Volume 2, Chapter 14 – Could This Be an Electric Toy?

“I want to change class!” Zhou Jieyu walked up to Anran and declared confidently.

Hm?

Anran looked up. “Leading the Escape” was acting completely differently from the awkward, hesitant way she had behaved the day before yesterday. Could it be that she’d struck it rich?

At the same time, Anran replied in a rather formulaic tone, “Hello. What profession would you like to change into?”

A class-change panel popped up before Zhou Jieyu’s eyes. Her favorability was 0, so the only profession she could unlock was Pastry Maker.

Select Pastry Maker.

“Do you want to unlock the profession [Pastry Maker]?”

“Yes!”

“Unlocking the profession [Pastry Maker] requires 30 Bilu. Do you wish to pay?”

“Yes!”

Zhou Jieyu handed 30 Bilu to Anran.

The moment Anran took the money, the game judged the transaction complete.

Zhou Jieyu felt a flash of light, and then she had become stronger.

She closed her eyes and felt herself over carefully. It didn’t seem like anything was different.

Tch. One extra attribute point didn’t make that much of a difference.

Fortunately, she still had 3 free attribute points left, and she was also close to filling up the experience needed to level.

In Night of the Stars, if you had not unlocked a profession, then no matter how much free experience you accumulated, you still could not level up.

This setting was not actually meant to make things hard for players, because in the game, unless a player had some special requirement, unlocking a new profession was not particularly difficult.

“Here’s the thing.”

While Zhou Jieyu was still thinking, Anran’s voice sounded by her ear again.

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The moment Zhou Jieyu looked up, she saw Anran taking out a sheet of paper and a pen.

Smiling, Anran said to Zhou Jieyu, “Although you have officially become a [Pastry Maker], you still don’t have any recipes yet. I have a package deal here. Would you like to hear about it?”

This was where the shop function came into play.

Things like recipes and blueprints could all be traded.

Zhou Jieyu looked closely.

[Mung Bean Cake Recipe], price: 15 Bilu. [Osmanthus Cake Recipe], price: 17 Bilu. [Fruit Osmanthus Cake], price: 25 Bilu.

Those were the individual prices. Below them were the bundles.

Bundle One: [Mung Bean Cake] + [Osmanthus Cake], price: 25 Bilu.

Bundle Two: [Osmanthus Cake] + [Fruit Osmanthus Cake], price: 35 Bilu.

Bundle Three: [I Want Them All], price: 45 Bilu.

“…”

Zhou Jieyu rubbed her eyes. She wasn’t seeing things.

She looked at Anran speechlessly. Are you from some e-commerce platform or what?

Anran smiled back at Zhou Jieyu and said nothing more.

Zhou Jieyu started weighing the pros and cons. The NPC big sis made a lot of sense. Although she had unlocked the profession, without recipes, it seemed like she still couldn’t actually do anything.

The problem was that she only had 60 Bilu on her right now. If she bought recipes, she’d barely have any money left.

Poverty really was the root of all suffering.

Zhou Jieyu was furious.

In the real world, she was a rich girl, you know.

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After hesitating for a long time, Zhou Jieyu stammered, “I… I’ll buy Bundle One!”

Ding-dong!

Transaction price: 25 Bilu.

Zhou Jieyu successfully learned two new recipes.

Anran glanced at the wall clock. It was already eleven-thirty, and around twelve o’clock, her stomach would start growling right on schedule. So she turned to Zhou Jieyu and said, “Hello, I’m hungry right now. Could you bring me a serving of fried rice?”

[Normal Quest: Buy a Serving of Fried Rice for Anran!

Quest Introduction: …

Quest Reward: 50 experience points

Quest Rank: E]

Here it comes, here it comes, the quest is here.

Zhou Jieyu immediately accepted and turned to leave.

Ah—

Anran lifted her head and gazed faintly at the blue sky. The feeling of freeloading off someone else’s lunch was amazing!

Another 55 Bilu earned!

A pleased smile appeared on her face.

Colin had just stepped out of the workshop and happened to see that scene. The corner of his mouth twitched at once. This girl who had come looking for work and ended up being taken in by him seemed to be quite extraordinary.

“Ahem…”

Colin coughed.

Anran immediately turned around. “What is it, Boss?”

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“It’s the same matter as before. If you have time, come help me after lunch break,” Colin said.

“Quest issued: [Colin’s Mechanical Engineering], Stage 6. Do you accept?”

Quest reward: 2000 experience points.

Quest repeatability: Unique.

Here it comes, here it comes, the quest is here.

Anran accepted at once.

Anran was becoming more and more curious about the final reward for this hidden quest. There was no way the reward for a hidden quest with this many stages would be small.

Although she had triggered this quest rather easily, if it were a player, the difficulty they faced would be much greater.

They would have to raise Colin’s favorability to a certain level, and only then, with the Mechanic profession, would there be a chance of triggering it.

Anran’s advantage was that she lived near Colin’s repair shop, so Colin already had some impression of her.

On top of that, during her job application, there had been one moment when Anran had reminded Colin of his daughter. That extra bit of impression score had played a crucial role.

Zhou Jieyu came back with a steaming hot serving of fried rice and took away 50 experience points.

She happily went back to level up.

As for Anran, after quickly enjoying the tasty fried rice, she dove into the workshop.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle—

As usual, Colin handed over three blueprints.

From [???? (68/79)] to [???? (70/79)].

When Anran saw those numbers, she froze for a moment.

There were only 9 blueprints left.

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In other words, the thing Colin was making was about to be born?

This time, what she received were three assembly blueprints. Over the past few days, through all their efforts, most of the large and small components had already been completed.

This absurd speed came from two things. First, Colin worked day and night without rest. Second, the game had simplified the process.

If NPCs could do something, players could do it too. If players had to spend half a day making a single nut, then professions on the science side would have been thrown into the trash long ago.

Anran quickly memorized the contents of the blueprints.

Immediately afterward, she started helping Colin assemble those components.

Starting from the torso, Anran could not help but marvel at Colin’s design. Those seemingly flashy grooves and hollowed-out sections were actually all kinds of interlocking structures, and a lot of extra space had been deliberately left inside, probably for other uses.

They started working shortly before one o’clock and kept going until after five in the afternoon.

Only then did the assembly work come to a temporary stop.

On a chair in the corner sat an assembled robot, faintly giving off a cold metallic gleam.

But this robot was extremely small. Anran felt that standing in front of it made her look tall and imposing by comparison. By eye, it was only around 130 centimeters tall.

Emmm…

Something’s off here. Hadn’t Colin been reading Practical Techniques of Bionic Machinery this whole time?

“What is this robot supposed to run on?” Anran asked in confusion.

“Electricity,” Colin answered.

Anran’s expression instantly turned strange. At the technological level of No. 1886, you’re telling me an electric motor they built could drive a robot this heavy? Are you fucking kidding me? Don’t tell me he made nothing more than an electric toy that can make sounds?

Hiss—

Anran sucked in a sharp breath. The way she looked at Colin became even more peculiar.