Chapter 1: The Path to Redemption Lies Within
“Zazath, Zazath... resurrect, my boss!”
Bai Fu felt a little irritated.
For some reason, a little brat named Dazai had been whispering in her ear nonstop.
I came here to sleep, what are you doing?
In extreme fury, she broke through the quilt barrier in less than a second and widened her eyes to scan her surroundings.
What came 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 moment, countless memories surged forth.
Bai Fu remembered—two days ago, a game 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 time, she experienced sleep like a baby.
When she woke up from that sleep, she had transmigrated into the game.
She had neither transmigrated into the game’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, someone 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 game 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 game 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 mere 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.
“Come out, my golden finger!”
No response.
Wait, no—it’s… it’s coming!
Suddenly, a pale blue light screen unfolded before Bai Fu.
【Name】: 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 something 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 become 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 same stats.
But that wasn’t something to be happy about, because otherwise she lacked any features typical of an NPC.
She couldn’t issue quests, couldn’t serve as a mentor, and didn’t have a favorability system, which meant 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 game’s storyline, and her character template was quite ordinary.
They expected her to clear the game in one life?
Let’s just say some people were technically alive, but might as well be dead.
“I quit! This game isn’t fun at all, let me out!”
No response.
Bai Fu rubbed her forehead hard.
It was precisely at times 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 moments 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 came 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 homes, and some 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 something 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 some players even sliced passing earthworms in half vertically, as a member 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 settlement she was in was called the Abandoned Cooling Plant, located on a novice starter planet named 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 settlements, while the outside world was filled with terrifying pollution and monsters.
Bai Fu felt that, with her strength, she’d probably drop dead the moment she left the settlement.
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 time?”
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 mechanic-based monsters.
She recalled a post in the game’s community that talked about an NPC who died shortly after appearing in the beta, but because she unexpectedly became very popular among players, the devs had to rewrite her death.
Actually, this sort of thing happened all the time in games she’d played before.
In long-term games, 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 become important.
Ah-ha! Enlightenment!
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 become a player-favorite better than she did.
Because she had been a player herself—and she could sneak into the game community anytime to observe.
Whatever the players liked, she could become that. Her entire strategy was: take the hint.
With that thought, Bai Fu let out a sigh of relief.
Kids, it’s time for me to shine!