After Waking Up I Inherited the Earth [Interstellar] – CH15

Chapter 15

[Player Info Panel]

Name: Xie Xingchen
Race: Human

Territory: Earth

Level: LV1
EXP: 0/1000
Plant Affinity: ? 1
Mental Power Rank: B
Game Progress: 0%
Codex Progress: 0%
Infrastructure Progress: 0%
Active Quest: Find Flowers

Staring at the sudden “Plant Affinity” line on his personal panel, Xie Xingchen froze for a moment, then grew increasingly confused.

He had just realized something strange about this game interface.

According to what the system said at the beginning, all he needed to do was light up the gray cards in the codex to earn achievement cards—then those achievement cards would increase his game progress.

So he could understand and accept [Game Progress] and [Codex Progress], but… what the hell was [Infrastructure Progress]?

Thinking of the system’s name—Infrastructure Maniac System—Xie Xingchen’s expression slowly twisted.

His sixth sense told him this so-called [Infrastructure Progress] was crucial. It might affect the final game progress, or even… it might be the true direction for clearing the game?

As his expression kept changing, deep inside his heart a prairie dog was screaming.

Xie Xingchen: powerless.jpg
Why does this game feel so much like those infamous pyramid schemes and scam “pig-butchering” traps?

That vibe of “lure you in and then butcher you” was way too strong!

Rubbing his face, Xie Xingchen felt like crying. He had the uneasy feeling he’d accepted a giant, trap-filled abyss.

He kept adjusting his mood along the way. Only after returning to the starship did he finally turn back into the optimistic Xie Xingchen again.

Sigh. Fine—so what if it’s a trap pit?

He couldn’t quit anyway. If that was the case, then the only option was to do his best and push as far as he could.

He wasn’t afraid of failure, because he was no longer the same man who once had no way out.

Heh. Whatever. He’d just treat it like a game where he ran into an utterly evil, trash-tier planner—what player hasn’t been screwed over by the devs?

—

Today, their luck was clearly better than yesterday.

They left in the morning and returned at dusk. They spent less time than yesterday, yet found more things—though… they also burned through a lot more mental power.

Aside from the dozens of lively rose seeds he’d force-matured with mental power—seeds that clearly looked safe—Xie Xingchen placed everything else into the analyzer for testing, one by one.

With Get-Rich, Prosperity, and Long-Life around, Xie Xingchen didn’t wait in the testing room.

He assigned the testing work to the three robots and went to the brand-new kitchen, ready to cook his first real meal since arriving on Earth.

Even though he’d found seasonings today, the amounts were pitifully small—so small that Xie Xingchen couldn’t bear to eat them.

He still planned to breed the wild ginger and wild scallions he’d found. And if he ate even a tiny piece today, that would mean losing a whole patch tomorrow!

With that kind of math, who could bear to eat it?

So today’s dinner was the steak he was already sick of: beef steak.

He took the remaining two marbled steaks, marinated them with black pepper and salt for twenty minutes, heated oil in a pan, and skillfully seared them to medium-well before taking them out.

He set the steaks on the table, poured on an appropriate amount of black pepper sauce, and then—counting the marinating time—the whole thing only took half an hour. Xie Xingchen dug in with big bites, thoroughly enjoying it.

Here, as long as you were willing to spend money, you could still buy excellent meat.

If you had enough money, the quality could even be better than what you’d get on Earth.

No other reason—there were many civilizations, the world was vast, and the species pool was rich.

And dark matter?

If you had money, there were plenty of planters willing to handle everything from breeding to planting to raising livestock as a full-service chain.

The only pity was: there was no butter, no rosemary, and no garlic. Otherwise, pan-searing steak in butter with a bit of rosemary and garlic would make it so much more fragrant!

A world that didn’t even have sea salt was truly despair-inducing… a complete culinary wasteland.

Xie Xingchen sighed dramatically and suddenly felt a strong urge to revive great cuisine.

Could he set an example, and then let everyone else use their brains to innovate?

With so many ingredients, so many races, so many cultures—if they took food seriously, maybe in just a few years they could build something truly impressive.

Eating while daydreaming, Xie Xingchen somehow ended up stuffed to the brim!

Ugh. If he’d known, he wouldn’t have drunk that tube of nutrient solution at noon.

Looking at the two small leftover pieces of steak, Xie Xingchen—who’d grown up poor—couldn’t bear to throw them away. He chewed and chewed and forced them down anyway, until he was so full he had no choice but to go for a walk to digest.

Damn these interstellar people—there isn’t even any digestive medicine! One-star review!

