"And why not?!"
Hearing Sora Ginko's suggestion, Ai Hinatsuru pouted in deep dissatisfaction. "You've clearly received Master's guidance yourself, so why can't I?"
Ginko's hesitation and warnings were born out of genuine concern, but evidently, Ai didn't appreciate the sentiment. In fact, she had already begun to view Ginko as a rival.
"At your age, you obviously can't... Wait, you know who I am?" Ginko was about to explain when she suddenly looked at the little girl in confusion.
She still hadn't realized just how much fame and attention her overnight winning streak had brought her.
"Of course I do! I watched your matches. The grown-ups are all saying that after just one day of Master's training, you became stronger than the Ryuo! I want to become that amazing, too!" Ai Hinatsuru said without a trace of guile.
In her mind, if Ginko could become this powerful after being taught by Su Mo, then she surely could too.
"Actually, it wasn't even a full day of training—not even half a day. But that's not the point, and stop looking at me with those sparkling eyes!" Faced with the exceptionally persistent little girl, Ginko looked like she was developing a headache. "The point is that Master's 'guidance' isn't something just anyone can handle."
"It's fine! I'm not afraid of hard work, and I'm not afraid of pain!" Ai immediately patted her chest, declaring her resilience. "I can take any kind of training!"
"...If you say so." Ginko wanted to keep arguing, but seeing Ai's stubborn expression, she knew it was a lost cause. She gave up on the lecture and nodded. "Fine. You've passed my screening. As for whether you'll receive Master's guidance, that depends on your own performance."
"Yay!" Hearing that she'd passed, Ai Hinatsuru cheered happily.
Seeing her excitement, Ginko remembered something. She handed a contract and a pen to Ai, adding a warning: "Sign your name, and you'll officially be Master's apprentice maid. In a moment, Miss Hatsune will add you to the chat group via brainwave transmission. Don't be scared."
Recalling her own initial panic, she felt it was necessary to give the girl a heads-up.
"Brainwave transmission? Chat group?" Ai tilted her head, about to ask what that meant, when a voice suddenly echoed in her mind.
[Ding! Welcome to Master's Chat Group.]
The little girl's eyes widened, her expression one of pure wonder.
Just as Ginko was bracing herself to explain the "scientific principles" of the chat group to avoid a freak-out, she heard Ai let out a cry of delight.
"Is this Master's power? So cool!"
As an elementary schooler, she wasn't afraid of the supernatural; her capacity for acceptance was actually higher than that of middle or high schoolers.
"Y-You could put it that way," Ginko said, relieved to see Ai so stable.
At that moment, Ginko received a notification from the group system.
[Task completed. 100 points have been credited to your account.]
Although she didn't know how much these points were worth, seeing the balance in her account made Ginko beam with satisfaction.
Seconds later, a message from the Group Admin, Hatsune Miku, popped up.
Hatsune Miku: "Good job on the task. Points can't be used for now; wait until I bring Master in to ask how we should plan the point redemptions."
"Understood!"
---||---
While Sora Ginko was conducting the interview for the new maid as per Miku's instructions, Su Mo was in his study, conducting research on the Chat Group itself.
"The world-crossing mechanism of the Chat Group is to analyze and verify first, then adjust the model to achieve the miracle of traveling between worlds... Rather than the 'Mystic' side, this feels more like the 'Scientific' side's style."
The more he looked into it, the more Su Mo found the Chat Group's design philosophy intriguing.
In human history, primitive religion came first, followed by theology; theology led to philosophy, and philosophy eventually birthed science. Generally speaking, the birth of science is highly correlated with theology. However, science is not a subset of theology. On the contrary, the two have significant differences in worldview and methodology.
The most glaring difference lies in a priori reasoning.
Theological theories are a priori—self-evident. Much like the existence of God or the world, they leave no room for denial or questioning. Scientific theories, however, are deductive and empirical. Whether it's a god, a theorem, a rule, the world itself, or even the human self—everything is an object of doubt for a scientific theory.
This difference manifests in the form of power.
Constructs based on theological theory often naturally accept the existence of time and space as given. Products based on scientific theory, however, require phenomenal analysis before they can be confirmed.
From Su Mo's observations, the Dimensional Chat Group's world-crossing mechanism was entirely scientific in principle. It would test the spatio-temporal symmetry of the world itself and retained an adaptation function for different environments. This "question, then question again" style looked very familiar.
But that wasn't the main point.
The real point was the source of energy that powered the world-crossing mechanism.
"The energy for the crossing doesn't come from the Chat Group itself, but primarily from the Type-Moon world?"
As mentioned before, only a "First-Class Perpetual Motion Machine" possesses the power of infinite energy supply. Upon inspection, Su Mo found that the Chat Group lacked this property. All its power came from other worlds, proving the Chat Group was not a First-Class construct.
Whenever someone crossed worlds or used any group function requiring energy, the total heat increase in the Type-Moon world would decrease. Because the "Swirl of the Root" in Type-Moon was in a state of constant energy overflow, no one had noticed this before. Even Su Mo, who had become the Emperor of the Root, only discovered the discrepancy after proactively "checking the accounts."
"Is it just robbing Peter to pay Paul? No, it's not that simple..."
Looking closer, Su Mo found an even more interesting detail. The total energy required to cross worlds was far less than the heat the Chat Group absorbed from the Root.
To an ordinary person, energy loss is a common phenomenon. But to Su Mo, this was a very clear signal.
"The inability to achieve 100% energy transfer means the Chat Group's energy invocation is accompanied by entropy..."
"In other words, the Chat Group isn't just a non-First-Class product—it's not even a Second-Class product."
If it were a Second-Class Perpetual Motion Machine, the heat balance would be perfectly equal. This suggested the Chat Group was likely a Third or even Fourth-Class construct.
This was fascinating. How could a chat group that spans the multiverse have a base model at only a Third or Fourth-Class level?
This didn't mean the Chat Group was "low-tier." On the contrary, since it could access the Swirl of the Root—a First-Class product—it wouldn't be hard for it to use that "Grace" to evolve itself into a First-Class construct.
It had the opportunity to upgrade its core but chose not to, opting instead to simply "leech" energy from the Root.
Either it just liked free stuff, or...
"Could it be that the Chat Group's original model is a Third or Fourth-Class product, and to ensure system stability, they didn't change the kernel, but chose to simply plug in an external power source?"
As his deductions reached this point, a spark of excitement lit up Su Mo's eyes.
From these details, he could basically determine that the world where the Chat Group was born was "locked" by the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics.
As for whether it was a Third-Class (requiring external energy to maintain the eternity of internal material concepts) or a Fourth-Class product (requiring an additional intake of concepts to neutralize informational decay), he could find out by observing the nature of the external energy supply.
If he could confirm this, he could pinpoint the exact type of world the Chat Group originated from.
"Beyond that... the absolute gender imbalance of the group members is also worth some serious attention."
Su Mo shifted his focus to the next suspicious point as he continued his experiments.