Chapter 41: A Shattered Image

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: A Shattered Image

Unable to work it out, Liam shook his head:

"Never mind, you could explain all this and I still wouldn’t understand it. As for where this world came from, I’ve even less need to know. Right now saving one planet is already a struggle, where would I find the strength to save a world."

He went over to the two remaining boxes, opening them both in turn.

The fourteenth box held a stone like an egg with a gaudy pattern, no telling what creature’s egg it was. Beside the egg were two rusted metal bars along with two blackened fruits of some kind. The other held a heap of round purple seeds, their surfaces smooth as pebbles yet veined with purple that spread like a galaxy.

The blue cat ran a scan over them, then let out a sigh full of regret: "What a shame, rubbish again. I thought there’d be a few more useful things."

Liam rolled his eyes: "Digging a 5S-grade ore out of a pile of rubbish isn’t enough for you, your lordship? Do you think you’re a koi?"

The blue cat hissed, paying its host no further attention. It ran over to the two robots to carry on installing the programming. Liam opened his smart watch, hesitating for a long while. Should he tell Daniel the truth? After all it was his property...

No! The thing was good, certainly, but it was also this dangerous, so for a Mason family already caught up in the former Crown Prince’s scandal, it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing. Best to keep it quiet, then later once he’d traded it for something good he could give that to Daniel instead.

Thinking so, Liam messaged Daniel: "Daniel, none of the things you sent me are any use. There was one item in the thirteenth box I accidentally broke, I’m truly sorry."

Daniel called straight over. Once Liam had answered, Daniel’s delighted voice came through:

"I don’t like that stuff anyway, if it’s broken it’s broken, don’t feel bad about it. If none of it’s usable then destroy the lot for me, would you."

Liam let out a breath of relief, smiling: "Then that’s lucky, I was worried sick. Oh, were you able to eat today’s dessert?"

"I could, I could! Liam, that thing was unbelievably good. What’s it made from?"

"A fruit called mango. The other ingredients are milk and gelatin. Oh, I’ve put together a set of everyday cooking recipes and everyday desserts, I’ll send them to you now."

"Really? That’s wonderful! Let me transfer you the money for the recipes."

"No money needed." Liam said with a laugh: "You’re my friend, helping a friend is only natural, how could I take money for it. If you want to do something, get me a VIP card so I can bring my brother and sister along for a free meal now and then."

Daniel’s ringing laugh came down the line: "Is that all, just a VIP card. I’ll make you three of them, one each for all three of you!"

Naturally Liam didn’t refuse. The two of them talked a little longer, until somebody on the other side called Daniel about something, so he said regretfully: "I have to go and deal with something, we’ll talk another time."

"Mm, goodbye." That said, Liam hung up, then sent Daniel the file he had compiled. Inside, besides the recipes for the dishes and the desserts, he had also drawn up a detailed business plan for Daniel.

If Daniel followed this plan and added a loud advertising push, Liam believed it wouldn’t be long before his restaurant became the number one restaurant in the galaxy, just as he was always boasting.

That done, Liam gathered all that rubbish into a crate, meaning to ask Benjamin to take it away for disposal later. Then he opened up everything he had put in himself, having Sunflower scan the lot before adding a detailed description for each kind.

He had only just finished when Benjamin came over:

"Liam, have you finished?"

Liam turned and smiled at his brother, beginning his performance: "The programming is installed, it’s just waiting for the code to run. Everything Daniel sent is junk, as for the things I bought, about half are usable."

Benjamin couldn’t see the blue cat, only the installation screen through its body, a stream of code running. He understood none of this, so he noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

After a glance at the two robots, he went straight over to where Liam was sitting.

Liam waited for Benjamin to come and sit down beside him, then touched his smart watch against his brother’s, sending over the information on the seed varieties. He also carried out a melon with its vine still attached, thumping the side of it:

"Brother, this is called a watermelon, sweet and cooling to eat. And this variety suits a tropical climate like our planet’s. We soak the seeds in restoration fluid then plant the whole western stretch with them, three months or so and there’ll be fruit to eat."

That said, Liam made a fist, punching hard at the same point in the middle of the melon. The melon was fully ripe, its rind very thin and brittle. Two punches from Liam were enough for a crack to open of its own accord. All he had to do was take hold of both edges to break it in half.

Then he took half of it and knocked it against the ground twice, breaking it into several more pieces.

