Convert to My Fu and the others had caused an uproar on the forums with what they did in Lynn.
Players born near Lynn were so envious they beat their breasts and stamped their feet. They regretted not getting on the ride to Lynn, which had let Convert to My Fu and the others get there first and cut off this money-making opportunity.
If they dared try anything similar in Lynn now, they'd be lucky if they only got their legs broken on the spot, let alone being able to borrow money.
Players elsewhere, however, were delighted when they saw what Convert to My Fu and the others had done.
That road might have been closed in Lynn, but it was still open everywhere else.
The most quick-witted players acted as soon as they got the news. Almost simultaneously, players on Novice Planets in different star systems taught the local criminal gangs a harsh lesson--
Lending money was risky; be careful when dealing with players!
If you tried to play hardball with players, they'd show you what a truly hardcore tough guy was. Being ruthless to others was nothing; being ruthless to yourself was the real deal.
The players who'd pulled off big jobs shared their results on the forums. The most impressive record belonged to Summer Snowing, a player born on Kro Star.
After borrowing the money, Summer Snowing went and got a few bombs. Then he charged straight into the headquarters of the gang that had lent him the money. Surrounded by its lackeys, he detonated the bombs. As luck would have it, the gang's ammunition depot was right next to the blast site. The resulting chain explosion sent the entire gang sky-high.
Legendary!
After that stunt, Summer Snowing's level shot up, putting him in first place across the entire server. He was also named a City Hero for fighting crime and, as an exceptional case, admitted into the National Faction. He'd left the other players in the dust.
[?]
[How much dog shit did you step in to get that lucky?]
[Come on, tell us. Are you the developer's dad?]
[Europeans, eat my spear!]
When the players on the forums saw Summer Snowing's results, they went wild. Even Convert to My Fu and the others, who had been the first to use this strategy, were a little dumbfounded. The 20,000 Credit Coins they'd gotten suddenly didn't seem so appealing.
"Don't panic. Being ahead for a while doesn't mean you'll stay ahead forever. Besides, he's not directly competing with us. We just need to unlock Advanced Classes as soon as possible, then trigger Bai Fu's new quest. I'm sure the rewards we get for completing her quest will be better than his."
Sword Aura Piercing Sky, the chairman of the Iron Rain Guild, said with a chuckle.
Convert to My Fu and the others nodded repeatedly.
They all had a good impression of Sword Aura Piercing Sky.
When they'd first ridden with him, they'd assumed that a chairman of a major guild would be difficult to get along with. But after spending time with him, they'd found that he was not only a great talker but also very willing to teach them the ins and outs of the game. No wonder the Iron Rain Guild had endured through several different games without ever falling apart.
They had no idea that Sword Aura Piercing Sky had been putting on an act the whole time.
The night before the trip, Sword Aura Piercing Sky had held a meeting with the Iron Rain Guild's core members. At the meeting, he'd issued an important directive.
While looking for a chance to join the Truth Society, they were to raise Bai Fu's Favorability just like the other players. They weren't doing it for the hidden quest Bai Fu might have; they wanted to gather more information about her and use it as a generous gift when they joined the Truth Society.
He had no intention of starting at the bottom after joining the Truth Society. If he was going to do it, he'd do it big!
Since none of them knew Bai Fu, while Digging Princess and the others had already raised her Favorability to over 80, Sword Aura Piercing Sky had issued a second directive.
They were to spare no expense when approaching Bai Fu. Money, supplies, even deliberately getting themselves killed—all of it was fair game. As long as they could raise her Favorability quickly, it didn't matter if it slowed their leveling.
"We might take a small loss early on, but once we join the Truth Society with information about Bai Fu, everything will work out!"
If Bai Fu hadn't been so famous, with so many players trying to get close to her, Sword Aura Piercing Sky wouldn't have wanted to take the unconventional route of joining the Truth Society.
