“All right. I understand.”
As she spoke, MKR4-003 nodded.
In the final confirmation, she said, “Plan and related specification files received. Complete. Seconded. Unable to establish a connection with the Central Bureau; the resolution passes automatically.”
“Authorization to modify the engineering vehicle obtained. This protocol permits any modification to any component of the engineering vehicle except the singularity core.”
“Per the engineering vehicle’s own calculations, the engineering vehicle reports: even if this plan is used, the engineering vehicle will be unable to restore all functions.”
“After Construction is triggered, if Construction is interrupted, the next Construction cannot be activated.”
“Using the Construction unit to reverse-feed the battery cabin is feasible. However, to bring the battery cabin to a voltage level capable of activating the singularity core and triggering the next Construction would require 9,168 hours of continuous Construction. To restore the full capacity of the engineering vehicle’s Construction unit, a continuous Construction — or an excavation run — of 9,168 hours is recommended.”
MKR4-003’s words had barely faded when the engineering vehicle let out a beep.
Right after that, a door with a set of steps opened on the rear side of the locomotive.
[“Miss Yulin, please board the engineering vehicle’s maintenance cabin. The modification work requires your assistance.”]
Eh? Me?
Fine. I admitted that, as a NEET, I did know a thing or two about machines.
But that was limited to plugging a computer tower into a monitor and other peripherals, clearing simple system faults — at most, pulling the RAM sticks out of a tower and wiping the gold contacts.
Did they really need me to help?
Before I had time to hesitate, MKR4-003 had already gone through that stepped door into the maintenance cabin.
Right after her, Alice, curious about everything, went in as well.
Judging by the situation, it seemed I did not have the option of refusing.
Everyone was expecting me to perform, weren’t they…
Ai.
I sighed quietly and followed Alice — who had a huge backpack slung behind her — into the maintenance cabin.
The instant I stepped inside, a bone-cutting cold made me shiver.
I could not help wrapping my arms around myself.
Rubbing my sleeves, I hunched my shoulders and walked toward MKR4-003.
The light in the maintenance cabin was not particularly bright, but it was just enough to illuminate every object in front of me.
I circled a black metal cabinet that ran from floor to ceiling and occupied most of the car, and came up behind MKR4-003.
Standing before the cabinet, she reached out, touched it lightly, and the entire upper section of the cabinet opened to both sides as if it had sensed something.
Inside the heavy black metal cabinet was a single mass composed of countless silver metal cubes of varying sizes.
They were packed together in neat, orderly rows, forming a complete cube that fit the cabinet exactly.
Anyone with OCD would have found it extremely satisfying.
Ding.
Just as I realized I had no idea where to even start with this entire cube — that it had already gone beyond my understanding of machines — the HUD in my field of view filled with annotations across the whole screen.
[A-001 C-937 D-853 E-635……]
Wh-what…
That made it even harder to know where to start! (flail)
If the Halo over my head could display the load on my brain right then, it would have shone bright enough to blind someone.
As my gaze moved, the annotations filling the screen changed with it.
I was, well… powerless. orz.
“Miss Yulin.”
While my eyes were spinning in circles, MKR4-003’s voice pulled my awareness back to reality.
I looked toward her voice.
She seemed to have already found the part that needed modification, and was twisting her head to look at me from the left side of that heap of metal blocks.
“R-right.”
No — she was not asking me to find it. Whew…
A small cube about the size of a standard Rubik’s cube sat in her hand like an actual Rubik’s cube.
The little square hollow missing from the whole cube was probably the place this small block had originally belonged.
Looking in through that hole, there were still silver metal blocks inside.
[FP-001 Bidirectional Power Initiator]
The moment I took the small cube from MKR4-003’s hand, she pulled another cube from somewhere else.
[NE-001 Cation Conduit Initiator]
Eh…
Talk was talk, but she had handed these two things to me, and then what?
[“Miss Yulin.”]
