For humanity, burn the stars.

Qin Heling raised her head and looked at the reddish-brown sky above.

The atmosphere is so thin it's almost transparent, with no clouds, allowing you to see directly into the darkness of outer space.

The air pressure there is only about one-fifth that of Earth. Although it is thin, the atmosphere does exist.

As for the small amount of oxygen it contained, that was an unexpected bonus, at least it offered some hope.

The ambient temperature was over 50 degrees Celsius, and there was moderate radiation, but fortunately, it posed no problem for the spacesuit.

Qin Heling gently shook his head.

"As expected... it's not that easy to find a habitable planet."

Immediately, Qin Heling began to ponder what kind of place this was.

Although he is a veteran player, he has visited many planets of this type.

However, in a game as grand as Star Ocean, it's impossible for him to remember the parameters of every planet.

If there were other supporting information, perhaps he could be more certain.

However, knowing only such simple information is completely insufficient to make a judgment.

With a sigh, Qin Heling didn't dwell on it too much; he still had many things to do.

He slowly squatted down, removed the small box from the back of his spacesuit, and took out a special device from it.

It was a silvery-white tubular device, about the size of a forearm.

At this moment, Qin Heling placed it upright on the ground and pressed a start button on the top.

"Buzz—"

The device began to vibrate slightly.

The next moment, a blinding white light shot out from the top and shot straight into the sky.

The light traced a clear path through the thin atmosphere, like a sharp sword tearing through the night.

Immediately afterwards, the light trails began to flicker regularly with light and dark.

At the same time, the device begins to emit radio pulses of prime number sequence.

In the vast universe, many planets may appear to be unsupervised, but in reality, they may have monitoring stations from other civilizations.

Generally, the focus is on observing indigenous civilizations that have not yet ventured into space, without interfering with their development.

Most civilizations have monitoring stations that cover the entire star system, capable of detecting changes even on planets without native inhabitants.

What Qin Heling needs to do now is to explore whether this planet is being observed.

The device described above can be used to stimulate optical monitoring satellites and trigger electromagnetic monitoring arrays.

These are all methods that even civilizations that have just entered interstellar space can detect.

In most cases, this simple and easy-to-use method is universally applicable throughout the universe, and virtually no civilization would be unaware of it.

Of course, this was also thanks to Oshido for preparing the things he might need in advance.

Even on a barren planet like this, these tools could help him make the most basic accumulations.

Qin Heling sighed inwardly, feeling uneasy about the unknown fate of that inspector.

Of course, his own situation wasn't too good either.

On this desolate and empty planet, loneliness is more pervasive than the air.

Qin Heling could only wait quietly, observing his surroundings and considering how to proceed.

The good news is that there shouldn't be a shortage of minerals here.

Even if we're stuck here, if we can solve the food problem, there's still a chance for development.

So, in other words... let's first establish a camp on this almost barren planet, collect oxygen, and explore outwards.

-----------------

Meanwhile, in distant space, inside an advanced observation station:

A humanoid creature covered in fur and with a fox's head was lounging in its seat, looking at the communicator in its hand.

Suddenly, it heard the observation instruments beeping in succession.

It blinked, sat up, and stared wide-eyed at the screen.

On the screen, a regularly flashing optical signal is continuously being emitted.

There is also a radio spectrum analysis diagram next to it, which is a sequence of prime numbers, a clear signal of intelligent life.

"Are the indigenous people sending signals into outer space again?"

Its claws moved swiftly across the control panel, retrieving the coordinates of the signal source.

But when you look at the magnified image, a human-like confusion appears on its beastly face.

A humanoid creature dressed in an old-fashioned, heavy spacesuit stands on the wasteland, gazing up at the sky.

More importantly, it was a pure human...

"Human inhabitants?"

It muttered something strange to itself, then suddenly turned its head and asked another creature that had approached it:

"Ivy, did someone from your Starsea Federation go there?"

The person who approached after hearing the instrument's warning was a human woman with pointed ears and dark skin.

Yes, although the appearance has changed quite a bit, they are indeed official citizens recognized by the Starsea Federation.

Or rather, among the mixed-race humans of the Federation, they have already undergone very little change.

A woman named Ivy walked up to the screen and was immediately startled when she saw Qin Heling's perfectly human face.

"Huh?! What's going on?"

"Although Satrinias is a desolate planet, there are nascent civilizations of rock-dwelling creatures. Residents without permission cannot land there..."

Then, as if she had thought of an even more important question:

"……wrong!"

"No spaceships have approached Satrinias recently!"

-----------------

After deploying the instrument and transmitting the signal, Qin Heling waited in place for a while.

During this time, he observed that the surroundings did not appear to be empty.

Beneath the ore, there were faint sounds of churning, perhaps from a common rock-dwelling wild animal.

In the game Starsea, wild monsters often spawn on unexplored planets.

Although they sometimes cause trouble, in most cases they prove that the planet has some value.

This at least proves that it's not a barren planet, just that its habitability is somewhat low.

For Qin Heling, this is undoubtedly good news, albeit barely.

The premise is that he won't become their meal.

After all, he had no means of resistance whatsoever, and now he could only rely on his own hands to fight back.

Apart from a tattered spacesuit and limited equipment, he had no weapons.

Just as Qin Heling was contemplating survival strategies, the sky suddenly changed, and a shadow swept across the ground.

He looked up and saw a small, flat spaceship flying towards him.

As the spaceship roared through the atmosphere, it came to a sudden, steady stop above him, defying inertia.

Qin Heling's eyes flickered; he hadn't expected that this place was actually a planet under surveillance.

And... he was also very familiar with the markings on this spaceship.

It seems that although the coordinates were slightly off, the imaginary jump sent him to an unexpected place.

Because that symbol is the symbol of the Starsea Federation!

—Another powerful force that emerged from human development and exploration long before the war with the Vera.