They had just caught their breath when the scruffy-faced captain immediately barked a new order at them.
Go clean the pigsties.
Hearing this, Lin Jingjing and Shi Feng felt like they were going to lose their minds.
'This is the interstellar era! Why do we still have to clean pigsties by hand?!'
'Where are the robots?'
'Aren't there any robots?!'
Seeing the two of them frozen in place, the scruffy captain roared again, "Did you hear me? Get a move on!"
Startled by the shout, the two of them quickly complied.
When they arrived at the pig farm, they understood.
'That guy just wanted to make things difficult for them!'
There were clearly robots working there already. He had ordered them over purely to torment them!
But there was nothing they could do. He was a higher-ranking officer, so they had no choice but to obey his orders.
They put on masks, grabbed shovels, and went in, clad in black protective suits.
"One day we transmigrate, and the next we're shoveling pig manure. Having a low level really means you have no rights."
"I'm a weapons researcher! Why the hell should I be shoveling pig manure here?" Shi Feng complained, unwilling to accept it.
Seeing the guy whining, Lin Jingjing said coolly, "Face reality. We're nothing right now."
'He had a point,' she thought. 'Just being able to survive during a mutant beast tide and get something to eat is already pretty good.'
Recent months were the peak of the mutant beast tide. To absorb more energy for winter hibernation and spring reproduction.
During the four months from July to October, they would frantically invade any planet with energy resources.
Once these planets were overrun by mutant beasts, their resources would be depleted, turning them into barren wastelands.
Every year, many people in the Empire died resisting these mutant beasts.
Many families had been devoured by them.
"I never thought there'd still be such a cruel war in the interstellar era," Shi Feng lamented.
His hands didn't stop moving, though, tossing shovelful after shovelful of pig manure into the dung cart.
The foul stench permeated the air, and the sensation of the shovel hitting the manure traveled up her arms, making Lin Jingjing feel nauseous.
The pigs were trapped in their pens. After eating their fill, they would lie down and sleep on a floor mixed with water and their own filth.
Some pigs had their heads buried in the troughs, OINKING and SNORTING as they ate their feed.
"Humans and mutant beasts are in a fight to the death," Lin Jingjing commented. Humans protect resources; mutant beasts seize them.
In this tug-of-war, there was no clear winner or loser.
By the time they finished shoveling manure, the sky had grown dark. The stench had seeped into their very bones. Everywhere they went, people stared at them with disgust. Some were even more direct, cursing, "Fuck, can't you wash yourselves? You reek!"
After shoveling pig manure all afternoon, Lin Jingjing was exhausted and starving. She couldn't care less about the foul smell clinging to her.
All she wanted now was to eat.
Unfortunately, before they could even reach the mess hall, the captain called out to them. From a distance, he tossed two bottles of a yellow beverage at their feet.
Covering his nose with one hand, he said impatiently, "Get lost!"
Shi Feng picked up the Nutrient Liquid from the ground and pressed one of the bottles into Lin Jingjing's hand.
"Let's go."
Holding the Nutrient Liquid, Lin Jingjing asked, "This is all we get to drink?"
"This is all we deserve." Shi Feng had transmigrated a bit earlier and had already been here for a week.
"We're lucky to even have this," Shi Feng added.
The two of them grabbed their bathing supplies and headed to the bathhouse. Everyone who passed them shot them disdainful looks.
It made Lin Jingjing extremely uncomfortable.
While she was showering, Lin Jingjing overheard a few people in the next stall discussing her without restraint, their tones dripping with mockery and condescension.
"A mere handyman gets to use the same bathhouse as us? She's really dragging down the whole place."
"Captain Li should just make them live in the pigsty. With Grade D spiritual power, they're just cannon fodder wherever they go."
"I don't know why the army even recruits people like this. Do they have too much military funding to burn?"
"If you ask me, all these useless people should just be sent to the front lines with bombs to take out the mutant beasts with them.
That way, they'd help us deal with the mutant beasts and we'd have fewer mouths to feed. Killing two birds with one stone."
They mocked and belittled them freely, trampling all over the refugees from B6 Star and anyone with a low Spiritual Power Level.
Listening to their words, Lin Jingjing felt utterly furious.
'Aren't they soldiers? Shouldn't they be protecting people?'
'How could they say such immoral things?'
She stood under the shower, opening her mouth to retort, but the memories of the original owner of her body made her hold back.
This was a nation where the weak were prey to the strong. If you were powerful, you were right.
The laws established by this nation were all meant to restrain the powerful.
Because their spiritual power levels were high, any crimes they committed would result in countless deaths.
The law was merely an alarm clock, meant to raise the moral baseline of the powerful.
On a war-torn planet like this, the law was useless.
Her own spiritual power was only Grade D, which made her one of the weak.
Lin Jingjing, who had strived to be number one her entire life, couldn't accept this, but she was powerless to change her current situation.
The others left, laughing and joking. Soon, Lin Jingjing was the only one left in the bathhouse.
She stood under the shower, letting the warm water cascade over her.
In the quiet space, countless thoughts flashed through Lin Jingjing's mind, until finally, one sentence surfaced.
'The children of the Zhonghua Family have always fought against the heavens and for their rights, from ancient times to the present day.'
'Since I can't go back, I'll just have to achieve something earth-shattering in this era.'
She turned off the shower and grabbed a towel to dry herself. At that moment, Lin Jingjing's eyes were resolute, as if she had made a firm decision.
Later, she and Shi Feng sat on a stone slab in a secluded grove, sipping the yellow Nutrient Liquid.
They looked up at the twinkling stars in the night sky as a gentle breeze blew from time to time.
It carried away the sweltering heat that clung to their bodies.
"Xiao Shi, I want to make a name for myself," Lin Jingjing said, breaking the silence as she looked at Shi Feng with utmost seriousness.
"What kind of name?" Shi Feng asked in return.
"In the war."
"Alright. If that's what you want to do, I'm with you." Shi Feng didn't argue or call her unrealistic. He knew that if Lin Jingjing set her mind to something, she would succeed.
"Okay."
In the days that followed, they were forced to tend pigs and grow vegetables during the day, and at night, they had to work with spatulas, stir-frying food in the noisy kitchen.
This went on for two weeks. Every day, they were so exhausted they would collapse into bed the moment they got back.
One day, the two of them were heading to the pigsties to feed the pigs as usual.
Halfway there, they were stopped by a group of four people—two men and two women. They were tall, wore black combat uniforms, and had stern faces that made them look like trouble.
"Can we help you?" Lin Jingjing asked, stepping in front of Shi Feng to face the four of them.
The blond man across from them cracked his knuckles, then stepped forward and punched Lin Jingjing in the face.
The sudden blow stunned them both, especially Shi Feng.
As the man swung a second time, Lin Jingjing quickly blocked it with her arm.
Seeing his punch hadn't landed, the man's expression grew even more vicious.
He kicked Lin Jingjing viciously in the chest. The blow was so powerful that she spat out a mouthful of blood.
The pain searing through her body made Lin Jingjing understand one thing: a high Spirit Level truly let you do whatever you wanted.
Shi Feng quickly caught Lin Jingjing, his body trembling.
He glared at the group and demanded, "What gives you the right to hit her!"