Chapter 488

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

The System Space was exactly as it had been when she left, as if several decades of time were merely the snap of a finger.

"The System Space is static; if no adjustments are made to it, it will not change."

The System liked the current structure of the space, and upon returning it directly reverted to the form of a cloud, floating beside Shen Yao, bouncing about everywhere.

"Decades of unchanging taste, aren't you tired of it?" Shen Yao rolled her eyes at the System and checked the rewards in the space herself; they were all obtained after mission completion, including quite a lot of gold, silver, and jewelry she had collected.

After all, as the Empress Dowager, Shen Yao did not need to be frugal in her expenditures.

Every year, just the tributes sent up from below were enough to fill the Manor's storehouses, not counting the gifts from her two children, the gifts from the Imperial Noble Consorts, and the gifts from the Imperial Harem's concubines.

Shen Yao left many of these for her descendants; only those she particularly liked or were convenient to carry were collected into the space by Shen Yao.

While Shen Yao was organizing, the System couldn't help but mutter to itself.

The gossip received in the previous world was truly a bit much; the System shook its head, unable to tell top from bottom, and in its heart still savored whether it should do it again.

Not to mention anything else, just the rewards were far richer and more varied than ordinary missions, and neither of them had suffered much.

"No, the next mission must be more relaxed and carefree, further away from ancient society."

She really didn't want to experience the ills of feudal society again; Shen Yao lived well with good food and drink, but this was limited to physical sensations.

In reality, mentally and ideologically she was oppressed in every way, yet she couldn't overturn these things (she could overturn them, but it would be too troublesome, not worth it), so she could only endure passively until her own son ascended the throne, at which point things got a little better.

But the price paid for this was that Shen Yao lived in the Manor year-round, not in the Imperial Palace.

The major and minor affairs occurring in the palace had nothing to do with Shen Yao; while Shen Yao enjoyed freedom and tranquility, she also slowly withdrew from the center of power and was marginalized.

This was nothing bad for Shen Yao, who could see things openly, but for those who cannot do without power, it is a chronic death.

Behind any way of life, there are things that have been abandoned.

Retrieving her gradually drifting thoughts, Shen Yao no longer paid attention to the self-talking System, and instead focused on organizing the space until all items were neatly arranged.

The System flashed into appearance before Shen Yao. "Want to select a mission?"

Shen Yao pondered for a moment. "No rush, let's rest a bit first; I need to think."

Compared to power struggles, farming still doesn't tax the brain, but if the farming environment is truly as harsh as the Wasteland, it is also somewhat suspect of involving suffering.

Shen Yao wanted to find a mission that was both relaxed and effortless and allowed her to roam and play everywhere.

In the end, she set her sights on the Future World.

…………

【This chapter is the author's imagined Interstellar setting, which does not match the settings of other works】

Stellar Calendar Year 5023, Universe N62 Star System.

One of the planets under its jurisdiction was precisely the location Shen Yao chose to set foot on.

"So how far is here from the Galaxy?" Shen Yao sat up from the bed, one hand covering her head, gazing dazedly at the technology-filled room.

"Host, we are in a relative position to the Galaxy; taking a spaceship requires tens of thousands of light-years." It is light-years, not the years they are familiar with.

Shen Yao: ……

"So this is the Interstellar World three thousand years later?" Shen Yao rubbed her head, slightly closing her eyes to accept the original body's memories continuously washing over her thoughts.

"To be precise, it is not three thousand years, but already tens of thousands of years." Before the Stellar Calendar there were other counting methods, only they are very ancient; tracing them carefully, the time spent from human migration to stable life already numbered in the tens of thousands, and to today's technological development, the time required behind it is too staggering to contemplate deeply.

"That long, ah," Shen Yao sighed softly, then tossed the conversation just now to the back of her mind.

No choice, the memories in her head were a bit chaotic; she had to sort them out first before proceeding.

After a while, some sweat stains appeared on her body; Shen Yao raised a hand to wipe her forehead, finally figuring out the planet she was on and the operating rules of Interstellar society.

She got up from the bed, took out a set of light, breathable change of clothes from the cabinet beside her, Shen Yao pushed open the door handle located at the doorway, turned around, and walked into the washroom to clean her body.

Dense water vapor fell down, lightly patting against Shen Yao, also taking away the sticky discomfort.

Splash—

The planet Shen Yao is on is called L98; there are 97 similar planets before it.

From the name one can tell, this planet is utterly ordinary and unremarkable.

