Chick 217
by Cristae217
[Chinese Chairman preparing congratulatory message for Orchestra……]
[Chinese diplomatic ambassador says he only wishes to congratulate Korea’s development and hopes for continued coexistence……]
On Suhyeong set his phone down, his expression troubled.
For a brief moment, all eyes were fixated, waiting to see how China would react to On Joorim’s inflammatory remarks. Yet the response, instead of the expected hardline stance, was so mild it almost seemed cautious, and everyone was left scrambling to analyze the situation.
There were hushed speculations that this might be about the Kriteto trade, but it was still only an F-grade item—a product with merely potential for now.
China wouldn’t bow its head for an uncertain future.
Checking the news at home, On Suhyeong reached his own conclusion.
“Looks like Joorim’s up to something again.”
No matter what the other party might say, his son tended to brush words aside, but if China had taken direct action first, things were different.
Sending a congratulatory message from the Chairman himself? He must’ve scared them quite badly.
Hadn’t he warned his son that making only enemies was a poor strategy?
“It’s hard enough to call him my son when all he ever does is cause trouble.”
China was such a vast market…
With a sigh, On Suhyeong looked outside to the street.
Silently—
A familiar sedan slid into the neighbor’s driveway.
Groo had arrived.
“Perfect!”
Groo’s third “filial piety factory,” the “Kriteto Reactor Seed Potato Automation Farm,” had been moved to the yard of the second house.
All of this was the result of a deal with Joorim—so long as Groo’s experiments weren’t interfered with, he would supply Kriteto Reactors to Orchestra and Doan Gnovation.
‘Now my Groo bag won’t overflow with potatoes!’
Groo was supremely content.
Factory duties were left to the three unfinished bear prototypes, numbers 1, 2, and 3, temporarily out of employment.
Each was assigned to make seed potatoes and water them from the first, second, and third floors respectively, and no matter where the factory was moved, they performed their jobs well.
“Hmm.”
Groo fetched the flowerpot he cradled each day like a treasure, and planted an elixir beside the farm.
Ever since he started juicing the universe, at Chuen’s suggestion, the elixir had reached 88% growth. It wouldn’t be long until a perfect elixir could be harvested.
‘Groo saves his master, master saves Dad.’
Thus, the chain of filial piety!
As Groo patted the soil and hummed an anime theme, nostrils flaring with pride—
“Beep!”
Mephisto, startled, tugged hard at Groo’s hair.
“Mm?”
Looking up, Groo saw the snow rabbit’s tiny two leaves trembling violently.
At the same time, bears 1, 2, and 3—who had been watering the seed potatoes—let out sharp cries, darting this way and that.
“Wha?!”
Gulp! Gulp! Gulp!
Suddenly, as if the elixir’s stem was devouring water, something began swallowing, gulping noisily, and at that instant—
‘The potatoes!’
All the potato stems in the farm turned a lifeless gray.
“All my potatoes are dead?!”
My potatoes!
The snow rabbit ate them all!
[The familiar ‘Snow Rabbit’ can evolve. Would you like to proceed?]
“E-evolve?”
Was it because it had just eaten all those reactors?
Groo glanced back at the now-shriveled seed potatoes, then at the elixir.
Evolve? How could he say no?
He would never forget the sacrifice of those tragically lost seed potatoes.
“Snow rabbit! Evolve!”
Just like an anime pilot hitting the launch button, Groo shouted and pressed “Confirm.”
“Kkyuu!”
At that, the chubby rabbit stretched out one arm and leaped out of the earth.
“Oh!”
So this was how evolution began!
And then…
Roll—
An acorn tumbled from the snow rabbit’s head.
“Kkyeng!”
With a superhero landing, the rabbit struck a pose and fixed Groo with a fierce glare.
‘Is the evolution starting now…?’
Heart pounding, Groo imagined flashes of light and transformations beside the snow rabbit.
Thump-thump.
“……”
Thump-thump.
“……”
Thump-thump.
“……”
“……Is it… done evolving?”
The snow rabbit grinned goofily and replied.
“Kkyeng!”
So that was it… Groo, a little disappointed, crouched to pick up the acorn.
‘Nothing’s really changed…’
He could have just said an acorn was growing.
“Killed all my potatoes for this…”
“Beep beep!”
