Chapter 44.1 "Theories about vibration detectors (resource gaps)"
--Zzzzz... Thump!!
"...!? The ground is trying to eat our feet along with us...!"
Haru-kun declared the anomaly in the ground‚ and it happened right after that.
The asphalt underfoot‚ which had been ominously continuing its foreshocks‚ suddenly warped violently along with a powerful main shock.
The AC adapter tourniquet on my right leg bit into my flesh. My aching thigh. But even more than that—I could feel the sensation of the black earth transmitted through my bare soles rapidly changing.
The ground‚ which should have been hard‚ gradually took on a sticky quality like a giant pudding being heated‚ trying to suck in the weight of my feet.
――A bottomless swamp.
It was trying to drag my body deeper and deeper down.
「……Nagisa‚ don’t move. Fix that ‘mass (anchor)’ at a single point……っ！」
Right beside me‚ Rin-chan‚ who had been taking the exhaust heat from the magnetic engine‚ shook her body violently up and down. Her fingertips dug deep into the cracks of the fractured asphalt. Her hands were trembling white as she tried to forcibly hold together the ground that was melting and trying to escape.
――Kyuu……、……Kyuuっ……！
On top of the transport sled‚ Momiji-chan’s exoskeleton (splint) creaked with an irregular‚ frightened rhythm. Her heartbeat mixed with the low rumble of the earth‚ throwing the system clock of the individual (structure) into disarray.
「……Singularity confirmed」
Losing his balance from the intense main shock‚ Haru-kun crouched down onto the mud-covered asphalt. A sharp‚ intense pain shot through his fractured right ankle. While grimacing‚ he clutched the waterproof notebook that recorded the history of ‘Day 4’ protectively to his chest. His gray eyes‚ glistening with greasy sweat‚ coldly glared at the undulating ground.
「……Error. The vector of the system’s computational resources is…… completely reversed」
「……Wait. This is weird. Even though the ground is this angry…… why is ‘above’ so quiet……？」
I hurriedly pulled the ‘Marshmallow left arm’ that had come off the aluminum pot due to the impact of the main shock and was about to sink into the sea of mud back to me. When I drew it to my chest protectively with my right hand‚ the pot that had lost the arm’s support clanged against the edge of the melting crack. While violently rippling the multicolored slime inside‚ it barely avoided falling into the mud.
After confirming the pot’s safety (resource survival) at the edge of my vision‚ I held my breath in the back of my throat and strained my ears toward the invisible sky.
――The sound of that strong acid rain that had been licking at the dome walls was now nowhere to be heard.
The rain had stopped.
Light coming in from the outside world passed through the freshly coated resin walls‚ filling the inside of the dome with a pale‚ bloodless blue-white gradation. The fine dust dancing in the air sparkled as it was illuminated by that light.
A silence too beautiful.
The only sound reaching my ears was the eerie dissolving noise of the asphalt underfoot leaking a sticky sigh: “……Zuru‚ ……Zuzuzu.”
「……The reason the rain stopped is simple. Statistically speaking‚ this is not a bug but the result of ‘resource reallocation’」
In the corner of the dome.
Haru-kun‚ still in a low crouching posture‚ gripped tightly the waterproof notebook dirty with mud and thickly hardened with wax. His ash-silver curly hair stood on end from the aftereffects of the magnetic anomaly. Those gray eyes coldly pierced both the sanctuary (dome) filled with blue-white light and the “ugly mud stomach” spreading at his feet equally.
「Resources……？ You mean the world reassigned the staff in charge of our ‘deletion’ to another department？」
「……Correct. Nagisa-san‚ please accept this. The system known as this world is by no means an omnipotent god」
Haru-kun’s pencil struck the blank page of Day 4 violently.
「There is a clear bandwidth limit to the amount of data that can be processed at once」
Click‚ click――.
That dry sound was the only substitute for a clock for the ground that was trying to melt away.
「If it maintained the previous ‘deletion from the sky (strong acid rain)’ while also forcing the physical laws of this vast high-ground base to be rewritten into ‘liquid‚’ the load would be unbearable. Therefore‚ the system temporarily put the ground-melting process to sleep and concentrated all computational resources into ‘initialization from below (ground liquefaction).’ ……The clearing of the sky is not a blessing. This is the true nature of this eerie silence」
Haru-kun’s voice was calm and detached.
