Accel World Vol 5 Chapter 3 (2/2)
“Low orbit…type”
“The basic idea is the saeostationary orbit-type But the structure is different The central station of the Hereostationary orbit, at 2000 kh that’s still outside the atmosphere”
“Eh…err, if geostationary orbit is 36,000 kround!?”
“It is close Since the cable is also hter, the weight for establishi+ng balance does not need to use so like an asteroid either”
“A-Aah…I see…”
After nodding his head deeply, Haruyuki voiced a natural question
“…Then, why didn’t they plan to use the low orbit-type fro?”
“That’s because there’s a problem with it A man-made object placed at low orbit…in other words, froround, has to orbit at a speed that far surpasses the Earth’s rotation, in order to obtain the centrifugal force needed to balance the eostationary orbit For a geostationary orbit-type elevator, the lower end of the cable can be fixed onto the ground because the speed of itsobt synchronizes with the Earth’s rotation, but a low orbit-type cannot do that”
While saying that, Kuroyukihier and struck a small mark very close to the circle that represented the Earth
“This is the Herh A cable made out of entwined carbon nanotubes stretches out from it both above and below, and this cable is connected to a top station that acts as the weight attached to the top end and a bottom station attached to the bottom end”
The bottom end of the line that extended upwards and doards from the mark was just a little ways away froap between theer, Kuroyukihime continued
“This bottoround If it was lower than that, the atmosphere would becoht due to friction, and eventually fall to the ground”
“Ha—……”
Letting out a long breath, Haruyuki spoke in order to put his thoughts in order while twitching his pig nose slightly
“In other words…err, the Herth of 4000 kht? And thisobts the Earth at a much faster speed than the Earth’s own rotation…?”
“Exactly Since the ground speed of the bottom stations reaches Mach 10, the low orbit-type elevator is also called by the nickname «Hypersonic Skyhook»”
“But then, what about…the fact that it was built in the sea near Christmas Island in the east Pacific Ocean? I have etower surely extend up from there…?”
“That island is a base for the arrival and departure of space planes that carry people and materials to and from the bottom station of the Hermes Cord The planes that take off from there rendezvous with the station at 150 ko is lifted up inside the elevator until it reaches the top station at 4000 keostationary orbital station or the international base on the moon’s surface by a round-trip shuttle Incidentally, since the geostationary orbital station is also right above the arrival-and-departure base, even if people say «the Hermes Cord is in the east Pacific Ocean», it’s not really incorrect”
“Hofuu…”
Letting out a sigh for the nth tira, coth could be considered as the same as the proportion between an apple and its ste overhead at Mach 10 was very difficult to take in
“Hmm, somehow, I’m scared that it will fall due to some kind of rebound”
When he ed her shoulders lightly
“Actually, there was someone who tried to make it fall as well”
“H-Hah!?”
“What, you don’t know? Fro of spring where a terrorist that had slipped in a some tourists tried to set a bomb in the central station Due to that, it was decided that the Herthened, and japan was also participating in the bid for constructing the system, so it’s connected to the recent news about the first export of the social cay”
“Uwah, so that’s hoas I’ent with the news…”
Just like the times he was nominated to speak up in class and he couldn’t answer properly, Haruyuki hanged his head However, Kuroyukihime didn’t scold him any further, and continued her explanation with a wry smile
“The low orbit-type elevator Hereostationary orbit-type Its design is tight That’s why, even if a bomb of a size that could fit in a pocket went off, it could cause tre on the location of the explosion There is also no spare electric power or space for accoe-scale surveillance system in it I think that is the reason they adopted japan’s social cay…Yeah, with this we can finally return to our original conversation”
Letting out a long breath, Kuroyukihiers and opened up the VR operating lasses and presented one of them to Haruyuki
‘da like that as the one that called her here!’ Despite inwardly panicking like that, he accepted it and took a sip Seeinal drink that had had countless flavor parameters fine-tuned, it was unlike any drink in the real world, and yet a fresh bittersweetness without any unnatural quality to it spread throughout his taste buds
“It’s…It’s very delicious”
When he said that, Kuroyukihiave a small smile and then nimbly extended out her avatar’s left hand
“I’ve also recently been doing real cooking practice, but…A task that you can’t just do over again is really troublesoht-coloured soy sauce’s only difference is its lighter color! What’s with that, is it supposed to be like salt water!?”
“H-Heh, I didn’t know that…Or rather, why are you suddenly trying to raise your cooking skills…?”
