On a Godless Planet:Volume3A Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Star Control[edit]
–This was a lot more unexpected than I expected.
●
It feels like forever since we did any terraforming, was my first thought.
“It’s only been a few days, though.”
Raidou-senpai and the other physical fighters had gone ahead first to see if everything was safe and make sure it stayed that way. Then Senpai and I went. And finally…
“I will go last after ensuring no one was left in the divine world.”
Once I was on the real planet again…
“It’s dark?”
“Eh? Wh-why’s it so dark?”
Since Senpai was confused, apparently my senses weren’t acting up. Which meant I was normal! I had to say that again.
“I’m normal!”
What’s that look for, Kuwajiri? And Shifu-senpai, do you really have to shush Kuwajiri and turn her toward you? It’s so thrilling.
Anyway, I exchanged a look with Senpai just before Kido-senpai arrived.
“…? It seems awfully dark here.”
We both nodded her way.
It was weirdly dark. It hadn’t exactly been bright before, but now it was like the middle of the night.
●
“What’s going on?”
Balancer tilted quizzically at my question.
<What about this do you find confusing?>
I prepared to grab and shake Balancer, but they quickly backed away. Shifu-san waved a hand in a “should I do the shaking for you?” way, but I wasn’t that freaked out yet. I was fine. However…
“Is figuring out why this happened our new task?”
<Yes. By considering the cause and effect and determining where you went wrong, you can figure out what needs to be redone and how you can do better next time.>
“So we did do something wrong?”
<That is for you to decide. The ape let you bend the rules last time, after all.>
Oh, that, was my only real thought about the rule bending. But it was one of Sumeragi’s good ideas and I had to respect it. So…
“Why is it so dark?”
“While I hate to answer a question with a question, is it that dark?”
“Eh!? You mean you’d call this bright, Temanko!?”
“Does it have to be one or the other?”
Tenma-san raised her hand.
And she pointed toward the horizon.
“Look to where you should see the horizon.”
I did so. And I more or less realized what she was getting at.
“There were dark clouds in the sky before, but the lava glow and the eruptions still let us see all the way to the horizon. But not anymore. What does that mean?”
●
“Um,” I began. “It seems dark and we also can’t see as far?”
“…”
“Wait, that’s just another mystery.”
What could have caused this?
“Looking at the lava, the state of the lava sea doesn’t appear to have changed.”
“That would mean the light source itself hasn’t changed.”
“Then.” Shifu-san tilted her head. “Does that mean the clouds have lowered?”
“No, we would still see the horizon then. The clouds would just be closer to it.”
“Oh, right. Then is there some kind of barrier between the lava sea and the clouds?”
What could that be? Raidou-san stared into the unseen distance.
“Is it smoky?”
“The Norse terraforming is already more or less complete, correct? Did anything like this happen for you?”
“Did it?”
“We had a lot more workers, so it went a lot more smoothly.”
“S-sorry. We’re not just a small business – we’re basically a one-god business.”
“So...what? Would this not happen with more people working? Or did it happen on too small a level to notice?”
“Hey! Balancer! How bout you go ahead and give us the answer!?”
<What makes you think you can demand that, idiot?>
<But anyway,> said Balancer. <This is ultimately caused by a power you have no influence over. So once you figure that part out, I will give you the answer.>
●
Shifu thought about it.
I’m not the best at this sort of thing, she thought, raising her hand.
“Can we discuss this logically?”
“Ooh, logic is great! I love it! Senpai has big boobs and I’m a big boobs worshiper, therefore I worship Senpai! Everything I do is governed by that sort of logic!”
“Why is that logic the only reasonable thing about you?”
“Huh!? That’s an easy one! Because big boobs worship isn’t about being reasonable! Senpai has big boobs and I’m a big boobs worshiper, therefore I worship Senpai! Get it!? It’s not about reason!”
<Superb! You should build a hospital next to the stone hut!>
While the idiot and the screen traded barbs, Shifu spoke up.
“It’s dark because the light from the light source it’s reaching us very well, right?”
“I think Bilgamesh was right about the lava sea being the same as before.”
“Then,” said En-chan raising a hand. “Is something between the lava sea and the clouds obstructing the light?”
“Which is why I wondered if there was smoke.”
“Then,” Shifu interjected. “That smoke must actually exist?”
“Agreed. We can see the light attenuating the farther it travels and this effect is seen in all directions.”