At the meeting, some players had voiced their concerns. They thought Sword Aura Piercing Sky's plan was brilliant, but going after Bai Fu might make a lot of players resent them and hurt the guild's growth.
Sword Aura Piercing Sky waved a hand. "Relax. We don't have to go after Bai Fu directly. We'll just use her to get information out of Digging Princess and the others for the Truth Society. Once we join, our levels will rise quickly. Why should we care about ordinary players then? What matters is completing our patron's mission."
The patron was everything!
Thinking that he'd soon get to meet Bai Fu, Sword Aura Piercing Sky began to feel excited.
"Let's go meet up with Digging Princess first. We'll need her help to find Bai Fu."
The other players had no objections. The group of more than a dozen set off with their money.
Watching the players adapt to Lynn so quickly in the livestream, Bai Fu nodded in satisfaction.
She'd gotten along well with Digging Princess, Patrick Star, Convert to My Fu, and the others before. Now that another group of professional players had arrived, she felt even more confident about dealing with the Fourth Division and the Truth Society.
"I should find a few chances to give them those Advanced Knowledge books, so they don't get stuck at their current levels."
The next day, Bai Fu found an opportunity.
Xia Shi sent word that the Fourth Division had something important to discuss with her.
On her way to the Fourth Division, Bai Fu handed An Ya and the Advanced Knowledge books over to Digging Princess. She didn't feel safe leaving An Ya alone at Xia Shi's place. Who knew when the assassin and the spy might team up again? It was better to have a player keep an eye on An Ya.
Given An Ya's relationship with her, the players would never stand by and let a killer murder her.
Bai Fu arrived at the Fourth Division. All of its senior officials were waiting for her in the conference room.
"Let my secretary, Li Cheng, explain the details." Lu Yuelin handed the floor over to Li Cheng.
Li Cheng stood up and went over the proposed cooperation they'd discussed in the recent meeting.
"I know you want to see advanced Spiritual Energy knowledge, so I specifically submitted an application to the higher-ups. I just received the data from headquarters."
He held up a hard drive.
Bai Fu immediately used Spiritual Vision on it.
[Data Hard Drive (Special)]
[Quality]: White
[Additional Effect]: A seemingly ordinary hard drive containing advanced Spiritual Energy knowledge mastered by the Gene Primordial
"..."
Bai Fu's breath caught slightly.
Yes, yes, yes! This was it!
She'd been looking forward to this for ages. She hadn't expected it to be sitting right in front of her now. She did her best to control her expression so nobody would notice anything unusual.
Li Cheng continued, "Acting as bait is dangerous. You could die at any moment. But if you cooperate with us, you'll have a chance to get the advanced Spiritual Energy knowledge you want. And if we catch the spy, the threat the Truth Society poses to you will be greatly reduced. Think it over carefully."
Bai Fu gave a quiet "Mm."
She was considering whether she should cooperate with the Fourth Division.
With her true strength, ordinary assassins would have a hard time killing her. But that didn't mean she could do whatever she wanted.
What if an assassin brought out a Large-caliber Sniper Rifle or some powerful bombs?
And special assassins with supernatural abilities like Yulia could threaten her, too.
For the sake of her safety, she'd be better off refusing Li Cheng's proposal. But if she missed this opportunity, who knew how long she'd have to wait to get her hands on the Spiritual Energy Knowledge Chain mastered by the Gene Primordial?
Bai Fu's eyes shifted slightly as she thought of a good plan.
After pretending to think it over for a while, she raised her head. At that moment, she summoned the same level of skill she'd shown on the night she'd said goodbye to the players.
Time to act!
"Having a spy watching me from the shadows is pretty irritating." Bai Fu nodded. "I can agree to cooperate with you, but I have one condition."
Li Cheng asked, "What condition?"
Bai Fu said, "Director Lu said that even he would have a hard time getting advanced Spiritual Energy knowledge approved by the higher-ups. But you managed to get it. The situation is different now from before, but I still want to check the goods first, just in case I'm being tricked."
