"Zazas, Zazas... Come back to life, my Boss!"
Bai Fu was getting irritated.
For some reason, a little brat had been whispering in her ear nonstop since just now.
I came here to sleep. What do you want?
In a fit of extreme fury, she broke through the blanket barrier in less than a second, then widened her eyes and surveyed her surroundings.
What met her eyes was a mottled stone wall, flickering electric lights, and an unfamiliar face brimming with joy and tears.
"Boss, you're finally awake! That's wonderful!"
I'm awake?
Bai Fu inadvertently caught sight of the mirror beside her. Reflected in it was clearly a black-haired girl so beautiful that anyone who saw her would feel sorry for her.
What the hell.
She was scared.
She had only slept once. How had her greatest asset been replaced by a defect? Sure, her strengths were even more prominent now, but that absolutely did not count as compensation!
At that moment, countless memories surged into her mind.
Bai Fu remembered. Two days ago, a game called Above the Stars had opened its public beta. On her way to buy gaming equipment, she had gotten so absorbed in watching other players on the community forums team up to curse the game developers' mothers that she had accidentally hit the jackpot.
At the time, she had experienced a baby-like sleep.
When she woke from her dream, she had transmigrated into the game.
She had not transmigrated into the game's protagonist, nor had she become a vicious villainess or the vicious villainess's best friend. She was now merely a grunt who did not even deserve an individual introduction page.
Actually, she was not quite that insignificant. Compared to ordinary grunts, her status was still a little higher.
After all, she had her own follower.
Bai Fu turned her head and glanced at the nervous girl staring intently at her.
That was right. This was her one and only follower.
An Ya was 1.3 meters tall and good at eating and sleeping. Bai Fu had picked her up from a garbage dump, and the two of them had now joined the largest criminal organization nearby, the Wildfire Gang.
What a disaster!
Especially after taking stock of her own combat ability, Bai Fu felt a wave of despair.
One Bai Fu ≈ ten An Yas.
In this game world, she could not exactly be called overwhelmingly strong. At most, she could be said to be utterly insignificant.
The day before yesterday, she had gone to collect a debt for the Wildfire Gang, only to be punched in the forehead by the old bastard who owed them money. She had been unconscious for two whole days before waking up.
With such a pathetic performance, Bai Fu could not imagine herself making a name for herself in this world.
In fact, forget making a name for herself—just staying alive would be difficult.
"You're right, but Above the Stars is a brand-new open-world adventure game set in a dangerous universe."
She had forgotten the middle part.
In short, players would take on the role of a traveler from an alien world, starting from a beginner planet on the distant frontier and gradually uncovering the truth behind [Above the Stars].
There were savage Starry Sky Giant Beasts, deranged psychic mages, and ambitious evil organizations...
When they made a move, even the slightest aftershock of battle was enough to tear stars apart.
Damn it.
Bai Fu did not want to be caught up in a battle's aftershocks and die for no reason.
After thinking it over, she felt she could only use that move.
"Come out, my cheat!"
There was no response.
No, wait... It was coming!
Suddenly, a pale-blue screen of light unfolded in front of Bai Fu.
[Name]: Bai Fu [Age]: 20 [Race]: Human [Template]: Ordinary [Experience]: 0 [Main Class]: Unemployed Lv2 (421/500) [Sub-Class]: None [Health]: 50/50 [Attributes]: Strength 4, Agility 3, Constitution 5, Intelligence 3, Spirit 4, Inspiration 3 [Skills]: None [Talents]: None [Attribute Points]: 0 [Reputation]: 1
It was actually a stat-point system?
Powerful! So powerful!
Bai Fu was delighted.
From a weakling to an invincible powerhouse—this was her path to invincibility!
But she soon discovered that something was off. Why did this interface look exactly like a player's attribute panel?
She quickly looked through it and, sure enough, found various buttons such as [Quests], [Map], and [Community] on the side.
Bai Fu understood.
She had become an NPC with a player panel. The biggest difference was that her panel had an NPC-exclusive [Template].
Templates were great things. The bonuses from high-level templates could let an NPC easily crush an ordinary-template opponent with the same attributes.
But this was not something worth celebrating, because aside from that, she did not possess any of the functions an NPC ought to have.
