Volume 1, Chapter 14 – Eve of the Open Beta

At noon on June 4, Anran officially started work at Colin’s Repair Shop, becoming the nominal assistant of Colin, the middle-aged Mechanic, Engineer, and sewing artisan.

Anran’s job was to handle the repair shop’s day-to-day affairs, but since it was her first day on the job, Colin had her observe from the side for the time being.

She familiarized herself with the workflow, the internal layout of the shop, and the various pieces of equipment.

After lunch, Anran was immediately put to work.

There sounded like a lot to do, but Colin’s Repair Shop was just a small repair shop after all, so it did not have that many rigid, strict requirements.

What Anran was fortunate enough to witness, though, was Colin’s skill.

A junior profession corresponded to an overall level of Lv10 to Lv30, and Anran estimated that Colin was at least above Lv20.

In Night of the Stars, characters had two kinds of levels: [Overall Level] and [Profession Level].

Because a character could have multiple professions, the overall level was calculated based on whichever profession level was highest.

As Colin repaired several small electrical devices brought in by customers, every move he made was smooth and fluid. He removed screws with ease, found the problem with ease, replaced parts with ease, and then reassembled everything with ease.

There was not a single pause in the entire process, and Anran could only stare in a daze.

A seasoned master really was impressive.

The afternoon was a relatively quiet time. After resting for a bit, Colin took a few books and blueprints and headed into the workshop in the back. Even with the door shut, Anran could still hear the clinking sounds echoing from inside, though she had no idea what he was tinkering with in there by himself.

Having occupied the rocking chair, Anran also found herself with some free time. Her gaze swept over the books laid out on the counter.

Mechanics, electronics, engineering, everything was there. These were all profession knowledge books.

Although Anran had already unlocked the Engineer and Mechanic professions, reading these books could still unlock new skills or serve as knowledge accumulation for future profession advancement.

Night of the Stars was a game that was unreal and yet very real. For professions tied to knowledge like these, if you wanted to advance into the next major stage, you had to build up enough knowledge. Otherwise, no matter how much freely allocable experience you stored up, it would be meaningless.

The first book Anran picked up was Mechanics: From Beginner to Mastery.

Required Intelligence to read: 8.

She was at 9 now, so she had no reading barrier at all.

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She began reading.

Although it was called From Beginner to Mastery, that was ultimately just a gimmick. The book only covered very basic material.

If someone really wanted to master mechanics, a book this thin could never do it. Even if it were a hundred times thicker, it still would not be enough. The mechanical knowledge in Night of the Stars was simply too vast.

Boundless as the sea.

Anran’s reading speed was not slow.

Relatively speaking, however, there was not much she could truly comprehend from the book.

For a main profession like Mechanic, which did not directly strengthen the self, the skills included in its profession skill tree were far fewer than those of main professions focused on strengthening oneself, and most of them were passive skills. Even so, those skills were often extremely important. They were necessary for the profession’s growth.

Creation did not require flashy tricks. It required the accumulation of large amounts of experience.

For Mechanics, passive skills were their tools, while the countless [Blueprints] were their real active skills.

They could sit in the rear and arrange guns and turrets into formation, weave a net of firepower with high-end weaponry, fight using advanced close-fitting combat suits, pilot towering mechs across the stars, and even launch unexpected attacks on enemies with nanomachines.

A Mechanic could fight openly, and a Mechanic could also be underhanded and sinister.

Mechanic was a profession full of endless wonderful combinations, so long as you learned the corresponding advanced knowledge and mastered the [Blueprints].

And there were all sorts of ways to obtain [Blueprints].

For example, through insights gained from reading, through mechanical analysis, through leveling up, through trade and purchase, through knowledge synthesis…

“Ding! Mechanics: From Beginner to Mastery reading progress has reached 100%.”

Thankfully, even as an NPC, Anran did not have to ponder every single word while reading and studying. Otherwise, it really would have become Mechanics: From Beginner to Giving Up.

Just as she was thinking that, a new prompt suddenly popped up on the game panel.

“With a flash of inspiration, you have successfully comprehended the new skill [Basic Mechanical Enhancement].”

Anran froze for a moment, then immediately burst out laughing.

She had just casually read a book and somehow comprehended a new skill. With this kind of luck, could it be that she was one of the lucky “Europeans”?

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Her personal panel showed: [Basic Mechanical Enhancement Lv1]: Able to enhance simple machinery.

This was actually a relatively difficult active skill to obtain.

That made Anran even happier. It seemed to prove that she had “European noble” blood.

“Africans” simply did not have luck this ridiculous.

The thought made Anran unable to stay calm anymore.

While her lucky aura was still strong, she had to reap another wave of gains.

Mechanical Stress, Motor-Based Transmission Systems, Carrillo Explains Metallic Materials, and the other books on the table were all her prey. She spread them out one after another from left to right, her spirits rising at every progress notification from the game panel, full of hope for the future.

“Ding! Mechanical Stress reading progress has reached 100%.”

“Hm?”

“Ding! Motor-Based Transmission Systems reading progress has reached 100%.”

“Hm?”

“Ding!…”

“Hm?”

“Hm?”

