There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Jay seemed uncomfortable whenever she heard such praise for her work; it seemed she was a little workaholic, and only work could bring her satisfaction.

I continued to make empty promises to her.

"Don't worry, I'm not providing these things for free. What I value is your potential. If the seeds I provide grow, you can bring me the surplus crops to sell, or anything else of value from your area. I'll help you sell them and exchange them for the technology and medicines you need, so it's a win-win situation for both of us!"

"Yes! That's really... fantastic!"

The jay was captivated by this fantastical vision of the future, lost in daydreams. She imagined herself leading her people, cultivating high-yield crops, selling them for technologies in construction, manufacturing, and textiles, building a prosperous city with magnificent walls, just like the city in the tribal elders' tales…

Wealth was continuously generated from the city, and the Brownpool tribe became the largest power in the wasteland, envied by countless people...

Chapter 84 Unexpected

"Wake up! Jay, wake up!"

I saw the girl in front of me with a silly smile on her face, muttering things like "I'm not that good" and "It's all thanks to everyone." I wondered if I had fooled her, so I quickly called out to her.

The jay was startled awake from her sweet dream, glared at me with displeasure, and then remembered that the person in front of her was her great help in achieving success. She quickly smiled and asked, "Marcus, can what you're saying really come true? You're confident, aren't you!"

Perhaps the knowledge of city rules that I shared with her before gave her the illusion that she knew everything, and that she really could see through the fog and predict the future.

Unfortunately, I'm just a master of empty talk; I haven't even figured out my own ranch, so how could I possibly tell her fortune? Besides, when it comes to wilderness survival knowledge, she could probably beat me with one hand.

However, achieving this goal is not entirely impossible. I dare say that the greatest asset is none other than the colonial system that sent her there.

"By the way, I haven't asked yet, how did you get here?" I asked her to confirm.

Jay thought for a moment and said, "Last night I went up the mountain alone to pick horse chestnuts. When I got tired, I slept in a cave. Suddenly a voice in my head asked if I would like to visit the Mineral Town Ranch."

She was wearing a fur robe and walked ahead on her own.

"I thought I was dreaming, so I said yes. Then the voice told me that after I woke up, I should walk into the cave for ten minutes, and then walk out of the cave to get here."

"When I woke up, I found a gray line on the ground pointing towards the cave. I followed the line for a while, and then I saw it turn around and come out. When I came out, I found that the outside of the cave was completely different from the village!"

So, does the system select people randomly? Or is it a pre-programmed procedure that sends invitations to specific individuals?

I asked the most crucial question: "Did the voice tell you how long you'd be staying? And how you'd get back?"

Jay scratched his head and recalled, "The voice said that if you entered the cave within a specified time, you could return. If you missed it, you would be forcibly taken away, but all transactions and gifts received would be erased. The time was... a day and a half?"

As expected, the colonist system supports trade and exchange between Jay and me. I just wonder if I'll have a chance to see her again after she leaves? Surely she won't just randomly move on to the next one after I leave?

"Did the voice mention whether you could still answer this question after you go back?" I asked.

"I thought I was dreaming, and I didn't hear it very clearly... It should be okay, right, Marcus? Yeah, do you know what that voice was?"

I said uncertainly, "According to this voice, there should be a follow-up, but we can only wait until you go back and see if there are any hints."

I searched the entire colonist system but couldn't find any specific information about this visitor system. If I can't specify which visitors will come, wouldn't I have to greet new guests every day? How would I have time to do any construction then?

After fruitless discussion, Jay and I realized we had arrived at the cave she had come out of, which was indeed the haunted mine next to the hot spring house.

Ever since this mine displayed the monologue of the first miners, I've felt a strange connection to the colonist system, and today's events have only intensified that feeling. Is there something unusual about this mine?

The jays excitedly introduced the place to me.

"Look, this is it. I was stunned when I came out this morning. The leaves of the plants here are really big! Unlike my place, where there are only trees with small leaves, and the stones are cracked from the sun."

"What did you say? What are the plants like where you live?"

The jay began to scribble on the ground, displaying her artistic talent, and described to me the most common tree in her hometown, a tree with pinnate, alternate leaves that mate in pairs at night and love sunlight during the day.

"From a distance, this flowering tree looks like a yellow cloud. Up close, you can see tiny leaves and small, golden-yellow flower heads—they're so cute and fuzzy! Unfortunately, it grows very slowly, and the wood is quite hard, making it difficult to use for building tents..."

