Sera had held on as long as she could on the shitty intergalactic rations, which tasted like cardboard dipped in lukewarm water.
She wanted fresh food, right now ! Even if it's only something as simple as a buttered toast. She could only remember the days that she felt sorry for herself as she ate the buttered toast… but look at this now ! Her bank balance could rival Bill Gates, yet, here she is … unable to eat even the simplest toast with butter.
That smell of just toasted bread, and the butter as it melted slightly on the warm toast, with slightest sprinkling of salt, and jam on only a quarter of it, and condensed milk on the other side ! Why in the world did she feel sorry for herself when she was eating the greatest delicacy ?
Just as she swallowed her saliva, reality kicked in - she has no way to produce butter.
' To think I am as rich as Bill Gates, and can't even eat toast ' she thought depressedly, as she observed the scenery in the sky.
The sky is black as ink, with the ring of luminescence. This light is more like aurora than sunlight. It's by no means enough to grow plants.
These days, Sera is immersed in reading manuals of her mecha. It is only on the final page she realized the genius of the mad scientist.
This mecha, despite being versatile, can't overcome a single limitation. It can not gather energy needed for tier change by itself. It can not grow a brain by itself. It can not grow animal flesh by itself. The mecha could grow to be as big as a planet, but unless a person with energy transfer talent gives it boost by providing animal energy, it can not grow those animal parts, consequently, brain, and conscious thought.
To evolve her mecha to the conscious thought stage, the mecha needs as much energy as a pulsar star. This transfer needs to be done in a single shot. Even Sera, who has the highest energy transfer rate in the world, could not finish such a transfer in a single lifetime.
Thus, this mecha technology was deemed safe enough to use.
For all the other features, Sera has to specifically gather and transfer energy into the mecha for it to grow, just like Moby.
This time around, she has gathered energy from the lava hounds. This has grown her a fur carpet, command chair accessories and various internal systems that she did not even know about at this time.
She got into the mecha which stood shakily on its legs which surprisingly looked more like bone than wood.
Moby ate the entire field of clover, and left manure on the field like polka dots. The insect pellets she left in the ground have hatched, and they have almost eaten through the leftovers of the crop.
Sera sat in the pilot's seat, and the golden veins habitually flew over from the chair's arms, piercing into her skin.
She could literally feel the state of her mecha. Currently, it has excess energy. It wanted to jump all over the place like a Ribbit.
[ Status ]
Sera ordered in her mind.
In that moment, the golden eye-like structures blinked from all around the mecha, then, all of a sudden, all the black screens in front of her lit up.
The front, back, underneath the carriage, and sky above, the cameras shew visions from all sides.
' wow ' Sera thought, looking at the pictures. They are quite vivid.
[ Life scan ]
She thought next, just to see it works.
The camera behind her blinked, then, all the plants, insects and otherwise living organisms are shown on the screen, in contrasting black and white. White for plants, void like black for nothing. Ambient red for the light, heat and the EM ring around their planet.
In the sky, there's a distant white spot, identifying Moby as a living creature.
' Well, that's at least one task semi finished. ' she thought, looking at the fields.
First, organize her supplies and tools. Sera opened the back hatch of her pod to retrieve supplies.
[ one foot wheat ]
The label read on the wheat seed.
[ a leg up from one inch wheat, one foot wheat grows as tall as foot, and its ears could be half foot to one and half foot tall, depending on the growing condition. One foot wheat will grow in any condition, from arctic to desert. It can survive any temperature from negative twenty to sixty degrees on average. Unless you are a necromancer with a gifted 'dead hand', you can't kill this crop. ]
' not bad ' Sera discovered.
She looked at the next one.
[ Floating beans ]
[ Growing up in 1.0 gravity, the floating bean crop could grow to be as tall as Jack and Jill's beanstalk, and to a similar size. All you need is a little asteroid where it can find purchase. It's beans are full of nutritious flesh, could be cut and dried straight in to army rations. ]
' What ?! ' Sera thought as she looked at the explanation. Does this beanstalk grow beans the size of a bean sack ? Also, where is she supposed to find the specific 1.0 gravity ?
Sera shook her head and looked at the next seed pocket.
[ Crystal rice ]
[ Known for it's excellent taste, crystal rice is known to be a picky crop ! Fear not, you only need a little bit of aqua's life giving water, a little bit of volcanic soil to grow this beautiful rice.
Note : you need to maintain gravity 1.0 to 1.5, for further information, refer to growth chart to gravity correlation table … the crop needs following amount of trace elements … which could be found in plant 385 - A … ]
The following is the ever present marketing bullshit where the crop needed at least ten accessory fertilizers from the company to grow.
At this point, Sera realized. There are no crops that are used to grow on the ground in this set of seeds. She can not blame her butler, she said seeds, she did not say seeds that grow in the ground.
In the interstellar era, the fields are in specially modified gravitational fields, most people live in space steads. The interstellar heavy duty transfer system which spans the entirety of the galaxy makes it easier to transport stuff. Ground grown crops have almost died out.
Now, all they have are wild forests full of mutant plants.
For the time being, she will plant wheat. Though it is made to only grow in pods with a hydroponic system, a hearty crop is still better than a finicky one.
Sera plowed the field, planted wheat. Afraid that the seeds will die if she let them be for too long, she started transmitting the energy, after surrounding the entire field with force.
◆◇◆
On the other side of the planet, at the intergalactic species identification center, the delivery pod arrived with the black box.
" Hey, we got an automatic delivery today. " One of the employees announced excitedly.
Automatic delivery pods are very expensive. As such, they are only used when the species to be identified is almost hundred percent new species above danger level. It's too wasteful to use them for anything else. If the pod accidentally went missing and the specimen reached a suitable habitat for itself, it's a disaster once again.
So, these pods are programmed to blaze through all sorts of extreme environments that kill humans.
They excitedly opened the pack. It was sent from an individual. They frowned upon seeing that the individual is a minor, but did not pay attention to it. After all, the professors sometimes do give these opportunities to the rich youngsters in return for benefits. Most of the time, these benefits are higher than what ISIC could provide, so they close their eyes to this practice.
This is a bit of a lull time at their center, and there are talks of reducing the personnel.
Within hours, the species was identified as a variant hybrid of man eating vines and virulent banyan, both known for their vitality. As the regression occurred, the mutant has lost the growth inhibitor which comes with age, letting it grow at the same speed for all of its life.
The entire institute came alive with the discovery. This is the key to eternal youth.
" Damn ! to think we could find such a sample as I live ! " one of the researchers exclaimed.
They started the arrangements to have the lifetime achievement as soon as possible. The sooner they could give out the award , the sooner they will get permission to use this sample. So, any delays are not tolerated.
Within minutes, the necessary approvals were carried out, and the award bestowment was drafted. Now, the office is only waiting for the government agencies to change Sera's status from minor to adult.
It will take more than three days. During this time, they may as well plan how they are going to carry out the research.