In fact, people living on all planets starting with L are Interstellar Common Citizens, neither Nobles nor alien races; even with convenient transportation and advanced technology, it is not much different from modern society on Earth — at most, when they have money they take a cross-planet trip, which means the same as going abroad for travel.

The age of this body has just turned eighteen; she is attending a middle-to-upper-tier Social University.

Barring accidents, after graduation she would enter a company to work, and at the appropriate age marry and have children.

Oh, it must be mentioned in advance here: the average lifespan of humans in the Interstellar World has already reached around 250-300 years; Nobles or upper-class people can reach 500 years; alien races, due to their innate gifts, live even longer.

Shen Yao's parents passed away due to an accident, leaving Shen Yao a large sum of pension money and this property deed; Shen Yao relied on the pension to go to school and study, living a fairly comfortable life.

Following the normal character trajectory, for someone like the original body, the probability is high that she would never leave Planet L98 in her lifetime; but now that Shen Yao has transmigrated here, knowing that the Interstellar World contains many wondrous things and even more places to explore, how could she sit still?

Moreover, she still wants to buy a planet to farm; with an ordinary person's identity she could never save up the enormous figure to purchase a planet; she absolutely must change her approach.

The water sound stopped abruptly; Shen Yao put on her clothes and came out, tapping on the wristband she had taken off and placed on the living room tea table to check the messages she missed last night.

Most were useless nonsense; a small portion were concerns from friends; the most crucial one came from the Federal Government — her Awakening Day had arrived.

Raising her hand to pat her forehead, Shen Yao sighed that indeed, with memories too mixed, it was easy to forget things.

The most important reason Interstellar humans can live this long is Awakening.

Every Interstellar citizen who reaches the age of eighteen (humans only) has one chance in their lifetime to Awaken — that is, their spiritual power externalizing into a physical manifestation.

Their functions also differ in effect because the types of physical manifestations that appear are different.

The simplest: those who manifest plants are comparatively skilled at farming; those who manifest animals have stronger aggression than ordinary people.

Because everyone has spiritual power physical manifestation, and it cannot be cultivated postnatally (meaning advance cultivation, striving to soar to the sky in one leap relying on the type manifested), everyone can only muster their strength to accumulate resources and wait until after physical manifestation to cultivate them; similar to some families with money and resources, even if they manifest a blade of grass, they can elevate it into a sturdy tree.

Most people on L98 Planet, because of their own genetic issues, manifest rather weak plants when their mental power materializes, and since L-system planets are far from the N62 Star System core, belonging to an edge position, the people here live and work in peace and contentment, not particularly enthusiastic about cultivating mental power, lacking the pursuit that citizens of other N-system or F-system planets have.

The Interstellar Federation is the institution of the entire interstellar world, including but not limited to the many star systems in the universe all being under the jurisdiction and responsibility of the Interstellar Federation.

"So I still need to awaken mental power first, then arrange the matters that come after."

Shen Yao put the wristband on her wrist, activated the home robot in the corner before going out, ensured the house was safe, then took the elevator downstairs.

The Zhiyun Community where Shen Yao is located is on the edge of Delabu City, the capital of L98 Planet.

Taking the Federation-operated hover car, she could reach the city center in a little over half an hour.

You have to know the entire planet is a single country, so the capital's area is naturally not small, plus L-system planets have always been extremely vast in area, a little over half an hour is the result of rapid technological development; if converted to modern society's transportation, it would probably take months to calculate.

The community is not large, but the buildings inside tower into the clouds, surrounded by tall, straight trees, lush and verdant, making the environment appear very good.

There are not many people on L98 Planet, and those in the suburbs are even fewer compared to the city center.

Walking along the road ahead, then turning a corner, Shen Yao saw the hover car station not far away.

There were already a few people waiting for the car below, all residents living in the surrounding area; because it was the weekend, those who could come out were either young people or children.

When Shen Yao walked up to them, she could still hear them chatting idly.

"That flying vehicle store in the city center just opened, heard the whole store is 10% off."

"That still costs over ten thousand Federal Currency, and besides the flying license is hard to pass, I've taken it five times and am still stuck on Subject Two."

"Which one did you sign up for? Choose Chengpeng Flight School, the boss there has connections."

"..."

Shen Yao stood quietly under the station sign, listening to them talk from flying vehicles to cram schools, then to the recently popular cross-star-system travel; in short, the discussion content was strange and varied, and falling on Shen Yao's ears it was also somewhat fresh.

