Summer Reappears, Reunited with Bai Fu

For Bai Fu, the point of combat etiquette was not the etiquette, but the combat.

There were always times when she ended up alone, or encountered enemies too strong for the players' damage output to deal a heavy blow within the two seconds she could keep them crowd-controlled.

Therefore, it was necessary for her to devise a combat etiquette that could not only stun an enemy for two seconds but also force them to inflict heavy damage upon themselves during that window.

Should I just start by punching myself in the head?

After a moment of thought, Bai Fu dismissed the idea.

Given her constitution, even if she punched herself, it would be difficult to cause much damage, though it was entirely possible she would knock herself into a stun state.

Even if the enemy mimicked her actions and punched their own head, what if she got stunned while the enemy, by sheer luck, didn't? That would be a disaster.

Such a high-risk maneuver was out of the question.

What if I used a gun?

Before the fight, she could pull a Huoyun Xieshen and shoot herself twice.

Bai Fu shook her head. She hadn't feared ordinary handguns back when her constitution was only in the twenties, and now that it had risen to 37, even large-caliber pistols would struggle to cause her any substantial harm.

The problem was that while she carried a handgun, there was no guarantee her enemies would. This set of combat etiquette would only be usable against specific types of enemies.

Better to stick with her fists. Hitting the head was out, but other areas were a different story.

She had a move called fatal strike, which could guarantee a heavy blow to most enemies without causing any damage to herself.

If the enemy was wearing armor, the elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles were also excellent targets.

Bai Fu placed the book back on the shelf, feeling satisfied.

After leaving the archives, she found Xia Shi. The two wandered around the vicinity, returned to their residence for lunch as noon approached, and then headed back to the Fourth Division office building.

This time, Bai Fu had come to meet with the director of Fourth Division, Lu Yuelin.

When she entered the director's office, accompanied by Xia Shi, Lu Yuelin was reading a report while sipping goji berry tea.

"Oh, Bai Fu! Hahaha, I've heard your name so many times from Xia Shi over the past two days. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

Lu Yuelin stood up with a cheerful smile.

His hair was slightly gray, and when he smiled, he didn't look like a director in charge of an intelligence agency, but rather like a kind, approachable old man.

Just like his appearance, his manner of speaking was warm and pleasant.

Bai Fu had expected to be interrogated, but to her surprise, Lu Yuelin didn't say a single unnecessary word throughout the entire meeting. Aside from praising her heroic performance at the abandoned cooling plant, he spoke only of rewards.

"According to the gene primordial anti-truth society attack regulations (fourth revised edition), individuals or organizations that make significant contributions to preventing or stopping attacks by the Truth Society, or striking against them, are to be rewarded. Given your contribution at the abandoned cooling plant, a silver moon medal and a cash bonus are guaranteed. Considering you also did a huge favor for our Fourth Division, I have decided to grant you some additional rewards personally. If you have any requests, feel free to ask, and I will do my best to accommodate you. Even if you want to join Fourth Division, that is not out of the question."

Join the Fourth Division?

If she did that, she would be considered one of their own. If she performed a great service, it should be easier for her to access the spiritual energy knowledge chain than it would be for an outsider.

However, there were also many downsides to joining the Fourth Division. The most important one was that her freedom would be restricted.

Before figuring out the pros and cons of each faction and where it would be more suitable for her to participate in the main storyline, Bai Fu was in no rush to make a decision.

Finally, holding onto a sliver of hope, she asked Lu Yuelin if she could borrow the advanced spiritual energy knowledge mastered by the gene primordial.

"Although I am the director of the Fourth Division, I can't make any guarantees in this regard. I can only try to apply for it on your behalf. I'll be upfront with you: the chances of approval are very low. However, if you can make a greater contribution to the gene primordial, then the situation would be different."

As expected, it wouldn't work.

Bai Fu had to settle for second best and see if she could get a current map of the world of Zu Yuan Star.

"That, of course, is no problem."

Lu Yuelin immediately had his secretary go fetch a map. Feeling that this reward wasn't enough, he also shoved a large stack of vouchers and coupons into Bai Fu's hands.

"If you intend to live in Lynn for a while, these little things should be quite helpful."

