Just Kidding
Just Kidding
008.
- "I-Is that true? You're letting me go? N-No more strange surgeries?"
- "...Yes."
Soon, Long-term Service Unit 1 [flinched], and shortly after, [ Kneeling down and crying ] popped up on his status window.
'What's with this reaction?'
Right now, I was having Vivian convince Long-term Service Unit 1 to change his status from prisoner to slave.
[ Construction★: 6 ].
The only being in our area capable of installing cooling facilities. Is that not our very own Long-term Service Unit 1?
So I asked for his cooperation under the condition of completing the facility construction.
- "Then! O-Of course! I'll do it! I'll do whatever it takes, so please, just no more surgeries! Anything else, just command me! I'll do it all!!"
'Is he not even expecting to be released?'
Seeing that reaction, I chuckled to myself. The AI really gave such delightfully satisfying reactions.
"Phew... Then I'll be sure to make good use of you."
Truth be told, if 'Crafting' were what mattered for making generators or coolers, I could just order Third, so there would be no need to take such a risk.
This is all due to the blind spot of the game, which judges the required talent for building facilities—whether power facilities or cooling facilities—as 'Construction'.
Truthfully, since wooden peg legs like a pirate's were attached to both of his feet, he couldn't walk around well, so he wasn't particularly dangerous.
Still, wouldn't it be dangerous to turn a robber-rapist loose in the neighborhood?
Therefore, Vivian, armed with a pistol, was scheduled to tag along as his guard.
- "Reroll-nim... You are so merciful to open a way to live even for a person like this."
Vivian offered a [ Prayer while looking at the ceiling ] inside the same space as the prisoner.
"Haha, Vivian, I have no intention of letting him go."
I muttered, patting my stomach which was full after finishing the chicken.
Why would I release the most expensive asset in our settlement—a magnificent teaching aid that was already 'completed' since both his legs were chopped off?
After everything is built, I plan to say "Just kidding!" and lock him back up.
- "R-Right. What should I do?"
I pressed <Send Revelation>.
- First, let's wander around the region to gather the mechanical components needed to build the facilities.
It could be things like turbine motors, metal pipes, or gears. In this game, all of those are lumped together as mechanical components.
As my command was conveyed, Vivian gathered her things and stepped outside the settlement, matching the pace of 'Long-term Service Unit 1'.
I swept my gaze over the entire region.
"Well, even if it's a mod, is the lore background the same?"
Just like how while our Second shoots a shortbow, trade caravans shoot guns.
'A world where the Middle Ages and the future coexist.'
The world inside this game was a vast expanse where humans barely managed settlements atop the ruins of an abandoned ancient civilization.
Hence, there are machine remains buried all over the place, as well as facilities that can be deconstructed.
- Vivian, if you go north from the settlement, there's a component deposit site, okay? Go there and tell him to mine it.
Vivian, in a state of [ Nervous ], was holding her gun tightly and keeping watch over Unit 1 as seen in the graphics.
- "It's north from here."
- "Ah... Really, young lady. If you move that gun away from me, I'd walk much better."
Just because he got a few minutes of fresh air, Long-term Service Unit 1 seemed to delude himself into thinking he was somebody. He was slowly spouting lines practically begging to have his organs harvested.
Vivian's state changed to [ Flustered ].
But feeling gradually anxious, Vivian muttered softly enough that the prisoner couldn't hear.
- "R-Reroll-nim... I, I, I don't think I can shoot the gun..."
I knew it full well. Is our Vivian's trait not [ Respect for Life ]?
Normally, I would tell her to shoot his legs. But Long-term Service Unit 1 has no legs.
I clicked <Send Revelation>.
- Vivian, don't worry and just press the gun barrel against that bastard's back.
Vivian hesitated for a moment, but when she did as I instructed, the prisoner hurriedly shut his mouth.
- "S-Sorry. I won't say useless things."
"Kkeukkkeuk."
'Should have done that from the start.'
Completely immersed in the lines produced by the AI characters, I was planning the next surgery.
If he keeps acting like that, I might end up going with a surgery to rip out a kidney and reattach it.
Soon, the pair arrived at the pile of mechanical components.
Vivian kept watch with her gun pointed, and the prisoner began mining mechanical components from that pile of machinery buried like a junkyard.
'Huh? He's surprisingly diligent?'
What appeared on my screen was the scene of the prisoner digging out components with pat-pat-pat sounds. Still, [ Construction★: 6 ] wasn't a lie, as he did it skillfully.
Soon, the prisoner and Vivian returned to the settlement clutching heaps of components. Because there were so many components that hands were short, Vivian tried to help, but I stopped her.
- "Phew... W-What now? What should I do?"
The most urgent thing was cooling facilities.
In other words, we needed a freezer where the suddenly increased amount of meat in our settlement could be stored without spoiling.
However, since a freezer runs on electricity, power facilities were also needed. And once power facilities were set up, power storage facilities to store electricity also had to be set up.
"Hmm..."
[ Balance: 3,500 pt ]
[ Reveal Basic Power Facility Crafting Method: 700 pt ]
[ Reveal Basic Power Storage Facility Crafting Method: 500 pt ]
[ Reveal Basic Cooling Facility Crafting Method: 300 pt ]
This popped up.
So now, looking to inform them on crafting the facilities, it was telling me to dump 1,500 points (pt) into it.
'Fine, costing that much. That's fine.'
It's not normally an easy thing, and I don't know it either. So I can understand it costing this much.
The problem was the target.
- "Huh? But this... I don't know how to make such things, what should I do?"
A pop-up window appeared before me, asking to invest 1,500 pt into Long-term Service Unit 1.
