Nobita's Time Heist

"Hahaha~~ You're so sweet-talking. Actually, it's not that exaggerated. I just wanted to ask you to help me with a little investigation. Not long ago, we were on that backward planet..."

"A signal from a [civil engineering robot] has been detected."

……

The heart almost stopped beating—if it weren't for the special physiological structure that prevented it from having a heart.

Even back when he was a space pirate, Mütton had heard this endless joke about civil engineering robots told by the Meccan Tobijas.

This is a joke that the locals particularly like. The so-called "civil engineering robot" doesn't refer to a real construction robot, but rather to a "large-scale weapon of mass destruction." In a remote desert of civilization, on a planet with a rather primitive social structure and technological level, the signal of a weapon of mass destruction was actually discovered... No wonder she was so secretive about it and even secretly called me over.

If we take this too seriously, isn't this a classic case of arms theft? And what's more, the stolen weapons belong to an ancient civilization. If this were investigated, that remote planet would instantly become the center of attention and public discussion. At that point, it would be difficult to predict what might happen next.

"Are you sure?" After a moment's hesitation, Muton asked, puzzled. "Given the level of Earthlings, I don't think they could..."

“I know.” Lilulu interrupted him, chuckling softly, “You’re not the only one who’s been there, Lieutenant General Muton. When I was a scout, I also briefly set foot on that planet and saw its technology and ecology.”

“I see.” Muton breathed a sigh of relief and quickly added, “Then you should know that with their technological capabilities, replicating a combat armor like this is simply a pipe dream. Could it be that during some interstellar battle, a combat armor that went missing happened to crash on that planet by chance and was picked up by the local native creatures…”

"If that's the case, why would it start?"

A single question interrupted the explanation that Multon had painstakingly come up with.

"laugh--"

With a soft click, Lilulu opened the external armor on her chest.

Only at times like these would Muton clearly realize that the girl before him was not the "human" he had imagined.

The chest cavity opens like a car hood, and within the internal recesses, three stars are prominently displayed in a triangular shape.

"You should know this, right? This is the core of our Meccan Tobian logic, encompassing a three-fold understanding of 'self' similar to that of living beings."

"The id, ego, superego... No matter what unexpected situation arises, these three logical cores will operate in sequence to vote on the next action. The whole process takes very little time. We must wait for the three logical cores to finish their calculations before sending the results and conclusions to the positron brain for a series of tests related to universal social morality before they can be truly implemented. In terms of results, this should be the most scientific method."

Mütton had heard of the Meccatobians' three-core structure, but he never expected Lilulu to reveal her logical core to him.

Does this represent absolute trust?

Or is this... yet another test?

"All the weapons we produce here require the detection of a special wavelength from the logic core before they can be activated. This way, even if our weapons are lost in war and picked up by other civilizations, it won't cause any major disaster."

After demonstrating it briefly, Lilulu's chest closed again. She tossed her long pink hair and repeated meaningfully, "That armor has been activated. As far as I can think of, there are only two possibilities."

"First, on that remote planet, for some reason, there are our compatriots from Meccatobia. For some reason, his core logic led him to make a decision that violated the 'Three Types of Civilization Atmosphere Security Agreement Law,' forcibly activating his combat armor."

"Second, the technological level of that planet is an illusion. They deciphered many of the limiting technologies of the combat armor and successfully activated it. Perhaps, they can even learn about our technology through reverse engineering."

"Some things are fine as long as they're not brought to the forefront for discussion. But once they are, things become much more complicated."

"I think you, Lieutenant General, understand this principle, right?"

Chapter 337: Witnessing Once Again the True Value of a Props Genius

Inside the command center, everyone stared at the black ballpoint pen lying quietly on the table, lost in thought.

"No matter what, Nobita went to so much trouble to leave this to us, there must be a reason... This must be one of Doraemon's gadgets, right?" Shizuka looked troubled, her tone becoming somewhat uncertain. Doraemon has so many gadgets that even if you only play with one a day, it's enough to come up with something new for three to five years without repeating the same thing. Eventually, the whole town got used to it; whenever a strange phenomenon appeared that science couldn't explain, it was most likely Nobita and Doraemon playing tricks.