As he grumbled, Mephisto fluttered over, sharply extending its wings and pointing them accusingly at the snow rabbit, as if chiding it for uselessness.
Bailach, triggered by the rabbit’s sly antics and reminded of his Husubey trauma, began to growl, while the snow rabbit trembled and whimpered.
From the small rabbit’s nose, a string of mucus dripped down.
“Kkyuuu…”
“Don’t cry. Blow your nose now. Sniff!”
“Kyung!”
The rabbit blew its nose. Its eyes were now red with tears.
“Kkyuukyuu.”
Feeling sorry, Groo patted the babbling snow rabbit’s backside and hugged it close.
On the snow rabbit’s head, a new sprout had appeared again—
[Elixir-infused Sprout]
[Resting… 0%]
According to the info window, it would likely take a long time before the elixir grew back.
‘It should be all right?’
More importantly—
‘I need to make new seed potatoes.’
Groo took a handful of D-grade mana stones he had stocked up, and dropped them into the funnel as if inserting coins.
The shrunken stones rolled into a circular machine, mixing and piling up with the potatoes.
Seeing this, bear No. 1 hurried over and pulled the lever. The metallic armor changer attached to the cylinder activated, causing the cylinder to spin like a washing machine.
Soon, with a pop! a roasted potato rolled onto the conveyor belt.
‘Oh, a D+ grade seed potato.’
Apparently, the grade of seed potato depended on the materials used.
Meanwhile, bears 2 and 3 bustled about, starting to plant the seed potatoes.
It would be nice to have more workers, but since the filial piety factory level was still low, there were only three.
He could level up the factory with filial piety points, but even making seed potatoes required points, so he couldn’t use them freely.
‘If only there were more ways to earn filial piety points.’
Lost in thought as he petted the snow rabbit, Groo gazed unconsciously at Mephisto and Bailach.
The two cocked their heads, not understanding why Groo was staring.
Staring at the snow rabbit, then back to Mephisto and Bailach, Groo began to draw diagrams in his head.
‘Snow Rabbit + Kriteto Reactor = Evolution’
In that case—
‘Mephisto or Bailach + Kriteto Reactor = ?’
Wouldn’t the result also be evolution?
Even if nothing really changed except for the acorn—
Surely, staying in rabbit form like this was evolution in itself?
As Groo broke into a silly grin, Mephisto chirped and laughed with him, while Bailach, sensing something, stepped away warily.
“Myu…” (Run…)
“Beep?”
“Myu!” (Escape!)
“Let’s plant you.”
“Bee?”
Groo took a trowel and dug handfuls of earth.
Then, catching Mephisto and the fleeing Bailach, he plopped them into the holes and filled the earth over them.
“Beepiiii—!”
“Myuuuu—!”
A moment later, only their heads left aboveground, the baby bird and hamster let out mournful cries that echoed across the yard.
“Don’t cry. If it works out the way Groo thinks, Mephi and Bai can evolve too. Isn’t that amazing?”
Mad scientist-like, Groo wiped away their tears.
“Groo, what are you doing?”
“Eep!”
‘Grandpa?’
Groo greeted his grandfather while glancing furtively to the side.
‘The filial piety factory! Grandpa might see it!’
“J-just playing!”
“Ah, I see. Is this a factory? Let’s have a look…”
Thump!
On Suhyeong studied the factory from all angles, his admiration evident.
“It’s well made. It can’t have been easy to get it working properly like this.”
Groo’s face lit up at the compliment.
“So, how does this work?”
“You put the potatoes and mana stones in the funnel up here. They go down this tube, spin around, and out comes a seed potato. The seed potato gets planted and watered on the second and third-floor fields to grow.”
“Hmmm, the workflow isn’t optimal. The design…”
Is it poorly designed?! As Groo gaped, On Suhyeong smiled.
“The design’s actually very good. With a few tweaks, it could be even better. Would you mind if Grandpa made a few adjustments?”
“Yeees!”
“Since you’re growing crops, adding a window here would get you more sun, and temperature and ventilation are important… Groo, would you mind if Grandpa drew up some blueprints?”
“Groo would love that!”
“All right, I’ll have them ready soon. Ah—what did you say this factory makes?”
Grinning from ear to ear, Groo replied in a ringing voice:
“Kriteto Reactor Seed Potato!”