If she had to face a cost that bad, she would probably die because she stepped through a door with the wrong foot and got taken out by an ant on the roadside. Vera would rather keep climbing the technology tree the hard way. She took a breath and changed the topic.
"Then can I ask one more thing? You know about my cheat, the Celestial Forge, right?" "Your question quota is already used up."
Ham shook her head and kept talking anyway. Some things were not secrets, but saying too much might wake people who should stay asleep, and that would ruin everything. Clearing resentment pollution was extremely troublesome, and without the Holy Sword that carried the old power of the World, it would take countless eras to wear it down bit by bit.
Aside from someone who had been conveniently wiped out by Belial using the Holy Sword, most old acquaintances were still not awake. They were very close, yet even that tiny gap could stall things for an unknown length of time. There were only faint signs of progress now.
Ham was secretly glad that she had died early back then and gone to sleep ahead of time. She never sat on the Throne, did not need to clear pollution, and even had someone else pay to recover her account, so she woke up faster. Seeing there was no chance to pry out more clues, Vera looked around, feeling that even after gaining a large batch of Ancient Steel, there was still something she had missed.
"Do you want me to send you back now?" Seeing her poking and tapping around, Ham reminded her, then suddenly asked, "You said this gate was in your way earlier. Can you tell me what you are building?"
"These are not secret questions, right? Then I should be allowed to ask." "You are sharp. You can ask, but you probably would not understand, and it would only sound absurd."
Ham scratched her head. Talking directly about Laws and similar things might be barely understandable to Vera, but the deeper layers were far beyond her current level. "You can think of it as us doing something good, fixing a tear in the World…"
"Nearby?" Catching the keyword, Vera lit up. If the purpose of this gate was to block a breach and it was dismantled to fix that breach, then the Black Dragon God backing Ham had to be nearby.
A bold idea suddenly formed. People needed ideas to move forward, and if Ham could rely on someone powerful, why could she not do the same? For some reason, the idea of repairing a World Rift fascinated her, like a model builder seeing a real Gundam.
"Can I take a look?" "No. You would not understand, and your brain would explode."
Ham refused flatly. Even helping Belial on the side was hard enough, and at Vera's current state, she would die just from the shockwaves. Anyone who could not face a supernova head on did not belong there.
Just then, a voice called out. "Hey, Ham, you are here?"
A whirlwind swept across the area as microscopic Nanometal seeped in from outside the World. They rushed into the gate, reached the Throne control room, and quickly assembled into the form of Bella. "When you are done, come back to work. Do not use errands as an excuse to slack off."
Because Nanometal was so versatile, many handover tasks inside the World were handled by Bella. The massive calculations involved had scared her badly, since the scale reached astronomical levels and even her expanded Nanometal machinery could not handle it alone. To avoid collapsing from overwork, she had to drag more people back to share the burden.
Ham could directly infer how certain rules attached to the outer wall of the World would affect the inside and adjust things in advance, saving huge amounts of work. When Bella entered, she immediately felt Vera's burning stare. "What are you looking at?"
What caught Vera's attention was not just the familiar face resembling Lilith the Witch. It was the red marker displayed on her body. A creation of the Celestial Forge? That seemed impossible.
"May I ask, are you human? No, I mean, are you a robot?" Realizing her words sounded off, Vera hurried to correct herself.
Bella did not mind at all. "That is right, with some differences. I am an artificial intelligence. If you want, think of me as a magic device that can think on its own, but I have a soul."
Artificial intelligence? Was that a term that should appear in the Otherworld? Vera froze for a moment, then accepted that someone like this knowing terms from another World was not that strange. Looking closer, she realized the entire body was made of Ancient Steel.
"Ancient Steel? Your body?" She blurted it out. Ham raised a hand to stop her, then lowered it, while Bella nodded.
"Yes, Ancient Steel is your term." "Since you have potential and might be a future coworker, I will tell you the proper name in advance. General Purpose Adaptive Nanomachine Cluster Number Thirty Nine. Got it?"
She grabbed Ham and lifted her without hesitation. "Stop standing around. Come back and work overtime. I need your eyes on another problem."
A tunnel opened, and they vanished. At the last moment, Ham snapped her fingers. With a sharp sound, Vera found herself back in her familiar lab, lights shining down, her expression frozen as if turned to stone.
A heavy thud sounded behind her as the compensation shipment arrived. She barely glanced at the volume of Ancient Steel, instead staring at the new information in her mind and the changed label in front of her. "Ancient Steel ??? to General Purpose Adaptive Nanomachine Cluster Number Thirty Nine." "Name analysis complete. Research points acquired…"
"…What?" Her head buzzed as images replayed in her mind. She took a deep breath.
"Where exactly did you send me? Is this still the Otherworld?" She had thought making a Gundam was already the peak of technology here, but now even nanomachines existed. Was that artificial intelligence she saw some kind of helper unit? Do not tell her her transmigration was caused by being smashed into a star gate by a steel coil.
"So much for ancient alchemical relics. This is like a native sharing controllable fusion technology with me." The shock was immense. She thought it was all swords and Magic, but in such a short time, so many things had overturned her view of the World.
"If this keeps going, then is the Celestial Forge some kind of portable crafting station built into my body?" "And that earlier World Rift. If this World is a cosmic World, then what is that Rift? A star pod?"
The more she thought, the colder she felt. Miracles, an atmosphere she could never leave, different physical rules. Were so called God just players running a control panel above? Was this entire planet just a giant culture dish?
"Ow." Her forehead was flicked. Looking up, she saw Ham and instinctively stepped back.
"Stop overthinking. There is no conspiracy, and we are not going to harm you. Most things are exactly what you see, just with details you cannot be told yet." She really worried Vera might panic and create something dangerous. It could be handled, but it would be a huge hassle, and there was no spare manpower lately.
"So what are you, really? You are not actually players running a console, right?" "Gods. Is that satisfying? It is similar, but not the same."
Gods. That explained things. No, it really did not. Vera complained inwardly. What she had seen could not be wrapped up in a single word like that. It was a clash of completely different worldviews.
"You can think of it as a destroyed ancient civilization. A common trope, nothing to worry about." "That makes me more worried. This is not something current World Laws could produce."
She froze mid sentence. Different Otherworld, an atmosphere she could not leave, other races, God. She felt like she finally understood everything, and then stopped herself.
"Enough." Seeing right through her thoughts, Ham shut it down. Vera scratched her head, embarrassed but relieved.
She had probably overthought it. Seeing nanomachines and jumping to wild conclusions was a bit much, even if it was not impossible. At least, Ham did not seem like someone who would harm her.
Still, one question lingered. "Am I a special target like you? Or are we the same kind of special individual?"
She narrowed her eyes and looked at Ham. The effort they had gone through and Bella's words suggested she was more than just someone with a cheat. Maybe Ham had once been the same, with potential that led to this level of change after awakening.
Ham waved her hand. She was not good at riddles or subtlety. "So you noticed."
Over on Ham's side, he was still thinking about how to fool Vera, but that could wait for later. The viewpoint returned to Holy City. Alba had spent several days there, and as usual she went out on tours to build popularity, but this time there were far fewer wounded people she could help to gain reputation.