What did that mean?
“I thought it might be a volcanic eruption or the gases expelled by one, but that wouldn’t make the effect so even. Something else is causing this smoke.”
“So that’s what we know so far? Senpai-chan, what do you think?”
Senpai-chan crossed her arms loosely. The idiot sat down and worshiped the lifting effect of her arms as she nodded and…
“Um, so the best we can say is that there’s something ‘smoky’ out there?”
“Correct. Do you have any idea what it could be?”
“Yes,” Senpai-chan nodded. “It could be…”
“Wait, you expect me to know!?”
●
<Did I imagine it, or did a certain goddess just nod and say ‘yes’?>
“I-I did not! That was the kind of ‘yes’ that means no! That’s what that pitch means!”
“Pitch? Like in karaoke?”
“Karaoke?”
“You don’t know? Like a karaoke box.”
Everyone tilted their heads.
…Huh?
What is going on here? she wondered.
<That culture hasn’t reached them yet, Kido.>
“It’s hasn’t? Really?”
“What are you talking about?”
Kido realized something.
…We’re definitely getting sidetracked.
But while everyone looked her way, Douhai-san stood behind them and repeatedly spread her hands out from the center.
…Stretch this out! Please!
I understand exactly what you are trying to say.
Kido began speaking in order to give Douhai-san time to think.
“Some of this is guesswork on my part, but a culture of karaoke boxes is spreading across Kansai, but it must not have reached Kantou yet.”
●
Kuwajiri wasn’t familiar with this. No, the name did ring a bell, but…
“I ignored the term because it had no relevance to my life.”
“I have heard of karaoke as a thing you do at bars, but what’s the box part?”
“They converted some shipping containers at the wharf in my hometown to make rooms and then placed a karaoke set in each one.”
“So they extracted just the singing part from the concept of bar karaoke?”
“You can still order some light food and drinks.”
“It sounds like an unprecedented system.”
<To interject, the first karaoke box was Yellow Box Karaoke Square, started in freight containers in the Okayama Prefecture during 1985. That style spread and, in 1988, Daiichi Kosho, a major karaoke equipment company, created the first Big Echo in Fukuoka, and it spread from there. Different companies did open some in Kantou too, but since the containers were set up in a clearing, most customers came by car and they struggled in dense city centers and areas along the railways. So at this time, it remains a fairly underground culture in Kantou.>
“So it never catches on in Kantou?”
<This is some advance information, but Daiichi Kosho begins opening karaoke boxes in ‘91 and this spreads as a way to fill empty rooms in buildings in Kantou after the bubble cools down. And in ‘92, something big is released. Raidou and the ape discussed this before, I believe.>
“Oh,” said Raidou. “Do you mean Brother Industries’ Takeru video game vending machine tech? Does the karaoke service you mentioned link back to this?”
<Yes. Brother Industries’ Joysound and the Taito X2000 released during the same year created a system where data could be updated and supplied at a later date. This made the equipment easier to use and made long-term use much cheaper, so karaoke boxes spread like wildfire.>
“So we’re on the verge of it arriving in Kantou?”
“If I see one anywhere, I’ll ask you how it works, Kido-senpai! Since you seem to know all about it!”
“I would at least like to see what all the fuss is about.”
“But, um, I only know of it myself. I didn’t have many people back home who I could do that with.”
Because…
“Singing in front of people…is embarrassing.”
●
“I seem to recall a goddess dressed all in tights singing while blasting a lightning artifact all the way to the next prefecture. To be blunt, does this attitude make me intolerant?”
“Hmm, maybe it’s a TPO issue?”
“I know that one! It stands for Tits: Prodigious and Outstanding! That applies to Senpai, Kido-senpai, and Shifu-senpai too!”
“You never miss a chance do you? And it’s Time, Place, and Occasion.”
“Wait, Shifu-san, you should be honored he counted you!”
“So do you have your answer yet, Iwanaga-san?”
“Oh, oh, thank you for the mother-in-law move! But give me a bit longer! Just a bit! I think I’m close to getting it. Maybe? Maybe not?”
<You could try thinking instead of saying all this.>
“I-I’m at an attention-wanting age!”
●
I had bought Douhai-san some time.
So while she moved back and forth behind everyone else and checked inside the stone hut, I spoke to her.
“Douhai-san?”
“Hwuh!? Wh-what do you want?”
“Um, do you have an answer yet?”
