I woke up on the floor of the cabin, again. This was starting to become a habit that I wasn’t too happy about.

My head was pounding like I had a whole tribe of drummers spend the day practising in it. I tried to get up but a wave of nausea prompted by the headache washed over me.

I fell back down, resting my forehead on the cool ground. The minutes tick-tocked by me, making me feel better by the moment. I finally mustered the willpower to get into the upright position. Thankfully this didn’t cause my stomach to lurch anymore, but I still kept my head between my knees.

After what felt like forever, the pounding headache had diminished to a tolerable amount and I finally got up. My clothes were filthy and shredded in places. They were beyond saving.

“I guess I will have to become a nudist soon,“ I chuckled darkly as I stripped down from what was left of the garments. After chucking the offensive rags into the rubbish bin and changing into my second to last set of clean clothes, I poured myself a precious glass of water and sat on the couch.

The night had fallen outside while I was flying high on Vineslasher's poison, making the cabin seem dark and uninviting.

I pulled up my inventory and my mood brightened when I saw that the land claim token Blyb gave me was there. Knowing that I hadn't just hallucinated the entire exchange was comforting.

Pulling the token out of my inventory and into my palm, I inspected it. The token seemed to be made out of some kind of metal and was cool to touch. It was round, and the colour of gold, with a symbol of a blazing sun etched into it. A pop-up description appeared.

Land Claim Token

This token confirms the purchase of 1000 square meters, with the option of expansion on unclaimed territory, as well as access to the Shop Terminal. The area claimed will be designated as a safe zone.

“Neat,” I said to the empty cabin.

Now, what to do? Do I claim the land right away, or do I wait a bit later? I thought, tossing the little disc in my hand.

My hopes of escaping from the cabin to the city were minimal. I was weak, unarmed, and alone. My car was busted and the trek on foot would take me about ten hours. That would be true if I was being extremely generous about my stamina, of course. More realistically, it would take me a few days and only if nothing found me along the way and made dinner out of me.

There was no guarantee that the city would be safer, anyway.

Here I had some food and the ability to grow more, water from the well that I could boil to make it safe to drink. I was low on clothes, but my modern sensibilities could go to hell. Besides, if the description for the token was right, I’d have access to a Shop Terminal, where I assumed I could buy more clothes. People in the Middle Ages did it with two sets of clothes at most, and I could do it too.

I chose to ignore the fact that most of them hadn't believed in bathing either.

On the other hand, if I chose to stay here and use the token, I might attract the attention and subsequent ire of an alien corporation. If Blyb was able to find and contact me without any consequences, what was my guarantee that they would leave me alone?

It was a lot to take in.

I decided to leave the decision to brew in the back of my mind for now. I remembered that I hadn’t checked what I looted from the Vineslashers.

I pulled up my notification feed and stared at the wall of text.

Each of the level 1 monsters netted me 1 dry twig, 1 Universal Credit and 5 exp, and I have killed five of those. The level 4 one, however, got me 1 sac of Vineslasher poison, 4 Universal Credits, and 70 exp, which made me eligible for a level up.

“Wow, I am swimming in money,” My Universal Credits added up to 12. “I should buy myself something nice. “

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I even got an extra point in the constitution for my troubles.

With a tired sigh, I dismissed the System’s interface. I didn’t know what levelling up entailed and it would be better to have a safe space to do it in, so I ignored the prompt for now.

I got up from the couch, my mind resolved. I was going to stay at the cabin and do my best to follow the Plan. I limped outside on the porch and focused my attention on the golden disc glimmering in my hand. As I did that, a pop-up appeared in my field of vision.

Use Land Claim Token? Yes/No

I hesitated for a moment. Blyb seemed like a trustworthy enough alien, but they were still an alien. Who was to say that this wasn’t some elaborate plan to screw me over?

I laughed at myself. I was already plenty screwed anyway.

I had to take a leap of faith and extend my trust to Blyb. I would have to deal with the consequences as they came. There was nothing else to it.

With that thought, I accepted the prompt and the token rose higher in the air and shone bright, like a miniature sun. Suddenly, it rushed towards me and crashed into my forehead. I felt my consciousness lift from my body and up in the sky above. I found myself looking down at my mother’s cabin from a bird's eye view. There was my car, the tiny well, the swing of trees in the wind. I could see the neighbours’ cabins, but not as clearly as mine. There was even a frozen miniature of me standing on the porch.

A grid appeared on the ground, with little me in its centre. Instinctively I knew what to do. I visualized the grid changing shape and moving around. I played around with it until I was satisfied.

The well needed to be within the bounds of my property, as it would mean secure access to fresh water. Besides the well, I had to include the shed that had the tools and seeds I would need to start producing my food. After ensuring those two were covered with the grid, I distributed what was left of the land around the cabin as evenly as possible.

The result was a somewhat irregular plot of land, but that wasn’t that important. The sides of the cabin were more or less equally secure from monster attacks. If Blyb was to be trusted, I had three Earth years to buy as much land as I could. One square meter equalled 10 credits, and the math made my head spin.

One square kilometre equalled a million square meters. I didn't even want to think how much money I would need to make to purchase any significant amount of land.

If I was going to be honest with myself, I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere near enough land to give some shadowy corporation any headaches. That wasn’t in the Plan. Blyb had bet on the wrong horse here. The Earth was big, and I was all alone.

All I wanted was to survive, and claiming the land as my own would give me a fighting chance. It was true that securing my territory aligned with my interest in surviving this damned thing, but I wasn’t an idiot. There was no way I could make that much money.

I mentally shook myself out of a math-induced stupor and focused back on the prompt hovering in front of me.

Confirm land purchase? Yes/No

I accepted the prompt and in a blink of an eye, I was back inside my body. The green eye in the corner of my vision flashed once at me and I opened up the interface. I had a new tab.

Property: Name Unknown

Area: 1000 sqm

Location: Quadrant 709, Milky Way, Orion Spur, Solar System, Earth, Coordinates(******, ******)

Population: 1

Shop Terminal not placed. Place shop terminal? Yes/No

“Perhaps I could buy myself some clothes,” I mumbled. “Or, you know, you could buy more food, Dee. “

I mentally pat myself on the back for being so cool and sensible and confirmed my intention to place the Shop Terminal. An outline of something that reminded me of a vintage arcade game appeared. I willed it to move left and right, and the terminal followed my intention.

“Let’s see…”

After some deliberating and playing around, I decided to put it against the back wall of the cabin, as it was the barest of all, now that I had moved the bunk beds to be used as a barricade.

“Perfect, ”I said, eying my work. The rest of my living space was not so perfect, though.

The cabin was a total mess of furniture I sacrificed for the cause. The two couches and one chair were still left as is. One had little time to do housekeeping when trying not to die.

Now that the cabin was as secure as it could be, and I wasn’t in imminent danger of dying, it was time to level up.

Name: Diana Mond

Age: 25

Class: N/A

Level: N/A, 125/100 exp

Strength: 3

Constitution: 5 (+1)

Intelligence: 5

Wisdom: 3

HP: 35/50

Points to distribute: 0