Despite An Ya's reluctance, Bai Fu's insistence had won, and An Ya's hair had been dyed a lovely silver-white.
Under the sunshine, she squatted down, looking pitiful.
"One, two, three..."
She was counting money, Credit Coins, one by one, and then she began counting on her fingers.
"It looks like we'll have to drink gruel every day from now on."
A smile tugged at the corner of Bai Fu's mouth.
She hadn't come here to drink gruel. Before traversing through time, she drank gruel to save money; if she continued doing so after traversing, then what was the point of her journey?
She patted An Ya on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, everything will get better once we start taking action!"
Actually, if money weren't an issue, she would have dressed herself and An Ya up as a "Yin Yang People" duo.
[Bai Fu: White fur, black outfit.]
[An Ya: Black hair, white outfit.]
If the two of them stood in front of players like that and failed to play them like Tom at their fingertips, she would eat the players on the spot!
After consoling An Ya, it was time to handle serious matters.
But where should they go to boost the Players' Affinity?
The Abandoned Cooling Factory was unexpectedly large, and randomly searching for worthy players to rescue on the streets was very tiresome.
Thus, while dyeing her hair earlier, Bai Fu had opened up the Community's [Star Travel Society], heading to the Abandoned Cooling Factory section, hoping to find some good targets.
The community was bustling with activity, as players actively shared their experiences.
[Guys, I customized an Ancient God's face, and got arrested as soon as I entered the game. How can I delete and restart? Online now, it's urgent.]
[I give up, why bind gender? I want to play a female character!]
[Bad review, the game obviously built OO avatars, but the boxer briefs they gave are impossible to take off.]
[Seeking an 18+ patch, wish you a peaceful life.]
Bai Fu rolled her eyes at this.
Ignoring these silly players, she continued to search for her rescue target.
She had four types she wouldn't rescue on principle.
Profession Players she wouldn't rescue, for they were skilled; the difficult situations that troubled them were beyond her ability to resolve.
The smart players she wouldn't rescue, for they were wise; interacting with them was too stressful, as it was easy to slip up and ruin everything.
The War Fanatic type of players she wouldn't rescue, for they were ruthless; their minds were filled with "Fight! Thrill!" and if she accidentally showed her Blood Bar, they might just cut her down.
Fun-Seeker players she wouldn't rescue, for they were crazy; their brains were like Schrödinger's cat, before making a move, you'd never be able to guess what they really wanted to do.
Bai Fu switched back and forth between the community forum and the live streaming section, not finding an interesting target until she left the hair salon.
In a live stream room titled [(Walking Simulator) Starting from Zero to Show You Around the Stars·Abandoned Cooling Factory Episode], a player named [Digging Girl] was broadcasting live.
She wandered the streets and alleys of the Abandoned Cooling Factory, occasionally exclaiming with admiration things like "Ah, this light, ah, this water."
Honestly, her gameplay wasn't much, but the number of viewers in her live stream room had already broken into the thousands.
A minority of the players crowding in were there to enjoy the scenery, while the majority were there to map out the area; with someone offering to help measure the Map for free, they better hurry in and learn.
Besides those enjoying the scenery and mapping, the rest were Fun-Seekers. Although Digging Girl wasn't active, her streaming screen was full of activity.
[Damn, there's a fight over there, smacking each other in the crotch with bricks]
[Saw it, the impact doesn't feel right]
[I certify the person in front as purely old School]
[Little Blackie, is it? The impact isn't good enough for you? Find me a better one.]
[What sensation are they fighting for?]
Bai Fu only glanced briefly at these lively comments; she was more interested in the barrage of messages sent by long-time followers of the stream.
Through these messages, she learned that Digging Girl was a creator who specialized in gaming videos.
Due to very poor gaming skills, Digging Girl could only attract fans by making videos like "Walking Simulator", "Game Archaeology", and "New Game Digging".
But after two and a half years of making videos, she hadn't gained much of a following.
There were already many high-quality creators making Game Archaeology content; as a newcomer, without bringing anything new to the table, she couldn't even get a sip of the soup.
As for pioneering the analysis in New Game Digging, it wasn't that she did poorly, but rather she did it too well.
Digging Girl's specialty was her exceptional talent in Overinterpretation.
She could always deduce an epic story, broader than the Three Kingdoms, from fragmented game material even more broken than Old Man's artifacts.
"Just watch and see!"
This was Digging Girl's catchphrase.
At first, the audience believed her. Wow, is this character really that important? Is the plot really this awesome?
But after a while, the game developers would use their actions to tell her, "Sis, we really didn't think this through!"
After repeating this scenario a few times, Digging Girl's New Game Digging column grew cold.
However, she was a person of perseverance.
She believed she wasn't wrong; it was the world!
In her words—
"I just haven't encountered the game that resonates with my soul yet. When such a game appears, I will use my Blazing Battle Spear to pierce through all the mockery from days past."
To this, most players responded—
It seems like her 'adolescent syndrome' has relapsed!
