On a Godless Planet:Volume2B Chapter 33
Chapter 33: Tetris[edit]
–Um, it’s, y’know!
Yes, it is, well, you know!
●
“Um, I’m doing this via divine transmission so Sumeragi-kun can’t see, but I can cool the surface by dropping a bunch of rocks from the sky, can’t I!? Can’t I!?”
“The force of the fall would only heat it further.”
“I-I wasn’t looking for a real answer! I was only pretending to ask as a way to complain!”
“She’s in a really annoying mood, isn’t she?”
“Can you calm down some, Douhai-san?”
“No, no, no, I can’t possibly calm down right now! Kido-san, you don’t understand how minor a god I am! I’m like the queen of bit parts!”
“Is that really something to brag about?”
●
“Balancer, since they’ll be getting the water from lava, can you create a lava palette here?”
“What does that mean?”
“Well,” said Raidou, pointing at the stone hut they would be using as a base. “Heading all the way down to the lava for a water extraction experiment would be a real pain and dangerous too, right? So I’m asking Balancer to teleport some of the lava sea to somewhere alongside the stone hut.”
“So you’d be swapping out the ground?”
“This kind of teleportation spatially links the two locations. Of course, if we had a god with control over lava, they could create their own.”
“I’m still confused.”
“It’s juuuust like in Populous.”
“Oh! The volcano thing!”
“Now I’m lost.”
“It’s a video game thing and it would take a long time to explain, but it’s generally used to cause trouble.”
“It’s soooo exciting when your peeeeople get caught in it.”
<As much as I hate to rain on your parade, teleportation would be dangerous with how hostile this planet’s spirits are. Creating the spatial link could give them a way up here.>
“You wouldn’t screen for that?”
<Raising the temperature of a small space to create lava there is more cost effective than constantly screening the spatial link.>
“And it’s not like we have someone stationed here to keep an eye on things at all times. Creating a possible backdoor is probably a bad idea.”
<Once you have enough personnel, it will be possible to set up a system where you draw up the flame dragons and battle them like fishing in a fishing hole. Then you could set up a base for that.>
Raidou more or less understood what Balancer was saying.
“It all comes down to the direction we take the terraforming, right?”
<The question is how long it will take to reach that point.>
Balancer then turned toward Senpai-san.
<Now, Senpai-san, how would you like to begin?”
●
“Begin what exactly?”
Balancer opened a diagram of the stone hut as seen from above. It was split up into a grid.
<I will spatially heat one space on this grid, creating lava there. You will then run a water extraction experiment – or test, really. So which space would you like?>
“U-um, what do you think, Sumeragi-kun?”
“Ooh, I know! I want to start by building a nuclear power plant in the center!”
“That is the standard when playing SimCity.”
“Right!?”
What was I supposed to do when I had no idea what they were talking about?
“Having it near the hut is a good idea, but I wouldn’t put it too close if I were you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look. You’ll be extracting water, so it could end up as a water source, right? That’s convenient to have nearby, but if it doesn’t work out, you’ll still have lava there.”
Shifu-san turned toward Sumeragi-kun.
“Hey!? How rude! Don’t look at me like I’m the most careless creature alive!”
That would be dangerous, I realized.
“I can already see myself filling out the report: ‘the ape fell in for no apparent reason’.”
“Hmmm. I don’t want to agree with that, but I kind of have to!”
“Why not build a cage to keep him safe?”
“With him in the cage?”
“With the lava inside the cage!”
“…”
“Uh, yeah! That’s totally what I meant!”
“Shifu-saaaaaaaaan!?”
“Oh, c’mon. It was just a thought. Anyway, what’ll it be, Sumeragi-chan?”
“How about we put it behind the hut!?”
“That was definitely just the first thing that came to mind.”
“I know he didn’t give it much thought.”
“Maybe not, but it’s a good a place as any to start with. Right, Balancer?”
<Yes, it will be under my management, so I can shift its location later on if necessary. Why are you even discussing the location in the first place?>
I grabbed that screen and shook them up and down for a bit.
●
I had a problem.
“I just checked over my authority list. I can purify and convert water from ether, but I can’t extract it from rocks.”
“Why not purify the lava into a rock, convert that into ether, and then turn that into water?”
“That’s a lot of steps. Is that really possible?”
<It is just a hair on the possible side of impossible. Because I am a clever and accommodating AI.>
Oh, yeah. That’s right, I thought before realizing something.