The corner of Bai Fu's mouth twitched.

Since it was a gesture of goodwill from the other party, she accepted them nonetheless.

After she left, Lu Yuelin's secretary said, "Director Lu, aren't you being a bit too polite to her? We still can't be certain that she is completely unrelated to The Truth Society."

Lu Yuelin took a sip of tea. "Presumption of innocence. She is a benefactor of the Fourth Division right now, so we must treat her with the courtesy due to a benefactor. What's the point of shouting and killing? Besides, if you really want to extract information from her, you should be even friendlier to her. If you start by being guarded against her, do you think she won't be guarded against us and refuse to say a single honest word?"

The secretary kept a cold face and did not respond.

He didn't speak, and Lu Yuelin didn't either.

He was well aware that this secretary wouldn't listen to him completely and would likely cause some trouble for Bai Fu behind his back to show off his own capability.

What could he do? He could only forgive this guy like a father—who told him this guy had connections at the top?

The Fourth Division was good in every way, except that there were too many people with connections, which made it very difficult to carry out work.

But Lu Yuelin's mindset remained very calm.

If it was difficult to carry out, then so be it. At his current age, even if he did well, he couldn't get promoted, so why bother working so hard?

His current mindset was to just coast. He would do what needed to be done during work hours, and whether things succeeded depended on how his subordinates executed them. Otherwise, his main focus was not to be late, not to leave early, not to work overtime, and to be the first to lead the way to the cafeteria when it was time to eat.

Comfortable.

After leaving Fourth Division, Bai Fu went straight back to Xia Shi's residence.

She uploaded the map given to her by Lu Yuelin into the game's map system. Combined with the books introducing the origins of the five major factions, she now had a very intuitive understanding of their distribution.

These five major factions were all currently on the same continent. The Gene Primordial she belonged to was primarily composed of scientists funded by a major pre-war power and a portion of the military. After the war, these people used the shelters where they had hidden as starting points to establish the Gene Primordial in the far east of the continent, with the goal of rebuilding a new order in the wasteland. After a hundred years of development, the Gene Primordial now governed six super-large settlements and dozens of small shelters.

The development histories of others, such as the Old Republic and the Railroad Guild, were much the same. The Human Alliance and The Truth Society were rather special.

The Human Alliance was born from the once-most-powerful faction, the Old Republic. After the mutant rebellion broke out in the Old Republic, those humans who had been deeply persecuted broke away and established the Human Alliance.

As for The Truth Society, to this day, no one had figured out the background of its leader. Even within The Truth Society, most people did not know the leader's true appearance or name, usually referring to him as "That Lord."

That's very "Gin-like."

But unlike the Black Organization, there weren't that many undercover agents and traitors within The Truth Society.

Otherwise, given the level of hatred other factions held for The Truth Society, they would have already stormed their front door.

Bai Fu committed all this knowledge to memory. This information was useless in daily life, but at critical moments, she might be able to use it to bluff players, making them think she was unfathomable.

Speaking of players, after teaching An Ya how to read for a while, Bai Fu opened the community. She prepared to see what the players at the Abandoned Cooling Plant had been up to lately.

As soon as she clicked in, she found a post saying that Digging Princess had already boarded the train from the Abandoned Cooling Plant to Lynn.

[Digging Treasure is ruthless this time. To buy the ticket, she went completely broke.]

[What medicine did Digging Princess take? How did she suddenly transform into a natural-born livestreaming prodigy? She can't stop churning out content.]

[There's no such thing as a natural-born livestreaming prodigy; this is the benefit of latching onto the right thigh!]

[Isn't that just Digging Princess having a sharp eye, seeing at a glance that Bai Fu was extraordinary?]

One group of players was praising Digging Princess, while another group was constantly tagging her.

[Digging Treasure, go for it! Hurry and find Fu Fu. I need to see with my own eyes that she's safe and sound to feel at ease.]

[Damn it, I was one step too slow. By the time I arrived, today's tickets were already sold out.]

[Sigh, I wonder if Fu Fu is doing well in Lynn and if anyone is bullying her.]

[Digging Treasure, stop lurking. I know you're reading the replies and laughing while you do it.]

