Chapter 6: There Are Just Too Many Souls Born
Bai Fu stopped.
Anya, who followed closely behind her, took a step forward and nervously grabbed the hem of her clothes.
“Boss.”
“Just a small issue, don’t worry.”
Bai Fu turned around and took Anya’s hand, gesturing for her not to be anxious.
She knew the person standing under the sign all too well.
Martin, the small supervisor of the Wildfire Gang, was her direct superior, with a combat power around 20 “Ya”—not much stronger than her post-level-up.
With his strength, he wasn’t really qualified to be a supervisor, but he had one special skill—
He was well-versed in first- and second-grade primary school knowledge!
Yes, not only could he write his own name, but he could quickly add and subtract within one hundred, and he handled single-digit multiplication and division effortlessly.
In the Wildfire Gang, where the vast majority of members were illiterate, Martin, who had this ability, stood out like a foundational cultivation expert among Qi Refinement novices.
So, naturally, he was promoted to small supervisor.
At first he was quite proud of this advancement, but he soon realized there was a problem.
“Fuck, I know how to do math—so how could I use “can’t compute” or “calculated wrongly” as excuses to embezzle money?”
“Could it be that those at my same level who really can’t do math are actually pretending to be fools? Genius fools?”
Martin was about to split in two.
He thought long and hard.
He had worked so hard to become a small supervisor—for money, or to make the Wildfire Gang great again?
Since the path of cooking the books was now closed, he could only squeeze the profits from his subordinates!
He kept assigning various tasks to them, and loved to pressure them mercilessly.
Ideally, they could complete them—but if they couldn’t, he’d find ways to withhold their pay and occasionally throw in some PUA tactics.
“Why can others do it?”
Bai Fu’s previous incarnation became a victim.
Debt collection had never been simple.
If you lent a hundred bucks to friends or family, who knows how long it would take to get it back—let alone pursuing old wasteland dwellers with ties to the Wildfire Gang.
“At the meeting, it was decided—you collect this debt. If you bring the money back, I’ll give you a 5‑point cut!”
Bai Fu’s evaluation of that offer was—
Damn, only half a point? You’re even more ruthless than Huang Silang!
And the assessment of Bai Fu’s previous self was—
You’d better ask someone wiser.
Martin, not very charismatic, immediately threatened.
“Trouble?”
“Bai Fu, you know the organization’s recent economic performance isn’t great. We might not be as punctual with salaries as before. You’d better earn some extra bounty…”
“Think of that child you took in—so cute. You don’t want her to starve because you’re broke, right?”
Bai Fu’s previous self could only pat Anya’s head and set off, and then got punched so hard that she lay down for two whole days.
There are just too many souls in this world!
One can only say that in times like this, you really can’t act too human.
Bai Fu thought so.
Martin’s appearance now must be to pressure her to continue collecting debts.
As expected.
The moment he saw her and Anya, Martin smiled and came over.
“Why did your hair turn white? Forget it, that’s not important. I heard you were injured before—I was pretty worried. Fortunately, it wasn’t too serious.”
After the small talk, he immediately bared his fangs.
“Bai Fu, I know it’s hard for you, but the deadline from higher-ups is approaching…”
Ding!
Suddenly, two game prompts popped up in front of Bai Fu.
The first one was—
【You have triggered the faction quest “Pay Your Debts”】
The quest came with a detailed description—so no problem.
SKIP!
Although the game didn’t have a skip function for the plot, Bai Fu simply ignored the nagging Martin and began reading the quest details.
【Quest Description: Your superior Martin wants you to reclaim a sum of money lent out by the Wildfire Gang.】
【Quest Objective: No method restrictions. Recover as much of the debt as possible. Details ← (Remaining Time 47:59:36)】
【Reward: 2000 EXP, 10 Faction Reputation】
【Accept / Decline】
Bai Fu chose to accept.
A reward of 2000 EXP was no small amount—at this stage, if players only did daily tasks like carrying bricks and collecting bottle caps, they might not even earn 200 EXP in a day.
From the reward alone, it was clear the quest would be difficult.
But it didn’t matter.
If she couldn’t win, she would just run away!
After all, this wasn’t some main god space where failing a quest meant punishment.
