"Seriously? How did you even kill one of those guys?"

I was startled by the shout from Haliton.

For some reason, it didn't even occur to me that my passengers would talk since I was talking to people outside.

Haliton began fiddling and looking around the cabin, even touching some of the controls, which made me feel very uncomfortable.

"Um, can you please don't touch my controls?"

"Oops, my bad." the dwarf put his hands on his lap. "Really though, do you have some hidden weapons or something? Those guys are crazy tough!"

Minnie looked very thoughtful for a moment.

Yeah, I totally had hidden weapons...

I turned my focus back outside, where the dwarves had apparently been trying to negotiate the whole time.

"Fine, we will let you discuss with the queen. Do not waste her time though! I emphasise this, she is a very busy queen and by right, you shouldn't even be worthy of taking up one second of her time! You should be glad she is so benevolent!" the device said. "Do not waste her time and get this over with quickly!"

Wow.

"We're sorry it came to this." the dwarf bowed his head, apologising.

And you're just letting an ant boss you around?! Really?

The ant seemed a lot calmer.

After some discussion, the queen was filled in on the situation.

"I see... so the machine will be sent down to fulfil the rest of its work?"

"Yes, you can think of it as punishment. We would like you to cooperate so it will not be able to get away." the dwarf bowed respectfully again.

...

Well, sorry to dash your hopes, queen. I wasn't made by the ground dwarves either, so they can't force me to work. Hah.

I was sort of tempted to just ask Radio to speak up, but I wasn't sure what would happen if I went through with it. Would the queen would just set the ants on me or the dwarves just punish me for trying to get out of the situation? Both outcomes didn't sound very appealing to me so I decided against it.

"Amusing. Soldiers, let it through."

The ants hissed at me one last time before moving aside.

The dwarf thanked the queen and beckoned for me to follow.

As I drove into the mound, two giant ants followed.

Before long, I was before a huge square hole with rails on both sides that looked bottomless. It was lined with red and yellow stripes.

I realised this was probably the elevator they were talking about.

"Uh... where's the elevator box?" Radio asked nervously.

"They are bringing the box." the device translated for one of the ants.

In the distance, I heard loud metal clanging and crashing sounds. Well, that's reassuring...

Ten giant ants entered the room, struggling with a huge metal box with a huge set of doors on it. I drove aside and let them mount it on the box.

"Wait!" Haliton opened the door and shouted all of a sudden. "Are you sure this thing is safe?"

"Yes, it is safe. Shut up and stay inside." said one of the ants, shoving my door shut, hitting the dwarf's face in the process.

Haliton and Uellor screamed while the ants shoved me into the box and closed the door.

I'm scared too, okay! If you want someone to blame, blame yourself for trying to be cheapskates.

"Calm down! I'm sure it will be fine!" Radio said, but it didn't sound very convinced.

"How do you operate this thing again?" I heard the translator's voice from outside.

"Hmm, I don't know. I've never used it before. Do you think we should be pushing the red or blue button?"

"Hey! Stop it! Get someone who knows how to use this thing!" Uellor yelled.

"I don't think the ants understand you without the translator..."

"Well, they better understand or- AAAHHHHHH!"

The sensation of falling washed over all of us. As I screamed internally, part of me vaguely registered everyone but Minnie and Uellor screaming. The gardening dwarf was hugging a houseplant he bought for safety instead.

"Destination reached! Have a nice trip!" a voice came from the elevator.

Finally...

[5:30 PM]

So it had been 34 mins... Whoever heard of an elevator taking such a long time? It was moving downwards at record speed too...

Everyone except for Minnie looked really battered up. I couldn't blame them either.

At some point, the falling was so fast we practically experienced 0 gravity. Only in the last ten minutes did it slowly halt to an acceptable speed, before reaching normal gravity again.

"Oh... it's over. I feel sick." Haliton mumbled, before dry heaving.

Along the way, Haliton had emptied all the contents in his stomach. Luckily, I was able to get it into my inventory before it could touch anything due to the low gravity.

In my cargo, however... just taking a look made me feel dismayed. Sheepy had apparently launched several crap torpedos which I failed to catch in time. Now the walls were covered in brown spatters. Why...

Radio, please ask someone to clean it up.

"Really? After all that?" it whispered.

The longer we wait, the harder it will be to clean up!

Minnie turned out to be the MVP here. Using the hay I got from the snowy town, much to Sheepy's protest, it wiped those stains clean.

"Thank you so much!"

"Why do you even have a pet sheep?" Minnie grumbled, before getting back into the cabin.

Until now, the doors had not opened, so I slammed against it loudly.

[-1]

It opened a few minutes later, an ant outside hissing on me. It wasn't very threatening though since it was one of the cat-sized ones.

As I got out, a few giant ants removed the giant box.

Holy shit, the outside was so damaged and covered in dents! Poor thing...

Well... that's probably why the cost is so high then. They probably had to replace or repair the elevator with every use.

"Ahh! I have lost! Truly, you are the best, my queen!" an ant said.

Inside a very well furnished room, a huge ant was playing a board game of sorts against a soldier ant. It bobbed its antennae smugly.