Why play in a band if you don't form one for life?

"It's okay, everyone! At least our current position is indeed higher than before!" Faced with the depressing atmosphere, Hong Xia tried to cheer everyone up, but the effect was not good.

"Go La A Mon, give me a bamboo dragonfly~" Faced with the failure of his plan, Kita was already feeling quite disappointed.

Shiko awkwardly pushed Kita away from her and looked up. The hole made by the "vine" before quickly recovered, just like what they saw in the esophagus. But it is certain that there is still space behind the top of the hole, and this layer of the hole probably corresponds to the diaphragm. Looking at the surrounding environment, the dark ground, the empty space, the ceiling that is neither high nor low, it seems more spacious here than the narrow spine before. As long as you ignore the black air that comes out from the floor from time to time, Shiko, who has been a stay-at-home for a long time, can even feel a sense of freedom.

Looking at Ichiri again——Oh, seeing her eyes, Shizi felt a resonance. "(Stay here for a while...)"

"No!" Hong Xia shattered Shi Zi's comfortable fantasy with a stick, "Ms. Marina is still waiting for us! Everyone, come up with a solution quickly!"

"Let's take a shower first, everyone is covered in dust!" Kita suggested.

“Eh? Shower? Here?” Yili shrank back, holding his coat tightly, his head shaking at the speed of a high-frequency strobe, “No no no no no no…”

Shizi also looked unhappy. Although they were all of the same sex, they were washing together without even pulling a curtain, not to mention that everyone was pushed by her, this was also...

Unless someone else takes it off first.

"Ah, if it's safe, we can take a bath." Hongxia glanced around and found no danger, so she turned to Shizi, "Little Shizi, give me a few buckets." She turned to Yili, "It should be okay for little Pochi to soak in a bucket, right? That way he won't be visible."

Yili still shook his head.

"Then let's take a dip." It didn't matter that it was cold. Shizi silently felt sorry for a moment, waved his hand, and put out four iron buckets that could hold one person, filled them with water, and left charcoal fire underneath. However, before Xiduo could light the fire, the buckets quickly turned black and then collapsed into nothingness.

"Huh?" Shizi tried a few more times, and the result was the same. Even the soles of their own shoes began to turn black without them noticing, and needed to be replaced frequently.

In the end, although Kita looked unhappy and sniffed her armpits from time to time, they could only maintain their dirty appearance and continue to think about ways to escape. In the end, after talking for a long time, they could only rely on Shiko. After all, she was the only one among all people who had the ability to create a solid body that people could stand on, although it didn't seem to be very useful now.

"Please, our hero." Liang had high hopes for Shizi.

While saying this, Liang was chewing on a piece of bread, looking like he deserved a beating. Xiduo couldn't sit still, and had already dragged Hongxia to explore other places. There was nowhere to go, so they stayed here and practiced guitar.

"By the way, is it really okay for us to split up?" Based on experience in horror movies, splitting up a team is usually a trick to wipe out the whole group. Shizi looked at the direction where Kita and the other girl left, wondering whether to call them back.

"I believe in Hongxia." Liang was full of confidence. Upon hearing that, Shizi no longer thought about that and focused on thinking about the task assigned to him.

Although she had the experience of the iron barrel, she still tried to create stairs on the ground. She had imagined gray rocks in her mind, but after she created them, she saw that the stone steps quickly turned black, and soon, the stone steps disappeared just like they did in the esophagus. Although she had expected it, Shizi still felt unhappy.

"How about trying again? You make a copper pillar and I'll hit it up?" Liang came over at this time. Shizi nodded and threw a copper pillar in the air. Liang plucked the string with all his strength, and there was a loud noise in the air. The copper pillar flew upwards, but it couldn't even touch the top of the cave and fell into the abyss. A few seconds later, the three heard a loud rumbling sound coming from below.

"What happened..." Hongxia and Kita rushed back and saw Shizi slapping his head, as if he had come up with a brilliant idea.

"Have you read the science fiction novel "From the Earth to the Moon" written by Jules Verne?" Shizi was not disappointed by the failure just now, but got inspiration instead.

