Even after using that portal countless times over the past six months, every trip through its oily green surface revealed a world that somehow surpassed the limits of Morty’s imagination.
The world Rick had brought him to this time would easily rank among the top three weirdest places Morty had visited in the past six months.
It was almost on par with the Chair-Person World from their very first trip.
Deep purple grass covered the ground, beneath which lay reddish-brown soil so intensely red it looked downright unsettling.
Donut-shaped trees grew everywhere.
In the distance stood a futuristic metropolis built almost entirely from metal.
Yet out here in the suburbs, there were no roads connecting them to the city.
There were not even any dirt paths.
All kinds of airships filled the sky, proving that this planet’s civilization had moved beyond roads and fully embraced the age of flight.
Other planets hung in the sky behind them, incredibly close to this one.
Morty did not know anything about astronomy, but even he could tell that the planets were closer together than Earth and the Moon.
[They’re that close, and nobody’s worried about them smashing into each other…?]
After witnessing countless bizarre things across the multiverse, Morty’s heart had long since gone numb.
He made a couple of remarks to himself, then turned his attention back to the Mega Fruit.
But after looking around, he saw no sign of the Mega Tree that resembled an upside-down jellyfish.
Rick seemed to have come here on a whim.
He was busy tipping a bottle into his mouth and showed no urgency whatsoever about finding the Mega Fruit.
Eager to find it, Morty hurriedly asked which way they were supposed to go.
Then Rick’s next move left him completely dumbfounded.
After discovering that his bottle was empty and that he had not brought a spare, the old man opened a portal and went to get more booze.
By the time he returned, the Portal Fluid in the portal gun had run completely dry.
A cold breeze swept past them.
Grandfather and grandson stared at the empty Portal Fluid vial on top of the portal gun.
Morty was so furious he wanted to tackle Rick and grind his face into the dirt.
It was bad enough that Rick’s constant drinking caused endless trouble.
Their family still owed the U.S.
President a massive pile of unpaid bills because of him.
But now he could not even keep track of how much Portal Fluid was left in his own gun?
Still, this had obviously been deliberate.
When Morty connected it to the plot of the anime’s first episode and what Rick had said last night, he gradually calmed down.
Rick’s evaluation of him was probably over.
Morty had felt that something was off ever since Rick returned.
After all, if Rick simply needed a Morty, he could have gone to the Citadel and picked one.
The fact that Rick had clearly been trying to train him was what had kept Morty hopeful all this time.
And now, it looked like Rick was finally getting serious.
A real adventure was about to begin.
So…
Seeing his precious grandson’s expression shift back and forth, Rick crouched down and tried to reassure him.
“Morty, relax.
I’ve seen plenty of crazy shit.
Even in some strange new world, I can keep you safe!”
“If anything dangerous shows up, you just run.
I’ll hold it off!”
Morty’s mouth twitched.
Rick did always protect him eventually.
The problem was that Morty usually got mauled first.
Thinking about it now, Rick might have been doing that on purpose too.
Like the time he let a twelve-winged, bird-headed angel brand Morty an evil heretic, tie him to a stake, and burn half his body to a crisp.
Or the time an octopus more than a dozen times larger than twenty blue whales combined chased him through a deep-sea world.
And then there was…
What the hell kind of training was this?!
Just thinking about that giant octopus made Morty want to cry.
After six months of this nightmare, he had finally encountered a world he recognized, the Cthulhu universe.
But Rick insisted on dragging him along to cut off one of Cthulhu’s hands, or rather, one of his squid tentacles, just to find out whether it would taste good grilled with cumin.
Cthulhu was understandably furious.
Rick somehow escaped without a scratch, while Morty ended up cursed for two full days.
That bastard did not lift the Old God’s curse until Morty was about to die.
Just as Morty was about to respond, Rick spun around at lightning speed and bolted.
Morty had seen this exact scene far too many times over the past six months.
Something incredibly dangerous had definitely appeared behind him.
Either that, or Rick was screwing with him again.
“Morty!
Run!
I’m not messing with you this time!
Whatever the hell is behind you, I’ve seriously never seen anything like it!”
That made Morty panic.
Rick never bragged about this kind of thing.
Which meant…
[Damn it!
One of these days, I’m going to tackle this rotten old bastard and grind his face into the dirt!]
Before running, though, Morty still had to see what was behind him.
He turned around.
Holy shit.
Towering straight through the planet’s atmosphere was one gigantic octopus-looking bastard.
The Cthulhu Morty had just been thinking about was actually standing right behind him?!
This was a disaster!
Cthulhu had learned how to travel into another universe!
Something strange must have happened to his energy or body while crossing between universes.
Previously, Cthulhu had only been three hundred meters tall, roughly the height of a skyscraper.
Now he was as tall as Mount Everest.
Behind him were his two children and his cousin, Hastur.
The entire family of four had shown up.
There was no need to think about who was responsible.
This was definitely Rick’s fault.
Before Rick appeared, the monsters of the Cthulhu universe had always believed that their world was the only one in existence.
It was not until this completely out-of-place lunatic showed up that they discovered other worlds existed.
Completely exhausted by the whole situation, Morty sprinted forward with all his strength.
Unfortunately, Cthulhu, whom Morty and Rick had carved a strip of squid meat from during their last encounter, was clearly here for them.
So…
Question: How do you outrun a monster as tall as Mount Everest?
Answer: Curse Rick.
Morty ran as hard as he could, caught up with Rick, and immediately started shouting.
“Rick!
Tell me what the hell is going on!
Why is that giant squid chasing us?”
“How the fuck should I know?
I came to this planet to find the Mega Seeds!
How the hell would I know why he’s after me?”
After answering, Rick seemed to remember something and quietly picked up his pace.
Morty noticed immediately.
Rick had definitely figured out the truth.
Otherwise, he would not suddenly be running this fast.
“Rick!
What the hell did you do?
We only cut off one strip of squid!
There’s no way he’d travel all the way from another universe just to hunt us down over that!”
“And how the hell did they learn inter-universal tracking technology?”
Traveling between universes was relatively simple, in a sense.
But locating one specific person in another universe from your own was far more complicated and terrifying than inter-universal travel itself.
Morty was certain that Rick had done more behind his back than steal a single piece of squid meat.
Fortunately, good old Cthulhu decided to clear up the mystery himself.
“Rick Sanchez!
You piece of shit!
You got Cthylla pregnant!
Stop right there!”
Morty turned and looked at Cthulhu’s daughter, Cthylla.
He sucked in a sharp breath.
Morty had followed Rick on adventures all across the multiverse and had never scored even once.
Yet this rotten old bastard had somehow managed to pull something like that while they were busy slicing off a strip of Cthulhu?
No wonder he was the strongest grandpa on Earth.
That was fucking ruthless.
He had even gone after a giant octopus!