While thinking about all this, Arvin Locke's hands didn't slow down at all.
After laying out the large patch of fertile field, he glanced at Uvogin and Machi, who were still standing there in a daze.
"What are you two still standing around for?! Hurry up and plant the seedlings!"
Uvogin: "???"
Before he could react, Arvin Locke had already walked over and opened the [Seedlings in a Capsule] that Uvogin was holding.
He divided the seedlings into three portions, handing two portions to Uvogin and Machi respectively.
"Like this—just stick the seedlings into the soil."
Arvin Locke even demonstrated first. Rolling up his pant legs, he stepped into the muddy rice field and planted the seedlings.
Uvogin: "..."
They were really planting rice on the spot?!
Did things like this even exist in Meteor City?!
This completely contradicted the survival rules Uvogin had always lived by, creating the first real clash with his worldview.
So much so that he stared at the small bundle of seedlings in his hand—something he could grab in one fist—without knowing what to do.
"If you don't know what to do, just watch her and learn~~~"
Arvin Locke immediately noticed Uvogin's awkwardness and pointed toward Machi beside him.
Machi?
Uvogin instinctively looked toward his inseparable partner.
And there he saw Machi's small figure already stepping into the rice field.
Her movements were clumsy and unfamiliar, but she still followed Arvin Locke's example and carefully planted the seedlings in her hands.
Uvogin fell silent for a moment at that sight.
Then he bared his teeth.
Isn't it just planting seedlings?!
If this dumb kid and Machi can do it, why the hell can't I?!
Without hesitation, he stepped into the rice field.
"You're too big—go plant over there."
"When you plant them, keep them straight! Don't scatter them all crooked!"
"Leave enough space between the seedlings, or they won't grow properly later!"
Under Arvin Locke's constant instructions, Uvogin worked up a sweat planting the seedlings.
If this had happened anywhere else, and Arvin Locke had spoken to him in that tone—
Uvogin would've twisted his head off and used it as a seat cushion.
But in this strange little rice field, he simply obeyed Arvin Locke's directions honestly.
In the end, after the trio clumsily scrambled around working together, the entire rice field was filled with… somewhat orderly rows of seedlings.
"That's the basic setup done."
Arvin Locke wiped the sweat from his face and turned to the two behind him—both now covered in mud, looking like they had crawled straight out of a swamp.
"In about two hours, we can harvest."
Two hours…
Machi, who hadn't even bothered wiping the mud splashed on her face, looked up at the artificial sun and dark clouds floating above.
Then she looked at the rice field, the seedlings, and the strange sticky rice cake machine.
None of this looked like something a normal person could do.
Beside her, Uvogin—whose back felt like it was about to break from bending over to plant seedlings—stared intently at the field.
Although this kind of manual labor was nothing for him physically, it was still his first time doing something like this, and under such bizarre circumstances.
He couldn't help but stay tense.
But when he looked at the field full of seedlings and thought about seeing the results in just two hours—
And realized he had planted them himself—
A grin slowly spread across Uvogin's face.
For some reason, he felt incredibly refreshed.
Not knowing this feeling was called a sense of accomplishment, Uvogin and Machi simply stared eagerly at the artificial sun and clouds in the sky.
Fortunately, what followed didn't disappoint them.
In the original Doraemon story, after Nobita and Doraemon planted the seedlings, the machine that controlled the seasons malfunctioned.
The clouds barely produced rain, while the artificial sun became too hot, drying the entire field until it almost cracked open.
While complaining that cheap goods weren't reliable, Doraemon had to run downstairs to borrow a bucket from Nobita's mother and manually water the field to prevent drought.
But then they accidentally watered it too much, and the clouds released too much rain, threatening to rot the rice crops.
They even had to place a sunny-day doll in the middle of the field to balance things out—making the whole process troublesome.
But the equipment Arvin Locke invented had none of those issues.
The sunlight remained steady and natural.
The clouds released rain regularly and in proper amounts.
Under these conditions, the rice seedlings grew beautifully.
As the cycle continued—
After a little more than an hour…
"They're getting taller?!!"
Uvogin and Machi watched with wide eyes as the rice plants grew rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Soon, the green seedlings began forming grain heads, gradually turning yellow as they approached maturity.
Originally, before the rice fully matured, there would have been locust eggs mixed among the crops, requiring someone to remove the insects.
But thanks to Arvin Locke's invention, even those locust eggs had been eliminated.
Otherwise, if a swarm of locusts had appeared—
Uvogin and the others might have skipped the sticky rice cake entirely and gone straight for grilled locusts instead.
Just like that—
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye.
Before the three of them appeared a vast golden rice field.
Each stalk bent under the weight of its plump, fully formed grains, nearly bowing toward the ground.