"what?"

Shizi's eyes lit up and she explained her ideas in detail.

"...In simple terms, you want to build a cannon and put us inside the cannonball to blow us up?" After listening to Shizi's passionate plan, Hongxia began to doubt her own worldview.

Shizi's plan was to build a human cannon on the platform pointing directly at the ceiling, hollow out the cannonball, have five people sit in the cannonball, and use gunpowder to send everyone above the diaphragm.

Shizi Barbicane was immersed in his own fantasy. "My creation can only exist here for a short while. Conventional methods can no longer allow us to leave, but the cannon can! This cannon does not need to be fired a second time, as long as it can send us to the sky during the short time it exists! Friends, let's do a little experiment!"

"It can really send us to the sky!" Hongxia shook Shizi's shoulders, "Wake up, little Shizi! Little Pochi, you should also persuade her--"

Yili also felt that this plan was too outrageous, so she helped to speak: "This..." Before she could finish, the hot-blooded Shizi interrupted her: "Yili, come on, and be my Michel Ardant!"

I already knew about the role played by Michel Aldang, who volunteered to sit in the cannonball in From the Earth to the Moon. He was a lively male role!

If you support Shizi, can you become a Yang corner?

"Hehehehehehe..." Yili started to giggle in place.

There's no hope. Hongxia looked at Kita for help. Kita was still a normal person, but when Shiko and Ichiri looked at her pitifully, she quickly gave up her rationality: "I give up... at least... let's do the experiment first?"

Compromise! Hong Xia fell into despair. She no longer considered the remaining person...

"I object." It was Liang's calm voice! Hongxia turned to Liang. What a surprise this usually unreliable friend gave her at the critical moment! Her eyes were filled with tears and she held Liang's warm hands.

"This is too rock and roll!" Liang looked determined.

Two votes in favor, two against, and one abstention, the proposal was temporarily shelved. While the others were thinking, Shizi took Liang aside, took out a stack of papers from his bag mysteriously, and handed it to Liang. "What is this?" Liang took it and saw the words "Jules Verne Collection" on the cover.

"Before coming here, I copied a few books in the lounge to kill time." Shizi looked confident.

After a while, Liang returned to the crowd and announced loudly: "I support Shizi's proposal."

"Huh?" Hong Xia couldn't believe it.

"This is too rock and roll!" This is Liang's reason.

"The reason is the same as before—" However, Hongxia could no longer stop this. Shizi Barbicane warmly welcomed Ichiri Ardant and Captain Yamada to join, and the three of them eagerly discussed the details of the experiment.

Hongxia and Kita squatted beside them and began to recall their short but extremely fulfilling lives. The discussion among the three Yin characters next to them became increasingly heated, but the two Yang characters here were silent.

"Well, is this what the so-called yin horns look like when they go crazy?" Hong Xia sighed.

"Ijichi-senpai, I don't think this has anything to do with the yang angle and the yin angle..." Kita began to feel a little guilty about giving up.

Finally, it's time for the formal discussion. Hongxia and Kita also accept the reality and work hard on the executive committee with the goal of surviving successfully. By the way, although Shiko calls herself Chairman Barbicane, she is the chairman of the executive committee in "From the Earth to the Moon", but she knows that she has no leadership ability at all, so Hongxia is still the chairman of the executive committee.

The five of them sat down at the round table. Considering that they had not eaten for a long time, the table was already piled with sandwiches and tea.

By the way, the round table can't be maintained for long, and Shizi needs to refresh the scene every few minutes.

"First of all, Xiao Shizi, do you understand the structure of a cannon?" Hongxia crossed her hands, resting them on the table, covering the lower half of her face, and asked Shizi sharply.

"I don't know." Shizi answered simply.

Everyone looked at Shizi's face with the same eyes.

However, Shizi slammed the table and shouted enthusiastically: "Anyway, there is enough time to do experiments. Believe me, dear chairman, there is nothing that two positive corners and three negative corners can't do!" Her inexplicable passion has not yet faded.

Hong Xia held her cheek and asked casually, "Okay, then do you know how to make gunpowder?"

