In a Different World with a Smartphone Chapter 400: Countermeasure, and the Golden Palace.

Two days after we destroyed the variant invasion. Leaders of the various countries have once again assembled in Brunhild, in order to discuss the details of what happened and our future plans.

As expected, the effect of having witnessed the battle with their own eyes—even if it's only projected on a monitor—is huge; the monarchs of the western continent have now completely understood the dangerous situation we're currently in. They should've noticed that the world would face destruction if countries around the world do not work together.

I've lent out training units for the Frame Gears, Frame Units to the seven countries of Primula, Trihalan, Strain, Alent, Garudio, Raze and Panashes, and asked them to use those for training within their knight orders. I'd like for them to participate in the coming battles as well.

And well, things on that end wrapped up nicely, but…

"Frame Gear-type variants, eh… Well, I guess it's not impossible. It's a common sight for opponents to use similar weapons on each other in the world, after all. That's why I told you to add in a self-destruct button, didn't I?"

"No, uh, I still think that's going a bit too far…"

If we added something like that on our Frame Gears, would people even pilot them anymore?

I replied back to Professor Babylon, who's drawing lines on top of a blueprint laid out on a table in the [Laboratory].

"And you said that… Yura, was it? He's some kind of engineer?"

"N? Ahh, according to Mel, he can be said to be an engineer, a biologist, a politician… He's basically a genius. Well, in areas pertaining to unnatural powers like magic, Mel was apparently superior, though."

"Funn… I bet he's interested in my Frame Gears, and wants to improve on them and use them however he wants… There sure are those kinds out there, eh, people who can't make anything themselves and just rely on technologies created by others."

Eh, why does my chest hurt… I mean, I do know that I've been doing nothing but leeching off Earth's technologies.

"Plus, isn't that guy dabbling in golem tech as well?"

"Taking the matter about Eisengard into consideration, yeah, probably."

"It might be the other way around, too. He may have become interested in Frame Gears because he got his hands on golem technologies… Or something. Well, in any case, betting on my pride as an engineer, I'm definitely not gonna lose against him. So Touykun, I was thinking that we need more study materials in order to get inspiration for our next project; how about it?"

"Eeh…"

I let out an unwilling voice as the professor pressed herself closer towards me with her nostrils flaring. It sounds nice when she calls it "study materials", but to put it simply, all she's asking for is "show us some robot animes".

Well, I don't mind showing them some animes, but they would make some seriously ridiculous stuff once they get some weird ideas… I mean, sure, there are quite a lot of times when those weird ideas have saved us before, though.

If me hesitating here could lead to a huge defeat the next time round, that would be just stupid. When I agreed even as I'm still holding reservations, the professor immediately called Rosetta and the others and assembled everyone at the [Garden].

Besides the technical group of Rosetta, Monica and Dr. Elka (Fenrir tagged along as well), somehow unrelated parties like Suu, Sakura, Linze and Cesca are here too. Pola and Kohaku's group are here, as well.

"We also, love 'anime', so."

I guess it can't be helped since Linze said that. The problem now would be what I want to show them…

Besides Cesca, who's preparing the tea and snacks, I flicked my finger across the screen of my smartphone as I sunk into thought.

This one… Is bad. If I show them something like cutting a planet in two, it'll turn into a huge headache. Also, showing something with a horrible end when Suu's here isn't good either. It could turn into a trauma for her.

This one… Is more like a political anime rather than a robot one. Animes with hard-to- understand content is a bit…

Guess a more simplistic one should be better? Ah, this one is good. Rather than a robot anime, it's more like a plastic model anime, though. The contents are rather peaceful, and at the same time, it's fun to watch. Since a lot of different robots (all plastic models, but whatever) comes out, the professor and the others should be satisfied as well. I don't know if it'll aid them in developing new tech, though.

I used [Mirage] to project a screen into the air within the [Garden], connected it to my smartphone, and began playing the anime.

"Ah, you're watching anime. No wonder."

I explained the situation to Yumina, who found it strange that Sakura, Suu and Linze didn't show up for the three o'clock tea time.

Since even Cesca is gone (watching anime), Rene became the one who refilled the tea at the terrace table.

"I wanted to watch as well."

Luu muttered that while reaching out towards the cookies placed on the table. She likes anime quite a bit, too.

For Luu, since she was making those same cookies in the kitchen earlier, she couldn't leave when the professor contacted her.

"I'll send the anime to everyone's smartphone later, so you can just watch it when you're free."

"Really? Thank you very much!"

"Convenient, isn't it? This. Information sharing can be done in an instant with this. Can't you get news of everything happening within the country real-time with it?"

