Cedric Sutton still had many things to attend to.
After dealing with the Earth Star incident, he quickly left the hospital.
Julianna Garland didn’t dare stay in the hospital for long either.
Even though the staff urged her to remain for further treatment—citing that they hadn’t yet determined why her neural activity last night was abnormally higher than an ordinary person’s—she firmly refused.
She returned to her rented apartment.
The space felt utterly empty.
Although she had lived here for years, she had left barely any traces behind, and her personal belongings were pitifully few.
Three days later.
Following the information in the envelope Cedric Sutton had left her, Julianna arrived at the Novaria Starship Corporation in the First Sector.
After verifying her identity, she scheduled her departure to Earth Star.
About a week later.
Julianna embarked on her journey to Earth Star.
The travel speed between Astral Domains was faster than she had imagined.
When the starship finally landed and she stepped out onto the island, her face was filled with utter disbelief.
According to the documents Cedric had given her, Earth Star was not large.
Water covered a third of the planet, and the island supposedly possessed various types of vegetation and was free of viruses.
Putting all this information together, she had pictured a lush little island surrounded by the ocean.
However, what greeted her eyes was a desolate wasteland.
The ground consisted of cracked, pale soil that looked incredibly hard to the naked eye.
Stepping on it even felt slightly harsh on the soles of her feet.
A few stalks of withered, dry weeds—evidently resistant to extreme weather—poked through the crevices of gravel and dirt.
Occasional, sparsely scattered trees dotted the landscape.
Cedric had tactfully mentioned that Earth Star’s water sources suffered from a certain degree of pollution.
If she wanted water suitable for washing, she would need to hire a professional company to purify and clean it.
But he had failed to mention that many of these water sources were essentially swampy bogs.
The water was murky and stagnant, with a layer of green mist lingering just above the surface.
Within that green mist, swarms of bugs and mosquitoes of all sizes danced in droves over the marsh.
Less than three minutes after disembarking, Julianna could already hear a loud BUZZING in her ears.
Earth had long vanished, its civilization shattered, and a massive number of flora and fauna had gone extinct.
Yet somehow, mosquitoes had survived.
In just a few moments, several large, swollen welts appeared on her face and neck, burning with an agonizing itch.
Her expression darkened.
The starship staff member brought down her luggage.
She looked around at the practically uninhabitable terrain, already starting to get cold feet.
“Wait—” she called out.
Her luggage consisted of only a small bag containing her personal belongings.
The bulk of the unloaded items were actually toiletries, food, nutritional supplements, and drinking water.
According to the Novaria Starship Corporation employee, Lawyer Sutton from the Aeturnum Firm had arranged for these supplies to be prepared for her.
Looking at these provisions, Julianna began to panic.
This situation looked like full-blown wilderness survival. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
The current state of Earth Star was far worse than she had imagined.
There was no clean water and no food; the island’s natural water sources and vegetation certainly didn’t look safe for human consumption.
“About how long will these supplies last me?” Julianna asked.
The staff member replied enthusiastically, “They are estimated to last for half a month.”
“And what do I do after half a month?” she asked.
The starship company employee stopped what he was doing and looked at her.
“You can contact Lawyer Sutton for the specific details.
If you need a return ticket, please contact us at the Novaria Starship Corporation.” He offered a practiced smile and pointed at the large pile of packed supplies on the ground.
“Our contact information is printed on every single one of these packages.
We welcome Ms.
Garland to travel with the Novaria Starship Corporation again when the time comes.”
Julianna stared at the supplies scattered across the ground and fell silent for a moment.
“Where am I supposed to put all this?”
“According to our contract guidelines, we are responsible for transporting the items to the guest’s residence,” the starship employee said.
He raised his wrist and activated his communicator.
With a crisp BEEP, a faint blue light illuminated his face, scanning his facial data.
Once the network tool was unlocked, he tapped the device on his wrist.
It projected a blue light that formed a simple map.
“Please take a look, Ms.
Garland.
This is a map the company sent me, showing the safe, traversable routes on Earth Star.”
According to the map’s markings, a house was located not too far away.
The Novaria employee pointed into the empty air.
The projector captured his movement and magnified the hologram, displaying a 3D model of a wooden cabin.
“Ms.
Garland, this is the destination for this delivery.
It’s about eight hundred meters ahead.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the device on his wrist emitted a prompt: “Proceed forward for eight hundred meters to arrive at Earth Star Cabin Number One.”
