NOVEL NEXT Chapter 42: Study and Reports Regarding The Hole
Ishida’s report continued.
[So, how’s the hole doing?]
[Yes. I will now report on the current status of the hole.]
As a matter of fact, several years ago, Ishida started researching The Hole as he wished.
The personnel engaged in this research are Ishida and several subordinates specially selected by Ishida.
All of them have been employees who have been with the company since the company was a small Industry-Academia Collaborative Venture Company.
It’s a top-secret project within the company, and the team consists of only those who can be trusted.
There’s a reason why Hiroki, who had ostensibly forbidden research on The Hole, has changed his policy.
About 3 years ago, there was a time when The Hole’s processing capacity temporarily dropped.
The cause was unknown.
At that time, the emergency stop buzzer went off, and the concrete structure surrounding The Hole became a hellish scene of overflowing liquid waste and spilled waste from drums clogging the delivery line.
The useless monitoring posts showed abnormal readings, and the data was leaked outside the building. It’s a bitter memory that Hiroki and Ishida had to deal with the overwhelming crowd of regulatory authorities, environmental groups and local influential groups.
If something appears one day for no reason, it can also disappear for no reason.
Confronted with this obvious fact, Hiroki agreed that it was necessary to understand the current status of The Hole.
However, their research wasn’t progressing very well.
[The diameter of the hole is currently approximately 10 meters. There appears to be no change.]
[Approximately huh. There “appears” to be no changes huh.]
Hiroki wryly smiled at this unreliable and subjective report from a researcher working for a large company.
[It can’t be helped. The current measuring tools can’t measure the exact diameter of The Hole.]
Ishida, with frustration visible on his face, could only consent to the current status quo.
They can see The Hole, and they can estimate its size from the surrounding objects.
However, when they tried to measure The Hole with a laser or other means, some sort of refraction occurs, causing the values to be incorrect.
Since they can’t measure any gas or the atmosphere emitted from The Hole, their hypotheses as to why light is refracted in the air are limited.
[The space itself may be refracting the light.]
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That is what the researchers’ hypotheses were.
Space refraction generally occurs when something has great mass.
Even then, such a phenomenon would normally occur for things with mass several times greater than that of the sun, and it’s hard to imagine such a phenomenon occurring on Earth.
In addition, even the diameter of The Hole, which is relatively easy to trace by sight, is smaller than the diameter of the sun.
[Even on a daily basis, it can be larger or smaller. If you look at it chronologically though, there’s no doubt that The Hole is getting larger.]
The trend seems to be going upward, but the graph of The Hole’s size, estimated subjectively and relatively, looks like a seismic wave, or like stock prices, with jagged, detailed ups and downs.
Or perhaps, like the breathing of a living creature or the pulse of a heart.
[Well…… I suppose so.]
It was originally a hole of a few dozen centimeters in a corner of Hiroki’s yard, so there’s no doubt that it has gotten bigger.
[Also, there seems to be a weak correlation between the mass of solid and liquid waste thrown in and the diameter of the hole.]
It’s not surprising that The Hole would be large, since a lot of waste was thrown into it.
However, it can also be said that the size of The Hole hasn’t grown in relation to the sheer volume of the waste.
[If we continue to dump solid and liquid waste at the current rate, the diameter of The Hole will exceed 15 meters in 10 years.]
From Hiroki’s point of view, it isn’t so bad.
They will have to revise the central dome a bit though.
What if their business expands further, beyond 10 years? What if the projected calculations for The Hole’s expansion were wrong?
It’s not something Hiroki can do anything about, so there’s no point in him even thinking about it.
[Ultrasonic waves, laser beams, electromagnetic waves. We have tried sending all kinds of energy past the hole, but there’s no reflection at all. As a result, we are still unable to measure the shape or depth of the hole.]
[Hmmm. Why don’t you try some of the more primitive experiments? Throwing a rope into the hole, perhaps……]
Hiroki spoke up his idea, but it was immediately rejected by Ishida.
[We can’t ensure the safety of the ones conducting the experiments.]
[Ahh…… I guess you’re right.]
In the past, when the hole was still small, Hiroki had tried tying a camera to a string and throwing it in, and sending a drone in, but nothing of those had achieved results.
Should he describe it as the shallowness of an amateur? Looking back, it was a reckless attempt.
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[In fact, we have conducted animal experiments with mice. We lowered a mouse in a cage into a shallow part of the hole with a mechanically controlled rope.]
[Heehhh…… So, what happened?]
[Of the ten mice we sent, eight died. The two others turned black, went berserk, bit and smashed through the steel cage, escaped and jumped into The Hole. Animal experimentation has since been halted because of the danger involved.]
[I see.]
The reason couldn’t be more plausible.
Putting aside if doing that is humane or not, they must have considered it simply too risky.
Hearing of this event though, Hiroki vaguely recalled a day when he had a slightly noisy dream.
“Something” was running around in the black, warm darkness.
Feeling curious, Hiroki wondered. Were those “somethings” that had run deeper and deeper became happy?