Chapter 1: The Path to Redemption Lies Within
“Zazath, Zazath... resurrect, my boss!”
Bai Fu felt a little irritated.
For so reason, a little brat nad Dazai had been whispering in her ear nonstop.
I ca here to sleep, what are you doing?
In extre fury, she broke through the quilt barrier in less than a second and widened her eyes to scan her surroundings.
What ca into view were mottled stone walls, flickering lights, and an unfamiliar face crying tears of joy.
“Boss, you’re finally awake, thank goodness!”
I woke up?
Bai Fu inadvertently caught a glimpse of the mirror beside her, which clearly reflected a pitiful-looking black-haired girl.
Damn.
She was frightened.
She had only taken a nap, how did her strengths get replaced by flaws? Even though her good points were more prominent now, this couldn’t be considered compensation at all!
In that mont, countless mories surged forth.
Bai Fu rembered—two days ago, a ga called “Beyond the Stars” had entered public beta.
On her way to buy gaming accessories, she got so absorbed in reading how other players were teaming up to bash the developers’ moms that she accidentally struck the jackpot.
At that ti, she experienced sleep like a baby.
When she woke up from that sleep, she had transmigrated into the ga.
She had neither transmigrated into the ga’s protagonist, nor into a vicious villain or a villain’s best friend.
Right now, she was just a grunt not even worthy of a dedicated character page.
Well, not entirely grunt-level—compared to the usual mob characters, her status was just slightly higher.
After all, she had a personal sidekick.
Bai Fu turned her head to glance at the nervous girl staring at her.
Yes, this was her one and only sidekick.
Anya, 130 cm tall, good at eating and sleeping, soone she had picked up from a trash heap.
Now, she had joined the biggest local criminal gang, the Wildfire Gang, alongside her.
How sinful!
Especially after reassessing her own combat power, Bai Fu was hit with a wave of despair.
One Fu ≈ ten Anyas.
In this ga world, she wasn’t exactly powerful—at best, she was negligible.
The day before yesterday, she went to collect debts for the Wildfire Gang and got punched on the forehead by an old bastard who owed money, knocking her out cold for two days.
With this kind of combat prowess, Bai Fu couldn’t even imagine rising to the top in this world.
In fact, never mind rising to the top—just staying alive was going to be hard.
You’re right, but “Beyond the Stars” is a brand new open-world adventure ga set in a dangerous universe.
She forgot the middle part.
Anyway, players take on the role of travelers from alien worlds, starting on a remote frontier planet and gradually uncovering the truth behind “Beyond the Stars.”
There are savage stellar beasts, mad psionic mages, and ambitious evil organizations…
Their re skirmishes could tear through the stars.
Hell no.
Bai Fu didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire and die in a blur.
After much thought, she figured there was only one move she could try.
“Co out, my golden finger!”
No response.
Wait, no—it’s… it’s coming!
Suddenly, a pale blue light screen unfolded before Bai Fu.
【Na】: Bai Fu
【Age】: 20
【Race】: Human
【Template】: Normal
【Experience】: 0
【Main Class】: Unemployed Lv2 (421/500)
【Sub Class】: None
【HP】: 50/50
【Stats】: Strength 4, Agility 3, Constitution 5, Intelligence 3, Spirit 4, Inspiration 3
【Skills】: None
【Talents】: None
【Stat Points】: 0
【Reputation】: 1
It turned out to be a point-allocation system?
Strong and powerful, so strong and powerful!
Bai Fu was delighted.
From weak little princess to mighty empress—this was her road to invincibility!
But she soon realized sothing was wrong. Why did this interface look exactly like a player’s stats panel?
She quickly flipped through it and sure enough, found buttons like 【Quests】, 【Map】, and 【Community】 nearby.
Bai Fu understood now.
She had beco an NPC with a player’s panel.
The biggest difference was that her panel included an NPC-exclusive 【Template】.
Templates were great—high-level templates could let an NPC easily crush a regular template opponent with the sa stats.
But that wasn’t sothing to be happy about, because otherwise she lacked any features typical of an NPC.
