Chapter 80: So Heavy
Kaguya's question had genuinely stumped him. The Wandering Planet did, after all, have humans living on it. Quite a lot of them, in fact.
The protagonist of The Wandering Earth, for instance—he should still be alive during this time period, right?
If the Planet shrank, would they shrink with it?
If they didn't shrink along with it… wouldn't that result in a massive die-off?
And the Planet would need to move around, surely. Without arms or legs, the only option was rolling.
What if it rolled just a little—
And caused a human extinction event?
This was squarely in his blind spot. The system prompt hadn't said a word about it.
* * *
RawrSoFierce: "The probability of a human extinction event… is actually pretty high!"
RawrSoFierce: "Holy shit—I can't believe I didn't notice this!"
Crazy Diamond: "Phew… good thing Kaguya caught that in time."
Crazy Diamond: "Otherwise, how many people would've died? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?"
The Little Wandering Planet: "…Um. This is awkward. I think it's too late. I already opened my Dimensional Corridor… and the moment I opened it, my body shrank automatically…"
RawrSoFierce: "…"
Crazy Diamond: "…"
Kaguya-sama: "…"
Green Grasslands Wolf King: "…"
Terrible Tornado: "…"
RawrSoFierce: "Wait—what about the humans on you?!"
The Little Wandering Planet: "Let me check."
The Little Wandering Planet: "They seem to have shrunk too. And when I was rolling through the corridor, they weren't affected at all. It's like they have no idea anything happened—they can't see it, can't feel it."
Can't see anything. Can't feel anything out of the ordinary.
Ryū tried to picture that bizarre scene, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
The image was… something. A planet the size of Earth, shrunk down, rolling along the ground—and every last human on its surface completely oblivious.
Did that make any logical sense whatsoever?
Forget it. Looking for logic in a fantasy setting is the real foolishness.
Ryū gave up trying to figure out the underlying mechanism. He was perfectly aware that no amount of pondering would yield a coherent explanation.
In that case, why bother thinking about it at all?
* * *
RawrSoFierce: "Looks like the great human extinction didn't happen after all."
RawrSoFierce: "The chat group accounted for everything."
Kaguya-sama: "Knowing my concern was unnecessary is a relief—but still, thinking about all those lives that could've been lost… I'm glad it worked out."
Edward Newgate: "Gurararara! Even this old man got shrunk down."
Green Grasslands Wolf King: "[Image] I've opened my Dimensional Corridor too."
RawrSoFierce: "[Image] Same here. Everyone get moving into the "One-Punch x Man" world. The event is only three days—miss it and it's gone."
Kaguya-sama: "[Image] Dimensional Corridor opened +1."
We, Ying Zheng: "We have also opened Our Dimensional Corridor. One simply walks in, correct?"
Kaguya-sama: "@We, Ying Zheng — Yes, just walk in and you're good."
* * *
The chat group fell silent. Everyone had opened their Dimensional Corridors and stepped through.
Well—one of them was a slight exception.
The Little Wandering Planet had rolled through. No arms, no legs.
Ryū gazed at his own Dimensional Corridor, let out a slow breath, and stepped inside. The corridor began to close behind him the moment he was fully through.
Only group members could enter these corridors. Anyone else who tried would be torn to shreds by the spatial storms within.
How powerful those storms were, exactly—strong enough to kill what caliber of fighter—Ryū didn't know. No non-member had been suicidal enough to charge in and find out.
* * *
When Ryū stepped out the other end of the corridor, he found himself in an entirely unfamiliar environment.
He was just about to survey his surroundings when a slightly childish voice piped up from somewhere near his feet:
"Admin-dono! Admin-dono! Wow… I finally get to see you in the flesh!"
Ryū: "…"
He very nearly swatted the thing on reflex. "In the flesh"? Was that really the phrasing?
He turned his head to the right. Nobody there.
Slowly, Ryū looked down at his feet.
His expression twitched.
Suppressing the overwhelming urge to roast what he was seeing, he managed:
"Little… Planet? Why are you this tiny? You're barely bigger than a basketball!"
A strange stone sphere sat by his foot, rocking excitedly from side to side. Given its shape and the faint chill radiating from its surface, there was no mistaking it for anything else.
He'd known the Planet could shrink now. He just hadn't expected it to shrink this much.
He'd assumed it would be at least two meters in diameter.
Instead—basketball. Maybe a touch larger than a basketball. One size up, tops. Close enough that the comparison was unavoidable.
The Little Wandering Planet rolled up to Ryū and nuzzled against his trouser leg, vibrating with excitement:
"Admin-dono recognized me right away! As expected of Admin-dono!"
Ryū: "…Anyone with functioning eyesight would recognize you."
In the entire Dimensional Chat Group, the Little Wandering Planet was the only member shaped like a sphere. No matter how big or small it got, that fundamental geometry didn't change.
Under these circumstances, you'd have to be literally blind to not identify it.
* * *
Eyeing the little sphere at his feet, Ryū felt a strange mischievous impulse rise from somewhere he couldn't quite identify. He bent down and scooped the Planet up in both hands.
The instant he lifted it, his expression shifted.
What the—this ball is HEAVY!
Ryū's current strength, while perhaps not quite Whitebeard's, wasn't far off. He could lift an entire ship if he had to.
And yet picking up the Little Wandering Planet nearly threw out his back.
This was after the chat group had already reduced its weight.
Without that reduction, he definitely wouldn't have been able to lift it at all.
Ryū silently set the Planet back down and discreetly rubbed the small of his back.
Just as he was about to say something, several Dimensional Corridors flickered into existence nearby.
One familiar figure after another stepped through.
☆☆☆
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