“So how do I convert rocks into ether?”
“…”
“Eh? You’re asking me?”
“Yeah, that was silly of me.”
“…”
“This isn’t going to work, Balancer! This plan doesn’t account for me being a weakling!”
<Th-this might be the least fair reason someone has ever yelled at me!>
“So, Senpai-chan, what did you do when you made a mistake creating the stone hut?”
“Eh? Well, I could just reshape it, so I did that.”
“I feel like that takes a higher skill level than dissolving it into ether.”
“…”
“N-not for me, it doesn’t!”
●
“Hm,” groaned Shifu.
“Maybe we should move on and be prepared to rework this part a bit later on?”
“What do you mean?”
“Your authority does not meet the conditions needed to complete this part. We haven’t actually tested that yet, but if it does turn out that you can’t, then we will need to rethink this part.”
<There is no penalty if it does come to that, so don’t worry about it.>
Balancer turned toward Senpai-chan.
<There are plenty of solutions. There are less direct methods of extracting water from lava, like the one Kuwajiri suggested, and you can also receive another god’s assistance.>
“Yeah, you can always get help from another god. Got any friends who can do this, Senpai-chan?”
“…”
“How many friends do you think a longtime shut-in has?”
“…”
“It’s a little late for this realization, but you are a really bad choice to lead this terraforming.”
“O-ouch! I-I can make rocks, which is useful! See, I’m useful!”
“Look, Kuwajiri-chan. This is what happens when you say the wrong thing around a shut-in, so try not to say anything too harsh.”
Then Shifu asked a question of Tenma-chan.
“Have any Shinto water gods gotten a real manifestation?”
“Ask yourself this: why aren’t they here with us now?”
“The DC isn’t playing nice?”
“My sister would be great to have around since she controls both fire and water, but she only has a virtual manifestation.”
“You’ve mentioned your sister before, but she sounds incredible.”
At any rate, they couldn’t expect help from Shinto. So what other gods could help?
“My recommendation to you, terraforming lead, is to not rely on the Norse gods for this.”
●
The terraforming lead gave Tenma a confused look, so she explained.
“We have already received a large quantity of Norse help. If we place any further burden on them, we will be forced to give them favorable treatment when distributing control of land on this planet after the terraforming is complete. In fact, that will already be necessary.”
So…
“Please do your best to avoid receiving any more support from the Norse gods.”
“Um, what do you mean exactly?”
“Do not ask them to extract the water for you and do not order an ice meteor from them if you decide to scrap the extraction plan.”
The terraforming lead held her head in her hands.
●
“You know what?”
Ki looked to the 1st year knowledge god.
“You sound more like an inspector than a certain snack inspector I could mention.”
“Why should that matter!? I’m more important!”
●
“Um, can I say one thing about this?”
<Feel free.>
“Are we screwed?”
<An excellent way of putting it! Not that saying so changes anything.>
I grabbed the screen and shook them vertically while I thought.
…Do I know any non-Norse water gods?
I did.
“Kido-san!!”
“Hwuh!? Do you need something!?”
“You’re the only non-Norse water god I know!”
●
“…”
“Don’t let it get to you, Mr. Vomit. I’d forgotten about you too.”
“Hey, maybe don’t kick him while he’s down like that?”
●
“Um, Kido-san, you said you were willing to help us, didn’t you? Well, the time has come! We’re all counting on you!”
“Wait, I was thinking of something quick like helping you in battle, not anything this involved.”
“B-but if you don’t help, the terraforming ends here! Please! We need you!”
“Wow is she bad at negotiating.”
“I didn’t think she was quite this bad.”
“H-hey, no commentary! Um, Kido-san! It all ends here without you! And that would be bad! Bad for who? For me! So please help me, Kido-san!”
“Um, aren’t you coming on a bit strong? And I do think there is another way.”
“No, no, no, no! You’re supposed to agree to help me now! Show us what you’re made of and help out! And hurry up or we’ll run out of time!”
“What time?”
“Eh? Oh, um, business hours! Yes, it’s almost closing time for the terraforming! ♪III chaaased the raaaabits through that mouuuuntain – see, can’t you hear it?”
“Now she’s singing.”
“And I don’t think supermarkets generally play Furusato. Isn’t Hotaru no Hikari more common?”
“H-hey! Quite commenting on your Revelation Boards!”
