Mei sat on the sofa.
Looking at the sky that had already turned dark, worry filled her eyes.
Her father had gone out to buy groceries and showed no signs of returning.
Calling his phone only resulted in an unanswered ring.
A few simple dishes sat on the table.
She had gone out to buy the ingredients herself after waiting at home for a long time, partly to look for her father.
Unfortunately, after checking all the nearby grocery stores, there was no sign of him.
It turned out that when a person is pushed to their limits, they can do anything.
To take care of her father, and forced by the circumstances of her life, Mei had no choice but to develop decent cooking skills.
Although the taste was average, at least it wouldn’t send someone to the hospital…
probably.
Mei turned her head.
The evening news was playing on the television.
[Breaking News:] [A pachinko parlor in Nagazora City’s West District has been robbed, resulting in significant property damage.] [The robber is suspected to be a woman with light purple hair.
The police have issued a warrant for her arrest.] [The culprit is suspected to be heavily armed and extremely dangerous.
If you have any information, please notify the police immediately.
Do not approach her on your own.] Mei watched the news, which showed a pachinko parlor billowing with thick smoke.
The once-ornate building was now almost a ruin.
But based on the surrounding streetscape, Mei recognized it at a glance.
It was one of the places her father frequented.
She shot up from her seat, her face growing anxious.
“Father…
he’s not in danger, is he?” The more she thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
Worry began to bloom in her heart.
Although her father had repeatedly promised before leaving that he wouldn’t gamble or drink anymore, and Mei hoped he could turn over a new leaf and get their family life back on track…
On an emotional level, she hoped her father could truly reform himself this time and keep his promise.
But rationally, she found it hard to believe that a person could change so drastically without experiencing some major event.
The reason her father had fallen so far was the blow from her mother’s death.
If he were to change again, what kind of major event would he need to experience?
Mei fell silent.
She already had a suspicion in her heart.
It was likely—no, it was certain—that her father had gone gambling or drinking again.
Gradually, sadness and a sense of being wronged welled up inside her.
She felt as if her life was like the darkening sky outside, a bleak expanse of gray.
Mei stood up, placed the food from the table into an insulated container, changed her clothes, and prepared to check the nearby izakayas or the police station.
But just before she left, she thought for a moment and retrieved a can of pepper spray and a stun gun she had cobbled together in her spare time.
Although things seemed normal on the surface, Mei could sense from the news that public safety in Nagazora City was getting worse.
It was best to be prepared when going out at night.
Once everything was ready, Mei prepared to leave.
But just as she was about to grasp the doorknob, she saw the door open from the outside.
Their eyes met, and both of them froze for a moment.
“Mei?” “Father?” The person who opened the door from the outside was indeed her father, Ryoma.
But his appearance now was vastly different from when he had left this morning.
His hair was meticulously styled, his clothes were neat, and the persistent smell of alcohol was gone from his person.
His expression was composed, with none of the haggardness of a man whose spirit had been drained.
He was carrying a briefcase, looking like a successful professional returning home after a fruitful business negotiation.
If she hadn’t been looking at this face for over a decade, Mei would have thought the man before her was a completely different person.
Mei secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Whatever had happened, it was good that her father had returned safely.
“Well, since you’re here, Father, let’s eat first…” Mei took the food she had just put in the insulated container back out, set it on the table, and motioned for Ryoma to join her.
The meal wasn’t lavish and couldn’t compare to professional restaurants, but it had the warmth of a home-cooked meal.
…
“I just learned how to make these, so they might not taste very good.” Ryoma clasped his hands together and said with a smile, “Thank you, Mei, for your hard work today.
Let’s eat.” Then, he picked up a piece of what looked like tempura and savored it carefully.
“How is it?” Mei asked, looking at Ryoma with some anticipation.
Ryoma’s eyes lit up.
After swallowing the bite, he gave Mei a thumbs-up.
“Delicious!” Seeing Ryoma’s exaggerated praise, which was reminiscent of a food show host, a hint of doubt appeared on Mei’s face.
She was well aware of her own cooking skills.
While she had progressed past the point of giving people food poisoning, calling her food “delicious” was a bit of an insult to the ingredients.
So, she also picked up a piece of tempura and put it in her mouth.
An overwhelming wave of saltiness and sourness exploded in her mouth.
Mei felt as if a bomb had gone off on her taste buds.
Her small face instantly contorted into a grimace.
She looked at Ryoma, who was still relentlessly stuffing food into his mouth.
After swallowing, fighting back the urge to gag, Mei asked hesitantly, “Father…
is it…
really good?” Ryoma’s expression didn’t change.
“It’s delicious!
It’s the food my daughter made.
It’s the taste of home.” A complex expression crossed Mei’s face, but a warmth spread through her heart.
She knew her father was probably just trying to comfort her, to spare his daughter’s feelings.
But then she thought, how long had it been since she had seen a father so considerate of his daughter?
Ever since her mother’s death, his personality had changed drastically.
It was as if he had abandoned the entire world.
But now, Mei had the illusion that her spirited father had finally returned.
Watching her father continuously shovel the food on the table into his mouth, Mei felt a mix of helplessness and a burgeoning sense of guilt.
How could she let her father continue to eat this unpalatable food?