Bai Fu then opened the second prompt.
【You have unlocked the Faction System】
What followed was a dense wall of explanatory text.
The faction system in “Beyond the Stars” wasn’t too different from other games.
Once players met certain conditions, they could join a faction.
By increasing faction reputation, players could unlock faction-level quests, exclusive shops, exclusive class knowledge, faction roles, etc.—and even gain stat bonuses in some special factions.
Joining a faction wasn’t all good; it could cause hostile factions’ NPCs to become aggressive, leading to many negative consequences.
But that didn’t matter to Bai Fu—because her faction had already been locked as 【Wildfire Gang】.
From the current situation, Bai Fu had no intention of defecting from the Wildfire Gang.
Her perspective on the Wildfire Gang was different from others.
To other survivors of the abandoned Cooling Plant, the Wildfire Gang was a terrifying demon king, always robbing and looting, a source of fear—but to her, the Wildfire Gang was as alluring as the demon queens in doujinshi.
A powerful faction meant the Wildfire Gang had money.
Robbing a lot meant the Wildfire Gang likely had loads of rare upgrade materials and class knowledge books.
If she didn’t stay in the Wildfire Gang to ruthlessly raid its gold, was she supposed to go outside and exploit those pitiful paupers?
That made no sense.
How much oil could those paupers possibly have on them?
Obviously, go where the money is!
Playing the undercover role to gain favor with players while secretly looting the Wildfire Gang’s vault—that was the true path to ascension.
As for how to raid the Wildfire Gang’s funds, Bai Fu immediately thought of Martin.
Even though she had returned most of her knowledge to the teachers, she had still attended a top-tier university—comparing her to Martin was like letting Tyson beat up a child.
If Martin could be promoted to supervisor under special consideration, it wasn’t too much to ask for her to become head of logistics, right?
But that wasn’t so simple either.
In others’ eyes, not long ago she had been an illiterate who could barely write her own name—then after two days of rest, she suddenly knew some calculus?
That was shocking.
Would they crack open her skull for study?
What a shame.
If she had been born in a place where people actually believed in something, she could’ve acted like a cult leader shouting “Heaven is dead, white day shall rise!” and gotten rich selling indulgences.
Damn it—why is making money so hard?
Bai Fu sighed inwardly and looked up. “I’ll finish the task soon, but…”
“But what?”
Martin, who had been interrupted, looked somewhat displeased.
Bai Fu made a request: “I want to take a look at the gang’s library.”
The Wildfire Gang piled all the books they collected—useful or not—into the library, but not everyone had access to it.
“Library? How many words do you even know, wanting to go to the library?” Martin laughed out loud.
Bai Fu remained calm and pointed at Anya. “For her to see. She’s still young—she can learn.”
Heh.
Martin couldn’t be bothered to argue over this. “Use my name—the smallest public library is open access.”
That was exactly what Bai Fu wanted to hear.
Smiling, she gave a few more reassurances and saw Martin off.
Although Martin was clearly courting death, it was still too risky to act now.
She’d wait a bit longer.
After dinner with Anya, Bai Fu wasted no time and went straight to the Wildfire Gang’s library.
After giving Martin’s name, the gatekeeper didn’t give her any trouble.
She stood by the bookshelves, her gaze sweeping swiftly across the titles.
“Bro, You Smell Nice,” “Basic Arithmetic,” “The Art of Being Human”...
“What is all this?”
Bai Fu was speechless.
No wonder anyone could enter this tiny library just by giving Martin’s name.
But perseverance paid off.
After searching for a while, she finally found the professional knowledge book she had longed for.
“Three Minutes to Get Started with Psionic Prayer”
Bai Fu took the book down from the shelf.
Though the book was full of symbols she didn’t recognize, that posed no difficulty for her.
【You begin reading “Three Minutes to Get Started with Psionic Prayer,” current progress 0.3%】
This was the charm of the player interface at work!
Three minutes later, Bai Fu received a new notification.
【You have unlocked a new class 【Psionic Apprentice】, +1 Spirit, +1 Inspiration, +2 Stat Points】
【During reading, you comprehended new skills: 【Fervor】, 【Harden】, 【Spirit Vision】