The ride to what I wanna say looked like a hamlet took another two hours or so, and that was moving at what felt like a very decent clip in an anti-gravity based vehicle. Sure, it was the Star Wars equivalent to a farming truck, but still!
Also, it did not imply good things about my chances of making it to civilization on my own via walking before nightfall, which considering the universe I now found myself in was a much scarier thought than it had been before I found out. That giant flying manta ray I saw earlier might have been harmless, or at least not hungry for people, but I knew the kinda crazy dangerous animals and space monsters existed out there on countless worlds.
Heck, I still wasn't sure which one I was on right now! A situation I hope I can remedy in a speedy fashion and work with from there.
Anyway, the place my rescuers had brought us was an odd mix of low and high tech, made up of metal-looking structures and more traditional wooden-looking ones along with tons of other things I vaguely recognized served certain functions. It certainly had the look and feel of a small farming town at least, a central place that local farms used to gather, sell off their stock to be transported elsewhere, do community gatherings at the local watering hole, etc. It also likely meant that beyond said spread out farms this little place was likely the only civilization for a long while, at least for people who didn't have speeders to get them where they needed to go in a timely enough fashion.
Which meant I was likely gonna be stuck here for a little bit, which suited me just fine since I still had to figure out the whole language barrier problem. Force knows the universe couldn't make things easy and have Basic just be space English.
Anyway, the two farmers who helped me out were kind enough to drop me off at what looked like a cantina and mimed out what I think was making a call, maybe saying that hopefully someone there would know how to talk to me or I could call someone for help. Honestly, it's more than what most strangers would do for people on the side of the road back home, so I'd take it.
I must have bowed several times to them in thanks, for lack of a better way to show my appreciation, to the point that I think the Rodian looked a little embarrassed, but honestly I couldn't be sure what with the whole alien body language and everything. Still, I think scratching the back of your head and waving you off was kinda universal. The man just shrugged it off, said a few words, patted me on the back, and then climbed back into the truck with his partner and they zoomed off, most likely to whatever business they originally had come here for given their full truck bed.
Still, with my original goal of making it to civilization now successful, along with at least finding out what universe I was in, now it was on to my second, figuring shit out.
A took a deep breath, calmed myself as best I could, and walked into the cantina.
Place wasn't the prettiest, but it had a kind folk charm to it as I walked inside, with scattered tables, chairs, screens on walls showing what looked like various sports, people playing cards or what looked like holographic games with each, the usual stuff you found in a bar that you would be mistaken in assuming it was just a normal one you'd find on Earth. The presence of the dozen or so different aliens, along with at least a few different droids, would put that idea to rest.
Driving into town I had spotted several more species of aliens, though it was clear that humans, or at least near-humans, were the majority around these parts, but there was still a mix of them in the bar itself. I saw blue-skinned and red-eyed duros, hammer-headed ithorians, big-eyed and eared sullustans, more rodians, and even a few others I didn't recognize at first glance, like a short little elephant-looking being.
And it all felt so normal.
For the locals it was, since I was now in a universe that had regular FTL travel and civilizations on countless planets interacting for tens of thousands of years, so why wouldn't a bunch of aliens be hanging out and drinking together? I tried really hard to stare at everyone like a freak in the entranceway to the cantina, but it's clear I was failing at least a bit as a few of the locals noticed me, making me quickly make my way to the bar in embarrassment.
Thankfully, despite clearly not being from the era the patrons decided to ignore me and go back to their business, meanwhile I flagged down the bartender. Not 'cause I wanted to drink, mind you, I honestly have never been much of a drinker, but because said bartender was the one being present that might be able to understand me.
Namely, they were a droid.
It was a model I wasn't familiar with, even after my countless hours of trawling Wookiepedia for random Star Wars facts, but from the looks of them they were a kind of bartender droid judging by the nozzle attachment they had for a left hand and tubes connecting them to various containers of various colored drinks behind them. It had a narrow-looking head and tiny photoreceptors, I think that was the name for their eyes at least, and a mostly skinny humanoid appearance, but my hope was that, while not a protocol droid, they had at least a decent language library in their brain in order to talk to me.
After all, any good droid selling anything has to be able to understand potential customers.
