Recommendations Stories where why "Guns Aren't Effective" is explained

Another of my "Does this exist"/"How Common is this" threads.

This time I'm looking for stories where Earth underwent a change that made the average gun little more than decoration in battle. But that's relatively commonplace, so I'm specifically looking for stories where it's actually explained WHY Guns are no longer useful. Not the generic "Bullets do nothing" or "Bullets don't penetrate the skin of the weakest of monsters", but an actual reason why Joe Americian's Shotgun Slug is less effective in dealing damage than his bare hands or beating them with the shotgun itself, even on a headshot when a punch would daze the enemy.

Sure, I can come up with a few reasons myself, but I want to be introduced to stories where people have come up with their own answers and bothered to tell the audience, rather than the typical "We just want cool fight scenes, and Guns mean that the military will just do everything instead of our 'special' characters, so F Off and don't question it".

 

Everybody Else is a Returnee

 

I've seen at a couple stories where both bullets and punching are equally ineffective.

Basically settings where monsters are only vulnerable to magical damage, even if it comes in the form of a physical attack using a magical weapon.

Let’s be an Adventurer and I Became Peerless After I Threw My Whole Paycheck at a Real-Life Gacha are like that.

 

Swallowed Star - although at a low level, they still use guns but as they grow more powerful, they can simply dodge the bullets with crazy reaction speed

 

In this one Zombie, System Apocalypse the guns still work but the kills aren't counted. So those who used guns to kill the zombies don't get any drop items or get stronger.

Unfortunately, the author was so racist he ruined the entire story. Even the 'least racist' plotline of how everyone wants to take over China set me off. Nobody wants to take over China during a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!

 

I don't consider that to be a "valid" explanation, particularly since it's one of the common "F off, it's magic" explanations. Particularly since it is common in stories with this "explanation" for a Goblin and many other monsters with no magic beyond "Immunity to Bullets" to exist.

 

In Death Mage the gun only evective to rank 3 monster since rank 5 can can withstand tank even if it bullet made from orihalcum the strongest metal in there, it still depend on stat since there god of Job, Stat, and Rank that govern the system in Lambda. It effective in Origin though.

 

The Death Mage Who Doesn’t Want a Fourth Time explained about being different in physics and only damages monsters up to Rank 4 if aimed at the weak spots using a flintlock since they didn't really know how to make gunpowder, Rank 5 or more are impossible to damage anymore unless you make a bigger gun which is more unefficient than using magic or magic weapons~

 

Thanks onee chan

 

Let me game in peace: Basically you need a special metal to hurt monsters and said metal is too rare to be wasted on consumables.
Though the army has bullets with this metal, most guns are used against humans.

 

I don't know if this counts since the example I know of doesn't occur on Earth.
(Also major spoilers)
There's a civilization on another world in Kumo Desu Ga that has the same amount of technology as Earth. They tried to nuke the dragons and had one of their nations wiped off the face of the "earth". The reasoning behind why modern weapons had no effect was due to magic being interwoven with their organic bodies. This increased the structural strength of them to easily withstand modern weapons.

Another one like Death Mage has another world where they discuss that modern weapons like a missile or a nuke won't be able to fight anything that has too high of a level. The level system was created by a god and it turns out, after you level or rank up enough times, you are basically equivalent to a god. So naturally the reasoning is that modern weapons just can't beat something that becomes closer to physical gods. The world "Origin" which is just a magically enhanced "Earth" has their modern weapons combined with magic, but even they can't match individuals that are close to gods.

Shield Hero has status levels and stats being part of the very world itself, so even if you equip a level 1 person with a gun or something, it won't do much damage because the wielder's stats are too low. The very laws of physics depends on a person's stats.

 

Dominion end I forgot if it explained it well or nah but basically when those “aberrant” are still rank 1and 2 bullet could still penetrate through them because their skin aren’t as tough compared to rank 4 who evolved and have more powerful “core” in them. Forgot which rank 3 applies to but basically it’s about evolution and stronger “core” stone in them

 

That's kind of the definition of magic though.

Are you looking for a hard sci-fi story? There aren't that many of them on this site.

 

Part of the problem is that at least in terms of JP novels, there are several words that most translators frequently call "monster" when really they should be left untranslated.

Any mazoku is by definition supernatural so rules like it not taking damage from non-magical weapons or physical attacks by a person without an appropriate skill (there are also several different Japanese words that get commonly translated as "magic" but which are independent concepts) make sense.

If you want an example from back in ancient times, The Slayers manga / anime had this setting where mazoku were immune to all normal forms of damage.

Of course the subs and the dubs didn't differentiate between mazoku and other (non-supernatural) creatures the characters fought, calling them all "monsters", so it was very difficult to follow those aspects of the plot.

 

Hmm... in heavy objects, each Objects is made to withstand nuclear blast. So why would a gun work against giant mecha like that? Theoretically, only objects work against other objects. Since those objects invalidate other weaponry... everyone is delegated to being support of those objects.

Well... the main character uses physics to defeat the objects.

 

No, I'm looking for a story where they at least explain SOMETHING about the magic. Or at least why, despite existing, nobody uses the ultimate mass-production and mass-use weapon of our time. Think about it this way, Mother of Learning is 100% a Fantasy Story, but it never hand-waves away the explanations about Magic to something stupid like "it works because I say it does". Now, if Magic was used in Fantasy the way it used to be, as a minor deus ex machina used primarily as a plot device or simple explanation about the few things that are bizarre in that specific story, a stupidly simple explanation would be fine, as it's a mere plot device. You don't need extensive details about how the plot device works, it's why McGuffins that never do anything in the story are so effective at pulling their stories along.

