Our combined profits from shipping and trading in the Hephaestus System totaled roughly four million credits.
Factoring in the 1.8 million from selling the pirate ships, I now had a comfortable cushion of nearly six million credits in my pocket.
Which meant it was time to fulfill a certain promise.
"Here, pick whatever you want. Don’t worry about the price."
I handed Mina a holographic catalog for an interior design shop. This was a bonus for the star employee who had spent all night getting three ships flight-ready.
Lucia didn’t require sleep, so she didn’t mind her sparse accommodations, but Mina’s current room was a depressing cell containing nothing but a rigid built-in bed and a standard-issue locker.
"...Are you sure? You really said not to worry about the budget? For real?"
"I told you your pay was performance-based. You earned this. Don’t hold back."
Mina began scrolling through the catalog hesitantly, but as my words sank in, her eyes took on a look of pure, unadulterated desire.
"...Then, I want this. A precision work desk with an articulated arm. Also, a wall-mounted storage unit and a set of high-CRI LED lights. Oh, and four high-refresh-rate displays. I want to mount them together to create a quattro-display environment."
"Four of them? Well, fine. But aren't you going to get a fluffy sofa or some cute curtains or something?"
"I don't need them. Functionality is the priority. Ah, but..."
Mina’s hands stopped on the bedding page.
"This mattress... the Cerulean Comfort Co. 'Zero Gravity Sleeper X-9'... It costs four thousand credits..."
"Done. Get the best pillow to go with it, too. Your body is your most important tool, after all."
Including the ergonomic chair, the total came to over twelve thousand credits. It was a lot of money, but to me, it was a drop in the bucket. I finalized the order on the spot. Delivery would likely arrive within a few hours.
"Thank you, Boss," Mina said, clasping her hands together as if praying to a god. She was half-joking, but if her tail had been built to wag, I’m fairly certain it would have been a blur of motion right now.
"...I can't believe I finally have a room of my own."
Mina whispered the words as if to herself. There was a weight to her voice that made it clear she wasn't kidding.
For someone who had spent her life scavenging through trash heaps and living hand-to-mouth, having her own "castle" must have felt like a dream.
"Now then, I have a request of my own."
I decided to get down to business.
My encounter with that "heat-resistant ivy" at the ramen shop had been a revelation. If I could just get a steady supply of those bean sprouts, it would be a massive step forward. It was time to initiate the shipboard plantation plan.
"I want to secure a source of fresh vegetables. Can we set up a sector for growing plants on this ship?"
"It is possible, but the recommended equipment is quite expensive," Lucia replied, immediately projecting the relevant data.
Verdant Bio-tech Co. Fully Automatic Bio-plant Unit VT-9000 Equipped with Planetary Environment Simulator Price: 800,000,000 credits.
"...That’s the kind of thing they put on luxury resort ships. Rejected. We don't have that kind of money."
"Then, perhaps a lower-tier model—"
"Even the lower-tier stuff is going to be out of reach if the baseline is eight hundred million. We could work for a century and still not afford that."
I sighed and turned toward Mina.
"Mina, can you think of a creative solution?"
"That depends. If we're just growing that 'heat-resistant ivy' from the ramen shop, I’d guess it needs high heat, high humidity, and maybe some specific soot or smoke components."
Mina rested her chin in her hand, thinking deeply, but soon she gave a troubled shrug.
"I know my way around a machine, but I don't know the first thing about plants. I’ve never even eaten them, let alone seen how they grow."
"We won't know for sure until we see the real thing and analyze it."
She was right. It was a sensible, engineer-like perspective.
In that case, there was only one thing to do.
"Alright, let's go harvesting. We’ll check it out on-site and run some scans. Lucia, keep a sharp eye on the surroundings."
"Understood. Prioritizing Master's protection."
We arrived at the "Heat Exhaust Sector" in the lowest level of the colony, a place where factory exhaust pipes formed a tangled, metallic labyrinth.
Beyond the safety fence lay a veritable forest of iron.
Steam hissed from every joint, obscuring our vision, and the temperature was comparable to a sauna.
"...It’s hot."
"Environmental adaptation system active. Master, the external temperature exceeds fifty degrees Celsius."