She could not issue quests, could not become a mentor, and did not even have a Favorability system. That meant she could not use those functions to drain players of their gold like the legendary Han Daji the Leaker.
Rather than an NPC with a player panel, she was more like a special player who could not revive!
"Great, great, so that's how we're playing it? Other people are playing a proper online game, while I'm playing a one-life clear."
Bai Fu was nearly angered unconscious.
She was neither a gaming expert nor a reincarnator who understood the game's plot, and her character template was also ordinary.
They wanted her to attempt a one-life clear?
All she could say was that some people were still alive, but in reality, they were almost as good as dead.
"I'm not playing anymore. This game isn't fun at all. Let me out!"
There was no response.
Bai Fu rubbed her forehead hard.
The more things were like this, the less she could panic.
She turned her head toward An Ya. She would ask about the situation outside first.
"Has anything happened outside recently?"
An Ya stared at Bai Fu for several moments. Only after confirming that Bai Fu was asking her did she answer, "Boss, nothing major has happened these past two days. It's just that a group of people suddenly came from the west."
"What kind of people?"
An Ya said angrily, "A bunch of very strange people. They all wear similar clothes, and every one of them is a chatterbox. They question everyone they see, run into other people's homes to rummage through everything, and some even stab themselves with knives for no reason."
Bai Fu's expression turned strange.
From that description, weren't they players?
An Ya continued, "Boss, these people are too bad and too arrogant. They even dare to open the Wildfire Gang's supply crates. The Wildfire Gang's Boss said they aren't ordinary refugees anymore and that we have to hit them hard!"
At An Ya's words, Bai Fu's face turned green.
If you hit the players hard, they'll run you over with a tank!
"No, we absolutely can't provoke those people. Here, I'll go find the Wildfire Gang's Boss right away and tell him not to do anything foolish."
An Ya was puzzled. "Boss, why can't we provoke them? The Wildfire Gang's Boss has already killed several of them himself. He even called on us to deal with them together, saying that anyone who went would get paid, and the more effort we put in, the more we'd get!"
As she said this, she excitedly waved her fists.
Battle = money = awesome!
Bai Fu's heart stopped.
They had already started fighting?
Kid, this isn't funny!
It was over.
Given the way certain players would even split a passing earthworm lengthwise, if she did not flee as soon as possible as a member of the Wildfire Gang, she probably would not even have ashes left behind.
The question was, how should she escape?
The settlement where she lived was called the Abandoned Cooling Plant. It was located on a beginner birth planet called Zu Yuan Star.
A hundred years ago, war had erupted on Zu Yuan Star.
The war had nearly destroyed everything, leaving Zu Yuan Star in a state similar to that of the Fallout games. People lived in settlements, while the areas outside them were filled with terrifying pollution and monsters.
Bai Fu figured that with her abilities, she would probably die the moment she left the settlement.
Even if she was lucky enough to survive for a few days, she still would not withstand the various disasters in the later plot.
Calm down. I have to think this through immediately!
"How can I make sure an NPC lives long enough?"
That was an excellent question, and it sent Bai Fu's mind spinning rapidly.
Strength alone might not be enough. What if the developers dragged her off to be sacrificed, or tagged her as a BOSS?
Ultimately, an NPC's fate still depended on the developers' design.
A stat monster was inferior to a mechanic monster.
She remembered a post on the community forums. It said that during the closed beta, an NPC had died shortly after appearing. However, because her popularity among players had unexpectedly soared, the game had been review-bombed until the developers had no choice but to change her death ending.
Things like that had happened often in games she had played before.
In a long-running game, once a character became popular, it was no longer easy for them to die. Even if they did die, there was a high chance they would be revived. Even a random passerby would be given an extra lengthy arc and turned into an important character.
Aha! I get it!
Bai Fu's thoughts opened up instantly.
If she went from an unknown passerby to a player favorite, would she also receive a massive power-up like that closed-beta NPC?
It was hard to say, but it was worth a try.
Perhaps the path to redemption really did lie within!
No NPC understood better than she did how to become popular with players.
Because she had been a player herself, and she could sneak into the community forums to spy at any time. Whatever kind of character players liked, she could become that kind of character. Her core strategy was to take advice.
Thinking of this, Bai Fu breathed a sigh of relief.
Children, I'm about to start pushing!
Before you continue