" Fucking bastards... "
I woke up clutching my head. My last memory was the despicable laughter of my supposed comrades as they tore my escape bot from the main body.
" Ha... you crazy guys... you're really determined to kill someone? "
The astronaut goggles I was wearing signaled that my remaining oxygen was running low. I gritted my teeth and quickly looked at my wrist.
Oxygen less than 0.09%
Ozone: Moderate
Temperature: 21 degrees
Chance of survival: 89.8%
Similarity to Earth: 99.79%
I bit my lip and closed my eyes tightly.
'' If I take off my helmet and breathe here... will I fall? ''
I knew I'd die whether I took it off or not, so I decided to just take it off and die. To be precise, I trusted the information my spacesuit was giving me. As I took a deep breath, the goggles signaled that I was out of oxygen.
Without hesitation, I opened my eyes and hurriedly removed my space helmet. I exhaled deeply and then took another deep breath. The smell of earth, something I hadn't smelled for a month, wafted out.
" Haha... "
With my immediate suffocating worries now lifted, I finally looked around the place where I'd fainted. It was clear that this planet had never been featured in any astronaut journal or academic paper.
There must be a planet I don't know, since I remember the names of all the planets, and there must be a system more accurate than me that doesn't know about this planet.
"What on earth is this planet..."
I looked up at the sky and saw a bright star shining like the sun, or even bigger than the sun.
'' Really... this isn't Earth... ''
Before me stood large trees, and in their shadows grew a variety of plants, from flowers I'd never seen before to plants I had no idea about.
''But even if you said this was Earth, I think I would believe it...''
Surrounded by mountains, fields, and even water, I felt as if I were staying in a region of the Earth I had never known before.
" pretty... "
The tranquil silence was filled only with the sound of flowing water. While there have been several planets where traces of water have been discovered, this may be the first planet with actual flowing water.
Of course, it was a successful discovery for astronauts and explorers, as it was the first planet with living organisms such as trees, flowers, and grass, and it was a minefield full of things to investigate for biologists.
The beautiful scenery was fleeting. As a biologist, I was about to get up and explore my surroundings when I felt a sharp pain and something sticky near my left calf.
" Ah... crazy..."
I looked at my left leg, and my spacesuit was torn, and blood was beginning to seep out. I immediately removed the suit and found a deep wound, as if I'd been scraped somewhere. I quickly grabbed disinfectant, bandages, and medication from the emergency kit and treated it quickly.
" I need to send a signal to Earth... This is really fucked up. "
All I had now was a first aid kit containing some emergency medicine and a small amount of disinfectant, four simple energy bars, a solar-powered recording camera, a rotary recording tablet, and a communicator that could translate any language.
In other words, I had no device capable of sending a signal to Earth. There was a signal on the escape ship I was riding, but the crucial point was that, because the emergency evacuation had been activated while I was unconscious, I had no idea where my hope, the ship, was.
" No, no, you can find it. There is still hope.. "
I muttered that and got up again to check the remaining battery in my recording camera.
Battery remaining: 67%
Current status: Charging
Fortunately, even the sun-like star here seems to have sunlight. I quickly turned on my camera and slowly took pictures of my surroundings, saying:
" Today's date. 2122. Ah, it's now January 18th, 2123... no, the 20th. My name is Yoon Yeo-myeong. I'm... 23 this year.
You're currently stranded on an unknown planet. It's 99.79% similar to Earth. While you haven't encountered any living consumers yet, it's home to numerous producers resembling flowers, grass, and trees."
I slowly photographed the flowers and trees around me, trying to capture the images of all these creatures. Finally, I also captured the water flowing slowly towards the shore.
" These are the first organic materials discovered by humans, and they indicate the presence of water. Furthermore, we were able to confirm the presence of water.
This is perhaps an environment where we humans can live, and there is a possibility that we might encounter aliens with similar intelligence to us."
The odds were against me. Five days later, after my leg condition worsened and I'd eaten all the remaining energy bars, I still hadn't found a living creature.
01 Your planet is just like Earth
"It's the 5th day since I was shipwrecked. I just want to die. It's so cold in the evening that I want to swear, and I'm so hungry that I could die. I can't do anything, so I just want to die.
I took a deep breath and continued speaking. At first, I cried while doing this, but as time passed, it all felt futile.
''I brought some fruit that I could eat from around here... some weird stuff. I'll try it first. If I die like this... what can I do? That's just my life. Sigh... this really sucks.''
I started eating the fruits one by one, grumbling. The fruits I brought were all cute and shaped like soybeans.
First, I took a deep breath, took a panacea to prevent poisoning, and then swallowed an immune-boosting pill to prevent germs. First, I grabbed a handful of red fruit from the same tree and tried it.
"Um... This is just... too sour. I feel like I'm going to throw up when I eat it on an empty stomach. I shouldn't eat it on an empty stomach next time."
Just as I was about to eat another piece of fruit, I heard a rustling sound. Startled, I froze in place, and something sharp brushed my cheek and fell toward the fruit.
The fruits were crushed and lost their shape due to the sharp knife-like weapon, and were entangled with other fruits.
"My... my food..."
Tears of injustice streamed down my face, and a stinging sensation appeared on my cheek. I immediately turned around and looked at what had attacked me.
" and... "
The moment I met him, I was speechless.
In my entire 23 years of life, I've never seen anyone so handsome. Perhaps bathed in the light of a falling star, he glowed. He seemed like a little fairy living in the forest, a spirit of light.
Of course, I had never seen them before, and they seemed like people who only appeared in fairy tales told to children, but if they really existed, they would be the ones standing before me now.
It's no exaggeration to say that I was standing right at the gates of hell, yet I was filled with admiration. Even if he said he was the devil, I'd probably follow him.
"Oh, hello?"
I tried to converse with them in a common language, brimming with anticipation, hoping to communicate. Judging by their similarities to mine, I knew they were, like me, lost long ago on this beautiful, unknown planet.
But the answer I got back was something I couldn't understand at all.
"Uh... Uh... If I do this... If I do this, it won't work..."
I panicked and hurriedly put the communicator to my ear. It picked up their language and began working.
"Hey, save me!!"
The downside of this communicator was that only I could use it. I could hear their language, but they couldn't hear mine, so I had to express my state with my body.
" Heh, heh heh... ugh... sorry... all that talk about wanting to die is nonsense. I just want to live, heh heh heh heh "
The tears he had been holding back burst out, and he fidgeted, then lifted me up into a princess-like embrace.
''Uh... uh... uh, uh... don't cry, alien.''
That was my first meeting with my first subin.