However‚ deep in his words was the stubbornness of an analyst facing insurmountable despair.
「……Hmph. A god suffering from insufficient memory is quite laughable」
Beside him‚ Rin-chan showed a bold yet chillingly sharp smile.
「……But Haru. By that logic‚ the moment the ground formatting is complete‚ the system’s processing resources will be redirected ‘upward’ again」
「……Exactly. Zero point two seconds after the ground subsidence reaches the critical point and our foothold disappears—the system will once again thrust out its ‘tongue of deletion (delete tongue)’ and swallow everything‚ including this multicolored shield above our heads‚ into its stomach」
――Kyuu……、……Kyuuっ。
Even after Haru-kun’s ruthless declaration ended‚ Momiji-chan’s exoskeleton (splint) on the transport sled continued to creak with a frightened rhythm in sync with the world’s malice. The system clock of the individual (structure) was quietly and accurately receiving the initialization waves approaching from below.
Haru-kun’s words pierced the heated air inside the dome like an ice wedge.
I tightly hugged the sensation-less ‘Marshmallow left arm’ with my right hand. The AC adapter tourniquet biting into my right thigh. That “living intense pain” was the only proof that I had not yet been deleted.
「……No way. I absolutely cannot accept that. This is the cutest ‘extra-large parfait house’ in the world that we all painted so hard with our body heat……っ！」
The sludgy asphalt dirtying my bare soles. Its heat tried to drag me‚ the anchor‚ down to the bottom of the mud. Overwhelming malice from the world. While gritting my teeth and enduring it‚ I slowly looked up at the walls painted in colorful marble patterns.
「……We don’t have time to complain. Haru‚ can you precisely calculate the timing of that ‘zero point two seconds’」
Rin-chan grabbed the heavy tool bag and stood up. The ‘rope marks’ from when she pulled us up yesterday pulsed darkly on her shoulders. She tensed them slightly‚ enduring the pain.
「……If we can visualize the waveform of the liquefaction‚ calculation is possible. For that‚ we need a simple vibration detector」
「……Nfuー‚ roger that. Let’s quickly repair the ‘extra-large seismograph’ that visualizes the footsteps of the world！」
Still crawling on the asphalt‚ I pulled the sensation-less left arm closer with my right hand. The ice-cold marshmallow arm. I forced it to move.
I transferred the multicolored slime from the wreckage of the aluminum pot recovered from the edge of the crack into an empty bottle and dangled a thin wire. I firmly hugged the completed‚ crude-looking detector with my immobile left arm and desperately fixed it in place.
「……Nagisa. Not even one millimeter of deviation is allowed. Hold your breath just like that」
From behind‚ Rin-chan leaned over me. She placed both knees on the melting asphalt‚ straddled my waist from behind‚ and strongly clamped my flanks with her thighs. To directly drive the detector’s anchor into the ground—she had completely placed her own body weight onto my back for that sole purpose.
「……Hyaっ……、……a……っ！」
The moment Rin-chan’s full weight came down‚ an ‘sashimi course (intense pain)’ that seemed to short-circuit my brain directly exploded from my right leg—my thigh where the AC adapter was biting in—pressed against the asphalt.
My left arm was a ‘meat surface plate (jig)’ with dead nerves‚ cold as ice.
Yet the body of Rin-chan pressing down on my back was hot like an overheated engine. The soft mass of her mud- and sweat-covered chest was pressed against my shoulder blades. With every screw tightened‚ her rough‚ desperate breaths leaked by my ear. The smell of her raw sweat dripping onto my neck and the burnt plastic odor.
The left half was dead.
Yet on the right half‚ Rin-chan’s “naked friction of life” trying to live‚ and the intense pain gouging my right leg‚ stabbed violently.
It wasn’t the clumsy kindness from when she was nursing me. It was dirty‚ desperate‚ a supremely immoral “welding of life” where our heat‚ mass‚ and pain interlocked like puzzle pieces.
