The explosion of comments in the live broadcast room was completely within Bai Fu's expectations.
With such a cool entrance, plus the white fur buff she had deliberately applied to herself, if this didn't captivate the players' souls, she might as well go smash her head with a block of tofu.
But how much popularity she could actually garner still needed to let the bullet comments fly for a while longer.
Bai Fu opened the game panel.
After killing the burly man, she had earned 150 experience points, just enough to level up.
"[Unemployed] advanced to Lv3, Power +1, Constitution +1, attribute points +1."
Bai Fu's attributes underwent some changes.
"Template": Ordinary
"Experience": 71
"Main Profession": Unemployed Lv3 (0/1000)
"Secondary Profession": None
"Life Value": 60/60
"Attributes": Power 5, Agility 3, Constitution 6, Intelligence 3, Spirit 4, Inspiration 3
"Skills": None
"Talent": None
"Attribute Points": 1
"Reputation": 1
Bai Fu added the free attribute point to her Constitution, bringing it to 7, which doubled the blood bar of an ordinary foot soldier, making her equivalent to an Elite Monster.
The bad news was the upper limit of the bland profession of Unemployed was Lv5, so to continue increasing her power, she urgently needed to learn a new profession.
The good news was the game had no hard cap on the number of professions, so she could randomly pick up a new profession.
This was a difference between "Above the Stars" and other games, where players could use experience to unlock new main profession slots and learn more professions.
However, it was generally not advisable to learn too many professions at once; there were limits to a person's capabilities, and even with a Saint Hero Liver, practicing too many professions could lead to a lack of experience, falling behind the progress of the larger player base and missing out on many major events.
It was wiser to specialize in a profession early on and get advanced skills and talents before considering combinations of professions.
Bai Fu had long been scheming about her leveling direction.
So-called mixed learning was, somewhat, a matter of accumulating points while lying down.
In terms of attributes, focus on Constitution with agility as secondary, with the main strategy being to run away when outnumbered.
She spent the longest time considering the main profession. "Above the Stars" currently had four streams open, namely Technology Stream, Body Cultivation Stream, Spiritual Ability Stream, and Spirit Stream, with each including a vast array of main professions.
Her location on Ancestral Origin Star, a Newbie Planet themed on "wasteland," only allowed learning of certain main professions within Technology Stream, Body Cultivation Stream, and Spiritual Ability Stream.
At this stage, Bai Fu was more inclined towards the latter two.
Not that the technology series wasn't strong, but the latter two were more cost-effective.
First learn a tank profession, or a supportive profession that could buff herself to increase survivability.
As for the future, it all depended on how many Gold Coins players would help her explode from the planners once her popularity soared.
After closing the game panel, Bai Fu opened up the Abandoned Cooling Factory section of the Star Travel Society.
She entered to see players frolicking in madness.
"Big sister with white hair, hurry up and use your Ultimate Boot Insult on me!"
"Die, foot-fetish pervert!"
"She's secretly filming? Where are the morals, where is the bottom line, where is her home address?"
"I've been waiting half a day, where's Galio, why isn't it 6 yet?"
As she watched, a link popped up.
"The adjacent comprehensive board posted a voting thread for female NPCs, hurry up and vote! Click ↑"
"Damn, that's a phishing site, this is the real link: ***"
Bai Fu's mouth twitched.
She didn't click on the links; instead, she opened the comprehensive board herself.
Here's how it started: not long ago, a player from the Abandoned Cooling Factory posted Bai Fu's video to the comprehensive board section, claiming she was the best-looking female NPC in "Above the Stars" and inviting others to challenge his view.
This immediately hooked a bunch of videos and photos.
Subsequently, a player collected these videos and photos into a single voting thread—
"The First Popular Female NPC Contest of Above the Stars."
As soon as the post went up, it attracted the attention of countless players.
They started a cyber showdown right there in the thread.
"I can only say that cuteness is worthless before sexiness."
"Impossible, my wife Maryrose is unrivaled!"
"I laughed, Tifa is the best."
"You have no idea how beautiful a rich woman can be."
"Why not add that huge mecha from the promo to the options, who says her gender isn't female?"
"I vote for Mechanical Girl, she's the one everyone's been waiting for!"
By the time Bai Fu clicked in, the battle was still intensely ongoing.
There were 43 contestants in total, and after over an hour of confrontation, first and second place were pretty much set.
The giant mecha that appeared in the promo video was far ahead on the list, showing a terrifying dominance that seemed insurmountable.
Chasing it was an NPC who had been revived by the developers during a charge by players in the beta test.
As for the third place, it kept changing.
Bai Fu scrolled down and found herself in 15th place.
"The dishonorable Mysterious Girl X."
"There sure are a lot of pros."
Her ranking was quite impressive, considering those ahead of her either had an appearance in the game's promotional video or had already garnered some popularity during the beta.
As a complete outsider, she ordinarily wouldn't even qualify to participate.
But with a burst of performance, she'd forcibly broken into the upper half of the leaderboards!
Bai Fu nodded lightly.
What a pity, if the special effects of her entrance had been a bit cooler, her ranking could have definitely climbed higher.
She casually refreshed the post, and that's when something miraculous happened—her votes jumped by 108, propelling her from 15th to 14th place.
