Chapter 4: The Xth Backup Plan

The climate here was more humid than in Liu Heming’s hometown in Northeast China. But after nightfall, it still felt a bit chilly. Luckily, although this house had been abandoned for a long time, there was plenty of dry firewood inside.

While lighting the fireplace, something very annoying happened to him. A not-very-large bat, startled by the smoke, stumbled and flew out, giving him quite a fright.

Sitting on the creaky lounge chair, he covered himself with a blanket to feel more comfortable. Liu Heming started thinking about his own worries.

After going around the nearby town with Jack, also known as Liu Yi, that afternoon, he could now be completely sure—he had really fallen into a small trap.

This town used to be quite prosperous and had a nice name: “Xiangshui Town.” Back then, there were many rivers within the town’s boundaries, and the pasture grass was lush. For those who liked to run ranches, this was naturally excellent grazing land.

Why was it called Xiangshui Town? Because the small river that ran through his ranch made a loud noise as it flowed, hence the name.

But the good times didn’t last long. Strange things started happening here one after another.

First, nine years ago, several small meteorites fell one after another. People picked them up and sold them for money. That in itself wasn’t a big deal. But the next year, a continuous drought began. Livestock died in large numbers, the pasture grass dried up in patches, and that small river started to shrink, becoming thinner and thinner.

It was said that this even caught the attention of the Department of Agriculture. Many people came back then to check if there were any abnormal events. However, after investigating for over half a day, they found nothing. The livestock continued to die, and the pasture grass kept withering.

So, this town went from a once prosperous small town to its current rundown state in just a few years. In the whole town, there were fewer than fifteen households, and that included his own family, who had just arrived today.

To put it simply, the town didn’t even have a sheriff. With so few households, and everyone owning guns, they looked after themselves. The Town Mayor position was taken in turns.

Those who could leave had all left. The ones who remained either found it hard to leave their homeland or were the elderly, weak, sick, or disabled. They could at least manage to survive here.

His dilapidated ranch was just a microcosm of this entire town; the whole town was like this. There was one benefit, though: handling any procedures went very quickly. Even the driver’s license issue—after watching him drive around the block, the Town Mayor told him to go home and wait, promising that he would get the license for sure.

If Jack hadn’t vouched that this Town Mayor wasn’t a fraud, he would have thought he had encountered someone selling fake certificates.

And now, he began to truly worry—worry about his future livelihood. Going out to find a job wasn’t realistic. If he wanted to live well in the future, support himself, and buy little gifts for his daughter, he had to focus his efforts on the ranch.

He had done some farm work at home before, but that was in the past and only remained in his childhood memories. With the conditions here so terrible now, he really didn’t know what to do.

His parents back home were quite worried too. For now, he could only selectively share news with them. At the very least, he couldn’t tell them about the current living conditions; he had to tell them that life here was fantastic. It wasn’t about pretending to be strong despite weakness, but to spare them from worrying.

Right now, he had a little over two thousand US Dollars on hand. In a couple of days, his family would wire him less than thirty thousand US Dollars. That was his family’s entire savings. For baby Alex, his family was going all out.

He picked up the liquor bottle next to him, opened it, and took a swig. The taste was a bit strange; he still couldn’t enjoy the flavor of this foreign liquor. But there wasn’t much to complain about—it wasn’t good liquor to begin with, just something to help him sleep soundly on his first night here.

Even though the liquor wasn’t great, it was quite strong. After just a few sips, he started feeling dizzy and didn’t bother going to the bed. The fire in the fireplace was blazing, making it very warm. Hazily, he drifted into dreamland.

He didn’t know how long he had slept when he felt as if the world had turned upside down. When he opened his eyes, he saw dust falling from the ceiling, and he was lying on the ground. That lounge chair, which had long passed its retirement age but was still holding its ground, had finally met its end.

Liu Heming shook his head, feeling that something wasn’t quite right. Then he smelled a burnt odor coming from the window that had cracked open again.

Grabbing a piece of firewood, he had to go see what had happened. When he cautiously stepped outside, he was dumbfounded—there was a huge crater.

About fifty meters away from his house, there was a large pit, with wisps of smoke continuously rising from it. Being bold, he figured he had to check what was inside no matter what. What if it was another meteorite? Selling it could at least earn him some money.

Approaching the edge of the pit, he was quite cautious. He didn’t stand directly at the edge but lay on the ground, inching his way forward to peer down.

The pit was indeed quite deep, but it was slanted. It was too dark at the bottom to see clearly. He didn’t know if there was a legendary meteorite waiting for him to sell for cash.

He was careful enough, but he still underestimated the pressure his weight put on the edge of the pit. Before he could get a good look, the soil at the edge collapsed, and he slid headfirst into the pit.

His heart leaped into his throat. His arms and legs flailed about, but they couldn’t overcome Earth’s gravity. He felt a sharp pain in his head, as if he had hit something, and then he passed out.

“System activated. Detecting life form type.”

“Tertiary life form. Not recommended for binding and cultivation. Continuing search for biological targets within controllable range…”

“Search concluded. No more suitable alternative targets found.”

“Initiating second phase. Modification…”

“Modification failed. Tertiary life form is not suitable for modification.”

“Initiating second backup plan…”

“System error. System error. System error…”

“Halt second backup plan. Analyze target life form.”

“Analysis result: Tertiary life form, possesses no modification value. Score: 38 points. According to first selection criteria, recommend discard.”

“…”

“Initiating Xth Backup Plan. This plan is a contingency plan. Effects unknown. Impacts unknown.”

“System error. Xth Backup Plan has no specific execution criteria. It is only a segment of error code. Recommend deletion.”

“Deletion unsuccessful. Re-initiating Xth Backup Plan. Fusion beginning…”

“Analysis. Fusion complete.”

“System warning: This is an erroneous choice. This is an erroneous choice…”

If Liu Heming had been conscious and heard these continuously sounding voices, he would have been extremely frustrated—it seemed as though selecting him was quite unsatisfactory.

But right now, he knew nothing. Probably, for him, that was a blessing.