[/Reshuffling_DNA]

[/Reshuffling_RNA]

[/Cell_division_unstable]

[/Reshuffling_DNA]

The machine quietly stares at the murky red liquid in the algae cultivating vats as its CPUs runs full throttle to do multiple simulation test runs to create the 'perfect' algae to grow in the vat, the machine has been doing this for 6 hours now, and so far there has no success yet, all the variations of the desired algae are either unstable or sterile, something which its maker once struggled with in the past when they tried to create the all-purpose algae farm.

"WHY YOU LITTLE SHIT?!! I WAS SO CLOSE!"

Hearing yet another random shouting echoing around the chamber, the machine quickly exits the simulation program and turns around to see what the young female knight is up to again, the machine has been doing this every one or two hours or so, even in her sleep the girl keep squirming around and throwing her fists left and right every now and then for unknown reasons, the machine knows the concept of 'dream' but for dreams to make her body acting around that much, the machine guesses those dreams must be something important and nerve-racking, or she just have some kind of brain damage, or it is just how other life forms in this world sleep like. Whatever it is, as long as those dreams won't make the girl moving around and smashing its facilities, the machine will not intervene with her sleep as much as possible.

But since the girl is already awakened and having some food right now, the machine thinks it should try to communicate with the girl again, maybe the machine will spend more time observing her writing and gestures more for its logical cores to analyze and study the pattern of her speech to set up a rough translation, for now this won't be a part of its primary objective however as most of the machine's total CPU load is reserved for running algae simulation software, the machine need that algae ready as soon as possible if it want to keep up with its colony upgrading plans.

"...Do you want some?."

The machine watches the girl pointing at a slice of jerky on her hand as it guesses the girl either asking if the machine has anything like that for her to eat or offering it to the machine. The machine is uncertain, but it needs to give her an answer regardless.

"What?...What are you looking at?"

The machine observes the girl turning her head left and right slightly before looking back at the machine and the jerky on her hand, the machine assumes the girl is asking for food rather than offering food based on its observations. Currently, the machine has no food for her to eat, however, it does still have some giant lizard meat in the bio-organic material storage container, the meat should be still fresh and clean enough to be safe for the girl to consume after it has been properly cooked.

The machine steadily moves toward the cold container and retrieves a small slab of red meat before closing the container and bringing it to the girl's corner.

"Wa-WAIT!. That wasn't what I meant you 4 legged urchin!. That is not what I said!"

The machine slows down its movement and stops as it stands 10 meters away from the girl, it seems like the girl disliked the meat as it is still raw and very cold, or it could be the machine misunderstood the girl.

"I said do you want this?!. DO-YOU-WANT-THIS?!"

The machine tilts its head slightly as it watches the girl furiously pointing at the machine, then at the strip of jerky and then back at the machine. It seems like the girl is indeed offering the dried meat stick to the machine instead of asking for food from the machine.

The machine nods slightly as it turns around and walks back to the container to put the meat away, but as the machine goes the girl suddenly shouts something again.

"Hey wait!. I didn't say you should put it away!. Give it to me!!!"

The machine looks back at the girl and observes her pointing gesture again, now the machine is confused, what does this girl really mean?. Is she asking for food?. Or is she offering food?...Or is it both?...Does she want to trade the jerky for something else?. The machine has no idea and its primary CPU just dumps all the data for a reboot.

The machine looks at the girl and the slab of meat it is holding as it tries pointing the meat, then it points its finger at the girl.

"You"

The machine then points at the jerky strip and then points at itself.

"Me"

"Ah...Ah!. Yes. This for you, that for me!. Yes!. You finally got it urchin!"

The machine slowly turns its legs around and walks toward the girl while holding the slab of meat, stopping in front of her the machine then lowers the cool meat chunk in front of the girl and lowers its other hand down next to her. Erika quickly places the jerky strip on the machine's empty hand next to her and takes the still cold meat chunk.

"Wow...Such preservation...How did you make this?"

The girl raises up her cold meat in front of the machine while it is scanning the jerky strip, the machine, after noticing the girl's action, thinks that she wants the machine to cook it for her. Since the machine has no cooking tool at the moment, it decides to improvise by using its force blade.

"Waaah!. What was that for you 4 legged urchin!"

The girl shouts loudly after seeing a large, sharp looking sword suddenly slides out of its left arm without any warning, however she receives no answer from the machine as it quietly takes the cold chunk of meat and places it on the force blade before turning on the electric grid on the blade to warm it up and zap-fry the meat.

"Hey!. I did not ask yo-...Forget it...This urchin can't understand me at all..."

Erika pouts as she is slightly annoyed by the machine's inability to at least guess the girl's words correctly, however, the sight of an attribute-less sword still able to zap-fry the meat chunk like an enchanted sword intrigued her. The young knight could only see this kind of work in Empire of Azuria, a place filled with weirdos that even a weirdo will still think they are weirdos.

The machine slowly flips the meat and zap-fries the other side as well before giving the smoking hot and slightly burnt meat to Erika, the girl does not sure if she should say thanks or mock Pioneer's poor cooking skill.

"Ah..."

Erika decides to stay quiet just take the meat as the machine nods again before staring at the jerky strip intensively. Erika isn't sure what the thing is doing, but it is sure a weirdo too like the rest of world travelers in her mind.

As Erika tries taking a bite of the zap fried meat chunk, she actually reconsiders Pioneer's cooking skill, although the thing does not look like food at all, it still taste quite nice, it does not taste like chicken though.

"Not bad...I wonder if it is going to eat that..."

Erika mumbles quietly while enjoying the meat chunk as she watches the machine intensively observing the jerky strip, then the machine suddenly walks back to one of the algae vat and sticks the jerky strip on the transparent tube as it connects itself into the colony nexus.

[/Algae_stable]

[/Algae_number_54431: Successful-Saved in databank]

By carefully inspecting the jerky, the machine somehow got the algae stable in the simulation software by modeling its DNA based on the shape of some ultra thin and dried muscle fiber in the jerky. Now all the machine have to do is synthesizing the desired algae and ejects it into the murky red water to grow.

"...Uh...That is not how you eat jerky..."

Erika watches Pioneer doing weird things with the weird contraptions on the other side of the chamber again as she finishes her zap fried meal. And before she could sit down again, Erika feels something is coming toward the area, and it is not coming just for a visit.

"URCHIN!. THE BUGS ARE COMING!"

As Erika shouts, the sound of the bug screeching painfully echoes throughout the chamber as they are zapped by the electric fence, followed by the sound of them ramming the doors violently as Pioneer quickly extends its force blade once again and comes rushing toward one of the doors.

The second battle for the colony chamber begins.

[New_objective: Prevent the destruction of Colony, Pioneer 0 and 'Erika']