――Kyuu……、……Kyuu、……。
On the transport sled‚ Momiji-chan’s exoskeleton (splint) began to tick with a faint but regular rhythm in response to our closeness. Her heartbeat overlapped with the humming of the magnetic engine. The blue-white light illuminating the inside of the dome began to flicker at a constant cycle.
「……Synchronization accepted. ……Visualized the waveform of the liquefaction process using the slime’s viscous resistance」
From the corner of the dome‚ Haru-kun’s voice cut through the heated silence.
Inside the bottle held by my left arm‚ the multicolored slime mixed with the colors of four people was capturing the eerie vibrations from underground. It turned into beautiful concentric waves and began to pulse quietly‚ quietly.
「……Accepted. Factoring in attenuation due to viscous resistance. ……Until the ground’s molecular structure fully accepts its definition as liquid——18 minutes remaining」
In the corner of the dome‚ Haru-kun forcefully stabbed the tip of his pencil into the waterproof notebook.
「Furthermore‚ until the formatting of this sector is complete and the ‘tongue of deletion (strong acid rain)’ in the sky resumes——there is approximately 50 minutes of grace (resource blank)」
There was not a shred of hesitation left in his voice. It was the defense instinct (ritual) of an analyst who had armored himself with statistical logic so as not to be devoured by despair.
「……18 minutes until the foothold disappears‚ 50 minutes until acid falls from above‚ huh. That’s a rather short grace period for an execution stay in the name of physical laws」
Rin-chan slowly stood up‚ separating her closely attached body. The overwhelming mass and heat that had been on my back suddenly vanished. My left arm‚ which had lost its support—the sensation-less marshmallow arm—nearly flopped down onto the asphalt under gravity. I hurriedly pulled it tightly back to my chest with my right hand.
Rin-chan’s fingertips touched the sludgy black mud that had overflowed from the crack.——In that instant‚ they turned white and trembled as if heat had been stolen in a moment.
「……Haru. In 50 minutes the system’s resources will be redirected ‘upward’ again. ……In other words‚ not only must we evacuate from this place‚ but we must secure a ‘shelter that can withstand acid rain’ within 50 minutes‚ or we will definitely be deleted」
Haru-kun’s ruthless declaration froze the blue-white air inside the dome.
The grace time for escape was only 50 minutes. But if we simply fled on a raft‚ this “extra-large parfait house (acid-resistant shelter)” that we painted with everyone’s body heat would end up inside the world’s stomach.
（……No way. I absolutely cannot accept that）
I hugged the cold left arm even tighter with my right hand. The AC adapter tourniquet on my right thigh tearing into the flesh—that intense pain. I forcibly repurposed it into voltage for a counterattack.
The asphalt‚ boiling hot and trying to return to the mud stomach. I forcefully pressed my bare soles against it. The heat of the black earth melted into sludge scorched my defenseless bare skin little by little.
But——I even turned that burning heat into fuel for rebellion and roared.
「……We’re not escaping to the raft. We’ll turn this whole house (dome) into a ship‚ Rin-chan！！」
「……Nagisa？」
「There’s no way I’d let such a wonderful place go into the world’s stomach！ If the land is disappearing‚ we just need to connect this frame to the raft in 18 minutes and float with the whole thing！！」
In response to my shout‚ Momiji-chan’s exoskeleton (splint) on her chest began to beat a survival rhythm more intensely than ever with ‘Kyuu……、……Kyuuっ！’。
Just outside the gap in the multicolored walls—the raft ‘Extra-large Muddy Water Float’ that had been active until yesterday was moored there. But because the ground had begun to liquefy‚ half of its hull was already being captured by the eerie black mud.
The distance was a mere three meters.
But it was a desperate distance that required crossing the melting ground.
「……Heh. Complete levitation of the base‚ huh. ……That stubbornness of yours when it comes to life……」
Rin-chan laughed boldly.
「As an ‘exception clause’ to the physical laws‚ I accept it！」
She kicked the sinking ground powerfully‚ making the tool bag clatter loudly.