"I know that." Shizi's answer was beyond Hongxia's expectations.

"The magazine in the CiRCLE lounge has written about the general methods of making several simple gunpowders. I have done experiments and now I can directly produce gunpowder, and the safety can be guaranteed." Shizi opened his hand, and in his hand there was a small paper bag filled with various kinds of gunpowder.

Hongxia recalled that Shizi sometimes messed herself up for no apparent reason and ended up coming to her for treatment. Thinking of this, Hongxia's tone softened. She gradually became serious and discussed various topics such as the structure of the cannon.

Step by step, they made their initial plan.

ps: There will be another update in the evening~

Chapter 13 ... to the diaphragm

Whatever is decided at the meeting will ultimately have to be tested. Fortunately, there is plenty of open space and the ground will heal itself.

"Don't you need to draw a few structural diagrams of the cannon first?" Hong Xia asked.

"It's better to start the experiment directly. Anyway, we don't know much about this aspect, so we might as well find the answer directly from practice." Shizi has already started making plans on the ground.

"But it's better to measure some data first." Kita took out a pair of plain glasses and a white coat from somewhere, and said seriously, "Although there is no ruler, we can estimate the distance from here to the top of the cave using height as the unit. My height is 158cm."

Shizi understood and asked Kita to stand up straight. A stone pillar grew out of thin air from her feet, level with Kita's head, so they had a rough height ruler. While the stone pillar did not disappear, Shizi copied it upwards until the ruler touched the top of the cave.

"The height is..." Shizi watched the stone pillars collapse naturally and estimated in his mind, "About 90 meters."

"Leave the calculations to me!" Kita pushed up his glasses, "Give me some paper!"

"Oh! I'll leave it to you! Dr. Kita!"

Dr. Kita confidently wrote down the height she had just measured on a piece of paper. Then, after hesitating for a while, she looked up and asked, "What formulas are needed?"

"Take off your white coat." Hong Xia complained.

With everyone's joint efforts, the barrel was finally finalized into a rough draft. However, in order to collect data, experiments must be conducted first.

Shizi circled a piece of land out of thin air in the distance, laid the foundation without sparing materials, cast a cannon barrel according to her imagination, and tried to load gunpowder. However, due to her lack of experience, she didn't even have time to load the gunpowder for the first time, and the whole cannon collapsed immediately. Instead, it was Hongxia who comforted her first. After many attempts, Shizi finally mastered the method of making the entire cannon body filled with gunpowder take shape in an instant.

However, this is just the beginning. A cannon made entirely by amateur imagination will definitely not work, so it must be tested with solid shells first.

After a short test, the first test began.

"Be careful!" A wall of sound rose up, offsetting the shock wave. The shell exploded just after it was loaded. Fortunately, Liang was watching over it, otherwise the consequences would be disastrous.

In subsequent tests, everyone stood further away.

Explosion.

Explosion.

Explosion.

……

"Ha..." After the barrel exploded for who knows how many times, Shizi sighed deeply.

Even with Hongxia's help, Shizi began to get tired after countless failures, and her passion also faded.

The draft paper was already filled with countless abandoned plans. A few pieces of paper fell to the ground and were soon stained with black and turned into powder. "(Is it really too naive for an amateur to do this?)" she began to think. Of course, she would not give up because of this failure, not to mention that this was the plan she proposed, and she would never say "no". But Hongxia also saw some haze in Shizi's heart.

"There is no problem with the loading of the shells, but the gun carriage still needs to be reinforced. You see, we can add this structure..." Hongxia knew that empty encouragement would not comfort Shizi. She could only try her best to assist her in the experiment. This is what a partner should do. Kita was responsible for ignition and also gave more suggestions in this regard. With the encouragement of everyone, Shizi gradually regained her courage.

"Well, I think I understand what to do now."

……

Building, igniting, and exploding the barrel, the five of them were almost accustomed to this process.

As time went on, the clothes of the five people gradually became as black as the ground, starting from the soles of their shoes. Now it was just clothes, what would happen if the black spread to their skin? In any case, there was no time to give up and look for other solutions.