In his previous life back on Earth, Uncle Lucas had grown a few plots of watermelon. Every time the whole family went out to the field to pick melons, this was how they ate them. No knife needed, just pick a fully ripe one and punch it, then knock it. According to Uncle Lucas, melon eaten that way was the best there was. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Benjamin’s mouth fell open at this whole sequence from his younger brother. The image of a gentle, obedient Omega brother dissolved in an instant. He stammered, pointing at the melon smashed wide open to show its deep red, juice-heavy flesh, then looking down at his brother’s small fist:

"Liam... did you... did you just punch that open? Since when is a grade-E Omega that strong?"

Liam’s conscience pricked, so he hurriedly pulled his hand back to hide it behind him. A male Omega was still a man, so weak as his strength might be he could still split a melon without a knife like anyone else. He had forgotten again that in this world, Omegas were classed as frail and delicate, their limbs always too feeble to exert any force. A male Omega even slightly robust was already considered ugly and coarse. So even those male Omegas who were in good health usually acted weak to avoid standing out.

He coughed lightly, smiling in embarrassment:

"Ah... it’s because this melon is overripe, a light flick would break it, it isn’t that I’m strong. Brother, look, isn’t the flesh a beautiful red! These black specks are its seeds, they can be eaten. But I think we’d better spit them out to use as stock."

Just then, Isabella came in from outside, wiping away sweat as she asked curiously: "What are you two doing? Why does our eldest brother look constipated?"

Liam seized on her like a lifebuoy, waving his sister over at once: "Sister, come here quickly. I’ve just opened a watermelon, there’s nothing better than this fruit for quenching summer thirst."

He quickly handed a slice of watermelon to his brother, taking another for his sister. He took a slice himself, lifting it to his mouth to bite. Juice seeped out of the melon to gather on his lips, the sweet fragrance spreading through the room at once. Liam couldn’t stop a small, satisfied hum escaping.

As he ate, he didn’t forget to spit out the black seeds, then urged his brother and sister with his eyes to hurry up and eat.

Isabella and Benjamin swallowed audibly. Under Liam’s urging, each of them carefully raised their slice to bite.

One second later, both Martinez siblings’ eyes flew wide at once. The crisp rustle of the flesh being chewed sounded out, followed by a flood of honey-sweet, ice-cool watermelon juice filling their mouths, driving away every trace of the heat of the day.

"Oh my... it’s wonderful!" Isabella exclaimed, her hand already reaching for a second slice: "It’s sweet, and full of water too, eating it feels like the whole body coming back to life. Liam, is this fruit something you just bought or something the Mason family’s third son sent?"

Liam said between crunching bites: "It was in the batch my friend bought for me. There’s plenty more, this watermelon is only one of them."

Benjamin carefully spat each glossy black seed into a small bowl, cradling them as though they were precious star crystals. He said excitedly:

"If we can breed this melon successfully on a large scale, then lifting planet Cygnus from low grade to high grade is entirely possible!"

In the middle of this eager talk, a "beep beep" sounded from the corner of the room along with a dry mechanical voice: *[Installation complete. Program starting... Start successful! Thank you for using our service.]*

The blue cat sprang onto Liam’s shoulder, yawning hugely:

*[Meow! Host, I’ve finished installing the upgrade programming for these two ordinary farming robots. They’re now high-grade specialist farming robots, four times the working output of a normal one, and they come with the Trading Hall’s planting data for ancient seed varieties built in.]*

That said, it tossed the user manual into Sunflower’s smart unit for Liam, then crawled back into the soul space to sleep.

Liam turned to his brother and sister, pointing excitedly at the two enormous machines that had just restarted, lights blinking at their lenses:

"Brother, sister! I’ve finished optimizing the control system. From tomorrow, we won’t have to harvest the thorny weeds ourselves. These two robots will take on clearing the eastern district, pulling the weeds automatically, peeling out the Grass Worms. The preparation of the Grass Worms is in the program too. In short, with them our field work will be cut in half. In your free time the two of you can concentrate on developing your vlog channels."

He said brightly: "I plan to gather two weeks’ worth of worms then deliver them all to the Masons in one go, with the spare time going on having them work the soil for us. I plan to have at least half the land on this planet restored within a year!"

Benjamin wrinkled his nose: "Little brother, even with high-grade farming robots helping, restoring half the land on a planet is nothing light. You’re pregnant! Let’s finish the fifteen hundred hectares the government set as the target first."

Liam laughed: "I’ve said it many times, I’m entirely capable of doing what I say. What’s more I want to raise our family’s standard of living, so the baby is born in the best conditions possible."

Benjamin and Isabella looked at each other, each reading the thought in the other’s eyes.

With their brother saying that, the two of them, the baby’s future uncle and aunt, couldn’t be too useless either.

A fire of enthusiasm rose in both their eyes, swearing that before the baby was born, they would lift their family’s planet into a high-grade planet known to everyone!