The transition into the Star Origin World wasn't like falling asleep; it was more like being pulled through a straw. One second I was lying on my lumpy mattress in the North District, and the next, the smell of ozone and digital static hit me.
When my vision cleared, I wasn't in my room anymore.
I was standing in the middle of a dusty, ten-by-ten foot plot of land. The sky above was a weird, shimmering shade of indigo, and the "sun" looked more like a glowing geometric shape than a star. This was my "Starting Farm," the basic package every Farmer got. It looked less like a farm and more like a construction site that had been abandoned for twenty years. There were rocks everywhere, waist-high weeds that looked like they had teeth, and the soil was so dry it looked like cracked concrete.
A translucent blue window popped up in front of my face.
[Welcome to the Star Origin World, Shane Miller.]
[Class: Farmer (Rank 0)]
[Territory: Plot #9527 - North Sector Wilderness]
[Starting Equipment: 1x Rusty Hoe, 1x Bag of Basic Wheat Seeds (Low Quality)]
I looked down. Sure enough, a beat-up wooden hoe was lying at my feet. I picked it up. It felt heavy—too heavy. Even with my maxed-out physical stats from the real world, the "gravity" of this place felt different. Everything here was governed by Mana, not just physics.
Alright, I thought, looking at the mess around me. If I'm going to make enough money to buy Sierra something better than canned soup for dinner, I need to get moving.
In the real world, I was a beast. I'd spent years training my body to be a weapon. I figured tilling a little dirt would be a walk in the park. I swung the hoe down into the soil with everything I had.
Clang.
The hoe bounced off the hard earth like I'd hit a steel plate. My arms vibrated so hard I thought my teeth were going to fall out.
[Stamina: 9 / 10]
"Are you kidding me?" I muttered. One swing and I'd already lost a point of stamina? If I kept this up, I'd be passed out in ten minutes, and I wouldn't have even cleared a single row. This was the "Farmer's Trap" our teachers warned us about. Without high-tier tools or massive stamina buffs, manual labor in the Star Origin World was a death sentence for your productivity.
Then I remembered my talent. The one everyone—including the registrar—thought was a joke.
[Talent: Summon Skeleton]
[Description: Bring forth a basic undead laborer. All attributes: 1. Cost: 5 Mana. Cooldown: 24 Hours.]
"Five mana," I whispered, checking my bar. I had 18. "Alright, let's see what five bucks gets me."
I focused on the ground in front of me. "Summon."
The ground didn't explode. There was no dramatic lightning. Instead, the dirt just kind of... bubbled. A few seconds later, a hand made of yellowed, brittle-looking bone poked through the surface. Then an arm. Then a skull that looked like it had been through a car crash.
Slowly, the most pathetic skeleton I'd ever seen hauled itself out of the dirt. It was barely five feet tall, and its ribcage was slightly crooked. It stood there, staring at me with empty, flickering white lights in its eye sockets.
[Skeleton #1]
[Level: 1]
[Stats: Str 1, Agi 1, Con 1, Int 1...]
"Great," I sighed. "You look like you'd lose a fight to a stiff breeze."
I handed the hoe to the skeleton. It took the tool with a clicking sound, its bony fingers wrapping around the wood. It was so weak the hoe actually made its arm sag toward the ground.
"Okay, listen up," I said, feeling ridiculous for talking to a pile of bones. "Till that row. Straight line. Don't stop."
The skeleton tilted its head, the white lights in its eyes blinking once. Then, it turned toward the dirt.
It raised the hoe. It was slow—painfully slow. It took a full three seconds just to lift the tool over its head. But when it swung down, there was no hesitation.
Thuck.
The hoe sank an inch into the dirt. The skeleton didn't grunt. It didn't complain. It just pulled the hoe back and did it again.
Thuck.
I watched it for a minute. Then two.
My eyes widened.
"Wait a second..."
I looked at the skeleton's status bar. Its stamina was 1/1. But as it worked, that number didn't move. It didn't have a "fatigue" mechanic like I did. And the line it was tilling? It was perfect. I mean perfect. Every strike was exactly six inches apart. Every hole was the exact same depth.
The skeleton had 1 Strength, sure. It was slow. But it was precise. And it was infinite.
If I tried to do this, I'd be exhausted and making sloppy mistakes within the hour. But this guy? He could go all night. He didn't need water, he didn't need rest, and he didn't have a "human" brain that got bored or distracted.
A slow grin started to spread across my face.
"10% growth boost from my class skill... plus a worker that never sleeps..." I looked at my empty mana bar and then at the vast, messy plot of land. "Everyone thinks this is a garbage class because they're trying to use Farmers to fight. But this isn't a combat class."
I sat down on a rock, watching the skeleton slowly but surely carve a perfect line through the wasteland.
"This is an automation class."
If I could summon one every twenty-four hours... in a month, I'd have thirty workers. In a year? I'd have an army. Not an army to conquer the world—but an army to out-produce every single person in this base.
"Alright, buddy," I said, leaning back and looking up at the indigo sky. "Keep going. We've got a lot of work to do."
For the first time since the Awakening Ceremony, the weight in my chest started to lift. I wasn't going to be a hero. I was going to be a tycoon.