My 100th Rebirth a day before the Apocalypse

Chapter 998: Chapter 996 Advantageous Or Problematic?

Edison only blinked, offering no immediate response.

For a moment, Kisha thought she had failed, that her words hadn’t reached him at all. Her mind was already turning, searching for another way to explain, another way to make him understand, when she suddenly noticed his head move.

Slowly. Carefully.

He nodded.

It was as if he needed time to process what she had said, to weigh it and understand it fully before responding. And when he finally did, that small, deliberate nod stunned her.

Because for the first time, it felt as though Edison was truly opening up to her.

Kisha studied Edison for a few seconds, and for a moment, it felt as if she was looking at her younger brother, Keith, back when he was still trapped in the shadows of his trauma.

Keith had been the same, withdrawn, closed off from the world, yet despite everything, he had always been able to sense sincerity. Even when words failed him, his instincts never did. He knew who meant him well and who didn’t.

Perhaps Edison was the same.

Though Edison was slow to respond and was struggling to communicate, that didn’t mean he was incapable of understanding people’s intentions. And maybe that was why he didn’t seem guarded around her at all.

The thought made Kisha smile, warmth blooming quietly in her chest.

"Come on," she said cheerfully. "I’ll take you to a special place. There are lots of animals there, and plenty of good food too. Big strawberries, and all kinds of fruit."

It took Edison a little longer than usual to process her words. By the time he fully understood what she meant, they were already walking toward the forest. Kisha didn’t notice it then, but behind her, Edison’s lips curved upward, his eyes crinkling slightly as a small, hesitant smile appeared.

He was excited.

Kisha led Edison to the portal. She could have teleported him directly into her territory space, she had the ability to do that, but Edison was still a young child. She wanted him to experience the portal firsthand, to see the magic of it with his own eyes, just like the fantastical scenes he might have seen in cartoons or anime on TV.

When Kisha turned around, holding his hand, she saw his eyes sparkle as they stopped in front of the swirling portal. His wonder mirrored what she had hoped to see.

Seeing his reaction, Kisha smiled softly and said, "You might feel a little dizzy when we go through, maybe even some motion sickness. But you’ll be fine. If you get scared, just stay close to me, okay? It’ll only take a moment."

Kisha waited until Edison fully understood her words, and only when she saw him nod did she step into the portal, holding his hand. The moment they entered, a fairytale-like scene unfolded before him. The air was fresh and brimming with vitality, filling them both with a sense of refreshment and energy.

Edison’s eyes sparkled as he took in the sight. The trees surrounding them, which he had glimpsed from the forest earlier, had vanished, and instead, he found himself transported to the far end of the farm.

And it just so happened that Marcus was tending to the crops nearby, carefully harvesting the newest growth. He was currently picking up the enormous eggplants, each as large as a Japanese daikon radish.

Their deep purple skin glimmered with a golden sheen, and even from a distance, Kisha could tell these were high-level spiritual crops, the faint sparkling light around them leaving no doubt.

And Edison seemed genuinely interested in what Marcus was doing. "Do you want to get a closer look?" Kisha asked, noticing his curiosity. When Edison slowly nodded, she guided him closer to Marcus, who was carefully using pruning shears to cut the massive eggplants from their tree.

Their size and weight made it impossible to harvest them by hand alone. The stems were thick and tough, and even with Marcus’s strength, his fingers were only slightly stronger than a normal human’s, so the shears were necessary.

"Young Madam!" Marcus exclaimed as he noticed Kisha approaching. The eggplant tree was a bit tall, and since Kisha was on the other side, he hadn’t seen Edison at first. Kisha walked over beside Marcus, and only then did he notice the small child standing next to her, eyes wide with curiosity and sparkling with wonder. "And this is...?" he asked, surprised.

"A potential Mental Type awakened ability user," Kisha explained candidly. "I brought him here to spend time with Daisy, to keep him safe from being kidnapped, and also to have a child close to his age to interact with."

"Hopefully, it might help improve his social awareness, or at least give him someone to talk to. He has mild autism, so I need someone as talkative and personable as Daisy to help guide Eddie a little."

She spoke openly to Marcus, trusting him. After all, he was her elder, and while technically her subordinate, Daisy was his granddaughter. Since she was leaving Edison in Daisy’s care, it was only right that Marcus understood his circumstances.

After hearing Kisha, Marcus gave Edison a gentle, understanding look, a hint of sadness in his eyes. He nodded at Kisha before setting the large eggplant into the waist-high basket beside him. Then he lowered himself to Edison’s level.

"Child, would you like to help Grandpa harvest some vegetables and fruits?" he asked with a kind smile. "I grow these myself, and they’re really good... You might have even tried some before; they’re mostly sold at the Supply Center."

Hearing Marcus, Edison immediately thought of the big strawberry his grandfather had bought from the Supply Center, which was sweet, juicy, and delicious, the delicious one he loved so much.

Seeing the farm and the enormous vegetables, and knowing that Marcus grew them all and sold them to the Supply Center, Edison instantly took a liking to him. After all, Marcus was the one who grew the strawberries his grandfather used for the candy flavoring!

Without hesitation, Edison nodded enthusiastically, a bright smile spreading across his face and a sparkle of delight lighting his eyes. Even Kisha was surprised; she had never expected Edison to be so eager to help with the harvest, or to be so instantly close with Marcus.

Kisha watched as Marcus patiently taught Edison how to harvest the eggplants, letting him use a smaller pruning shear for the lower eggplants hanging on the tree. Seeing Edison put his whole body into supporting each massive eggplant, struggling slightly to carry them to the tall basket, which was taller than him, yet he was still moving with boundless energy, Kisha couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

All she could see was Edison genuinely enjoying himself, so carefree and full of life, just like any other normal child.

’Maybe this kid has the potential to be a farmer?’ Kisha thought as she quietly observed Edison for a while. Just standing there watching might make Marcus feel self-conscious, so she decided to help with the harvest. But instead of doing it like Marcus or Edison, she used her telekinesis.

With invisible, almost octopus-like hands, she carefully plucked more than a dozen eggplants from their stems. They floated gently through the air, as if guided by a fairy’s magic wand, making their way directly into the large baskets. Edison was absolutely mesmerized. He clapped in delight, eyes sparkling, as the eggplants danced and landed one by one.

Thanks to Kisha’s help, Marcus only took half an hour to harvest the corner of this hundred-tree eggplant patch, which was a tiny fraction of the farm’s countless vegetables and crops.

After finishing with the eggplants, Marcus transferred the harvest directly to the territory space’s warehouse. Then he moved on to the Napa cabbage section, where the cabbages were nearly as large as pumpkins used for Halloween, their heads almost reaching Kisha’s knees.

"They’re really growing huge!" Kisha couldn’t help but exclaim. She felt like the vegetables had grown even bigger than when she first started farming in her territory, a proof of how fertile and well-tended the land had become.

"I think it has a lot to do with the abundant spiritual energy in this territory, Young Madam. And beyond that, almost all the crops planted on the farm have upgraded; there are hardly any ordinary crops left; nearly every single one has evolved into a spiritual crop," Marcus explained.

He paused for a moment to look around, realizing that since he had been working on this plot of land every day, he hadn’t truly noticed the changes until Kisha pointed them out.

When Kisha heard what Marcus said, she fell into deep contemplation. If his observation was true, then although nearly all the crops had evolved into spiritual crops, most of them were probably still low-grade, with only a few higher-grade among them.

The low-grade crops, while imbued with spiritual energy, barely showed any noticeable effects. Even so, a spiritual crop was still different from a normal crop, which could be both advantageous and problematic.