Hunter x Hunter: Call Me Master Inventor

"Um?!"

Uvogin instantly straightened his body, and Machi's eyes widened slightly.

Under their unwavering gaze, the air in front of von Klay began to ripple and swirl.

The light, like living threads, rapidly weaves, outlines, and fills...

The silhouette of a uniquely shaped machine gradually transforms from an illusion into reality!

It was a purple metal box about half a person's height, with a small chimney-shaped outlet at the top.

The front features an opening with a lever, while the sides have several incomprehensible knobs and indicator lights.

The machine's surface is so smooth that it can even reflect the dim light inside the room.

Out of place with its dilapidated surroundings, it exudes an almost fantastical sense of technology that seems out of place in this garbage dump.

"What...what is this?!"

Uvogin stared wide-eyed, like a caveman seeing a car for the first time, filled with astonishment and awe.

He jumped to his feet, instinctively adopting a defensive posture.

Machi didn't say anything...

But her gaze was fixed on the suddenly appearing purple machine, and she found herself gripping the wooden stick in her hand even tighter.

von Clay wiped non-existent sweat from his brow...

A bright smile, a mixture of exhaustion and pride, bloomed on his face.

He pointed to the machine and said loudly, as if announcing major news:

"Welcome to witness my first invention—the Wish Sticky Rice Cake Machine!"

"Now, let's see what surprises it has in store for us!!"

An excited heart? Trembling hands? Both hands in worship?

No! Nothing at all!

Uvogin and Machi were staring blankly at Bon Clay, not knowing what he was talking about.

"Ahem... This is called the Wish Sticky Rice Cake Machine!"

Von Clay patted the still faintly glowing purple machine, his tone tinged with embarrassment and barely perceptible weariness…

But it's more about showing off:

"Didn't you want to eat sticky rice cake? Well, I've 'thought' it out for you!"

Uvogin's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"An invention? You call this an invention?!"

He certainly knew what invention meant, but the sight before him...

The sudden appearance of this iron lump completely overturned his understanding.

"Details don't matter, the result is what matters!"

Von Clay waved his hand, trying to maintain a relaxed demeanor:

"Now, the sticky rice cake is right in front of you, isn't it?"

"That's one thing..."

Uvogin nodded subconsciously, then hesitated again.

This situation is too bizarre; his brain can't quite process it.

He looked at Machi and saw that his companion was still staring intently at the machine.

His face was expressionless, but his gaze was frighteningly focused.

Uvogin composed himself.

At least, after the other party took out this thing, their aura was noticeably weaker, and they didn't seem to have any strength left to launch a sneak attack.

He stepped forward and patted the machine's casing with his large, fan-like hand, producing a dull thud.

"How do you use this thing? Do you just spit out the sticky rice cake?"

"Of course, sticky rice cakes are made with glutinous rice."

Von Klay looked at him with an "is that even a question?" look.

"Huh? So this broken machine can't just conjure up sticky rice cakes?"

Uvogin's interest instantly plummeted by half:

"Need glutinous rice? In this godforsaken place, we can hardly find even moldy rice husks!"

"I think we should dismantle it; we might be able to exchange these sheet metal parts for something better."

He stroked his chin, already assessing the machine's "scrap value"...

Surprisingly, it improved my mood considerably.

"Hey kid, take this apart and sell it, I'll give you a share... huh?"

Before he could finish speaking, his words came to an abrupt halt.

Because von Clay now had several more things in his hands out of thin air.

"What is this thing again?"

"The things needed to grow glutinous rice."

von Klay said matter-of-factly:

"How can you make sticky rice cakes without glutinous rice? So you have to grow glutinous rice first."

"Grow...grow it?"

Uvogin felt like he had heard the most absurd words in Meteor City's history.

Here, everything depends on grabbing, scavenging, and risking your life...

Planting? That's a word from fairy tales in the outside world!

Moreover, planting things can take months or even years.

"What are you standing there for? Come and help!"

Von Clay didn't give him time to process it, and threw a long, green capsule over to him.

Uvogin caught it in a flurry of activity.

"This is called a rice seedling capsule; it contains rice seedlings."

As he explained, von Klay took out a small green cylinder and tugged on the drawstring at the bottom.

Whoosh—Pfft!

A ball of light, about the size of a fist and emitting a warm red glow, rose to a point near the roof and came to a steady stop.

It illuminated a corner of the room like a little sun.

"This is a mini sunshade, providing light and heat for the rice seedlings~"

Then, as if by magic, von Clay produced a glass bottle and uncorked it.

A small, fluffy, white cloud drifted out of the bottle's mouth and floated leisurely up to the side of the "little sun".

"Bottled cumulonimbus clouds, here to water the plants~"

Finally, he laid it out like a carpet...

A damp, earthy-scented "blueprint" was spread out in the center of the room.

The moment the drawing touched the ground, it immediately unfolded...

It turned into a roughly two-meter-square, dark, fertile muddy field.

"Portable super rice paddies, even the fertilizer is included! And this too..."

He pulled out another scarecrow, about the size of a palm, from somewhere and stuck it by the edge of the field.

"Intelligent bird-repelling scarecrow to prevent any unsuspecting little creatures from stealing our food."

After doing all this, von Klay was sweating profusely and his breathing became a little rapid.

He never expected that, in response to the request to "make sticky rice cakes"...

His abilities even led to the automatic invention of this entire "planting production line".

It seems that directly producing the finished product consumes a huge amount of resources.

And this kind of "semi-finished" invention that requires intermediate steps and hands-on work...

It consumes relatively less energy and is more in line with his current meager "energy reserves".

"It seems we'll have to find a way to reduce consumption through constraints and oaths in the future..."

He pondered to himself, but his hands didn't stop.

"Alright, basic preparations are complete!"

He clapped his hands and looked at the two still bewildered people:

"Don't just stand there, come and plant the rice seedlings!"

Uvogin: "???"

Von Clay had already come over, taken the seedling capsule from Uvogin's hand, and skillfully opened it.

Inside were neatly arranged, lush green rice seedlings.

He divided it into three portions, giving one to Uvogin and one to March.

"Watch closely, just like me."

He rolled up the sleeves of his tattered clothes and stepped barefoot into the soft mud...

Pick up a few rice seedlings, bend down, and steadily plant them in the mud.

Wokin looked at the rice seedlings in his hand, then at the muddy ground, and felt as if his worldview was being rolled around in the mud.

This goes against all the survival rules he had learned in Meteor City over the past thirteen years.

He instinctively looked at Machi.