Ding!
The little notification in my helmet's HUD tells me of the completion of a certain Research.
Yup, Robots are done.
Three hours and twenty minutes post-summon, and I have Robots to help me now.
…Not that this is a record or anything.
Most certainly not, because I am not keeping track and I will not allow myself to be put into this kind of situation again.
So that means I need to get to the top and stay there, right?
It means, once this whole thing is over and I am sent back home, I get into my suuuuper comfy bed I bought with my absolutely insane Workplace Injury lawsuit winnings from the first incident…and stay there.
Not move.
Ignore all and any messages I may or may-not get from who- or what-ever wants me to talk about my experiences with getting tossed into random situations and being forced to build a factory to survive and eventually leave.
How did that phrase go again?
'If I had a nickel…'
Well. I'd have two.
Anyway, I need to get a Roboport set up and automated Construction- and Logistic-Robot production.
And then, finally-for-real-actually, I will be able to begin.
Or, well, after some further thinking, begin less-than-adequately. I'd rather have some hyper long range artillery weapons so that I don't accidentally auto-expand the factory into, I dunno, whatever the equivalent of Biters and their nests are around here, if they do even exist. That'd be really annoying having my robots constantly rebuilding stuff just for it to get destroyed within seconds.
But those are way down the line in terms of Research components, beyond the Purple packs I don't even have yet, over with Yellow, but I really don't want to delay any more than I have.
So, then, to automate robots, I need some Flying Robot Frames and those green Electronic Circuits.
The circuits are easy enough, I just need a conveyor belt line of both copper and iron plates and those creation machines.
The frames, though? Batteries, electric engines, steel bars, and more green circuits.
Here's where things get complicated.
Batteries are made of copper, iron, and sulfuric acid over at a Chemical Plant.
Electric Engines are made of combustion engines, green circuits, and lubricant.
I already have steel automated, and can run another conveyor line over. No need yet for another production line of it.
Green circuits…I don't think I'll ever have enough, so another assembly line of those will be made just for the entirety of the frames.
Now, the chemical liquids.
Sulfuric acid is made from iron, sulfur, and water at a Chemical Plant and has exactly three uses, one of which is the batteries I don't need all that much of if I'm not going to be relying on solar power for my expanding factory.
Another use will be for uranium ore, assuming I find any of that.
Lubricant is made from heavy oil, also at a Chemical Plant, but the heavy oil itself uses an advanced processing technique to process it from crude oil as well as light oil and petroleum gas by using heat and water.
Got all that? Good, I won't explain again.
Bwuh? Uh, will this be on the test?
Huh? Oh, you were listening to me ramble to myself. Anyway, life is the ultimate test, so if you just so happen to remember, good.
If not?
I wish you luck in being an engineer, Hecatia.
…Not that I have anything I can say about it, my suit literally just tells me everything.
…Hey. Wait a second—
I ignore the woman speaking in my head, opting to lightly laugh at her mock outrage while using my Engineering Suit to put up ghostly outlines of where all of the creation machines for all the elements of the robot frame assembly lines will go. It helps keep the tangle of conveyor belt lines and underground fluid pipes to a necessary minimum, as any more tangling than needed will just take up more and more space and get in the way of future belt lines.
I really am glad I set up those trains for more iron and copper ores, because not only does it cut down on the amount of belts I use for ore transport and keep areas tidy for future use, but because this is where it's really gonna start getting gobbled, and I need as much input flowing as I can get.
That's the other reason for this. The higher tier of circuits, the red Advanced Circuits, are needed for Logistic Robots, and the red circuits need many of the green ones to make.
Advanced circuits do cost quite a bit on their own…and I'll need them for the computer chips, those vaunted Processing Units which will carry me to the end goal of the thing that will finally get me out of here: a rocket.
Once more though I may have to up my production of the intermediary products, which is annoying.
…Or will I?
Maybe I'll just make the automatic factory do that for me so that the next time those Gouyoku people show up I can actually pay attention to them and make some informed requests or demands.
Or, at the very minimum, not have to wait a solid 10 minutes for the translation software in my suit to process a foreign language just for it to tell me that I already have the Japanese Language Pack installed.
Sigh. Technology.
Oh, is that what that was?
You're still here? Er, I mean, yeah. I didn't recognize the language when I first heard it and wanted to be careful. I mean, it paid off to know what language I was going to be listening to, right? And thus extrapolate that, for some reason, Hell was Japanese.
I receive an almost bored sounding "Hm, is that so~?" in reply and she goes silent after. Gone for now, I guess.
The completed creation machines, robot arms, and conveyor belts I collected during that whole train of thought get set into place, the finger lasers and internal grid system lining everything up down to the millimeter, which is, quite frankly, impressive.
You wouldn't believe how much I take the suit for granted.
