Mega Fruit Secured

"Once this thing starts dissolving, if you don't remove it, with your body, your intelligence and physical strength will both drop by at least 70% within seventy-two hours. And you actually dared to eat it directly. I seriously don't know what you were thinking."

"If you don't take it out, you little shit, you'll just die within twenty-four hours."

After the fruit flesh in his stomach was punched out by Rick.

Before Morty could even get angry or confused, hearing that explanation finally reminded him of the one thing he had failed to recall before passing through the portal.

What exactly it was.

Mega Fruit and Mega Seeds couldn't be eaten directly!

They had to undergo further processing before they could be consumed!

I'm screwed...

I forgot about that...

Morty, who had just been at the peak of his life, using his endless intelligence to develop technologies such as nuclear fusion and the Mr. Meeseeks Box from scratch.

Felt the world before his eyes becoming ordinary again. The subtle thinking abilities brought by his high IQ were plummeting in a straight line.

Along with it came a sense of physical weakness. His legs began to tremble, and he slowly collapsed to the ground.

Rick said with a look of disgust, "You've been running around with me for half a year. Don't you know what can be eaten and what can't?"

"Do you think Cthulhu's dried squid can be eaten?" Morty asked weakly.

Hearing that, Rick turned around and looked at Cthulhu's family of four in the distance, who were being bombarded by the Galactic Empire's cannons. He gave a casual cough to conceal his embarrassment...

"Well! Didn't you think it was nice and chewy?"

Morty: "..."

Since the Portal Gun really had no energy fluid left, Rick wasn't in a hurry to take Morty away. He planned to wait until the Galactic Empire had driven off those four guys.

Then find a chance to hitch a ride to Multidimensional Customs.

So the two of them sat down against a tree.

But Rick wasn't the type who could sit idle. As he watched Cthulhu getting beaten up, he told Morty things he normally would never say aloud.

"Morty, things have gone beyond my ideas and plans now. You know that?"

"You've been acting too eager, too desperate to make yourself stronger. Those are good things, and I'm not denying that. But arrogance is a trait I really don't want you to have."

"So while your IQ is offline, I hope you remember this."

"Once Morty becomes arrogant, he will inevitably bring about endless terrible consequences!"

Although his intelligence had temporarily been cut by around 70%, those words immediately stirred Morty's memories.

Because after Evil Rick and Evil Morty appeared, Rick had said the exact same thing.

Looking at it now, those words carried a much deeper meaning!

Then he recalled how, after Rick had been tied up, Evil Rick read his memories and discovered images of a young Morty.

Morty's heart suddenly trembled.

A secret finally revealed its answer at that moment!

He—and even his mother—had not seen Rick for a full twenty years!

Then who exactly was the young Morty in Rick's memories!

The answer was practically obvious!

Could the Evil Morty who appeared later have been raised by Rick himself?

Did he raise me just so I could fight that Evil Morty?

Hiss!

Although being treated like a tool was an awful feeling.

Morty also knew that every gift in this world came at a price.

If Rick hadn't chosen him, then he would surely have lived out his life in mediocrity, or been chosen by some unreliable Rick.

Now that he was following this one, absolutely the Rickest Rick, he had already hit the jackpot.

But at the same time, after figuring out the whole situation, Morty began to think about leaving Rick. He didn't want to live forever under Rick's shadow.

He deserved an entirely different life!

Morty would not be Rick's lackey!

After half a year, Morty finally resolved to run away again. While Rick wasn't paying attention, he secretly took a Mega Fruit that had fallen to the ground, peeled it and removed the flesh...

Then used the small plastic water bottle in his pocket to put some of the fruit flesh inside.

He would rather die than shove this thing somewhere deep inside himself!

Absolutely not!

After the battle in the distance went on for half an hour, it came to a temporary end when Cthulhu and the others were blasted away.

Though these guys were powerful in their own story worlds.

That was only because the humans in those stories didn't have enough firepower!

Rick had said as much before.

When it came to those pretentious, mystical, seemingly mysterious things, don't follow their rhythm. Just blast the hell out of them and be done with it!

Even if you encountered a creature made purely of soul energy, as long as you found the right method of attack, you could still kill it.

Next, Morty and Rick blended in with a planetary spaceship and headed for Multidimensional Customs. After successfully returning home.

Rick threw Morty onto his bed, and Morty used his remaining 30% intelligence and strength to pull out the Mr. Meeseeks Box from under the bed.

He pressed the button on top of the box.

A little blue man, one meter seventy-eight tall, appeared out of thin air.

"I'm Mr. Meeseeks!"

"Do me a favor. Put this bottle in the freezer."

After giving him a simple task, Morty watched him leave his room.

Morty had always felt that Rick's little invention had plenty of room for improvement. After all, in the show, Mr. Meeseeks couldn't teach his father to play golf, yet he could help his mother become a more emotionally complete woman?

His father and mother's marital problems had long surpassed the limits of what humans could handle.

Yet Mr. Meeseeks could use a few words of feel-good advice.

To make his mother emotionally whole.

So Morty decided to use all the fruit flesh he had brought back to upgrade the Mr. Meeseeks Box.

As long as Mr. Meeseeks could reach a scientific research level, Morty wouldn't need to use too much of his own brainpower to study those headache-inducing development projects.

When the time comes, I'll call it Mr. Meeseeks 2.0.

With that thought in mind, Morty fell into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Rick had just come out of the garage when he saw Mr. Meeseeks putting a plastic water bottle stuffed full of fruit flesh into the refrigerator.

With Rick's intelligence, he naturally understood what was going on at once.

Morty wanted to hide it from him and find a way for the human body to absorb Mega Fruit flesh?

But he didn't stop him.

Because infinitely many Mortys possessed infinitely many possibilities.

This Morty was unlike 99.999% of other Mortys in many ways.

He was more like the one truly unique kind.

That was what Rick wanted, too. He didn't want a useless Morty, nor one who was too impossible to control. So Morty's current performance.

Made the half year Rick had spent constantly teaching him and drilling ideas into him worthwhile.

I'm really looking forward to it. I wonder what he'll eventually become like.