“You do, don’t you!?”
“Eh?”
Izumi reacted to Douhai-san’s fluster by speaking to everyone else.
“Listen up, everyone! Our #1 TPO is about to give you the answer! Temanko! By now Senpai’s divine protection should have affected you to the point that you see Senpai-sized boobs and think, That’s about average, I guess! But that’s only phase 1! Jiggling and size have different TPO ratings.”
Izumi hopped straight up.
“Boing!”
Everyone watched on, blank-faced, as Izumi spoke to Tenma-san.
“When they jiggle this much, they have to be assessed differently! And that can change even more based on the viewing distance! At a large enough distance, even a holy jiggling can look like no more than a coordinate shift, but at close range, it’s like a mass weapon!”
I opened a Revelation Board and sent a divine transmission to Douhai-san.
“You need to gather your thoughts while Izumi buys you time.”
“Oh, y-you’re right! I was too engrossed in his lecture on jiggling!”
What is wrong with you?
●
…Um, how am I supposed to figure this out?
Why was visibility on the planet so poor?
I could probably already see the answer. Or maybe whatever it was had come into view.
I honestly wanted to dash over to the edge of the tableland and see what was going on around it.
…But I don’t have time to do that now!
Would I find the answer, or would I admit defeat? The latter wasn’t an option since Sumeragi-kun expected me to do this.
Which meant…
…I’m screwed!
Knowing when to give up was a wonderful thing. Just like the cicadas flipped over on the side of the street!
…But the cicadas aren’t ignoring reality!
Oh, I’m worse than a cicada, I realized. I mean, most cicadas got married and then died, but I hadn’t even managed the marriage part.
That aside, what was happening here? There was smoke or something as far as the eye could see, but I couldn’t tell what was causing it.
I only knew that something must have happened since we were last here.
…Is there any way to check what happened since last time?
I couldn’t quite remember if there was or not.
“Senpai-chan, I think it’s about time.”
“Oh, yes! I’ll be right there!”
I noticed someone’s eyes on me.
“––––––”
Was Kido-san staring at me, or maybe through me to the stone hut?
●
Tenma had more or less arrived at the answer.
…I hope she has too.
The interesting part was how the Norse group didn’t understand despite having already done their terraforming.
She wanted to ask about that.
“Okay, terraforming lead. Give us the answer!”
“Sure! I’ll get right on that.”
●
I gave the answer.
“Visibility here is poor. That would mean that, since last time we were here, the planet simply rotated to make it nighttime.”
Everyone fell silent and I tried to make my stiff movements as smooth as possible.
“…would be a really silly answer to try and give, wouldn’t it!?”
More silence.
Did the lack of a response mean they were allowing that move? At any rate, it seemed like I was allowed to continue talking.
“U-um, but you see…”
As a last resort, I tried moving a bit.
Next to the stone hut.
What I needed was most likely there.
“Um, look, everyone!”
I beckoned them over. The first to move were Kido-san and Sumeragi-kun. That told me I was probably right. I pointed while the rest walked over.
I pointed at something next to the stone hut.
“That’s the lava block extraction site!”
●
What I saw wasn’t a lava block.
That was the test site that Balancer had modeled after the lava sea below. The plan had been to turn the lava into rock and extract water from it and that process should have still been active, but now…
“It’s turned into a pond?”
●
Kido saw the result of their actions.
“Izumi is correct. It is now a pond around 25cm deep.”
“Um, I know we made this, but how did this happen?”
“Balancer, you have been repeating the water extraction process ever since last time, correct?”
<To check for effectiveness and contradictions. I did boost the natural cooling, but including the elapsed time, I repeated it a decent number of times.>
In that case…
“That explains the ‘smoke’ lowering the visibility.”
What was it?
“It is water vapor.”
●
Tenma looked to Kuwajiri.
As knowledge gods, they would both want to comment on this situation. They exchanged a nod, telling Tenma she could go first.
“Balancer applied this result to the entire planet, didn’t he?”
“Waiiiit!? I thought this was my turn.”
The cold look she received convinced her to back down.
“Sorry. Kuwajiri-chan’s been under a lot of stress lately.”
“Um, yes. That must be tough for someone who doesn’t know how to sidestep it.”
That aside, this was an interesting topic. Hopefully she would hear about how this differed from the Norse terraforming.
After a breath, the voice continued.
“We are in a transition period which will mean a lot of change.”