Almost ten years have passed since he left, and in those ten years, Nobita has hardly used any of his gadgets. It wasn't until that time-traveling heist affected everyone that he was forced to use the gadgets again, embarking on a journey to save the world.

In other words, those props that only made a brief appearance in her childhood daily life hadn't been seen in front of everyone for nearly ten years. Even with Shizuka's excellent memory, it was impossible for her to remember what this ordinary black ballpoint pen was for. She could only try to use it as it should, writing down quite a few things, but none of them came to fruition.

"It still didn't work..." Her tone betrayed her disappointment as she sighed, "Do you guys remember this prop?"

The "you guys" she referred to were naturally Gian and Suneo. Every time Nobita pulled out a new gadget from Doraemon, the two brothers were usually the second victims (the first victim was often their mother). As the saying goes, experience makes perfect; after seeing so many, they gradually figured out some tricks to deal with Doraemon's gadgets. To the point that later on, they could basically maintain a "win-win" situation, with neither feeling too much of a loser—after all, Nobita would eventually get his revenge with a gadget, so they shouldn't hold back when it was time to mess with him. At least for a long time, Gian genuinely thought so.

However, neither of them had any recollection of this ballpoint pen.

"I don't know." Fat Tiger shook his head. "Speaking of which, he doesn't bring both of us with every prop, does he? This kind of thing that looks like stationery probably has nothing to do with us."

"Not entirely." Suneo's attitude became more serious. "Has anyone ever counted how many gadgets Doraemon has in his pocket? There must be at least a thousand. Of all those gadgets, how many can we name right now?"

"You mean..."

"It's very likely that we've come into contact with it, or at least witnessed its effects, but have long forgotten about it. Otherwise, why would Nobita deliberately leave behind something that none of us would use?"

……

The problem went around in circles without being solved; instead, it seemed to have returned to square one.

"I've got it!!" Suneo rarely raised his voice, slamming his hand on the table with great excitement. "Deduction! Sherlock Holmes! Elementary deduction!"

"Does Honekawa mean we should let Sherlock Holmes deduce Nobi's thoughts?" Dekisugi was both amused and exasperated by his idea. "Isn't that a bit...?"

“It’s not that exaggerated, Xiaoshan.” He took a magnifying glass out of his pocket, smoothed his hair, and smiled confidently, “From now on, I am Sherlock Holmes.”

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

[The Clue Association Magnifier: A magnifying glass specifically designed for solving clues. It allows you to connect different things to the clues, ultimately leading to the solution. The process may seem magical, but the final conclusion is always correct, somewhat similar to a "completely wrong process, completely right result" solution.]

Suneo has loved reading Sherlock Holmes stories since he was a child, especially "Elementary Deduction," which he sees as magical. At his most obsessed, he even opened a "Honekawa Agency" in his house, using deduction to help people solve problems, and surprisingly, he actually succeeded quite a bit. Then, unsurprisingly, he started showing off in front of Nobita, reigniting their gadget competition—and that time, Doraemon pulled this very gadget out of his pocket.

"Association...deduction?" Dekisugi pondered the name of the prop, completely baffled. "Deduction should require clues and evidence, right?"

"That's the kind of unreasonable person I'm talking about." Suneo confidently pointed the magnifying glass at the ballpoint pen on the table. "Just watch!"

……

"drop!"

A soft sound came from the magnifying glass; the device had been activated.

"The ballpoint pen is Doraemon's secret gadget..."

"Everyone knows that," Fat Tiger couldn't help but mutter.

"Shh!!!" Shizuka couldn't help but make a shushing gesture, staring intently at the magnifying glass, hoping it would utter the next word.

"Doraemon's face is round."

"The other round thing is Nobita's glasses."

"Nobita, who wears glasses, uses a ballpoint pen to get another round thing."

"Zero points!"

