"Really? She can already parse pictures?" Xiaolang was surprised. She was just learning computer language the other day.
"Well… The resolution was… low." Shingo frowned as he brought out the picture. Lazarus and the others frowned.
"What the heck is this?" Lexus frowned.
"It's a 100×100 picture resolution," Shingo said as he looked at the picture. Most of the bottom left was blue. But there was a yellow pixel surrounded by green pixels there. Then, the top right was brown with a red pixel on it.
"... I suppose when you are doing it manually, it's understandable," Xiaolang said. A 100×100 resolution meant Auscella had to write 10,000 RGB pixels by herself. Each pixel consisted of three numbers ranging from 0 to 255.
"Nyauu…" Auscella yawned.
"You did great, Auscella!" Lazarus patted her head.
"Yellow, us!" Auscella said. "Red, computer!"
"Huh?" Lexus tilted his head.
"Ah! I understand! Is this a map?" Bob smacked his fist into his palm. Usually, Mistral would point the way with GPS tracking system, so most people didn't realize, but he had seen a map. This map was something much simpler than he used to. But it might be a map. There was no blue line indicating where he was supposed to go though.
"Map?" Laurel tilted her head. "But where does it lead?"
"Without a scale or landmarks, we can't know," Shingo shrugged.
"Au…" Auscella yawned.
"Auscella has done well. She seems tired. Should we let her rest?" Anna said.
"Huh? No! We just got a clue about how to get out of here. We need to find these red dots, right? We should tell Auscella to make more maps!" Lexus said.
"This blue might be the sea, and this yellow area covered by green dots might be our island." Xiaolang frowned. If that were true, that meant they had to leave this island. This island had its own dangerous monsters, but they couldn't be compared with those in the sea. It might as well be like comparing a penguin to a whale.
That Seliphesaurus, for example. It could kick their lifepod around as if it were a beach ball. Xiaolang was fairly sure it could defeat or eat that rhino no matter how much it struggled. They were safe now because such monsters didn't come onto land.
His concern was shared by the group, except for Auscella, who slept peacefully on Anna's lap.
"It's over. We will never make it out of here. We will die on this island." Lexus dropped to the ground. This time, Laurel didn't correct him. The mood darkened as all the children wore sullen expressions, seemingly agreeing with Lexus this time.
"Don't give up! Have faith!" Lazarus pumped her fist.
"But how can we cross the ocean?" Lexus didn't yell. He merely turned to her with a sigh. He looked so defeated. "There are monsters there."
"We can use our lifepod!" Lazarus said, but Shingo shook his head.
"No. This lifepod is breached. It won't float anymore. That Seliphesaurus damaged it. You see those gashes near the toilet, right?" Shingo said, crestfallen.
"Ugh… I'm sure we can do something! We can build our own boat or raft!"
"What about the sea monster? If it can damage our lifepod, mere wood won't stand a chance against it," Xiaolang argued.
"Yeah, this isn't a game. We can't build a ship. We have no power tools." Lexus shrugged. "We are going to die here."
"Ugh… Don't give up. There's got to be some way." Lazarus yelled back. She desperately fought back the fear and despair gnawing at her friends. If they gave up, it would be over. There had to be something they could do. "Let's pray so God can give us guidance and wisdom!"
"Let's sleep. The sun is almost set." Laurel sighed. "My arms are still numb, but I will try to help with water duty and gather food in the morning."
During the night, the children gazed at the campfire. The news about other continents had brought despair instead of hope. They were just children. How on earth could they build a boat and sail through seas filled with monsters? The silence was deafening.
"Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Laurel. I picked a metallic onion." Xiaolang handed the metallic onion to Bob. "Mistral, do you think we can grow this as food?"
[Probably. Based on its shape alone, it has the characteristics of a tuber. Tubers, such as potatoes, have been staple foods in some colonies due to how easy they are to grow.]
"Great! Let's start growing these tubers."
"Isn't it weird that we're calling them onions even though they're tubers?" Shingo frowned. "You said it was a bulb before."
[Onions are categorized as bulbs. They are composed of layers called scales wrapped around a central bud and a very short, compressed stem at the base.
Tubers, on the other hand, are enlarged portions of underground stems.