She couldn’t issue quests, couldn’t serve as a ntor, and didn’t have a favorability system, which ant she couldn’t exploit players for gold like the legendary Master Han Daji.
Rather than being an NPC with a player panel, she was more like a special player who couldn’t respawn!
Alright, fine.
Everyone else is playing a proper MMORPG, and I’m stuck in a permadeath mode.
Bai Fu nearly passed out from anger.
She was neither a gaming expert nor a reborn person familiar with the ga’s storyline, and her character template was quite ordinary.
They expected her to clear the ga in one life?
Let’s just say so people were technically alive, but might as well be dead.
“I quit! This ga isn’t fun at all, let
out!”
No response.
Bai Fu rubbed her forehead hard.
It was precisely at tis like these that one couldn’t panic.
She turned to look at Anya—she should ask about the situation outside first.
“Has anything happened outside lately?”
Anya stared at Bai Fu for several monts and, after confirming Bai Fu was speaking to her, finally said, “Boss, nothing big has happened these past two days, except a group of people suddenly ca from the west.”
“What kind of people?”
Anya said angrily, “A bunch of really weird people. They all wear similar clothes, talk incessantly, question everyone they see, rummage through people’s hos, and so even stab themselves for fun.”
Bai Fu’s expression turned strange.
From that description, weren’t those players?
Anya continued, “Boss, those people are really bad and arrogant. They even dared to open Wildfire Gang’s supply crates! The boss of Wildfire Gang said these aren’t ordinary vagrants anymore—we must strike them hard!”
Hearing that, Bai Fu’s face turned green.
Strike hard against the players? The players would bring out tanks against you!
“No way, we absolutely must not provoke them. I’ll go find the Wildfire Gang’s boss right now and stop him from doing sothing stupid.”
Anya looked puzzled. “Boss, why can’t we provoke them? The Wildfire Gang’s boss already killed several of them himself! He even called on us to fight them, saying we’d get paid for joining in—and the more we fight, the more we earn!”
Saying this, she couldn’t help waving her fists excitedly.
Fighting = Money = Fun!
Bai Fu’s heart stopped.
It had already escalated into a fight?
Kid, that’s not funny!
It was over.
Given how so players even sliced passing earthworms in half vertically, as a mber of the Wildfire Gang, if she didn’t run now, not even her ashes would remain.
But the question was—how could she escape?
The settlent she was in was called the Abandoned Cooling Plant, located on a novice starter planet nad Origin Star.
A hundred years ago, Origin Star had been ravaged by war.
The war had destroyed almost everything, plunging the planet into a state akin to the “Fallout” series.
People lived in settlents, while the outside world was filled with terrifying pollution and monsters.
Bai Fu felt that, with her strength, she’d probably drop dead the mont she left the settlent.
Even if she miraculously survived a few days, she wouldn’t withstand the various calamities in the storyline that followed.
Stay calm—I must think quickly!
“How can an NPC survive for a long ti?”
An excellent question, one that sent Bai Fu’s mind racing.
Just having strength wasn’t enough. What if she got pulled into a sacrificial plot or got labeled a boss monster?
Ultimately, an NPC’s fate was determined by the developers’ designs.
Stat monsters were no match for chanic-based monsters.
She recalled a post in the ga’s community that talked about an NPC who died shortly after appearing in the beta, but because she unexpectedly beca very popular among players, the devs had to rewrite her death.
Actually, this sort of thing happened all the ti in gas she’d played before.
In long-term gas, when a character gained popularity, they’d be much harder to kill.
Even if they died, they’d likely be revived.
Even a background character might suddenly get a ton of new plot and beco important.
Ah-ha! Enlightennt!
Bai Fu’s mind opened up.
If she could go from an unknown nobody to a beloved fan-favorite, wouldn’t she also get buffed like that beta NPC?
Hard to say—but worth a try.
Perhaps... the path to redemption lay in this!
No NPC understood how to beco a player-favorite better than she did.
Because she had been a player herself—and she could sneak into the ga community anyti to observe.
Whatever the players liked, she could beco that. Her entire strategy was: take the hint.
With that thought, Bai Fu let out a sigh of relief.
Kids, it’s ti for
to shine!
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