“That’s obvious, it’s so that, one day, for yo…”
Suddenly closing her h
“…It’s just for recreation[4] More iet back onto the main subject”
Following her slightly forceful change of topic, she continued her rapid-speech explanation
“I said that the Here-scale surveillance system as well So it became the turn of japan’s social caraphed by countless cans of cri theun were detected by a camera somewhere, the systeun is and where they cao The locations of the facilities where this processing is performed, the «Social Security Surveillance Centers», have not all been revealed to the public”
“E-Even you don’t know, senpai?”
When Haruyuki seriously asked that, Kuroyukihireatest wry smile yet
“Hey, just what do you think I am? I’m only a frail fereatest of our nation’s state secrets such as that! …Well, I do have soh”
“W-Where!?”
“That’s a secret…More iather the autouts of the system at the SSSC and process it there In other words, neither huge recording equipment nor human operators are required for the surveillance ca that that very «simplicity» is the reason it was adopted for the Hermes Cord in this case…you could say it’s inevitable that the space elevator’s cameras and japan’s social camera network are linked”
POKAAN As Haruyuki was listening attentively to these words, Kuroyukihiave a wink as she said the word ‘connected’ as if she aiting for so, and then Haruyuki finally remembered the main purpose of this sudden Dive Call
“Ah…I see, err, so the fact that they’re connected means, in other words, umm…”
While flapping his pig avatar’s short arms, he shouted,
“…we can go there!? To the Hermes Cord in Accel World!!”
“He where we can’t say it’s ih”
Giving a mischievous smile, Kuroyukihi out
“First, there is the question of whether Brain Burst, a dueling gae all the way to there And even if the networks are connected, hoould we go all the way there? We Burst Linkers, generally, Dive in at the places where our real bodies are In other words, in order to go to the Hermes Cord in Accel World, it would be necessary to actually board the space elevator on this side Tour packs for going up to the geostationary orbital station have also been put on the market these days, but it’s expensive”
“…They’re super-expensive, aren’t they…”
Haruyuki dropped his shoulders He considered for an instant that as Silver Croith his wings, he could fly up to the bottoround, but he dis it The limit to the altitude Crow could reach was at most 1500 meters On the other hand, Herher than that, at least 150,000 h
No, before that, he couldn’t even go to Christmas Island, the terrestrial space plane departure base, with a middle school student’s pocket money at all
“Hmm…so in other words, unless you’re a super-rich kid, there’s no way to Dive in at the Hermes Cord…”
“Or rather, if you could go to the actual thing in the real word, I don’t think there’d be any need to go through the trouble to Dive into the reconstructed article in Accel World”
“That’s…true”
HAFU Giving a sigh of disappointment this time instead of admiration, Haruyuki looked up at the sky
Even when seen from the top of a 500 meter tall tower, the virtual blue sky seemed as if it were far away and went on forever No, in such a VR Object Set that’s freely distributed to the public, the «sky» would not reach higher than 10, or ht of this tower That was because there was nothing «beyond» this blue sky This was a closed world, where nothing but the thin blue color continued on past it
“…Haruyuki-kun”
Hearing his name suddenly called, he turned his face back down, and entle yet so eyes
“Why do you want to go to the Hermes Cord so s, the space elevator is only a oes around a decided orbit, after all”
“Eh…err”
Having been thrown an unexpected question, it took several seconds for Haruyuki to forhts inside him into words
“Uh places as well, but…also, I was thinking that, supposing it was possible to go there, that person’s wish ht be fulfilled even just a little That person…who has always aimed for Accel World’s sky, no, for «beyond it»”
The instant she heard that—
Kuroyukihihtly, and then her eyelashes turned down
The words that eventually came out of her lips were so quiet, it was alhts themselves
“……I see”
After ht blue sky
“That’s true…Her passion for the sky has surely not disappeared even now Just as ly as I ai to struggle on and reach the other side of that blue color…”
“……Yeah”
Nodding, Haruyuki also turned his face upwards once again
That person—a core a Nebulous», and a Level 8 Burst Linker, «Sky Raker»
Having lived in seclusion on the Old Tokyo Tower in Accel World for a long tia Nebulas, reforo
However, it was a little different from a complete return to active duty Demonstrated by how she had refused Chiyuri’s invitation this evening, she didn’t do any nor only in the «territory matches» every weekend, and furthermore she never came out onto the front line She always remained on standby at the back and concentrated on positional defense