Like always eating meat, occasionally changing the taste to eat some fruit and vegetables, eh? It seems not bad either.

Soon, a hover car fast as lightning appeared before everyone's eyes.

The car body was slender, somewhat like modern society's subway, the only difference being it stood suspended in midair, its whole body colored silver-white.

Swiping the wristband to board, incidentally deducting the fare for this trip, Shen Yao found a seat toward the back and sat down.

The hover car had no driver, fully autonomous; overhead hung a transparent screen a few inches in size, continuously playing news released by the Interstellar Federation government.

"The Federal Government military recently discovered an explorable secret realm in the XS Star System, the secret realm's specialty product is energy ore, which can supply energy for flying vehicles and other transportation; it is expected that in half a year to a year and a half permissions will be opened, at which time formal exploration hunters will be invited to enter."

"An institution under the Federal Government has already developed a mental liquid that can stably boost early-stage mental materialization, to go on sale facing N-system planets in three years."

"The Federal Government will join with many universities inside the N62 Star System to launch an exchange student program, aiming to promote human exchange, enhance planetary competitiveness, and make thorough preparations for exploring more surrounding star systems."

"..."

Listening all the way, Shen Yao's eyes looked out the window, her ears by the transparent screen.

In a little over half an hour's time, Shen Yao gained some more understanding of this interstellar world.

People on the hover car came and went, the interior had upper and lower levels but it did not affect Shen Yao.

Until the government building she was going to was right before her eyes, only then did Shen Yao stand up and get off.

Behind her the hover car departed toward the front, while Shen Yao strode into the government building.

At the doorway was an identity verification machine, not using a wristband, but using fingerprints and a full-body scan of the entire person.

It is said that as early as before the Star Calendar, the Federal Government, to guarantee each person's uniqueness, adopted the method of implanting one's own gene crystal element into citizens' bodies to verify identity.

But this also caused extremely serious leakage consequences, causing this verification method to be cancelled, ultimately evolving into the current method.

"Verification passed, please enter"

A calm electronic sound rang by Shen Yao's ear, the closed gate was opened.

Shen Yao walked in, a humanoid robot came over to inquire.

After explaining she was here to awaken mental power materialization, Shen Yao was led to a room on the first floor, left side, not large but very spacious.

In the exact center of the room was a square machine; she needed to enter inside, and through the machine releasing a gas called catalytic gas, forcibly make her mental power materialize.

This is something every citizen will experience, because mental power materialization relying on oneself doesn't work, needing pressure from the outside world to better achieve it.

Of course, there are also those who have tried but couldn't achieve mental power materialization, otherwise where would the minimum lifespan come from? Even if everyone can, there will be those at the bottom; this statement applies to all occasions.

First drinking a tube of potion said to better stimulate human mental power, following Shen Yao into the machine interior, the moment the machine closed its door she felt white mist rushing toward her face.

The originally clear surroundings became blurry, the mist entering the body through skin and mouth and nose.

The whole process was neither painful nor itchy, even Shen Yao felt time passed very fast, as if only a brief instant, then she saw appearing before her eyes a plant no bigger than a palm, delicate green mutated stem and leaf with furry leaves, white small flowers with yellow centers.

Shen Yao looked at it and it seemed somewhat familiar, but before she could recognize it, the machine's large door opened, the robot outside had already handed over the introduction of the materialized mental power plant.

Shen Yao:...

"Chamomile"

Belongs to the Asteraceae family of plants, common in modern society, even found in the wild.

This type of plant has floral fragrance, can be inserted into a flower vase as an ornamental object.

And because chamomile aids sleep, can relieve body inflammation and pain symptoms, it is used in medicine and made into tea. 【This section sourced from internet content】

The robot has entered the relevant information into the database, incidentally congratulating Shen Yao on successful awakening.

Even though the materialized plant is currently somewhat weak and useless, if cultivated seriously, there will eventually be a day it can earn Shen Yao a large amount of Federal Currency.

Half an hour later, Shen Yao left with the cultivation agent she bought back, the materialized mental power plant had already returned to her mind, quietly undergoing dormancy.

"Host, this type of somewhat useful plant is hard to cultivate."

The system currently belongs to a special energy body, as long as it doesn't run out on its own to show off, even the technologically advanced interstellar cannot discover it.

"Go back and flip through the space," the robot's polite words gave Shen Yao an idea, perhaps this ordinary chamomile could really let her realize the wish of making money to buy a planet and farm.