With no need to cook for Captain Kate to-day, Lan Grace finally had a rare idle moment. She roasted herself a simple sweet potato and washed it down with water—just making do.
She had barely finished when Kane came running in a hurry.
"Miss Lan, my uncle requests your presence."
As he spoke, Kane sniffed the faint, lingering sweet aroma in the air and knew at once that Lan Grace had just eaten natural food.
Natural food really was a marvel. After more than two months of eating it, his uncle's physical constitution had shot up—news Kane himself had only learned a few days ago.
But as his physique improved, his uncle also burned through a decade's savings—leaving him worse off than Kane.
That plate of egg‑fried rice his uncle traded yesterday had been his last remaining asset.
Hearing Kane, Lan Grace nodded at once, turned to lock her door, and followed him out.
By her reckoning, it was about time—the day to leave the Waste Star to sit the Alliance Second Military Academy's entrance examination was due in the next day or two.
Captain Kate's office was not far. Ten‑odd minutes' walk brought them there.
In the small, all‑white office, Captain Kate was reading a few reports on the light grey desk. Hearing Lan Grace arrive, he looked up.
"Please, be seated, Miss Lan."
Captain Kate's courtesy to Lan Grace was genuine and from the heart.
In just over two months, his physique had risen from B+ to A+. His mental power had not improved—still B‑grade—but the change from B+ to A+ in physique was a qualitative leap!
Now, among the regional administrators on Waste Star No. 101, his strength ranked second!
Even the transfer to the front he had been eyeing—after he filed his application, to‑day he had received the approval.
Lan Grace, though a homebody in her former life, had the background to match the occasion—she had seen the world. If she could keep her composure with Mi Milo, how much more so with a mere sector captain like Captain Kate.
Following his gesture, she sat on the soft, nano‑material sofa placed by the wall.
The feel was truly comfortable—worlds better than the hard bed in the room assigned to her as an exiled criminal!
Lan Grace decided that when she eventually bought a place out in the interstellar, she would buy this kind of sofa.
"Miss Lan, we've identified those who broke into your room and stole your things."
Captain Kate's voice snapped Lan Grace out of her reverie.
"And then?" Lan Grace blinked, a little speechless.
What had Captain Kate said the day of the theft? That he would find the culprits soon—no time at all!
Yet it had taken a full month to get results.
Did such a small matter really need so long? Was this the efficiency of Captain Kate's men?
Pressed, Captain Kate gave a small, embarrassed cough to steady himself before continuing.
"There were three thieves—all exiled criminals. Two died recently, and the third is barely breathing—he'll likely only last a day or two."
Lan Grace: "…"
What was she supposed to say to that?
He had specially called her over to tell her they had found the thieves—but they were pretty much all dead?
Well, Lan Grace had not planned to pursue the theft in the first place. She had not taken it to heart. The result now could only be chalked up to different fates.
Even after stealing the food from her room, those people had not escaped the fate of dying on a Waste Star.
"One more thing," Captain Kate said, seeing that Lan Grace showed little reaction to the theft. "The place for the Alliance Second Military Academy entrance exam has been decided. You will be No. 101 Waste Star's representative."
"The ship to pick you up will arrive in one hour. On behalf of the No. 101 Waste Star Administration, I'll issue you a temporary personal brain terminal."
On hearing "terminal," Lan Grace's eyes lit up!
At last, she would be equipped with the communication gear that almost everyone in the interstellar had!
A few minutes later, a basic grey watch‑model terminal was buckled around her wrist.
Because it was temporary, the terminal's functions were limited. After fiddling for a while, Lan Grace's earlier excitement was gone.
Who knew what era this antique came from!
Beyond calls and messages, it did basically nothing else.
No Starnet shopping, no social, no holo gaming, no mecha combat—none of it existed!
This terminal was like being in a world where everyone had a smartphone—but she had been handed a seniors' dumbphone.
"Right," Captain Kate added when she was done setting it up, "this terminal is only on loan for now. If you pass the Second Military Academy exam, it will formally be yours. If you don't, when you return to the Waste Star, you'll have to hand it back."
Lan Grace: "…"
Since when were seniors' dumbphones so precious?!
Was the Waste Star really that poor? For bringing honour to the planet by passing the exam, the reward was a dumbphone??
Did they have to be so stingy??
Lan Grace once more confronted her situation head‑on—the original owner truly had made her own bed and left no way to lie in it.
A well‑born young lady had insisted on "playing to die," to this point.
Since Lan Grace's arrival, she had not enjoyed a single day of a good life; her status had sunk to rock bottom.
Sigh—
If she wanted to live well in future, it would all depend on her own effort.
She was basically starting from scratch—building from the ground up.
…
A day later, the ship carrying Lan Grace off the Waste Star arrived safely at a simulated planet under the Alliance Second Military Academy's jurisdiction.
This was the trial ground for the entrance examination.
Disembarking, Lan Grace saw nothing but undulating expanses of yellow sand stretching to the horizon.
A desert. Blistering sunlight baked the air dry and scorching; even the sand underfoot, through the soles of one's shoes, felt hot enough to burn.
The environment's harshness made one want to sweat at once, yet the moment sweat oozed from one's pores, the dry, torrid air seemed to evaporate it away.
In a climate like this, an ordinary person who stayed too long would soon find the water in their body entirely evaporated.
When Lan Grace arrived, there were already quite a few candidates waiting in the desert.