Chapter 4

Lara returned home.

She glanced at her photon computer, which was still silent. Then, she washed her hands and made herself dinner.

She had made herself scrambled eggs, braised mutated beast meat, and a side of pickled vegetables. Just looking at it stirred her appetite.

It was not much, but in the interstellar era, even that counted as a rarity.

Most beastkin in the interstellar world could not cook at all. What they ate every day were nutrient agents extracted from mutated beast meat.

The taste of those nutrient agents was something Lara could not tolerate. She only brought them along when she had to hunt mutated beasts and had no way to cook.

There was also a fruit-and-vegetable nutrient agent made specifically for females. It tasted like juice, but because interstellar fruits and vegetables had mutations, any place that grew them was guarded by mutated beasts.

Each fruit-and-vegetable nutrient agent required a large amount of produce, which made them extremely expensive.

One tube cost 800 thousand star credits.

Lara risked her life outside for an entire week, and even then, she could only earn a little over 100 thousand star credits without selling beast cores. In a whole month, she could not make enough to buy even one tube.

She disliked beast-meat nutrient agents and could not afford fruit-and-vegetable ones, so she had no choice but to cook for herself.

Fortunately, she had learned to cook from a young age, and her skills were decent.

After dinner, she had the advanced smart housekeeper clean up the kitchen.

She went to the training room first to stabilize her fourth rank energy, then returned to her bedroom, took a shower, and lay comfortably on the bed before opening her photon computer.

It was already 9 p.m. Her matches were still sitting quietly in her list without the slightest movement.

Lara hesitated, wondering if she should really be the one to reach out to them first.

At that moment, one of the question-mark avatars flashed, and a message popped up.

It was from her first match, Nick.

[Hello, Matriarch. I’m Nick. I’m really sorry. Something came up on my end, so I’m only messaging you this late. Please forgive me!]

Lara looked at the message and felt that his apology sounded sincere enough.

She did not mind him contacting her so late. What if he really had run into something urgent?

She tapped the screen and replied.

[It’s fine. Go handle your own matters first. I’m not in any rush.]

She was very understanding.

On the other end, Nick frowned slightly as he read Lara’s reply.

What was going on with this matriarch?

After he explicitly said he had run into trouble, should she not have immediately asked what happened?

Females were usually extremely possessive toward males.

His flame-colored eyes shifted, and he continued sending her a few more messages.

[Thank you for being so understanding. I’m really touched.]

[You’re not upset about me contacting you so late. You sound kind and adorable.]

[I really want to fly straight to your side.]

[But what I ran into this time is pretty serious. I might need a couple of days before I can come see you. You won’t be mad at me, right?]

After all that, he did not believe for a moment that she would not dig deeper.

If she asked, he would tell her he had been scammed and had no star credits left.

That way, he did not have to see her.

Then, he would cajole her into transferring some star credits to him.

He did not know how many star credits Lara had, but it would be best to squeeze out all of it and teach her that he was not someone she could afford to offend.

After sending the messages, Nick leaned back on a sofa made entirely of star credits and waited confidently for her reply.

The next second, Lara’s message came through.

[Ding!]

Just as expected, she really asked what had happened.

[It’s okay, Nick. Your matters are more important. What happened to you? Is it very serious?]

‘Perfect!’ Nick thought.

Next, he would make her hand over her star credits.

[Matriarch, I… a friend swindled me out of all my star credits. I don’t have a single star credit left on me!]

[I really want to see you as soon as possible, but I don’t have any star credits at all. I’m on Central Star. Taking the Star Rail to see you costs 500 thousand star credits.]

When Lara came to Planet F268, she had taken the Star Rail. It was a transportation method similar to dimensional transfer.

Lying on the bed in her villa, Lara stared at Nick’s messages and slowly narrowed her eyes.

‘What was that supposed to mean?’ she thought.

Was he asking her for money?

