When You Become an NPC That Might Die Any Moment in the Novice Village

"I'll go find Julia and see how she's doing with her progress. We must solve your problem as soon as possible."

After saying goodbye to Fei Ye, Bai Fu headed straight for Julia's laboratory.

On the way, she ran into Xia Shi, who had a gloomy look on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"I saw everything."

"?"

"An Ya is helping you entertain and command those Undying People, Julia is helping you research drugs, and Fei Ye is giving you money and all kinds of channels. It's just me... I can't do anything, I can't help you with anything. I feel like I'm just a burden who follows you around and mooches off your food and drink."

Bai Fu: "..."

Wait a minute, why do I feel like I've become some kind of psychological mentor?

Despite her complaints, Bai Fu still reached out with both hands and held Xia Shi's cheeks, her posture grave and her gaze serious.

"Do you know how I see you?"

Xia Shi was a bit confused by Bai Fu's actions.

"No... I don't know."

Bai Fu said, "You're a Money Printer, you know! You mustn't underestimate yourself; your mechanical ability is exactly what I urgently need. All those Undying People out there, which of them doesn't need Mechanical Equipment? But I currently can't produce any Mechanical Equipment, so I have to choose to collaborate with other forces, which means I have to give up some benefits. If you can take over this business, all those benefits will be in our hands. Just think about how much money that would be. At that rate, I'll be the one living off of your fortune."

Is that so?

Xia Shi blushed slightly at Bai Fu's praise but soon realized a new problem.

"I don't have that ability right now."

Bai Fu said, "It's okay if you don't have it now; the number of Undying People isn't much anyway. Just make some simple Mechanical Equipment, too complex and the Undying People can't afford them. Then do some Mechanical Equipment repairs. Oh, and if you have spare time, you can also do some Equipment Enhancement."

She shared her Experience with Equipment Enhancement with Xia Shi.

If the enhancement limit can increase an Equipment's performance by 100%, then it's best not to upgrade it fully in one go. Instead, intentionally split it into several stages, from +1, +2 to +N. This way, you can charge users multiple processing fees. A single processing fee isn't much, but small amounts add up.

Xia Shi, puzzled, asked, "Will that work?"

Bai Fu nodded, "Of course, it will."

In other games, Players were already used to this sort of gameplay. Later on, she could also release some promotional benefits to stimulate Player spending. Previously, the Blessings Players saved up at An Ya's Mysterious Store could only be used for discounts on purchases. Now, she could entirely introduce new benefits, like accumulating enough Blessings to exchange for free Equipment Enhancement vouchers during special events.

Xia Shi listened in a daze, not underestimating the complexities involved. She only understood one thing —

Bai Fu wanted to become a crafty merchant, the kind that seemed very conscientious!

In the past, she might have not accepted such behavior, but the current her was no longer the previous her. For Bai Fu, she was willing to become a demon, joining Bai Fu in crafty merchant endeavors!

"I'll do my best."

"Train yourself well; otherwise, I'm afraid you won't be able to withstand my torment."

After comforting Xia Shi, Bai Fu found Julia, who had successfully created over a hundred doses of the Dissociative Potion in the past two days.

So, what's there to delay?

Bai Fu called over An Ya, Fei Ye, and Xia Shi—they started their happy drinking party!

It wasn't until the sixth dose of Dissociative Potion that Bai Fu successfully triggered her first Spirit Mutation, a special state that could increase her Spirit Attribute by an extra +10%.

Immediately afterward, Fei Ye and Xia Shi also triggered Spirit Mutations, and An Ya even triggered a second Spirit Mutation, further increasing their Talents and Attributes.

"Let me take a look."

Bai Fu opened both Fei Ye's and her own attribute panels.

After triggering the Spirit Mutation, both she and Fei Ye's Prophet gene adaptation chances had indeed increased; Fei Ye's chance rose from 23.8% to 29.1%, and hers from 32.3% to 36.4%. The increase was pleasing.

"Effective, now I'm reassured."

Bai Fu breathed a sigh of relief.

At that moment, Julia came over to her, "During these days of research, I've discovered that the mother source of the Dissociative Potion might be a living organism."

"?"

Bai Fu's pupils narrowed.