「……Nfuー‚ here we go！ This is the second ‘super-express moving center’ for the water people today‚ open for business！！」
Using the intense pain in my right leg and the heat scorching my bare feet as ‘fuel for spirit‚’ I crawled across the asphalt with a zuru‚ zuru sound. The black earth‚ which had already lost its definition as ‘ground‚’ spat out hot‚ pitch-black muddy water like overripe fruit every time I moved.
「Haru‚ route Momiji’s vitals to the crane’s synchronization signal (pulse)！ Nagisa‚ hold the support with the marshmallow！」
Rin-chan shouted.
「As quickly as possible‚ re-fix the magnetic engine mount that was lowered to the ground to the base of the dome and weld (hack) this house (dome)’s frame to the raft’s frame！」
Without even protecting her shoulders where the rope marks pulsed‚ she leaped with desperate steps toward the raft ‘Extra-large Muddy Water Float’ three meters ahead that was sinking into the mud. She pulled out the sturdy wire extending from it and wrapped it around the steel rack pillar supporting the dome with hands that seemed to pray or curse.
Following instructions‚ I also forcefully pressed the sensation-less left arm (marshmallow) I was holding with my right hand against the support. Putting my full body weight on it‚ I served as the fixing jig (anchor).
What we were trying to do now was not just escape. It was a declaration of war against the physical laws—exploiting the system’s ‘resource blank’ bug to make this ‘multicolored house’ float entirely on the water surface just before the land disappeared.
――Kyuu……、……Kyuuっ。
On the transport sled‚ Momiji-chan’s exoskeleton (splint) began to tick with a sharp‚ regular rhythm in response to our impatience. Her heartbeat overlapped with the roar of the magnetic engine‚ causing the blue-white light illuminating the dome to flicker at a constant cycle like a countdown of life.
「……Synchronization accepted. Ground liquefaction speed…… increased by 15%. The system’s ‘formatting’ is trying to completely rewrite our foothold into a mud stomach」
Beside the transport sled‚ Haru-kun‚ while breaking out in greasy sweat from the intense pain in his broken right ankle‚ clung desperately to the sturdy frame of the sled with his left arm so as not to be thrown off the tilting world. Crouching‚ he pressed the pencil firmly onto the notebook with the trembling fingers of his free right hand. In those gray eyes‚ the death throes of the melting ground were reflected as cold logs that needed to be analyzed.
「……Day 4‚ 11:48 AM. Record. We are now deleting with our own hands the peace known as land (rules) that has continued for thousands of years」
The tip of the pencil carved deeply and strongly into the blank page as if piercing the trembling ground.
「……What begins now is the first history as the ‘water people’ carrying our home on our backs……」
「……っ‚ it’s here！ The ground underfoot is starting to quiver like freshly microwaved pudding！！」
At the same time as my shout‚ the entire dome tilted eerily with a “Gakunっ！” The asphalt shattered with a low rumble‚ and from below‚ the giant stomach called the world opened its mouth wide. The land‚ once the symbol of “something that absolutely does not move‚” was returning to vile slime trying to swallow us.
But the boundary line (border) of us four did not waver even one millimeter.
「……Hmph. So what if we lose the land (past). ……Our ‘present’ exists only inside this multicolored cocoon (boat)！」
Rin-chan forcefully pulled down the lever of the wire she had finished welding. The flesh of both shoulders that had been towing 140 kg since yesterday screamed as if tearing. But she gritted her teeth and ‘dominated’ even that intense pain with her will.
The magnetic engine roared. The dome’s frame and the raft meshed tightly as one “individual.”
The ground disappears. The place to stand sinks. But——our hearts (clocks) have not stopped yet.
The black muddy water creeping up from below began to lick our sanctuary from underneath. Our house slowly but surely slid into the system’s ‘stomach.’
The raft’s buoyancy and the dome’s frame maintained an eerie balance on the muddy water. We barely avoided complete sinking——that was the moment.
「……Nagisa-san‚ Rin-san. Look」
Haru-kun’s gray eyes‚ clinging to the sled‚ pierced through the gap in the dome toward the far side of the dissolving outside world.
「That is…… the ‘white flag’ of humanity’s last observation post」
On the other side of the sea of despairing mud‚ the single remaining hope (resource) left by past civilization was swaying in the faint wind.
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