“So, Balancer, would that actually be an option?”
<If Kido were to help, she would only need to show results this one time. I would then copy that and she wouldn’t have to do anything more.>
“Is that true?”
“Then I will help just this once.”
●
“Hooray! Hooray! Thank you so much for helping, Kido-san!”
“To be honest, I had decided I wouldn’t help if you said Sumeragi-kun would be in trouble if I didn’t.”
“What kind of god would I be if I more or less used him as a hostage!?”
The two of them looked each other in the eye and shook hands.
●
“Waiiiit, are gods noooot supposed to take their believers hosssstage?”
“How many times have you done that?”
“Parents will do aaaanything for their kiiiids.”
“What are you, an evil god?”
●
<Now, I will set things up for you.>
With that, Balancer created a heat source back behind the stone hut.
It was about 1.8 square meters. It was surrounded by ether light and a few Revelation Boards appeared in front of me.
“These are to grant permission for the barrier and for outside control, right?”
<All my personal information will be protected, so it should list me as “Anonymous AI”. Please grant me the requested permissions.>
I hit the grant permission button. But it didn’t go through.
“Huh? It froze?”
<Are you using an old version of Revelation Board?>
“Try pressing back and trying again.”
I did so and checked Balancer’s name before redoing it. This time it worked.
“That was concerning, so I’ll see what version I’m using later.”
“Oh, that might be my fault.”
“How so?”
“Sumeragi had an upgrade recently. This might be in response to that.”
“Eh!? What’s that!? I was upgraded!?”
Sumeragi-kun checked inside his swimsuit.
“Is that true, Kuwajiri!? What was upgraded!? The sensitivity!?”
“You can ask Kunugi-senpai for a full explanation sometime.”
“No, thanks! Anyway, Senpai, what now?”
“Well, Balancer will turn a section of stone into lava and then we will extract water from there.”
“Extract water!? From this rock!?”
Sumeragi-kun lay flat on the bedrock. Then he spoke down into the bedrock.
“Hey! Rock! Senpai made you, right!? Which means you were born from her touch! And we need water from you! But how do we get it!? Do I need to suck it out or something!? Licky, licky, lick. You taste like iron!”
“Um, Sumeragi-kun, taking the bit that far is kind of impressive!”
“Oh, please! This is nothing!”
“I feel like one fanatic believer provides as much as 100 ordinary believers.”
“Probably more.”
“But if you want my authority, you’d better make an offering of Karamucho! Bring me three days’ worth and I’ll destroy a city of your choosing!”
“Does that mean Eshtar isn’t worth much, or that Karamucho is worth a lot?”
Everyone needed to be quiet.
At the moment, Kido-san and I were approaching the lava section.
●
I understood the logic behind extracting water from lava.
“For my Auth Spells, this is a fairly low level process.”
“S-sorry! Sorry for being such a weakling I can’t even do this!”
“You really need to do something about your self-esteem.”
“But extracting water from lava sounds quite high level to me. Is it not?”
“It does sound like manipulating opposite elements, doesn’t it?”
But…
“Listen. When extracting it from lava, the lava acts as the spell catalyst. And as we mentioned before, lava includes hydrogen and metals that include oxygen. Instead of making something from nothing using ether, the catalyst already has the hook I need to work with. That makes it a low level process for an Auth Spell.”
But then I waved a hand and gave a warning.
“That said, I have never extracted water from lava before. There was never a need to.”
I directly faced the small lava pool. The surface of the lava was about 20cm below the bedrock ground. I couldn’t feel the heat, so…
“The barrier is containing the heat, isn’t it?”
Balancer was ensuring our safety. So…
“I will take a stab at it.”
●
There was no trick to extracting water.
It was a lot like seeing your palm when you held out your hand.
The appearance of water was as natural as not seeing the back of your hand.
I didn’t have to summon it or produce it.
I was simply “there”.
So all I had to do was look at the boiling lava, and…
“Oh.”
What now?
●
The flame dragons were the spirits of all the lava on the planet, but their “souls” were positioned as far out as possible while they could still see the bedrock land jutting up from the lava. However…
“?”
They kept their distance because they could sense danger. Something exploded atop the bedrock land.
There was white smoke. A lot of it.
“–––––?”
The flame dragons did not understand, but they could sense something.
What were those creatures doing?
●
“Wow! A steam explosion!!”
I looked to Senpai and Kido-senpai who stood out front as the steam cloud parted in the wind.
