Estimated reading time: 7–9 minutes
Chapter 16: Abrupt change
Debris covered the surroundings. Traces of looters who had already pillaged everything were scattered here and there. Floor 13 underground of the former Osaka Station, as written there.
「Ugh… I thought the skin on my hands would peel off」
Scattered at my feet was what used to be the walls but was now like sand. Cracks ran all through it – a terrible environment, yet strangely the electricity still seemed to be working as the lights were on.
I’m interested in one piece of information about this city.
The rumor that ‘This city landed on the corpse of a Strain’. Why it landed doesn’t matter, what’s really interesting is whether it was ‘flying before it landed’.
Since they use the term ‘landed’, this city must have been separated from the ground somehow in the past. And if that mechanism still remains, it would naturally be underground rather than above ground – that was my hunch.
And the target I was looking for appeared right away. Maintenance is necessary for such important things, after all. So I figured it wouldn’t be in a hard-to-find location.
There was a large piece of junk there. Parts had been removed by looters, and what appeared to be some kind of plant full of holes from repeated impacts. It must have been a device that held solvents or special raw materials to produce something. Its original sickening pure white color was hidden by dirt – probably so one could see the grime.
『Negative Mass Matter Production Plant No. 4』
『Caution: Temperature Drop!』
『Check gas pressure, do not overlook corrosion of metal parts!』
It seems like they used some kind of antigravity substance here – I thought to myself while peeking at the posters. For example, gases lighter than air like heated gases float upward. Things like hot air balloons utilize that property, but what if a gas with negative mass existed?
…Well, it would float exceptionally well probably, though I can’t believe such a thing exists. As I walked around for a while longer, I could see more and more. Disconnected gas pipes, human bones, and giant steel frames warped by tremendous pressure.
「Oh, some kind of office?」
I discovered a room partitioned off by transparent glass. All the glass was shattered and the bottom half of the door had blown off. As I didn’t want to get injured, I lightly avoided the fragments while entering the room through the window.
It must have been a break room once – sleeping bags and chairs for resting were overturned and books and magazines to kill time with were left strewn about.
『Gally Potter and the Thermal Nuclear Weapons』
『Go! Anpontan!』
『Crystal Field Theory, Even A Monkey Can Understand 』
『The Mechanism of Large-Scale Space Navigation Using Negative Mass Matter, Future Prospects for Practical Application』
…I knew it, but the comments are noisy the moment I see books. They’re clamoring for me to read. About 30% want me to read “Thermal Nuclear Weapons” while around 70% want me to read about negative mass. However, Thermal Nuclear Weapons is a popular work so I can actually read it at a bookstore, thus I open the book on negative mass.
My subscriber count has somehow climbed over 300 thousand without me realizing, and all of them are hoping I’ll do something. However, I’m just a regular person. Their mere interest amounts to no more than that of a small fry.
Even if I read books, it’s not like I can update like last time… I thought to myself as I opened the thin 80-page book. But it would be nice if an update did come and removed the login restriction – I also thought. If the restriction was removed, the victims would start serious Hiniru hunting in earnest.
「You guys can see me on camera, right? Please record this video and take screenshots for yourselves, uploading stuff again is a hassle for me.」
I flipped through the book published by some company called Space lgnition Industries. Hmm, hmm, so the countries that determined they couldn’t defeat things like the [UYK] or Machine Beasts were trying to escape into space. The generation of negative mass matter was anticipated to be the sub engine for that, but they couldn’t build something ridiculous like a rocket to hold 100 million people.
So first they intentionally overlooked the impending destruction and decreased the population, then attempted to launch the remaining talented people into space. However, in the end it didn’t go well and they could only float 300 meters above the ground.
「Ah, was this negative mass matter production facility too big to launch? And detailed theory starts from page 40 huh. Well, I don’t get any of this – if anyone’s interested go ahead and record it.」
I indifferently point the camera at and show the incomprehensible remaining half until the end. The moment I finish filming everything, the same emergency quest pop-up appears.
『An emergency update will be executed starting at 4 PM. Maintenance is expected to take around 20 minutes.』
…Seems like I’ve done something again. But that’s not what I should be thinking about. What matters is that there’s only 5 minutes until the scheduled update time of 4PM!!!
Crap, Reina’s gonna get mad at me! Well she’ll probably just sigh at me but that kinda gets to me too! I hurried at full speed to the elevator shaft I came down on and rapidly ascend by pulling on the wire I attached on the way here.
I don’t really get Momiji either, since that was a long time ago. Come to think of it, I know surprisingly little about the current Momiji. If she gets angry… I wonder if she snaps at me, or actually becomes kinder in her response? I’d rather not find out the result.
I hurriedly boarded the AP, closed the cockpit, and the moment I switched visuals – the screen went black and forced logout text scrolled across it. I didn’t make it in time…!
The screen may be black but the stream’s still continuing. I’m scared there might be contact from the girls on my smartphone too, so I intentionally don’t log out in order to kill time.
『This game’s weird, right?』
『Login restriction removed, let’s go!!!』
『Nice job guy, you’re number one!』
『Trying to lock us out with login restrictions but we got ’em with the game update timing!』
I blankly watch the streaming comments to kill time. There are over 300 thousand viewers who are very excited, but I’m too taken aback and scared of breaking promises that I can’t enjoy it at all. Sorry about my curiosity, I didn’t mean any disrespect to you or anything. I wonder when the next update will come, maybe new AP parts will be added?
Just as I thought that, the update finally ended. It was really fast this time – I thought as I pressed the login button and—– the dark sky welcomed us.
「Huhhh?!」
Beneath the dark sky, players continuously logged in, desiccated like mummies as they floated in midair. There seems to be some gravity as we slowly tilt and fall, but the number of those mummy players infinitely increased as they spun around and bounced off each other.
Among them, I was the only one still standing. Of course because inside the AP cockpit, I’m shielded from the air. APs made for combat are extremely sturdily constructed to prevent oxygen deprivation by sealing off cockpits even when impacted. So even in this genuine empty sky, I could still live.
The Strain, Players, Machine Beasts, [UYK] – all were left behind. Looking up at the sky, countless stars came into view. One of those was likely the very place we originally were.
『Updated to Ver 1.00
・Successfully formed subsolar virtual mass
・Britain and Japan succeeded in escaping into space
・2050 destruction not averted
・2055 plan has 0% success rate』
『Space lgnition Industries』
Victim #3. A major British aerospace company that kept negative mass related technology confidential, but… pitiful.
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