A whole afternoon passed. Anran let out a long sigh and looked up at the orange-red sky. It had all been an illusion. There was no such thing as “European noble” blood at all.

After reading four books in a row, she had gained absolutely nothing extra.

All she had done was enrich her knowledge base, which would make it easier to use knowledge synthesis to obtain [Blueprints] in the future. Unfortunately, those books all covered very basic material and contained no advanced profession knowledge.

After taking a moment to compose herself, Anran packed everything up and got off work.

Even after returning home, she did not idle around. After dinner, she opened her panel again.

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The players were about to join the “hunt,” and to ensure her own smooth development, she had to seize the time and use her identity to establish an early advantage.

She had 571 freely allocable experience points. Anran assigned 300 of them to her Apprentice Mechanic profession, successfully raising it to Lv2 and gaining 1 point of Endurance, 1 point of Intelligence, 3 free attribute points, and 1 skill point.

She still had 12 free attribute points. For a Mechanic, Intelligence was the most important attribute, while the importance of Strength, Agility, Endurance, and Spirit was closely tied to the direction the Mechanic would choose later on.

Anran was not the kind of player who liked smashing the enemy’s skull in with a stick, but she also did not neglect her own personal growth.

So after thinking it over, Anran chose the following stat distribution:

Strength +2 (bringing it up to the average level of 5), Endurance +2, Intelligence +5.

She saved 3 points for emergencies.

This way, her Strength and Agility would be at average levels, the added Endurance would improve her ability to take a beating, and Intelligence raised to 15 would ensure that in the early stage Anran could understand most knowledge books, while also giving her respectable bonuses to knowledge synthesis and mechanical analysis.

Anran’s current attribute panel was as follows:

Name: Anran

Age: 16

Race: Human

Sex: Female

Level: 2

HP: 80/80

Stamina: 96/96

Main Profession: Apprentice Engineer Lv1 (0/300)

Apprentice Mechanic Lv2 (0/1000)

Sub Profession: Pastry Maker Lv2 (33/1000)

Six Core Stats: Strength 5, Agility 7, Endurance 8, Intelligence 15, Spirit 5, Charm 4

[The tallest among the short is still short]

Free Attribute Points: 3

Skill Points: 5

Talent: Skillful Hands – increases manual work efficiency by 10%

Skills: Basic Circuit Theory Lv1, Basic Repair Lv1, Basic Mechanical Theory Lv1, Basic Assembly Lv1, Basic Analysis Lv1, Basic Mechanical Enhancement Lv1.

Reputation: 5

Equipment Slot: None

Mechanic Blueprints: [Ordinary Lamp], [1886 Hermit Pistol]

Faction Favorability: [Morningstar Resistance: -100]

The game’s snark had finally taken away the pauper label, but Anran was not happy at all, because in truth she was still a pauper, and the game had merely changed its target to her height.

Short?

To hell with you.

So annoying.

Anran patted her chest and calmed herself down. She still had 5 skill points she could use to improve her strength.

They could be used to learn the various skills in the profession skill tree that had no prerequisite requirements.

The profession Anran was focusing on right now was Mechanic, so the first skills she wanted to unlock were also Mechanic skills.

[Basic Mechanical Mastery Lv1]: +3% efficiency when engaging in mechanical work, slightly increases affinity with mechanical equipment, requires 3 skill points.

[Basic Reading Comprehension Lv1]: +3% reading and learning speed, requires 1 skill point.

After learning them, Anran had one skill point left, which she decided to save for now.

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For a Mechanic, when combat was not required, those skills were already more than enough.

Anran had not deliberately tried to level up her Pastry Maker sub profession, but by making a few pastries every day to eat, its experience was also increasing bit by bit. After leveling up, it could more or less provide some attributes.

June 4 passed amid an ordinary daily routine.

After tidying up her room, Anran went to bed.

On the night of her fourth day in Night of the Stars, Anran had a very long dream.

In the dream, after enduring countless hardships and persevering through setback after setback, she still ended up becoming a big BOSS, and Night of the Stars also transitioned into Version 2.0 under the watchful eyes of the masses.

However, some things developed differently from what she had imagined. Half of the players and NPCs both hated and feared her, while the other half of the players and NPCs regarded her as a “goddess.”

That perfectly even split left Anran completely baffled.

And just like that, she dragged herself out of bed at the sound of the alarm clock.

She washed her face, brushed her teeth, ate breakfast, and before heading out casually pulled a cool summer outfit from the wardrobe and put it on.

Huh?

Glancing at her personal panel, Anran was surprised to discover that her Charm had actually risen from 4 to 6.

So clothes really did make the person? That worked too?

Night of the Stars really was an unfathomably profound game!

Anran began a new day of work. While accumulating experience, she also grew more and more adept at using the workshop equipment.

“Ding! Knowledge synthesis successful. You have obtained the blueprint for [Alloy Dagger]!”

With her last skill point, plus the knowledge synthesis of Mechanical Stress and Carrillo Explains Metallic Materials, she successfully combined them into a brand-new blueprint.

Anran’s eyes immediately lit up.

[Alloy Dagger] and [1886 Hermit Pistol], close-range and long-range. This was a very satisfying start.