“Yes!”
Lapis’s voice suddenly ringing out startled me so badly I cried out.
Under Alice’s and MKR4-003’s puzzled gazes, I immediately shut my mouth and said silently to Lapis in my heart, P-please go on.
Lapis seemed to fall silent for a moment as well.
Then she continued.
[“Please activate the portable Construction unit and Construct the relevant interfaces. The interfaces are of a single-use design. After the engineering vehicle’s Construction is activated, they can be converted into Prime Gold.”]
Pr-Prime Gold!
Prime Gold was basically the equivalent of money in this world, wasn’t it?
Thinking of it that way, I actually felt as if I had triggered a bonus reward, and all at once this whole ordeal seemed more worth it.
I set the metal case I had been carrying on my back down on the floor.
The moment my hand touched the case’s clasps, the case opened on its own.
Just as I had seen before, from the outside it looked like nothing more than an ordinary case no matter how I looked at it.
For me, this could be said to be the first time I was truly using this metal case in any real sense.
The thought of that made me suddenly a little excited.
The Construction unit Luna had designed for me, because I “had once” told her I wanted a device like this.
Hundreds of years had passed.
Even if Luna and Lingyin were somewhere I no longer knew, even if I did not remember any of this at all — when I slowly closed my eyes, the two of them rose quite naturally in my mind.
[“Miss Yulin, please step outside the engineering vehicle.”]
Eh?
[“Initiating Construction inside the engineering vehicle will inevitably damage it. Please step outside the engineering vehicle.”]
……
…………
Damn it…
I had only just gotten into the right state, and I was interrupted at once.
Fine.
Since Lapis had said so, of course I still had to move outside the engineering vehicle.
I set the metal case down on the platform again.
Under Alice’s watchful eyes, I closed my eyes once more.
Then Lapis’s voice returned in my mind.
[“Relevant units’ quantum models retrieved. Adaptive redesign complete. Quantum models loaded. Complete.
[“Miss Yulin.”]
Eh?
Lapis had stopped.
Unlike in the factory, where everything had been left to Lapis, she had stopped at this step.
I paused for a good while.
The metal case still showed no movement at all.
The surroundings were so quiet I could hear the sound of Alice shifting her stance.
After another moment, Lapis seemed to come back to herself.
She said, [“Miss Yulin, please do not think in a complicated direction.
[“An angel’s ability to control Construction equipment is inborn. Unlike us, who call Construction equipment through drivers, an angel’s control of Construction equipment has long since become instinct — no different from breathing, or walking.”]
Do not think in a complicated direction.
Instinct…
But I could not feel what instinct was supposed to feel like at all.
I had never thought about how I breathed, or how I walked.
I had never carefully felt what breathing was like, or what walking was like.
And now it had to be raised to operating a device this complex and precise — how was I supposed to control it the way I breathed, the way I walked?
I could not understand it at all.
……
Then I would give up on understanding.
Instinct did not need to be understood.
It had long since become a capacity that required neither understanding nor deliberate control.
Written into the muscles.
Woven into the nerves.
Carved into the genes.
Was Construction the same?
Without thinking, I raised my hand.
As I lifted it, I could clearly feel a current pass through my whole body.
A faint numbness.
A faint tingle.
And a fine, soft pull, as if every hair on my body had stood on end and every pore had opened, so keen that even the sensation of a breeze brushing my skin was perfectly clear.
So this was it.
This was instinct.
There was no need to think at all.
When I opened my eyes again, two recesses had appeared in the foam padding inside the metal case, just the right size to hold the two small cubes I had taken from MKR4-003.
But… that was it?
I did not even know what I had done.
Alice’s “ohhh” of surprise, however, made me look toward her.
Following her gaze, I turned back and saw that a piece of the ground behind me was missing.
Clearly, I must have done something.
[“Interfaces complete. Relevant drivers installed. We can depart.”]
“R-right.”
So what, exactly, had I done?