Chapter 1267: Incompetent Workmanship.

’How do I make the 4-D prototype advance anyway?’ he asked himself. ’Surely, I can’t just keep adding Supreme Metacs to it indefinitely, right?’

To answer that question, he delved deep into the spark of power and reviewed the schematics he stole from Astra. Once more, he faced the incomprehensible material, hoping he could understand it.

On the surface, the incomprehensible material was a net. But when he looked deeper, he saw another layer within the net’s mesh. Then, when he looked deeper, he saw another layer of net within the mesh of the second layer.

The deeper he went, the more layers he found. He also discovered that each layer of nets had the same size as the net that contained it. And when he reached the bottommost layer, it was actually the topmost layer.

So what appeared to be a net on the surface was a sphere with finite surface area and infinite volume. Therefore, the sphere had no topmost or bottommost layer. It was actually an abyss-like tunnel, bottomless and without end, because the beginning and the bottom had fused, creating an infinite loop.

At least, that’s what it felt like so far. Whenever he inspected the incomprehensible material, he always fell into a bottomless abyss trying to figure out where it began and where it ended.

Shaking his head, he thought, ’To think this is what I see even after the spark of power has digested it and put it into terms that I can understand.’

’It is like looking at the microarchitecture diagram of a CPU back on Earth. I see it, and I know that what I’m looking at is the arrangement of transistors and logic gates. In fact, I think I know what transistors and logic gates are. But that doesn’t mean I know how to build the CPU with the microarchitecture diagram.’

’Not only do I not understand how to build the CPU with the microarchitecture diagram, but I definitely don’t have the tools to build it,’ he thought, chuckling deprecatingly.

Back on Earth, most humans who used CPUs didn’t know how they worked. Of the few who knew how CPUs worked, very few knew how to build them.

Even fewer could turn that knowledge into practice and build CPUs. Finally, of everyone who knew how to build CPUs, only one party could build the tools needed to create CPUs.

These were layers of understanding, from knowing about something, to using something tit, to knowing how it worked, to knowing how it was built, to building it, and in some cases, to building the tools needed to build it.

Even something as mundane as lemonade could be broken down into these layers. At the top were those who knew about lemonade and those who knew nothing about it. Below them were people who had tasted lemonade and knew what it tasted like, so their knowledge was more intimate than what others gained from hearing about or reading about it.

But not everyone who knew what lemonade was and had tasted it could make it. Worse still, of the multitude of people who can make lemonade, only a minuscule number could produce the lemons, sugar, and juicer or squeezer to make it.

So there are levels to one’s understanding of everything, including the incomprehensible material. And even though he had the schematics right in front of him, he was still struggling at the level of trying to make the 4-D Metac.

On the surface, he understood what a net was. He understood the terms like sphere, mesh, layers, surface area, volume, linked together, and connected.

The spark of power had done its best to break down the schematics into a language he could understand. But when he put these terms together this way, he got lost pretty quickly.

’Forget about being able to make the tools needed to construct it. The best I can ascertain right now is that I definitely don’t have enough materials to make it.’

If the 4-D prototype was lemonade, he was sure that he didn’t have the lemon squeezer to make it. The situation was so bad that he didn’t know what the lemon squeezer was, and he didn’t know that he needed it.

He was also sure he didn’t have enough materials to make the 4-D prototype. So he didn’t have lemon, sugar, and water.

He was sure he didn’t have all the materials because what he had wasn’t enough to make the 4-D prototype. As for what else he was missing, he didn’t know.

Lastly, he definitely lacked the techniques and skills needed to 4-D prototype. What he had managed so far was created through brute force. In fact, what he had managed so far was a miracle.

The 4-D prototype should have collapsed like a sandcastle under the rain. But because he built it with indestructible materials, the sandcastle refused to collapse even though it was bent and wobbly.

Racking his brain, he thought, ’So far, I know I need godheads, divinity, Supreme Metacs to serve as units of commonality, and something I call the hyper-space coordinate or something. As for what else I need, I haven’t the slightest clue.’

’I have the godheads. They have finite surface area but infinite volume, so they will definitely be useful for building the 4-D prototype.’

’I also have divinity. They produce the force component. Finally, I have Supreme Metacs, which provide information.’

’As for that hyper-space component, I only know that I need it. After all, it isn’t 4-D if it doesn’t have a fourth dimension. I know that much, but I definitely don’t have what it takes to add the fourth coordinate.’

Loki, shaking his head, thought with a sigh, ’But that’s not the end to what I lack. I also believe divinity is subpar. I feel like it is only a stopgap for what I really need or a consequence of using subpar energy.’

As a wise man once said, if your skills are lacking, blame your tools.

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