[Get: Rice grain (Earth 25.091763) <1-Star>]
[Get: Golden Rice grain (Earth 17.865378) <2-Star>]
[Get: Potato seed (Earth 5.274863) <1-Star>]
[Get: Wheat seed (Blue Star 18.863872) <1-Star>]
[Get: Carrot seed (Earth 19.462867) <1-Star>]
[Get: Iron Grass seed (Aquos 37.836294) <2-Star>]
[Get: Pear Apple seed (Earth 7.837278) <1-Star>]
[Get: Smoke Weed seed (Blue Star 12.927489) <2-Star>]
[Get: Branch of Irminsul Tree (Teyvat, IT 1.309383) <5-Star>]
[Get: Flammable Cistus seed (Azure Star 73.027632) <2-Star>]
One gold, four green, and five white colorful seed icons appeared on his phone screen, arranged in a neat grid like some kind of gacha history screen.
Otto's eyes locked onto the golden one.
Holy grass! Golden legend!
He stared at the screen, waiting for the punchline. For the notification to flicker and correct itself. Or for something to pop up saying "just kidding, that's a visual bug."
Nothing happened.
He'd actually pulled a 5-star.
On his first ten pull.
With a 0.06% chance.
Oooooooohhhhhhhh
He looked at the phone. Looked at his hands. Looked back at the phone.
"...Beginner's luck is real," he muttered.
The notification at the bottom of the screen read:
[Items will be delivered shortly. Please ensure the delivery area is clear.]
Delivery. Ah right. Crazy Dave's whole "multiverse delivery in one day" thing. He'd forgotten about that part.
While waiting, he scrolled through the seed details, tapping each one to expand the descriptions.
The 1-star seeds were mostly what he expected. Rice, wheat, carrot, potato, and something called "pear apple" which was probably exactly what it sounded like—a hybrid fruit some parallel Earth had cooked up.
Nothing exciting, but not useless either(for now). Maybe he could grow a vegetable and fruit garden to enjoy some otherworld fruit delicacy?
The 2-star seeds were more interesting.
[Golden Rice Grain (Earth) <2-Star>]
Special variety of rice with higher nutritional content than regular rice after genetic modification. Comes from a certain parallel Earth.
Genetically modified golden rice. He'd heard about this stuff back home—engineered to produce beta-carotene to fight vitamin A deficiency. Practical. Useful. Not exactly combat material, but hey, he needed to eat.
And what is the most important carbohydrate source for an Asian like him? Rice!
[Iron Grass Seed (Aquos) <2-Star>]
Special grass species with toughness akin to iron. Usually discovered near iron deposits as it absorbs metal elements in the soil to gain metallic properties. Comes from a certain parallel Aquos planet.
Iron grass. That had potential. If he could grow a patch of this stuff, maybe he could use it as a makeshift barrier? Or sell it? Grass that was basically iron had to be worth something in a pre-industrial world.
Or maybe for combat? He could shout something like "Iron grass entanglement!" Ahem! wrong set guys!
[Smoke Weed Seed (Blue Star) <2-Star>]
Weed that produces large amounts of smoke when burned. Demand for super smoke tobacco led to the development of this plant, which can be used to make cigarettes that allow a person to breathe out smoke as thick as a smoke bomb. Comes from a certain parallel Blue planet.
He read that twice.
Smoke the devil, it actually exists!
"...Smoke bomb cigarettes," he said slowly. "That's... actually kind of useful for escaping? Or stealth? Maybe?"
He filed that away for later.
[Flammable Cistus Seed (Azure Star) <2-Star>]
A type of Cistus that produces and stores highly flammable Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in its leaves. Developed as a way to produce flammable oil in a certain parallel Azure planet.
Flammable oil from a plant. That was basically a chemical weapon waiting to happen. Basically a molotov material. Or, you know, a really aggressive campfire starter.
And then—
[Branch of Irminsul Tree (Teyvat) <5-Star>]
A branch of the tree that stores all information from planetary leylines. Can grow a consciousness with intelligence and personality.
Otto's breath caught.
Irminsul.
He knew that name. Anyone who'd played Genshin Impact knew that name. The great tree that held all the memories and data of Teyvat's leylines.
The thing that Nahida—Lesser Lord Kusanali—was connected to. And even is the incarnation of the Greater lord Rukkadevatha, former dendro archon of Sumeru.
This tree that literally contained the history of an entire world and functioned as a server of the entire teyvat!
And now, he had a branch of it!
A branch that could grow a consciousness with intelligence and personality.
That meant—
"Could I grow my own Nahida?" he whispered.
The thought hit him like a truck. Not the train that had killed him, but close enough.
You know, Nahida was basically grown from a branch of Irminsul tree too by Rukkadevatha to prevent total corruption from forbidden knowledge.
And he now has another branch to grow! Maybe he can produce more nahida but the most likely scenario is probably just a similar incarnation. Basically Nahida's sister.
He was still processing this when the air in the room shifted.
