Bai Fu's survival leveling plan had hit a minor snag, as the Wildfire Gang was finding it increasingly harder to capture players.
With time, players had gradually become able to fend for themselves in fights against the ordinary members of the Wildfire Gang.
This was largely thanks to an overall increase in player levels, and a combat comparison video that Digging Girl had uploaded to the forums a few days earlier.
After watching that video, two groups of players stood out.
The first group was quite diverse.
It included handicraft experts, college tech geeks who happened to be on vacation, white-collar workers who could only play for an hour after work, and veterans in plumbing and civil engineering.
Realizing how flexible the fabrication system above Stars was, they leveraged their expertise to build a small-scale craft production base.
This production base could not only create small traps; according to the bosses, given enough materials, they could even handcraft firearms.
The second group of players was simpler: they were purely savage.
Initially, they just mimicked Digging Girl and others by throwing lime and chili powder, but when they noticed that most Wildfire Gang members wore goggles, they had to develop new tactics.
Some players enchanted their weapons with feces, others donned women's attire to lure isolated Wildfire Gang members, and one player developed a highly practical taunting skill—alone, he furiously cursed four opponents' ancestors, creating numerous opportunities for his teammates to launch sneak attacks.
Under their ruthlessly savage tactics, some Wildfire Gang members had begun to resist fighting them.
Only so much money in a month, who the hell would risk their lives?
Losing meant instant death, and winning just meant prolonged disgust.
Bai Fu had once seen a Wildfire Gang member hit by flying poop kneeling on the ground, vomiting non-stop while crying bitterly.
"That's too brutal!"
Bai Fu felt a chill down her spine.
She was relieved that she had established good relations with the players.
Faced with such unreasonable attacks, even she found it difficult to stay calm, given that she had invested all her attribute points in Constitution, not Agility.
After the scare, Bai Fu keenly sensed a good opportunity.
As others were reluctant to fight the players, she volunteered for outreach, thinking if this didn't boost her Affinity with the Wildfire Gang, she'd write her name Fu backwards!
Indeed, she hadn't guessed wrong.
Upon hearing that she had volunteered to confront players head-on, the affection of the Wildfire Gang Leader towards her jumped by 21 points, from the initial 12 to 33, and his attitude shifted from [Impressionable] to [Admirable].
Good, very good indeed!
The Wildfire Gang Leader looked at her with a relieved expression.
Seeing the determination in Bai Fu's eyes, he couldn't help recalling the afternoon runs under the setting sun—it reminded him of his own fleeting youth.
Once a young man full of aspirations, time, however, had turned him into a middle-aged man with hemorrhoids.
It's rare to find outstanding youths like Bai Fu these days.
Smart, loyal, ambitious...
If there were more people like Bai Fu in the Wildfire Gang, why wouldn't they be able to grow stronger, or even move out of the armpit of the Abandoned Cooling Factory?
"Go find the Director of External Affairs; he will arrange a new task for you." The Wildfire Gang Leader paused, then added, "Your performance these days has been very commendable. If you have any particular requests, mention them. I will try to accommodate you as much as I can."
This was an unexpected pleasure, and Bai Fu certainly wasn't going to be shy about it.
"Boss, since you put it that way, I do have a small request. I'd like to borrow some books from the library. I picked up a kid outside, and she's at the age to learn, so I was thinking..."
The Wildfire Gang Leader interrupted her, "No need to say more, I understand. Any library but the locked one, you're free to access anytime."
He tossed her a card.
Bai Fu quickly caught the card, expressing her gratitude.
After two days in the interrogation room, she had leveled her Spiritual Ability Apprentice to Lv7 and was close to the Lv10 cap. She hoped to find Advanced Profession Knowledge Books in the library so she wouldn't get stuck leveling.
After bidding farewell to the Wildfire Gang Leader, Bai Fu went straight to the library.
Compared to the trash-filled public library, the Advanced Library had many more useful books.
Not only were there Second Profession Knowledge Books like "Self-Cultivation of a Chef" and "Gold Miner," but also Main Profession Knowledge Books like "Basic Boxing Instruction" and "Gun Assembly."
The only problem was the complete absence of any Advanced Profession Knowledge Books—not just for the Spiritual Ability Apprentice, but for any profession.
"Is the level cap in Newbie Village only 10, or are all the good items hidden in that locked library?"
Bai Fu searched the library several times over, and finally found only a notebook related to Spiritual Abilities, with a ridiculous title—
"Research Notes: Some Worthless Spiritual Ability Prayers (Freyja Egmond/Author)"
Bai Fu: "..."
Great, she found absolutely nothing worthwhile this trip.
Bai Fu skeptically opened the notebook.
[Would you like to read "Research Notes..."]
[Yes]
[You begin reading "Research Notes...", Low-grade Spiritual Specialization takes effect, reading speed +10%, current progress 0.1%]
Minutes later, the progress bar smoothly reached 100%.
[During the reading, you comprehended new skills [Power Surge (Inferior)], [Multiplicative Enhancement (Inferior)]]
Bai Fu opened the attribute panel.
[Template]: Ordinary
[Experience]: 191
[Main Profession]: Spiritual Ability Apprentice Lv7 (0/7500), Unemployed Lv3 (0/1000)