Anyway, the flying robot frame's materials are carried down the faster and more expensive red conveyor belts, getting picked up and placed into the machines which make the materials into more materials which yadda yadda and so on and so forth until, finally, about 5 minutes later, I am finally holding a Construction Drone…where I have noticed a problem.
I do not have a Personal Roboport nor the upgrades needed for my Engineering Suit to be capable of fitting one into all the other fine machinery and whatever else is contained within the suit.
That might seem contradictory to the absolutely insane specs of the suit by itself, but the robots that fit into the port are actually comically large, given how they can casually carry just about anything. From solid stone walls to the machine gun turrets that are taller and heavier than I am, they can somehow fly around while carrying them.
...But not me?
Couldn't I just, y'know, fashion those flying frames into a jetpack?
Huh. I need to think about that.
…Regardless, it seems I had jumped my gun with the robots. At least the pieces to make the Modules I would need to add to the suit were, at minimum, in production and I could just pick some up right off the belts in a few moments.
Batteries, steel, red circuits, gears, and iron plates are all I need for both.
They are floated into the air, morphing and melting and mixing until a much bulkier looking version of my Engineering Suit appears, a hollow metal basket with a harness following after. The harness' straps tighten around the bulky-suit's arms and back as it lands, wires and cables automatically snapping and clicking into ports in the armor.
My freshly created Modular Armor and Personal Roboport.
I stand directly in front of it and put my hand on its shoulder as the suit I'm wearing does…something…and the completed armor vanishes. I hear clicking and can feel the sudden weight of the armor added to mine. Just like that, my suit is now upgraded and has the additional capacity for modules!
I will not be questioning what it may or may not have just done.
Now then, I…need batteries for the personal-port and robots. Of course, they can't just be regular batteries, but Modular Batteries.
As in, ones specifically made for Modular Armor.
I'm sure there's some super technical reasoning as to why these things have gotta be so obnoxious, but the inconvenience really does bother me sometimes.
Once again, I sigh.
Technology.
—-
The Goddess that haunted the engineer silently watched, thinking.
Those machines shouldn't work like that.
As the hours went by, the more distressed she became.
How did those robots fit into a mere backpack like that?
The reason for that was the staggering progress that Jeremiah made in expanding his factory.
What did I just watch his armor do?
Hecatia Lapislazuli was not paying attention when she had summoned him up and had only focused on the fact that he had built industry to escape a hostile environment and, reasonably, she believed, could probably do it again.
The only thing she didn't know was how.
So when he started waving his hands around and making machines appear out of thin air, she was shocked not to feel that signature aura of magic.
As the Goddess of Hells and, among other things, magic, that was…fascinating? Disturbing?
It was a sight to behold, really; the assembly lines and conveyor belts going to and fro, all the individual objects making rainbows of strange colors, trains traveling to uneven spots where they collected raw ores or liquids and returned to the central factory to deliver them before returning—it reminded her of a great beast breathing, its chest expanding and contracting.
But, well, perhaps a gray and lifeless one, completely made of steel and only mimicking the intricacies and function of flesh.
She continued staring as the engineer pointed at seemingly arbitrary areas, vaguely waving a hand and having a swarm of robots flood the air from that metal basket he wore, then fly over and build a completely new section of the factory.
It was like he had gained several sets of arms and was using all of them simultaneously to grow exponentially.
And that would all add into his plan of action regarding Hecatia's request.
Von Neumann, huh?
Perhaps she would do some research too.
—-
In that indeterminate space where all three of Hecatia's bodies had decided to watch their newest minion from, magic once again began to permeate through the air.
Elsewhere, a Vampire and a Taotie were harassing the Vessel of Yatagarasu about a source of her power.
It wasn't going well.
—-
It had started well enough. Flandre and Yuuma made their way into the perpetually burning Nuclear Furnace, had found their target, quite peacefully gotten her attention, and, without provocation or goading or whatnot, asked their question.
Utsuho attacked anyway.
"Listen, you dumb watchdo—er, watchcrow! I just want to know where you get the uranium for that reactor from!"
Said watchcrow, whose full name was Utsuho Reiuji, the Vessel of Yatagarasu and manager of the Nuclear Furnace in the Former Hell of Blazing Flames, ignored Yuuma's annoyed shouting, choosing instead to continue firing upon the duo and forcing them to dodge frantically.
"I can see why nego—eep!—negotiations failed now!"
Flandre commented as she swerved in the air to avoid the spinning conflagrations larger than she was.
Yuuma was doing no better. Despite the fact that, yes, she could eat anything, nuclear flames blessed by a divinity would probably scorch her insides and leave her with a stomach ache for the next week. Therefore, she had to come up with a plan.
"I think—aieegh!—I think this needs to end quick!"
"You don't say?"
Yuuma's mind was whirling.
She, the Likely-To-Win Matriarch of the Gouyoku Alliance, and Flandre, one of two Devils of Scarlet Blood—and the one who had truly destroyed her all-consuming greed for oil.
