“I—I’m fine!” That was what she said, but it was obvious Alice was panting.
She seemed very tense and very focused, or rather as if she were wrestling with something inside.
After a long while, she suddenly shouted, “I can do it, I can do it! Eat!”
Nn?!
Copying the way I had done it, Alice’s hands as she cut the cake were trembling.
Afraid she would drop it, I couldn’t help looking at her with a touch of worry, watching her, shaking all over, put the cake into her mouth.
And then.
With a thud, she collapsed onto the tabletop.
“Alice?!”
???? The cake wasn’t poisoned, was it?
Or could people from Alice’s side not eat this kind of food?
Just as I reached toward her, she abruptly lifted her head and let both hands fall, a dazed look on her face, murmuring to herself, “Gods above, where is this? Am I in heaven?
“Why, why is there food this delicate and this good?”
…
All right. Looks like she was fine.
If we didn’t finish eating soon, we would be arriving at the station.
Every bite, for Alice, seemed like an ascent into heaven.
In truth, it was only a very ordinary chocolate cake.
I turned to look at the blue-haired girl.
In the empty car she only stood demurely at the far end, the little cart stopped there at her side as if keeping her company.
Her eyes were gently closed, as if she were resting them.
You couldn’t tell from the outside, but I had a feeling she might not be human.
From the way she spoke, so similar to Lapis, and from the fact that she had gone hundreds of years without meeting anyone else and could still remain normal, she was probably something like a robot.
[Ring-Eden Orbital Transport System MK-2 Service Robot Affiliation: Unknown
Designation: Unknown ID: MKR4-003]
So it was, after all.
As my gaze focused on the blue-haired girl, a prompt window popped up beside her on the HUD and displayed that.
She really was a robot.
If she had been an ordinary person, a few hundred years alone in a place that never saw the sun would probably have broken her long ago.
Maybe I wouldn’t have understood that before, but that was because even when I was alone I still had the internet, still had all kinds of ways to talk with other people.
If you were completely alone, without even a single presence that could answer you, you would, in fact, fall apart very quickly.
People, after all, were still social creatures.
[Lapis.]
【“Yes, Miss Yulin. How may I help you?”】 Almost the instant I silently recited Lapis’s name, her voice sounded in my mind.
I had to admit, that response speed was much faster than the CHAT-whatever AIs of our world.
[If we consider the need for long-term storage and easy carrying, what kind of food can the factory produce?]
【“If long-term storage and portability are the priority, the factory can produce compressed food containing starch, protein, fats, and the vitamins and trace elements the human body requires.
【“This type of food uses full vacuum packaging and can generally be produced after constructing a Class C sterile environment. Construction difficulty is low. So long as the outer packaging is undamaged, the shelf life can reach four to five years. In theory, after ten years it can still be eaten following simple high-temperature sterilization.
【“You may change the flavor of the compressed food by adding different additives, but because the primary constituent is carbohydrate, there will not be a large change in mouthfeel.
【“When eating, it may be broken into small pieces and chewed directly, or soaked in warm water to rehydrate before eating.”
【“If a longer storage time is required, the production environment and packaging process can be improved. Compressed food produced in a fully sterile environment, canned in a prime-gold-and-iron alloy with a high-molecular polymer coating, can in theory, so long as the outer packaging is undamaged, keep for several thousand years or even tens of thousands of years, and possesses a degree of impact resistance.”】 While Lapis was speaking, an orange-yellow rectangular bar appeared on the HUD, labeled with its nutritional content: 2,250 kcal…
Still, te—tens of thousands of years…
It was exaggerated, but as emergency stores it really was a decent choice.
From the model it looked like something similar to compressed biscuits, and it ought to be convenient to eat as well.
I steadied the feeling that had almost made me cry out, thinking that at the same time.
After a slight pause, Lapis went on: 【“You may submit a remote production request and have the factory begin producing this food at once. Do you wish to activate remote production?”】
[Activate.] I recited it in my heart without even thinking.
