Chapter 6168 - 5179: Machine Soul Ideal Realm (36)

"That’s not going to work," Shiller flatly rejected.

"First of all, contacting Yog is very dangerous. Yog himself knows this, which is why he doesn’t contact Iron Man. Aren’t our lives valuable too?"

"Secondly, you mentioned that Yog is a shut-in; he barely interacts with the human race. Can he really build a path suitable for humans to walk? Honestly, his idea of ’suitable’ is totally different from what humans truly need, right?"

"Also, even if we want to make contact, how can we reach him? He’s too busy to even manage his house, he’s definitely swamped now. Even if there’s a ritual for contacting him, I bet he wouldn’t pick up the phone."

The Mouse kept thinking and said, "So it can’t be you guys contacting him, it has to be me. After all, I’m Nya’s avatar and won’t have my brain explode from Yog’s influence. He might not understand humans, but I do, don’t I? I’ll send him a blueprint for a teleportation portal, the kind that’s safe for all, including children and elderly. You should have no issues using it. Not answering the phone is indeed possible, but we’ll just have to keep trying."

"But you need to ensure you can shut down that machine first," the Mouse continued, "don’t let it be that I negotiate with Yog, and you can’t handle things on your end."

Shiller glanced back at Peter. Peter gave him a slight nod. So Shiller said, "You go ahead and prepare. If you can make it work, it would be a big help to us. Next time we’ll bring some gifts to visit you..."

"Please don’t come!" the Mouse said, "The best gift would be for you to just leave my house quickly."

Then they went about their own business. The Mouse should be researching how to contact Yog. Meanwhile, Shiller and Peter discussed how to stop that machine, though before that, Peter asked, "Can he really contact him?"

"He should be able to," Shiller replied.

"Then why can’t he contact his own body?"

"It’s likely his body deliberately isn’t picking up," Shiller said, "If they can be reached by phone, they could report online. Bosses don’t like online reports, so he simply doesn’t answer the phone, letting them stay put until the path is fixed."

"Why do I feel like they’re no different from humans?" Peter seemed puzzled, "Aren’t the cosmos supposed to be cold and unknown terror? Why does it feel a bit like my neighborhood’s resident meeting?"

"That depends on your perspective," Shiller said, "Generally speaking, standing in front of a giant entity often makes one feel insignificant. But oddly enough, Outer Gods seem terrifying from a distance, but once you get to know them, you gradually understand everything."

"Especially, Nya is the kind who gets smaller the closer you are. You might summon him with a divine flair and feel some mystery, but when you actually converse, he comes across as a human full of cunning. Yet he happens to be an Outer God, so when he complains about his peers in a human-like tone, it sounds a bit like you ranting about your colleagues, naturally stripping away any mystery."

"In other words, one day you gossip to an ant about your notorious colleagues, if the ant can understand, it wouldn’t find your colleagues terrifying, just as speechless as you do. But that doesn’t mean your colleagues couldn’t crush an ant."

"But that’s the amusing part about this," Shiller chuckled, "those starry words that drive worshippers insane may not be profound knowledge, just an Outer God ranting about colleagues."

Peter tugged at his mouth corner, still not too happy. He said, "I’ve already thought of how to stop the machine; I said that earlier just to play along with your negotiation."

"Of course, I know you care for us," Shiller lay beside Peter, using tentacles on his tail to smooth out his fur, "You’ve been a big help; without you, we might have to study this thing endlessly, maybe mistaking it for Tony’s stomach acid or something."

That finally made Peter genuinely laugh, seeming to really like the joke. He said, "Then you might find a lethal amount of cheese here. Oh right, also a ring. That’s from when he had an argument with Ms. Bozi and swallowed it."

They chatted for a while, and Peter’s mood improved a lot. Shiller looked at him and said, "The dual torture of physical and mental pain is indeed hard to bear, considering that, you’ve been really strong."

"Thanks for the compliment. But given your stable physiological and psychological state, Doctor, you always make me feel a bit fragile."

"Never use me as a benchmark," Shiller sighed, "Being tireless isn’t always a good thing; it just highlights Greed’s advantages in extreme environments. At other times, it might teach you a lesson."

"I’ve heard about that," Peter said, "Though the Spider Man of the Central Universe never speaks ill of you, from his snippets I can sense your universe had quite a manic era."

"That’s all in the past now," Shiller twitched his ears, "What’s the method you mentioned to stop the machine?"

"Flood it," Peter said casually, "Although pollution has made the living environment for blood cells less harsh, dilution is still the best approach. Pour lots of water and it’ll naturally break."

"Since that’s the case, there should be comprehensive waterproof measures, right?" Shiller, though not well-versed with experiments, understood Iron Man. The things designed by Iron Man were relatively comprehensive, especially the protective devices, and wouldn’t have major flaws.

