After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH14

Chapter 14

The next day.

At dawn, when the first light was just beginning to show, Xie Xingchen headed into the forest with his three robots.

In the warm morning sun, he passed by the golden rapeseed field, and the chubby rabbits that were partying wildly among the flowers.

At the forest entrance, he had Long-Life lead the way toward the area that might contain wild scallions.

Some of the dew from the rain two days ago was still trapped inside the forest. It wasn’t overly damp, but the air was still heavy with moisture in small places. Puddles appeared now and then along the path—if you weren’t careful, you’d step right into one.

Xie Xingchen did, several times.

Luckily, his shoes were protective boots with excellent waterproofing, so the water never seeped in.

Xie Xingchen frowned. “Long-Life, are you sure it’s here?”

The farther they went, the sparser the vegetation became. Xie Xingchen seriously suspected this medical robot had no sense of direction.

Long-Life—plain-looking, slim, and carrying a faint “doctor” vibe—answered confidently: “Yes, Boss. That plant is ahead. Its coordinates are XXX.”

Xie Xingchen still doubted it. “But this place is getting more and more barren.”

At this rate, it felt like they were about to walk into a severe erosion zone!

Long-Life replied, “Searching location… confirmed target coordinates unchanged.”

Xie Xingchen had nothing to say, so he switched targets.

“Then the places where you took photos yesterday—are they also over there?”

Get-Rich, also plain-looking but tall and broad-shouldered, with an oddly gentle aura, replied: “Yes, Boss.”

And Prosperity—plain-looking too, yet somehow giving off a simple, honest vibe—added: “That’s right, Boss.”

The conversation died on the spot.

Xie Xingchen sighed.

With no one to chat with, he felt stifled, so he casually threw out another topic.

“Why are your appearances set so ordinary? Wouldn’t it be better to set you all as handsome guys?”

At least it would be pleasing to the eye!

Get-Rich, Prosperity, Long-Life: “This question requires the manufacturer to answer. Boss, do you need to contact the manufacturer?”

Another topic: dead.

Xie Xingchen didn’t want to talk anymore.

In the entire galaxy, he was probably the only one bored enough to chat with low-intelligence robots.

Contact the manufacturer? He didn’t need to ask to know the answer. This was obviously the work of people brainwashed by the whole “mechanical life is harmful” ideology.

They were just afraid that looks-obsessed people would switch sides to mechanical lifeforms because of appearance, weren’t they?

Sigh—space age, but still full of petty nonsense.

Xie Xingchen couldn’t be bothered to think about it. All he needed to know was that his robots were good.

He changed the subject. “Alright, let’s hurry. Once we find what we need, we’ll explore the other side.”

After receiving the command, the group sped up.

When the wild scallions finally appeared in front of him, only Xie Xingchen knew how excited he was.

It felt like someone wandering in a desert for three days and nights finally seeing an oasis.

He carefully dug up a few wild scallions, then dug around the area again—but unfortunately, he found nothing else.

But just as he was about to leave, he spotted a faint red bud hidden among the weeds.

That plant looked so similar to the surrounding grass that if you blinked, you might miss it.

The moment he saw it, his voice changed.

“Get-Rich, Prosperity, Long-Life—get over here! I found wild ginger!”

That bud was definitely a wild ginger flower!

Squatting down, he carefully used a small shovel to loosen the soil around it.

He hadn’t dug for long before he felt something underneath.

Xie Xingchen: suddenly fired up.jpg

“You three, dig around nearby. There might be more wild ginger in this area.”

“And be careful—don’t break it.”

Then he returned his full attention to this one plant.

After more than ten minutes, he finally dug it out.

Smiling brightly, he put it into a small basket, then tried digging a little farther to the side.

But it seemed his luck in the forest today was limited—after digging for ages, he found only that first piece of wild ginger. The only other piece, slightly larger, was something Prosperity dug up from who-knew-what corner.

Staring regretfully at the patch of weeds they’d turned over completely, Xie Xingchen felt dejected.

“As expected of a wasteland planet… even wild ginger is this scarce? That’s not scientific at all!”

He complained while digging, but complaining didn’t boost his luck. After another hour, neither he nor the robots found anything else.

Xie Xingchen gave up.

“Let’s go. We’ll pick mushrooms.”

That natural mushroom-growing area had still been full when he left yesterday. The temperature and humidity there were perfect—he should be able to find plenty today.

