Chapter 2: Rare Plant

The owner of the small store was tall and strong, and he was standing next to the seated Xie Sen. It put great pressure on Xie Sen. Xie Sen waved his hands. “No, no. Big brother, I am honest. Absolutely will not seek others. Happy?!”

The boss looked him up and down once, and frowned. “Are you live?”

“Huh?” Xie Sen was stunned by his sudden question, and realized the boss’s thought process was too strange. “No, I was just passing by to have lunch.”

“I think he’s live-streaming. Wasn’t that video on Trill very hot earlier?”

“I think so!”

Xie Sen was dumbfounded, the diners pointed at him and discussed it vigorously. He strained his ears to listen to a few sentences, and finally understood why they suspected him of live streaming.

It turned out that two days ago, a small anchor of the famous live-streaming platform, Trill in Star City, in order to attract attention, found a small store for lunch. After they ate, they shouted to the boss – “Boss, give me a plate of after-dinner fruit.” This sentence not only stunned the boss, but also made the audience laugh out loud.

Xie Sen understood the reason, but only became more puzzled. What was funny about that?

“Let me see your personal bracelet to check if you’re on air!” The boss reached towards him.

Xie Sen opened the bracelet with his fingerprint, and raised his hand generously. “Feel free to check.”

The boss moved nimbly and checked his bracelet at once to make sure he hadn’t opened any software and wasn’t live. His face looked better, and he put a palm on Xie Sen’s shoulder. “Young man, I won’t ask for money, but don’t joke. If you want to eat rice, a hundred meters ahead, there is an expensive restaurant that sells it. If you go early, you may be able to grab some.”

The corners of Xie Sen’s mouth twitched. Was it necessary to connect rice and an expensive restaurant? He increased his smile and nodded his head. Then he grunted, “Mmn. Big brother, I’ve learned my lesson. You should go. You must be busy,” he said, then pointed to the meat in the lunch box, and gave a thumbs up. “It was super delicious!”

The boss smiled anew, told him to come back often and went to work again.

Xie Sen didn’t dare to ask why there was only meat and no vegetables, so he finished the meat, drank a glass of water and left the store.

He checked his residence through his personal bracelet, and took the shuttle back to the original owner’s apartment. The apartment was in a relatively remote neighborhood. A detached two-story building with about seventy square meters on each floor. He used his fingerprints to enter smoothly.

After he looked around, he sat on the couch and began to catch up on information about this world.

The planet he was on was called Brandt Star, a Beast Star with three main cities, Sun City, Moon City, and Star City. The ancestors of the beast stars were beasts, which later evolved so they could transform into humans. The beasts created a splendid civilization, and the predecessors of the three main cities were the three tribes of the beast era. With the passage of time, beasts could only exist in human form and couldn’t be bestialized.

Even if they couldn’t bestialize, they were still not the same as Earthlings.

The Beastmen were fully grown by sixteen and a half years old and reached adulthood by eighteen. Generally speaking, before the age of sixteen, they would awaken a contract beast. The history books said that the contract beast was a gift from the Beast God to his people.

While awakening the contract beast, the corresponding contract beast’s beast pattern would emerge on the beastman’s body. The beastman’s appearance was male, there was no apparent difference between male and female, but only the females were able to give birth.

Males had the beast pattern on their chests and they were mostly ferocious beasts, while females had beast patterns on their left shoulders and were mostly small beasts.

Beast patterns were the guidance given by the Beast God, and Beast Star people, through the beast pattern, could find their corresponding contract beast. When the synchronization rate with the contract beast was higher than 50%, the beast could be bound. The contract beast would become the most loyal partner to its master, and would greatly enhance their master’s ability.

During the process of development, the environment of the Beast Planet had gradually become harsher and harsher. More than a thousand years ago, a huge disaster occurred that made the edible plants on the Beast Planet almost disappear.

To this day, the Beast Planet environment was still harsh, so the living plants on the planet had extremely strong vitality. Outside the three main cities was a vast desolate area of rogue forests, with tall beastial plants that were fierce and very dangerous.

In that native rogue forest was the source of most of the ingredients for the residents of the beast planet, so to speak. Although the beast planet had gone from the primitive era into the age of technology, and even opened the interstellar era, it still retained the habit of taking food from nature.

Due to these historical problems, the beast planet’s edible plants were artificially grown. The amount was extraordinarily small, and the most bountiful was rice. However, one or two servings of rice was at least a hundred star coins. Almost all the restaurants only sold a daily ration, and it was first come, first serve.

Therefore, even if one had the money, they might not be able to buy it. Not to mention the per capita daily wage here was two hundred star coins. Ordinary families couldn’t afford to eat it. As for vegetables and fruits, except for the ‘rich supermarkets’ that maintained close contact with the Plant Institute, other places simply couldn’t buy them. Even the rich supermarkets couldn’t  necessarily have them every day. The price was expensive to the point of being outrageous.

The cheapest, rich supermarkets sold the most a week – a limited number of thirty pounds of cabbage, for a thousand star coins a pound.

Xie Sen saw this information, and finally understood the small store owner and the diners’ perverse reactions. He spent ten stars to get a box of meat, but also asked the boss for rice. 100 star coins might not be able to buy rice. In the boss’s view, this was him finding trouble!

He stroked his hair and lamented. What kind of thing was this? He ate vegetables and fruits  during the apocalypse until he became a vegetable himself. Now he was forced to eat meat every day?

When he thought of this, he jumped up from the sofa. He was able to eat vegetables and fruits in the last world because he had inadvertently obtained a plant system!

His Plant System! His heartbeat jumped up and he pulled down his collar from his right shoulder. When he saw the pattern on his shoulder, his eyes flashed with joy, but then he couldn’t help but frown.

The outline of the flower was very familiar to him. It marked the carrier with a Plant System peony, but the color of the flower had been a dark red during the apocalypse. Now, there were five colors: red, white, green, black and yellow. 1  

He stretched out his finger and rubbed the petals, as he tried to communicate with the System. However, whether it was speaking out loud or communicating with his mind, he got no response. He thought about the events when he was bound to the System. He went to the kitchen, cut his left index finger with a knife, and let the blood drip down onto the peony.

Soon, the blood drops on the peony disappeared, and a faint multicolor glow appeared on the petals. It worked. 

‘Sen, you’re alive!’

Xie Sen hurriedly asked with his mind, ‘Did you pull this trick?’

The system, Adam, spoke. It’s voice was a little weak, but couldn’t hide its complacency, ‘Of course. I activated my energy at the critical moment to find you a compatible body. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have survived.’

‘What about my body’s original person?’

Adam said, ‘You survived without any problems. The other person died before you came.’ Xie Sen was ready to ask again, but Adam continued, “The time shift power was too strong. My original energy was scattered, and now I’m very weak. Your plants are gone, and you have to re-activate them. I need to sleep to gather my original energy, but I’ll wake up every twelve hours.’

‘If you still want the plants, try to collect grateful energy to activate the plants. The more plants, the more time I will be awake,” he said with a smaller voice. “By the way, you have to remember that you need to rest every eight hours after waking up from sleep.’

‘Why?’

Even after asking half a dozen times, there was still no response from the System.

Xie Sen touched his finger, which was still bleeding, on the peony petals and waited for a while, but there was no sound in his head, nor was there any change in the blood. Xie Sen wiped his shoulder clean, pulled up his collar, returned to the living room and sat down on the sofa. The System couldn’t be trusted!