Too big to fit!

Humanity's survival was at stake. No matter what, Lin Mo had to find a way to get his hands on it.

So he nodded, taking a step back to gain ground.

"I understand."

"I'm only putting forward their proposal. Whether you agree is entirely up to you."

"Before you make your final decision, though, could I see the seed for myself?"

Inspect the goods first, then negotiate the price. That was standard procedure.

Queen Ellari considered it for a moment, then finally nodded.

"Of course. Please follow me."

She rose and left the royal court.

The elders remained seated.

"Fendona, could you tell me about the World Tree Seed? How do you grow it, for example?" Lin Mo asked the woman beside him as he followed the Queen.

Fendona began explaining to him in a quiet voice.

"Growing a world tree is actually quite simple. It needs to take root on a mineral vein containing a strange energy, and then you must keep 'feeding' it energy."

"The purer and more abundant the energy you provide, the faster it grows."

An energy vein?

Lin Mo's heart lurched.

Blue Star was a world of science. Where was he supposed to find some strange mineral vein?

Still, he had come this far. He would worry about that later.

He would get the seed first. Those research maniacs would find a way.

Even if they couldn't grow the original version, surely grafting it or creating some knockoff "hybrid world tree" wouldn't be too much trouble?

The three of them went outside, where a platform woven from vines was already waiting to carry them down.

The vines quickly descended from the top of the world tree to the ground. As Lin Mo stepped off, he clicked his tongue in admiration.

"This vine elevator of yours is freaking awesome!"

"Oh? An elevator?" the Queen asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

"Yeah. Ours is a box powered by electricity. It can carry people up and down, too."

He gestured up and down as he spoke.

The Queen nodded and led him across the ground to the main trunk, which would take "three hundred million cups of Xiangpiaopiao Milk Tea" to circle once.

Murmuring an incantation, the Queen led them through a barrier of vines and magic and into the roots of the world tree.

This was the world tree's core.

Countless roots clustered together, radiating a soft glow of life. At the top of the cluster lay a quietly glowing seed.

It was perfectly round and shimmered with colors, its surface covered in mysterious patterns. The life force it radiated was so dense it was almost tangible.

But Lin Mo's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

This fucking thing was the size of a soccer ball!

He began praying that it wasn't the seed. Hopefully, it was a shell, and the actual seed was inside.

"Sir Lin Mo, this is the World Tree Seed." As though she had heard his prayers, the Queen dealt him the finishing blow.

His last flicker of hope died completely.

This thing was a seed... You called this a seed?

That was a fruit!

Lin Mo went numb.

He had imagined the seed might be large-perhaps the size of a bird's egg or an oversized hand grenade.

But he had never imagined that it would be far beyond what a human mouth could hold!

How was he supposed to take it back?

Mine's pretty big. Just bear with it?

Queen Ellari seemed not to notice anything unusual about Lin Mo. Gazing at the seed, she said softly,

"Sir Lin Mo, you have seen it for yourself. This World Tree Seed is our people's hope for survival and growth."

"Trading it for aid is a momentous decision. I must discuss it further with the elders."

Lin Mo immediately seized the offered way out.

"Exactly, exactly!" He nodded earnestly, his expression solemn.

"I also need to go back and discuss this with my country."

"After all, with such a... such a precious seed, we must assess whether we can cultivate it properly. We can't let your goodwill go to waste!"

His thoughts were a complete mess.

The very first step of the plan had hit a logistics snag.

This deal was probably going to fall through.

If he couldn't bring it back, he would have to trade for something else.

Ark Underground Base, Bell City.

Lin Mo's eyes snapped open in bed. His consciousness returned to his familiar body, and he sprang up at once.

He grabbed the radio on the bedside table.

"Big Brother Zhao, I'm back. We need to hold a Team Meeting. Right now!"

At the Queen's arrangement, Fendona had taken Lin Mo on a tour of Aivinol.

Distracted throughout the tour, he had hurried off to sleep after lunch under the pretext of taking a nap, eager to bring the news back.

A few minutes later, when Lin Mo arrived in the meeting room, Zhao Gang, Qian Zhenhua, Liu Chengen, and the other leading figures were already sitting upright, their expressions grave.

"What happened?" Zhao Gang asked in a low voice. He was already prepared to hear any sort of bad news.

Lin Mo poured out everything he had seen and heard at the Elf Royal Court in one breath.

"...That's the situation." Breathing hard, Lin Mo dropped into a chair.

"The seed is the size of a soccer ball!"

"And it needs a special energy vein to grow!"

"The Queen is still hesitating. I said I needed to come back and discuss it, so I've bought us some time."

After hearing him out, Academician Qian Zhenhua pushed up his reading glasses, his graying eyebrows knotting together.

"The size of a soccer ball?"

"That... that exceeds our expectations! It would be physically impossible to carry it through the mouth!"

The entire meeting room erupted.

"How big, exactly? Do you have precise measurements? What's its density? How intense is its energy radiation?"

"An energy vein... Is it similar to the crystal deposits on Blue Star, or a region rich in some radioactive element? Can we analyze its composition?"

"Could we cut it apart and bring it back in small pieces?"

"No!" Liu Chengen, an academician in biological research, slapped the table and stood. His normally defiant eyes now burned with fervor.

"The World Tree Seed is too precious. If we damage its living structure, we may never get another one. We cannot take that risk!"

"Then what do you suggest?" a physicist retorted.

"We can't exactly dislocate Comrade Lin Mo's jaw, can we? Even then, it wouldn't fit!"

"Why not?" Liu Chengen countered, stunning everyone.

"Dislocating and resetting the mandible is a routine procedure in modern medicine!"

"I think this is a risk worth taking!"

Lin Mo's eyelids twitched as he listened, and a chill crept through his jaw.

Holy shit. You research maniacs really would try anything!

"Absolutely not!" Zhao Gang immediately rejected the proposal.

"I told you, Comrade Lin Mo's safety is our highest priority!"

"Any plan that would harm him personally is off the table!"

Liu Chengen wanted to argue, but one look at Zhao Gang's eyes made him sit back down reluctantly.

A brief silence settled over the meeting room as everyone racked their brains over this seemingly impossible problem.

Seconds and minutes ticked by, and Lin Mo's heart sank little by little.

Was humanity's future really going to be choked off by a seed the size of a soccer ball?