While playing around with her smartphone, Leen murmured. Well, the number of people with those smartphones hasn't even exceeded 100 yet, so something like that is impossible at the moment.

Although, since a lot of those with smartphones are national representatives, I do have access to quite a lot of information easily. Of course, they're probably only giving me information that are okay to give out.

"Back in my world, forget country, a regular citizen can even have access to news all around the world. And not only that, there are information on the level of the daily lives of individuals available, too."

"Don't tell me, were they constantly monitored?"

Luu looked at me with shocked eyes.

"Ah, no no, it's not like that. Those individuals would openly share information, you see. For example, Luu writes something like 'Today's snacks were cookies. They were delicious' on some platform. After that, anyone with a smartphone would be able to see that; even people who you don't know."

"If it's only that much then I don't mind even if people knew about it… But it's a bit scary for people who you don't know to have access to your information, isn't it."

"Yep. That's why we make sure to not send out any weird things. We would only write about things that are fine for others to know, and things that we want others to know. There are people who write things that nobody cares about, too."

I'm not certain, but I think I can make something like a SNS in this world if I tried. The problem, however, is that we're too inexperienced in sharing information between ourselves.

"I believe this is right."

"What you think is wrong."

Imagine arguments like that breaking out between entire countries. Back in my world, something like that was occurring all the time between individuals, too.

For starters, something like a blog which simply posts information one-sidedly should be best… Ah.

"Luu. Would you want to try something like a cooking blog?"

"What is it? Cooking blog?"

"Basically, you take pictures of the dishes you make, and put them on that blog together with things like the ingredients and procedures to make it. Then you show that to others. People can cook that dish themselves based on it, right? Like that, other people can get to eat lots of different cuisines thanks to Luu. People living in countries far away would be able to eat dishes made in Brunhild, for example."

Fortunately, the foodstuffs available in the Reverse World… The western continent, they're very similar to the ones here. The two worlds are very similar to each other to begin with, after all.

They should be able to make the dishes except maybe some very unconventional ones. Raze's Martial King had also mentioned that rice exists in the western continent as well.

"That sounds interesting, doesn't it. Not just Brunhild, if we can use that to introduce various local cuisines unique to other countries, that can serve to deepen the countries' mutual understanding."

"Right. We can do something like spreading the karae cuisine of Mismede throughout the world too. It's a good step to take for the countries to take an interest in each other."

Yumina and Leen expressed their approval. Right, it's not a bad idea for different countries to be interested in each other starting from their food culture.

Well, difficulties might arise from coming into contact with different food cultures, too. Like that time when I proposed to eat the Tentakras to Egret Kingdom. To different countries, a foreign food culture might have parts that they feel are tough to accept.

For the record, when we invited the monarchs to Brunhild and treated them to different cuisines, no problems were raised.

Well, they can just look at the recipe and decide if they want to make the dish themselves. It's not like we're trying to force them to eat those.

I've gone to various countries myself, too, but I can't remember if there was something that made me go "I can't eat this!"…

……There was one… That meat ramein I ate in Yulong… That orc shank fake chashumen.

There are delicious meat among monster meats like dragon meat or Bloody Crab meat, too, though. Tentakra meat is a bit questionable. And for humanoid monsters like orcs, while I personally can't stomach them, there may actually be people out there who like their meat.

"That's true. Something like simple snacks, or side dishes… If it's starting from small things like that, then I think I can do it. Touysama, I'd like to try it out."

"Alright, then give it a try and see how it turns out."

I borrowed Luu's smartphone and took a picture of the cookies on the table.

"So you'll be writing about things like the ingredients required to make these cookies, how to portion them, the utensils you need and the procedures in order. Can you do it?"

"Yes. It's something like the recipes Touysama showed me before, isn't it? It should be alright."

Are? Then wouldn't it be better for me to just search up recipes and post those directly for dishes from Earth? No, the ingredient names here are different than on Earth, and the net is useless for cuisines originating from this world, so it should be better to leave it to Luu.

It might be good to create more methods to send information between each other, and some other special apps. Maybe a [Fireball] app that fires a fireball if you run it? Hmm, that might be overdoing it.

However, making and distributing defensive utility apps like [Shield] apps or [Reflection] apps might be good.

Guess I'll try tinkering around with that idea.

When I returned to the [Laboratory], everyone was sticking to the screen and engrossed in the anime. Your eyes will go bad, you know.

"Like I said, we need to start developing a new type of flight unit as soon as possible. A standalone combination type should be best."

"Beam sword! It has to be beam sword-dearimasu yo! If we can amplify and converge magic power and grant it blade-like properties, then it should work…!"

