Chapter 6: A further look into this era

ASTRID was sitting at the back of the flying car, beside him was his twin brother – Reas. And sitting at their front were their parents. They were currently on their way to the planet's space port. The shuttle that would take them to the planet where the academy they attended for their secondary education was located was waiting there for the students who lived in this planet.

That's right, they needed to go to another planet to go to school. Which was not really rare in this era. Usually, each planetary system in a galaxy had a dedicated planet for the primary and secondary education of their young populace. These planets were commonly known as Academe Planets.

The planet Astrid grew up in was called Delryria. It belonged to a small planetary system known for its agriculture. It's under the Palioxis Galaxy – the former territory of the Federation. When the Moon Empire won the war, it became part of it. Just like how the other two galaxies that formerly belonged to the Kingdom of Terra and Human Alliance were also now part of the Empire.

He looked outside of the window of the flying car and saw that they already left the land that their family owned. The size of their family's land was almost the size of a small country. His father built a farm here to utilize the richness of the land, planting different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Of course, he wasn't doing this all on his own. They have a lot of tenants that helped with the farm works and farm operations.

As he mentioned earlier, the planetary system their planet was in was known for its agriculture. It was because most of the planets belonging to this system was very similar to Earth. They had four seasons and lands that were suitable for planting. So, a lot of vegetables and fruits being supplied to the rest of the galaxy came from this planetary system. Some farms from these planets even delivered to the other galaxies under the Empire's rule.

Their farm – Astreas Farm, yes, his parents named it after him and Reas – was one of these farms. So, one could say that their farm's operation was a bit big in scale. Especially since they receive a lot of orders from high-end restaurants located at the Emperor Star – the capital of the Empire. Eating cooked food was actually kind of a luxury in this era. Because most people just drink nutrient solutions. They don't bother eating real food because the nutrient solution could give them all the nutrients they needed.

But Astrid couldn't really bear the taste of it. So, when he was five, he cooked a simple vegetable stir-fry. Of course, his parents were surprised. But they didn't think too much and just assumed that their son was simply a genius. When it came to their children, his parents had a quite thick filter. For them, he and Reas could do no wrong. If he didn't have the memories of his last life, he might have grown up like a spoiled brat. Good thing that wasn't the case. Of course, he also didn't allow his twin brother to be a brat. He just grew up a bit lazier.

In the past years, he also taught his mother how to cook. She had a real talent for it, so it wasn't that hard teaching her. Nowadays, she was the only one cooking in the house.

Because of their farm, they're family could be considered as pretty well-off. But they still couldn't compare to those families that literally owned planets. Most of the time, those families belonged to nobilities.

Even so, sometimes, he still wondered how his parents managed to buy the land their family owned. Because in all appearance, his parents seemed to only be normal citizens of the Empire. But he had a strong feeling that that wasn't the case at all. Because from that one conversation he heard when he was still a baby, he could tell that his mother was from some kind of prominent family.

He just didn't want to pry. After all, it's his parents' business. Besides, their family was already living happily without their interference. If his parents ran away from them, then it's probably better to not ever meet them in this life.

Astrid's train of thought stopped when he felt something heavy leaning on him. He glanced sideways and saw that Reas had already fallen asleep. This kid could really sleep anywhere. He was probably playing all night at the virtual network, doing those mecha battles.

In this era, there were two types of network – the star network or StarNet for short and the virtual network or VirtualNet. The StarNet was almost like the ancient day internet, except that it was more advanced. You could search for information there, download stuffs, watch videos and the likes. There's also a microblog feature very similar to Weibo where people could post their thoughts and other things. It's called [Cyberspace]. Almost every citizen of the Empire had a [Cyberspace] account.

One could also do live broadcast using StarNet. The live broadcast in this era was unlike the live broadcast back in his past life. Here, you could pick different perspectives while watching a live broadcast. You could pick the perspective of the one doing the live broadcast, you could also pick the god's view where you could see everything, and finally, you could pick the simple audience perspective where all the focus was on the host of the show.

The VirtualNet, on the other hand, needed a virtual pod to access it. It was literally like a complete virtual world. People could sell and buy things there. There were restaurants, different kind of shops, auction houses. But the one that's probably the most popular was the Mecha Hall. Here, people could battle using mechas. If he remembered correctly, there was even a ranking for how many people you defeated. And that's where Reas spend most of his nights.

This twin brother of his was simply a huge 'mecha addict'. It's a good thing that all of those mecha fights he'd been participating was only happening in the virtual world. Or else, the rest of the family would definitely die of worry for him.

Astrid smiled helplessly. He relaxed his body and adjusted his sitting position so Reas could sleep more comfortably.

Emmy, who saw this scene, couldn't help but take a photo. She smiled looking at the picture of her two babies. She happily saved it on the folder named 'My Lovely Babies'.

Soon, they arrived at the space port of planet Delryria.