02. Rank
02. Rank
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"Sihwan-nim, I've reorganized the system to make it easy for you to understand."
"Hmm...."
Sihwan blinked a couple of times.
After smacking Bari over the head for throwing out that cheeky line in response to his consoling words, he wandered around the academy's interior looking for a good spot to build the Underground Base.
And just as he reached the vicinity of Yu Ina's office, a transparent window suddenly popped up in Sihwan's field of vision. Just like a stat screen.
<Ryu Si-hwan Nation>
[Resources]
Meta-atom production 0 liters/t
Nanomaterials production 0 liters/t
Meta-atom reserves: 16 liters
Nanomaterials reserves: 22 liters
[Facilities]
-Control Center - 0
-Collector - 0
-Nuclear Fission Device - 0
-Gravitational Wave Collector - 0
-Giant Printer - 0
.
.
-Android Factory - 0
-Space Dock - 0
A bunch of information was listed out.
Resources, facilities, and such...
It felt just like looking at an info screen from a nation-management strategy sim.
"What's this?"
"Since you came to the Otherworld to have some fun anyway, I made the system game-like."
"Oh... so it's like I can play it RTS-style."
"Yes."
"Nice."
If it were virtual reality, that'd be one thing, but implementing it in reality like this.
Sihwan nodded, surprised but seemingly satisfied in his own way.
"Then give me a quick rundown."
"First off, the Control Center is, as the name implies, the facility that oversees the entire system. Normally, that's my job, but I've set it up so you can manipulate all the facilities yourself like you're playing a game."
"Oho. So with this, I can build and give orders directly instead of commanding you? Without going through you?"
"That's the idea. Plus, the Control Center doubles as your home base. Its exterior is set to look something like a residence by default, and the initial construction cost is pretty cheap."
"Control Center, huh... Sounds like I gotta build that first to unlock the rest."
"Exactly. You have to build the Control Center before other facilities unlock, and some of them have additional conditions."
"You really turned it into a full game. In a world that already has stats."
Not bad.
Nah, actually good. If Bari handled everything solo, it'd be no fun at all, but with some limitations, Sihwan could tweak things himself. Then he could enjoy it. This Otherworld was worlds apart from the super-universe era he lived in, but he could still get some thrills and enjoyment out of it.
"Alright. Control Center first, then. Where to build it? No real restrictions, right?"
"As long as you have the resources, you could even build in mid-air. But right now, even after minimally building a <Control Tower>, <Collector>, and <Nuclear Fission Device>, you'd barely have any reserves left."
"Isn't that a crisis???"
"Correct. My main weapon, the Plasma Beam, consumes an average of 1.5ml of Nanomaterials per shot. Arithmetic says you couldn't even fire it 700 times, and in special situations, it'd guzzle way more, so we urgently need a Nanomaterials mass-production setup."
Sihwan felt a slight pang of crisis.
Bari's main weapon was surely packing insane power. And around 600 shots should cover most dangerous scenarios.
But that was just calculating for that weapon alone. Realistically, consumption would be way higher.
"So the <Collector> produces Nanomaterials?"
"No. The <Collector> literally collects nearby matter, breaks it down into tiny invisible units, and stockpiles it. Then it gets sent to the <Nuclear Fission Device> to produce 'Meta-atoms,' the foundation of Nanomaterials."
"What the heck are Meta-atoms...."
"Existing atoms couldn't create the all-purpose materials humanity wanted with total freedom, so we artificially created these basic units of matter. Combine and arrange them to make countless new materials, and the ultimate product among them is Nanomaterials.
Each Nanomaterial has mechanical properties—"
"Aaah, sorry, lemme cut you off. So in short, the <Collector> picks up rocks and junk and stockpiles matter in a form you can't use yet, and the <Nuclear Fission Device> takes that, processes it every which way, and spits out as the base for Nanomaterials?"
"Yes. Spot on."
"And just building those wipes out almost all reserves."
