Volume 1, Chapter 7 – This Isn’t Fair, He Called for Backup

“Thank you for your patronage. Please come again!” Colin said.

Could you maybe take your eyes off those big white things when you say that?

Anran was speechless.

Her gaze swept across the desktop, and suddenly she spotted a lot of useful books.

Mechanical Stress, Motor-Based Drive Systems, Machinery: From Beginner to Master, Microcircuits: From Beginner to Master, 32 Types of Fabric on 1886…

These books were arranged on a small desktop shelf. Altogether, there were more than a dozen of them.

Anran’s eyes lit up at once.

Experience, skills, new classes!

They were all professional class books!

Anran stopped in her tracks.

“Boss, are these books for sale?” Anran asked eagerly.

“Hm?” Colin put down his book. With one hand, he pinched the frame of his glasses and slid them down a little, revealing a pair of small eyes as he stared at Anran. “What do you want to buy books for?”

“To take home and read, obviously. What, do you think I have so much money I don’t know where to spend it?” Anran looked at him like he was an idiot.

Colin coughed. “What I mean is, what does a girl like you want with books like these?”

“To study.” Anran said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Oh.”

Colin nodded. “Interesting.”

“So…” Anran prompted.

Colin folded his arms. “But I’m not selling.”

“You…”

Anran widened her eyes. Forget it. She wasn’t the type to force a deal.

She probed again. “If you’re not selling them, then can I borrow them?”

“No.”

Colin did not even hesitate for half a second.

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“…”

Why was this guy so stingy?

Anran was unhappy.

But the books were Colin’s. How he dealt with them was his own business.

So Anran could only lower her expectations again. “Then can I just read them here?”

“Heh.” Colin looked Anran up and down with interest. “Didn’t expect you to be this persistent.”

For the Nth time, Colin set down the book in his hand. Resting his chin on one hand, he said, “All right. Since you’ve gone this far, refusing again would make me seem a bit cold-hearted. As long as you don’t disturb me, I have no problem with it.”

Nice!

Anran secretly clenched her fist. She had once again taken a solid step toward becoming stronger.

“Thank you, boss.”

Thinking about the component in her hand that still had to be taken back, Anran suppressed the urge to start reading immediately. There was still time, so there was no need to rush.

She hurried back home. The antique television was still sitting there half-disassembled. Standing on the stool, Anran skillfully replaced the broken part.

From start to finish, it took less than five minutes.

“You completed the repair of [Damaged Old Television]. Evaluation: B. Experience gained: 23.”

Experience gained from secondary-class activities could only be used to raise the level of a secondary class, but primary classes were different.

A primary class usually came with a complete skill tree, and experience gained through related activities or quests could be allocated freely.

It could be used to raise the level of a primary class, raise the level of a skill, or even raise the level of a secondary class.

This kind of experience was like an all-purpose lubricant. It could go wherever she wanted; wherever it was needed, it would go!

Twenty-three points of experience was nowhere near enough, so Anran chose to save it for now.

After checking the time, she realized it was already noon.

Her personal panel showed [Stamina: 40/48].

Anran directly ate two Ordinary Mung Bean Cakes, restoring her Stamina to 46.

Driven by poverty, Anran formulated a strategic policy of increasing income and cutting expenditure.

She still had not found a way to increase income, so cutting expenditure had to come first.

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The first target was food. In the game, hunger was linked to Stamina. As long as she ate normal food, she could recover Stamina and lower hunger. So until she got sick of eating mung bean cakes, Anran had no plans to eat out.

…

After a short rest, once the sun outside was no longer quite so vicious, Anran pushed her cart out again.

Same old place. In the busiest alley of the old city, Anran sat on her stool and stared up at the sky in boredom.

How nice it would be if she could borrow a few books from Colin right now.

Anran started planning out her development path.

First of all, the primary class of Engineer was definitely only a transitional class.

Although it was better than a life-skill class, Engineer still lacked enough combat power. Even if it gained some strength in the very late stages, it was still far inferior to other powerful DPS classes.

Anran’s ultimate goal was a powerful DPS class.

That being the case, branching from Engineer into the Scientist path was not suitable either. But classes like Mechanic and Gunfire Ranger were still under consideration.