●
Kuwajiri opened a Revelation Board.
It displayed an explanation and diagram used during the previous terraforming session.
“When the Earth was partially formed, another protoplanet collided with it in the Giant Impact. This formed both the Earth and the moon and the Earth absorbed some of the moon’s core and materials, which increased its ability to retain water.”
“You mentioned that the water retained underground is 70 times greater than the water on the surface.”
“Exactly. But it didn’t end there.”
“After the Giant Impact, asteroids around Earth were absorbed or deflected while the Earth and the moon were being reformed. So while the Earth became a mass of lava, the frequency of impacts from asteroids and such was reduced, the surface temperature dropped, and the planet calmed down. Do you know what happened then?”
Kuwajiri viewed the others and appreciated that Temanko did not raise her hand. The other Norse gods had been through something similar, so they didn’t raise their hands either. Instead…
“Do you know, idiot?”
“D-do you actually expect me to say ‘yes’ here!?”
The idiot struck an S pose.
“Yes!”
“…”
“Well!? Didn’t expect me to do it, did you!? Ha ha! Take that! Sounds like you still don’t know what I’ll do when you call me an idiot!”
“Hey, Senpai-chan?”
“Um, Sumeragi-kun? Excuse me.”
●
Kuwajiri watched as the idiot ran about 70m across the tableland and then spun five times.
“Yahoooo! I got my first shoulder tap from Senpai this terraforming session! How about that, Kuwajiri!? That shoulder tap indirectly carried the weight of her boobs, so it’s just like I had her boobs resting on my shoulder! Don’t you get that, Kuwajiri!?”
She did not get it.
But when the idiot returned, out of breath, he pointed at her.
“Pant...gasp...Kuwa...jiri...pant...kh!”
“If we were in the divine world, I would call the police.”
“Oh, sorry. It’s been so long I forget to give him an exhaustion-reduction divine protection!”
“You can’t make that automatic?”
“Y-you still don’t understand how low-level I am, do you!? You can look forward to learning the true shallowness of my ability!”
This goddess and her believer are a lot alike, aren’t they? observed Kuwajiri.
That aside, the idiot had caught his breath, so she tried holding a conversation again.
“Okay, idiot. Did you have something to say?”
“Yeah, this is that thing, right? When the planet cools, that thing happens. You know, that thing.”
“What thing?”
“Y’know, that thing where it gets cold and you have to pee. You know what I mean, right?”
“What made you think I would say ‘yes’ to that?”
“What, are you saying you never have to pee!?”
“Is there no in between here?”
“He should have said ‘I knew you didn’t have P-cups, but no pee at all?’ ”
Kuwajiri nodded and turned toward the idiot, her eyes narrowed.
“Now another god is making fun of me because of you.”
“Heyyyyy! That wasn’t my my fault!”
“Eh!? That counts as her making fun of you!? But that would mean she makes fun of me all the time!”
Now things were doubly annoying.
Still, the idiot had a point.
“Water is an important factor in the cooling of the Earth.”
●
I saw Kuwajiri-san open a new Revelation Board.
She drew on it.
“Let’s see, first the lava…”
I already knew she had trouble drawing diagrams. So…
“I can help. This should be the lava sea, correct?”
While Kuwajiri-san obediently nodded, I reached for the Revelation Board and was given edit approval. So I started by sketching out the lava sea.
“Wow, how did you know what that was supposed to be!?”
“The Scythians had no written language, so they excelled at drawing.”
<They primarily used that skill for tattoos, though.>
Douhai-san grabbed and shook the screen.
“Listen, Balancer! Body paint is a perfectly acceptable hobby!”
“It wasn’t body paint.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask, what’s with the patterns on your full-body tights?”
“You mean this?”
My full-body tights meant a few different things for me.
“The primary purpose is to keep the sun off. As a water god, I want to avoid drying out or burning.”
And next…
“It also allows me to possibly cover up some when I turn into the Echidna, or gives me a reason to not let that happen.”
But those practical reasons were not the whole story.
“The Scythians would give themselves tattoos shaped like animals and other things all over their body. It seemed fitting to do the same as their god, but that would seem too ‘old-fashioned’ when I manifested in this world.”
“So,” I continued, but then I realized I didn’t have anything to add.
…So what?
I wore a patterned outfit to take the place of the tattoos. And if those were tattoos, showing them off was a lot like showing off my bare skin.
