Chapter 28:
"Nep Jr.! Jared! I found some eggs!"
"Huh?!" Nepgear suddenly stopped mixing the canned tuna on the frying pan. It's already cooked anyway as far as I can tell, so I turned off the portable stove. She'll be in this shock mode for a while anyway.
"I've got milk and sugar, too! I think we're all set for now!"
To explain, it hasn't been 30 minutes since they left that they're already bringing home some shopping supplies. Both of them are holding 2 bags of plastics each, with Neptune raising hers as if raising a flag of victory that conquered the moon. You can really tell these had the time of their lives.
"What?! You too, Uzume?!"
"There were actually some monster peddlers nearby who just opened up a shop" that is way too convenient Neptune. Seriously, way too convenient.
"Not only that, but everything here is 100% organic and fresh!" where is this peddler? Can I ask where he gets his resources?
"This feels just a little too convenient…" agreed, Umio.
"Well, as long as we have food we can eat, I think anything's fine at this point"
"Let's start whipping up this pudding right away, Gearsy!"
"Hold up. I'll do it. Little Sister here has been cooking for a while…" I point with my eyes the slightly spicy canned tuna.
"Oh! Back at home, Jared and Nep Jr. are always the duo in the kitchen!" Neptune exclaimed.
"Really? He doesn't look like it but he does sound more like a house husband than anything" Uzume comments.
"That's because I am a house husband" I take the eggs and milk off there persons. Jesus, there's enough to fill in 30 people. Did they have to buy so many? Of course, they would. Neptune's thirst for pudding far exceeds the depth of the universe itself. If the whole outer space is made up of pudding, she'll eat it all even if it's the last thing she'll do.
"Then, why don't we go have lunch while Big Brother makes deserts for everyone?" Nepgear suggested.
"That is a sound idea. Pudding takes time to prepare after all" Umio agreed.
"Don't worry Jared! I'll save ya some of this canned tuna!" Neptune said.
"I doubt you'll eat it anyway" since you know, she'll need enough space to eat 3 days worth of pudding.
"I'd probably make around 30 of them anyway…" with this much ingredient to work on I might even reach that number in record time. With that, I start messing around with the mess kit.
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I like my pudding cold. That said, I don't mind eating after the cooldown period, but I prefer it to be in a refrigerator for a set amount of time before I consume it. Since we don't have a refrigerator, we'll have to settle with warm pudding, which I know my wife will still consume since, well, it's pudding. You'll eat your favorite food no matter what form it takes.
I take a tray filled with pudding on plates, lift them all up and turn around…
"And I'm do-! Okay… Last I checked, there's only 5 of us…"
"Oooh, good job, Jared!" Neptune praised me before continuing her chatter with fishes that have spider-legs. You know, those monsters that we saved during the underground railroad incident. No, there's like 10 or more so of them, filling the entire floor with a sea of them. So that's the reason for the buzz behind my back.
"Thank you for the hard work!" one of them says.
"I figured eating delicious sweets together with everyone makes them even more scrumptious, so I invited them over" Neptune explains.
"Well, there is way too much pudding to begin with" and I don't want to eat them all.
"I can't wait for the pudding!" another one of them says.
"Then, I will boil us some tea, then. Our surroundings may be decrepit, but let's treat ourselves to a tea party" good idea Umio. He gently floats towards the mess kit behind me.
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"Aaaaah, I am so stuffed. I just can't get started up unless I have a pudding a day"
"Hahaha, you really do love your pudding, don'tcha?" Uzume comments. I'd rather not tell you, fine folks, how many puddings my wife downed. She didn't even take time to enjoy the rich and smooth texture of the desert and just swallowed it whole like a snake swallowing a giant prey.
It hasn't even been 30 minutes since our tea party started and already this floor is buzzing with random talks. I've only eaten one cup of pudding and gulped down at least 2 glasses of tea. And this tea really warms you up.
"Are you okay, there Jared? You haven't eaten a lot" Umio asked me in concern.
"No worries. A large number of reorders is just stacking up" I said as I pour some more caramelized sugar on small containers. After that, I quickly cleaned up the pan, immediately pour milk into the pan and started boiling it.
"You seem to be enjoying yourself doing the hard labor…" you can tell?
"Nothing is more satisfying than seeing my wife and my little sister getting fat from my cooking" I said, as I quickly crack some eggs and whisk it.
"Of course. I, too, understand that well"
"The tea you made for us was really delicious, Umio" Nepgear said after gulping down her share.