That climactic battle had the vampire feeding an enormous greed-empowered Yuuma apples filled with that power of Destruction only she could manipulate.
Apples… I think that would work here.
A plan was formulated and shouted over the noise of the roaring danmaku inferno—much to the confusion of Utsuho, who wondered what the reactor contaminants were yammering about and simply decided to incinerate everything with a reaaaally large fireball instead.
Thus, she shouts the name of her Spell Card, the one that will both move her closer and remove the contamination at the same time.
"[Giant Star: "Red Giant"]!"
At the same time, though, over the sound of rushing wind and flickering heat, she could hear the flying contaminants—huh, is it me or do they look familiar—saying things too.
It almost sounded like a…Spell Card?
She wondered what 'taboo four of a kind' and 'not quite scarlet nihility' meant, or why there was suddenly a huge crimson apple hanging in the air between the…five contaminants?!
What the…?! When did those get there?! Now I have to remove them!
The ball of fire surrounding the speeding Hell Raven grew larger and larger every second she continued fueling it—and she would until she crashed right into them.
And so, she prayed to her god.
"Oh, thank you, Lord Yatagarasu, the Black Sun. Thank you for your power, but I will need more.
Please give me your—heat."
The fireball grew.
"Heat."
The air itself ignited.
"HEAT!"
A true subterranean sun rose in the depths of the Underground.
Utsuho shouted, blood and divinity running through her veins, her heart, her entirety.
She would do as was asked and guard the furnace with everything she had.
"[THE CROW WHO STOLE THE SUN]!"
—-
Closer, closer, and ever closer the wall of pure blaze drew to the five—or, rather, one Yuuma and four Flandres, the three blank-eyed clones created with her Spell Card, [Taboo: "Four of a Kind"].
Between them, a single [Not-Quite Scarlet Nihility] apple hung, being charged by the four with pure magic; unlike previously, there was no blood here to empower the Vampire, so she made do with the other skills she had picked up as a long-lived being.
Flandre sighed as she focused with her staff, an elongated crooked clock-needle shaped object some would call Lävatein, and the clones vanished, their magic used up and sucked into the increasingly vibrant magic apple.
No words had to be said to know that Yuuma was nervous. She was sweating bullets, nevermind the literal walls of lava in the furnace.
If this plan failed…
Finally, Flandre let out a gasp and sagged mid-air, the rainbow colored crystals that hung from her metal-stick-like wings having lost some of their gleam.
She said one word.
"Done."
The apple wasn't as powerful as previously, but it didn't need to be. They weren't trying to kill the Vessel after all.
Once they had decided on their plan, Yuuma and Flandre hadn't moved from their spots for one simple reason:
They were lining up a shot.
Yuuma stood to the side of the [Not-Quite Scarlet Nihility] in a peculiar stance. Feet set shoulder-width apart, left hand under right hand on the lower section of her giant spork, raise left-hand to about ear-height—
Wait for it. Wait for the sea of flame to get closer. Wait until you could see the very whites of her eyes.
There.
Yuuma swung her spork like she was practicing playing baseball.
Her spork met the apple dead-on.
Crack—a flicker of red tore through the air, the conflagration, the purifying flames of Hell itself.
It popped like a bubble. Destroyed.
"Unyuuuuuuuu—"
A blur of black, white, and green sped past the relieved duo, plummeting onto a platform and rolling, tumbling, and otherwise falling head-over-heels until she stopped.
Below them, the Hell Raven was spread eagle, black wings and cloak unmoving—unconscious.
—-
When she woke, it was to a headache—and two figures standing over her.
"Hey, you. You're finally awake. Took a nasty fall there, you alright?"
"Unyu?"
Utsuho Reiuji sat up, staring at the short blond girl and the slightly taller white-haired girl with red horns.
Something in her mind flickered. Oh. I know them.
"You're…that girl from back then. And you're also that girl from back then."
The two look at each other, then back at her.
The singed-looking horned one speaks.
"We'll leave quickly if you answer our question for us."
Oh! How kind of them! That means I can get back to hunting down that contamination from earlier!
"Sure thing! What's the question?"
They ask their question.
"Oh, that stuff? My god gives it to me as atoms, smaller than the eyes can see, through his power."
She taps the large crystalline eye on her chest—which then blinks, the pupil flicking up to make eye contact with the pair of girls, then goes back to its dormant, unflinching, and unblinking gaze.
Their jaws have dropped to the floor. Classic trick. Thank you, Lord Yatagarasu!
The blonde one with lightly smoking skin speaks this time. Her voice is higher-pitched and slightly shaky.
"D-do you know where we can get some, th-though?"
Utsuho smiles.
"Nope."
She stands up, noting that she's a head taller than the horned girl, who seems as if she's about to cry, and waves.
"Bye now! I've got some contaminants to clean up and I'm really about to turn up the heat."
The manager of the furnace flies off, wincing slightly from her headache, ready to get back to work.
