It's Over, Ink Marker is More Capable Than Me?!

Shen Le followed suit and smiled. As the smile bloomed, his field of vision brightened, and he was pulled back from the arduous years of the last century to the present. The smile on his lips did not fade.

Watching that couple lean on and support each other, bracing themselves to push through difficult times, truly made one feel pleasant.

When would he be able to meet a girl like that? That would be wonderful...

Unfortunately, he didn't have a girlfriend. Shen Le was a homebody who rarely went out, so naturally, he couldn't meet any girls. The senior and junior sisters he knew from school?

Ever since he gave up on taking the civil service exams and came to squat in this small town, they had essentially been on two different paths.

Speaking of his senior sister, why hadn't the modeling work she promised arrived yet?

Thinking of this, Shen Le went online, sending his senior sister emojis, greetings, and GIFs of himself bowing, rolling on the floor, and kowtowing. After a while, the chat box chimed, and his senior sister sent a reply:

"Done, go ahead and download it!"

"Thank you, Senior Sister!"

Shen Le opened his computer and received a massive CAD file.

How to position it, how large to draw the circles, where to start the cut, how deep to cut, and the length of the blade—the detailed instructions for every operation were clear and vivid.

It could be said that if Shen Le were skilled at operating a CNC machine, he could follow this file with fierce, tiger-like precision and carve out a Devil's Work Ball exactly as intended.

Of course, the spheres inside would only be plain, smooth balls. If he wanted to carve patterns, he would still have to be patient and do it one stroke at a time.

"But I don't have a CNC machine..." After thanking his senior sister, Shen Le sighed.

"Forget it, I'll just do it manually and take it slow..."

He took out the bag of Solid Wooden Balls he had just bought, grabbed one at random, and began drawing positioning lines according to the CAD file. First, he set an arbitrary origin, then... then...

Then he should find the corresponding point on the opposite side, draw the meridians and parallels, and then use those to position and draw each circle?

So, could someone tell him, now that he had found the South Pole, how was he supposed to find the North Pole without a CNC machine, without laser positioning, or even a machine tool?

Shen Le searched for information online, over and over again. Great, he found it! There was something called a Temari Ball; the method was to stick a needle into the South Pole, use a soft measuring tape to measure carefully, find the maximum length of the tape, and draw a line.

Then, change direction, measure carefully with the tape again, and draw another line. The point where the two lines intersected would be the North Pole.

Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed the wooden ball. He looked at it from the left, then the right, and gave a bitter smile.

The wooden ball was made of wood, not cork, and certainly not foam plastic. He couldn't stick a needle into it no matter how hard he tried...

Did he have to use an electric drill to bore a hole in it?

Although this part would be shaved away in the future... still, this work felt far too crude...

He grabbed a piece of soft measuring tape, comparing it back and forth on the wooden ball, sighing repeatedly.

"How on earth do I do this? How do I set the North and South Poles? Is there anyone who can help me..."

"Thump!"

A dull sound echoed. Shen Le leaned back, narrowly dodging the shadow before him, avoiding being hit. He turned his head to see a length of Silk Thread flying out from the Ink Marker, carrying a heavy Lead Weight, swinging past him and landing on the other end of the workbench.

"...Why did you fly out? What, do you think you can do it?!"

The Ink Marker didn't speak—of course, it couldn't speak—but it began to move with a swish-swish sound. The Lead Weight swung up again, the Silk Thread forming an arc as it looped toward the wooden ball in Shen Le's hand.

...What kind of move was this?

Are you a mighty, heroic horse-taming nomad?

Shen Le simply put the wooden ball down to watch its movements. After the Silk Thread dragged the wooden ball over, it pulled taut against the edge of the workbench. The Lead Weight leaped high, performed a 360-degree, then a 720-degree turn in the air, and dove straight down—a perfect splash-less entry!

No, it dove straight down, its hard tip piercing into the wooden ball, then it flipped the ball over and stood it perfectly upright.

Then, the Silk Thread curved over, clinging to the point where the tip of the Lead Weight had pierced the ball, loosely wrapping around it. It made a slight adjustment to the left, then a slight adjustment to the right, shifted back and forth a few times, and then—snap—it tightened and released. It changed direction, shifted, adjusted, and tightened again.

When it finally released, the two lines, from two different angles, had perfectly divided the wooden ball in half. The point where the other end intersected and the point where the Lead Weight had pierced the ball were, by Shen Le's estimation, exactly the North and South Poles of the sphere...

Shen Le stared in dumbfounded amazement. What kind of skill level was this? Why was an Ink Marker better at dividing and positioning a wooden ball than he was?

If it were him, he would have needed ten minutes of slow adjustments, ending up with ink all over his hands just to finish it!

However, after the Ink Marker set the North and South Poles of the sphere, it "thumped" over to the side. The Lead Weight poked the wooden ball, and a coil of Silk Thread lay limp beside it, motionless, playing dead. Shen Le leaned over, poked the Ink Marker, and tugged at the ink line.

"...Hey?"

No response.

Whether it was the Ink Marker, the Lead Weight, or the ink line, they all remained perfectly still, pretending to be inanimate objects.

Shen Le reached out a finger and pushed the Lead Weight, rolling it and the wooden ball half a turn to the side. He stopped, and the Lead Weight swayed from inertia for a moment before settling again.

"Used up all your energy? That can't be right—or, do you not know what to do next? Come, come, look here..."

Shen Le picked up the Lead Weight and brought it close to the computer screen. He thought, what if the Ink Marker saw with the lion's eyes? If he picked up the Lead Weight, it wouldn't be able to see...

So, Shen Le put down the Lead Weight, picked up the Ink Marker, and brought the lion's head toward the screen.

He thought again, and for safety's sake, he picked up the Lead Weight, wrapped it with a length of Silk Thread, and placed it on top of the lion's head.

"Come, look, our next task is this...

Divide the equator into five equal parts, and on each meridian, draw two circles. The positioning point for the center of the circle is... the radius of the circle is..."

Once drawn this way, the resulting Devil's Work Ball would have every circular hole surrounded by five others, no matter which side you looked at...

He pointed at the CAD file on the screen, explaining bit by bit to Ink Marker which points needed to be marked on the wooden sphere and how those points should be positioned.

Ink Marker remained motionless, and it was impossible to tell if he was listening or not. It was a situation even more desperate than a doctor facing an infant patient—

At least an infant patient would cry, blink, grab your fingers, or at the very least, have a body temperature, a heartbeat, and breathing.

Ink Marker just stood there quietly, completely unresponsive.

Shen Le tried his best to circulate his energy, opening his Spirit Eye to look and listen, but he could only see a mass of mist shrouding Ink Marker. There wasn't the slightest ripple, let alone any strange sounds...

"Hey, did you understand?"

No reaction.

The mist remained perfectly still. The ink line on the Lead Weight swayed, however, and Shen Le felt a flicker of hope. He focused his gaze, only to realize it was just his own breath blowing against the line...