Forge Stars... Forge Stars... Forge Stars...

A Stellaron condensed in Kenji's hand. Everything in the world is made of stardust. The massive, heavy gravity of the planet pulled everything around it.

"What characteristics should this planet have?"

Right now, the Stellaron was like a blank canvas. Its final form needed paint and ink.

"Pink♪?"

Elysia thought for a moment. She wanted a planet with a "girly" color.

"And lots of flowers, cute little animals..."

Kenji imagined a pink planet.

It feels a bit weird... but that's definitely Elysia's taste.

"Can it be a 'colorful black'?" Saber Alter offered her idea.

"Why don't you ask for a 'colorful white'?" Kenji rolled his eyes.

"Colorful black... that's just a crow's feather."

"But making a 'Puzzle Planet' (assembled planet) works."

Kenji closed his eyes. His presence seemed to vanish as his consciousness merged with the cosmic sea of stars. The endless stars became his eyes and ears, reaching every corner of the galaxy.

Various Gourmet Planets flashed by one by one.

Some Gourmet Planets had no other life on them; the entire planet was a single ingredient.

"Yo, monkey. Borrowing a peach."

A Three-Eyed Monkey, larger than Earth, guarded the Peach Planet. The planet was shrouded in a pink glow, its surface covered in oceans of peach juice and mountains of peach flesh. At a glance, it looked incredibly juicy.

"Awoooo..."

Seeing the giant starlight hand Kenji manifested grabbing the Peach Planet, the Three-Eyed Monkey froze for a moment, then let out a roar of utter fury.

The earth-shattering sound waves caused countless asteroids to fall, turning into cosmic dust.

I raised it for hundreds of thousands of years, and someone dares to 'pick the peach'?!

"A Capture Level 400,000+ monkey."

"It's just a peach. Don't be so stingy."

"Flick-to-the-Forehead Knocking!"

THWACK—!

The giant starlight hand flicked a finger. The Three-Eyed Monkey instantly stiffened. But since it was just a basic Knocking technique, and given its capture level of several hundred thousand, the monkey struggled, its body trembling slightly.

"Ja ne~"

Grab the peach and go. Kenji had no intention of hurting the Three-Eyed Monkey. He had no desire to eat monkey meat.

Awoooo!

The Peach Planet was almost ripe, and someone just picked it. The monkey wailed internally.

At this moment, it felt like an incompetent...

"Peach Planet. It can gestate a Cosmic Pan-Peach. It's a top-tier cosmic ingredient, probably around the same level as the Sun Jewel Meat." Kenji read the information on the Peach Planet.

Of course, it hadn't finished gestating yet. The Three-Eyed Monkey had wanted to eat the Cosmic Pan-Peach to achieve a super-evolution and drastically increase its capture level.

"Peach Juice Ocean, Creamy Snow Mountains, Peach Fuzz Grasslands, Peach Dew Rabbits..."

"The whole planet is peach-related. The core should be a peach pit, right?" Ruan Mei rubbed her chin. Not scientific at all.

Kenji attached the Peach Planet directly to the Stellaron, as simple as connecting building blocks.

"Choose whatever planets you want and just stick them together." Kenji projected a star map. It was only a part of the universe, just enough to see.

"Anything goes?" Saber Alter asked.

"What do you want, you 'big genius'?" Kenji's intuition told him Saber Alter was about to be difficult.

"Burger Planet, Fried Chicken Planet, Pizza Planet..."

Saber Alter ordered like she was at a restaurant. Except for junk food, she didn't name a single other ingredient.

"Damn, you're actually holding a menu." Kenji stared blankly at the fast-food menu in Saber Alter's hand for a second.

He thought she was going off memory, but she was actually reading from a menu full of high-calorie dishes.

"What? Are there none?" Saber Alter looked unsatisfied. She hadn't finished reading.

"There are. Wish granted."

Kenji grasped at the air. Planets fused with burgers, pizza, and other dishes were grabbed and stuck directly onto the Stellaron.

It looked a bit disjointed now, but once it was finished, the Puzzle Planet wouldn't look much different from a normal planet.

...

"That'll do. It has even more ingredients than Earth. Let's call it 'Puzzle Planet' (拼好球)." Kenji couldn't be bothered to name it properly. It was a planet pieced together from various planets. "Puzzle Planet" was simple and easy to understand.

"Isn't this a bit too big?"

Atashino marveled. Even a Space Taipan Snake, capable of swallowing planets, would choke trying to swallow this Puzzle Planet.

"Not scientific at all."

Big Herta raised an eyebrow. She couldn't understand it. Pieced together like blocks, yet the different ingredients didn't conflict at all.

"It's not scientific, but it's very 'Gourmet'." Kenji nodded with satisfaction.

"But... it is too big."

"Small Light."

Kenji couldn't be bothered to do it manually. He took out the gadget he borrowed from Doraemon and shrunk the entire Puzzle Planet down to the size of Earth.

With a little cleanup, they could build houses on it.

"Wait... what kind of black tech is that?" Big Herta rubbed her eyes. A flashlight could shrink a planet? She didn't understand it at all.

She felt her worldview shattering. It looked so ordinary, not high-tech at all.

"You'll know if you experience it yourself."

"Wai—"

Kenji pointed the Small Light at Big Herta. Before she could finish, the light hit her.

As everyone knows, Big Herta makes Herta puppets. But now, Big Herta... turned directly into a Little Herta.

Thumb-sized. Looking extremely pocket-sized.

"Hahaha! A tiny Herta is cute too."

Kenji laughed, grabbing Little Herta in his palm and bringing her close to inspect. Smaller than a cup.

"Change me back, right now!" Big Herta felt terrible. This experience of having to look up at people felt humiliating.

"Ohohoho! Beg me."

Kenji blinked, his teasing tone making Big Herta so angry her head was about to turn pointy.

"Go to hell!"

A "#" appeared on Big Herta's forehead. She jumped up and punched Kenji right in the eye.

"OWWW—"

Kenji hadn't expected Big Herta to use a "sucker punch" with no martial virtue. Caught off guard, his eye stung, and he cried out in pain.

Logically, shouldn't she have just begged him?

"Little Herta... you forced me."

"Elysia! Here's a dress-up doll for you to play with!"

Kenji rubbed his eye and tossed Little Herta to Elysia. You made your choice.

"A Barbie doll? I haven't played with one much♪."

Elysia's eyes lit up. Subarashii!

She had a hobby... observing girls' body structures. I wonder what Herta's structure looks like under those clothes?

Small is small, but everything should be there.

Elysia (holding a magnifying glass): Be good, let me see.

Herta (terrified, despairing, helpless): Yamete! Nooo!