The Gravity Bomb Blueprint
The gravity bomb development is divided into four major stages.
[1. Discovery of the Graviton]
[2. Understanding the Gravity Field-Ether Theory]
[3. Fabrication of a Container Capable of Holding the Bomb and a Dedicated Detonator]
[4. Test Detonation]
Reading a paper written by an Outer God. What a strange feeling. Still, it’s written in a way that’s surprisingly easy to understand. I suppose that’s what you’d expect from the god of wisdom and curiosity.
— The ‘God of Wisdom and Curiosity’ feels great satisfaction at your evaluation.
Anyway.
The first stage is the discovery of the graviton.
It’s a difficult topic right from the start. This is an era where warp technology has been commercialized. Even in a time like this, the graviton has never been discovered. In an age when space civilization has advanced so far, how could physicists fail to find a single graviton? One might ask. But the simple answer is that they didn’t have the money.
The cost of running a particle accelerator once could feed three meals a day to every child in Africa. Yet the only ones who cheered when the Higgs boson was discovered were science perverts. “What’s the point of discovering something useless like that? It just eats money like a black hole!” That’s the kind of suffering people in basic science have to endure.
There’s one tip for discovering the graviton: deposit a Black Sphere onto your experimental equipment.
The Black Sphere is an egg created by a monster of the Maxwell faction Outer Gods. It’s round, pitch-black, and smooth.
It has the property of accelerating supersymmetric particles. Design your accelerator with that property in mind. You’ll be able to save a lot of money.
“Oh…”
I cheered inwardly. The monster we had encountered belonged to the Maxwell faction. In other words, some Outer God from Maxwell was aiming to corrupt Stellarium. The entire planet was probably littered with Black Spheres.
Perfect. I’ll turn crisis into opportunity. Before those Black Spheres can “hatch,” I’ll find every last one and turn them into unfertilized eggs.
But how do I locate them?
Notification: Use the Caliper of Wisdom to locate them.
That’s right. I still had the caliper. Cartesia’s Caliper of Wisdom has two functions. One is for combat. The other is for measurement. The target of measurement can be set at will.
Measurement target: Black Sphere / Measured distance: 8.23m
I hadn’t expected much, but there was one nearby. The area in front of the cave was a wide-open plain. I turned my head and looked behind me.
“Is there something inside the cave?” Zernya asked.
“Seems like it.”
The inside of the cave stretched deep like a snake’s gullet, so dark that I couldn’t see even an inch ahead. We needed something like a torch. No choice, then.
I used the caliper like a poker and stirred the campfire. A burning tumbleweed wrapped itself around the blade of the caliper. I twisted it round and round until it looked like cotton candy.
“What are you doing?”
“Fireball.”
“……?”
— The ‘God of Wisdom and Curiosity’ is greatly flustered.
I learned one more new function of the caliper. It makes a perfect torch.
— The ‘God of Wisdom and Curiosity’ is screaming in despair.
Cartesia, the caliper you gave me is amazing. The material is clearly metal, yet its thermal conductivity must be low because the handle didn’t get hot at all. I smiled in satisfaction and stepped deeper into the cave. The curiosity-filled Lieutenant Zernya followed after me.
I walked forward, holding the torch and driving back the darkness.
Measured distance: 1.34m
I could see it. In the darkness, there was a sphere that shone blacker than darkness itself. Should I call it a white-passing black guy? For a moment I grew curious about the object’s composition, but I quickly shook my head. Condensed matter wasn’t my field. It wasn’t an urgent research topic either. I’d send some other friend to grad school later and have them study it. Yeah, that sounded good. That was what division of labor was for.
I took one more step forward. Only then was I certain that the fist-sized jewel before my eyes was a Black Sphere. Lucky me. I picked up the Black Sphere that had been wedged in the corner and showed it to Zernya.
“What is this? A black pearl? It’s pretty.”
“Don’t touch it.”
I quickly pulled it back before her hand could reach it. She had nearly been consumed by madness.
“Stingy.” Zernya clicked her tongue.
Tsk. Come to think of it, Zernya had a setting where she collected precious metals and rare-colored stones. As expected of a daughter from a prestigious family—she went crazy for jewels.
“Hey, shine the torch over here.”
Zernya ordered me. She scanned the cave floor, searching for more black pearls.
“……None.”
Unfortunately, the one I had found was the only one. Zernya clicked her tongue again.
The reason Zernya had contracted with an Outer God was because of this very hobby. How could she resist something that sparkled and looked so mysterious?
Wait a second. Maybe I could use this personality trait to pull her in as an ally.
“It’s not like it’ll wear out. Let me see it for a bit.”
“You want to touch it?”
“Are your ears clogged?”
She scrunched up her face and looked up at me. If I used the caliper here, the result would be as follows.
Figure 1. Zernya’s height: 155 cm.
Figure 2. Eidel’s height: 180 cm.
Figure 3. Height at which Eidel is holding the black pearl: approximately 175 cm.
“……”
Zernya has activated ‘Hug Me Please’!
Zernya stood on her tiptoes, stretching her hands this way and that. The way she flailed about was incredibly cute. Before long, the child known as Zernya, defeated by the height difference, slumped her shoulders and returned to her seat.
“Forget it. What am I even doing?”