Huh?
Bai Fu thought she was seeing things, so she quickly refreshed the thread again.
As it turned out, she wasn't mistaken—her vote count had increased by another 30 or so.
Weird.
Just a moment ago, her votes were only increasing one or two at a time. Could it be that someone messed up while vote-rigging and accidentally boosted hers?
Bai Fu scrolled through the thread and finally understood what was happening.
Turns out, Digging Girl had made a sudden grand entrance.
Digging Girl had been quietly voting when she saw a player's comment about Bai Fu, "What's the use of being good-looking? They'll disappear soon anyway," and she immediately saw red.
"Don't you dare insult my favorite Mysterious Girl X!"
Digging Girl used the skill "Overinterpretation."
"I'm betting that Mysterious Girl X is definitely an essential plot NPC!"
Despite Bai Fu's brief appearance of just a few minutes and only a few lines of dialogue, she managed to produce a 2,000-word essay arguing that Bai Fu was no ordinary character.
"In my opinion, she's likely an undercover agent sent by some organization to the Wildfire Gang. Whether she's related to the main storyline is still to be verified later."
Players who didn't know Digging Girl were stunned after reading her post.
Especially those tortured by academic papers to the point of baldness were almost ready to kneel before her.
How can you write so much?
Players who knew Digging Girl simply predicted her downfall.
"Let's all disperse, guys, Digging Girl is at it again."
"Digging Girl might guess right, but it's unlikely she will."
Facing doubts, Digging Girl was very calm.
It doesn't matter.
A storm can't take down a tree that's already fallen!
"Doubt me? Let's wait and see."
If she guessed wrong, she would keep playing dead; if right, she would come out and brag triumphantly!
Digging Girl's wave of "Overinterpretation" was phenomenally effective, instantly gaining a slew of attention for Bai Fu.
Some players truly fell for her.
Others were just there for the fun.
But regardless of their intentions, they all voted for Bai Fu.
One vote from you, one vote from me, and Bai Fu ascended on the spot.
15, 14, 12!
"Ranked tenth, damn, she's in the top ten!"
"Damn it, why aren't you voting? Vote, everyone vote!"
Supporters of other NPCs panicked at this scene.
Referee, someone's cheating!
They couldn't care less anymore and hastily sought external support.
No one expected this previously low-interest voting event to become the hottest activity since the server opened.
"We're sixth now, everyone, lend all your Spiritual Energy to my wife!"
"Let the power of unity roar and destroy all obstacles!"
In just 20 minutes, Bai Fu had surged dramatically from fifteenth to seventh!
But this wasn't her limit.
After 30 minutes, sixth place!
47 minutes, fifth!
Challenging for fourth, she encountered strong resistance.
But so what?
"We unite!"
After a half-hour tug-of-war, Bai Fu had drained her rival's vote reservoir and comfortably secured fourth before the voting deadline.
Yes, fourth place!
This wasn't just ranking fourth in a class of four, but fourth out of 43 people!
If not for the voting period ending, Bai Fu felt she might even surpass that cool older sister playing the piano in her refreshing outfit.
Piano Girl magnified her presence with the support of lsp fans and built a Wall of Sighs, but the swords of Fun-Seekers were also sharp!
Seeing the final results, all players who supported Bai Fu celebrated exuberantly.
"We are the champions!"
"Holy shit! Awesome!"
Of course, there were some players who disputed, arguing endlessly about who deserved the third and fourth places.
"Tense, it's just fourth place, far from third."
"What's with Mysterious Girl X?"
"Iconic."
"Did you get triggered?"
"Filial."
After arguing for a long time without a clear winner, they agreed to settle their dispute in the second tournament.
"Piano Girl is the best!"
"Bullshit, Mysterious Girl X is the best!"
This bout of arguments unexpectedly brought Bai Fu a lot of attention.
Bai Fu: "6."
Digging Girl really was a woman of astonishing intelligence.
She had never anticipated attracting such high popularity with her appearance, it was an incredibly delightful start.
But she knew this popularity was fleeting.
Fun-Seekers come and go in a hurry.
Right now, she was like someone who had just achieved fourth place in kindergarten, and as the game story progressed, she would meet even more formidable opponents.
Just in version 1.0 "Dark Star Awakening" alone, "Above the Stars" had opened up a variety of themed Newbie Planets for players to freely choose.
These Newbie Planets all had their main storylines, hidden beyond were many exciting side quests; imagine how many popular NPCs could be born from these stories?
Moreover, habitable planets controlled by cosmic-level forces like "Rebirth Empire," "Supernova Battle Group," and "Titan Industry," which appeared on the game's official website, were as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. How many heroes could emerge from such a multitude of planets?
Too many, simply too many to count!
Bai Fu took a deep breath.
To hell with it, let's blow everything up!
She didn't believe she couldn't rise.
Next, she'd focus on increasing her power while solidifying her skyrocketing popularity.
Bai Fu thought of Digging Girl's post.
An undercover agent?
A decent way to clear her name.
As a token of gratitude toward Digging Girl, she copied that!
Lost in thought, Bai Fu had already arrived near her home.
She looked up, outlined by the sunset's afterglow, and saw a person standing under the sign for the "Abandoned Cooling Factory," which bore traces of peeling and weathering.