After a restful night's sleep, Amir slowly got dressed and checked the time on his bedside communicator.
He had slept for a full fifteen hours after the battle before waking up naturally.
He tied his messy hair back with a hair band and walked out of his small bedroom.
"I'm so hungry! What's for breakfast, Pierre?" Amir yawned.
"It's not even noon yet! If you're hungry, just have some nutritional paste." Pierre replied from the workshop.
"I don't want to eat that stuff. What are you doing, Jax?" Amir noticed Jax fiddling with a motorcycle.
"Ah! I'm painting it. I'm giving my new motorcycle a new coat of paint, just like your Coke."
Since he couldn't afford an XP-30 Land Cruiser, Jax had settled for a used flying motorcycle. It looked similar to Amir's, but the surface was severely rusted.
"Amir, while you were away, Dad upgraded all the parts of the motorcycle. Its performance is now just as good as your Coke!"
Amir leaned in to inspect the engine and control grips. They were indeed high-quality parts. He then teased, "It's ugly."
"The engine is better than yours!"
"It's ugly."
"I'm already painting it!"
"It's ugly."
"!!!"
Seeing that Jax had perked up under his encouragement, Amir nodded in satisfaction and said,
"I'm going to buy some things. Let's have a big meal for lunch." He found a lot of credit points and valuable parts in Frenis' spaceship, the current Traveler, so he was in a good mood.
"Alright!" Jax instantly regained his smile and happily continued working on his masterpiece.
Walking into the workshop, Pierre was repairing a space technician robot.
"I'm going to buy some ingredients. Let's have a big lunch with Froenika and Lango." Amir repeated what he had just said.
"You made a lot this time?" Pierre asked.
"That's right, a lot." Looking at the sunlight outside, Amir yawned again.
"Go ahead. You might run into Sain and BD-4. They went to the port to pick up goods this morning."
Amir nodded and walked onto the street, heading toward the upper levels.
The Mers family's repair shop was located in the residential area on the third basement level. It wasn't chaotic, but it wasn't orderly, either. Some people worked diligently, but many preferred to get something for nothing.
Therefore, even though there were places selling food nearby, no shops bothered to purchase fresh ingredients daily.
He walked leisurely to the upper-level commercial district and found the shop he was looking for.
It was more of a small stall than a shop and was housed in a wheeled metal box. It was called a stall because it had long since ceased to function as a vehicle and was now used solely as a shelter.
"Hey, Hope, do you have anything new?" Amir asked.
The stall owner, Hope, was a Gran with a goat-like head, two small horns on top of his head, and the most distinctive feature of all: three protruding eyes arranged in an equilateral triangle on his face.
Hope was a kind Gran, as most Gran are, and Amir often bought ingredients from him here.
"Come here, Amir. I have something new." Upon seeing Amir, Hope's eyes lit up. He quickly emerged from the side door of the iron box and pulled Amir inside.
He reached into a burlap sack in the corner, pulled out a smaller burlap sack, and took out an even smaller, round, nut-like object.
Amir took the hard little sphere and asked, "What is this?"
"I found this by accident in a village while shopping on the planet Naboo. It grows on a tree called a Malaka."
"Malaka? No wonder it's from a peaceful and polite planet," Amir said.
"Hmm? You can smell it first." Hoppe didn't understand and continued encouraging Amir to examine the fruit.
Seeing how much Hoppe valued the fruit, Amir grew curious, too.
While wandering around here previously, Amir had accidentally discovered that the three-eyed, goat-headed creatures sold a strange sauce. When added to food, it tasted surprisingly delicious and immediately replaced soy sauce in Amir's heart.
Since then, Amir had frequently visited this place and asked Hoppe to keep an eye out for seasonings. However, the seasonings here ultimately didn't meet Amir's expectations.
After all, he had lived in a magical kingdom in his previous life.
Amir raised his hand, brought the small ball to his nose, and slowly inhaled.
The flavor was hard to describe—it had a subtle fragrance, but upon closer inspection, there was a hint of pungent spiciness.
Long-forgotten memories instantly flooded his mind: scallions, ginger, peppercorns, star anise, cooking wine, bay leaves, and a cleanly washed goat head.
The goat head was a bit much, so Amir glanced at the Gran people in front of him and withdrew his disdain for the goat head.
"This is amazing. How much more is there?"
"That village only has one tree. I asked the villagers where I could find a large supply, but they didn't know. Next time, though, I can look around more in the countryside or forest near Nab."
"Give me this bag first. I want to try it out." Amir was a little impatient.
"Well, you know, you're the only one interested in this stuff." The goat's mouth twisted and turned.
"Don't worry. I won't short you on the payment. Go collect it first. Yeah, a sackful," Amir said, pointing to a medium-sized sack behind him. Since he had made some money, Amir didn't haggle with the old man anymore. He handed over a 50-credit note as an advance payment.
Credit points had extremely high purchasing power, far exceeding the US dollar. Fifty credit points were a luxury when buying ingredients.
"Hehehe, don't worry. I'll definitely get it for you. I'll keep an eye out for more of these in the future," Hope said happily. He had only earned this much by selling nutritional paste and other ingredients for a week. Now, he could earn 50 credit points just by looking for this fruit during his collection rounds, which made him very happy.
After motivating the simple-hearted Granian, Amir took the small bag of Malaka fruit. He selected a few items that could barely be called vegetables and carried two peeled Nuna chickens home.
Though the chickens didn't look great, they were delicious. Now, he had the much-anticipated Maraca nuts too!
Among the ingredients he bought were vegetables resembling taro, so he could make a big plate of chicken today.
As Amir walked happily along, he suddenly spotted a familiar figure in an alley.
"Veronica? You're here! I was just going to invite you and Lango to dinner." He walked up and saw that she was standing in front of someone dressed in a black robe.
"Shh! Don't talk. I'm asking the witch to predict my fate!" Veronica glared at Amir and whispered.
At that moment, Amir noticed the short, humanoid creature in front of him. Its head only reached Veronica's neck, and its exact appearance was unclear, but it was definitely a young woman.
She was holding Veronica's right hand and examining it closely.
"I was just going to say..." Amir tried to interrupt.
"Shut up!"
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