Emily has an infinite number of balls and empty boxes available to her. The empty boxes, each capable of holding four balls, are arranged in a row from left to right. At the first step, she places a ball in the first box of the row. At each subsequent step, she places a ball in the first box of the row that still has room for a ball and empties any previous boxes. How many balls in total are in the boxes as a result of Emily's $2017$th step?

$\text{(A) }9\qquad\text{(B) }11\qquad\text{(C) }13\qquad\text{(D) }15\qquad\text{(E) }17$
1. To solve this problem, we need to understand the pattern of how Emily places the balls in the boxes. Each box can hold up to 4 balls, and once a box is full, it is emptied, and the next box starts to be filled. This process can be represented by writing the step number in base 5, where each digit represents the number of balls in a box.

2. Convert the step number 2017 from base 10 to base 5. This can be done by repeatedly dividing the number by 5 and recording the remainders:
   \[
   \begin{align*}
   2017 \div 5 &= 403 \quad \text{remainder } 2 \\
   403 \div 5 &= 80 \quad \text{remainder } 3 \\
   80 \div 5 &= 16 \quad \text{remainder } 0 \\
   16 \div 5 &= 3 \quad \text{remainder } 1 \\
   3 \div 5 &= 0 \quad \text{remainder } 3 \\
   \end{align*}
   \]
   Therefore, \(2017_{10} = 31032_5\).

3. The digits of the base 5 representation \(31032_5\) correspond to the number of balls in each box from right to left. To find the total number of balls in the boxes, sum the digits of the base 5 representation:
   \[
   3 + 1 + 0 + 3 + 2 = 9
   \]

4. Thus, the total number of balls in the boxes as a result of Emily's 2017th step is 9.

The final answer is \(\boxed{9}\).