I timed my provocation perfectly.
“If you beat me on the midterm, I’ll give it to you.”
Whoosh—Zernya whipped her head around again. Her eyes sparkled like burning comets.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“No take-backs.”
Zernya wore a sly smile. I bit my lip hard to keep from laughing.
Meanwhile, Rustila had been sitting with her legs together and her face buried in her hands, letting out strange moans for a while now.
“Uuuu…”
What’s wrong with her this time? I wanted to check her psychological state, but unfortunately I had no fron left. I was completely broke after paying the paper access fee.
“…Hmph.”
Zernya, who had been glancing at Rustila, leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. Yeah, they must both be exhausted. I should let them rest a little. There was no way we could push through the storm right now anyway. We had lost our electronic devices, so we couldn’t even contact the school. I felt bad for my sister who was probably waiting, but it looked like we’d have to spend the night here.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Aren’t you going to sleep?”
Ah, right. Of course I wasn’t. I still had to read the paper.
***
Zernya, who had been staring at the flickering campfire, bit her lip.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Her heartbeat rang clearly in her ears. It had been like this ever since she woke up inside the cave. Hypothermia? Arrhythmia? It could be simple palpitations or pulsatile tinnitus. She exercised diligently and ate three proper meals every day—why would she suddenly have symptoms like this? Even after mobilizing all her medical knowledge, she couldn’t figure it out.
Zernya suddenly looked at Eidel. For some reason the guy kept staring into empty space, occasionally flashing a chilling smile or letting out a creepy chuckle. She could only think he was insane.
But he was the top student. An opponent she absolutely had to surpass. Come to think of it, maybe her pounding heart had something to do with him. Yes, it was an inferiority complex. Because Eidel was first and she was second. She couldn’t easily accept that fact, and the resulting anger was unbearable.
‘He said if I win the midterm, he’ll give me that black pearl.’
Zernya, who loved jewels, was knowledgeable enough about minerals to have earned a jewelry master certification. The black pearl Eidel had picked up clearly held tremendous value. Adding it to her collection would feel incredible.
‘I will definitely win.’
The corner of Zernya’s mouth curved into a sly arc.
***
What matters is the will to continue even when you’re broken.
The teachers carried out their duties diligently even as their mental states were shredded. They tallied the dead, searched for the missing.
Around ten at night, abnormal weather struck. Torrential rain poured down all night. They launched rockets carrying gas that reduced precipitation, but it wasn’t enough.
“It’s the Outer Gods. It’s definitely the Outer Gods…” Seti muttered.
Her homeroom teacher, Kendra, gently placed a hand on Seti’s shoulder.
“Seti, it’ll be alright.”
“Teacher…”
“It hasn’t even been a full day yet. I’m sure they’re all still alive.”
A life born from a contractual marriage. No one had ever loved her. No one had ever been close to her. And yet, among the few friends she had managed to make, there was Rustila. Seti didn’t want to lose her. And the same went for Eidel.
The old grudges had almost all been washed away. Rather than the hatred of the past few years, she wanted to remember the kindness of the last few months. To think that even a brother like that could die… Just imagining it was horrifying.
“Report. We have discovered traces of strangely damaged forest stretching one kilometer north-northwest from the clearing where the monster appeared.”
Kendra shot to her feet.
“Is that the path the monster took?”
“The road itself was heavily damaged by the sudden downpour, but based on the testimony of the students and inspectors, it is almost certain.”
“Are you still searching?”
“Yes. There was a cliff about fifty meters high at the end. The area was shrouded in thick fog and there was a risk of landslide, so we couldn’t descend… but we did find this.”
The search team member pulled out a plasma sword covered in dirt and moss.
“Ah…”
Seti’s pupils trembled violently.
“Analysis confirms an ether reaction belonging to student Rustila Kersil.”
Seti slid from her chair and collapsed to the floor.
“Seti? Seti! You can’t lose consciousness! Excuse me, did you see anything below that cliff? A lake, perhaps?”
“Visibility was extremely poor due to the heavy rain. Unless the rain stops or we bring in better equipment, exploring beneath the cliff appears impossible.”
Impossible. It was the word Seti hated most. If something was impossible, shouldn’t you make it possible? The rescue worker’s businesslike tone, completely devoid of emotion, felt detestable.
“Sister… Brother…”
Rustila. The girl she had looked up to since childhood. She liked her. Eidel. She had only just, just started to like him again. So please, come back.
Time passed. The rain gradually lightened. The team launched three helicopters. By the time dawn broke, the waiting room had emptied. Seti rubbed her face, curled up, sighed… Her stomach growled and she felt sleepy, but she couldn’t fall asleep.
How much time had she killed like that? When she came to her senses, something was right in front of her. A golden glowing stone. It had a distorted, twisted shape. It didn’t look like an ordinary mineral. But that wasn’t important right now. Why had something like this suddenly appeared before her?
Seti backed away slowly, wary of the stone. The next moment, a giggling voice replayed inside her head. Someone inside her mind shouted. Pick up that stone right now. Then you’ll be able to confirm whether your sister and brother are alive or dead. The voice was as warm and sweet as cotton candy, and finally Seti slowly reached out her hand.
And at that moment, the door to the waiting room opened and three people walked in.