"Thank you. It's my original blend. I'm a bit of a hobbyist when it comes to tea. I can give you some of this blend if you'd like"
"Really? Thank you!" looks like Nepgear is about to learn a new recipe.
"Looks aside, you really are a gentleman Umio" Neptune comments.
"I think he's pretty handsome on the outside, too, you know?" Uzume adds.
"…That's right. Uzume has that sort of style sense…" the style sense of the weird things.
"While you're all chatting away, can someone clear the tray for me, I'm about to put the last batch of pudding to steam"
"Oh, I'll help you out" Nepgear takes the tray full of warm pudding. She headed to the red fishy spider-legged monsters that we saved that are clearly making a fuss about something. I pour the last of our warm milk on the bowl of whisked eggs, while also whisking it. Then, I pour it on the tiny containers with our caramelized sugar. As I wait for the eggs to settle, water is already being heated on the pan.
"…There… And in…" I place the tiny containers of pudding into the pan, of course not letting the water reach the pudding itself. Cover the pan and breathes a sigh of relief.
"World record…" pudding is delicate. High heat plus delicate food requires concentration. A lot of concentration. It's like driving a bike at break necking speeds, the faster you go, that more danger you are exposed to, the more concentration you need. The last batch of pudding will be ready in a few short minutes, I reunite with the crew in the meantime and drink some tea.
"Now, that our tea party is winding down, I would like to have a meeting discussing our future strategies, if you are all willing" Umio said.
"I don't mind" Uzume said.
"I'm okay too! My motivation gauge is at max now that my belly's full of pudding!"
"Go on. I'm just going to enjoy my tea"
"Well, let's jump in immediately. I just received a call informing me of a place where share crystals may be located"
"We've used up a lot from the previous fights, so it'd be great for me to restock my supply"
"Furthermore, we can surmise that there is a large supply of share crystals at this location"
"We might even be able to execute our plan…"
"Indeed. As long as we have the necessary share crystals, our preparations will be complete"
"Which means we can finally…"
"Hey, so what's this 'plan' you guys are talking about? It'd be nice if you let us in on this stuff so we can understand" Neptune said.
"Oh, right, my bad"
"To explain it simply, it is a plan to defeat that colossus you've already seen" Umio said.
"Nepu!? You have a way to defeat that giant thing?!" who knew, right, Neptune?
"After repeated battles with it, I came realized that it's weak to share energy" so it's their kryptonite.
"However, because of its size, even if you strike it with share energy on a single point, it has little effect" have you tried force feeding it?
"This is why we are attempting to contain it by creating a special barrier that uses a huge amount of share crystals" that's some crazy science fiction plan, but since share crystals are basically miracle rocks it just might happen.
"Holy moly! That's a pretty crazy plan! With that, even a giant would get clobbered!"
"Since it's just a barrier… it doesn't really mean that it'll collapse right? We still have to do the manual labor" I said.
"It'll be weak enough but yes, that is the idea" Umio agreed.
"That is one crazy plan…"
"I'm back. What did you guys discuss about?" Nepgear came back with an empty tray.
"Scavenger hunting plans. Wanna chime in?"
"What are we looking for?"
"We're planning on gathering share crystals that I have just received word on" Umio said.
"Oh, if we're going, then one of us should stay. Monsters don't come by here, but it's better for our supplies to be protected." Nepgear said.
"I'll set up some later tonight. I've spread most of our supplies so we have emergency backup bases"
"How thoughtful of you" Umio comments. Not my first time.
"So, should we bring some sort of bag?" Neptune asked.
"Hrmm… Yes, we need to gather as much as we can to prepare. Over preparing is better than not enough"
"We could bring a tray and make them turn into share pudding"
"Ooooooooh! That'd be a huge power up for me!" Neptune is excited.
"Of course melting a rock takes a serious amount of heat so I won't bother to do it"
"Eeeeeeeeh!?" I pet Neptune's head.
"Speaking of food, what if somebody or something did come while we're gone"
"Let them have it, we have plenty to not to give anyway" I answer Nepgear's question. Plus the emergency locations I spent time finding has enough resources around it to gather some food that we can use.
"To conclude our short meeting, we can set out tomorrow morning and gather as many crystals as we can before lunch. Do you all agree?" Umio said.
"Yup!"
"No problem!"
"No contest"
"Mhm!"
"Then, let us enjoy with the rest of the company"