“This water extraction stuff is exciting! I didn’t realize it would do that! So cool!!”
●
I did not turn back toward excited Sumeragi-kun. Instead, I fixed my swimsuit that had slipped out of place in the explosion and turned toward Kido-san.
“Kido-san, what was that just now?”
“U-umm?”
Kido-san seemed flustered too. But a Revelation Board appeared between us. It displayed…
“That was a steam explosion. Summoning water within the lava caused the water to instantly vaporize and explode.”
<I do have a defense barrier up, but it was not designed to stop something like that.>
“I had my own protection up, so don’t worry about it. That counted as a physical attack, so I could handle it.”
“Th-thank you so much!”
But what were we supposed to do about this? And Sumeragi-kun was saying something behind me.
“Senpai! Kido-senpai! Why did everything just explode!? Was it like a festival fire to celebrate Kido-senpai joining the terraforming!?”
●
“Kido-san?”
“Y-yes?”
“Try to not destroy Sumeragi-kun’s image of an upperclassman.”
●
Kuwajiri watched as the upperclassmen schemed to deceive the human.
First, Senpai-san turned around with a smile.
“Sumeragi-kun? That was a performance by Kido-san. She was only showing off what happens if you get your control of water just a little bit off. It was also a service to make sure you don’t get bored.”
“Y-yes, it was a demonstration of my power.”
Next to Kuwajiri, Shifu turned away from them and fell to her knees. Her shoulders were shaking, so she must have been having a hard time resisting. Raidou had his arms crossed with his hands clenched tight, so he looked one step away from losing control. It didn’t take much to get Kuwajiri’s bosses laughing. And…
“Really!? Thanks! But it all happened so suddenly I couldn’t really see. Can you show me again?”
“A-again?”
“…”
“Do it again, Kido-san!”
There was another steam explosion and a dead-eyed Enkidu reengaged her protection.
●
“Um, Kido-san, we’re past the crisis, so let’s rethink this method.”
“This was a crisis?”
“Hey, thanks for the second explosion. I had a real good laugh.”
“I-I’ll make it up for you later!”
“If it just explodes as soon as it appears, how are you supposed to get water out of lava?”
“There is a way. Return to your roots and start with rock.”
“With rock?”
“Yes. If you turn the lava into rock and extract the water from that, it won’t explode, will it?”
●
I decided to give it a try. For starters, I held my hand toward the lava pool.
“O-okay, I’m going to make rock.”
I pictured a pillar growing from the lava. And as if I were lifting up the lava…
“Go.”
I lifted my gaze and a pillar grew from the lava pool.
The pillar of black volcanic rock was 50cm thick and about a meter tall.
“Sproing. …Oh, that was just a sound effect. You can ignore me.”
He seemed to like it. So feeling more confident…
“Kido-san, you’re up!”
●
It split.
“Oh?”
I didn’t even see water there. As soon as I faced the pillar, it split in two.
It split halfway down its length, small pieces breaking off and falling into the lava.
“Was its structure too fragile?”
“Maybe you can create water inside it, but that creates too much internal pressure, splitting the solid pillar?”
“No, I didn’t create enough water for that.”
“It was the temperature difference,” said Kuwajiri-san, raising her hand. “When you rapidly cool a high-temperature object, the temperature difference rapidly changes its structure, which can destroy it. That is what happened here.”
“Eh? So are we really screwed? I mean…a rock that came from the lava is always going to be hot.”
“Do you need to be more careful about cooling the rock like when tempering a sword?”
“Wait,” said Shifu-san, tilting her head. “Aren’t we getting water from the lava to cool it with water? If we have to cool the lava first, aren’t we right back where we started?”
“No, Shifu, there is a way.”
Raidou-san held a hand to his chin.
“
“A heat sink.”
●
I see, thought Kuwajiri. The others tilted their heads in confusion, so she drew a diagram to explain.
She drew a picture of a certain object attached to a square rock.
“This is a heat sink.”
“Looks like a comb to me.”
Close. That wasn’t accurate, but Kuwajiri wanted to believe that came from ignorance of the object in question and not her poor artistic skills. So…
“More or less. A metal with good thermal conductivity is shaped like a comb or lined up close together like a bunch of tanzaku. If you place that on something hot, its heat is radiated more quickly.”
“It works by expanding the original object’s surface area, right?”