Perhaps she really should start seriously practicing her cooking…
As Mei rested her chin on her hand, a smile on her lips as she fell into thought, she didn’t notice that the ‘Ryoma’ opposite her was also quietly observing her.
One bite of tempura.
Bitterness and an explosive spiciness detonated in his mouth.
This was already the umpteenth flavor of tempura Li Mu had tasted tonight.
To be able to create more than ten different flavors in a single dish…
in a way, Mei truly was a culinary prodigy.
If his physique hadn’t already reached the level of an A-rank Valkyrie, he would probably be in the hospital’s ICU right now, his consciousness greeting his great-grandmother at the gates of the underworld.
Yes, the current Ryoma was Li Mu in disguise.
Since the real Ryoma was a lost cause for now, he had no choice but to take charge of establishing MEI Corp himself.
As for the real Ryoma, he was currently picking bananas on a plantation in Africa.
Looking at the considerable amount of food still left on the table, Li Mu shuddered inwardly.
But no matter how hard it was to swallow, he continued to eat it without a change in expression, even going so far as to praise Mei’s cooking.
As for why…
[Check-in: ‘Daily – Raiden Mei’s Dinner’, obtained 10x Crystals] The reward wasn’t much, practically just a fraction of his previous check-ins.
But the key was, this kind of daily check-in could be repeated!
In other words, just by eating Mei’s cooking every day, he could earn 30 Crystals.
Every.
Single.
Day!
Li Mu felt that this idiot system had definitely taken a page from the game’s system.
Wasn’t this just a variation of the stamina reward Raiden Mei gives out in the daily missions?
Regardless, even for the sake of thirty free Crystals a day, he had to be a hype man.
After all, if he bluntly told Mei her cooking was terrible and discouraged her so much that she decided never to touch a pan again in her life, wouldn’t his daily freebie disappear?
After dinner, as Mei was cleaning up, Li Mu stopped her, wanting to have a talk.
Sitting opposite Mei, the Ryoma-disguised Li Mu wore a face full of guilt.
“Mei, I’ve been thinking all day, and I’ve finally realized how terribly I’ve been acting.” “As a father, as an adult, I actually needed my own daughter to support me.
Your mother, seeing this from heaven, must be so disappointed.” “Father, please don’t say that.
You…
you…” Mei was about to offer some comfort, but with her emotional intelligence, she couldn’t think of any excuse for her father’s past behavior.
“Mei, I know you want to comfort me, but there’s no need.” Li Mu’s face was filled with sincerity.
“It’s not shameful to admit one’s past failures.
What’s shameful is to take pride in those failures.
I don’t want to be that kind of person anymore.” “Father?” “I’ve made up my mind.
I’m going to build a legacy for you, to make you the happiest child in the world.” “Father, what are you talking about?” Mei asked, confused, feeling that her father was becoming increasingly strange.
“I’ve decided to start a business.” “…” Mei felt her father must be drunk again.
“…Maybe you shouldn’t, Father.” It wasn’t that she was being overly critical.
A deadbeat who had been drinking, gambling, and wasting his life away just the day before suddenly announced he was starting a business.
If it were anyone else, she would think they had gone insane.
But this was her father, so she had to be more tactful.
“We can still afford to eat right now.
If you try and fail, we’ll really have no way out.” Sensing the disbelief in Mei’s tone, Li Mu smiled faintly.
He placed the briefcase he had brought with him on the table.
“These are my past patents.
As long as I can monetize them, I can definitely build a legacy here in the Far East.” Mei knew that her father had indeed had some fame in the scientific community, specializing in physics and engineering.
It was normal for him to have some patents.
But to use them to start a business…
although she didn’t want to dampen her father’s enthusiasm, Mei thought it was a bit of a fantasy.
However, Li Mu had already opened the briefcase, revealing stacks of documents inside.
“So that’s what you were doing all day, printing these out.
I thought…” …you had gone gambling again.
Of course, Mei didn’t say that part out loud.
Curious, Mei took a stack of documents from the briefcase and began to look through them.
Soon, her expression grew serious.
As a true genius, her repository of knowledge allowed her to easily understand what was written on them.
It was a set of design blueprints for autonomous mecha, including all the supporting technologies.
Some of them were even significantly ahead of the current world’s technology.
This left Mei utterly astonished.
Li Mu smiled.
He had spent one hundred Crystals to buy these directly from the system’s shop.
They were technologies from the Fire Moth, ten years in the future.
In the years to come, with the relentless advance of the Honkai disaster, humanity would be forced into a bloody marathon against it.
With the addition of Honkai energy, an almost omnipotent power source, technology leaped forward every single moment.
Although the world’s technology would gradually lean towards the biological sciences in the future, and mecha technology wouldn’t develop as rapidly as biotechnology of the same period, it was still a huge improvement compared to current technology.
At the very least, it was absolutely enough to support a corporation.
But gradually, Mei looked at Li Mu, her eyes filled with suspicion.
“Father, is this really your technology?” Although her father had some achievements in scientific research, as his daughter, Mei also knew the extent of his abilities.
It was possible for Ryoma to develop these technologies, but it was also highly unlikely.
Faced with Mei’s suspicion, Li Mu’s expression didn’t change.
He said with righteous confidence: “Of course, it’s my technology.” “I swear it on your mother’s name.” “If I’m lying, may your father be forced to pick bananas in Africa forever!” —o—