That way, same as when we went to pick up Alice’s surgical supplies, we would be able to collect it as soon as we reached the factory.
【“Executing remote production procedure Establishing connection with Factory G-04 Communication established.
【“Considering portability requirements, the quantity produced this time will not be large.
【“Do you have any flavor requirements? You may choose: assorted fruit flavors, dairy flavors, coarse-grain flavors, meat-product flavors…”】
[A, a bit of everything…] For a moment I felt a little tongue-tied.
【“Understood. Flavors randomly mixed.
【“Request received, reply passed.
【“This production Dehydrated composite food with multiple nutritional ingredients added Spec 135 g per bar Quantity 148 bars Produced in a Class C sterile environment High-molecular polymer vacuum packaging
Packed as individual portions 10 bars per box Flavors random…
【“Constructing production module… Complete…
【“Producing…”】
Fuu— I let out a thin breath.
We had lost Alice’s storehouse and didn’t even have the dry-bread rations left, but with these, it ought to be enough to last a stretch of days.
If it really came to it, there was still this metal case set by the aisle as a fallback.
Still, since we had gone from dry bread almost as hard as stone up to compressed biscuits, then… wouldn’t it get old fast if we were always eating compressed biscuits?
As a takeout special reviewer and a platinum user of a food-delivery platform, it would be even better if we could still eat hot meals.
Was I overthinking it a little? Nn.
That’s right. Prepared meals.
Thinking of takeout made it easy to think of prepared meals.
Prepared meals used vacuum packaging and could keep for a long time in the field as well, like certain “military rations” sold in online shops.
They were relatively convenient to carry, and if you added a self-heating pack, you could even cook them in the field just by adding a little water.
Mm… thinking about it felt pretty good.
Being able to eat a hot meal in the field—just imagining it felt happy.
Alice would definitely be surprised.
The thought left a little spark of excitement in my chest, so I called Lapis at once: [Lapis, can the factory produce vacuum-packed foods like prepared meals?]
【“…”】
Rarely, Lapis did not respond.
But after a little while, only a few seconds or so, Lapis answered: 【“Apologies. Information on products related to [prepared meals] does not exist in the local database. You may tell me your requirements, and I can assist you in completing the product design.”】
Eh… no prepared meals?
Even though I had eaten prepared meals myself, self-heating pots and foods like that, I didn’t know for a moment how to describe them.
After thinking for a while, I roughly had an idea, and said to Lapis, [In general, it should be putting dishes that have already been cooked into vacuum bags… and then you only need to heat them with hot water, or some of them have a self-heating pack inside that gives off heat after you add water… Anyway, it’s cooking you can take out and heat with hot water and then eat.]
Lapis paused for a few seconds again, then said, 【“Based on your description, I believe you may require a food whose main body is real ingredients or contents similar to real ingredients, and which must take into account portability and the ability to be heated into an ordinary dish.
【“…
【“Apologies. No active food-processing factories were found. You may be unable to obtain real ingredients from Eden, including vegetables, meats, starches, and the like.
【“Seeking alternatives….”】
【“Considering that Factory G-04 is a factory specialized in daily necessities, not a factory specialized in food, your request may be unable to achieve large-scale mass production.”】
【“Best-fit recommendation: construct sterile product tanks to print ingredients by category, construct sterile mixing tanks to mix and preprocess the ingredients, and construct vacuum canning tanks to can the product.”】
【“You may search the 11,800 recipes existing in the database for the dishes you require and proceed with production and packaging. Excluding a portion of dark cuisine publicly acknowledged by the angels, 8,900 recipes remain.”】
After a ding— of a prompt, a window unfolded in my field of view, displaying column after column of recipes with pictures.
Shredded pork with green peppers, stewed potatoes and meat, braised rabbit head… everything you could want.
Looks like ordinary food existed too.
To a certain extent, that probably also meant the angels’ lives had, in fact, still been quite rich.
But there were too many.
There was simply no way to choose.