[Video]

[10billionpercent]

[Senku is the kind of person that people might've seen around, but he's a quiet guy who's often got a lot on his mind, and at the moment the mystery of the train appears to be going nowhere. He can't sit that idly by though, so he sets some of his brain power on a more personal mystery.]

I've scoured the library, such as it is, for a book on advanced or complex mathematics, so I figured I would ask if that's something someone has on hand and I just missed it.

[He doesn't have any points to request books as of yet.]

Specifically, I'm looking to refresh my knowledge of knot theory calculations. If you can help, let me know. I can certainly repay any favours in the future.

Comments

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[nocawsforconcern]

I dunno what a Medusa is! But that sounds weird, and kind of hard to understand, so I'm just not gonna think about it. Caw.

What's the knot thingy you're talking about?

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[10billionpercent]

[ If Medusa is difficult to follow, knot theory will definitely be moreso. He looks like he's thinking a moment, and he is, how to distill this down to an easy answer.]

It's a complex calculation in math to solve a theory that if you make these specific loops with a string and join the ends together, is it actually a knot?

It's, admittedly, pretty hard to understand, even if you have a good foundation in fundamental math. I have a theory I'm testing out, that's all, and I wanted to reference to the calculations.

[nocawsforconcern]

Cawwww...

What does that matter for anything? Caw. Sounds useless. As long as it holds the sails down, it's a knot enough for me.

[10billionpercent]

It's not that kind of knot. I'm not tying any sails. I'm looking into something that has one of these mathematical knot shapes. It's not actually a knot.

[ Some people might get frustrated at this point, but he's not one of them. It's been years since he found explaining things overwhelming. ]

The item in question is a puzzle I'm trying to solve, so to speak.

[nocawsforconcern]

It's not a knot, but it's a knot that's a math knot, but not...

[You can almost see her brain start to overheat.]

Cawwww. What item? Is it something I can see?

[10billionpercent]

Yes, if that helps you.

[ He's taken to wearing the item from home around his neck since it had been attached to a rope and he certainly couldn't afford to lose it.

It's made of a mathematical trefoil knot and he holds it steady on the palm of his hand in front of the camera. ]

If you see what I mean, it's not closed off like a knot would be on a ship.

[nocawsforconcern]

[She stares at it for a minute...]

Caw. That's weird. It's shiny, but I don't want it. That's really weird.

[10billionpercent]

[ He's a bit glad it's a video because if someone did try and take it from him, it would be a pain for so many reasons. He does however believe her that she doesn't want it. ]

Yeah, you don't. [ He agrees with a nod. ] It's a weapon. A dangerous one at that, but fortunately it's out of juice.

[nocawsforconcern]

Caw! I was right!

[She puffs up, proud of herself.]

I thought so. If it's shiny but it's not a treasure, it's always 'cause it's a weapon!

[Her logic is.... odd, but, well. It's there.]

[10billionpercent]

Ten billion points to you, then.

[ It's high praise coming from him and he slips it back around his neck. ]

I am trying to crack the mystery surrounding the weapon. All I know about it is how it operates. Kind of. I know how it gets used and I know the effects and nothing else. It's a very exciting kind of puzzle.

[nocawsforconcern]

How it gets used...

... I mean, it's a flail, isn't it?

[She's just imagining Senku spinning it around really fast and braining someone with the shiny end.]

[10billionpercent]

[ It's awfully small, it would be the worst flail ever and he actually has to bite back a retort that's more suited to someone else. ]

Not at all. A command is given, and then a light gets emitted from the device at the radius given and it turns any human within the light to stone. As I said, it's dangerous.

[ Now, he looks somewhat amused. ]

I'm calling it Medusa. [ The reference ties back to the other one. ]

[nocawsforconcern]

... Sounds like one of Andromeda's powers.... I don't like that at all.

[She folds her arms.]

Should you get rid of it?

[10billionpercent]

That might be where our histories differ, it was the gorgon Medusa who turned people to stone with a glance, in my world at least.

[ It's okay, the reference really is largely for him. ]

I can't do that. [ He shakes his head. ] I need it for a few reasons. The first, I need to petrify someone so I can revive him. A side effect of the petrification is an ability to heal injuries to the body.

The second is that I need to crack it and figure out how to counter it, or all the hard work I'm putting in at reversing it is going to be for naught if the enemy gets the drop on us again.

[nocawsforconcern]

Is that a thing that happens here?

[Enna doesn't necessarily realize it's from his world, and not the train.]

[10billionpercent]

Not that I've seen so far. That's the situation my home finds itself in.

[ He does sigh a little bit. ]

Everyone here is an ordinary person who's alive and well and wandering around.

Just because I'm here doesn't mean I don't have things from my world to think about. It would be much better if I could return having solved the mystery, after all.

[nocawsforconcern]

True... That's lucky. My world's about to end, so being here is pretty scary if I can't go save my home... Being here won't do anything for my home.

[10billionpercent]

[ He smiles. ]

Don't give up. My world's already ended, but if you're tenacious enough, you'll find an answer.

[nocawsforconcern]

Thanks, spiky guy. I do have an answer, though, I just need to be there to make it happen.

You escaped your world, then?

[10billionpercent]

Nothing like that, I intend on restoring it to its glory, and revive every single human.

[ Is he crazy? Everyone usually thinks so. He's definitely ambitious. ]

The weapon I described was used on all of humanity, the entire planet. That's how it ended. Every human, turned into a stone statue. I managed to keep my mind going, generating energy with nowhere for it to go, so when nitric acid came in contact with my statue, it mixed together and cracked, reviving me alone on a now desolate, wild planet some 3700 years later.

I'm not the kind of guy who's satisfied with that. I want the world to evolve back to what it was.

[nocawsforconcern]

3700 years...? Even if you do, there won't be time left. You're going to have to escape soon, right?

[10billionpercent]

What would I be racing against?

[ Now he's a bit confused, because he can't think of any prediction, aside from the usual kind about the end of the world, but honestly that already happened. ]

If you mean the sun's explosion, that's not going to be anytime soon.

[nocawsforconcern]

... I dunno about the sun, but Horologium said planets don't live forever. They only last about 4000 years. They get old, too.

'S'why I have to get everyone in my world to safety.

[10billionpercent]

Ah, in that case, you have nothing to worry about. It's the year 5741 on the planet Earth and it's been around four and a half billion years already. That's why I said we're from different worlds. The age of the solar system and the planets within it are much older than that where I'm from.

[nocawsforconcern]

Caw.

[It's said like an 'oh.']

..... Maybe I should take the Worldship to where you live, then.