"Not necessary," Peter said. "The entire building has only the feeding port at the top that might let in water. Once it rains, just find something to cover it. A plastic sheet is the best waterproof system."

"Then we..."

"Rainwater is indeed the best dilution water, but it’s too unpredictable. You never know when it will rain, nor how much rain you will get, and storing water is also very difficult. It’s better to directly channel the lake water to fill it."

Shiller estimated that the dammed lake where the animals drank earlier had a lot of water. After all, it could support crocodiles living in it, making it a sizable lake. However, the lake wasn’t close to the cube.

But Shiller quickly remembered when it rained and the water rose; there was a flood that rushed through the riverbed, and the riverbed’s direction happened to point towards the cube. That meant they could actually break the dam manually and divert a river over, making it much simpler.

Peter thought the same. However, transporting the water onto the rooftop was another challenge. Although they could now make containers, they couldn’t make them too large, and transporting water bucket by bucket was too time-consuming, so they might still need to build pipelines.

This was Peter’s specialty. He seemed very confident, and Shiller didn’t ask more. He now needed to study how to breach that lake’s dam; this was also a technical task. Dig too much, and you’ll have a flood; dig too little, and it won’t be enough, and you also need to aim it correctly, as going off course would be troublesome.

They ate another meal, took a break, and then set off towards the dammed lake. With the tentacle, navigating was effortless, and Little Superman was having fun, swinging on the trees with the tentacle, making monkey-like sounds.

Shiller didn’t bother with him. Actually, it was because Little Superman volunteered to come that Shiller brought him along. In other words, there wasn’t any task specifically requiring him, it was purely to provide some training. But seeing now, there’s nothing needing training.

His attitude was somewhat like, when things are good, be happy if you should, but if the pressure is too high, feel free to vent and release all the negative emotions. If you treat me well, I’ll stick to you; if not, I’ll rebel. The least stressed person in all American comics.

After arriving here, the thing that upset Little Superman the most was not eating or sleeping well. Once the basic survival issues were resolved, he hadn’t thrown any tantrums. As for how eerie and dangerous the surroundings were, he might not have noticed, or he might have noticed but didn’t care.

This kind of person is not easily influenced by psychological suggestions, the kind who are difficult to hypnotize. If you prompt him to imagine something, he’d think, ’Why should I listen to you?’ If you use verbal hints about the environment, it goes in one ear and out the other. If you guide him to say certain things, he’s immersed in his own world, speaking nonsensically— the sun is green, the seawater is red, hitting the right knee raises the left leg, all the key positions are scrambled.

Fortunately, Little Superman’s mental state is quite stable, and he isn’t considered a psychiatric patient; otherwise, treating him would be troublesome.

They reached the lake, crouching on the highest tree to look down. Animals were still drinking there, and occasional hunting incidents occurred, making the place look vibrant and lively.

The pteranodons hadn’t moved out, and the giant animals were temporarily safe. Shiller estimated the location and then said, "We can dig open over there, right between those two trees. Dig a few feet wide opening."

"Isn’t that too small?" Little Superman asked.

"Water flow has an erosive effect," Shiller said. "The gap will quickly enlarge; just a small opening can create a river. If this weren’t the case, we’d need to go back and make some tools first."

"There are animals over there," Constantine said cautiously. "Let’s wait until night when the animals go home before taking action. Although our movements are much more convenient now, getting bitten would be quite troublesome."

Shiller nodded. But he didn’t stay idle, looking down at the animals below. There were many animals he had seen before, mostly thrown into the cube by pteranodons. He thought, since they didn’t need meat, only blood, those meats should be processed in the filter. Where would they be discharged to?

What Shiller was really pondering was that there should be a discharge pipeline, and it shouldn’t be too narrow. With all that discarded meat, even if it was pureed, a too-narrow pipeline couldn’t discharge it. It should be at least as large as a gastric feeding tube.

This meant that the cube actually had a large pipeline leading to the outside. They wouldn’t need to build their own pipeline, they just needed to find a way to let water be poured in through this large pipeline that connected to the outside.

To do this, they needed to find the pipeline and create enough water pressure, using the internal and external pressure differences to pour the water inside. The specifics could be designed by Peter, but this was undoubtedly a direction.

Shiller had to admit he was somewhat pressed for time. Although they now had a foundation for slowly climbing the technological development ladder, and Peter had that capability, he still wanted to hurry.

It’s not that he didn’t trust Iron Man’s survival capabilities; quite the opposite. He knew too well the disaster-causing ability of human mad scientists. In just a few days here, they’d first drive someone mad with harassing calls, and if he stayed much longer, in the future, even Outer Gods would not be easily fooled.