Chapter 18: Worldview and Methodology
"What are you doing?" C.C.'s voice rang in his ear. Her hair fell on his neck, making him a little itchy. "If you're free, go with me today to buy a pillow. The previous one blew up."
"I'm writing a review." Ade concentrated on typing, "Amuro will come tomorrow, and I will be very busy after that. I want to write the review today. You're the one who insisted to bring the pillow on board."
"What mistake did you make? To whom?"
"Arrogance and gullibility. To myself." He turned away from the keyboard, "I want to discuss it with you, and it helps me to organize my own thoughts."
"Good." C.C. sat on the bed, casually pulling Ade's pillow over and hugging it in her arms.
"There are a lot of problems in yesterday's rescue operation. It has been proven that staying in the lab all the time will make people's vision narrow, and it is only in practice that true knowledge can come out." Ade picked up the tablet and tapped on it with the tip of his electronic pen, "The most serious one, I had an almost superstitious trust in Moonlight Butterfly out of some preconceived notion. Moonlight Butterfly is awesome, but that doesn't mean I'm awesome. The moon is indeed safe, but that doesn't mean I'm safe, or that I can't stay home on the moon forever as long as I continue to have interactions with you."
"So what? Decided to cut ties with me?"
"So I'm going to become awesome and find a way to stay safe. Besides, Moonlight Butterfly is not invincible. If someone gets an orbital cannon, Loran is not always in time to protect the moon." C.C.'s corners curled up in a subtle curve, "What are you laughing at?"
"No laughing, just thought it was valuable to get blown up that time yesterday."
"That's why nothing is absolutely independent, not the moon, and not me. Contradiction is the universal connection between things and the inherent basis for their development. The conflicting sides are both opposed and united. It's the source of driving things." Ade was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he talked to himself and did not see the surprised expression on C.C.'s face.
"For example, your capture by this prince this time was accidental, but the conflict that exists between you and Britannia is inevitable. Inevitability determines the basic direction of things and manifests itself by some kind of chance, and these two are equally opposed and united."
"Is this … where you learned all this?" C.C. looked at him with a strange look.
"I did listen well in the politics class. Is this not taught anymore?" Ade showed a wistful smile, "This is the first and only methodology I subconsciously came up with when I was fully exercising my most basic right as a human being - to know the world - and it turned out to be unexpectedly good. It seems I'm not really qualified to teach Shinn a lesson. Is it possible to start a study group with him or something?"
"Is this the real you?" C.C.'s voice was soft.
"I don't know, ah, but at least it's a part of me, a very important part. Something like self-awareness … just because you know something doesn't mean you can understand it." He tried hard to find a different word to describe himself, yet shamefully failed, "Probably I'm still a paramecium, a paramecium with a little self-awareness."
"I don't understand." C.C. let go of the pillow that was held so tightly that it was slightly deformed, "So, after all that talk, what are you going to do?"
"First of all, we need to identify the main and secondary contradictions of things. In my perspective, the primary conflict is between my weak self-defense ability and the increasingly complex social relations, while the conflict between us and Britannia - Kururugi isn't dead, so this will be exposed sooner or later - the conflict between us and Britannia is a secondary contradiction." Ade said as he took notes on his tablet, "The two are interconnected. They affect each other and they are opposites."
"There you go again."
"Ah, sorry. It just never occurred to me that knowledge like this could suddenly be applied. It makes me a little excited. Should I go to calculate a couple of Mathematical Olympiad problems to calm down?"
C.C. unexpectedly understood what Mathematical Olympiad problems are, but Mathematical Olympiad problems… aren't they just popular before the universe century? Wait, isn't that what he just talked about …?
"The danger for us is that I'm unable to predict what will happen, and we are retaliated against Britannia. Our needs are to build some self-defense capability and to have some crisis management capability. Our resources are advanced science and technology and a certain amount of money."
"So?"
"So we don't have to feel our way across the river, we can learn from the advanced experience of others. Don't you think there is someone who is in a similar situation to us?" Ade didn't keep her guessing, "Siegel Clyne."
As an Anaheim shareholder, Siegel Clyne has a lot of money and a lot of personal enemies. His daughter, on the one hand, can bring him a lot of convenience, but on the other hand, is a weakness to hold him back. Think about the political heritage Lacus has after her father died in the anime - battleships and high-tech MS - aren't they the result of her father's efforts? I don't need to start a war on both sides like her, but just to learn her father's thinking is enough.
"Don't think about it. You can't afford to feed a fleet with that little money." C.C. seems to be tired of sitting and lying down on his side, "It's hard enough to maintain a warship, not to mention that you are still pouring money into your scientific research. Or do you have some kind of private money that even I don't know about?"