In such a huge galaxy… are there really no people who ever eat too much?

Is that even reasonable?

Well… it was reasonable, because everyone drank nutrient solution. One tube a day—there was basically no way to get stuffed.

Xie Xingchen: cursing.jpg

His stomach still felt awful. One lap around the starship wasn’t enough—he had to do a second lap.

By the time the second lap ended and his stomach felt a little better, his attention gradually got pulled into the scenery around him.

The dusky yellow sky seemed to drape the land in a thin orange veil. Nearby mountains, rivers, and lakes looked like a movie frame frozen in time.

That raw magnificence of nature made him quiet without even realizing it.

Standing at the rear of the starship and watching the sun slowly sink, Xie Xingchen didn’t even want to blink.

Maybe it isn’t necessarily a bad thing that there are no humans on this planet?

Staring at a beauty he’d never seen before, Xie Xingchen found himself thinking that.

But then he shook his head, feeling that he’d just been way too sentimental.

He lifted his foot to leave—only to notice something strange the moment he turned around.

He spun back fast.

A streak of purple—uneasy, unsettling—visible only from a certain angle, pressed beneath the starship.

Xie Xingchen’s mind went blank. He didn’t even have time to think what it was, but his hand reflexively issued an order to Prosperity.

Prosperity, receiving the command, rushed into the cockpit.

The starship slowly rose into the air.

Still staring at that purple patch, Xie Xingchen’s heart shattered.

Wuwuwu… it really was lavender.

His starship had crushed the lavender.

And… if he wasn’t seeing things… wasn’t that flattened “weed-like” patch beside it actually garlic shoots?

The moment that thought hit, Xie Xingchen felt his whole world collapse.

Wuwuwu… my garlic. My lavender.

He’d never felt this kind of despair before.

Trembling, Xie Xingchen carefully held the damaged lavender in his hand.

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

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player: quest progress increased. Current “Find Flowers” progress: 100%]

[Ding-dong. Congratulations, player: quest “Find Flowers” completed. Reward: 100 EXP.]

[System Notice: Congratulations, player, level 1. Current level: 1. EXP for next level: 0/1000.]

Wait—system notifications!

So it… wasn’t dead?

Xie Xingchen was stunned for a split second, then ecstatic.

Right—starships were built mainly from levitation stone. Anything made with levitation stone naturally carried some anti-gravity properties.

Otherwise, a ship that big slamming into the ground would’ve left a massive crater. There was no way it would “only” crush the surface plants.

He hurriedly used mental power to rescue several lavender plants. Once they perked up again, Xie Xingchen was the one who had no energy left.

The feeling of draining his mental power completely was awful. Even so, he still forced himself to handle the lavender and wild garlic properly before returning to the ship for treatment.

The new medical device worked well. After only half an hour, Xie Xingchen felt like he could live again.

He wanted to go check the lavender and wild garlic he’d rescued, but the moment he tried to sit up, Long-Life stopped him.

Long-Life looked stern and disapproving. “Boss, please lie here until tomorrow.”

B-rank mental power wasn’t considered strong to begin with. And the original owner’s mental power had once gone out of control—Xie Xingchen had spent a long time nursing it back after arriving in the interstellar world. So compared to normal, his mental power was weaker.

Thinking about that, Xie Xingchen couldn’t help sighing at how unreliable the original owner’s mental power had been!

If only he had S-rank mental power like Yu Cheng—the protagonist of the book—how great would that be?

If he had S-rank, he definitely wouldn’t be lying in a medical pod every time he used a little mental power.

But what Xie Xingchen didn’t know was: he hadn’t used “just a little.”

Right now, even Yu Cheng—with A-rank mental power—couldn’t do what Xie Xingchen had done in a single day: rapidly force-grow two different plants, and one of them involved repeated rapid maturation to harvest seeds multiple times.

Living in blessing without knowing it, Xie Xingchen sighed.

“But B-rank mental power is still not bad. It’s above 80% of the Star Alliance’s citizens! Comparing myself to the protagonist is basically self-torture.”

He muttered to himself, “Yu Cheng is the author’s favorite son. He’s destined to lead the botanical revival. I don’t want that kind of responsibility—my ability doesn’t need to be that outstanding.”

He really didn’t want to be the one standing in the spotlight!

He just wanted to hide behind Yu Cheng and profit quietly.

Let someone else draw attention at the front—while he makes money silently in the background. How nice would that be?

Thinking that, Xie Xingchen immediately grinned to himself, and in his heart sincerely prayed that Yu Cheng would hurry up and step onto the path of plant revival!

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