“Looking at it again, that is quite embarrassing.”
●
“Now I know the damage is greater at close range.”
“Kuwajiri-chaaan?”
“I’m fine. My glasses nearly cracked, though.”
“It causes physical damage?”
●
“Anyway,” said Kuwajiri. She made herself say it. And she bowed toward Kido as she drew up a diagram of what she described.
“The lava sea creates convection. That cycle brings the water to the surface, which vaporizes, creating water vapor. And…”
And…
“The water vapor forms clouds, which produce rain. Does this process remind you of anything?”
She looked at Kido’s diagram, which depicted…
“That cycle is a lot like the water cycle.”
“Exactly. And the rain cools the lava sea, which also reduces the atmosphere’s temperature.”
“That sounds a loooot simpler than I eeeexpected.”
The club head probably only said that because he had figured it out, so Kuwajiri responded.
“This happened because of the Giant Impact.”
How could she be so sure? She only had to pull up the diagram of the Giant Impact she had used before.
“Before the Giant Impact, the Earth could retain sufficient water and it had quite a lot of water retained, but it could not keep that water because it would rapidly vaporize when a meteor or asteroid hit the surface. But the Giant Impact further increased its water retention and eliminated the nearby asteroids, so the amount of water grew. This led to the creation of water vapor clouds, but…”
“That made it rain, which cooled the lava sea?”
“No, that was part of the previous step. The water vapor clouds cause the greenhouse effect.”
What happened then?
“The greenhouse effect caused by water vapor is twice as powerful as one caused by carbon dioxide. The lava’s heat can’t escape the convection, creating enough heat to melt all rock on the surface.”
“Eh? So even with water forming, it won’t cool down!?”
“Oh, it will cool.”
Senpai-san gave Kuwajiri a puzzled look. As a knowledge god, Kuwajiri appreciated that kind of reaction.
So she tapped the diagram Kido had drawn.
“The lava is in a state of convection and more water will be ejected. And during its convection, the lava sea will radiate its heat bit by bit. Then the water gathering in the thick clouds will pour down as torrential rain and gradually cool the surface.”
So…
“The cooling switch has been pressed.”
“So the stage is set?”
“Correct. Water is being extracted from the lava, but before the overheated planet can be cooled, the greenhouse effect caused by the water vapor clouds must begin its natural cooling. In our case, we accelerated the cooling with the ice meteor and then we left Balancer in charge, so we weren’t aware what was happening.”
That summed it up. But that led to a certain question.
“How long will this cooling period last?”
“Well,” said Kuwajiri. “In around 150 thousand years, the surface lava should harden. For around a million years after that, the water vapor in the atmosphere will turn to rain and settle down while the planet’s surface temperature drops and most of the water forms an ocean.”
●
“So a total of 1.15 million years!?”
<Downright speedy on a planetary timescale.>
“Planets are usually discussed in billions of years, so we are seeing this one change in around a thousandth of that time.”
“The Earth is thought to be 4.6 billion years old, so we are seeing a planet change in one four-thousandth of that time.”
“Four thousand seconds is a bit over an hour, so is it like screwing up in the very first second and spending the rest of your hour being humiliated? Oh, but no asking if I’ve ever experienced that! No point when you already know the answer! What’s that, Temanko!? You want to ask about it!? Which time do you want to hear about!? The last one was two weeks ago!”
“Sumeragi-kun! Calm down! Please calm down!”
“Okay, I’ve calmed down.”
“Wow, that was fast. …So, um, this means the planet is cooling?”
●
…Umm…
I considered what this meant. Since the water extraction from last time caused this…
“Are our surroundings overheated from the greenhouse effect, Balancer?”
<They are. In a way, this is following Earth’s history, but it also feels like the least efficient path to take.>
“H-how was I supposed to know!?”
I asked something I both did and didn’t want to know the answer to.
“Um, what does the overheating from the greenhouse effect do to the flame dragons?”
<…>
“Hey, moving screen! Senpai asked you a question while all nervous…like this, see!? Did you see how perfectly I mimicked that!? I know I had my wrist in just the right pose!”
I had no idea what he was talking about. It wasn’t that I wanted to ignore him, but I asked my question again. And this time, I was more certain.
“The flame dragons are more active than ever, aren’t they!?”
Interlude[edit]
…They completely forgot about us until now.
“Oh!? I sense something watching us from out there!”
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