“Correct. You will find something similar on the back of a refrigerator. A lattice shaped part that produces a gentle heat. That radiates heat to transfer heat away from the interior components.”
“Um, so like this?”
Senpai-san held her hand over the lava, creating a 50cm heat sink. It had around 10 teeth. It looked well made, but as they watched…
“Is it just me or is it turning really red?”
“Perhaps increasing the surface area is causing it to absorb all the surrounding heat?”
<That means the heat supply is greater than the heat radiation.>
I see, thought Kuwajiri again, reaching a conclusion.
“I believe we are screwed.”
“I-it’s too soon to decide that. Please try a little longer, Kuwajiri-san!”
“In case you forgot, I am a Norse god, so I’m not really supposed to be helping. Knowledge is not free.”
“Hm. Could the heat sink’s shape be the problem?”
●
Tenma raised her hand and indicated something.
“What if you add desk-like legs to the previous heat sink? That reduces the surface area contacting the lava and increases the surface area contacting the air.”
“Um, so that would be shaped…how?”
“Have the teeth facing up and the legs on the bottom, maybe?”
The terraforming lead tilted her head uncertainly and held her hand toward the lava. The object that grew from the lava this time was exactly what Tenma had asked for.
“If the legs are long enough, the heat can’t reach it from below. The heat sink at the top will be cooked from below, but its heat radiation should provide sufficient cooling.”
From the look of it, the heat issue was no longer a problem. So…
“Kido-senpai, please try it again.”
●
Kido looked to the heat sink growing out of the lava pond.
She only had to extract water from that. So…
“Here goes nothing,” she decided to say.
And when she looked at it…
“Waterrrr.”
The water came out. It seeped out from the heat sink’s teeth and immediately turned to steam, which created a shimmer in the air.
But this had created water. So…
“Success,” she said.
But…
“Oh.”
Something happened with a barely audible sound. The heat sink cracked, fell apart, and dropped into the lava.
It was destroyed.
●
“Hard to say on that one.”
“True. She did get the water out of it, so the legged heat sink would have to be recycled anyway. In that sense, it doesn’t matter that it fell apart.”
“But isn’t that really inefficient? She didn’t get much water.”
“That would be because increasing the surface area did not increase the volume very much.”
“So because there wasn’t much too it, it didn’t have much water to extract?”
<Yes. I would call this method a success. But I will have trouble adopting it if you do not provide a more cost effective version.>
“Y-you don’t make this easy!”
●
What to do now?
As an inspector, Eshita was allowed to take an irresponsible position here. So…
“Can’t you just make lots more of them?”
“The problem is how little water they get from each one.”
“Then can you make the comb teeth longer?”
“These will be placed outside our base, so they have to be stable and sturdy. Taller heat sinks would radiate more heat, but this planet’s hot winds might destroy them.”
“Then,” she said. “Why not make a real big one that’s sturdier and can radiate more heat?”
“That would be a lattice,” said the knowledge god. And after noticing everyone’s attention on her, “This is a free piece of advice. Norse remains uninvolved.”
She took a breath.
“Imagine a jungle gym. Think of it as thick as a spike and standing above this lava pool. This increases the overall heat radiation effect, but gaining more volume with the spike shape should give you more water.”
●
Shifu saw a hand go up in response to Kuwajiri’s suggestion.
“By length, the volume of a spike and the volume of a heat sink don’t seem all that different to me.”
“Then what should you do?”
“Why not make it a heat sink and a lattice? That seems like it would have a greater cooling effect.”
Tenma-chan opened a Revelation Board. It displayed a heat sink tower covering a 3 square meter space.
“Give it raised-floor-style legs and then add a heat sink lattice on top like this. At around 5m, that should retain a fair amount of water.”
“But isn’t it useless once the water has been extracted?”
“Then you replace the heat sink. Instead of being a single piece, the heat sinks parts are stacked up in a lattice pattern.”
Clever, was Shifu’s thought. Balancer lowered their screen a few times to represent nodding.
But Sumeragi-chan tilted his head.
“Got a question?”
“Not really. It’s just the way this has pillars stacked up horizontally and vertically looks so familiar.”
“Thinking of a campfire maybe?”
“No, it’s not that. For some reason, it makes me really antsy, though.”
Shifu and Sumeragi-chan tilted their heads together to think, but then a hand went up. Its owner looked hesitant to speak.
“Senpai-chan? What is it?”