"Hi there, I don't suppose you understand what I'm saying at all, do you?" I asked with blind hope that maybe, just maybe, English was some kind of obscure language in this universe that people still had knowledge about somewhere.
Sadly, those hopes were in vain as the droid just tilted its head at me in confusion and spoke gibberish at me, several different flavors of it in fact. I assumed it must have been cycling through its database for anything that I might understand, but as I just sat there with a dumb look on its face for a minute or so it had apparently given up, walking over to serve another patron that called it over.
"Figures," I sighed in defeat as I let my head hit the bar and I slumped in my barstool. "Now what?" I couldn't help but ask myself.
After all, how the heck did he expect to survive his universe if he couldn't even understand the most commonly known language?!
Obviously he'd have to learn it, but how? It's not like knew anyone that could help, besides maybe those two farmers that helped him out earlier that he didn't even know the names of, and he wasn't exactly-
A burst of unfamiliar words made me lift my head up as the bartender droid had returned, pointing at the drinks behind it. Apparently my lack of ability to talk with it didn't seem to stop it from trying to sell me anything.
Which was my other big problem.
"Sorry, I got nothing to pay with," I sadly admitted, opening my empty hands in defeat.
The droid might not have been able to understand me, but apparently broke loser was a universal look since it then pointed to a sign above the bar that while I could not read, I could guess the gist of.
'One drink minimum.'
"Right, of course," I sighed as I got off my barstool and sadly made my way to the exit. "Something tells me this day isn't gonna get much better."
---
"I hate it when I'm right," I wallowed in self-pity as I found myself sitting in an alleyway not far from the cantina, having spent the rest of the day likely looking like an idiot crazy person as I wandered around the settlement looking for anyone or thing that I could possibly talk to, at best earning confused looks and at worst some rather hostile gestures to fuck off until the sun had finally set and most people had gone home.
And I still had no idea where I was or, arguably more importantly, when!
Depending on the latter I could be in a relatively peaceful period in the Star Wars galaxy, or in the middle of total shit that just hasn't reached wherever I was yet. That was to say nothing about whether this was Canon, Legends, or some kinda other alternate verse.
Granted, the way today went, and the way my stomach is now growling, I would likely die of hunger before anything that happens in the SW timeline ever becomes relevant to me since on top of everything else, I was totally broke and without a means to support myself at all.
"Maybe if I die again I'll end up someplace where I can actually talk to people," I said a bit melodramatically before shaking myself. "Fuck that, I'm not dying in some alley on some planet I don't even know the name of. I have to at least learn that before dying! I can figure this out… somehow. It's just gonna take some time and work."
Cause I refuse to die of hunger in Star Wars without experiencing at least some of it! I'd have to turn in my nerd card! It's all I had that I truly valued!
Still, as nice as that self pep-talk was, it didn't change the fact that I was hungry and broke, with the money and debit card I had in my wallet being totally worthless.
"Man, I'd give so much just to be able to order a hamburger or some-ah!" I yelled as all of sudden a screen before my eyes, making me hit the back of my head against the alley wall. "Owww…"
I rubbed the back of my now sore head as I calmed down and stared at the screen in front of me, my first thought that I had finally unlocked my Status Screen or something that all isekai heroes seemed to have, but while there was a vaguely holographic screen in front of me its contents was… not what I was expecting.
"'Welcome, to Star Forge Online, your one stop shopping center for nearly everything the Galaxy is able and willing to sell to you,'" I read the prompt out loud, the screen showing what I was reading, a cartoony mascot-looking version of the Star Forge from the Knights of the Old Republic video game, it even had a smiley face on it, and a blank search bar. "'By connecting to the HoloNet, nearly all products available across countless words can be yours with the press of a button and at instant delivery speeds with no additional charges. We even help with currency exchanges! Buy today!'"
I just sat there for a minute, rereading the prompt over and over again, debating with myself if a single day was long enough for a person to start going crazy and seeing things from hunger. But, with lack of any better options…
"Okay, how do I- oh, it's like a touchscreen," I muttered to myself as I poked the search bar, finding that apparently the screen had enough mass to touch if I focused on it. It opened up a keyboard for me, and so, as a test, I typed in 'cheap food' and pressed enter.
