Volume 3, Chapter 15 – The Day Aila Boarded Anran’s Ship

This child might actually be able to help!

Anran’s gaze settled on Zhou Jieyu.

It had been a while since she had seen her. Now, with a fair bit of money to throw around, Zhou Jieyu had already changed out of the crappy three-piece newbie set and bought herself a fashion outfit with no stat bonuses from a clothing store in Twinmoon City.

Her Charm had immediately risen to 7 points.

When Anran looked at her again, she felt that [Leading the Escape] somehow carried herself completely differently now.

Before, she had just seemed dazed.

Now, at least she could be called adorably dazed.

Yes, if your Charm was low, then you should not force the word “cute” onto yourself.

Although this was the truth, Anran had once mocked a female internet café owner that way and been kicked straight out.

You dare say I’m not cute or adorable?

Go die, then!

“…”

The sharp-eyed Zhou Jieyu noticed someone looking at her.

She looked around in every direction and finally found that familiar figure standing outside the crowd.

NPC Anran.

Today she was wearing a knee-length white dress. She looked very plain and elegant, and even with that completely out-of-place oversized backpack on her back, she still had an extraordinary charm.

But Zhou Jieyu knew she could not be fooled by Anran’s appearance!

This was a mysterious girl X who could walk through a city engulfed in war and handle a pistol without the slightest mercy.

Today’s Anran was as mysteriously cryptic as ever.

Zhou Jieyu noticed Anran waving at her.

“Bro!”

Zhou Jieyu tugged at Leading the Charge’s clothes.

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“What is it?” Leading the Charge lowered his head.

He had charged at the front during the earlier melee and taken quite a beating. His condition was a little wilted right now.

“Over there!”

Zhou Jieyu pointed toward where Anran was standing.

“What?”

Leading the Charge looked over and immediately spotted the calm-faced Anran.

A little girl?

A player?

No, that was an NPC.

Leading the Charge did not see a “name tag.”

Unless they had some special item, players could not hide their names.

At this stage of the game, Leading the Charge did not think anyone could possibly have obtained an item like that.

“That’s the NPC I told you about,” Zhou Jieyu muttered quietly.

“That’s her?”

Leading the Charge was stunned.

He had read that livestream post his sister made, and she also told him plenty of stories about Anran. He had already formed his own mental image of Anran long ago.

But now that he was seeing her in person, the difference was kind of huge.

She was clearly just a lovely girl who looked much younger than his sister, and yet she could say something like, “Sorry, I’m just a cold-blooded killer,” without changing expression!

She looked even more well-behaved and adorable than his sister!

Zhou Jieyu tugged on Leading the Charge’s arm. “Come on, come on, stop dawdling. Let’s hurry over and take a look. Maybe we can get some kind of quest.”

Zhou Jieyu had already gotten a taste for it.

That escort quest last time had rewarded her with 1,500 EXP, and she still could not let it go.

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Her mind was full of thoughts about raising her favorability with Anran so she could get even more from her later.

Some quests could raise favorability, and money could get things done too.

“Hello, is there anything you need help with?” Zhou Jieyu walked up to Anran and opened the conversation the same way as always.

Just like when they had first met.

Very cooperatively, Anran put on her “quest marker.”

She selected the quest type as [Directed Quest].

Targets: [Leading the Escape] and [Leading the Charge].

Because of that, only Zhou Jieyu and her brother could see the bright golden quest marker.

Those IDs really were hilariously dumb.

Anran’s gaze swept casually over Zhou Jieyu and her brother.

“Yes, I’ve run into a bit of trouble right now,” Anran said honestly.

Zhou Jieyu’s eyes lit up.

It’s here, it’s here.

The quest is here.

“I’m planning to set up a mobile pastry stall around here,” Anran said. “But I’m a little short on time right now. If you’re willing to accept my commission and make pastries for me, I’ll give you some compensation.”

[Directed Quest: Hiring Pastry Makers!

Quest Description: Anran plans to open a mobile pastry stall. She now needs to hire several Pastry Makers to supply her with pastries.

Quest Rewards: Ordinary Mung Bean Cake: 3 EXP each; Ordinary Osmanthus Cake: 5 EXP each

Quest Rank: E

Repeatable: Yes]

Anran was currently level 7. She could issue 21 quests per day, and the maximum EXP reward for a single quest was 3,500 points.

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In theory, the directed quest she had posted could be repeated infinitely.

But because of that cap, at most she could only collect 700 osmanthus cakes from one player, or 1,166 mung bean cakes, or any of the N combinations you could derive from a two-variable linear equation.

In short, there was an upper limit.

“Sure, sure!” Zhou Jieyu accepted without the slightest hesitation.

Only an idiot would pass up free EXP.

Then she glanced at her brother, Leading the Charge.

Very cooperatively, Anran also put on her “profession mentor marker.”

Zhou Jieyu said, “Bro, you should change profession to [Pastry Maker] too!”

Leading the Charge was a little puzzled, but with an EXP-earning quest right in front of him, he did not think too deeply about it for the moment.

He spent 30 Bilu at Anran’s place and successfully changed profession to [Pastry Maker], then spent another 25 Bilu to buy the [Mung Bean Cake] + [Osmanthus Cake] recipe bundle.

Compared with blueprints, simple recipes like these really were much cheaper.

Both Zhou Jieyu and Leading the Charge accepted the quest from Anran.

“I’ll come by tomorrow morning at eight.” After leaving behind the handoff time, Anran departed.

“This NPC always feels kind of weird,” Leading the Charge said, scratching the back of his head.

“Really?” Zhou Jieyu asked in return.

…

Anran returned to Eudora’s house with her backpack on.

When she passed through the courtyard outside, she happened to see Aila poking butterflies with a stick.

“???”

What on earth was she doing?

Aila was interested in this kind of thing too?

“It looked pretty interesting on TV, but in reality it seems a little boring,” Aila explained, and as she spoke, one unlucky butterfly was flicked away by her stick.

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She really was bored out of her mind.

Wait.

Anran suddenly fixed her eyes on Aila.

As for this cake-selling business, the source of the pastries had already been solved. As for the person selling them, Anran had originally planned to hire a temp from outside.

But if she let Aila take on that role, sales would definitely go up, right?

“Aila!”

Anran drew Aila’s attention over to her.

Aila looked up at Anran in confusion. She had already thrown the stick onto the ground.

“How about big sis takes you to do something fun tomorrow?”

“…” Aila blinked.

“…”

That seemed to be over ten characters.

With no other choice, Anran quickly took out some paper and wrote down what she wanted to say.

Aila read it once and immediately said, “Okay, okay.”

But she quickly shrank back again. “On second thought, forget it. Dad won’t agree.”

Well…

Not a big problem. There was still room to fight for it.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go talk to your dad,” Anran said, reaching out to stroke Aila’s hair.

Aila obediently did not dodge away.

53 favorability points. The effect was outstanding!

If Colin were not here, Anran felt like she could practically lure Aila away already.