(All timelines use the Amber Era calendar. If there are any mistakes, please point them out and I'll be sure to correct them. Also, this book leans more toward an ensemble cast. The protagonist will appear, but not throughout the entire story. There will be some original settings; if you don't understand something, don't worry, because it won't affect anything.)
The fringe planet Higgs.
The planet had once been full of life and vitality, but now it was silent, deathly silent, and barren.
The ground was cracked and parched, with dried bones everywhere, a dried-up riverbed not far away, and... flat land stretching as far as the eye could see.
A spaceship passed through the planet's atmosphere and landed on the deathly silent world. Its hull gleamed with a metallic luster, a stark contrast to the barren landscape, where earth and sky were the same color.
"Fuck, what the hell is this place?! This is the vibrant, resource-rich and hospitable Higgs the higher-ups told us about?! This is fucking hell!"
The first person off the ship, dressed in a protective suit, cursed as he surveyed the land, where there wasn't even a patch of grass to be seen, much less any mineral wealth to skim off. He was filled with regret. How could he have listened to those higher-ups who devoured people without spitting out the bones?
He recalled what the higher-ups had told their group: "Higgs is a hospitable planet. The people there welcome foreign trade, and their plant seeds are hard currency on other planets. The higher-ups want a lot of them this time, too. Once you pull this job off, forget having enough food and drink for two months-you could lie at home doing nothing for a year and still not starve."
"I really believed that old bastard's bullshit. Look at these cracks in the ground! Forget plant seeds, there isn't even a patch of grass!"
The man in charge also stepped off the ship. Looking at the barren land, he knew there couldn't be anyone here, but they couldn't just go back like this.
He had to admit that his mood had gone from bright and sunny to the same color as the sky here: gloomy.
"All right, all right. We'd better think about how we're going to face that old man's wrath when we get back."
The man in charge turned around as he spoke. He didn't want to waste time here either. As for why this world had become like this?
He didn't have that kind of time to spare. He was still struggling to make a living, and sometimes his own wages were docked! What did it matter to him what happened to this planet? If he had to name something, it had made him fail his mission and get his pay docked.
The thought made the man in charge even angrier. He had just set foot on the ship when a young man carrying a life detector among the crowd behind him let out a shout.
The man in charge jumped in fright and nearly tumbled off the ladder.
He turned to look at the young man behind him. "You little brat, are you trying to scare me to death?!"
The young man held up the life detector in his hand. Because he was much shorter than the man, he stood on tiptoe and shouted excitedly, "Boss, there's a life sign! There's a life sign on this planet!"
"What did you say?!"
The young man's words were like a lifeline, like a stream in the mountains, giving him hope. He snatched the life detector from the young man's hands and, looking at the location displayed on it, burst out laughing.
"The Amber Lord's blessing! The Amber Lord's blessing! Get aboard! We're going to trade!"
The man in charge was the first to enter the ship, followed by the jubilant crew.
The ship took off and shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. After less than twenty minutes of flight, a patch of green appeared before them, and the strongest life sign was right in the middle of it.
The ship slowly landed outside the edge of the greenery. They didn't want to fly into that vibrant green, which represented life. The hatch opened, and the man in charge led the crew off the ship.
This time was different. They weren't wearing protective suits. The man in charge was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties, with excitement and exhilaration on his steady face.
"I never thought there would be so many forests of native Higgs plants here."
He reached out and stroked the trunk of a large tree, then took a deep breath. A refreshing fragrance filled his lungs.
"That's the smell. The Higgs Purifying Tree, the plant with the strongest air-freshening ability on the market right now. It's native to Higgs. A mature Higgs Purifying Tree can grow to a hundred meters tall. The taller it grows and the thicker its trunk, the stronger its air-freshening ability. A tree like this one..."
The man looked at the towering tree before him, over three hundred meters tall. The tallest one on the market right now was only a hundred and twenty-seven meters, yet this one was an astonishing three hundred meters and more!
The crew members behind him stared at the towering tree, dumbfounded. After so many years in the business, they knew exactly what this tree meant: a comfortable life for the rest of their days!
"Boss! We're going to be rich!"
Greed showed in the eyes of several young men, their restless hearts eager to dig up the tree and sell it.
"Who are you?"
A woman's voice sounded out of nowhere, startling them all. There were no women among the people who had come with them, so where had the voice come from?
The man looked toward the forest. A path had appeared in the bushes not far from them, as though the foliage had parted to let someone through. Standing on the path was a girl, a girl of unparalleled beauty.
The girl's long green hair glimmered faintly in the dim world, and her emerald eyes were like agate, drawing people in at a glance. Her long white dress trailed along the ground without a speck of dirt on it. She was beautiful, so beautiful that heaven and earth paled before her.
"Who are you?"
When they didn't answer, the girl questioned them again, though this time her tone was not as calm as before.
The man recovered from his shock at her appearance, his weathered face reddening.
"Ahem, miss, I'm the leader of a trading team from the Amber Lord Support Team. These are my team members."
The man pointed at the group of young men behind him, and the girl glanced at them.
The girl tilted her head slightly, a hint of confusion in her eyes. "Trade?"
She didn't know how long it had been since she'd heard that word. Oh, right. Ever since those bugs that blotted out the sky had come last time, she seemed never to have seen anyone else.
When had that been? Two hundred years ago? Three hundred? She couldn't remember. (This is an original setting. I'm not sure when the bugs of the Swarm Disaster began ravaging the galaxy, so I made up a time. If anyone knows when it happened, then let's say Higgs encountered the bugs before they had fully developed.)
"That's right, trade."
The girl looked at him, then at the towering Purifying Tree standing beside her. She had just seen them coveting it.
But she shook her head and said, "I can't give you this Purifying Tree, because Higgs needs it. It can't leave Higgs."
The girl's tone was even, but carried an air that brooked no argument. "But..."
She changed tack. "I can give you seeds instead, seeds that prove Higgs still [exists]."
The man was overjoyed. He had sensed from the start that there was something unusual about the girl before him; presumably, she was a Pathstrider on some Path.
For a group of ordinary people like them, it wouldn't be worth losing their lives by going up against a Pathstrider over a tree.
So when the girl offered Higgs plant seeds instead, the man agreed without hesitation. After all, that was what they had originally come here for.