Ch.347Gravity Bomb (5)

The Saint was originally an ordinary girl. She was merely chosen by the outer god when conditions happened to align—she wasn’t someone with a mind strong enough to remain sane after repeating the same time period multiple times.

That’s why I always needed someone to stand in for the Saint.

“Morgan.”

I saw potential in High Priest Morgan. He didn’t break easily despite all kinds of humiliation.

Yes, with this level of mental fortitude…

“Help me with my research. Join me in saving this universe.”

“…Save the universe?”

Morgan snickered.

“Don’t make me laugh. Your graviton bomb research will be the starting point of all destruction. I’d rather choose death than help you with your research.”

“Is that what the Steel Outer God told you?”

“You know it too—the Big Crunch.”

The Big Crunch.

It was what Sturm had talked about. When the end comes, this universe will be sucked into immense gravity.

“Gravity is an element that allows us to breathe and live, but it’s also something that can bring about destruction.”

“You believe what that outer god says?”

“Of course. The Steel Outer God promised to save us from that crisis. Rather than meeting a futile death here, I might as well seek enlightenment even if I have to beg an evil god.”

Morgan continued with a sardonic smile.

“Eidel Rheinland, you’re uniquely strange among all the scientists I’ve met. Your obsession with the graviton bomb has gone too far. Besides, you’ve been acting as if you knew everything from the beginning.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb when you know everything. Demon of Laplace.”

I couldn’t help but snort.

“Laplace? Me?”

This was exactly the same as what Sturm had said.

“That guy is still using the same repertoire, huh?”

“It’s the conclusion I drew from your actions. I’m certain. You’re no ordinary being. You must be at least a puppet of some entity from a distant dimension.”

“Hmm.”

His spirit passes the test, at least.

“Let’s say I am Laplace. And let’s assume the graviton bomb will paradoxically lead the entire universe to destruction.”

“It’s not an assumption—it will definitely happen.”

“In other words, if I die, everything could be resolved, right?”

I thrust my pole at Morgan’s face. He showed no sign of intimidation. He twisted his lips.

“You know it well. Are you finally revealing your true identity?”

“Nonsense.”

I twitched my eyes. That Sturm fellow—if he’s going to do this, he should come up with a more plausible excuse. What a joke.

“If it’s really true, I’ll just die.”

“…What?”

“If it becomes certain that the universe will perish because of me, then I’ll kill myself.”

“By then it will be too late. If you’re going to do it, commit suicide now…”

“Let me tell you in advance, I have no malicious intent right now.”

With those words, I stood up. Morgan threw various questions at me, but I turned around without answering.

“Anyway, if you don’t want to go hungry, behave yourself.”

“Hungry? Ah, aaaaargh!”

Right after, I felt the sensation of the world being pulled backward. Time had been rewound.

***

It didn’t take long for my persuasion of Cartesia to bear fruit. With Tarpiel’s urging to surrender, Morgan finally capitulated.

“…Fine, Laplace. I’ll fall into depravity with you. Kukukuk.”

Foam flowed from Morgan’s mouth. Pron addiction, and a severe case at that.

Damn those outer gods. To reduce Morgan to this state. I’ll never forgive them.

Anyway, I had defeated the existing high priests. As a result, I was able to collect the donations from the followers of Magnus.

The system was that Elvin would collect the money, and I would take it. This was quite lucrative.

I was shocked when I saw the amount that had been deposited into the temporary account.

“The church must be quite large.”

Well, the apocalypse is right around the corner now. Individuals tend to feel powerless in the face of the apocalypse. Even among ordinary citizens, there must be those who rely on religion rather than science.

I understand. So I will use this money for good purposes. I won’t waste a single penny.

With that in mind.

“Seti.”

I went to find my sister.

“My goodness, what is all this?”

I explained the situation. Seti responded with pure amazement, repeatedly asking, “Really? Really?” When she saw my serious expression, she burst into laughter.

“So you stole money from the enemy? Aren’t you completely crazy, brother?”

Despite her words, Seti’s tone was cheerful.

I asked her.

“Is there any way we can grow this money?”

“Let me think.”

Seti spun around in her chair.

“Thinking time.”

Seti swayed in her chair. She was silent for a while.

“…We can grow it, but only until we complete one graviton cannon.”

“Why?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Once we complete one, the outer gods will come after us with a vengeance. Another war will start.”

War.

In fact, the war had already begun. It just wasn’t noticeable yet because it was still a localized conflict. The outer gods were putting pressure from three directions: west, south, and east.

“It’s already a problem, but if a major war breaks out like before, the Federation’s economy will completely collapse. With resources becoming scarce, the value of physical goods will naturally increase, and the money in this account will become just a bunch of numbers.”

“Ah, so you’re saying we should convert it to physical assets before everything collapses?”

“Exactly.”

Seti proudly assured me.

“Of course, leave this to me, the super fund manager.”

I nodded and handed over the funds received from the church to my sister.

As I was about to leave the Rheinland main ship, Seti grabbed my sleeve and looked up at me with a serious expression.

“Brother.”

“What’s with you suddenly?”