……

……

……

After the deduction was completed, everyone looked at the zero score displayed in the magnifying glass and fell into deep thought once again.

"Suneo, are you kidding me?!" Gian stared in disbelief. "I thought it had some kind of special skill! If this thing has even the slightest connection to deduction, I'll eat it alive!"

"Strange, this shouldn't be the case..." Suneo himself started to back down, "The conclusion we've drawn is too outrageous."

"Speaking of zero points, Nobita-kun getting zero points is really commonplace."

In this respect, Dekisugi and Nobita are like two sides of the same coin. This genius boy, who gets perfect scores every time, just can't understand it. Even if he really didn't master a single knowledge point and was just guessing based on intuition, he shouldn't have so many zeros. "Nobita-kun is really an incredible person"—he really thought so.

"Zero...zero...Speaking of which, back in our adventure 6 years ago, Nobita got separated from us in the snowy mountains, and he ultimately turned the tables with a zero on his test." Shizuka held her pen and casually drew a zero on the table. "Could it be the same this time..."

“Whoosh——!!”

Before the words were even finished, a powerful suction force emanated from this "0," instantly snatching the magnifying glass from Xiaofu's hand. The actual object simply fell into the space of "0" and vanished without a trace. And looking at the thickness of the table, it was still exactly the same as before, not a single centimeter thicker or thinner!

"I see... I get it now!" Dekisugi had the fewest tools, but he was the first to understand Nobita's meaning. "As long as we draw a circle, we can transport the supplies to Nobita's place!"

"Huh?" Fat Tiger placed his palm on the 0 and instantly felt a powerful suction force. He quickly moved it away. "Are you sure? It looks like it ate me."

"Don't you think this is similar to a black hole? It endlessly sucks in matter... Nobita wouldn't leave behind a useless item for no reason. He must have a way to retrieve it... Yes, there must be a white ballpoint pen! In contrast to a black hole that constantly absorbs mass, there exists a celestial body in the universe that constantly spews out matter—that's a white hole. This method of matter transfer is still feasible even across the universe!"

"To think they could figure out a practical method for inter-universe communication in such a short time..."

"Nobi-kun, you're definitely not an ordinary person."

World Gospel

Chapter 337: Shizuka's Letter

"..."

The sound of water?

Sometimes near, sometimes far, it swirled around my ears. There was clearly the sound of water, but the surroundings didn't feel strangely damp; rather, they felt very comfortable.

This feeling made him dream of a long, long time ago, one afternoon, when he was dozing on a concrete pipe in an open space. The sunlight was just right, not too bright, and the shade of the trees rustled softly on his head, echoing the gentle breeze. Occasionally, he could hear the crisp ringing of bicycle bells as they passed by, and the sounds of children playing and laughing in the distance... Back then, although his grades were always bad, his sports were always terrible, and being late or dozing off in class was almost commonplace, he had Doraemon with him.

With him around, it seems that one can continue to be lazy without fear, doing nothing and freely squandering his only wealth—time.

"..."

"Ok?"

Somewhat wearily, Nobita opened his eyes and looked around before realizing he was in a closed room. The familiar joystick, virtual interface, and one-way transparent special armor quickly made him realize that he was in the cockpit of the Alexander Cross machine.

"I shouldn't have taken you out, should I?" After a moment of doubt, Da Xiong seemed to realize something and took out the [Brainwave Detector], which was about the same size as the component, from his pocket. At this moment, the thing was flashing. "Could it be that the instinct to call for help triggered the action on its own...?"

"Oh right, Shizuka!"

After confirming that his surroundings were generally safe, Nobita's first thought was about Shizuka's safety.

His concerns were not unfounded. Before being sucked into another dimension, he witnessed the collapse of the earth, the geological structure being hollowed out like a cheesecake, filling the enormous void in an instant. In a disaster of this magnitude, even he couldn't protect himself; it was hard to say whether Shizuka and the others would be affected.

In the final moments, his brain raced, and he used three secret tools simultaneously to barely manage to leave the [Black Hole Ballpoint Pen] in that world.