Lucia looked perfectly composed, but for a flesh-and-blood human like me, it was brutal.
However, Mina, walking beside me, didn't seem bothered at all.
"...You're taking this well."
"Yeah. This is well within my adaptation range."
Mina answered nonchalantly. I suppose this was the true merit of being a biomorph—genetically designed for labor in harsh environments. It was incredibly reassuring to have her along.
"There it is. That's the one."
Mina pointed. Tangled around the joints of a massive exhaust pipe were vines of dark green ivy.
Seeing it spread its leaves amidst the swirling steam was both impressive and a little eerie.
"So that's the heat-resistant ivy. Okay... let me see the base."
Mina pulled out a terminal and began scanning with a focused expression.
"It’s rooting into the degraded insulation on the pipe. It looks like it’s feeding on the carbon and sulfur in the material... and using the heat itself as an energy source. Okay, I’ve got the data."
"Well? What do we need?"
"Who knows? I'm not a botanist, so I couldn't tell you what the plant actually needs to survive. But if you just want me to replicate the temperature, humidity, and atmospheric composition of this spot, I can do that."
Mina’s eyes sparkled with technical interest.
"We don’t need a fancy environment simulator. If I pull heat from the engine's exhaust ducts and pipe in the waste line from the air filters, I can create a pseudo-Hephaestus environment. The only cost would be for the pipes and insulation. It’ll only set us back a few thousand credits."
Perfect. Now we just needed to secure a parent plant to take home and propagate. That meant peeling it off along with the insulation it was rooted in.
"Alright, time to harvest."
Knife in hand, I approached the pipe. The heat felt like it was scorching my skin. This was industrial exhaust; one wrong move and I’d be looking at more than just a light burn.
"...Tsk. It's too hot."
Back in the game, I could have nullified environmental damage like this with a single skill.
Environmental Adaptation Field, or something like that.
I should have that power now, too. I still didn't quite understand how to trigger my psionic abilities at will, but if I just focused on the image of protecting myself...
"...Hmph!"
I visualized an invisible film forming over the surface of my skin and poured my will into it.
In that instant, the air around me snapped with a sharp thud!
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!!
"Huh?"
The ivy in front of me—along with the massive chunk of pipe insulation it was clinging to—didn't just fall off. It was pulverized, as if struck by a giant invisible hammer, and scattered into a fine mist.
It wasn't just the heat; the very air had been repelled from my personal space, generating a shockwave like a vacuum blade.
"...Ah."
The ivy I was supposed to harvest had vanished without a trace.
"Akito, what did you do?!"
"I just... I was trying to block out the heat..."
"You blocked it out way too much! You even dented the pipe!"
Mina shouted, her face a mask of exasperation. Lucia stepped in front of me and ran a quick scan.
"Total destruction of the target confirmed. This was no longer a defensive measure, but an act of aggression."
"...I have no excuse."
I stared at my hands. I had zero control over the output.
In the game, it was a skill that triggered automatically with a button press. Learning how to use it "just right" in reality was proving to be a nightmare.
It seemed my psionic power was far more absurd than I had realized.
"...My bad. I'll stick to physical methods for the next one."
Giving up on my powers for now, I spent the next several minutes dripping with sweat as I used my knife to carefully pry away a different vine. I managed to secure it along with its block of insulation and placed it gently into a container.
"Phew... Okay, we've got the seedbed."
"Yeah. With this, we should be able to grow it on the ship."
We had the prize.
However, I now had a new task etched into my to-do list: Psionic Training.
It wasn't just for combat. If my powers went haywire during simple daily tasks like this, I was going to cause a catastrophic accident eventually.
"We'll start on the plantation when we get back. And... it looks like I need some special training."
"Training? Like, cooking lessons?"
"No, something more fundamental... like how to not break everything I touch."
"Direct monitoring of psionic abilities is difficult," Lucia noted. "However, I can monitor your vitals and provide real-time feedback."
"Let's start with that. Please, Lucia."
I gave a wry smile and wiped the soot from my face.
With our ivy seedlings in hand and a new set of challenges ahead of us, we began the trek back to the Sperm Whale.
And so, the era of the bean sprout diet begins.