Julia explained, "I suspect it wasn't created by someone but sliced off from some special life form."

Bai Fu nodded silently; she seemed to understand why she could sense the location of the Brain Worm after using the Dissociative Potion and why, after triggering multiple Spirit Mutations with its use, she had the chance to change her Race to [Shadow Ghost].

The main task that Vic carried was deeper than she had imagined!

Anyway, it was best to have the Players follow Vic to advance the progress of the main task, which now mainly required saving as many previously captured Ulyssians as possible. Players were the most suitable for this kind of rescue mission.

Thinking this, Bai Fu called Vic over, handed him the remaining Dissociative Potions, and allocated a portion of Players for him to manage.

Vic was deeply moved and quickly expressed that he would not let down those Players.

Bai Fu sent him off with a smile.

Everything was ready; naturally, what followed was spending the Experience squeezed from the Players.

First, Bai Fu upgraded both the Advanced Force Field and Summoning Priest skills to Full Level 10. A Level 10 Advanced Force Field now had a 300-meter coverage, with other effects also significantly enhanced.

Then, she started merging Prayer Cards without hesitation.

Her True Spirit Summoning Army now looked like this—

[Priests stationed in the center, joined by two Big Black Fus on each side, the front row filled with Gunners, the second row ready to charge and self-destruct were the Little Bai Fus, and behind them stood card-playing Little Black Fus and stationary Illusionary Law Balls. The Judges and Illusionary Law Balls also hovered in the sky, providing backup]

This summoning army was already comprehensive; their combat power was not inferior to a single Black Fu, but at this stage, there was a significant weakness—it lacked effective control methods.

If the enemy was very fast or adept at various stealth and sudden strike tactics, this summoning army could seem a bit dull.

So, this time Bai Fu aimed to merge a True Spirit Summon Card with control skills.

Just spend the Experience to get it done!

After investing over 40 million Experience, she succeeded in merging a [Thorny Guardian]. The Thorny Guardian's Ability was to create "thorns" out of Spiritual Energy to restrict or outright bind enemies, which were also capable of dealing damage. As they bound opponents, they could trigger explosive effects and percentage-based damage from Otherworldly Erosion.

"Very good."

Bai Fu was quite satisfied with the card's effects.

Her development had finally shown the strengths of the Spiritual Ability Profession. Now, she seemed to be just one person, but once she summoned Black Fu and Bai Fu's Army, she could instantly exert a battle power of times three.

"Still 400 million Experience left, let's increase the Level."

Bai Fu poured in Experience, leveling up [Miracle Constructor] from Level 7 to Level 19, bringing the total Level of her main Spiritual Ability Profession to 94.

The Level increase brought a significant boost to her attributes, which now were—

[Life Value]: 23295/23295

[Spiritual Ability Value]: 34715/34715

[Qi]: 2630/2630

[Attributes]: Power 143, Agility 280, Constitution 423, Intelligence 271, Spirit 253, Inspiration 991

The increase in attributes was substantial, but it was all within Bai Fu's expectations. However, what really surprised her was that after leveling up, she found that the Spiritual Energy consumption for all her skills had decreased.

"This is..."

She suddenly thought of one of the main differences between Catastrophe-level and S-Level Superpower Users: Catastrophe-level Superpower Users were more adept at using Spiritual Energy, with higher efficiency in its use.

"It turns out this kind of change isn't instantaneous but slowly accumulates as the Level increases. Little by little, it builds up and eventually undergoes a qualitative change upon ascending to Catastrophe!"

Bai Fu had a premonition that as her Level continued to rise, the cooldown times of her skills would decrease as well.

Lower skill consumption and shorter cooldowns—these two changes would be enough to significantly enhance her power. She might even unlock some special abilities at that time.

Not bad at all.

After closing the attribute panel, Bai Fu found herself without much to do for the moment.

She waited on Ulysses Star for two days until the appointed day with the Blessing Sect, then had Julia go into hiding before personally welcoming the Blessing Sect members in the outer space.

As she met with the people from the Blessing Sect, the Stone Crystal Company received word as well.

"The Blessing Sect beat us to asking for Bai Fu's help, what should we do?"

The executives of Stone Crystal Company furrowed their brows deeply. They then received a message—

A visitor named Cecilia had come to their door!