"There shouldn't be any problem this time, right?" After changing the design thousands of times, from the length and thickness of the barrel to the type of gunpowder and loading, Shizi felt that there were no loopholes.

"Stand back, we're going to light the fire." This time, Kita felt that she was in better condition than ever before. After countless repetitions, the distribution of gunpowder and the direction of ignition had become muscle memory. For some reason, she just felt -

ignition.

As the cannon's shape shattered, they saw the afterimage of the shell piercing through the void in the thick smoke.

This was the first successful shell.

Even if you are a complete amateur, as long as you work hard, you can successfully build a usable cannon!

Kita threw herself on Shiko excitedly, and Shiko didn't care about being shy. She widened her eyes, waved her hands, and repeated to everyone, "It's done!" "It's done!" Although Ichiri was also very happy, she didn't dare to join the cheering team because she hadn't been of any use. She only dared to stand aside with Liang.

"What's there to be happy about? We still have to redesign the shells, test their safety, and there's still a lot to do." Liang was much calmer than the others.

"Okay, Liang, it's good to be happy for a while!" Hong Xia blocked her mouth with a lollipop.

Taking advantage of the victory, several people began to design the artillery shells.

The shape of the shell is naturally conical, which is non-negotiable. However, the specific size, structure, position of the shells, and safety measures all need to be studied carefully.

The five of them sat down at a round table, which was piled with new sandwiches and tea.

"Can we still find the location of the shell that was fired before?" Hong Xia asked first.

Shizi shook his head: "It shot through the diaphragm and is now stuck there. I can't tell what its specific condition is."

"So here's the problem: If we fire a suitable shell, how do we determine what happens to it after it's fired?"

"I can try this." All eyes were on Liang. She picked up Bess and ejected a small ball made entirely of transformed sound waves. "This ball can be put into a cannonball, record the status of the cannonball, and transmit the information back before the hole made by the cannonball is repaired."

So the problem of observing the test results has been solved, and everyone moved on to the next topic: how to protect the safety of the people inside the shell.

"'From the Earth to the Moon' used water as a buffer device to solve this problem. Although my ability can also play a buffering role, it is difficult to verify this in the experiment." Liang spoke first. Because of her ability, she had the most say in this regard.

"You can put sponges inside the shells." Shizi is also an expert in cushioning in the team. After a success, she has regained her initial passion and is wholeheartedly promoting her ascension.

In this state, everyone finalized the structure of the first version of the shell. Shizi immediately made a sample, and the five people got in. There was no comfort at all, but considering that two people in the team were sensitive to physical contact, the internal space was still enough to avoid crowding. The five people were fixed to the wall with a device similar to a sleeping bag, and Liang was given enough space to use the bass. The wall was padded with sponges, and the bottom had a buffer structure with alternating wooden boards and water that everyone was thinking of using, just waiting for formal testing.

The official test used a dummy made of pork. The first test resulted in a burst of the shell, and because of the change in the shape and mass of the shell, everyone had to try again several times before the shell finally took off.

"The shell exploded completely." This was Liang's report.

Failure again and again.

carry on.

When the trouser legs were stained with black, they tore them off and replaced them with new ones. But this was only a temporary solution. Shizi's head began to feel dizzy from time to time. As the core of the plan, she had to rely on Hongxia to stay awake. Fortunately, before reaching the limit, they barely found a workable plan.

"Hurry! There's no time!" As soon as the loading was completed, several people rushed into the shells in a hurry.

"I didn't expect that we could really leave here in this way." Hong Xia couldn't help but sigh as she stuffed herself into the sleeping bag.

"I said, with two positive corners and three negative corners, nothing is impossible." Shizi was doing the final check.

Liang and Yili are already prepared, and they are responsible for providing the final insurance for the buffer.

"Time is running out." Although he had done the experiment countless times, when this moment really came, Shizi still felt extremely nervous, "Click..."

Under tremendous pressure, it was difficult for her to issue the "ignition" command.

As a fire starter, Kita took the initiative to take over this responsibility: "Get ready, three, two..."