"There's no need to maintain a fleet, nor is there any use for it at all." Of course, he has private money, but there is no need to discuss it now, "In the Orb Union Defense War during the One Year War, Amuro and Kira blew up a fleet. During the Stardust Incident last year, Dendrobium(RX-78 GP03D) and Physalis(RX-78 GP02A) slaughtered a million armies. I could have achieved a similar effect with Inle if there was no out-of-spec interference. Why should I feed a fleet in this bullshit worldview?"
"In this bullshit worldview …" Now that he's not even bothering to pretend, C.C. is getting used to it.
"I'm not going to say it's unscientific or anything, I have been used to it." Ade subconsciously stood up and paced, "Since this fact exists, there must be an objective law to achieve it in. All I have to do is to find this law and use it."
"The father of Gundam said Gundam is not scientific …" C.C. laughed out lightly, "Have you found it?"
"When I designed the RX-78-2, the Federation's claim was that ordinary MS was too undistinguished, so I designed the parameters according to my own physical abilities. Gundam is powerful, but if it's an ordinary soldier who drives it, it will not be better than driving a Zaku." He paced around the bedroom in circles, making C.C. feel a bit dizzy, "Only Amuro can handle the White Demon(RX-78-2), and Amuro becoming its pilot is both accidental and inevitable, it's the unity of opposites-"
"--stop, you're starting this again."
"I was still a little confused, but I figured it out yesterday when I met Kururugi." He held up the electronic pen looking up and down, not minding C.C.'s interruption, "What do you think Kururugi can do with that kind of non-human physical quality and reaction ability? In the cold weapon era, he may be able to kill a hundred people. But in this era, by driving Lancelot, even if he can't blow up an entire fleet, at least no one can stop him from coming and leaving."
"Elitism?"
"Elitism is the conclusion, not the cause. The key is what leads to elitism. Why various forces have spared no effort to develop these high-performance weapons that only a very few people can use? What makes these people with these weapons can play such considerable battle results? I don't know what others think, but we have to look through the phenomenon to the essence, or rather, force a reason that makes sense for the way of constituting the world."
"This way of constituting the world …"
"For example, if Tom and Jack take an exam, and everyone makes zero mistakes. Tom gets a hundred points and Jack gets ninety-five, it looks like their scores are close." Ade tried to give a superficial example, "But what if the paper had 10,000 points? Jack can still only get ninety-five points, but Tom may get two hundred points, or he may get nine thousand points."
"Let me put the strange names like Tom and Jack aside." C.C. thought about it for a while, "So, Zaku and RGM-79GM is paper of one hundred points, and your Inle or Lancelot is a paper of ten thousand points?"
"That's right. Gundam, or anything like it, is like an amplifier that reflects the real gap between people. And the problem is that in this world, the gap between people is surprisingly large to such an extent that one person can dominate a battle. In other words, it is a qualitative change that causes a quantitative change. Of course, an individual high-end battle power can only determine the victory or defeat of local battles. The Federation can still rely on endless resources to defeat Coordinators. This is the quantitative change caused by qualitative change, the two are still the unity of opposites. -- you see, I made an explanation."
"…"
"That's the most plausible explanation I can find for the world. Packaged in the words you're more used to, Gundam unlocks human possibilities."
"… I never thought about that, it's something that everyone and I take for granted. What a wonderful experience …" C.C. looked at the ceiling for a moment in silence, then sat up, "We do not have the ability, nor do we need the quantity. So the conclusion is that you have to build Gundam, then abduct a few ACEs, and latch onto the moon government?"
"It doesn't matter that the conclusion is simple, what matters is whether I get it in the right way."
"It's cheesy to just look at the conclusion, but the argumentative process …"
"If I were a time traveler… cough, cough, if I were a general or councilor's son, there is certainly not so troublesome. But we now can only do this to make us safe." Ade was finally tired, sitting back on the seat, "You just said we have enough money to maintain a battleship? That's just right, we buy a battleship, dismantle conspicuous guns, change the power and the armor, and then spend some money to register as a cargo ship. It's convenient to run away with it and carry Inle around."
"Registered as a cargo ship … why are you so skilled? Besides, do you have that much time? Amuro Ray is coming tomorrow."
"I don't have time, but… don't you have time?"
There was an embarrassing silence, had he made a fool of himself?
"Well, I have, and it hasn't been peaceful on Earth." C.C. sighed, "I can be your new toy's overseer, and we can recruit people with the excuse of recruiting bodyguards. Do you have any candidates?"
"I have thought about it. It is best to be a person with a military background, extraordinary physique, ACE-level MS driving skills, not recruited by any other forces, depressed, simple-minded, and loyal to me."
"… you're dreaming." C.C. paused, "Well, Shinn Asuka should count as one. I now understand why you are so enthusiastic about him. Are there any more?"
"There must be." Ade carefully recalled all the people he knew and "knew", "I remember that the 'Phantom Ace' is about to be released from his one year of hard labor?"
