Ionized nitric minerals,,,
Nitric acid,
I thought you'd be the next one to wake up, Stan,
How much time has passed since then?
It must have been at least a few thousand years,
There are no buildings,
For them to have worn all the way through rebar, the pH of concrete—
Okay, got it,
That's enough,
Stan, all of our clothes have weathered away,
You can't expect to find your smokes,
Take the opportunity to stop inhaling toxic gas,
So, what are we doing now?
A man once said,,,
"No matter the state of humanity,
someone will always emerge intent on unearthing all of the workings of the world,"
So the race is on,
It's quite the elegant battle, don't you think?
Who will master science first and become the sole ruler of the stone world?
What's this?
Nitric acid,
Though heavily diluted,
Are you sure this is going to wake them up?
Really?
I told you a few thousand years ago, Remember?
The sparrows probed using glass wool electrodes doused in nitric acid—
Yeah, yeah, got it,
Point is, we just need these guys to have followed their order to stay conscious,
After those superheroes were told to stay awake,
this is all the survivors we have?
Or should I say "sleepvivors"?
Some people seem to be earlier than others,
We may see more of them wake up soon,
The venue staff must have heard Stanley's orders,
I think there's a chance they're still awake,
Nah, I don't think the civvies would have made it,
Ma'am!
A ring?
Would you look at that!
It's barely holding shape,
It was time-capsuled in that mystery mineral for thousands of years,
It's platinum,
Excellent,
Very elegant indeed!
Suppose a world champion martial artist
were to be revived into this stone world,
The world would be his,
But with platinum in our hands,
we can immediately start mass-producing nitric acid
and make more gunpowder than we'd know what to do with,
And first, we'll need people,
Once we have adequate manpower, we'll next travel toward the Yellow Dent,
We'll find the ideal place for growing corn and make our base there,
We'll secure food, clothing, and shelter as we begin producing gunpowder,
In the meantime, we'll work on refining metals and precision machining,
We've finally completed the firearm,
Very elegant,
And now, we are the pinnacle of science and warfare in the stone world,
Yeah,
You've noticed the fruit of the devil, have you?
Tobacco plants grow wild here,
I suppose I'll help myself to some,
As a bonus,
Nicotiana tabacum,
Dry the leaves of this plant, chop it up, and wrap it in paper,,,
and you've got a cigarette,
No one will threaten us,
With my scientific acumen and your skill with firearms, my old friend Stanley,
we can become the monocrats to rule the world,
That's within our reach,
Isn't that right, Stanley?
Yeah,
It is,
In sum, Xeno and you, master and disciple in science, awoke around the same time
and made use of nitric acid:
one for the science of giving life,
and one for the science of taking it away,
What are they talking about?
Is that decent-looking Senku guy over there acquainted with Xeno?
I'll make a casual approach,
That's right, I'm the cool-headed Luna,
Say what?!
Our rocket-building teacher was the enemy science boss?!
There he is! On the deck! I've got you this time, Doctor Taiju!
All I have to do is point at him,
Then Stanley will plug him, and we win,
Th-Th-That's right!
Of course!
That's what I've been working at this whole time,
I'm Luna, the capable woman,
That's some stupidly useful information we got out of Luna,
Doctor Xeno,,,
If he's our enemy, the Medusa may end up being our secret weapon,
Th-Th-That thing still works?!
The battery's completely drained, You know that,
What do you mean, then?
Doctor Xeno knows all too well how powerful the weapons of science are,
He's trying to take over the new world with them,
There's no way he would turn a blind eye to the super science weapon that is the Medusa,
I see now!
The question isn't whether or not it can actually be used,
It's precisely because the enemy is an overly capable science user
that the weapon transforms into the perfect bluff of an unstoppable ultimate weapon,
Yeah, that's the idea,
So if I have this right, we're using the spent Medusa as a way to intimidate them?
Come on! Point! Now!
At Doctor Taiju!
All I'm doing is moving my finger,
Right? Easy, All done,
Be cold, Be collected!
Get her inside to treat her wounds!
I can't!
Why can't I do it?!
I'm a cool, capable woman!
I need to at least pass on the information!
That Senku person might know Xeno!
She's saying something,
Senku!
Senku?
What's she talking about? I don't get it,
But it's information that the miss risked her life to obtain!
It must be important somehow!
All right, report to Xeno!
White Castle, White Castle!
Ghost 2 here,
Transmitting information from the goddess,
What is that?
Senku!
What is it?
I was at the comms, about to send out our regular transmission,
when it started making screeching noises,
It's scrambled,
The transmission's gone through a proper cipher device,
Encryption?
You mean they're telling secrets?
No fair!
Is it Xeno?
Can't we decrypt it?
It isn't that easy,
We'd need a spectrum analyzer,
I don't know what that is, but you can't do it right away, then?
No,,,
It isn't what they're saying that's important,
The communication happened after I saw Luna doing something,
Which means,,,
The enemy is nearby!
All right,
You're Doctor Taiju,
Hold your fire, Stan!
Doctor Taiju was a body double,
The true enemy leader,,,
The OP scientist,,,
is Senku,
Ishigami Senku,
Well?
Which one is the true target?
Which is Doctor Senku?
The one who first spoke in that transmission,,,
Do you hear me, Perseus?
We just had a change of plans, and we need to—
You can stop right there,
That quick scientific decision-making,,,
And based on the countless exchanges we had about rocketry thousands of years ago,,,
His personality, his tone,,,
I've recorded all of our transmissions,
This is Senku's voice!
I'm not gonna hear him from here,
I won't need you to,
I can calculate his height based on his voice,
We calculate the vocal tract length based on the domain of a smooth function,
Applied to human height, we get 5'7" with an error margin of one to two inches,
And though he may have grown
since the first and last time I met him, he wouldn't have shrunk,
Which means,,,
His height is between 5'7" and 5'8",
Age nineteen, Male,
All right, Perfect,
I can easily get his height by comparing him to Luna,
One,
Two,
Three targets,
Sniper!
There's a sniper!
Hide!
Get behind something!
Did they catch me?!
Idiot! Stop looking at me, Luna!
They'll know where I am!
No, that's not it,
Look!
The OP science leader,,,
The smart one is one of those three,
If the target is as clever as Xeno says,
he'll no doubt notice where you're looking and turn to face me,
He'll naturally smoke himself out,
Heya, Ishigami Senku,
Beyond my line of sight,,,
Senku-sama,
Oh?
He's retreated to the optimal geometric position,
Not bad,
But that's exactly why I can see you,
Xeno, let me ask one more time, just in case,
You're sure, right?
I'm going to kill him,
There's no taking it back,
I use my science to take over the world,
Or, if we join forces, we can be more certain of it,
But a future in which he accepts such an offer would never come,
Yeah,
Go ahead,
Starch,,,
Or the powdered arrowroot from the soft serve we made earlier?
Same shit,
Water!
Dilatant materials,
Powder particles, mixed with a fluid, move the same as a fluid when disturbed slowly,
But with abrupt impact, they suddenly turn solid,
There's even been research on using that property to make bulletproof vests,
Although it hadn't hit the market yet!
Next Episode
Light of Science
This is a work of fiction, but the plants, animals, and production methods described are based on reality, Foraging and making things on your own accord is extremely dangerous and, in some cases, illegal, Please do not imitate without expertise,