In this week’s part, we translators get a bit of shade 😂
Ezoe’s starting to throw diplomacy out the window 🤔
And we start to get better looks at the new characters! ♥

All right, here’s the map as usual, and here’s the chapter.
As always, warning about minor spoilers below, so go read it first!

Here are this week’s notes:

1. I confess that I don’t really understand military stuff, be it JSDF or US forces. From what I can tell, though, what Gamerica has established is a unified combatant command.
   So, it’s not a new branch (so it’s still only just the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps).
   And Isaac — a civilian with zero military experience — has been left in charge of it because of how well he knows the dungeons.
2. New characters:
   Isaac Roland: (Command Chief of U.S. Dungeon Command (USDC))
   Rebecca (Isaac’s secretary)
   Satou Souta (son of the late Sergeant Satou Kouji of Sonezaki Police Station (Osaka))
3. “Government budget screening process in Japan”: In around 2009, (Japan) Prime Minister Hatoyama basically demanded that all bureaucrats explain how they’re using taxpayer money in their department on live broadcast. Some called it a “bureaucrat massacre.”
4. “Eradicate deep-rooted evils” (jeokpye cheongsan): (S. Korea) President Moon Jae-in introduced the phrase during his presidential campaign to refer to “deeply corrupted” anything that he deemed needed to be “eradicated” as he, to borrow Trump’s word for it, “drained the swamp.”
5. Cocktail lounge “Kira”: real name Bar Kishira
   Fun fact: In Japanese wasei-eigo, “cocktail lounges” are called “orthodox bar”s. As in, these are the “real” bars.
6. The drinks mentioned: I failed to find corroborating sources for the supposed meanings of the drinks, but at the very least, here are recipes for all of them:
   Balalaika: vodka, orange liqueur, lemon juice
   White Lady: gin, orange liqueur, lemon juice, egg white (optional)
   XYZ: rum, orange liqueur, lemon juice
   Daiquiri: light rum, lime juice, sugar syrup
7. Random shout-out to Yanai Takumi, the author of Gate – Thus the JSDF Fought There!

And that’s it. Hope you enjoy the build-up!
Something’s going to give, and it’s going to be soon.
Make sure you stay tuned next week too!

(As always, feel free to point out grammatical mistakes, typos, and the like on either the relevant JNC forum or on the #translation-talk channel on our Discord.)