He tossed the basket into his spatial button and led the digging crew to the “mushroom zone.”

Sure enough, there were still lots of mushrooms. Before long, Xie Xingchen had filled a large bag. The poisonous ones weren’t worth his time, so he didn’t touch them.

But as they were leaving, he hesitated. In the end, he picked quite a few mushrooms with hallucinogenic effects.

He planned to use them as a surprise weapon against enemies.

After collecting mushrooms, he prepared to leave the forest.

So far, he’d only found osmanthus from the system codex. And there were only 42 hours left before the “Find Flowers” quest expired.

He didn’t dare go deep into the forest. But after circling the outer area, he still hadn’t found much.

Staying here and forcing it wasn’t wise, so he decided to try his luck on the other side.

On the hovercar, he played the robot version of Good Luck Comes—a song he’d forced Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life to sing last night. But the song seemed to become their debuff, because the area opposite the forest was basically a textbook wasteland planet.

As they traveled, the greenery gradually disappeared. Specks of dust floated lazily in the air. The land looked filthy—like a “Dirt Planet.”

Looking at the barren terrain—nothing but yellow earth and dead grass—Xie Xingchen frowned. That youthful face wore a seriousness completely mismatched with his age.

After twenty minutes of low-altitude flight, his brows were practically carved into his forehead.

This place was horrifying.

Yesterday, he’d been so relieved—now he was deeply worried.

When he saw the planet covered in green, he’d fallen into survivor bias, naïvely thinking Earth wasn’t doing too badly.

But facing this endless stretch of withered yellow, he couldn’t bring himself to say the word “not bad” anymore.

This wasn’t a desert, but it might as well have been.

He got out, took soil samples—and felt no relief at all.

Wanting to know just how large this wasteland was, he drove straight onward.

The deeper he went, the worse it became. At the very center, there wasn’t a single green plant left—there weren’t even dry yellow roots. Even dead grass was a luxury here.

“Get-Rich, Prosperity, Long-Life… looks like we’re going to be busy as hell in the future.”

The three robots didn’t know what to say.

But Xie Xingchen didn’t need them to say anything.

After that brief comment, he continued scanning the land.

Then he froze.

In the midst of lifeless desolation, a vivid, living miracle bloomed.

A brilliant, vibrant red rose stood out glaringly against the yellow-brown earth. It was like the untamed soul of this land—blooming fiercely in its struggle to survive, forcing life into existence.

It was a shocking sight, and one that struck straight at the spirit.

Anyone would understand, in that instant, how stubborn and unyielding this land truly was.

It felt like a final flower of life—born from the land’s longing for survival before complete collapse.

The scene moved Xie Xingchen.

And somehow, it also moved the three robots—machines that usually only acted according to programmed logic.

Staring blankly at the red rose blooming in ruin, the chips inside their bodies grew scorching hot, as if burning in flame.

For the first time, they grasped something: that some things could be both a “thing”… and also an invisible symbol of spirit.

In that half-understood realization, they happened to touch a threshold—the chance to evolve from robots into mechanical lifeforms.

Xie Xingchen struggled with whether he should dig up the flower, and whether he should take the special soil that allowed it to live.

There were no coincidences. For a rose to survive here, Xie Xingchen couldn’t think of any reason other than special soil.

After a long pause, he squatted down gently and started digging—careful and meticulous.

Sure enough—

A small clump of soil, bursting with vitality, wrapped tightly around the rose’s roots.

The green matter in that soil felt extraordinarily rich.

If Xie Xingchen were an adventurer, he would’ve been thrilled to find such a treasure.

But he wasn’t an adventurer.

He was a planet lord—someone who wanted to revive Earth.

Moved by its vitality, he did not dig up the rose, nor did he take away that soil filled with life.

He hoped this barren land could bloom with more flowers of life.

Awkwardly, not yet skilled, he fed his mental power into the rose.

After absorbing it, the rose grew and sprouted at an unscientific speed, like weeds meeting rain after a long drought.

Bloom. Wither. Bloom again.

After several cycles, the rose’s stem thickened—and Xie Xingchen successfully obtained rose seeds through forced maturation.

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player: you have discovered “Rose.” Rose unlocked.]

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player: quest progress increased. Current “Find Flowers” progress: 66.66%]

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player: hidden quest triggered—“Life in Full Bloom.”]

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player: hidden quest completed. Reward obtained—“Plant Affinity +1.”]

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