1: Three Days' Death Bell

Year 7384 of the Fourth Era, Ashen Earth Star, Mining Area No. 7.

The electronic screen on the bulletin board flickered, like a wink for a dead man.

"Hey, it refreshed. Let's see which unlucky bastard is going for 'Environmental Processing' this time."

"Doesn't matter who it is, the bunk they vacate is mine anyway... Wait, 734?"

The surrounding whispers were like coarse sandpaper, grinding against Chen Feng's brain until it throbbed with pain. He forced his head up, his gaze piercing through the rust-scented air to stare fixedly at that line of cold characters.

ID: 734

Status: Pending Scrapping

Execution Date: In three days

"As expected, it's him."

"Coughing like he's about to spit out his lungs; he should have been processed long ago."

"Pity. I heard he used to be a smart one."

"In Giant Star Mining, can brains put food on the table? If you can't mine, you're just a pile of organic waste wasting synthetic starch."

The coworker who had just borrowed a light from Chen Feng immediately took half a step back, as if avoiding a rotting corpse.

Chen Feng's body swayed, a chill racing up his spine straight to the crown of his head.

Even if he was a business genius from Earth, even if he once managed hundreds of billions in capital, in this godforsaken world, he was now just a 'waste material' with the code 734 and a 72-hour shelf life... In the shadows of the mining area.

Chen Feng's fingers trembled as he stuffed the high-purity mineral crystal—hidden in his sole and grinding painfully into his palm—into the low-level Guard's hand.

This was his final trump card.

"Please, show some mercy..." Chen Feng's voice sounded like it contained a handful of grit. "The list... can you cross me off..."

"Cross you off?"

The Guard weighed the almost weightless crystal, as if he had heard some grand joke: "Just for this?"

"I can create value! I understand management, I understand resource allocation, I..."

"You?"

"Bang!"

An alloy combat boot kicked heavily into his chest, and Chen Feng rolled away like a tattered sack.

The Guard slowly pocketed the mineral crystal and stepped on Chen Feng's struggling fingers, grinding down hard.

"734, for the sake of this little bit of profit, I'll teach you a lesson." The Guard leaned down, his tone full of the malice of a cat playing with a mouse. "Stop struggling. Quietly finding a corner to die like a dog is the last and greatest dignity you'll have in this life."

The agonizing pain of his fractured finger bones was far less than the humiliation brought by those words.

In the dark mine tunnel, Chen Feng leaned against the cold rock wall. His brain worked frantically under the stimulation of adrenaline, but it kept hitting dead ends.

Bribery? Resources at zero.

Escape? He wouldn't make it a hundred meters before being riddled with holes by automated machine guns.

Resistance? With these hands that couldn't even hold a pickaxe?

A dead end. A complete and utter dead end.

"I am Chen Feng... I once stood at the top of the pyramid looking down on all living beings... yet now I am to die silently in a mine pit?"

Resentment, anger, and hatred poured over his heart like boiling oil.

"Requesting entry to the infirmary." He still hadn't given up, dragging himself to the infirmary door while leaning against the wall, even if it took his last breath.

A red light swept over him.

"Beep—"

"Scan complete. ID 734, organ failure, determined to have 'no recovery value'."

"I... I just need one painkiller..."

"Denied. Please return to the designated area to await the scrapping procedure."

The AI's emotionless electronic voice completely sealed off the last path to survival. In the algorithms of capital, he wasn't worth wasting even a milliliter of medicine... Dragging his broken body back to the foul-smelling communal dormitory, Chen Feng found his bunk was gone.

"Hey, 734, what are you back for? Coming back from the dead?"

The Mine Slave in the next bunk, built like a bear, was sitting cross-legged on his bunk, playing with Chen Feng's only personal item—a battered metal cup.

"Get off." Chen Feng's eyes were bloodshot.

"Yours?" The Mine Slave grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Listen, since you're turning into fertilizer in three days anyway, keeping this stuff is a waste. I'm helping you handle your belongings early. Don't you know the rules?"

"I said, get out!"

"Heh, the dead dog still has a temper?" The Mine Slave stood up, his two-meter-tall shadow looming over Chen Feng. "Want to fight? Come on, hit me right here. If you can even budge me, I'll swallow this bunk!"

Chen Feng clenched his fists, but just as he was about to charge, a heart-wrenching fit of coughing made him curl up like a shrimp.

"Bad luck!" The Mine Slave pushed him away in disgust. "Cough somewhere else! Don't pass your deathly aura to me. Go squat in the corner!"

...The cafeteria.

On the tray was a lump of grey, foul-smelling synthetic paste. Chen Feng's hand holding the spoon was shaking; this stuff looked exactly like the substance he would become in three days.

"Can't eat?"

A thin, withered old man sat down opposite him. Everyone called him Old Fourth Tu, a living fossil of this godforsaken place.

"Yeah."

"Want to trade?" Old Fourth Tu pushed over a piece of black bread that looked like a brick. "Your paste might be disgusting, but you don't have to chew it. My teeth are almost all gone, I can't gnaw on this."

Chen Feng said nothing and silently pushed his plate over.

Old Fourth Tu didn't stand on ceremony, swallowing in large gulps, but his murky eyes were fixed on Chen Feng: "Kid, do you know what 'Environmental Processing' actually is?"

"...I don't want to know."

"Hehe, it's throwing you into the Decomposition Pits of the North Rift." Old Fourth Tu lowered his voice, the sound like two bones rubbing together. "A vat of strong acid, one sizzle—three seconds, and not even a bone fragment remains. You become nutrients for this planet."

Chen Feng's stomach cramped, and he let out a dry heave.

"Also, do you know why this place is called Ashen Earth Star?" Old Fourth Tu laughed neurotically. "Because this planet died long ago! What we're stepping on is the ashes of billions of living beings! Those 'undead crystals' we dig up are all the resentment this planet had before it died!"

"That's a curse... anyone who touches them will go mad, will die..."

"So kid, even if you're dying, never go north. That's the entrance to hell..."

...Late at night.

Despair flooded over Chen Feng like a tide.

Fear, humiliation, resentment... all sorts of emotions fermented and expanded in his chest, nearly bursting his frail shell.

"I can't die... I absolutely cannot die here!"

He curled up in the cold, damp corner. His consciousness began to blur, but the ruthlessness from another world deep within his soul burned to its peak at this moment.

Even in the dust, sparks can be hidden; from the ordinary, legends can be born.

If the rule of this world is the law of the jungle, then I will chew those rules up and swallow them!

At the very moment his near-death will broke through the critical point—

[Zzz... Abnormal breakthrough of host's mental threshold detected...]

[Warning! Warning! Soul fluctuations incompatible with this plane... Attempting to link...]

A cold mechanical voice, sounding as if it had crossed billions of light-years, exploded directly in his mind:

[Permissions confirmed... Interstellar Exchange System, forced activation!]

[Host: Chen Feng]

[Newbie Protection Period: Enabled]

In the next second, an interface composed of pure light, seemingly containing all the stars of the universe, unfolded before his eyes.