Volume 3, Chapter 49 – Yes! I’ve Swelled Up!

Advancing a profession across tiers required a knowledge book that met the requirements.

And this stage did not consume any extra EXP.

As long as your Intelligence met the requirement, that was enough.

Mechanical Notes: Colin required 25 Intelligence to read, as well as Apprentice Mechanic Lv10.

After reaching Lv10, Anran, who had been sitting on 9 unused attribute points, already had 26 Intelligence.

So she began reading without a hitch.

Anran opened the book.

She simply carried out the perfectly ordinary action of reading, and the game prompt sounded in her mind.

“Ding! You have opened Mechanical Notes: Colin and begun reading.”

The learning progress started at 0 and steadily climbed upward. In total, it took about ten minutes.

“Ding! Mechanical Notes: Colin learning progress has reached 100%. Your Mechanic knowledge accumulation has met the standard. You have successfully advanced to [Basic Mechanic] Lv11! Endurance +2, Intelligence +2, Spirit +1. You have gained 5 Free Attribute Points and 2 Skill Points.”

Her level was still Lv11. It had not reset to Lv1, mainly because terms like Apprentice, Basic, and Advanced were only profession prefixes. The level not resetting was also a convenience for players.

Anran’s status panel inherited all of those traits.

A flood of hard-to-describe knowledge instantly poured into Anran’s mind.

She felt like she had ascended.

And yet she could not say exactly what had ascended.

Perhaps the most direct manifestation was the change in her attributes and skills.

Some of her skills had improved. Every skill below Lv3 that had already been unlocked on the Mechanic skill tree went up by one level.

Basic Reading Comprehension, in particular, rose to Lv5 after receiving the knowledge book’s boost, increasing reading efficiency by 15%.

Anran glanced at the skill tree. The Basic Programming she had long dreamed of learning required 3 Skill Points and 30 Intelligence.

She added 2 points to Intelligence, then spent 3 Skill Points.

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The icon representing Basic Programming turned bright blue.

Its current level was Lv1.

She had 12 attribute points left. She spent 9 of them in a 5 Intelligence, 2 Agility, 2 Endurance distribution, leaving 3 unspent.

Anran’s attributes underwent a huge change.

HP: 280/280

Stamina: 276/276

Six Attributes: Strength 15, Agility 20, Endurance 23, Intelligence 35, Spirit 8, Charm 7

She had become stronger.

As her level rose, her power swelled along with it.

Now, Anran could proudly say that she had gone from a nameless grunt in the faction to a salted-fish elite mob!

She could easily slap around quite a few players.

Of course, she still had some way to go before she became the kind of mini-boss that blocked the road.

“I’m a girl programmer now. All those blueprints I couldn’t make before can finally be made!”

That was what made Anran happiest.

Her stats looked pretty good, but compared with combat-type professions, they were still a step behind.

But Mechanic was one of the professions best at making use of tools.

What determined their combat power was not their attributes, but their machinery.

“Blueprint Synthesis!”

Anran directly invested 1,000 EXP.

The combination of a Flat-Type Robot Vacuum Cleaner and a High-Energy Explosive!

This was something Anran had wanted to do for a long time. The moment she leveled up, she put it into action.

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Blueprint Synthesis was also one of the ways to obtain new blueprints.

Add in Blueprint 1, Blueprint 2, Blueprint 3…

Then season with the supplementary ingredient, Free EXP.

Stir it around in the “cooking pot,” and when the ding sounds, lift the lid, and it will be time to witness a miracle.

Would it be a glowing masterpiece, or dark cuisine?

“Ding! Blueprint synthesis successful. You have obtained the new blueprint [Flat-Type Self-Destruct Robot (Fake Robot Vacuum Cleaner)].”

Effects of the new blueprint:

A flat self-destruct robot that can move according to a preset program. It looks just like a robot vacuum cleaner and is capable of a second-stage explosion, allowing the splatter to cover a wider area. Its penetrative power is also significantly improved over a High-Energy Explosive. Attack range: 12 × 12.