From her description, I roughly understood that it was a type of acacia tree, characterized by its drought resistance. It typically grows in arid grasslands and deserts, producing low-yield timber that often has sharp thorns. The environment in which this tree grows should be similar to Australia in my previous life, a low-rainfall region close to grasslands.

Fortunately, I didn't rashly give the jays a bunch of tomato, pumpkin, and rice seeds, otherwise they would have definitely had no harvest after planting them at the tribe!

"It must rain very little where you are, it must be hot during the day and cold at night, and there must be strong winds at night, right?" I asked.

The jay exclaimed, "Yes! How did you know? Just because of this tree?"

I nodded. It seemed the region the jays came from wasn't the temperate-tropical border region like my own. It must be closer to the Australian outback and the tropical regions of central Africa.

These areas have poor soil, low rainfall, and excessively strong sunlight, making them only suitable for nomadic lifestyles where people follow water and pasture. No wonder the jay tribes need to migrate regularly in search of food. Even a slightly higher population density could seriously affect the local ecological stability.

However, having immigrated from Shining City, I don't understand the geography of this old world very well, and I'm unsure exactly where the Brownpool tribe, where Jay lives, is located. Hasn't Boss Dart mentioned any tribal conflicts in this world? Shouldn't they have formed a federal government long ago?

I tried to analyze their location using astronomical methods, so I asked, "How much difference is there between sunrise and sunset times where you live? Where is the moon located in the sky?"

Unexpectedly, the jay also asked me a question that stumped me.

The jay retorted, "Which sun are you referring to?"

"Look at that one in the sky." I didn't understand why she asked such a simple question, so I pointed to the sun in the sky and said to her.

It was nearing noon, and the sun had gradually climbed high into the sky, radiating boundless light and heat, so proud and noble that it was impossible to look directly at it.

The jay shaded its eyes with one hand to hold down the brim of its hat, looked up at the sky, and asked curiously, "Where did the other little sun go?"

"Hmm? Little Sun?" I sensed something was off.

"Yes!" The jay began to gesticulate excitedly again, describing the process: "There's a little sun next to the big sun, but where did the one that sets last go?"

I almost let my guard down again!

I originally thought the jay was brought from another corner of this planet, but I never imagined she came from another planet!

Moreover, it comes from a binary star system, where two suns hang in the sky at the same time, and their planets are affected by both stars simultaneously, which is probably why there is a lack of precipitation!

I never imagined the colonizer system was so powerful, capable of searching for visitors across galaxies and sending them to my ranch! This truly exceeded my expectations!

Then the visitor wasn't a tribal girl, but an alien girl?

Chapter 85 Footprints

The idea that jays were aliens was quickly dismissed.

Impossible, impossible. If she were an alien, she would have a clear sense of Earth's gravity and air composition. She wouldn't be so oblivious as to only now realize that one of the suns in the sky is missing.

Therefore, the most reasonable inference is that jays are also ordinary humans that arose naturally, without undergoing any genetic engineering modifications like I have, nor evolving due to the survival pressures of terrestrial planets. This would allow them to maintain the same physiological characteristics as me.

I suspect that the jay originated from a terrestrial planet that had been colonized and modified by humans. Such planets existed in large numbers during the period of space colonization and expansion, mainly as a means of mitigating overpopulation on various colonized planets.

At that time, countless spaceships headed towards the frontiers of the universe, searching for habitable areas for humans and excavating resources buried deep within planets. That era was jokingly referred to as the "Age of Space Exploration."

Due to the influence of the times, various space-based orbital weapons have emerged one after another, and many weather weapons have been used for planetary terraforming.

There is the "atmosphere maker" that alters the oxygen content through an explosion, the "storm messenger" that controls planetary precipitation, and the "Astra" device that penetrates deep into the Earth's core to manipulate planetary gravity.

Therefore, encountering humans from another planet wouldn't surprise me.

Unfortunately, this wave was abruptly interrupted by a war between the universe's major rulers. This war, in turn, affected a slumbering planet deep within the universe, unleashing an ancient threat that ultimately led to a massive catastrophe that engulfed the entire cosmos…

That's a tangent. What I really wanted to say is that planets like the Jay are not uncommon. These are planets that flourished during the "Age of Space Exploration," only to be cut off from communication by gunfire and decline for various reasons. As civilization declined, humanity was forced to leave resource-depleted, collapsing colonial cities and struggle to survive in the wilderness.

"You are actually quite remarkable. With only a few bits of inherited technology, you have managed to redevelop the rudiments of civilization."

Upon seeing me, the jay suddenly became sentimental. She looked puzzled, but she sensed the heaviness in my tone and thought of her companions struggling in the harshness of nature. She fell silent as well.

