A large diamond-shaped spell formation instantly appeared on the ground!

  The dual-sword-wielding and naginata-wielding zombie girls instantly stopped in their attacks and changed to rolling on the ground in an effort to dodge this spell.

  The next instant, a white demon materialized and transformed itself into a giant hammer that viciously pulverized both zombie girls into flattened pancakes!

  This scene was quite violent to behold.

  If living people were flattened like this instead of zombies, this definitely would have been a censored scene!

  Miyabi and Yuuko used their magical crossbows to shoot at the other zombie girl who had her movements sealed.

  Although most of their attacks missed, they indeed successfully caused some damage.

  The magic grenade's sealing effect faded and this zombie girl lifted her longbow and shot a swift arrow towards Miyabi and Yuuko!

  *Clang!*

  A magical shield sent a blue shielding light around them and blocked the arrow.

  This shield wielder was Nomura.

  Nomura, who was still only a college student, had a rather pale face. However, his expression was resolute and he showed no signs of fear.

  The longbow-wielding zombie girl shot out several arrows in succession!

  Nomura continued lifting his shield to block the arrows while he did his best to conquer the fear in his heart and solidly stand in front of his two female companions, Miyabi and Yuuko. He didn't budge a step.

  *Boom!*

  One magical crossbolt fired by Miyabi managed to successfully hit the longbow-wielding zombie girl's head.

  She was now in a state of enhanced concentration, and the cat ears on her head were stiff and vertical. Her cat eyes shone with a fierce glint that helped her to clearly see her target.

  *Boom! Boom! Boom!*

  The second, third, and fourth shots landed… Miyabi was able to successfully land four consecutive crossbolts on the zombie girl's head!

  The longbow-wielding zombie girl collapsed on the ground.

  Immediately thereafter, Matsutani's demon hammer smashed down on the zombie girl!

  Ya-chan also added in a final attack for its cat onee-san.

  *Crack!!*

  Seiji forcefully withstood the spear-wielding zombie girl's attacks, losing his barrier in the process as he slew her.

  All five zombie girls had now perished.

  His entire team had won unscathed!

  "Beautiful. Everyone did a great job," Seiji gave his sincere praise.

  The plan they'd come up with was more successful than they had anticipated when they finally put it to use.

  Nomura and everyone else smiled in delight at their first successful victory as a team.

  "Ishihara-san was so amazing! Her accuracy suddenly went up by so much," Yuuko praised Miyabi.

  "It was just a coincidence… We should be thanking Nomura-san for protecting us," Miyabi said.

  "I merely held up a shield and stood still," Nomura stated. "The truly amazing ones are the three on the frontlines."

  "Yeah, Harano-kun was mega-cool, and Matsutani-senpai and Ya-chan were cool as well." Yuuko paused for a moment. "I feel like the most useless one here is me."

  "That's right, Hashimoto-san, which is why you should work hard and serve everyone here as a maid!" Matsutani acted all seriously about it. "Right now, I'd like a massage…"

  *Pound!* Seiji elbowed the pudgy middle-aged man in the stomach to have him shut up.

  "You're going a bit overboard with the jokes. Please don't mind him, Hashimoto-san."

  Yuuko blinked cutely at this.

  "It's okay if he wants a massage from me. However, I'm not very skilled at giving massages, so it's quite possible I might accidentally use too much force and injure him." The author Yuuko chuckled.

  Seiji and everyone else were all temporarily rendered speechless.

  "Cough, er, let's stop joking around and continue progressing." Seiji changed the topic. "We did a great job just now. But, that doesn't mean that all the upcoming battles will be so easy. Let's all remain on guard."

  Although those five zombie girls were powerful as well, they weren't on the level of the zombie girl that Seiji previously faced by himself. Nor did they have a cape and helmet like she did.

  Seiji figured that the first one must have been one of the main characters, so there shouldn't be many zombie girls on her level. That helped to reassure him, but he knew that he still needed to remain vigilant.

  Imai Yoshida's story, "I Transformed into a Smartphone in Another World", was a story about how an otaku mysteriously transformed into a smartphone and arrived in another world, just like the title stated. A beautiful teenaged female domain lord who was in dire straits happened to pick him up. This otaku then supported her as her smartphone in expanding her domain and managed to enjoy many gentlemanly benefits.

  The judges' overall review of this story was that "There are many problems, but it's still overall a fun read. With some careful polishing, it has potential to become quite popular."

  Natsuya Yoruhana knew absolutely nothing about the novels that had won Thunderbolt Literature's Newcomer Author Awards.

  She knew that Seiji was currently participating in Thunderbolt Literature's Newcomer Author Awards ceremony tonight. She finally had some free time and was reading online about the light novels that won the awards when she received a call from Shika Kagura requesting her assistance.

  Natsuya, Hitaka, and Rana immediately went over to the hotel's banquet hall that Shika sent them the address of. However, right when they met up with Shika and began trying to cast a spell to save Seiji, a black mist enveloped them!

  Natsuya then discovered that she was now trapped within a soul realm that had a fantasy world style to it… no, she should say that it seemed like a soul realm, but she was unsure what it really was.

  "This is a mystical realm where cluster amaryllis flowers are growing everywhere. This is the place where the Awakened enter when they awaken to their powers. Perhaps someone at the award ceremony Awakened, which got Seiji and everyone else at the award ceremony involved… and now we were dragged into this place as well. Hitaka, Rana, stay on guard. I'm going to cast a spell to investigate this place."

  While Natsuya was in the process of casting her spell, numerous skeletons suddenly appeared and attacked!

  "Don't you dare to touch Milady!"

  "Meow."

  The red-haired Spirit-branded Retainer and the cat girl Spirit-branded Retainer fought against the skeletons together. They shattered all the skeletons in less than one minute!

  Shika simply watched them silently. There was no need for her to even unsheathe her Demon Blade Muramasa.

  When Natsuya finished casting her spell, she glanced over at the domain lord's castle in the distance.

  "Some existence within that castle is interfering with my spell, so I'm currently unable to contact Seiji. We need to get rid of whatever's causing the interference first."

  The four girls immediately set out after confirming their target.

  A large amount of skeletons appeared from all directions and began attacking them!

  However, the four girls were just like the main characters of a Dynasty Warriors video game. No matter how many low-level mobs attacked them, they were all destroyed instantly.

  A gray-clothed individual silently stood on the roof of the domain lord's castle and observed the four beautiful girls slicing through the skeletons.

  'It's time for me to leave.

  'Still, even though this experiment wasn't a particularly important one, it still makes me displeased to be interrupted like this.

  'Before I leave, why don't I make things a bit more difficult for them?'

  The gray-clothed individual had such thoughts as they walked off and disappeared into the shadows.

  Meanwhile, at the Moon Bunny Eatery…


  The restaurant owner who was currently chopping some vegetables in the kitchen suddenly stopped in his movements.

  He turned around to look at something. His eyes were also flashing with a sharp glint.

  The next second, a longsword pierced through his chest!