Li Cheng's face darkened. "Are you questioning my credibility?"
Before Bai Fu could say a word, the head of the operations team stepped forward and undercut him. "Your credibility? Well, sometimes it really does need questioning."
Bang!
Li Cheng slammed his hand down on the table. "Say that again?"
Lu Yuelin hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over. "Let's keep things friendly. It's only a verification. If you want to check it, then check it. Letting Bai Fu take a look will put her mind at ease. Just use the terminal in the conference room."
The others couldn't keep watching from the sidelines. They all chimed in.
"Go ahead and take a look. What harm could it do?"
"Are you worried Bai Fu will steal the data off the hard drive in front of all of us?"
"Surely there isn't really a problem with the data on the hard drive, haha."
The Fourth Division had so many well-connected people that its internal factions were a mess, but most people shared one opinion: they didn't like Li Cheng.
In a spy thriller, Li Cheng would be the kind of person who desperately wanted to get ahead and show off, yet managed to sour his relationships with nearly all his colleagues.
Seeing how things had turned out, Bai Fu knew she'd won.
Sure enough, faced with everyone's comments, Li Cheng handed her the hard drive with a livid expression. "I shouldn't have to teach you how to use a terminal, should I?"
Bai Fu smiled. "No need."
Li Cheng said coldly, "There are more than a dozen pairs of eyes watching you, and every terminal in the Fourth Division is specially encrypted."
Bai Fu looked innocent.
What could little Bai Fu possibly be up to? Did he think she was some kind of genius hacker who could secretly copy all the data on the hard drive without anyone noticing?
He was giving her too much credit. She was just an ordinary cheater.
Copy it?
She'd just read the progress bar and learn it!
With everyone watching, Bai Fu connected the hard drive to the terminal. She opened the file reader, and a prompt appeared.
[You begin reading <Advanced Spiritual Energy Knowledge Mastered by the Gene Primordial>. Intermediate Spiritual Energy Specialization takes effect. Your reading speed +20%. Current progress: 0.1%...]
As expected of advanced knowledge, it was nothing like the other books she'd read, which had taken at most twenty minutes. This time, the progress bar stretched out to several hours.
She was only checking the goods. The Fourth Division would never let her sit in front of the terminal for hours.
But it didn't matter. She only cared about the Spiritual Energy Knowledge Chain it contained, so she focused on that material.
The conference room fell silent. Li Cheng sat in his chair, staring expressionlessly at Bai Fu's back. Nobody knew what he was thinking.
More than twenty minutes later, Bai Fu received a game notification.
[You unlocked Spiritual Energy Knowledge Chain (2)]
After mastering two Knowledge Chains, her Knowledge Chain bonuses became--
[All active Spiritual Energy skill effects +40%, Spiritual Energy resistance +40%, Spiritual Energy recovery speed +2/minute]
[Note: Unlocking a new Knowledge Chain grants +20% to all active Spiritual Energy skill effects, +10% Spiritual Energy resistance, and unlocks Spiritual Energy Bonus]
This bonus made Bai Fu's eyes light up. With the bonus from Intermediate Spiritual Energy Specialization included, the effects of her active skills had increased by a full 60%. She'd completely outclassed ordinary Spiritual Energy Priests.
The gap between an Advanced Class and an advanced profession was really reflected here.
That was also why many top players on the community forums advised against intentionally keeping your level low or leveling multiple classes at once. Even if you wanted to train multiple classes, it was best to wait until your main class reached the advanced tier. Otherwise, other players could easily leave you behind.
Bai Fu's gaze lingered on the Spiritual Energy Bonus mentioned in the note.
That bonus was just as important. It didn't merely improve a player's attributes and strength. As players progressed from an Advanced Class to an advanced profession, collecting Knowledge Chains also brought them to a true [Class Change], much like how a Swordsman in DNF could become a Berserker, Ghostblade, or Asura after reaching a certain level.