He smiled at Julianna, then tapped his wrist device again.
Amidst a subtle HUMMING sound, the straps on the packed supplies suddenly transformed into mechanical arms.
A small aerial drone ascended, suspending the goods as it flew forward.
Julianna followed the cargo drones.
After walking eight hundred meters, she indeed spotted a crude, rundown wooden cabin.
It looked like it had been standing for quite a few years.
Surrounded by overgrown weeds and sparse thickets of trees, it appeared exceptionally desolate.
Murky puddles ringed the structure, and thick clouds of mosquitoes hovered in midair.
Sensing the arrival of living humans, the bugs let out a loud BUZZ and rushed toward them en masse.
Unfazed, the Novaria employee leisurely pulled a bottle of insect repellent from his waist and gave it two quick sprays—PFFT, PFFT.
The whole world instantly quieted down.
By this time, Julianna had no mental bandwidth left to care about the harsh environment.
The moment she laid eyes on the cabin, a sharp BEEP echoed in her mind.
“Arrival at Earth Star confirmed.
Officially activating the Earth Recovery System.
“Congratulations to the host for completing the arrival at Earth Star quest.
“This is a special hoe.
It embodies the essence of Earth’s traditional farming.
The master who wields it will be self-taught, automatically acquiring the skills to plow fields and dig soil.”
Julianna’s face was utterly speechless.
She thought indignantly, “What the hell is this!”
She had transmigrated to this strange alternate world, waking up with a mountain of debt.
She thought she had struck a windfall when a wealthy relative gifted her an inheritance, allowing her to ascend to the highest heights in a single bound to become an island owner in The Interstellar.
She figured she would unlock her system and enjoy a blissful, carefree life.
She didn’t come here to dig dirt!
She was just about to turn around when the Novaria employee, taking advantage of her daze, moved all the supplies to the front of the wooden cabin and stacked them neatly.
“Ms.
Garland, these supplies have all been delivered, and the contract with the Aeturnum Firm is now complete.
If you are satisfied, I hope you can rate my service on the Interstellar Net later.”
After saying this, the employee raised his hand and tapped his wrist communicator.
The small aerial transport drones immediately detached their lifting gear, flew back to his side, and shrank in size.
Transforming into tiny black specks, they zipped right back into his wrist device.
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll be taking my leave,” the Novaria Starship Corporation employee said, turning to head back in the direction of the starship.
Julianna was about to speak, but she suddenly froze.
She had already temporarily surrendered the lease on her apartment in Novus’s main Astral Domain before leaving.
Aside from a ticket off Earth Star, she was entirely penniless.
Where would she even live if she went back?
She could look for a job, but if she couldn’t find one right away, she would have no money, no place to stay, and no food.
According to the original Julianna’s memories, if one failed to find a job for too long, the government would absolutely not allow vagrants to remain on Novus and become a blight that disrupted social stability.
If that happened, she would very likely end up in a shelter in the First Sector, only to be randomly assigned by the government to some planet to perform dull, repetitive labor.
She was a newcomer here and knew nothing about this world.
She needed time to familiarize herself with everything in Julianna’s memories.
She resigned herself, thinking, “Forget it!”
After a moment of hesitation, she decided she might as well stay here for half a month first.
Besides, she had water, food, and the Interstellar Net.
If she truly couldn’t endure it after half a month, she could just call the Novaria Starship Corporation and use her return ticket.
Having made up her mind, she watched helplessly as the Novaria employee boarded the starship and departed.
When the starship faded into a distant black speck, Julianna finally turned to look at the wooden cabin, a look of resignation crossing her face.
She blinked, and a quest prompt flashed before her eyes:
“Quest 1: Reclaim a patch of wasteland suitable for farming.
“Following Earth’s infection by an unknown virus, many plants and animals went extinct long ago.
“Traditional crops like wheat and rice have vanished, and various delicious fruits and vibrant, fragrant flowers no longer even exist in pictures.
“Farming techniques are the traditional skills of Earthlings.
As a remnant of Earth, how could the host not be familiar with them?
“Raise the hoe in your hands and dig diligently.
When the host reaches the level of a skilled digger, a bag of rice seeds will be awarded as compensation.”
Julianna blinked again.
The prompt subtitles before her eyes did not disappear.
Below the text, a display resembling a progress bar appeared, and its current progress read: 0.