After resting for a while in front of the hot spring house, we were worried that if we went in rashly, we would be sent back to our original world prematurely, so we didn't go into the haunted mine. It remained in its original overgrown state, and we left.

"My plan is for us to take a walk around the mountain first and see if there's anything you need in the wild."

I pointed to the mountain trail, the place I hadn't had time to continue climbing last time, and took this opportunity to go up and take a look.

However, given the current time, it's too late to reach the summit of Mount Mades. We can only continue forward for a while, and if we don't find anything by around noon, we'll head back down.

"Great! What's up on this mountain?" The jay's blackened face broke into a happy smile, treating this like a wilderness trip.

This suits me perfectly; bringing her back to town too early and causing any trouble would be difficult to manage. We spent the morning in the mountains, and the afternoon checking out crop seeds at the general store, machinery at Zach's, and Dart's – a successful day. Tomorrow we'll try our luck at Sebala's. A day and a half will pass quickly like this, and then I'll send the girl back with what she needs – perfect for receiving visitors!

"There are some special medicinal herbs on this mountain, I don't know if they will be of any use to you. Also, there are some mysterious stories about this place from a long time ago, and some people have even died here, so you must be careful."

My warnings had no effect. This girl, who had faced the harshness of nature from a young age, didn't seem particularly worried about danger. Perhaps, for her, a natural world devoid of danger was the most wondrous thing?

I pulled a green herb from the grass and said to the jay, "This is a herb unique to this mountain. Eating it can replenish your energy, but the drawback is also obvious: it will cause paralysis for a period of time."

I handed the herb to Jay, and she immediately took it in her hands to look at it, then picked off a tender leaf and chewed it.

"It's a little... spicy... Uh, I... how come..." She had only just taken the medicine when the side effects kicked in even faster than the medicine itself, causing her mouth to become numb and rendering her unable to speak.

"Didn't I tell you about people? You still won't listen to my advice."

I watched her, both amused and annoyed, as she gasped for breath, making a similar embarrassing gesture to what I had done last time, opening and closing her mouth as if she no longer felt the existence of her mouth and throat.

"The doctor told me last time that this would last for fifteen minutes, and that I should rinse my mouth with water to relieve it. There seems to be a lake ahead, let's go there to get some water."

I remembered what Gotz told me when he introduced the place to me: if you go further up the side road from the hot spring resort, you'll come across a huge hillside lake with shimmering water all year round and beautiful scenery.

Sure enough, after walking forward with the jay for a while, I felt the trees in front of me suddenly open up, revealing a relatively flat open space.

Scattered across the open ground were many felled tree stumps and large tree trunks with fresh axe marks.

This area is likely a logging area that Gotz is carefully managing, meticulously preventing the trees from becoming too lush.

The result of the large-scale deforestation was the disappearance of the giant top trees that blocked photosynthesis, while the middle and lower trees and shrubs received ample sunlight, grew lush and green, and formed a green landscape.

At a glance, I saw a large apple tree laden with fruit, and patches of unidentified mushrooms growing on its fallen trunk. At the edge of the dense forest, there was a clump of bamboo, with several bamboo shoots quietly sprouting from the ground and stretching out there.

The jay happily flew over. Accustomed to the desolate Gobi Desert and low shrubs, she had never seen such a rich and magnificent wilderness before, and curiously touched and looked around here and there.

As I continued walking, I came across a shimmering lake, hidden deep within the Mads Mountains.

Perhaps due to the mountain spring water, the lake is exceptionally clear, allowing one to almost see the bottom several meters deep. It's also noticeable that there are few fish swimming in this cool, refreshing water.

Looking across the lake, there is an even denser forest clinging to the mountainside, standing alone like an island in the middle of the lake, with birds occasionally taking flight from the lush canopy.

I enjoyed the midday sun, the cool mountain air, and the rare tranquility.

The jay had somehow finished exploring the wild environment and had collected one of each of those mysterious plants as samples, carefully placing them in her magical animal skin bag.

By this time, she had arrived at the lakeside. Instead of immediately marveling at the lake's serene beauty, she squatted down on the shore and excitedly asked me, "Are there rhinoceroses around this lake? This footprint is huge!"

Hearing the sound, I couldn't help but go and see. But just one glance made my calm heart pound wildly!

Chapter 86 UMA

The footprint remained quietly imprinted on the damp riverbed by the lake, deeply embedded in the soil.

I guess that in the middle of the night, the dampness from the lake soaked the mud on the riverbank, making it a slippery spot that was difficult to maintain stability from any direction.