Setting Out Again

Some time later...

The family of four sat awkwardly around the dining table, with the exception of Grandpa, even though dinner was especially lavish that night.

Beth, Jerry, and Summer had no appetite at all.

Because it was way too noisy upstairs...

Especially the words Morty was shouting—they were getting more and more outrageous...

Veins bulging across her forehead, Summer threw her fork onto her plate and stood up furiously.

"I can't take it anymore! I'm going upstairs to kick the door down!"

Beth and Jerry exchanged a look without saying another word.

On one hand, this kind of thing wasn't exactly appropriate to discuss openly.

On the other, they considered themselves fairly "understanding" parents.

Talking about it afterward was much better than interfering in the middle of it.

After all, the one upstairs wasn't Summer...

Yeah. Otherwise, Beth would show that little bastard what Iron Lady-style toughness looked like!

Morty had been jumping around the room for several minutes when he heard someone coming upstairs. He had to give American houses some credit.

Because these two-story American homes were generally built with wooden frames, footsteps could be heard crystal clear...

Someone was coming up.

Morty immediately shouted, "What? Wires? Go to hell!!!"

By the time Summer kicked open the door and stormed in, there was nothing there but mechanical parts and bionic tissue scattered all over the floor, with Morty standing alone in the middle of the room.

"Ah! My eyes! I need to wash them with sulfuric acid! Morty, why are you naked?!"

Morty said, "Are you really Grandpa's blood relative?"

Morty had originally wanted to make the whole matter seem normal, but after hearing Summer say that, he began to wonder whether Beth was really Jerry's daughter.

Otherwise, how could she say something this ridiculous?

How... could she be this ridiculous?

So you thought all that shouting just now meant Jessica and I were playing Monopoly, huh?

The other three, having heard Morty's last few remarks, hurried upstairs as well.

Aside from making Morty get dressed,

Beth and Jerry both stared at the mechanical parts covering the floor and questioned Grandpa.

There was no helping it. Whenever something strange happened in this house,

it was directly connected to Grandpa.

If they didn't look at him, who else could they look at?

Of course, more importantly, with the limits of their knowledge, there was no way they could immediately figure out what this advanced technology was.

"Rick, what exactly is going on here?" Jerry demanded, frowning deeply.

Grandpa gave Morty an approving look, then put on a show of inspecting the parts on the floor.

He had known all along that Jessica was a bionic robot.

He hadn't brought her here and put her in front of Morty so he could listen to noises downstairs.

It had been a test of Morty's willpower in the face of feminine temptation.

Would an old hand like Grandpa fail to realize that those exaggerated cries had been deliberately made by Morty?

So it seemed Morty had already crossed the first threshold.

It wasn't easy. After half a year of honing him, he finally resisted this temptation...

Now dressed, Morty watched Grandpa casually brush off his biological father and mother, and his suspicion was confirmed.

With Grandpa's eye for these things, it would have been strange if he couldn't tell Jessica was a bionic robot.

Yet he had deliberately brought Jessica before him.

That meant this was another test!

Maybe Old Rick's family had been a test for him too!

But Morty had no way to tell Grandpa that he knew about the Citadel of Ricks, knew about Dimension C-137, and knew everything that happened in Season One.

Otherwise, if Grandpa discovered that he wasn't his real grandson, wouldn't he chop him into pieces on the spot?

Ugh, when will this ever end...

Just as Morty thought the matter with Jessica was over,

Grandpa's expression suddenly changed. He said angrily, "They tried to lay their hands on my Morty. I have to get justice for this!"

"I will find the true culprit behind this!"

But after saying that, he immediately looked at Beth, his expression practically hinting that perhaps the one-month confinement should be lifted.

Morty wasn't allowed to go out on adventures for a month.

Yet in just two days, this whole bionic robot incident had happened.

Watching from the sidelines, Morty felt that Grandpa's approach was indeed just as deep as he had imagined.

Beginners emphasized thoroughness and caution. Afraid that even the tiniest mistake would ruin everything, they loved spending time and effort considering every possible situation.

But an old hand like Grandpa, tempered over countless years, already had his own trump card.

So long as Grandpa had even the slightest point of leverage, he could use it to achieve his goal.

Grounded, right?

A bionic robot tried to get close to Morty.

Don't you think that deserves a thorough investigation?

Shouldn't we find the real culprit behind it?

Could this really have been an accident?

No! It definitely wasn't an accident! Someone was plotting something in secret!

Even more impressive, Grandpa truly was the kind of player who could kill two birds with one stone. Morty had long since sensed Grandpa's intention to train him.

The hints from Old Rick's family over the past two days, along with Jessica coming to his door,

had made Morty less likely to stand there stupidly when faced with feminine temptation. At critical moments, he had learned to let his brain and eyes operate separately.

"We have to figure out what's going on!"

After hearing Grandpa's "warning," the first thing Beth said completely abolished Morty's one-month confinement.

Morty could return to adventuring once more.

"Okay! We'll investigate this immediately!"

After tossing out that sentence, Grandpa pulled out the Portal Gun, opened a portal, and left directly with Morty.

Two people suddenly vanished from the room.

Only mechanical parts and bionic tissue remained scattered across the floor.

Jerry and Summer exchanged a glance.

The former claimed he needed to prepare for an interview at a new company tomorrow, then slipped out of the room.

The latter claimed she had school tomorrow and still hadn't finished her homework, then ran back to her room to play on her phone.

As the only person in the house who had to do nearly all the chores while also working to support the family, Beth sighed helplessly.

She fetched several cardboard boxes from the storage room, put on dishwashing gloves, then crouched on the floor and began tossing the items inside one by one.

Until she picked up a certain object.

Beth keenly noticed that it was far too clean!

As a woman, she naturally knew what would result from certain activities.

But this thing was completely normal.

That didn't make any sense!

Then the only explanation was that Morty hadn't done anything at all!

Thinking of this, Beth—who had gone on several adventures with Grandpa and knew of the existence of infinite universes—took off her gloves and pulled out her phone.

Because she needed to make a call.

Something about this is strange...