Chapter 39: Snail

Daisy and her companions quickly created a mud field where they tested a river boat and a sled.

They discovered that pulling either vehicle required considerable force when loaded with a significant weight. After trying various sleds, they realized small sleds would sink into the mud, while larger ones became as heavy as the river boat.

"This is hopeless. We need to think of something else," I said, looking at Hans with hope.

"We'll definitely need to use wheels to transport heavy items. Hmm, what could we do?"

"What if we lay down wooden boards and move the wagon over them? We could keep moving the boards from the back to the front of the wagon as it moves," Stein suggested.

I looked at him with newfound respect. "Not a bad idea."

"Good suggestion, but it seems a bit troublesome," Ryu countered.

"But if we don't have any other ideas, we might have to go with this."

Hans listened and thought deeply. "Move the back boards to the front, move the back boards to the front..."

Daisy, who had been listening to our exchange, spoke up. "What if we instead tie the boards together with leather straps, wrapping them around to cover the front and back wheels?"

"What did you just say?" Hans jumped up as if struck by lightning.

"I'm saying we could cover the wheels with boards connected by straps. This way, we wouldn't need to keep moving the boards," Daisy explained.

"Daisy, you're a genius! Let's try that!" Hans exclaimed, jumping with joy.

Hans quickly created a wagon with wheels covered by boards linked with leather straps.

This is essentially a continuous track, isn't it? What an ingenious idea.

"Let's try pulling it," we all said.

"Oh, it moves quite easily!" "This might work!"

However, the boards quickly slipped off the wheels, and the wagon stopped moving.

"The connected boards keep falling off the wheels. This is useless."

"The method itself seems good. We just need to figure out how to keep the boards from falling off," Hans said.

"The day is getting late. Let's call it a day and think about this tomorrow," Ryu suggested.

"Sounds good. We're all hungry anyway," someone responded.

"That was incredibly interesting!" Daisy was the only one still excited.

The next day, Hans looked tired, with dark circles under his eyes. He might not have slept at all. He didn't need to push himself so hard.

"I thought about it all day," Hans said, looking sleepy. "I've developed a three-axle, six-wheel system. I've made the wheels double-layered, so the boards fit between the wheels and can't fall off."

He explained the detailed design: triangular boards underneath the covering boards, creating a T-shape from the front and a triangular shape from the side. These triangular parts would sit between the double wheels, preventing the boards from slipping.

The triangular shape ensures the boards don't overlap when moving around the front and back wheels. He also added metal rings at the triangular board's edges to prevent them from spreading, with straps threaded through to keep everything in place.

"I don't understand a word," someone muttered.

"Look at the actual model," Hans said.

Seeing it made everything clear. The triangular boards beneath were nestled between the double wheels, keeping everything in place.

"Let's try pulling it," they said.

The wagon with the continuous track glided smoothly over the muddy field, the boards staying perfectly in place.

"This is excellent. This is what we'll use. But what shall we call it?"

"I'm thinking of 'Snail'," Hans replied.

"Snail?"

"Have you never seen a snail crawling on a glass surface, Han-sama?"

"I think I have, but what of it?"

"When you look from behind, it seems like waves continuously emerge from the front, moving towards the back. That's how I imagine it moves. This machine reminds me of that movement, so I want to name it 'Snail'."

In my previous life, this would be called a "Caterpillar" track. Well, "Caterpillar" does mean caterpillar, so "Snail" might actually be more appropriate.

"Fine, from now on, this machine is the Snail," I said.