Two bugs stray along Wallcrack Street.
Childbug asks: “What if the wall is softer?”
The Expert bug says: “Then we’ve wasted 250 years of studying and explaining everything with wall constants.”
“What happens in a world without the wall?” The childbug continues.
Expert bug smiles. The smile when explaining a naive problem for the 1000th time.
“Then there will be no Wallcrack Street.” Its voice has a steady ripeness. “There is no Wall Hardness constant, meaning the Noise Constant, Slip Constant and Temperature will too break down. Without an appropriate Noise Constant, we can’t build the Bug Machine to support intelligent life forms. Anything else, and we won’t exist.”
Childbug’s face shows no sign of belief.
“Why do we travel by crawling, not anything else?”
“Because any other method can’t take advantage of legs as well as crawling does and result in inefficiency. If there are things that travel faster without legs, why haven’t we seen them yet? A study pushed 10 bugs off a cliff and told them to return by whatever other method. No bugs returned as of today. TL;DR Crawling is superior.”
The Expert bug thinks it has mastered the laws of the universe and leaves to be a hermit. While it’s crossing the vast desert, a huge black object never seen before descends onto it.
Its last words are: “But it’s illogical! It doesn’t use legs!”
Meanwhile, the child bug is watching the bustling Wallcrack Street from a distance. It seems full of idiots who think of survival all day. It squints at the awkward bug chewing mud and bugs ripping each other’s heads out.
A massive shadow looms over the great plains, bringing a mighty wind. It’s getting cold. The bugs buzz like mad and scramble into the depths of Wallcrack Street.
“Ghosts, ghosts!” They scream.
The young bug senses a wave climbing up its body but ignores it. It wants to see this “ghost” with its own eyes.
But this ghost is mind-boggling. It’s floating in the air without feet and exploding bigger and bigger and. . .
There is a loud bang. The owner throws its shoe aside and calls for pest control.