Mechanic was fairly weak in the early game, but by the mid to late game, it gradually began to bare its fangs.

Unlimited equipment meant endless firepower. A single person could easily stand there and gun down an entire space fleet head-on.

Or pilot a mech and become a sharp blade driven straight into the enemy’s heart.

Gunfire Ranger, on the other hand, was a class with a relatively steady growth curve. Its agile movements and dense, rapid firepower gave it extremely high burst damage in PvP, and it required far fewer resources than Mechanic.

But the problem was that Mechanic had many more ways to make money. It was more specialized than Engineer, and that was something Gunfire Ranger could not compare to at all.

That was worth considering, especially since Colin had entry-level knowledge books for Mechanic.

“Hey, did you hear what I said or not?”

Someone knocked on the cart with a thud-thud-thud. When Anran looked up, she saw a face so unpleasant it inspired instant disgust.

A pancake face, big eyes, a big nose, and a big mouth.

There was a vehicle parked behind him too.

“Can I help you?” Anran asked.

“How much is this?” Pancake Face knocked on the cart again.

Anran answered honestly, “2 Bilu each.”

Pancake Face was startled. “Holy shit, are you robbing me? 2 Bilu each? Money doesn’t just grow on trees for rich people either.”

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“…”

Who says so bluntly that they’re rich? Though, to be fair, he really was richer than me.

With a cold face, Anran replied, “It’s a family recipe. My mung bean cakes are way better than the ones sold elsewhere. 2 Bilu for one isn’t expensive at all. If you don’t believe me, go ask the people on this street.”

“5 Bilu. Get me five.” Pancake Face slapped down a 5 Bilu bill on the cart with great swagger.

Anran did quite like the idea of some rich guy humiliating her dignity with money, but 5 Bilu was nothing.

Poor as she was, she could still take out quite a few 5 Bilu bills herself.

So Anran snapped irritably, “Are you here to cause trouble?”

“That’s right. I am here to cause trouble.” Pancake Face nodded seriously.

“…”

Anran took a deep breath. “2 Bilu each. Buy them if you want. If not, get lost!”

Master Anran wasn’t going to indulge him!

“What a temper. I like it!”

Pancake Face gave her a thumbs-up, then tapped his watch. A call connected.

“Hello? Caiye Road. Come over here, now.”

Anran let out a cold laugh. Let’s see what kind of tricks you can pull. The people on this street might be unreliable most of the time, but at critical moments they always helped one another and united against outsiders.

The call ended, and Pancake Face folded his arms calmly and confidently.

Anran remained unmoved.

A moment later, a vehicle suddenly charged in from outside the alley. Anran looked over and saw several large characters printed on it.

Looking more closely, she read: “Bureau of Urban Appearance and Public Order.”

“Hm?”

The vehicle stopped right in front of her cart, and four burly men immediately jumped out.

“That cart right there. Take it away!” Pancake Face waved his hand.

“Wait!”

Anran was stunned for a moment and hurried to stop them, but her cart had already been pushed away.

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“By what right are you taking my cart?” Anran was furious. This was her means of making a living.

Pancake Face let out a cold laugh and pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket, unfolding it in front of Anran. “By this.”

On the paper, it roughly said: “Responding to planetary government policy, building a brand-new Twinmoon City!”

Followed by another thousand words of detailed explanation omitted here.

By then, the cart had already been loaded onto the vehicle. Anran panicked at once. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you? To hell with you, I’m going to fight you!”

Pancake Face took a step back, his expression unchanged. “Threatening a public official.”

Then he “used his watch again.”

“Hello? Caiye Road. Me, Lennard. Call the police!”

“…”

Anran looked left and right. The scumbags on Caiye Road all lowered their eyes, stared at their noses, and looked up at the sky, pretending to see nothing.

These NPCs really weren’t human!

What a bunch of bastards!

“Woo-woo-woo…”

The police car arrived very quickly.

The door swung open, and four hulking men climbed out.

“Wait…”

“We received a report that you threatened a public official. You are to be detained for three days.”

Anran was seized on the spot.

“Fuck.” Anran glared furiously at Lennard. “Just you wait. Wait until I get out!”

“Continuing to threaten a public official. Add another three days.”

“…”

“Woo-woo-woo…”

The police car sped off into the distance with a wail.