“I love you.”

“…”

I was struck speechless.

Seti was usually prickly, though not as much as Zernya. She wasn’t the type to say embarrassing things easily. And now this sister of mine was suddenly telling me she loved me.

“Did you eat something bad?”

“That’s not it.”

Seti shook her head. She sipped her coffee while staring at me.

“We’re family, but I don’t think I’ve ever said it before in my life.”

“Don’t make me anxious like that.”

“It’s because I am anxious… I’m saying it first. Just in case, if something happens to you or me, I don’t want to regret it later.”

“…”

I silently turned around. I put down my luggage and pushed my sister’s forehead with my index finger.

“Do you know why I gave you control of the family’s finances?”

“Why?”

“So you can clean up if something happens to me.”

“Hey, you bastard!”

Seti lightly hit my solar plexus.

“Ugh, your punches hurt the most.”

“I just need the money, so you keep the position of family head. If you try to pass it on to me, I’ll consider it a debt and chase you to the end of the universe to collect it. Got it?”

“Ah, yes.”

Seti accompanied me to the dock. For someone so busy, she was very attentive to her brother.

“Oh, by the way.”

“What now?”

“Are you properly preparing for graduate school?”

“Ah, that.”

Seti shrugged and answered.

“I’m not going.”

I was completely shocked.

***

Eidel half-threatened Morgan into submission. No matter what, it was impossible to completely break his spirit.

It was somewhat inhumane, but better than recklessly exploiting the frail Saint. Rather, Morgan watched Eidel’s research with the mindset of “I’ll fall into hell with you!”

And he couldn’t help but be amazed.

Eidel barely slept and ate only the minimum. Yet his activities were incredibly intense. He maintained a 120-hour weekly schedule without showing any signs of fatigue.

‘This is madness.’

Morgan saw Eidel’s obsession with research. It wasn’t something one could imitate.

‘They say there’s only a thin line between genius and madness.’

Three months.

It didn’t take long to complete one graviton turret.

Eidel had gained over three years from Morgan, and in the past 90 days, he had written eight papers.

Five of them were about the “Dimension Drive.” How to transport graviton bombs to distant black holes.

He concretized the technology. Theoretical verification was done quickly, and it was deemed possible.

“Wow.”

Eidel looked up at the sky. It seemed to be several kilometers high. There was a romance to the turret that fired gravitons.

It looked like the turret part of a siege tank from a certain popular game had been modified. The scientists who first witnessed this magnificent sight felt their hearts swell.

“How much did it take to build this?”

“The actual production period was two months. We maximized the use of architecture tools and Dyson structures. We also have multi-dimensional printers.”

“No, I mean the capital.”

“Hmm.”

The lab director swallowed.

“Excluding labor costs, it probably cost about 8,000 trillion.”

“And including labor costs?”

“About the same.”

In simple terms, it meant they had exploited high-quality manpower. And very cheaply at that.

“Don’t worry. We paid as much as possible within the budget.”

Eidel recalled his publicly known salary. Come to think of it, he wasn’t getting paid much compared to his recent fame. It was what they call passion pay.

While Eidel was beyond a silver spoon—more like an antimatter spoon—for an ordinary scientist with a normal family, they were only given enough money to buy one pepperoni pizza a day.

“Do you know the progress of other departments?”

“Well, other than knowing that turrets are being built in other regions, I know very little.”

“The bombs are currently being tested. The black hole tracking team is also starting calibration work. The military and doctors are also getting into position…”

And there was someone eavesdropping on this conversation.

It was Warden Friedman, a scientist spy sent by the outer gods.

‘The church’s high priests have been defeated. The graviton bombs are being made faster than expected.’

Warden followed the Magnus Church but didn’t register as a believer. This was because he was directly dispatched by the outer gods. Even the high priests didn’t know his identity.

‘If I reveal myself here, I’ll be in big trouble too.’

Warden thought that he couldn’t defeat Eidel Rheinland.

So he went outside, planning to simply sell information to the outer gods and set foot in Idea.

[“Hmm, you’ve informed me well.”]

Eventually, Sturm received the information from Warden.

[“I will definitely take you to Idea. Continue to do your best.”]

“…Ugh, understood.”

Hearing the voice of an outer god requires sacrificing one’s skull. But it was okay. Just being able to escape from the end of the world and becoming an assistant to a god was a great gain.

After Warden withdrew, Sturm made a decision.

“Aurore.”

Swish.

A humanoid outer god appeared, flashing crimson eyes like rain. She smiled a grotesque smile that stretched to the corners of her mouth.

After assessing the situation, Sturm requested Aurore:

“This time, raid the Rheinland main house. Kill Seti von Rheinland and cause all the companies that human owns to go bankrupt one after another. We must cut off the funding going into the graviton bombs!”

“I know.”

Aurore didn’t like Sturm giving orders, but she went along with it since she had been thinking the same thing.

“…Finally.”

The elegant king of the finale.

The forces of the highest Darwin system outer god began to march south once again.

Indeed, as the name of the outer god leading those forces suggested, to mark the grand finale of the act.