Of course, Haruyuki, and probably Takumu and Kuroyukihi style at all That was because Sky Raker, who enerally couldn’t run except on paved roads or sround Also, she acco her position through her original fighting style of freelyout hand-slash attacks while toying with her enee types, she could fight sufficiently even when in a team of three where there was only one attacker and she had to protect the team healer almost perfectly
Co territory matches with a team of just Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki and Takumu from autua Nebulas had improved by leaps and bounds That ithout a doubt
But, there was one clear fact that no one had tried to voice out loud
If Sky Raker were to undo her seal on her Enhanced Arhting power should leap up several, dozens of tireater than that of now Even if she had lost both her legs, Haruyuki had proved that a e offensive strength when he had driven away a huge enemy in the past with it
However, even after Haruyuki had returned the Gale Thruster he had borrowed fro battles, Sky Raker hadn’t tried to sus» created by her own heart
“……I”
Grasping his hands together in front of his round belly, Haruyuki whispered
“I’ion will becoain’ It’s just…if Raker-san doesn’t believe in her wings, I want to convey her that it isn’t so Having borrowed «Gale Thruster» once, I understand…Certainly, coht time is short and therefore the altitude it can reach is also low, but its instantaneous output isthan the acceleration of any other kind of avatar…That’s why, there is actually much more power hidden inside it I believe that”
After thinking and thinking, and then finishi+ng his hard-fought explanation, Haruyuki raised his head and met with Kuroyukihime’s eyes, which were filled with an unusually kind yet plaintive feeling
The stail butterfly avatar slowly nodded once, and then spoke in a quiet voice
“If Raker can be taken to Hermes Cord, you can convey that to her…is that what you believe?”
Haruyuki also nodded, while being aware that he was saying so
“Yes…Uh”
“Geez, how about you declare so while full of confidence once in a while?”
After ile deep breath, and then once again started speaking
“—Just as I explained earlier, the Hermes Cord in the real world orbits at an altitude of at least 150 km Therefore, even if the newly installed social camera network there is connected to the one in japan, I believe that the Herht It’s a distance that no kind of duel avatar could reach…but, I think getting there using a means of transportation is just possible”
“Eh…Eeh!?
Letting out a high-pitched voice, Haruyuki leaned his body forward As he was on the verge of falling off his chair, Kuroyukihih-heel shoe to stop him
“I’ about a possibility, calm down a bit”
“Y-Yessh…”
“Listen well, even if Brain Burst’s origins are wrapped in ae is added to that world, don’t you think it would be truly irrational if it was a place that no one could go to?”
Grinning, shehim
“If we assue even if a method of transportation, one that can only be found by those who think very hard and search for it, secretly appears somewhere in Accel World”
“Secretly…huh”
“Even nors like treasure chests that seelance, but a route to attain it can be found if you observe the map carefully and use your head”
“Ah, there are, there are Those kinds of things are my favorite”
After nodding vigorously at Kuroyukihiram Kuroyukihime had drawn
The space elevator that orbited at an altitude of around 150 k there besides a space plane or a rocket If there were to be a place in japan where a rocket would be launched—
“Err…how about the space center on Tanega Island?”
However, that guess he le shake of black hair
“No, 99 of Burst Linkers are in Tokyo Therefore, a portal should also be prepared in Tokyo”
“B-But, there’s nothing like a rocket launching pad in Tokyo!”
In response to his protest, Kuroyukihirin
“If our avatars were ht be necessary However, that’s not how it is, right? Our avatars are pure «information» constituted as proxy bodies in virtual space And the inforhest output in japan should be in Tokyo”
“Ah……”
After widening his eyes in shock, Haruyuki continued as if struggling to breathe
“T-The Tokyo…Sky Tree…”
“Yes If Here, I think it isn’t possible for a portal there to appear anywhere besides the Sky Tree And the ti of its activation…would be the instant the Hermes Cord co the social cameras installed in it…”
Erasing the ith the diagram, Kuroyukihilish-text screen that seemed to be the official site for the Hermes Cord was then displayed on it However, Kuroyukihi
Finally, Kuroyukihilobal er, and then spoke in an affirmative tone
“It’s sooner than I thought, the day after tomorroill be on Wednesday June 5, at 5:35 PM”
References
↑ The kanji below the English furigana “Area” is “戦域” (battle area)
↑ To finish Kuroyukihie effect” is the psychological phenohtened state, like if they were on a very high and rickety suspension bridge, and that heart-pounding and adrenaline-filled fear is mistaken for love/passion for another person with them
↑ Brain Burst Program
↑ Kuroyukihie of words is better understood in japanese At the end of the first line, she says “ki”, which is the beginning of “kies it to “kibarashi+” (recreation) I’lish translation