Most stories with Magic now, though, use it as a mechanic of the world. People with Magic fight alongside, against, or are the protagonist, using their magic to notably affect the battles. But VERY few writers ever give any explanation beyond "f off, it's magic, and that means it does what I want, when I want, how I want", or "this simple thing that will be forgotten by all readers but the most obsessive in a couple of chapters, and that I may ignore and hand-wave away the plot holes". I dislike that attitude, and am thus looking for stories where, if the Author puts them on Earth, they at least explain why nobody ever wields a gun.

Just because a better translation would be Demon, doesn't mean that Guns shouldn't affect them. If they're actually intangible, that's one thing, but the explanation you gave about them being "supernatural" could be argued to be equally prevalent to Tsukumogami (objects treasured for 1,000 years acquiring a Kami or Spirit and turning into a living supernatural version of themselves). But if you shoot a 'living umbrella' in the stem, shouldn't that still damage it? Most of the Mazoku presented are physically present, so why are not affected at all a piece of metal hurtling at them at speeds faster than sound?

Thank you for your reply.

Thank you. I do not want to count this, but giving even this relatively shallow explanation is uncommon enough to accept it. I consider it shallow because Sniper Rifles should still be effective weapons, unless you can somehow sense a bullet coming towards the back of your head and dodge it.

Thank you for the recommendation, and the explanation. Definitely avoiding that one, even if it fits the request. Not interested in a story filled with bigotry, so I am genuinely thankful that you gave details.

Thank you for your answer, and giving details about how it operates. Death Mage has been a story I have had peripheral awareness of, but consider unsuited to my personal preferences. In that it is something I would enjoy if it didn't have those big splotches of "darkness" strewn throughout it.

Huh, seems interesting. (Checks out the NU Page), Oh, it's another "MC With a Cheat that defies explanation" story. Actually, do they give a reason why the special metal is needed to hurt the monsters? Because, honestly, unless the monster's aren't physically present, I can't think of a good reason why they shouldn't be affected by normal bullets.

So, your suggestions are:
1) Magic Infusion Powers of (commonly considered) Magically Strongest Race can cause even Nukes to Fail to be effective,
2) Levelling up is coming closer to being a god, and Gods are durable to survive almost any physical weapon that could be produced or replicated by science (up to, and possibly beyond, even black holes),
3) Physics Works Differently, so Stats Matter, even for Guns, so a Gunner would need to have high stats anyway to do any damage.

Yeah, okay, those all work. Thank you for your suggestions.

So straight skin durability becoming strong enough to prevent any penetration at higher levels. That works well enough, thanks.

Yep, that works. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

While the "Cheat defies explanation" is true, it's main function is as a training/scouting tool. Basically the MC can have a virtual avatar run through a virtual dungeon instead of doing it himself.
Biggest benefit that brings is that the death of the avatar does not kill the MC.

As for why guns don't work, I think it's because the monsters defense is interwoven with magic, making it much harder to penetrate.
Bullets, bombs, etc. do work against weaker monsters to some degree, but stronger monsters just shrug it off.
To put it simple: The world evolved, every living thing got the possibility to grow stronger, while guns stayed the same.

I think the special metal disrupts the magic defense, allowing the bullets to penetrate said monsters.
It's explained somewhere at the beginning of the story, but I'm not sure where exactly.

 

The godsfall chronicles
It's a post apocalyptic world with a sci-fi and mystic setting. The guns were very important at first, since most people used knives and other junk, but as the novel progressed, it became more obsolete since one could not really apply "magic" into weapons and items with multiple parts, making swords, spears, and other more primitive and less advanced weapons to be the ideal weapon of choice.

 

"Demon" as a translation is even worse because as you mentioned that word brings in a lot of other expectations native speakers have which aren't true.

Basically the names of fantasy races should never be translated unless there's a 100% match between the concepts in each language.

That's how you tell the difference between a good translator and a mediocre one: the good translator will understand why attempting to translate "majin" is worst than leaving it untranslated.

Traditional werewolves are physically present yet can only be harmed by silver. Same with vampires and garlic or holy water.

In an individual story an author might explain it as them having supernaturally fast healing that is negated by their one weakness, or he might portray bullets hitting their skin and falling to the ground, or a scene could protray a vampire being shot where the bullets appear to hit yet produce no sign of injury or discomfort. There are several ways story could handle this rule yet they all arrive at the same outcome.

The mythology of werewolves defines them in a way that you don't have to explain why normal bullets don't hurt them - instead it would be strange if they are injured by non-silver weapons and that's what readers would expect the author to explain.

Likewise, mazoku are supernatural beings that can only be harmed by supernatural means. If normal attacks work on a mazoku that's weird and should be explained.

 

I don’t have any stories to recommended but I have ideas about why guns are ineffective:
Yes, extra thick layer of skin.
Extrasensory nerves aren’t prioritized over wrecking your physical body.
Bones are thick. Nerves are picky.
Area effective wounds only hurt when it hits the right spot.
It’s cost ineffective to make bullets.
Bullets are made of a lesser dense material and in case there is aura in a series, perhaps they just shrug it off. Not like thick skin but they look their momentum and fatality.
Also hyper regeneration could be a norm.
Specially made weapons fall under it’s not cost effective.