What do I do?
Green Shark dragged me back to the bed.
But with my heart pounding so hard, I could not possibly fall asleep.
What do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I do?
They had hijacked the distress signal?
There was no point asking how. They had done it because they could.
The issue was their purpose. If they could hijack the Union’s emergency rescue channel, then as the women had said, they certainly were not “kind” people.
Damn it.
Maybe I would have been better off quietly letting these two raise me like livestock.
I messed up....
Only after things had actually gone wrong did the tunnel vision caused by Lumi’s words begin to clear.
As long as I kept grilling meat properly, Green Shark had no reason to eat me.
Marmotte was interested in a massive amount of silver, too, but that was a problem I could solve by earning her even more than that.
No, this is my fault.
Lumi must have provoked me so that I would become suspicious of Green Shark and Marmotte and contact the Rabbies.
The moment I used the chip, her faction would have come immediately and taken custody of me.
But she probably had not expected me to distrust her and access the rescue channel right away.
So I had to deal with this somehow on my own.
.
"Um... then should we develop firearms first?"
"What? Wouldn’t it be better to build refrigeration equipment first?"
Electric heaters had a simple structure: attach resistance to both poles, and they heated up on their own. But refrigeration equipment needed refrigerant to exchange heat for cooling.
Since Green Shark devoured a tremendous amount of food, it was true that researching refrigeration first, so we could store food in bulk, made more sense.
"Well, you know. A bear or something could suddenly show up nearby...."
"There are no predators around here."
Green Shark, who had gone in and out of the area countless times by now, said indifferently.
"And if one does show up, I’ll kill it."
Bears tear people apart, but Neanderthals tear bears apart.
It was extremely reassuring, but not the kind of reassurance that helped much in my current situation.
"You said it yourself. That I should at least be able to look after myself."
"Hmm...."
Marmotte narrowed her eyes. I looked away from that gaze, as though she were staring me down...
"All right, then. I suppose I’ll get myself a weapon while we’re at it."
It seemed she was willing to let it slide for now.
.
A few days passed after that. To guard against being tracked, I had not turned on the communications console once since then.
Marmotte was deeply engrossed in researching the manufacture of basic firearms.
"The tensile strength should be... about this much. The thickness needed to withstand the blast pressure, and the gas vent....."
I had engineering knowledge, but that did not mean I could handle every machine in existence however I pleased.
I understood construction and electrical wiring, but what engineer knew how to make every kind of gun?
Not every chemistry teacher could make drugs, after all.
"Damn you, Walter White."
I was not Heisenberg Leto, so there was nothing I could do about it.
Graphs and holograms whirred across the advanced research bench, calculating pressure and hardness according to Marmotte’s figures.
Whenever my hands were free, I helped with work outside.
"What is this?"
"It’s a trap."
You suspended rocks or spikes, secured them to a hook, and when someone stepped on the pressure plate, the hook came loose and struck the victim—or animal.
I had received Green Shark’s help with this.
Since she hunted around here all the time, she had extensive knowledge of the major animals’ habitats and travel routes.
"Like this?"
Green Shark studied the wooden trap I had set up, then touched the footplate concealed beneath blades of grass.
Click.
[Trap Triggered]
"...!"
The footplate depressed, the knot tied to the hook came undone, and the trap activated.
The boulder I had only temporarily secured came crashing down on Green Shark.
Crunch—
But Green Shark smashed the rock apart with her bare hands.
"Are you okay?!"
"For something meant to catch four-legged animals, the strike point is too high."
...Even if she knew it was coming, was that really possible?
The sight of her brushing stone dust from her fist was absurdly reassuring, but there was no guarantee that fist would never be aimed at me.
"...Then we should add a spike plate as well."
I added a device whose spikes snapped shut with spring force and punched holes through the body.
I should make sure never to go near this place again.
.
"It’s done."
The research on basic firearms was completed after staying up all night.
With dark circles beneath her eyes, Marmotte handed me several thousand lines of code.
"You could take it a little easier."
It was urgent, but she looked so exhausted that the words came out despite myself.
"I can’t rest easy until I get it done."
Marmotte opened her mouth wide in a yawn and rubbed her eyes.
I accepted the research results and scanned them.
The machine bench, crowded with electronic devices bought from Lumi and tools painstakingly carved by hand, finally had something to do.
When I uploaded the firearm design to the bench, which was something like a CNC lathe, guide lines resembling augmented reality appeared in my vision, synchronized with my fabrication-assist implant.
Whirr—
The sound of machinery, which I had not heard in a while, calmed me. I bent sheet metal and carved wood.
If Marmotte’s research was software, then producing it was the job of me, the hardware guy.
I could have bought blueprints from the orbital internet, but there were too many problems, from location tracking to the reliability of the designs.
Besides, just as with building the generator, specifications tailored to this frontier system required the help of a local researcher.
"Hmm."
Green Shark frowned as though she did not care much for ranged weapons.
Apparently, they did not have the satisfying feel of hitting something. It was a sentiment I, as a civilized person, could never understand.
Screech, screech.
The firearm gradually took shape.
A revolver, a weapon that could be loaded with rounds in a classic cylinder beforehand and fired repeatedly.
Under normal circumstances, every emergency pod should have had one of these.
"...."
Then again, even if I had had one, I probably would not have survived.
Whether I could hit anything was one issue, but even if I did, would it have made a difference to Green Shark?
More likely, I would only have made her angry and ended up as a horrific sight, like a boomalope.
Bang—!
Thud!
"There’s no deviation, and the recoil is manageable too."
That was Marmotte’s assessment after the test firing.
She squinted as she gave her opinion, apparently unable to see the distant target very well.
I had also made a bolt-action rifle for long-range use, but I decided I would use that one.
Honestly, I was not confident in my shooting either, but if she could not see well, what choice did I have?
It would have been nice if research into a bolt mechanism for automatic fire had been finished. With that, you could just spray bullets and pray.
"I’m hungry..."
Green Shark growled in a low voice.
Fortunately, ammunition production could be left running automatically. For now, we headed to the kitchen.
-----
The average day in a frontier system.
If you ask a modder, "Is it CE compatible?" you can exorcise them.
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