"Pretty much."
"So in the end, you can't produce Nanomaterials? Just a ton of Meta-atoms."
"I'll explain later, but not exactly. Also, I can convert Meta-atoms to Nanomaterials. For now, we'll have to produce directly. Once we get the Meta-atom production line up, we can complete Nanomaterials production in a week."
"Longer than I thought."
You could say a week's not long, but having lived where everything was instantaneous back home, a week felt pretty damn long to Sihwan's senses.
"It's different from the home planet where everything was prepped from the start before development. Even that took about 20 years for half the development."
Tech advances and her own upgrades sped things up insanely later compared to the early days, but right now, with no tech base at all, she couldn't hit familiar speeds.
"So what happens then? How much production?"
"First thing to know: Nanomaterials are used for hyper-advanced tech, sure, but more often for quickly churning out objects. Facility construction's the same—even with just Meta-atoms, you can build stuff, though it takes time."
"Oh?"
"So if you wanna enjoy it properly even if it's slow, build up to the <Nuclear Fission Device> with Nanomaterials, then use Meta-atoms for the rest. It'll take longer, though."
"Can't you just convert the stockpiled Meta-atoms to Nanomaterials? Then it'd be under a week...."
"You could, but... that was meant for arming you, Sihwan-nim."
"Why arm me specifically?"
"...You're not serious, right? Wait, you seem serious."
"Dead serious."
Bari let out a sigh, 'Haa....'
"With your aggro levels, I figured combat or assassination attempts targeting you were imminent. Even if not, basic arming is essential in this world we haven't fully mapped out yet. Plus, post-construction, there might be unavoidable extra Nanomaterials use, so we need at least Meta-atom reserves."
"Gotcha."
Sihwan nodded lightly.
"Then let's make the base underground here. You can do it, right?"
"Yes."
Bari stood in front of a dorm-like building, transformed her arm, and kkok jabbed it into the stone floor.
Despite looking rock-solid, it went in way too easily.
Gugugugugu.
A faint earthquake followed.
If you didn't know, it'd slip right past your notice amid daily life.
About 5 minutes later, Bari stood up.
Her transformed arm reverted to normal.
"It's amazing every time I see it."
Sihwan poked at Bari's now-human arm.
Soft and chewy—impossible to think it was that machine lump from before.
"I've made a spacious cavity about 100 meters underground."
Even with all existing gear blown to hell (though some's back home), Bari was Bari. Casually carving out a 100m-deep cavity like it was nothing.
With a slight delay, a hole gaped open where she'd touched, and an elevator zoomed up.
Cheolkyeong!
"The entrance."
.
.
Deulkeong.
Riding the elevator down.
Back home, he'd teleport everywhere, but that's a luxury now. Someday, maybe, but for now, gotta hoof it to save resources.
Eh, elevator's plenty comfy anyway....
"But if it's RTS-style, don't units come out too? You gonna create humans or make new lifeforms or what?"
"We could, but for human ethics and your mental health, Sihwan-nim, all units are Androids or robots instead."
"Gotcha."
"They'll look barely different from humans on the outside, though. If you want, we can base 'em on other races from this continent."
"We'll think on that later."
"Yes."
Mid-convo, ting, it stopped.
Arrived at the cavity.
The doors opened, and I could see a truly fantastical space with absolutely nothing in it.
"Nothing here."
And crucially, it wasn't that big.
Could fit one or two buildings, but not the massive scale I'd imagined.
"Gotta save resources. Even this took about 0.5 liters of Nanomaterials."
"Eek... Hearing that really drives home how much we gotta conserve."
Who'd think making a cavity this size would burn that much.
"Nanomaterials are high-consumption by nature. Once you mass-produce workers and use Meta-atoms, resource use drops. Takes time, though."
"Hmm... So first set up resource mass-production, use workers to build what we can with Meta-atoms, and save Nanomaterials for high-end buildings or units that need it?"
