Yuta headed to the mining administration office to sell the Golden Ruby. The crystal was appraised at forty thousand Tox, earning him his twenty-five percent cut—a solid ten thousand Tox. He kept the terrifying drop into the subterranean fissure to himself; deadly accidents were an everyday occurrence down here, though walking away alive from one was a miracle in its own right.
The prison guards usually swept such incidents under the rug anyway and didn't bother investigating the ledge where Yuta had been stranded. Luck was finally on his side—he had cleared the entire ordeal without raising suspicion.
With the cash in hand, Yuta's family purchased the remaining agricultural supplies. His mother and Pihu were initially stunned—earning ten thousand Tox in a single shift was virtually unheard of. Fearing for his safety, his mother scolded him for pushing himself too hard, but Yuta calmed her down by explaining the lucky Golden Ruby find.
Originally, they had planned to wait one to two months just to scrape together enough funds, but that was no longer necessary. They bought premium seeds, soil additives, and specialized growth-accelerating water. The supplies totaled five thousand Tox—exactly half of Yuta's hard-earned payout.
Back at the plot, Yuta's role was to assist his mother and Pihu. Intergalactic agriculture was far from traditional farming; it required channeling soul energy and establishing genetic resonance with the crops. In the galaxy, food cultivated for one human subspecies wasn't always digestible by another.
Genetic synchronization bridged this gap, adapting the crop during growth so its nutrients matched the consumer's biological blueprint—much like refining raw wheat so even a predator could digest it.
The seeds Yuta's family purchased belonged to a different human lineage, requiring minor genetic recalibration to adapt them to their own branch of baseline humanity.
Once the seeds were buried in the soil, Yuta's physical labor was done for the day. Stepping back to the perimeter, he watched his mother and Pihu sit down at opposite ends of the field.
"Yuta, did you pour the soul-resonance water?" his mother called out. Yuta nodded in response. The magic-infused fluid facilitated genetic connection and soul linkage—a tool typically used by those with weaker soul potential, though it also extended endurance during long cultivation sessions. While neither his mother nor Pihu possessed weak souls, the sheer scale of the plot required sustained focus.
A translucent vine glowing with a faint pink hue manifested behind Pihu—a spectral projection of her soul connection taking plant form. Behind his mother, a larger vine erupted, shimmering with a soft blue light. The two projections differed significantly in scale, his mother's soul vine far outsizing Pihu's.
His mother's vine split into four tendrils, capable of reaching four distinct quadrants simultaneously. Pihu's vine possessed only two tendrils. Directing their soul manifestations mentally, the tendrils went to work.
They had divided the field into six distinct sectors based on their tendril capacity. Burrowing into the dirt, the tendrils began establishing a biological link with the buried seeds. His mother's vine stretched ten meters with an effective resonance radius of one meter, while Pihu's extended five meters with a half-meter radius.
It took a full minute for the tendrils to anchor into position. Once locked, the synchronization process began. His mother completed her connection with all seeds in her sectors within half an hour. Pihu took longer—spending thirty minutes on a single row, taking an entire hour to fully initialize her link.
Watching from a short distance, Yuta felt a slight pang of uselessness. He had seen them perform soul cultivation back home, but seeing it here under such desperate circumstances hit differently.
Soul awakening varied from person to person, though baseline humans typically awakened around age twenty. Pihu's soul had awakened right on her twentieth birthday. Because of this, Yuta was anxiously awaiting his own twentieth birthday—the day he planned to inject the hidden A.Z Gene Fluid into his body.
Yuta didn't know the exact risk of taking the gene fluid before reaching full physical awakening. He reasoned that if his genetic foundation hadn't matured, the fluid's potency might be wasted—or worse, it could backfire fatally. He weighed his options: risk his life by taking it early for immediate strength, or wait until his body fully awakened to maximize the benefit?
Ever since childhood, people had called Yuta naive and gentle, but beneath that soft exterior lay a fierce determination. He cared little for his own life; his entire world revolved around protecting his family. If harm came to him, he could swallow it—but if anyone hurt his family, he would never let it slide.
He bore no personal grudge against the corporate elite who framed him, but the fact that their scheme had dragged his mother and sister into slavery infuriated him to his core. Beneath his calm demeanor, he made a silent vow: the moment he broke free from this colony, he would dismantle that trading firm brick by brick, even if it took the rest of his life.
My mind is made up. I will never bow down!
Will Yuta—now channeling an unyielding spirit—stand tall against the odds, or will the cruel galaxy force him to his knees?
Stay tuned for the next chapter of... The Unemployed CEO!