These metallic onions share the characteristics of a bulb by having a compressed stem at the base. However, they also have the characteristics of a tuber, since they have no scales. Therefore, I categorize these metallic onions as tubers, not bulbs.]
"Ah. Mistral is confused," Lexus said. The children giggled. Such was an AI. If presented with two different, contradictory facts, it tended to pick a side randomly.
"The problem is how to grow these. Any idea?"
[For tubers, you need to cut off a piece containing a bud, better known as an eye, and then plant it in fertile soil. For bulbs, you need to collect the seeds and sow them.]
"..." The children went silent as they inspected the metallic onion.
"Ah. It does have small notches on the side. Mistral was probably right. This onion is a tuber," Shingo said.
The children soon began their work. Using bowls made from crystal watermelons, they filled them with dirt and carved the onion into ten pieces. Then, they planted each bud in a makeshift pot.
"We just need to water these for a while." Laurel nodded. "I wonder how many pots we should prepare…"
[To feed seven people, you would need at least an acre of land, or about a 40×100-meter field.]
"We can't fit that inside the lifepod. What if the animals eat it?" Lexus complained.
"I guess we have to build a fence."
"Won't the rhinos come in? This is their food. What if we invite those monsters into our turf?" Xiaolang asked.
"The rhinos seem to stay on the plains. If we build our farm inside the western or southern forest, they might not discover it," Bob said. "We just need to be careful about the flipping pigs. Those can be repelled with wooden fences."
"Ugh. More work." Lexus sighed as he considered the amount of work they needed to do: building fences, tilling the field, planting the crops, and caring for them.
"Let's do it. More food is always welcome. We've almost exhausted the crystal watermelon groves. If we exhaust those, we'll need to rely on fruits from the lake. And those aren't very filling." Laurel said. "We don't have modern fertilizer, so let's make it two acres, or 40×200 meters instead."
"Should we build it in one place?" Xiaolang asked. "What if we build one in the southern forest too? So, if one farm is destroyed, we still have another."
"I think that's too much work. How can we guard it? What if scarabs turn over our fields?" Shingo said.
"I agree. It's too much work. I think we should stay on this western shore, near the lifepod. It's not like we know this can grow here. It might fail, for all we know." Laurel sighed. She had taken care of a potted plant before, and unfortunately, it died because she watered it too much. So she knew how hard it was to take care of plants.
"I will make some hoes or shovels."
"Let me braid some more ropes."
Albeit not what she had hoped, hope had returned to the children's faces. Instead of sighing a minute ago, they excitedly talked about the farm work. After a night's sleep, dawn came, and the children gathered before their lifepod.
"Now, let's start farming. We have ten potted plants to start with. Bob has made a simple stone hoe, and he will start the tilling. We found a nice glade in the forest. It's not rectangular, but Shingo said it was roughly 4,000 square meters. But before we can really farm, we need to make fences. Xiaolang and Lexus will be tasked with cutting down the trees. Shingo and Anna will chop them into suitable lengths, and we will assemble them around our farm." Laurel said. "Any questions?"
"Come on, let's just get on with it. Stop acting like a class pres."
"Alright. If there are no questions, let's do it after breakfast." Laurel nodded.
Xiaolang began to work. Lexus lagged behind, but since he complained less, Xiaolang tolerated him. At least he was doing some work. Auscella wanted to help, but Laurel asked her to guard the potted plants.
Once the trees were down, Anna and Shingo cut them and sharpened one end, creating stakes. Then, Laurel drove them into the ground while Lazarus tied them together with rope. Finally, Laurel hammered the stakes in with a stone hammer.
Bob tilled the field, removing the grass and stones. His hoe was more like a pickaxe than a hoe, but it could certainly break the hard soil, exposing the nutrient-rich earth below.
As the sun hovered over the horizon, a rough field measuring around 40 square meters (4 × 10 meters) had been made. The children looked upon their full day's work with mixed feelings. Now, it was all up to fate whether their efforts would bear fruit or not.
Honest work beats money. People say hard work rarely pays, but Bob, remember: your effort will someday be rewarded. Do things with all your heart, and you will gain something better than money. ~Bob