"Close enough. Nanomaterials guzzle for high-performance weapons too, so consumption ramps up over time. Best to avoid using 'em."
"Gotcha. With just Meta-atoms, we can do most things anyway?"
"Yes. And just so you know, construction and unit production—even without Nanomaterials—don't just consume Meta-atoms."
"Huh? No?"
"Told ya it'd be best to explain. They all chug tons of Compressed Material too. I'll pop it in the info screen."
"Hm. Makes sense now. No way you'd build with just a few liters... Gotta need other resources."
"Correct."
"So [Compressed Material], [Meta-atom], [Nanomaterials]—those the main resources? Anything else?"
"For now, that's it."
"Roughly get it."
[Nanomaterials] instantly produce buildings or units, but high consumption and inefficient.
[Meta-atom] construction/production also consumes extra [Compressed Material], and for building, needs separate Construction Robots, etc.
That's the basics.
"Alright. Let's build the [Control Center] first in order."
"I'll handle the Control Center."
"Yeah."
Bari reached out.
Just that, and the dim cavity lit up bright as something rose from the ground.
Size-wise, a modest single-story house.
"Control Center."
"Kinda shabby."
Well, didn't expect luxury living in the Otherworld, but still... overly humble?
"Yeah, kinda. But given our situation, even this is pretty luxurious."
"Ugh...."
No helping it. Not a big deal. At least no missing essentials like a shower, right?
"It's your house, Sihwan-nim. No way."
Solid answer. Trust it.
"Let's go in."
Inside, an interior like my house back home greeted me.
Of course, the size was incomparably smaller.
Plenty of rooms, including one for managing this system.
Big monitors galore, with all sorts of info displayed.
Though with just the Control Center now, not much to see.
"Yeah. Can build from here."
Gave it a light test.
Collector first, probably?
Click the building, and a hologram popped up with the whole cavity status and the selected building image.
Collector looked like some massive refinery.
Built it in a corner.
[Starting immediate construction of Collector. Collector.lv0 => Collector.lv1]
[Nanomaterials 5L used.]
Along with the message, the hologram showed the Collector being built.
Hm. Looks just like playing a game for real.
"Now build the <Nuclear Fission Device> too."
"Yeah."
[Starting immediate construction of Nuclear Fission Device. Nuclear Fission Device.lv0 => Nuclear Fission Device.lv1]
[Nanomaterials 7L used.]
Same simple message as before.
<Ryu Si-hwan Nation>
[Overview]
Scale 3.1
Cumulative Turns (Days) 0
<Production>
Compressed Material 270L/t
Meta-atom 30L/t
Nanomaterials 0L/t
<Reserves>
Compressed Material 0L
Meta-atom 16L
Nanomaterials 3L
[Facilities]
Control Center 1Lv
Collector 1Lv
Nuclear Fission Device 1Lv
Hm? Info screen looks different.
Unbuilt building list's gone... Added scale and stuff.
"Every midnight at 00:00, turn advances. One day = 1 turn. Production figures are all 'per-turn production' and 'per-turn consumption.'"
"Gotcha. No units?"
"You can produce the most basic unit, 'Construction Robot,' from the Control Center."
"Oho."
Lemme see... One Construction Robot: Nanomaterials 1 or Compressed Material 50 + Meta-atom 0.5. Gotta use Nanomaterials for now... Only 3 liters left, so just one.
"If too many, construction speed drops or something?"
"Yes."
Alright. Produce one.
[Immediately produced 1 Construction Robot.]
[Nanomaterials 1L used.]
Now 2 liters Nanomaterials left... Damn, really crossed over with jack squat... Hits hard.
"Nothing more we can do now?"
"Yes. Tomorrow, once Compressed Material and Meta-atoms produce, I'll convert to Nanomaterials, and you build another Collector with it."
"So how much left?"
"Zero."
"Eek."
"So please, no aggro for a while."
"...."
Dead serious plea.