The second I did, a very long list of options opened up to me, using names of companies and brands I had never heard before, but near the top of it was a series of 'rations' that, if I read their descriptions right, provided all the daily nutrients the average sapient needed a day in a variety of textures, flavors, and more.
Heck, a single ration bar only cost 5 credits!
"Now if only I had money," I grumbled again as, I quickly realized, that this 'online shopping' power required credits to use, which I had none of- wait. "That prompt mentioned currency conversation, right? How do I do that?"
A quick look had me find the 'Galactic Currency Converter' section of SFO, with a simple 'insert here' section, a 'take here' section, and a 'convert' button.
It also 'helpfully' had an account amount at the top, hopefully informing me that my 'online account' sat a nice even zero.
I know it wasn't intentional, but I felt like this thing was making fun of me somehow.
So, continuing my experiment I took out my wallet, picked out a ten dollar bill, put it up the insert section of the page and watched in shock as it went into the screen and then displayed the amount of $10 appeared on my account. I noticed that a 'withdrawal' button appeared after there was actual money in my account, so I curiously pressed it, typed in the amount I wanted, and watched as the screen gave me five dollars, the amount I had asked for.
"Okay, so that works… but I wonder, how does dollars convert into credits?" I wondered curiously as I reinserted the five bucks and then pressed the convert button, watching as my $10 got turned into… 20 Credits? "The hell? Does that mean that one US dollar equals two credits? How does that work?"
Economics had never been my strong suit, but if I got more for less, who was I to complain?
"If only I had more cash… unless?" I idly wondered as I pulled out my debit card. "There's no way, right?" I asked myself as I brought up my card to the inset section, and widened my eyes as it slid right in and my account suddenly jumped up to the same amount I knew it was at with my own back account back home. "Holy shit, it worked."
Okay, while that was good, it wasn't super fantastic since it wasn't like I was rolling in dough before all this happened, most of my money going towards basic needs and caring for my folks. Still, after I pushed the convert button and watched as my account number doubled, assuming where I was most of the day I'd say having 10k and change in credits in my account wasn't too bad.
"Finally, things are going my way!" I said excitedly as I looked at that wonderfully high number… I'm assuming, since the price of things in Star Wars was always kinda all over the place, which given it has a galaxy-sized economy I suppose makes sense.
Out of curiosity, I pressed the withdraw button again and got an extra prompt about if I wanted to convert the credits into another physical currency, like wupiupi and such, which was neat, or straight up another form, like ingots or chips. That would come in handy if I ever wanted to buy anything outside of this online store thing… but any other further thoughts or plans were interrupted by my stomach growling again.
"Right, food now, online shopping later," I said to myself as I quickly searched up the food rations again and made an order for a single 'Tasty Meaty' flavored ration bar for five credits.
The second I pressed the 'confirm order' button I watched as a wrapped bar materialized before me, falling to the ground as I failed to catch it in time.
Thankfully, it was wrapped, and I was hungry, so I quickly picked it up, unwrapped it, and took a bite before I could talk myself out of eating cheap and possibly questionable space food.
It was like taking a bite of a hamburger, steak, meatballs, and so many other good foods all at once, and I was quick to finish it off.
"So good…" I mumbled to myself with a full mouth, quickly ordering up two more bars and quickly eating them too, followed by a bottle of water to wash it all down. "So full…"
Man, those things were filling. They weren't lying about having all your daily nutrient requirements.
"Okay, food making brain work better now," I said as got back into exploring the website and trying to figure out its limits… which, as I typed things in and looked at what it showed back made me realize I might need more than a single night to figure out what those are since the list of what it was offering was insane.
Like seriously, they were even selling starships and space stations! I could, potentially, buy a freaking Venator! I had nowhere near the money for that, but according to SFO I could buy one if I did!
Taking a moment to take a step back and breathe, I focused on what I needed right now before dreaming of building a space fleet. First things first, I still couldn't speak with anyone, which meant I needed a translator.
A quick search found me what I was looking for with a personal_translator, a PUT. Heck, it was even noted to have Basic to English as part of its standard language chip! This was the answer to all my current problems.
The only issue, it cost 2k credits.
"That's a fifth of my whole account!" I yelled at the screen in anger.
Truly, it seemed the universe and Force really wanted to make me suffer.