Chapter 106: Sea Competition 13
Moira Lynch looked at the picture of the Sweet Fat Fruit displayed on the Learning Machine, then scanned her surroundings. Her gaze finally settled on a plant on the ground, about two centimeters tall.
She reached out, grabbed the plant by its stem, and pulled upward with all her might.
At that moment, Moira felt an unprecedented resistance and weight.
The exoskeleton activated silently. Finally, Moira pulled the plant up, roots and all.
And at the plant’s roots was a string of milky-white, plum-sized fruits.
The fruits were identical to the Sweet Fat Fruits shown on the Learning Machine. It turned out these fruits grew underground all along.
Seeing this, Shane Rhodes, Kai York, and Hugh Finch all took out their tools and got to work. These were S-rank Energy Fruits; they couldn’t let a single one go to waste.
The four of them dug for several hours, practically turning over the entire patch of land, and finally unearthed all the Sweet Fat Fruits.
But a new problem arose: their current Space Buttons couldn’t hold so many Sweet Fat Fruits. Not unless Moira Lynch was willing to expose her identity, which was obviously out of the question.
But giving up on these S-rank Energy Fruits was also impossible.
Moira Lynch remembered acquiring a discarded home fruit processor during a game on the Crino Prairie.
It could concentrate and process fruit into cubes the size of sugar cubes, which both extended their shelf life and made them convenient to eat.
However, the machine was manual and required constant supervision.
Besides, the fruit in Moira’s space didn’t have preservation issues. Plus, mechanical processing would inevitably cause some waste, so she had set it aside.
She had originally planned to find some time to sell it, but she got busy and forgot. Now it would come in handy.
The fruit processor looked a lot like a juicer. Luckily, it wasn’t too big, or she would have had a hard time explaining it.
When Moira Lynch took it out, Shane Rhodes and the others thought she was planning to juice the fruits for storage. While that was one solution, it wouldn’t solve the whole problem.
Besides, juiced S-rank Energy Fruits spoiled even more easily.
Under their watchful eyes, Moira stuffed a few Sweet Fat Fruits into the container and activated the machine.
After a whirring, grinding sound, seven or eight milky-white Energy Fruit cubes were spat out from the other side of the machine.
The cubes were even wrapped in a layer of transparent paper for hygiene.
Moira had just put in four Sweet Fat Fruits, and eight Energy Fruit cubes came out. The efficiency wasn’t bad.
Shane Rhodes and the other two stared, their eyes wide with astonishment.
Without pausing to ask questions, the three of them hurried forward to help.
After an hour of busy work, they finally processed all the Sweet Fat Fruits, and even the A-rank Energy Fruits they had found earlier, into Energy Fruit cubes.
All the Energy Fruit cubes combined only took up a little more than half a space. The group was very satisfied with this result.
They took out the lunch they hadn’t had time to eat earlier. As they ate, they finally had a chance to ask Moira about the machine. It was clearly not a product of Caelus.
"This? I got it from a Rabbit-kin. Her family had just bought a new one and didn’t want the old one, so I took it. I was originally going to sell it, but then I forgot."
Moira Lynch was fluent in the interstellar language and could communicate easily with the Beastkin, so it wasn’t hard for her to get some extra rewards from them.
At this, Shane Rhodes and the other two were intensely envious and swore to themselves that they would study the interstellar language even harder when they got back.
"It’s a good thing you forgot, or we would’ve taken a huge loss today."
Not only would they have been unable to take all the Sweet Fat Fruits, but their storage would have been full, meaning they could only look on even if they found something else.
After finishing their meal, Moira’s Space Button had a little more room. The sky was already growing dark. Looking at the churned-up, messy ground, the group decided to find another place to rest.
Moira looked at the fragrant spike in her hand. It had only diminished a little after all this time. ’This thing is pretty durable,’ she thought.
After some effort, they found a relatively flat area. None of them felt like sleeping, because the Learning Machine’s screen lit up again—several times in a row.
[Delicious Mushroom: A top-tier seasoning that grows only on the back of an Isle Turtle. Even the most unpalatable food will become exceptionally delicious with just a sprinkle of Delicious Mushroom.]
[Gaga Herbs: A top-tier seasoning that grows only on the back of an Isle Turtle. Makes everything taste amazing and can amplify a person’s appetite to the maximum. Even if it’s shit, add some Gaga Herbs, and you won’t be able to resist eating it.]
The description for the Delicious Mushroom was fine, but when they saw the one for Gaga Herbs, Moira and the others couldn’t help but shudder.
"Moira, can your machine process this?"
Moira shook her head and answered honestly, "I don’t know about this. I haven’t tried."
She took a few Delicious Mushrooms to test it out and, unsurprisingly, it failed. "It seems it only works on fruit-type items."
Fortunately, there weren’t many Delicious Mushrooms or Gaga Herbs, and they finished gathering them in no time.
That night, the chirping of insects and the intermittent calls of birds echoed through the dim forest.
Moira slowly opened her eyes. She sensed something approaching.
Seeing that the nearby campfire was showing signs of dying out, Moira found some firewood and added it to the flames.
The approaching thing didn’t stop. Its shape was very similar to an ostrich, but its legs didn’t seem as long.
It was also a bit like a peacock, but it seemed fatter and lacked a peacock’s large tail.
’So what in the world is it?’
Moira decided to just go for it. She was idle anyway, so she simply pulled it directly into her space.
’If it’s something dangerous, I can just release it immediately.’
Then, a creature that was plump, had brilliant plumage, and looked like a cross between a chicken and a duck appeared inside Moira’s space.
[Magpie-plumed Fowl: Brilliant plumage, delicious meat, omnivorous. Lives year-round in an environment with no natural predators, and as a result, has little vigilance. Highly curious and filled with curiosity about anything it has never seen. Its feathers can be made into decorations or clothing and are very popular in the interstellar community.
P.S. Prolonged use will make you appear as harmless as it is.]
’So this chicken came over just because it was curious?’
Looking at the Magpie-plumed Fowl in her space, she saw it showed no signs of panic despite the sudden change in environment. Its eyes were filled with pure curiosity.
’It really doesn’t have a single shred of caution. I haven’t seen such a stupid chicken in a long time.’
’And look at its size—one of these would be enough to feed me for a long time.’
’It’s just that last P.S. ... does it mean you just *look* harmless, or do you actually become stupid?’