Watching Digging Girl wandering all over the place, Bai Fu suddenly smiled contentedly.
A gaming novice + not smart + skilled at Overinterpretation + currently streaming content creator.
Wasn't this the Chosen One she had been looking for?
Heh, woman, you've piqued my interest!
Bai Fu initially wanted to spend money to hire someone to cause trouble for Digging Girl, then appear heroically to her rescue, but she quickly realized there was no need for that.
Because Digging Girl was drilling through tight lanes.
In the simple and unsophisticated Abandoned Cooling Factory, these kinds of narrow paths had more than a 90% chance of spawning at least one road bully.
Sure enough, after walking into an alley filled with clutter, Digging Girl was stopped by a burly man in a tank top.
"Hm?"
Bai Fu was slightly startled.
Wasn't this burly man standing behind that Old Man who punched her a couple of days ago when she went to collect debts?
His power was mediocre and posed no threat.
Fate, my man!
Bai Fu felt this was an excellent opportunity for vengeance and to clear her own name.
"An Ya, let's go, there's work to do!"
...
In the alley.
Watching the burly man across from her, who exuded an intense Hong Kong comics vibe, Digging Girl's heart kept sinking.
Just like DIO couldn't remember how many slices of bread he had eaten, as a game YouTuber, she couldn't remember how many dangers she had encountered in games either.
Just last week, she had been thrashed by a monster in a dark mental hospital for five hundred rounds.
Before she fell asleep last night, she had played a horror game similar to P.T.
With her courage, normally a mere human road bully in the game couldn't scare her.
But she was still frightened, frozen as if she had been hit by a monkey's Immobilization Spell.
You can't blame her for this; you can only blame the game "Stars Above" for being too realistic.
In every sense of the word realistic!
The game was officially announced just half a year ago. Although the publicity was not extensive, the slogans caught quite a bit of attention.
With talk about a breathing universe and an unbelievable 99% realism, the game really whet the appetite of players.
Many thought it was an electronic scam at first, and Digging Girl thought so too until she entered the game with a critical mindset and realized that the so-called internal test players were not part of a click farm.
99%?
100%!
This was clearly a groundbreaking game.
Those who didn't know might think it was the real world disguised as a game with a bit of UI on top!
It was this unbeatable sense of realism that instinctively made Digging Girl scared when faced with the road-blocking hulk.
If she were to be killed, could she really resurrect?
"I can't tell, I really can't!"
At this moment, the road-blocking burly man spoke up.
"An outsider?"
"I…"
"Looks like it, haha, I'm really lucky today, I just stepped out and found an outlander." The burly man's yellow-stained teeth were fully visible as he laughed.
Digging Girl was extremely nervous, "What do you want to do?"
"What do you think I want to do? Of course, I'm taking you to collect the bounty! You outsiders come here and immediately piss off the Wildfire Gang to death; that's really bold!"
At this, the burly man couldn't help but be amazed.
These outsiders had no fear in the face of the local Wildfire Gang. Not only did they steal from the Wildfire Gang's supply boxes, but they also threatened the gang after being cornered, saying something like, "You're finished, messing with us, you're done for, no one in heaven or earth can save you."
It's like the bill counter breaking down — they have no clue about credit coins!
The burly man pulled out a sack and without a word, slipped it over Digging Girl's head.
"Hey, hey, you... help, help!"
Darkness engulfed her, and Digging Girl struggled desperately, but with only 3 points of power, she couldn't break free.
"Go ahead and scream, your throat will break before it does any good!" Thinking about the high bounty offered by the Wildfire Gang, the burly man couldn't help but chuckle.
After the classic line, the live stream's players couldn't hold themselves back.
[Now that's some flavor!]
[Did I enter the wrong stream? What happened to the Walking Simulator?]
[What simple local customs.]
[The Abandoned Cooling Factory, also known as the alien Gotham.]
Among the laughter and cheerful voices, a cold, beautiful, yet compelling reprimand suddenly echoed in the live stream.
"What are you doing?"
"Hm?"
The burly man set Digging Girl down and turned around.
Taking advantage of this, Digging Girl finally managed to take off the sack, and she staggered to her feet, bracing herself against a decayed wooden crate beside her.
Because the burly man blocked her view, she had to sidestep into the clear.
With this move, the blazing sunlight poured into her eyes, and she hurriedly raised her hand to shield her forehead.
Geez, how blinding!
After a while, she finally got used to the sudden brightness.
She saw her, a girl standing with her back to the sun.
The soft sunlight cast a golden halo around the girl's figure, and the breeze blowing diagonally lifted up the girl's silky white silver hair.
The breeze came so cleverly.
It threaded through the narrow alley, skirted the cluttered piles of junk, and finally hit Digging Girl right between the eyes.
Already dizzy, Digging Girl opened her mouth wide, and at that moment, she believed she could answer a question that had been asked years before.
"Do you believe in light?"
"I believe!"