After brewing her emotions briefly, Bai Fu crossed the street and approached An Ya and the two locals.
"Are you all alright?"
An Ya shook her head, "What about you, boss?"
"I'm fine, but" Bai Fu turned to the two rascals, "I have some bad news. On my escape route, I saw your boss being cornered by a group of outsiders in a dead end. Worried something might happen, I didn't stay long."
With that, she heaved a long sigh.
"Your boss is probably in grave danger now. By the way, how did you end up antagonizing those outsiders?"
The two rascals suddenly wailed in complaint.
"Who knows? We usually do... no, the boss usually does so many bad things they're impossible to count."
"Those outsiders dared to kill our boss today; I shudder to think what they'll dare to do tomorrow."
"Sister Fu, we only have you to rely on now."
The two ranted back and forth, giving Bai Fu a headache.
She quickly gestured with her hands, "Where are your other two buddies? Where did they go?"
Rascal B's voice trembled, "Dead, they died from their severe injuries on the run."
"What?" Bai Fu's eyes widened. "What a pity, such fine people, how could they... Ah, it's all because of those outsiders."
If she could have left earlier, if the players had been a bit more gentle, she might have earned more experience points.
Seeing her like this, the two rascals finally felt at ease.
Bai Fu, regretful even after hearing about their buddies' deaths, surely wouldn't trouble them over past conflicts.
What a relief!
Relaxed now, all they wanted was a good sleep, to just drop dead without any dreams at all.
It wasn't that they were tired, but that they had been psychologically scarred. They shivered at the mere thought of the recent events.
Those outsiders were brutally excessive, laughing merrily as they spoke of killing them all while beating them until they were nearly split in two. Even horror films from the old times weren't this terrifying.
"Come with me."
Bai Fu called out, and the two rascals hurriedly followed.
They appeared to have a chatty attribute, discussing treatment options as they walked.
"I heard that Dr. Lin at Huishui Bay is a psychotherapist. Let's go see him in a few days."
"Will it work? I'd hate to waste the money."
"We have to do something, right? Do you want to be plagued with nightmares forever?"
"Who the hell wants that? But even if we get better this time, if we run into those outsiders again, won't the same problems arise?"
"I... really feel cursed. Who brought those outsiders here in the first place?"
After a long sigh, they fell silent.
What was there to say? Just thinking about spending a lifetime healing from the trauma caused by the players made them utterly despondent.
"Actually." Bai Fu, walking ahead, broke the silence, "If you trust me, I could take a look at you."
The two rascals froze, "Ah, Sister Fu?"
Bai Fu smiled confidently, "I'm a Spiritual Ability Prayer Master after all. Isn't healing a psychological illness easily within my grasp?"
Could that really be the case?
Their eyes brightened.
"Trust trust trust, how could we not trust you, Sister Fu?"
Bai Fu pointed at Rascal D up front, "Let's start with you then. An Ya, cover your eyes."
Although unsure what Bai Fu meant, An Ya obediently covered her eyes.
Pleased, Bai Fu approached Rascal D. When only two steps away, she suddenly raised her right hand.
Her slender fingers struck Rascal D's neck with a lightning-fast motion, thrusting him against the wall behind him.
Bang!
Along with the jarring sound of his head hitting the wall came spurting blood.
The next second, Bai Fu's left hand held a dagger, ruthlessly stabbing into Rascal D's chest.
'-5' "-24!"
Fatal attack.
[You have killed a Local Rascal (Ordinary), earning 120 experience points]
Only then did Rascal B react, trembling, "S-Sister Fu, didn't you say you were going to treat us?"
Bai Fu pulled out the dagger, "I only said I'd treat you, I didn't promise you'd stay alive. Now he doesn't have to worry about nightmares. Wouldn't you say I've cured him?"
Rascal B's face paled, and he made a move to seize An Ya, who was standing close and had also been shocked.
Bai Fu had already seen through his escape route.
If it weren't for the fear of fighting two at once and letting one escape, with her current power, she wouldn't need to resort to a sneak attack.
Her agility and that of the local rascal B were both at 3 points, but local rascal B was injured, causing his attributes to drop significantly.
She chased after him and tackled him to the ground with brute force.