They had just matched. They had not even met yet.

This was like exchanging contact information on a blind date and asking for money before even having met.

That was unacceptable.

During the first three months after matching, if things did not work out, either side could apply to unbind. However, if a male initiated the unbinding, he would be fined 5 million star credits and placed on the system blacklist for 100 years, during which he would have no further matching opportunities.

If the female initiated it, there were no such repercussions.

Because of that, males usually begged the female to apply for an unbinding.

Lara had heard from Ava that some males, unable to raise the money or apply for unbinding themselves, instead tried to swindle star credits from their matriarch.

Once they scraped together 5 million star credits, they would immediately apply to unbind.

Could Nick be that kind of person?

After all, anyone who matched with her was at least fifth-ranked or higher. Even if someone really was scammed, killing a mutated beast would earn tens of thousands of star credits in minutes. There was no way he was left with nothing.

Lara pretended not to understand the implication and replied to him.

[It’s fine, Nick. I’m really not in a rush. Take your time earning star credits and come by Star Rail whenever you can. As long as you arrive within three months, that’s fine.]

Every star credit she had was something she had earned by risking her life repeatedly.

Those were not merely star credits. Those were reminders of the times she had put herself in danger.

If she gave him money and he immediately applied to unbind, it would be like throwing it all away.

She could spend money to support a man, but only if that man belonged to her.

These matches were only temporarily successful. Whether they would truly become partners was still uncertain.

Even someone as beautiful as Ava had matches who were dissatisfied with her and demanded unbinding.

Lara was not as attractive as Ava, and her rank was lower, so it was only natural that some matched males would look down on her.

She understood that very clearly.

On the other side, Nick’s eyes widened when he saw her reply.

‘What’s wrong with this matriarch?’ he thought.

She was even cheaper than him.

She could not even give him 500 thousand star credits!

Was she so poor that she did not even have that much?

It infuriated him.

[But I really want to see you as soon as possible.]

[Yeah, I want to see you soon too. I’ll wait for you.]

There was no mention of star credits.

Nick did not reply after that.

Lara was just about to close her photon computer and go to sleep when the villa’s doorbell rang.

The smart housekeeper walked over, opened the surveillance feed, and projected it in front of her.

On the screen stood a man in his early twenties with short blond hair, wearing a black suit, at the villa entrance.

That blond hair suddenly reminded Lara of the blond man she had carried out of the forest and taken to the hospital a few days ago.

She wondered how he was doing.

He must have recovered and been discharged by now.

In any case, she had already taken his payment and delivered him to the hospital. She had done what she was supposed to do.

“Who are you? What brings you to my home?” she asked. She got out of bed and looked at the man on the screen.

Could this be one of her matches?

Standing at the villa gate, Luke’s assistant, John, looked toward the camera when he heard Lara’s voice. “Matriarch Lara, I am the assistant of one of your matched males, Luke.”

Hearing that he was a match’s assistant, Lara had the smart butler open the door.

“Come in.”

By the time she finished speaking, she was already in the villa’s living room.

John walked in, saw Lara sitting there, and greeted her respectfully.

“Honored Matriarch Lara, my greetings. My employer told me to come here to discuss a matter regarding the match.”

John deliberately avoided using any special title for Luke in front of her. He was worried that if she sensed Luke’s status, she might make excessive demands during the negotiation.

Although Luke had said she could name any conditions she wanted, John still felt it would be best not to invite trouble.

Lara considered the situation. It seemed Luke was dissatisfied with this match. He did not even come in person and instead sent an assistant, likely to ask her to unbind.

“Why didn’t he come himself? Why did he send you?” she asked calmly.

John said politely, “My employer told me to convey that he doesn’t wish to match with any matriarch at this time. He hopes you can apply to unbind this match.

“He understands that this harms your interests, so he’s willing to offer compensation. You can state whatever you want. As long as it is within his ability, he’ll not refuse.”