"Zazas, Zazas... Arise, my boss!"
Lily was feeling rather agitated.
For some reason, a little b*tch had been incessantly whispering in her ear since a moment ago.
I came here to sleep, what do you want?
In a state of extreme fury, she broke through the blanket barrier in less than a second, then opened her eyes wide to survey her surroundings.
What met her eyes were mottled stone walls, flickering electric lights, and the tear-streaked, overjoyed face of a stranger.
"Boss, you're finally awake, that's great!"
I'm awake?
Lily inadvertently glanced at a nearby mirror. The reflection clearly showed a black-haired young girl with a pitiable, delicate beauty.
Holy crap.
She was terrified.
She had only slept for a while, yet her... assets had been replaced by... deficits. Although her... advantages had become more prominent, this was hardly any compensation!
In that instant, a flood of memories rushed in.
Lily remembered. Two days ago, a game called 'Above the Stars' had started its open beta. On her way to buy gaming accessories, she got engrossed in the community forums watching other players team up to besiege the developers' mothers, and ended up having a stroke of incredibly bad luck.
Right then and there, she experienced a sleep as deep as a baby's.
When she awoke from that slumber, she had transmigrated into the game.
She hadn't transmigrated as the game's protagonist, nor as a villainess or the villainess's best friend. Currently, she was just a mere mob character, not even worthy of a dedicated introduction page.
Actually, not entirely a mob. Compared to the average grunt, her status was a tad higher.
After all, she did have her own personal lackey.
Lily turned her head and glanced at the girl beside her, who was staring at her nervously.
That's right, this was her one and only follower.
Anya, 1.3 meters tall, skilled at eating and sleeping, picked up by her from a garbage heap. Now, they had both joined the nearby largest criminal organization, the Wildfire Gang.
What a calamity!
Especially after reviewing her own combat capabilities, Lily felt a wave of despair.
One 'Fu' ≈ Ten 'Ya's.
In this game world, you couldn't exactly call that formidable; at the very least, it was utterly insignificant.
The day before yesterday, she went to collect a debt for the Wildfire Gang. The old bastard who owed the money punched her in the forehead, and she was knocked out for a full two days before waking up.
With this kind of combat prowess equivalent to a measly five, Lily couldn't even imagine a future where she rose to prominence in this world.
In fact, forget rising to prominence; simply staying alive would be difficult.
You're right, but 'Above the Stars' is a brand-new open-world adventure game set in a dangerous universe.
Forgot the middle part.
In short, players will take on the role of a traveler from an alien star, starting from a distant frontier planet, gradually uncovering the truth of 'Above the Stars'.
Here, there are ferocious star beasts, mad psychic mages, ambitious evil organizations... When they act, even the mere shockwaves of their battles are enough to tear stars apart.
Damn.
Lily absolutely did not want to get caught in those battle shockwaves and die in some muddled way.
After much deliberation, she felt there was only one move left.
"Appear, my golden finger!"
No response.
Wait, no... it's... it's coming!
Suddenly, a pale blue light screen unfolded before Lily.
[Name]: Lily
[Age]: 20
[Race]: Human
[Template]: Ordinary
[Experience]: 0
[Main Class]: Unemployed Lv2 (421/500)
[Subclass]: None
[Health Points]: 50/50
[Attributes]: Strength 4, Agility 3, Constitution 5, Intelligence 3, Spirit 4, Inspiration 3
[Skills]: None
[Talents]: None
[Attribute Points]: 0
[Reputation]: 1
It's actually a stat allocation system?
Strong and powerful! So strong and powerful!
Lily was delighted.
From a weakling to a powerhouse—this was her path to invincibility!
However, she soon realized something was off. Why did this interface look exactly like a player's stat panel?
She quickly flipped through and, sure enough, found various buttons like [Quests], [Map], [Community], and others nearby.
Lily understood.
She had become an NPC with a player's panel. The biggest difference was that her panel had an NPC-exclusive [Template] field that ordinary players didn't have.
Templates were a good thing. High-tier template bonuses could allow an NPC to easily crush opponents with the same attributes but an ordinary template.
But this wasn't something to celebrate, because aside from that, she lacked any of the functions an NPC should have.
