Volume 2, Chapter 38 – Title: Morningstar Hunter

Two notification chimes rang in her ears, but Anran, hurrying to the pharmacy, had no time to check the contents of the game prompts. She dashed out of the monitoring room at top speed.

She already knew the pharmacy’s location by heart, so it took her only about ten seconds to reach its door.

With one shot, she blasted open the locked door. Anran felt around for the switch near the entrance and turned on the lights. Only after confirming that no one was hiding inside did she relax a little.

Although she had successfully killed the seven Morningstar soldiers outside, Anran had no way of confirming whether there were other threats still lurking in the hospital.

The monitors only covered a limited area, and there were quite a few blind spots.

After searching through the pharmacy and stuffing a large pile of the medicines Eudora had mentioned into her backpack, Anran bent low and quietly slipped out.

As she passed the monitoring room, she even made a point of peering inside. Sure enough, “Leading the Escape” was nowhere to be seen. It looked like she had already returned to the respawn point.

Considering that she always shouted no with her mouth, yet obediently went along with it in the end, Anran decided not to keep messing with her over this mission.

She could just treat the mission reward as advertising expenses.

It had been about ten days since players had started pouring into the game in large numbers. Once the war in Twinmoon City ended, no matter which side took the upper hand, a huge batch of players would probably come flooding over.

She could not give up an entire forest for the sake of one “Leading the Escape.”

Anran had no intention of throwing away a watermelon just to pick up a sesame seed.

After sneaking out of Yihe Hospital, Anran did not run into anyone else on the way.

As the night deepened, the sounds of gunfire and artillery gradually receded, seeming to draw closer to the edge of the city.

She had no idea whether the government had been run over by Morningstar and was being forced to flee in all directions, or whether the government had beaten back Morningstar’s offensive.

In any case, Anran was not paying attention to that for now.

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In a safe corner, she glanced over the few game prompts from earlier.

Anran read them in reverse order.

First: Player “Leading the Escape” has completed the mission [Escort Anran] that you issued.

Skip.

Second: You have accumulated ten kills of Morningstar Resistance soldiers and have obtained the title [Morningstar Hunter].

Hm?

A title?

Surprised, Anran skipped over all the prompts after that. They were all just EXP notifications from kills anyway. A little more or a little less did not matter right now.

She opened the title interface. On the gray panel, which had originally been completely blank, there was now a dark crimson bar.

In the center of the bar, the five characters “Morningstar Hunter” were written in a stern, murderous-looking script.

Anran selected View.

Title [Morningstar Hunter]:

(After accumulating more than 10 kills of Morningstar soldiers, it seems you really have become locked in a struggle with Morningstar. In that case, why not keep up the good work? Come on, march toward the next goal!)

Progress: 14/25

Effect: HP +50, Strength +2

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Good stuff!

Anran’s eyes lit up at once, and she directly ignored the line of small text the game had given her.

Fifty HP was more than a third of her current total health. As for the Strength bonus, it was free anyway, so of course Anran accepted it gladly.

And this title looked like it could even be upgraded.

After choosing to equip the title and seeing her HP increase all at once, Anran smiled.

As an NPC with only one life, nothing made her happier than becoming tankier.

Right now, the highest-level class Anran had was still only at the apprentice stage, so she could wear only one title.

A basic class allowed someone to equip 2 titles. By the same logic, an intermediate class allowed 3 titles, an advanced class allowed 4…

If she wore four or five titles like this in the future, and upgraded versions at that, wouldn’t her HP become absurdly high?

If your health pool wasn’t thick enough, how could you call yourself a Boss!

…

When Anran reached the area near Eudora’s house, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

Keeping her nerves wound tight the whole time had not been comfortable.

As she went around the corner, she was thinking about whether to call out from outside or knock on the door when she suddenly noticed a small figure sitting on the steps.

It was Aila.

The moment she saw that profile, Anran understood.

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Aila sat on the top step, curled into herself, both arms wrapped around her legs, looking up at the night sky.

Her skirt draped over her calves, white and lustrous like fine porcelain. The moonlight fell on Aila’s silver hair, as though laying a layer of dazzling color over it.

The night sky.

Anran lifted her head.

The night sky of No. 1886, when not hidden behind great masses of dark clouds, truly was so beautiful that it was hard to look away.

The bright stars wove together into a mesmerizing checkerboard, and the most dazzling thing of all was that golden moon, as large as a washbasin.

And yet, that picture-perfect beauty was not what Anran was looking at.

She began to yearn for that vast sea of stars. Every bright star was burning with all its might.

[Night of the Stars]—this was where the brilliant stars shone with all their radiance.

Even though she had become like this, at this moment Anran suddenly felt her blood begin to boil.

She thought of the version of herself in the trailer—Pirate Princess Anran—and of the life she had led sweeping across the sea of stars. She thought of the few minutes of story she had personally experienced.

The spaceship had suddenly turned completely transparent. Standing in the corridor, she had felt as though she were standing in endless void, with the entire starry sky beneath her feet.

In only that brief moment, Anran had already become utterly intoxicated by that scene.

No matter what, in [Stars], there would always be the brightest one.

Rustle…

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The soft sound brought Anran back to herself. Aila stood up and walked toward her, saying in a somewhat “gentle” tone, “You’re back.”

“Yeah, I’m back,” Anran said.

Her mind suddenly wavered for a moment. This brief exchange felt as though it had been rehearsed countless times in advance, intimate and natural.

Aila rose on tiptoe and opened the door, then led the way inside.

Anran followed after her. The moment her foot stepped into the living room, Eudora, who had been sitting on the sofa, sprang to her feet.

Her face was full of anxiety and unease. She took two quick steps up to Anran. This middle-aged woman, who looked to be in her forties, now had her hands clasped before her chest like a nervous young girl.

“The medicine…?”

“Got it.” Anran nodded. Before Eudora could ask anything else, she took out bag after bag of medicine from her backpack.

“Thank heavens!” After receiving Anran’s confirmation, Eudora pressed her hands together and let out a long breath. After a good while, her gaze fell on Anran. “I don’t even know how to thank you. I…”

“All right, go treat the shop owner first. We can talk about anything else later.” Anran waved her hand.

Just now, she had already received the notification that the mission was complete.

“Really… really, thank you so much.” Eudora was already speaking a little incoherently. “I definitely won’t go back on what I promised you before.”

Then she turned to Aila and said, “Aila, can you take this big sister to the place where you and your dad live and fetch something for her?”

Aila nodded. “Sure! What is it?”

“I’ll write it down for you.” Eudora returned to the table and took out paper and a pen.