A low hum vibrated through the floorboards. Not loud, but persistent. Like a refrigerator motor, if refrigerators were powered by pure nonsense.
Vrrrrrrr—
A small portal tore open in the middle of the room. About the size of a dinner plate, its edges shimmering with the same impossible colors as the one Crazy Dave's RV had used.
And through it came—
A drone.
But not like any drone Otto had ever seen.
It looked like someone had taken a 1950s sci-fi movie prop, let a cartoon character paint it, and then strapped a delivery box to the bottom.
The main body was a rounded metal sphere painted bright green, with a glass dome on top that housed a single, blinking eye made of old-fashioned vacuum tubes.
Four propeller arms extended from the sides, each one a mismatched collection of gears and rotors that spun with a sound like a lawnmower having an existential crisis. One propeller was clearly a repurposed desk fan. Another looked like it came from a boat.
The whole thing was held together with duct tape and what appeared to be pure force of will.
On its side, painted in cheerful red letters:
TWINKIES DINKIES DELIVERY SERVICE
"We're CRAZY fast!"
The drone hovered in place for a moment, its vacuum-tube eye swiveling to scan the room. When it locked onto Otto, it let out a cheerful electronic chirp.
[DING DONG!]
A synthesized voice emerged from somewhere inside the metal sphere, cheerful and slightly distorted, like a speak-and-spell that had been left in the sun too long.
"DELIVERY FOR: O-T-T-O HIT-LER. PLEASE CONFIRM IDENTITY BY STATING: 'I AM CRAZY FOR PLANTS.'"
Otto stared at the drone.
"...I am crazy for plants," he said flatly.
[CONFIRMATION ACCEPTED!] The drone bobbed up and down excitedly. [YOU HAVE ONE (1) PACKAGE CONTAINING ELEVEN (11) SEED ITEMS. PLEASE SIGN HERE—]
A thin arm extended from the drone's side, holding what looked like a digital signature pad made out of an old tablet screen and a Game Boy Advance.
"—OR VERBALLY CONFIRM BY STATING: 'I ACCEPT THIS DELIVERY AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT TWINKIES DINKIES IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INTERDIMENSIONAL CONSEQUENCES, ZOMBIE OUTBREAKS, OR SUDDEN SENTIENCE ACQUIRED BY DELIVERED ITEMS.'"
Otto's eye twitched.
"...I accept this delivery and acknowledge that Twinkies Dinkies is not responsible for any interdimensional consequences, zombie outbreaks, or sudden sentience acquired by delivered items."
[WONDERFUL!] The drone's eye blinked rapidly. [YOU ARE NOW A VALIDATED TWINKIES DINKIES CUSTOMER! YOUR LOYALTY POINTS BALANCE IS: ZERO. SPEND MORE TO UNLOCK EXCITING REWARDS LIKE—]
It paused, as if consulting an internal script.
"—ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! DAVE IS TOO CRAZY TO IMPLEMENT A LOYALTY PROGRAM! HAVE A NICE DAY!"
The drone's cargo hatch popped open, and a small burlap sack dropped into Otto's hands. Before he could say anything, the drone gave a cheerful salute with its arm, spun in a circle, and zipped back through the portal.
POP.
The portal snapped shut.
Otto stood there for a moment, holding the sack.
"...What just happened."
He looked at the phone. The delivery notification had been updated to DELIVERED.
Right. Okay. This was happening.
He sat down on the bed, untied the sack, and carefully poured the contents onto the blanket.
Eleven seeds. Why eleven?
Cuz he also ordered a Cherry bomb seed as an extra before the delivery.
[Cherry Bomb (PVZ) <4-Star>]
Gigantic Cherry that produces Nitroglycerin compound inside it. Capable of exploding with great power.
Apparently, no matter what kind, all PvZ plants are considered as 4 Star plants. Maybe this is because they all have eyes…?
Ahem, he means elementary spirit or consciousness. Not truly to the level of 5 stars with intelligence but at least to the animal level?
Maybe, if it is the Plants heroes from PvZ from garden warfare, it would be the 5 star plants.
Aside from that single PvZ seed, the other 10 come from a myriad of worlds.
Each one glowing faintly with whatever energy marked their rarity. The five white ones—rice, wheat, carrot, potato, pear apple—were dim, almost normal-looking. The four green ones had a soft luminescence, like they were holding a little bit of moonlight inside. And the golden one...
The golden one was a small branch. Barely longer than his finger, with a few tiny leaves that seemed to shimmer between shades of green and silver. It pulsed with a light that wasn't quite gold, wasn't quite white, something in between.
The Branch of Irminsul.
He picked it up carefully, turning it over in his fingers. It felt warm. Alive. Like holding a sleeping creature that might wake up at any moment.
I could grow this, he thought. I could actually grow a piece of Irminsul. Here. In this world.
His mind started racing. If the Irminsul tree stored information from leylines, what would it store here? This world's memories? Its history?
And if it grew consciousness… Or even further, become a plant girl… He can raise a daughter!!!