She couldn't issue quests, couldn't be a mentor, and had no affection system. This meant she couldn't exploit these features to squeeze gold coins from players like the famous Han Da-ji Xie-shi.
Rather than an NPC with a player's panel, she was more like a special player who couldn't respawn!
Fine, fine, playing it this way, huh? Others are playing a proper online game, while I'm playing a one-life-permadeath run.
Lily nearly fainted from anger.
She was neither a gaming prodigy nor a reincarnator familiar with the game's plot, and her character template was ordinary.
Challenging a permadeath run with her?
Let's just say some people are still alive, but for all practical purposes, they might as well be dead.
"I quit! This game isn't fun at all. Let me out!"
No response.
Lily rubbed her forehead hard.
The more critical the moment, the more she mustn't panic.
She turned to look at Anya. She should ask about the situation outside first.
"Has anything happened outside recently?"
Anya stared at Lily for several moments, confirming she was being addressed, before replying, "Boss, nothing major happened these past two days. It's just that a group of people suddenly arrived from the west."
"What kind of people?"
Anya said indignantly, "A very strange bunch. They wear similar clothes, they're all chatterboxes, questioning everyone they meet, even rummaging through people's houses. Some even stab themselves with knives for no reason."
Lily's expression turned odd.
From that description, weren't those players?
Anya continued, "Boss, these people are truly awful and arrogant. They even dared to open the Wildfire Gang's supply crates! The Wildfire Gang's boss said these aren't ordinary drifters anymore; we must deal with them with a heavy fist!"
Hearing this, Lily's face instantly turned green.
You throw a heavy fist at players, and players will come at you with tanks!
"No, we absolutely must not provoke those people. Alright, I'll go find the Wildfire Gang's boss immediately and talk him out of this suicidal idea."
Anya looked utterly confused. "Boss, why can't we provoke them? The Wildfire Gang's boss has already personally taken out several of them. He's even rallying us to deal with them together, saying anyone who joins can get paid, and the more you contribute, the more you earn!"
As she said this, she couldn't help but excitedly wave her fists.
Fighting = Earning Money = Awesome!
Lily's heart skipped a beat.
They've already started fighting?
Kid, this is no joke!
It's over.
Given how some players would even slice a passing earthworm in half lengthwise, as a member of the Wildfire Gang, if she didn't make a run for it soon, she probably wouldn't even leave ashes behind.
The question was, how to run?
The settlement she was in was called the Abandoned Cooling Plant, located on a beginner's starting planet named Zu Yuan Star.
A hundred years ago, war erupted on Zu Yuan Star.
The war destroyed almost everything, plunging Zu Yuan Star into a state similar to the 'Fallout' game series. People lived in settlements, while outside the settlements were filled with terrifying pollution and monsters.
Lily figured with her strength, she'd probably drop dead the moment she stepped outside the settlement.
Even if she got lucky and survived a few days, she wouldn't withstand the various calamities in the subsequent plot.
Calm down, I must think immediately!
"How can an NPC live long enough?"
An excellent question that set Lily's brain spinning rapidly.
Strength alone probably wasn't enough. What if she got sacrificed by the developers or labeled as a BOSS?
Ultimately, an NPC's fate depended on the developers' settings.
A stats monster is inferior to a mechanics monster.
She recalled a post on the community forums. It said during the closed beta, an NPC died shortly after appearing, but due to her unexpectedly high popularity among players, the game was bombarded with complaints and had to change her death ending.
Actually, such things happened frequently in games she'd played before.
In long-term service games, once a character's popularity rises, dying becomes much harder. Even if they die, they're likely to be resurrected. Even a background character might get a huge chunk of added plot to become important.
Aha! Enlightenment!
Lily's mind instantly opened up.
If she transformed from a nameless passerby into a player favorite, wouldn't she also get massively buffed, just like that NPC in the closed beta?
Hard to say, but worth a try.
Perhaps, the path to salvation lies within!
No NPC understood better than her how to become a player-favored character.
Because she was originally a player herself, and she could sneak into the community forums anytime to spy. Whatever players liked, she could become. The main strategy was to be receptive to advice.
Thinking this, Lily breathed a sigh of relief.
Kids, I'm about to make my move!