Main World.
Year 29 of Konoha, autumn.
Mechanical Star, Mechanical City, Institute of Technology.
The corridor lights were stark white, shining against the alloy walls. The air was filled with the pungent smell of disinfectant and something deeper, something indefinable that provoked instinctive unease-the scent of "life being modified." Mikoto followed behind Toyotomi Yinglang with light footsteps, the skirt of her black maid uniform swaying gently at her knees. She carried a tea tray holding several cups of freshly brewed tea, its fragrance stubbornly spreading through the disinfectant-laden air.
She had visited Mechanical Star many times. Every time, she felt that this was no place for "living people." There was no sunlight, no vegetation, no wind. Only alloy, lights, growth chambers, and those silent, tireless robots. But when Toyotomi Yinglang told her to come, she came. She did not need to know why.
Tsunade walked beside her, her long golden hair taking on a cold white sheen under the stark lights. Her arms were folded across her chest, her brows slightly furrowed, her gaze sweeping over the growth chambers on either side. Various biological tissue samples floated inside them. Some resembled organs, some resembled muscles, and some resembled... she did not want to know what.
"Yinglang, what did you call us here for?" There was a trace of impatience in Tsunade's voice.
"To look at some technology." Toyotomi Yinglang walked at the front, his moon-white kariginu glowing softly under the lights, his steps unhurried.
"What technology?"
"Air food technology."
Tsunade's brows drew tighter. "Air... food? You can eat air?"
Toyotomi Yinglang did not answer. He pushed open the alloy door at the end of the corridor, revealing an enormous laboratory. A huge machine stood in its center. Silver-white, roughly three meters tall and five meters wide, its surface was densely