“Oh, um, I do appreciate all the ideas, everyone, but…”
Where is she going with this? wondered Shifu before Senpai-chan continued.
“I can’t picture these complex shapes that well.”
●
Shifu saw Tenma fall to her knees. Next to her, Kuwajiri nodded.
“Senpai-san never ceases to impress. Once again she has ducked below our expectations at the worst possible time.”
“That’s not a compliment.”
“Sorry. But with all these lattice pieces, I’m really not sure I can get the horizontal and vertical pieces to fit together right.”
“Then what can you do?”
“Oh! Well! I can make a shrine!”
“Like, a Shinto shrine?”
“Yes! I studied that a bunch because I thought it would be necessary someday! Watch this!”
Senpai-chan held her hands toward the lava pool. And…
“Go!”
With that cry, something rose up from the lava. It was a full miniature Shinto shrine, including the path to it.
●
The heat-emanating shrine was essentially a model made of rock. But the details were all there.
“Are the shimenawa and shide all made of rock!?”
“I like that the path from the front shrine to the main shrine is sloped upwards to place the main shrine higher.”
<Talk about a waste of talent.>
“Th-this isn’t a waste! It isn’t!”
●
Shifu and Raidou viewed the shrine model. It was so detailed it even included the stone paving of the paths and the water scoop at the hand washing station.
“Senpai-chan must have wanted to be worshiped at a shrine like this.”
“But can we use this to extract water?”
Shifu imagined it. She pictured 1:1-size stone shrines covering the lava sea all the way out to the horizon.
“Now there’s a cursed image.”
“It would make for a strange world, wouldn’t it?”
“But with Shinto, I can kind of see it.”
“H-hey, stop treating people’s tastes like they’re from another world!”
Tastes? thought Shifu, but then she heard another voice.
“Senpai! Kido-senpai! Got a moment!?”
●
Tenma saw the human pull the terraforming lead and Kido around to the other side of the lava pool. They kept their back to the rest and began discussing something. Tenma couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Balancer tilted their screen on this side of the bubbling lava pool.
<Are they discussing a redo of this part?>
Then they faced this way and the terraforming lead raised her hand.
“Um, Balancer? To double check, we just have to extract water from this lava pool, right? And as much as possible?”
<Yes, that is correct. As long as you can do that, I can handle the rest. Have you thought up a way?>
“Oh, well, um, we know doing it directly from the lava is hard, so having me turn it into rock first will be fine, won’t it? We don’t want another steam explosion, after all.”
<Yes, there doesn’t seem to be any avoiding that. Turning it to rock first shouldn’t be an issue. In fact, the stone heat sink idea did the same.>
“Thank you! So we can use rock!”
The terraforming lead raised a hand toward Kido.
“Kido-san? Let’s get started, shall we?”
●
Shifu saw Senpai-chan do something.
She activated an Auth Spell. It took effect, causing…
“Go!”
A transformation.
All the lava in the lava pool was instantly turned to rock.
“Eh?”
All of it. There was no lava left.
And Kido-chan immediately acted. She focused on the depression in the bedrock that had been lava.
“Okay!”
With that, water welled up from the center of the depression. It bubbled for a bit from the heat left in the bedrock, but that finally settled down, leaving a water puddle about a meter across.
Then Senpai-chan commented on the process.
“How about that!? We extracted water from the lava by turning it into rock first, didn’t we!?”
●
Kuwajiri looked at the water pooled atop the rock.
She knew what they had just done.
“You were asked to extract water from lava and you were given permission to turn the lava into rock first, so you ‘overwrote’ all of the lava as rock and extracted water from that.”
“Now I feel like creating the lava pool wasn’t even necessary.”
“I know what you mean,” said Kuwajiri, looking to Balancer.
Balancer was floating at a slight angle. They nearly fell to the ground before recovering.
<Ehhhhhhhhhh?'’' Then why did you even have me create the lava in the first place!?>
“Hey! Did you see that, Balancer!? This method uses Senpai and Kido-senpai’s abilities to their fullest!!”
<This was your idea, wasn’t it, you damn dirty ape?>
“Oh? You got a problem with this? But it meets all your conditions! You said we could turn the lava to rock first! Senpai even double checked! So what’s the verdict, Balancer!?”
The idiot started shaking his butt and jumping around on the other side of the puddle.
