Volume 2, Chapter 11 – Long Dream

“Boss, you’re trying to build a human here?”

In the cramped little room under the hazy yellow light, a petite young girl said this to the mustached middle-aged man sitting in the corner.

The atmosphere in the room instantly became…

stifling.

Colin stood up. In that instant, his gaze turned sharp, like a somewhat dull blade about to fall on someone’s body.

His round glasses reflected the light.

But very quickly, Colin’s gaze shifted elsewhere. He looked at the many components laid out on the worktable.

Most of them had been made little by little by his own hands, while a small portion had been made by Anran.

The more Colin saw, the more he felt that Anran was an exceptionally talented Mechanic. For a girl to reach this level was truly rare.

In that case, being able to roughly infer his intentions from a few drawings was nothing strange.

It would be more accurate to say that he had long had a premonition this day would come.

So there was no need to make a fuss now.

Colin did not respond directly to Anran’s question, but silence was as good as an answer.

Anran recalled that when she had first come to Colin’s repair shop, he had been very seriously reading that book, Practical Techniques of Bionic Machinery.

Little white bunny, white and bright.

Colin couldn’t possibly have that kind of special hobby, could he?

Ahem…

Anran subtly shifted to one side. She somehow felt like she was doing something extraordinary.

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But the reward for this chained hidden quest was also something Anran could not bear to give up.

Then let’s do it!

After a while, Anran had memorized the contents of the four drawings. “We can start now.”

“Good.”

When it came to this project he had put real effort into, Colin completely shed his usual somewhat lazy style. He became highly focused, even abnormally excited.

The hum of operating equipment rang out in the workshop once more.

Bearings completed.

The vitreous body had been shaped.

The microcircuit substrate was ready. Welding began.

The polishing of the spherical rotating unit capable of 360-degree rotation was finished.

Everything was proceeding smoothly.

Completely absorbed in “building a person,” Colin had forgotten the passage of time. By the time all the scheduled basic components had been made, Anran glanced at the clock on the wall. It was already past six in the evening.

Damn, I skipped lunch. No wonder I’m this hungry.

“Haa…” Colin wiped his cheek with his greasy hand, and sweat mixed into the oil on his skin.

There was a gratified smile on his face. After checking the time, he said to Anran, “We’ll stop here for today. I got so busy I lost myself in it. Here, take this as a little compensation.”

100 Bilu.

Anran’s eyes lit up slightly, and she accepted it without the least bit of politeness.

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“Quest [Colin’s Mechanical Engineering], Stage 5 completed. Reward: 1000 experience points.”

Perfect. Great success.

Anran left the repair shop thoroughly satisfied.

Money was important, but experience was equally important. Anran needed enough experience to level up quickly so she could maintain her advantage over the players.

Other NPCs could not realize this, so they would be slowly “eliminated,” but Anran was an anomaly with extraordinarily high awareness.

“Even if it looks pretty convincing, at most it’s just some electric toy. Well, maybe one that runs on gasoline.”

Lying on her bed, Anran thought this to herself. The technological level on No. 1886 was not much stronger than that of Earth in the old era. Although it had been forcibly dragged into the age of the great cosmos after being occupied by the Empire, advanced technology had not spread widely.

Besides, although Colin was a rather mysterious NPC, he himself was only a beginner-level Mechanic. Compared with her, an Apprentice Mechanic, there was no qualitative difference.

“Whatever. What he makes has nothing to do with me. I’ll just take the experience and money.”

Anran quickly turned her attention elsewhere.

She opened the game panel. Her free experience had already accumulated to 2617 points.

Anran immediately assigned 2000 points to Apprentice Mechanic, raising it to Lv4 (0/4000).

She gained 1 point of Endurance, 1 point of Intelligence, 3 free attribute points, and 1 skill point.

She had 617 experience left. After thinking it over, Anran spent 600 points to raise [Basic Analysis] and [Basic Mechanical Theory] to Lv2 respectively. The efficiency increase was not huge, but these key skills would have to be leveled sooner or later.

As for the remaining 9 free attribute points, Anran chose to add +3 Intelligence, +1 Endurance, and +2 Agility, while keeping 3 points in reserve.

Thus, Anran’s six core stats became:

Strength 8, Agility 11, Endurance 11, Intelligence 20, Spirit 5, Charm 6 (Charm 6 was mentioned earlier; the stat sheet was written wrong before, sob, now corrected.)

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Her higher Endurance and Agility were both meant to ensure survival, while high Intelligence guaranteed the smooth early development of a Mechanic.

For the moment, Anran ignored the Spirit attribute.

For quite a long stretch of time, that stat was not very useful to a Mechanic.

Aside from Charm, which could not be increased by allocating points, the other five attributes all could.

A five-sided all-rounder build was certainly awesome, but there just weren’t enough attribute points to go around.

If some obsessive player insisted on developing toward a five-sided all-rounder build, they would very likely end up deleting their character and starting over, or else changing class into a sightseeing-type player.

Before going to sleep, Anran opened the player forum again.

Since she was not a player, she could not verify an ID, so Anran could only read posts and not make them. The upside was that forum permission restrictions did not apply to her. That was incredibly powerful.

[I met a super adorable NPC big sis in the newbie village. I’ve decided it. I’m not leaving until I max out her favorability.]

[So is this a 2D wife or a 3D wife?]

[***, why are the NPCs in the newbie village so unfriendly? She wouldn’t even let me touch her chest, and then she beat me up. I’m going to report this NPC.]

[Stir-frying actually unlocked the Chef profession. Holy shit!]

[Then is there a profession like technician?]

[Secretly taken upskirt shots of an NPC to share. Join the group if you want to see: xx233x666]

[Has anyone unlocked a main profession yet? Why does everything I see look like life professions?]

[Anyway, save up money first. The newbie village has too many wolves and too little meat. I’m heading to the main city.]

It seemed the players were still in the exploration stage, and no outrageously lucky person had appeared yet. That set Anran’s mind at ease.

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After closing the game panel, Anran shut her eyes and went to sleep.

She fell into a dream very quickly.

In the dream, Anran saw herself dressed in an incomparably handsome mechanical suit, seated upon a supreme throne as cold as frost.

Surrounding her was a boundless torrent of mechanical armies.

Robot formations, mighty ships and heavy guns, swarms of nanomechanical insects, base stations for super-powerful force fields…

Anran lightly pressed the button on the throne.

“Open fire!”

“Fire!”

“Ute!”

The world became peaceful.

Now she could get another good night’s sleep.

…

Creeeak—

The bright white metal doors opened to both sides, and a tall young woman in a women’s suit walked in.

“The meeting begins.”

The people seated on both sides of the oval conference table immediately straightened up.