In her past life, Julianna Garland had actually spent time working in the fields when she was young.
It hadn’t been serious farm work, just tagging along with her elders during the busy harvest seasons.
Her parents were from a rural village.
After getting married and having their daughter, they had left Julianna in the care of her grandparents while they went to work in the city.
Until she started school, she would help her grandparents with chores and run around the fields.
It wasn’t until she tested into a high school in the county seat and began boarding there that she finally left rural life behind.
So when she picked up the hoe now, she was brimming with confidence—compared to people who had grown up in the city, she definitely had an advantage.
Although she needed to clear a piece of wasteland, it couldn’t be too far from the wooden cabin, or else it would be inconvenient to farm and manage later.
She walked around the house a few times and eventually chose an empty patch of ground about ten meters to the left of the cabin.
She planned to start digging in the overgrown grass.
The area was covered in various unknown weeds.
She raised the hoe and swung it down.
Julianna had deliberately chosen a spot that looked like it had fewer rocks.
However, the moment her hoe struck the ground, her heart sank.
Even with the digging assistance provided by the system’s gifted hoe, the metal tip still struck gravel and sand with a sharp CLINK.
The resistance caused the hoe to get stuck in the soil on her very first swing.
She tugged at it twice but couldn’t pull it free.
Finally, she used her foot to kick and stomp at the dirt around the embedded blade, loosening the soil enough to pry the hoe out.
A large clump of weeds and roots came up with it.
The system prompted:
“It is evident that you are still a bit out of practice.
However, since you are young and strong, this swing was passable.”
Despite the system’s slight jab, the experience progress bar floating in front of her dutifully changed from “0” to “1”.
Her mood swung wildly, and her confidence instantly skyrocketed.
So the progress bar would update with just a single swing!
Since she lacked experience on her first try and had misjudged the hardness of the soil, Julianna adjusted her strength and positioning for the second attempt.
When the hoe fell again, the number on the progress bar changed from “1” to “2”.
Her eyes lit up as she wondered, “Does slacking off still earn me experience points?”
To test her theory, she raised the hoe once more, but this time she used very little force.
The tip of the hoe only pierced the soil by a centimeter or two, scraping up a thin layer of dirt without even disturbing the weeds.
With that, Julianna quickly grasped the rules of the Earth Recovery System’s progress bar.
As long as she dug earnestly, loosening the soil with a solid swing, it counted as a valid action.
On the other hand, if she just went through the motions—swinging carelessly without digging deeply or uprooting any weeds—it wouldn’t grant her any experience.
She thought in surprise, “This system actually has an anti-slacking feature!” She just didn’t know what the maximum experience cap was.
Her interest was piqued.
She spent the entire morning digging vigorously, taking breaks when she was tired and going inside for water when she was thirsty.
By noon, the progress bar in front of her read: Experience 688.
This meant she had swung the hoe exactly 688 times that morning, and the progress bar was now at 69%.
Julianna felt a surge of excitement when she saw the numbers.
She hadn’t done physical labor like this in a long time.
Her body was exhausted, but her spirits were incredibly high.
The first task issued by the system wasn’t too difficult and could be completed in a short amount of time, which greatly boosted her enthusiasm.
Furthermore, the system accurately quantified her labor into numbers, allowing her to clearly see exactly how much experience she needed to level up.
This gave her even more motivation to work.
Judging by the percentage on the progress bar, she only needed to swing the hoe a little over three hundred more times to reach the “farming expert” level, complete the task, and receive the rice seeds.
At this thought, Julianna instantly felt that her hands were no longer sore and her back no longer ached.
For lunch, she ate some instant food, drank some water, and rested for a bit to recover her strength.
In the afternoon, she resumed her work.
The number in front of her steadily increased with every swing of the hoe, and the progress bar crept forward at a visible pace.
70%…
75%…
88%…
97%…
99%…
Julianna watched the number jump from “999” to “1000” as the progress bar finally hit 100%.
At the same time, the notification chime in her mind rang out.
“Congratulations to the host for achieving the ‘farming expert’ title.
“You have become a qualified farming expert.
Digging has almost become second nature to you. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“No matter how unfamiliar the planet or how difficult the soil is to dig, whenever you raise a hoe, you will instinctively know how to dig with the least amount of effort, without straining your back, and in a way that is most suitable for planting.
“What takes others an hour to dig, you can complete in forty-five minutes.
“We hope the host will keep up the good work and continue to improve your digging skill.
When you achieve the ‘master digger’ title, you will receive a generous reward.”
“Clear a plot of wasteland suitable for farming.
(Incomplete)”
With a thought, the task details instantly appeared before Julianna’s eyes:
“Wasteland cleared: 32 square meters.
Task completion: 53%.
“Your work efficiency is somewhat less than ideal…”
Even though the system considered her work efficiency to be low, Julianna felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction wash over her when she saw that she had dug up thirty-two square meters of land in a single day.
This was her first time digging; she was still a complete novice at this.
The fact that she could clear so much land in one day right after activating the system and picking up a hoe for the first time made her feel quite impressive.
If she dug for another day tomorrow, she would successfully complete the clearing task, receive her reward, and unlock the next objective.
Realizing that the sky was already growing dark, Julianna simply leaned the hoe against the side of the cabin and went straight inside.
After all, there was no one else on this planet, so she didn’t have to worry about anyone stealing her things.
After washing her hands and feet, an intense wave of hunger hit her.
She pulled out some instant food and choked it down as if taking medicine.
A feeling of fullness quickly followed, and she tossed the recyclable packaging into the garbage disposal with disgust.
Only after finishing her meal did she fully realize just how badly she had overworked herself today.
Her body ached everywhere.
The webbing of her palms and the joints of her fingers were rubbed raw with several shiny blisters.
Furthermore, there was no shortage of mosquitoes and insects on Earth Star.
They had left her cheeks and neck covered in a dense cluster of swollen bites of various sizes.
She remembered that the supplies prepared by the Aeturnum Firm included a medical kit, which happened to contain medicine for insect bites.
Muttering curses, Julianna found the first-aid kit.
After finishing her wash-up in the house, she finally opened the medical bag.
To her pleasant surprise, the kit contained not only a variety of bug bite treatments but also supplies for tending to external wounds.
Cedric Sutton was clearly very familiar with the situation on Earth Star—a young girl trying to survive on such a desolate planet was bound to suffer some hardships.
Because of this, he had included a substantial amount of medical supplies for her, including treatments for bacterial infections and miasma exposure, as well as simple antidote injections for toxic insect bites.
The moment Julianna applied the insect bite ointment, the piercing itchiness vanished.
She scratched her neck twice more and secretly swore to herself, “Once I have money, I will definitely hire a professional pest control company to come to Earth Star and thoroughly exterminate this place.”