"Ha... Dammit..."
I wondered if it was right to teach this guy. Who knows when I might harvest or dispose of him out of necessity?
Wouldn't that mean blowing away 1,500 pt?
Suddenly, the trait of Delphine, the Second, crossed my mind.
[ Positivist - ...Cannot gain proficiency through books, oral tradition, or revelation... ]
"Wait."
If the Second's trait is like that, it means revelation in this mod is treated on the same level as books or oral traditions.
In short, a revelation is ultimately just one of the 'means of transmitting knowledge'. It's not some mysterious, all-powerful infusion.
"Then can't I just teach it to our settler?"
Since it's not all-powerful anyway, as long as someone understands it perfectly and teaches it well, that's enough.
"Oho!"
Slapping my knee at the moment of enlightenment, I stood up. In a way, this seemed to be a blind spot of the language model AI mod!
"Then Vivian? Or Second?"
Thinking about it, Vivian didn't seem good at passing down this kind of thing, and Second gave off a slight whiff of an airhead.
'Can't be helped then.'
- Vivian, can you tell Third to come here? Ask her if she wants to come learn how to make cooling, power storage, and power facilities.
When I used the trick of calling Third through Vivian to forcibly bring up the pop-up window again, the 3 Revelations totaling 1,500 pt popped up once more.
Click.
[ Balance: 2,000 pt ]
- "Oooooh!! I think I get it!"
With that, something flashed three times over Third's head, and the knowledge was instilled into her.
"Great. Now let's try constructing it."
Curious and nervous to see if it would work, I wiped the sweat from my hands on my pants while watching the monitor.
Still, since I put in a whole 1,500 pt, it was quite an investment.
The very first thing to begin construction was the power facility. A simple wood-fired generator was to be installed. I passed orders to Third through Vivian.
- "Hey! No, no. Not there, against the wall by the potato patch! No, no. Don't put the motor there, drive it into the bottom part!"
Suddenly showing the vibes of a construction site foreman, Third began faithfully driving the orders I gave into Long-term Service Unit 1.
Soon came the test run.
As Third fed in logs of wood, a status displaying [ Wiiiiiiing. Dureureureuk ] popped up.
"Oh!!! It works! Whew..."
So I had definitely discovered a proper exploit for sending Revelations. Only then did I let out a sigh of relief.
Long-term Service Unit 1 collaborated with Third to produce a working generator. And that was entirely done in the manner Third instructed.
Next was the power storage facility. That too was installed beside the relatively sturdy inner wall of the settlement, then connected nicely with electrical wires.
However, at the final cooling facility, Long-term Service Unit 1 hesitated.
- "W-Well, now. I don't know much, but isn't a cooler supposed to be installed on the outside? Since the outdoor unit needs to be vented."
That's right. The coolers used in this world building are all-in-one units, so they must be installed on a wall.
But seeing that conversation, I smirked.
"Haha, that is a very outdated method."
A facility is the weakest point among the walls. If set up like that, raiders will target that vulnerability to break through.
So as a trick, you build a small room inside the freezer and breach the ceiling. That way, the exhaust unit vents out like a chimney, which is also great for defense.
So I was about to send a Revelation to do as I ordered.
- "Don't speak nonsense, and just do as you are told."
"Huh?"
A stone-faced Vivian was delivering the first strike before I even had the chance to send a Revelation.
- "Yeah! Eonni is right! What do you know? She must have seen something again."
Third was yelling as well.
"Ohoho."
My heart fluttered and laughter came naturally at the proper role-playing of the AI characters.
"Yeah, if you act like that, it makes spending points while being fooled totally worth it."
Soon, with a [ Wiiiiiing ], the cooler was completed.
"Complete!!!"
The temperature of the space isolated by walls dropped below freezing. The temperatures of the beef, rhino meat, and rabbit meat in that place also dropped gradually and began to freeze.
"Mwahahaha!"
Now it could be said that we had overcome the biggest hurdle of the food problem.
If we put the potatoes we're planting and the meat in here, we can worry less about spoilage and eat for a long, long time.
- "I-It seems everything is done... Are you letting me go now?"
Long-term Service Unit 1 looked carefully at Vivian and asked. Vivian had been monitoring him with her gun pointed the entire time.
Since all the nerve-wracking tasks were finished, I stretched in my chair.
"Ohohoho. No way, Long-term Service Unit 1-nim. It is time for you to suffer the fate of Han Xin."
Now that the hare of facility construction has been caught, shouldn't we boil the hound?
[ Balance: 1,800 pt ]
Having spent a lot of points, I needed to earn them back. I was about to give a Revelation to Vivian to capture and lock him up again.
Tiring-.
A quest suddenly popped up. It was a forced quest with no option to accept or decline.
[ Oh my! Are you perhaps trying to slaughter the hound now that the hare is caught? Hmm... You could do that, but wouldn't it be better to remain as an Outer God who keeps his promises? ]
"No, what is this out of nowhere?"
The AI system threw a quest at me, intervening directly.
[ If you keep your promise, 500 pt. If you break your promise and lock him up again... Well, this might become another turning point. ]
"Huh."
For a moment, I paused.
It wasn't that I was scared of something like it becoming a turning point. It was because, upon doing the math, I realized that 500 pt might be more profitable.
- Vivian, I will let him go for now, but could you wait a moment? I have something to think about.
I wasn't scared at all of a trash guy like that harboring vengeance and invading again. I could block something like that even if it happened 100 times.
However, I really needed to calculate what would be more profitable.
Meanwhile, pop-ups of Vivian muttering kept appearing.
- "As expected... Merciful Reroll-nim."
No, Vivian, I'm not like that.