“My luck was average. Still, this is pretty decent.”

Compared with a simple High-Energy Explosive, this thing was far better at misleading people, and its attack range had also increased from 10 × 10 to 12 × 12.

The key point was the second-stage explosion, which made the fuel splatter much harder to dodge.

“It should produce excellent results for assault breaching and large-area killing.”

Anran thought of Little Gold Tooth and his group.

She made no attempt to hide her killing intent toward Little Gold Tooth.

He was a person completely undeserving of pity.

Even setting aside how many times Little Gold Tooth had harmed her through his cooperation with Morningstar, in the old city district he had colluded with the authorities behind the scenes, committed all kinds of crimes, and still remained at large.

“Maybe I can give it a try now.”

Anran impatiently began making the finished product.

Metal and bomb fuel were things Anran had already stocked plenty of in the workshop. The only thing she lacked was a microcontroller.

The Research Center did not lack this low-end kind of microcontroller, but it was not something Anran could just take whenever she liked.

She could only go ask Gray.

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“What do you need a microcontroller for?”

Gray asked in surprise.

Anran said, “Trying to make something new.”

“Speaking of microcontrollers, and microelectronics too, I’m an expert in that field. Young lady, any interest in becoming my student? I could teach you lots of interesting things!” Gray did not miss the chance to try persuading Anran again.

Anran refused decisively. “No. I’m not interested in staying in a lab and researching that stuff.”

“What a pity!” Gray sighed. Even as he said that, he still gave Anran what she wanted.

Ten microcontrollers in all.

Anran planned to make two self-destruct robots first.

So-called flat-type did not mean flat-chested type.

It meant a low, disc-shaped robot vacuum cleaner.

Of course, Anran actually did have a flat-chested robot vacuum cleaner too. When Aila picked up a broom, wasn’t that basically what she was?

A small raised nub protruded from the robot’s edge, where an infrared ranging device was installed, allowing the robot to effectively avoid all sorts of obstacles.

As for the robot’s shell and bomb fuel, they were ridiculously easy for the current Anran.

The only troublesome part was writing and flashing the microcontroller program.

Having only just become a girl programmer, she was obviously still not used to the role. She tinkered with it for ages before finally writing the program, and Anran immediately gained 2,000 EXP.

That fully demonstrated that programming was a grind-heavy profession, but one with high returns!

As for hunting bugs, that step did not exist.

Programmer guys and programmer girls already suffered enough from bug-hunting in real life. Even with AI assistance, it was still a massive undertaking.

If players had to hunt bugs in a game too, the devs’ heads would be hung upside down in no time.

So she went straight to the flashing step.

Watching the progress bar on the computer turn fully green, 100%, Anran received a string of game notifications again.

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“Ding! You have successfully crafted [Flat-Type Self-Destruct Robot] and gained 1,000 EXP.”

“Ding! You have successfully…”

A great success!

Next came the equipment she had reverse-engineered from Morton, the [Improved X9 Tactical Goggles]. Anran made two of those as well, gaining 1,000 EXP.

Fully prepared, Anran pushed the door open and walked out.

…

“This is what you made? A robot vacuum cleaner?” Gray’s eyes widened.

The disc-shaped self-destruct robot could not be stuffed into a backpack, nor could it be disassembled like a firearm, so when Anran walked out of the workshop with it, Gray saw it.

Gray was surprised because, in his impression, Anran had never made civilian machinery before.

“Do you have a problem with that?”

“No, no.” Gray shook his head.

“Then I’m heading out first,” said Anran.

Watching Anran’s figure gradually recede into the distance, Gray suddenly felt that the current Anran carried an extraordinary confidence about her.

It was completely different from the anxious way she had been before.

Anran walked out of the Research Center.

She looked at the world bathed in just the right amount of sunlight.

Yes.

She had swelled.

Her strength had swelled, rationally.

And her confidence had swelled, rationally, too.