<Kh! You set me up!>
“Ehhh? Whaaaaaaaaaat did you say? Surely a clever AI like you saw this coming from a mile away, right!?”
●
“This was certainly a blind spot, but I can tell now I was overthinking this.”
“This is the same kind of cheap answer as being asked to ‘capture all the targets in the designated area’ and responding by ‘capturing every single thing in the area’.”
“But Human-senpai did put a surprising amount of thought into this.”
“I’d argue he came up with this answer by not thinking about it at all.”
●
I saw Raidou-senpai’s hand go up.
“Hey, Sumeragi. I bet I know where you got this idea.”
“You do?” everyone asked, but knowing Raidou-senpai, he probably did. So…
“Where do you think I got it?”
“From the lattice structure mentioned before. There’s only one thing in the game club you’d think of when stacking them up like that.”
At that point, I heard someone clap their hands. It was Shifu-senpai. And the clap caused her big boobs to jiggle.
“You mean Tetris, don’t you!?”
●
“Bingo! That’s right! You kept talking about stacking up horizontal and vertical blocks in a pit, so I thought you could just drop them all in and fill up the space!”
Kuwajiri looked to Balancer after hearing the idiot’s explanation.
Balancer had fallen to the ground.
“Are you alright, Balancer?”
Balancer spoke while still “face down” on the ground.
<I was really hoping you would all work your brains more than this.>
“Too bad then.”
<And I thought you were so close too.>
“What did you think would be a good answer?”
Balancer slowly rose back up after Shifu’s question.
On the other side of the puddle, the idiot was pointing at Balancer while lying on the ground with legs somewhat spread.
“Youuuuuuuuuuu lose!!”
<A-ape! Do you really think you’ve won!?>
“Huh!? Of course I have! But don’t worry! As much as I hate discrimination, you’re undeniably below me in the hierarchy!”
“Okay, Balancer. Don’t stoop to his level. You can’t hope to defeat his uncanny skill at provocation.”
“Anyway, what did you think was a good answer?”
<To give Senpai-san a simple structure, I think stacked four-legged tables half the size of the lava pool would be best. She could add new tables from the lava pool below and, once water had been extracted from one, she could dump it into the rest of the pool to recycle it.”
That way the lava pool wouldn’t need to be replaced.
<The ape’s idea was definitely a blind spot for me, but it would require replacing the lava pool. That would be very inefficient.>
“Then,” said Senpai-san. “What if we turned half the pool into rock, left the other half lava, extracted water from the rock, and then began a rotation?”
<Hmmmm!>
Balancer tilted up toward the sky.
This was a compromise.
“So a combination of Balancer’s idea and the human’s Tetris idea.”
“I can’t quite tell if it’s a good idea or a bad idea.”
<I was really hoping for a more elegant answer.>
Balancer was cut off by a bitter laugh. Everyone turned around to see Eshtar looking down into the depression in the bedrock.
“It sounds good to me. And if you get the rotation set up right, I bet you could create a path along the lava sea this way.”
Everyone looked to Balancer.
Finally, the screen clearly sighed and mimicked a nod.
<If this idea has the inspector’s approval, there isn’t much I can say. I had such high hopes in you all I forget about the human’s wicked side. …This can work. Approved.>
●
Shifu watched Senpai-chan and Kido-chan excitedly grab each other’s hands before she turned to the side.
She spoke to Eshita-chan who stood to her left.
“Eshita-chan, that assistance was a great move as an inspector. Balancer needed that extra push to accept this one.”
“Oh? That wasn’t why I said it. But…”
The playful victory god smiled.
“That construction-like game you and your husband mentioned sounds fun, so teach me how to play it.”
“Only if you clean your hands with a wet tissue first.”
●
Kido sensed everyone’s enthusiasm.
They had provided information to reach an understanding of the situation. They had debated the problem and sought an answer every way they could. This particular answer was borderline cheating as far as Balancer was concerned, but…
“It does sound like something from a myth.”
“In the myths, gods are often outwitting other gods or stealing things from more powerful gods.”
Did you know?
“In Shinto and Japanese legends, even humans do that kind of thing to the gods.”
“Nothing is off limits in Shinto, is it?”
But that did answer a question for her.
“This will speed up the production of water, won’t it?”
What would that cause? She had a feeling she would never see the answer.
But Shifu clapped her hands once and spoke.
“Okay, we’ve made some real progress on the terraforming this time, so how about we head back?”
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