In Above the Stars, the bonus path players chose also determined the direction of the profession they'd specialize in.
Spiritual Energy classes mainly played a support role, strengthening buffs in the early game. But as their levels rose and they gained access to more skills, they could focus on combat, curses, healing, and other playstyles.
Although she'd already unlocked the Spiritual Energy Knowledge Chain, Bai Fu didn't stop reading. She'd noticed a lot of other good stuff on the hard drive, such as an incomplete Spiritual Energy Knowledge Chain and some special skills.
Li Cheng was starting to lose patience. "How long are you going to keep checking?"
Bai Fu didn't bat an eye. "Why the rush? If I don't check it thoroughly, how can I tell whether the contents are made up?"
A few more minutes passed, and Li Cheng got up and walked over to the terminal.
"It's been half an hour. If you keep dragging this out, we might as well call off the meeting."
Fine.
Bai Fu shut down the terminal, reluctantly.
During that time, she'd accumulated quite a bit of knowledge and unlocked a new skill: [Spiritual Energy Shield].
[Spiritual Energy Shield]: Consumes Psychic Energy to create a full-body shield with a value of (Psychic Energy × 2). Lasts 5 minutes. Cooldown: 12 seconds.
If she used all her Psychic Energy, she'd gain 230 extra HP out of nowhere. But the Spiritual Energy Shield's strength clearly didn't stop there. Until the shield was depleted, any damage she took wouldn't translate into actual physical harm. If she traded hits with an enemy that way, she'd come out more than a little ahead.
Time to get that food again, guys!
Seeing Li Cheng's gloomy expression put Bai Fu in a great mood.
"I looked through the material on the hard drive. I can't speak for the rest of it, but the parts I checked were all fine. I believe you're sincere about cooperating with me. I'm willing to help you draw out the spy."
Hearing that, Li Cheng's tense expression eased slightly.
"Pleasure doing business with you."
"Likewise, likewise."
Bai Fu was indeed quite pleased.
She could have run off as soon as she got the Knowledge Chain, but she still wanted to see if she could pick up a few high-reward quests from the Fourth Division.
If there were any, she'd play along with the Fourth Division a little longer. If not, she'd take An Ya and make a quick getaway.
After seeing everyone off, Li Cheng smiled too.
The spy?
He was the spy!
But nobody knew that. Nobody even suspected him. Before Bai Fu had appeared, he'd been the kind of person who argued with everyone and got along with no one. His constant arguments with Bai Fu these past few days were just an extension of that persona.
After leaving the Fourth Division, Li Cheng sent a message to his contact.
During the operation ahead, the Fourth Division would impose a network lockdown across all of Lynn. This would be his last message to the Truth Society for a while.
"Bai Fu, I'll take my time playing with you. Once the Chairman officially begins the operation and there's no need to keep the Intelligence Bureau's attention occupied, that'll be when I send you to your grave!"
The Fourth Division's arrangements were quickly put into action.
When Bai Fu went to pick up An Ya, she found Sword Aura Piercing Sky keeping her company. From the way he was doing it, he was clearly trying to get information about Bai Fu out of An Ya.
But who was An Ya?
An Ya was her prized disciple! After Bai Fu had warned her, An Ya had transformed into a master baiter, making the most of vague answers and keeping people guessing. Sword Aura Piercing Sky had spent two hours doing everything from buying snacks for An Ya to running errands and buying groceries for her, yet he still hadn't gotten a single useful bit of information.
"I swear to God, I can't even fool a kid!"
Sword Aura Piercing Sky ground his teeth in frustration, but he could only keep playing the modest gentleman.
No pain, no gain!
Before long, Sword Aura Piercing Sky got his chance to raise Bai Fu's Favorability. It came the day after he met her.
"I'm unable to move around right now, so I need you to help me investigate something."
Before you continue