Bai Fu nodded secretly. The train left this morning, so given the current road conditions, Digging Princess would arrive in Lynn by noon tomorrow at the latest.

A while ago, she had sacrificed herself to save players, bid them farewell, and even erected a monument for them, directly pushing the players' emotions to the limit. After this sentiment had fermented for several days, it was now time to give the players an outlet for this emotional outburst.

However, she was not satisfied with simply appearing in front of Digging Princess. Her plan was to take this opportunity to further enrich her persona in front of the players.

Right now, her persona in the eyes of the players was "a beautiful, mysterious NPC who cares for players." This was good, but it wasn't enough. She needed to perform a secondary creation on this framework to further close the distance between herself and the players, giving them the feeling that "Fu Fu is dazzling, but not someone who feels out of reach."

"An Ya, do you feel a bit bored staying here?"

"This... it's okay, maybe a little, but it doesn't matter." An Ya hesitated for a moment before replying.

Bai Fu called her over: "It's rare that we've traveled so far. Tomorrow, I'll take you out for a stroll. By the way, you..."

She gave An Ya some instructions, and An Ya nodded repeatedly to show she had memorized them.

By now, her admiration for Bai Fu had reached its maximum. If Bai Fu said to go east, she would never go west.

After resting for the night, Bai Fu woke up the next morning to find Digging Princess live-streaming.

She was sitting by the window, occasionally commenting on the scenery outside, until half an hour later, when the vehicle finally pulled into Lynn Station.

As her feet touched the ground, Digging Princess felt a fleeting sense of unreality.

Had she really arrived in Lynn? Could she really find Fu Fu? Was there a possibility that by the time she arrived in Lynn, Fu Fu had already left?

She quickly suppressed this unease.

She was someone who dared to watch A Wicked Ghost alone in the middle of the night with the sound on; what was there to be afraid of now? Just find her, that's all!

Digging Princess cleared her throat and smiled at the camera.

"Arrived at Lynn, the settlement closest to the abandoned cooling plant. It's so beautiful, family!"

The chat scrolled by rapidly.

[Holy crap, this Syrian-style city really captures the wasteland vibe.]

[This game is truly exaggerated. It's one thing to have a huge map, but there's actually no loading screen during fast travel.]

[Digging treasure, digging treasure, don't dawdle at the station. Go check out Fu Fu in the distance instead.]

"Alright, alright, everyone don't be impatient. I'm going to find Fu Fu right now."

Digging Princess officially began her journey.

On the way here, she had prepared herself to search for several days in a row, but the pain of searching for someone still exceeded her expectations.

"Bai Fu? Never heard of her."

"A beautiful girl with white hair? There are plenty of people with white hair these days. Red, orange, green—you can see them everywhere."

Returning empty-handed time and time again, and mistaking the wrong person over and over, Digging Princess felt like she was going numb.

[Digging treasure, what are you doing, digging treasure?]

[As long as you don't stop, the road will continue to extend. So, digging treasure, don't stop!]

[Digging treasure, do you really want all your previous efforts to be for nothing?]

Watching the comments scroll by, Digging Princess hurriedly explained, "Giving up is impossible, I could never give up in this lifetime. It's just that I'm a bit thirsty right now. Damn it, this game is made too realistically. I have to find a way to earn some credit coins, otherwise, I feel like I'll kick the bucket before I find Fu Fu."

But where could she find a task that pays?

Digging Princess clutched her stomach, wandering aimlessly through the streets and alleys.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but as the sun set behind the mountains and the bright moon hung high in the sky, she arrived at an intersection. Across the road hung an orange light, and under that light stood two people.

One tall, one short; one big, one small. Both possessed beautiful long white hair, their features blurred by the glow of the orange light.

But at this moment, Digging Princess's gaze pierced through that blur, imprinting their faces firmly into her eyes.

Bai Fu, An Ya.

Digging Princess stood frozen in place.

She never could have imagined they would reunite in such a way.

This nonchalance was just like the first time she met Bai Fu, and just like when she found the monument Bai Fu had erected.

In this instant, a massive wave surged in Digging Princess's heart, and the comments in the livestream exploded.

[!!!]

PS: Although I said I would finish early, it's still a bit late. But fortunately, two chapters were written as scheduled. Please keep following the story!