Volume 2, Chapter 8 – The NPC with Three Icons Above Her Head

After messing around all night, Anran was still listless when she went to work at the repair shop the next day.

After completing the first stage quest of [Colin’s Mechanical Engineering], the follow-up quests came one after another.

So far, Anran had completed three stages in total and gained 900 free EXP.

Aside from the thick, stubby mechanical column she made the first time, the things she made the next two times were a metal sphere and two complicated cylinders about the length of a forearm.

Colin did not avoid letting Anran see what he was doing. Aside from the blueprints, which she had no idea where he kept, everything he had recently made in the workshop was piled up on the table in the corner.

Components of all sizes were neatly arranged, but Anran still could not tell what Colin was planning to build.

It was just that the steadily increasing number of glass columns made Anran feel that whatever Colin was making was far from ordinary.

“Rustle-“

As she waited for customers to come in, Anran flipped through a few pages and yawned in boredom.

She had already read all the books on the table, and there were no novels in the repair shop, so she could only chew through this dry, tedious text.

From behind her came a constant clanging of metal. Colin’s project seemed to have reached a fairly critical stage.

Anran raised her head and cast her gaze onto the street outside.

Her somewhat wandering eyes suddenly landed on a young woman who had just appeared at the street corner.

Gray suit, familiar face. Wasn’t this the player she had followed yesterday, “Leading the Escape”?

Anran had already seen Zhou Jieyu’s name floating above her head.

Perfect.

Anran casually tossed a [Basic Reconnaissance] at her.

Player template information obtained:

Name: Leading the Escape

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Race: Human

Gender: Female

Level: 1

Main Profession: None

Secondary Profession: None

A blank-slate player, probably so poor she might not even be able to afford food.

Anran immediately came to that conclusion. She felt she was already poor enough, but compared with players who had just entered the game, she was still a little better off.

In that case, the way she conducted her experiments would have to change a little.

Anran stared at her “lab rat” and fell into thought.

…

Zhou Jieyu got up early and wandered around the old district, seeing if she could pick up any quests.

As she turned down a street, she noticed a gaze resting on her.

Zhou Jieyu followed that gaze and instantly pulled a face.

That same familiar delicate face again, except today she was dressed in work clothes and sitting at the entrance of a little shop called Colin’s Repair Shop.

So this counted as finding where the game company had cut corners, right?

Zhou Jieyu could not help complaining to herself. She had already seen three NPCs who looked exactly the same.

The first two had been passersby. This one, though, looked more like a functional NPC.

But the problem was that there was no icon above her head at all.

Aside from hidden quests, normal quest-giving NPCs all had a yellow exclamation mark above their heads, while functional NPCs had icons matching their functions.

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So she was probably just another passerby.

Just as Zhou Jieyu was about to look away, she suddenly froze and hurriedly rubbed both eyes with her hands.

Huh?

She had clearly seen three icons appear above that NPC girl’s head.

A yellow exclamation mark meant a quest was available.

A hammer meant equipment and items could be repaired.

A coin icon meant trading was possible.

“What the hell? Did I just hallucinate? Or was it an angle thing?” Zhou Jieyu could not make head or tail of it, but since there was a quest to pick up, there was no way she could pass it up.

…

Anran noticed that “Leading the Escape” looked like she was about to leave, and suddenly remembered that there were no icons above her own head.

So she hurriedly opened the corresponding system in the game panel and quickly put three “hats” on herself.

Only players could see those icons; NPCs could not.

Sure enough, the moment she put on the “hats,” “Leading the Escape” came over looking eager to give it a try.

It seemed that in the early game, “quests” had a fatally strong attraction for players. Anran could absolutely use quests to “hook” players.

“Hello, is there anything I can help you with?” Zhou Jieyu said after taking a moment to get into character.

That standard opening line made it obvious that she was here to accept a quest.

“Do you want to issue a quest?”

A prompt sounded in Anran’s mind.

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The crucial moment had arrived!

Anran’s current goal was to test this quest system.

“Yes!”

“Please choose a quest type.”

The quest types displayed on the game panel included [Normal Quest], [Normal Chain Quest], [Unique Quest], [Hidden Quest], and [Unique Hidden Quest], among others.

Anran chose [Normal Quest].

“Please set the quest requirements.”

Anran stared at Zhou Jieyu and said, “I’m a little thirsty, but I can’t leave here for the moment. Could you help me buy a bottle of water?”

“Quest requirements confirmed. Please set the quest reward!”

According to the game’s settings, quest rewards were divided into three categories: EXP rewards, item rewards, and title rewards.

The amount of reward Anran could set was related to her level.

Her total level was currently only 3, so the maximum EXP reward she could set for a single quest was only 1,500 points, increasing by 500 points with each level. Item rewards, meanwhile, were limited to Green and Normal quality, and could only be Anran’s own items. As for titles, Anran at her current stage did not yet have the authority to issue them.

A single quest had a maximum EXP limit, and there was also a limit on how many quests could be issued each day. According to the rules, Anran could issue 3 more quests per day for every level she gained.

In other words, Anran could now issue 9 quests per day, with each quest offering a maximum of 1,500 EXP.

1500 × 9 = 13500.

When she saw that number, Anran froze for a moment. If that EXP could be assigned to herself, she would become an expert very quickly. Unfortunately, it could not.

If she put all her effort into training one player, that player would very quickly rush out of No. 1886 and step into the stars. Unfortunately, she would not do that.

Their identities and positions were different. The quest system was a bloodless superweapon in Anran’s hands. Using it to order players around and change the course of battle was downright crafty.

At a critical moment, she might even be able to summon a few turncoats.

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“Set the reward to 50 EXP.”

“Reward setting is reasonable. Quest generated.”

[Normal Quest: Buy a Bottle of Water for Anran!

Quest Description: Anran, who is minding the shop, can’t get away at the moment. She’s a little thirsty right now. Could you help her buy a bottle of water?

Quest Reward: 50 EXP.

Quest Rank: E]

Quest rank represented quest difficulty. Quests of different difficulties had a reasonable reward range, and the rewards Anran issued could neither exceed nor fall below that range.

This also meant that only after Anran improved her own strength could she issue high-level quests. It also prevented her from doing something unreasonable right now, like issuing a quest telling players to wipe out the Morningstar Resistance.

A reward of 50 EXP?

The moment Zhou Jieyu saw the quest reward, her eyes lit up. Just buying a bottle of water would earn 50 EXP. She was definitely taking this quest.

“Wait here a second!”

Zhou Jieyu turned and ran.

Wait.

Looking at Zhou Jieyu’s back, Anran suddenly thought of a way to make a profit.

Use the quest system together with the trading system.

Trade EXP for the players’ items, then trade items for the players’ money.

In short, by making use of the free EXP provided by the game, she could not only order players’ bodies around, but also take their money.

This is simply fantastic!