Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

In reality, when Teresa Du went on this journey, she indeed encountered an incident and went missing. At that time, Lin Kexin, trapped in the jade pendant, “saw” the last recorded message from Teresa Du sent to Ruo Manni before her disappearance.

In the video, Teresa Du and the Flying Dragon Mercenary Group successfully arrived at the desolate planet. They stayed for a day in the nearest city to the Desolate Forest, preparing sufficient supplies before smoothly entering the forest the next day.

The Desolate Forest is notorious for its dangers within the Gus Empire, covering almost three-fifths of the planet’s surface. Its vastness is immense.

With today’s technology, exploring an entire forested planet would usually be straightforward, but the Desolate Forest is different.

There is a strong magnetic field of unknown origin within the forest that disrupts all energy-based devices, and once humans enter more than a thousand meters into the forest, they lose all communication with the outside world.

As such, the Desolate Forest remains an unexplored primitive forest, preserving a very original ecosystem with numerous high-level exotic beasts. Because no one dares to venture deep into the forest, these beasts have the opportunity to reproduce freely, leading to a beast tide erupting every ten to twenty years.

For ordinary people, such a beast tide is deadly, but for high-level adventurers, it presents a relatively safe opportunity to acquire significant wealth. Therefore, whenever a beast tide is imminent, the cities on the entire desolate planet are filled with adventurers.

When there is no threat of a beast tide, the Desolate Forest is also a place for adventurers to test their luck, as many have found very valuable high-grade medicinal plants on the forest’s outskirts. Not to mention, numerous low-level exotic beasts can be hunted.

For ordinary citizens, the Desolate Forest is notoriously known as a death trap, but for adventurers, it poses significant risks while also providing opportunities for profit.

Since communication is impossible within the forest, all adventurers entering the Desolate Forest will set a predetermined time to return with those waiting outside.

When Teresa Du and her team arrived at the desolate planet, it was three years after the most recent beast tide. Based on past probabilities, the five years following a beast tide have typically been the safest period for the entire desolate planet, including the forest’s outskirts.

They had initially agreed to return within thirty days. However, the guardians waiting outside the Desolate Forest did not receive any word from them even a month after the deadline.

On the twentieth day after Teresa Du’s group entered the forest, the guardians heard some unsettling news. A city about five hundred kilometers away from theirs had been attacked by a small-scale beast tide. Such small-scale beast tides are extremely rare, and locals and adventurers alike began to speculate, wondering if something had happened in the central area of the forest.

The Desolate Forest on the desolate planet is a perilous place, and the interstellar rescue organization of the Gus Empire has stated that they will not send rescue teams in for assistance. Therefore, once humans go missing inside, they can only leave their fate to chance.

When Teresa Du and the Flying Dragon Mercenary Group entered the Desolate Forest, they only brought enough supplies for a month. Now, over three months have passed, and while everyone officially refers to them as missing, in reality, they all assume they have perished.

Lin Kexin also leans toward believing that Teresa Du has met with an unfortunate end. Given the conditions there and the length of time that has passed, unless she possesses the protagonist’s invincibility aura, she is likely lost.

Three months after Teresa Du’s disappearance, the vice president of the Pharmacist Guild personally came to find Ruo Manni. He offered her some encouraging words and gave her one hundred thousand credit points, saying it was a gift from her mother.

Young Ruo Manni did not fully grasp the vice president’s intentions, but Lin Kexin, trapped in the pendant, understood clearly. This sum was essentially a consolation payment from the Pharmacist Guild for Ruo Manni.

At that moment, Lin Kexin thought the Pharmacist Guild was quite admirable. When one of their pharmacists encounters trouble during an adventure, the guild provides compensation to the family. While one hundred thousand credit points may not seem like much, it is sufficient to support a civilian family for eight to ten years.

With this credit, even if Teresa Du left no other assets for Ruo Manni, as long as Ruo Manni manages her expenses wisely, she wouldn’t have to worry about living costs until she comes of age.

Upon receiving the credit points, Ruo Manni’s first reaction was to cry. Lin Kexin understood her feelings well; if possible, Ruo Manni would trade this sum to bring her mother back.

Having grown up without a father, Ruo Manni had always relied on her mother, making her disappearance a devastating blow—an injury that felt irreparable.

Teresa Du had been very determined for Ruo Manni to attend the Xuan Gu First Military Academy, but Ruo Manni didn’t understand her mother’s obsession. She disliked the pressure but was too afraid to defy her mother, resulting in passive resistance. Additionally, her lack of enthusiasm for physical training caused her to stagnate at the first level.

Ruo Manni never considered that her laziness could lead to her mother’s decision to take risks. Now, the young girl finally grasped the meaning of regret.

Slowly, Ruo Manni began to pull herself together, motivated by the desire to fulfill her mother’s wishes. Thus, gaining admission to the Xuan Gu First Military Academy became her own obsession.

However, the obstacles to her enrollment remained. Ruo Manni’s physical potential had not improved with her mother’s disappearance. Instead, having immersed herself in grief for over two months without training, her physical skills had regressed rather than advanced.

With Ruo Manni’s current level in physical training, she hadn’t even met the most basic requirements to apply to the Xuan Gu First Military Academy, making it impossible to fulfill her mother’s wish.

Just as she was about to fall into despair, she saw a promotional video for the newly launched holographic game, Battle Realm, which suddenly seemed like her last hope.

Lin Kexin, trapped within the jade pendant around Ruo Manni’s neck, could see everything that Ruo Manni saw, so she also “watched” the promotional video for Battle Realm. It was this video that made Lin Kexin realize she had somehow entered the world of the book.

The promotional video for Battle Realm began by stating that humans have always considered sleep to be a waste of time. Therefore, scientists had been researching ways to utilize sleep time without affecting sleep quality or daytime productivity, allowing people to learn online while dreaming.

After countless experiments, scientists confirmed that humans only need about two hours of deep sleep each day. Thus, during light sleep, people can engage in online learning and gaming in specially designed gaming pods.

Accompanying this research breakthrough was the release of the Battle Realm holographic gaming pod, representing the pinnacle of this technology.