Even so, whether the partners will be able to discover it, and even if they do, whether they will be able to master its usage... these are all unknowns.

"No problem! Definitely... probably... maybe... I used this tool to give Shizuka a violin before, and I almost lost it. Just for that, she should still remember it, right?"

Unfortunately, the process was completely wrong, but the answer was completely right.

Nobita ultimately chose to trust his friends' understanding and the tacit understanding he had built with them. He took out the [White Hole Ballpoint Pen] and carefully drew a circle on the paper.

……

"Snapped!"

The first thing to fly out was Suneo's magnifying glass, which hit Nobita directly on the bridge of his nose. Nobita winced in pain and quickly pulled his head back, luckily dodging the next few shots.

"Wow, I knew my expectations were right! Everyone... really thinks the same way I do!"

Rubbing his sore nose, Nobita began to check the supplies sent from the other end—a replica of a [Black Hole Ballpoint Pen], several boxes of [Compressed Energy Drinks] he had previously given to Xiaoshan, and a [Clam Shell]. Opening the small shell revealed a letter inside, showing that his companions had taken into account his possible harsh environment and made thorough preparations.

"call……"

For some reason, even before opening the envelope, Nobita had a vague feeling that something was wrong. The ordinary white envelope seemed to exude an inexplicably powerful aura, making him feel as if he were facing a scolding from both his teacher and mother at the same time, naturally diminishing his confidence. After hesitating for a long time, and thinking that he was doomed whether he read it sooner or later, he still opened the envelope, flattened the letter, and began to read.

The neat and elegant handwriting made him quickly recognize that the letter was written by Shizuka, and the invisible pressure on him increased even more.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Nobita.

I hope you are doing well when you read this letter.

There's no need to worry about the demon realm. After killing King Hyakume, the remaining forces quickly dispersed. Shuten-dōji has reclaimed her position as Demon King. She promised us that from now on, the boundary between the demon realm and the human world will never be broken again, and the plan for the Night Parade of One Hundred Demons will be abandoned. Many damaged areas need to be rebuilt, and Suneo left behind some self-construction robots that will help them.

At Xiaoshan's suggestion, we decided to try and move the fortress Xiaofu built, just as a precaution. After all, this place is different from the Golden Land; it's a tribe entirely composed of other races, and it's hard to say what might happen in the future. If you were here, would you support this decision?

The code you left has been deciphered by Suneo and Kosuke. We've copied a black ballpoint pen. If it's the "entrance," it means you also have an "exit" item, right? Please copy it and mail it along with the pen. With these two pens, we should be able to have an initial conversation through letters.

To be honest, what you did to us at the end left me puzzled, but... I know now is not the time to talk about that. We don't know where you went, what you went through, or how you'll get back. But we hope you know that Tsukimidai town, and we, will always be there for you.

Although I really want you to stay away from danger and come back soon, given your personality... I doubt you'll actually be able to do it.

So all I can say is, I hope you take good care of yourself, survive, and come back to see me.

I have something to tell you.

Shizuka Minamoto.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Shizuka Minamoto.

The emotionless signature alone made Nobita feel uneasy, as if he had been immersed in icy water, and he felt terrible.

In his memory, Shizuka had previously expressed anger towards him. He didn't know what had gotten into him; after being scolded by his teacher, he felt hopeless about the future and worried that Shizuka would suffer if she stayed with him. It just so happened that he was going through a period of bad luck, with everything going wrong—even worse than usual. Under these multiple blows, Nobita lost all hope and became incredibly depressed. He even asked Doraemon for the "disgusting pills," but swallowed too many and choked on them, nearly dying.

Shizuka, enduring the disgusting effects of the props, slowly approached him, helped him to the toilet, and forced him to vomit by pressing his index finger against his throat, expelling all the pills. Shizuka initially thought he was contemplating suicide, but upon learning the truth, she first breathed a sigh of relief, then tears streamed down her face as she unleashed a torrent of abuse on Nobita.