Local rascal B rolled on the ground twice, suppressing the pain, he pulled out a dagger hidden in his clothes just as Bai Fu approached, he turned sharply and stabbed towards Bai Fu's abdomen while yelling ferociously.
He believed this sneak attack would be unavoidable for Bai Fu.
With Bai Fu's current reaction speed, indeed she couldn't dodge; she could only block with her right hand.
Pfft!
The dagger hit its target.
However, the expected dull feeling of the blade sinking into flesh didn't occur; local rascal B's eyes widened as he clearly saw the dagger stab Bai Fu's hand, but it didn't even break the skin, only drawing a slight red mark.
Catching a blade with bare hands!
"Impossible, just a few days ago you couldn't even block a punch from the boss, how can you now..."
"Surprise or not surprise, expected or unexpected?"
Kid, this is the charm of a full constitution attribute plus Hardening buff!
Bai Fu grabbed the back of the blade with her other hand and easily pulled the dagger away.
Local rascal B saw Bai Fu step forward, towering over him, filling his entire field of vision.
It was the first time he knew Bai Fu, much shorter than him, could seem so towering; he felt extreme fear, but he no longer had the chance to scream as Bai Fu stabbed the dagger into his throat.
"Gurgling..."
Local rascal B grabbed at his neck, unbelieving till his death that Bai Fu could become so formidable.
Damn, what an actor!
[You have killed a local rascal (ordinary), gaining 120 experience points]
That covered up the experience deficit.
"After raising the Spiritual Ability Apprentice to Lv5, adding all the rewarded attribute points to constitution, I wonder if I can catch bullets from those inferior handguns barehanded."
Bai Fu was looking forward to it.
She walked over to An Ya.
Just two people dead in the chaotic Abandoned Cooling Factory wasn't uncommon; An Ya wasn't scared at all, just a bit anxiously grabbing Bai Fu's hand to check it.
"Boss, I'm so glad you're alright."
"What could possibly happen to me? Let's go home."
An Ya responded with an "oh," then curiously asked, "Boss, how did you know that foreigner could call a large group of companions to join the attack?"
Bai Fu said, "Secret."
"Ah, alright." An Ya quickly shifted her interest to another matter, "Boss, although those foreigners are formidable, they all seem crazy, not even afraid of death. I think we should avoid contacting them in the future."
Bai Fu explained, "Don't worry, they like to act crazy, but it's different from what you think. Their craziness is just their way of expressing emotions. They are essentially kind, at least morally higher than the average here."
An Ya opened her mouth.
Boss, we're already at rock bottom here, sounding better than us doesn't seem reassuring.
"Plus, they work very hard without complaints. Just show them a little kindness, and they work more enthusiastically than oxen. If you smile at them while giving orders and praise them with words like 'brave ones,' they might not even want a reward and will bring you gifts instead."
"Ah?"
An Ya was slightly confused.
Getting paid to work, do such people really exist in this world, maybe we should try employing some foreigners next time?
"As for not fearing death, that's even easier to explain. They are immortal, able to resurrect after death."
The death penalty in Stars Above is actually not low; players lose a certain percentage of experience based on level upon death, and there is also a resurrection cooldown, extending with each death from 0 to 6 hours, resetting every Monday.
This effectively squashes some players' bold ideas.
However, this mechanism is not a problem for new players who are only Level 1. You can't drop experience that's already at zero into the negatives, can you?
"Ah, immortals?"
An Ya was astonished.
She found it hard to believe, but if this was true, then everything about these foreigners seemed reasonable. Boss's talk about these foreigners being more valuable than Wildfire Gang's offered rewards made sense too.
"Boss, we might get rich!"
"Hmm?"
An Ya excitedly said, "Look boss, those foreigners can resurrect, right? We can cooperate with them, send them to collect the bounty from the Wildfire Gang, and after getting the reward, we split it fifty-fifty, no, seventy-thirty! One foreigner is worth 200, a hundred foreigners and we can earn a... fourteen thousand!"
Her eyes began to sparkle.
With that much money, they could comfortably take a private car out of here and move to the nearby mega-habitat of Lynn.
Bai Fu was shocked.
Reflecting on her actions over the last few days, she constantly felt somewhat inhumane.
After all, she was always contemplating how to utilize players, but it turned out An Ya had silently advanced to a version of triangular trade.
An Ya, turns out you're the real dealer!