"Nonono, no matter how you think about it, it has to be cannons right! If we minimize the [Brionac] and send magic power to it directly from Babylon…"

"A system to amplify output… Using a golem's G-cube as medium, it should be possible to achieve output beyond its normal limit for a moment…"

See. The technical staff group are spouting weird ideas as they're watching. Can't you guys sit back and enjoy the story like Suu and the others?

Well, I'm glad they like it, at least. I was a bit annoyed afterwards when Sakura kept singing the theme song nonstop, though.

(Note: change of POV. This one's with our sibling spies in Eisengard.)

The city once called the City of Machines, the capital of Eisengard, Eisenbrook is continuing its fall into obscurity.

Ever since the Magicraft King, who controlled this kingdom, fell, nobody was able to properly govern this city, and more and more people left the capital every day.

There were various reasons for the people's departure, but one of them could be attributed to the eerie black clouds hanging over Eisenbrook.

Before people noticed, those black clouds became ever-present in the skies over Eisengard, and black rain also fell from them. People grew fearful at the ominous phenomenon, and abandoned the capital.

The capital has already pretty much become a desolate city, void of life.

Upon finally arriving at the now abandoned capital while gathering the above information, the scout-type golems, Bastet and Anubis, lost their words when they confirmed just how much the capital had been ruined.

"Anego… Just what, is going on here?"

"I don't know either… Whatever it is, it's definitely not normal…"

Collapsed people could be found all over the capital. Everyone was dead, with expressions of anguish upon their faces. Their bodies carry no wound.

As if they passed away without warning, at a table in a café, on a bench in a park, in the middle of a flight of stairs, people's corpses were strewn about everywhere.

More unnatural, however, is the fact that not a single body has decayed yet. They all look as if they had died less than an hour ago.

However, Bastet was able to deduce that that is definitely not the case. Compared to the conditions of the dead people, their clothes and belongings were far too tattered. They had obviously been exposed to the weather for quite a while.

What they can understand from all that, is that these bodies are highly abnormal.

"Could it be some sort of disease?"

"That is a possibility… But it's too early to raise conclusions. Let's go and investigate a bit more."

The black cat and black dog headed towards the highest building in Eisenbrook, the Eisen Tower.

Until some time ago, the royal castle used to be the highest structure in the capital, but it had collapsed during the Magicraft King's rampage.

If they climbed up the Eisen Tower, they might get their hands on some clues regarding this abnormal situation.

The entrance doors are closed and prevented entry into the tower, but that doesn't matter to the two. With a single swipe from Bastet's claws, made from crystal materials which are even harder than orichalcum, the thick doors were easily sliced apart.

Even though loud noises were produced when the doors fell down, nobody showed up to check on it. It seems like there are no living people inside the tower as well.

The two animals climbed up the plain-looking iron stairs. From the outside, they were able to confirm that the top of the tower had an observatory. Aiming for that place, the two pressed on higher and higher.

When they eventually reached the observatory, enclosed by glass on all sides, they approached one side and began looking down at the capital.

From there, they were able to see the streets of Eisenbrook, the black clouds hanging in the sky, and——

"What the hell is that…"

Bastet turned her eyes to the place Anubis was looking at when she heard his murmur.

Forget humans, the sight distance of the two had far exceeded dogs and cats, and even eagles.

What those high-performance cameras captured with their lenses, is the figure of a mass of gold towering over the landscape, far to the south of Eisenbrook.

That mass was composed of a large number of pencil-like prisms extending out, forming crystalline clusters.

Bastet, however, didn't think that that's a simple crystal cluster. A humongous crystal formation. That form, with some sort of regularity throughout its structure, looked very much like a palace to her.

"What do we do, anego. Wanna try infiltrating into that?"

"… It should be a good idea not to. Take a good look at the surrounding areas. It's probably going to be tough to get close to that."

"Eh?… Uwa, disgusting."

Anubis returned his line of sight to the golden palace and looked around it; the ground seemed to be moving. When he increased the magnification and confirmed the situation, what he saw earlier turned out to be innumerable golden skeletons, wandering around like sleepwalking patients.

"It's too difficult to try and break through that number to infiltrate. Also, we don't have anymore time. If we don't start retreating soon, we wouldn't make it for the time we settled on with His Majesty the Sovereign King."

"Ah, right."

"Our job is to bring back information. If we lose to our greed and become unable to return, that would be putting the cart before the horse. Let's end our spy activities here. Time to return to Brunhild."

"Heei."

Turning on their heels, the two animals began descending the stairs of the Eisen tower.

- Pixel

Chapter end