The Interstellar Queen of Scavengers

Chapter 1495: Chapter 1495: The Daily Grind of a Little Laborer

Day Star.

At 12:50 PM Alliance Standard Time, the majority of the planets in the eight major star systems where humanity survives are in the deep of night, but Day Star remains bright as midday. This is because the night on Day Star is exceptionally short, lasting less than three hours per day. Therefore, the concept of midnight in standard time is only used as a time guide for the people of Day Star, whose sleep patterns typically follow the planet’s own brief darkness.

Thus, Gu Yao was not sleeping.

The sunlight outside was too intense, and the temperature was high. The plants outside drooped with their leaves, appearing listless. Gu Yao nestled in her small room, with the thermostat set to a comfortable 20 degrees Celsius, but she felt no enjoyment. Her eyes were fixed on the clock, ready to turn off the heating system at the exact time.

Why?

Because running the thermostat incurs electricity expenses. Gu Yao had no money; she was an orphan and very, very poor. So even the ordinary expenses of electricity and water bills were a burden for her.

Gu Yao had just turned 18 this year, and she was in her third year of high school. She had reached the legal age of adulthood. Before she became an adult, the government provided her with basic housing and waived many living expenses.

Upon reaching adulthood, the small house she currently lived in would not be taken back by the government but given to her. However, she would have to shoulder the expenses for water, electricity, and other living costs.

Gu Yao’s spiritual power was quite ordinary, only D-level, and her Physical Strength wasn’t high, just reaching C-level. There were thousands of people in the Alliance like her, average in every aspect, destined to do regular jobs and lead mundane lives.

Yet, Gu Yao was unwilling to accept this. Her dream was to become a Mechanical Warrior, but her Physical Strength and spiritual power held her back. She could only settle for less and switch to another profession. In fact, Gu Yao had accepted her fate. She decided to apply for a material processing major after her graduation exams and become a Material Processing Master.

Of course, all of this was still months away. For now, she had something more important to do, and that was —

Star Network labor.

That’s right.

For someone like Gu Yao, who had to attend school most of the time and was only free on weekends or during short breaks, finding an outside job was impossible. She could only do part-time labor on the Star Network.

The wages for labor were not high, but it was extremely convenient. You could work whenever and wherever you wanted on the Star Network. For instance, Gu Yao had just returned home from school, ate half a pack of low-level nutrition, and immediately logged into Star Network Home, picked up an axe, and started chopping wood.

Once, twice, thrice...

Limited by her Physical Strength and spiritual power, Gu Yao’s speed was not fast, and the energy collected by the system with each chop was meager. In one hour, she could earn about 2 credit points. Excluding time for classes and studying, Gu Yao would do labor work every day, and she had almost no entertainment.

Today was no different.

Gu Yao continued to chop wood, her muscles aching a bit. When it became too much, she’d stop, rest until relieved, and then continue.

While she had been laboring for half an hour, she suddenly received a notification sound stating that a Star Network shop owner she followed had new items in stock. Initially indifferent, Gu Yao wondered - what did new stock have to do with her when she had no money to buy anything? But then something occurred to her, and her spirit lifted. She immediately dropped her axe and turned towards the shop.

This shop belonged to the Green Glaze Master, whom Gu Yao learned about through schoolmates. It was said that the Green Glaze Master was an incredibly skilled, kind, and generous soul artifact maker. One of her classmates once spent 20 credit points on a Soul Device from the Green Glaze Master, and after wearing it for less than two months, her spiritual power had risen from D-level to C-level. That same Soul Device was later sold at a high price to someone else, rumored to have purchased it for 1.5 million credit points.

Gu Yao’s eyes nearly bulged from their sockets upon hearing this!

She wished she had such luck, to acquire one of the Green Glaze Master’s Soul Devices at an unbelievably low price.

She could use it herself or sell it to someone else, thus significantly alleviating her poor circumstances.

With hope in her heart, Gu Yao rushed into the shop and chose to buy an item.

She had no money, she only had 5,000 credit points on her, half of which were earned from labor and the other half from a school scholarship.

Gu Yao knew how expensive Soul Devices were, and she couldn’t afford one. But the Green Glaze Master was a unique Soul Artifact Master, known for random pricing of her Soul Devices, such as the Grass Seed Fruit Pendant for 20 credit points or some art pieces priced at a few thousand credit points...

Gu Yao decided to try her luck, hoping today might be another day when the Green Glaze Master was being generous.

And then.

The purchase was successful.

Gu Yao stared wide-eyed, thinking she was seeing things. But the system’s success notification was real. Excitedly, she opened her Soul Device and found only a card. Gu Yao was not disappointed; anything made by the Green Glaze Master was a treasure, she firmly believed even a lump of Jinkela in the hands of the Green Glaze Master would turn into a clump capable of making plants flower and bear fruit.

Yeah.

That’s right, just like that.

So, Gu Yao unhesitatingly exercised her rights, and opened it. What appeared before her was sheer darkness. Gu Yao blinked her eyes, it was utterly dark, with nothing visible.

Mistake? Did something go wrong?

Gu Yao thought her eyes must be failing her. Calming down, she tried examining the dark space again. Only then did she realize it wasn’t completely empty. The dark space had square borders surrounding it.

What was inside the borders?

A Soul Device?

Gu Yao looked closely, suddenly feeling a wave of fatigue in her spirit. The exhaustion was so great she couldn’t maintain her presence in the Star Network. The pain... it grew more intense... Gu Yao endured it but had to give up, decisively logging out of the Star Network the next second and collapsing onto her bed.

Then.

She fell asleep.

Gu Yao didn’t know how long she had slept, but when she opened her eyes, the weariness had vanished, even the fatigue accumulated from logging long hours in the Star Network.

Gu Yao checked the time and discovered she’d slept for 3 hours.

3...3 hours!!!

Startled, Gu Yao immediately logged into the Star Network to continue her labor! She’s doomed. She had to work overtime tonight to make up for those 3 missing hours, or else, missing out on 3 credit points would just be unbearable to imagine for Gu Yao.

Gu Yao logged back into the Star Network, continuing the labor.

Once, twice, thrice...

After finishing an hour of labor, Gu Yao didn’t feel exhausted nor the fatigue that deterred her from wanting to move. Even the number of times she swung the axe had increased. She awaited the system to calculate her wage when the system prompt rang out: [You have accumulated 1 hour of work, success in collecting energy... This hourly wage: 3 credit points, your wages have been deposited. Would you like to continue working?]

Gu Yao listened to the mechanical voice without any immediate reaction. She mechanically repeated the system’s words out loud before her heart suddenly skipped a beat––

Wait!

credit points?!!!

How was that possible?

Gu Yao had been doing labor on Star Network since she was young but never earned an hourly wage of 3 credit points, so she could hardly believe her ears.

...

As Gu Yao was bewildered, those who had also purchased items from the Green Glaze Master’s latest stock woke up after sleeping, and they all exploded with excitement!