Volume 1, Chapter 8 – The Inmate Next Door

The roads in Twinmoon City’s new district were very smooth.

The landscaping in Twinmoon City’s new district was very well done.

The high-rises in Twinmoon City’s new district looked impressive.

But the police in Twinmoon City were not very good at driving.

And the police station responsible for the old city district was not even in the new district.

After twisting and turning all the way, the police car quickly arrived at the station.

Then Anran was thrown into a small room.

“Bang!”

The iron door slammed shut.

Anran immediately grabbed the little window in the iron door. The window was set a bit high. Even standing on tiptoes, all she could show was the top of her fluffy hair.

That did not stop her from shouting, though. “Let me out! Let me out!”

“Administrative detention for six days. You’ll be out in six days.” The policeman who had escorted her in walked away without even turning his head.

That left Anran sitting against the wall in speechless frustration.

A new status had already appeared on her personal panel.

[Under Administrative Detention. Time remaining: 5 days 23 hours 59 minutes 37 seconds]

What kind of bullshit game was this? Why did it have to be so serious about details like this? Were lawful and good NPCs not allowed to survive anymore?

Even though she had been arrested, Anran was not especially worried.

This was just a normal game mechanic. If players violated local laws and regulations and failed to escape, this was exactly what happened to them too.

It was just that being stuck in this narrow, gloomy little room made her feel thoroughly miserable.

At this hour, she should have been getting ready to close her stall and head to Colin’s repair shop to read.

Now not only had she lost her freedom, even the pushcart she depended on to make a living had been confiscated by that bastard Lennard from the Bureau of Urban Appearance and Public Order.

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How was this supposed to leave anyone a way to live? Was this trying to force her onto the outlaw’s path?

I originally wanted to be a good person!

Goddammit, Lennard, just you wait until I get out!

…

Anran knocked on the door. No one outside responded, so in the end she could only lie bored on the crude bed.

Today was June 2. She had been in this world for two days already. As for how she felt about it…

“Oh no!”

Anran sat bolt upright with a slap against the bedboard.

This was bad. According to that trailer and some of the explanations in her head, the players would descend on this world in four more days, on June 6. But at that time she would still be locked up in here, and there were a lot of tricks she had planned in her head that she would no longer be able to pull off.

“Let me out! Let me out!”

Anran went and banged on the door again.

But this time was a little different from the last. Probably because the person next door had had enough of her yelling, a voice suddenly came from the neighboring cell. It was a woman’s voice.

“Quiet. You’re disturbing my reading!”

“…”

Uh.

Anran was a little dumbfounded. For a moment, she did not know how to respond.

Fortunately, the other side kept talking. “It’s no use even if you scream your throat raw. Once someone gets dragged in here for breaking the law, no one gets out early unless there are special circumstances. The walls of the holding cells are soundproof. Other than meal times, no one comes in at all.”

After hearing the useful experience shared by the person next door, Anran immediately felt this was a highly experienced veteran. Either she had been living here for a long time, or this was far from her first visit.

“How long have you been in here?” Anran asked.

She had nothing better to do anyway. Chatting with this NPC for a bit could count as indirectly learning more about how this game world was structured.

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“Three days,” the other person answered.

“What’s breakfast every day?”

“Stuffed buns and an egg.”

“What’s lunch every day?”

“The day before yesterday it was steamed buns, yesterday it was bread, and today it was porridge.”

That miserable?

“Then what’s dinner every day?”

“…”

The other side fell silent for a moment, but in the end still answered, “Rice with side dishes.”

“Oh.”

Anran nodded. “Then what’s the late-night snack every day?”

“Smack!”

A loud noise suddenly rang out from next door. It was the sound of a book slapping onto the floor. “Are you done yet? If you’re going to ask what we eat, can’t you ask it all at once?”

So ordinary NPCs seemed to have quite rich emotions too. They knew how to express dissatisfaction.

Anran continued, “Then let’s change the subject. What book are you reading right now?”

The other side answered honestly, “The History of Mechanical Development on 1886.”

A professional knowledge book. Good stuff.

Anran’s eyes lit up at once. She had to find a way to get that book.

“Can you lend it to me?” Anran asked.

The other side sounded startled. “You like reading books that boring?”

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“It’s not that I like them. I’m just so bored out of my mind,” Anran said.

“No.”

The other person rejected Anran flatly.

“…”

What the hell was your problem?

“Why not?”

“Even if I gave it to you, you wouldn’t be able to reach it. And you’re bored, but I’m bored too. If I lend you the book, what am I supposed to do?”

That was a fair point.

Anran thought for a moment. “When they bring food, you could ask the guard to pass it over.”

“Oh.”

Oh your head! Are you agreeing or not?

Why were the NPCs in Night of the Stars all so cold? Not warm at all.

“Then how about this? I’ll tell you a story, and you lend me the book. That way you won’t be bored.”

The other person seriously considered it for one second. “You tell it first. If the story is interesting, then I’ll lend it to you.”

“All right. No problem.”

What story should she tell?

Night of the Stars… then she should tell a fitting story, one about the galaxy, one about war.

“This story is called Legend of the Galactic Heroes…”

And so Anran began telling the story of Legend of the Galactic Heroes to the person next door.

The dramatic twists and turns of the space war quickly drew the other woman’s attention.

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In fact, compared with Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the background story of Night of the Stars was even vaster and more epic.

In this fictional universe, there were countless major and minor factions. Clashes between the various races had gone on for thousands of years. Wars that spread across several star sectors were hardly rare. On an even larger scale, there were even wars that spanned star domains, and at one point the flames of war had shattered a smaller star system into pieces.

(PS： In this book, the hierarchy of celestial structures is: star domain – star sector – star system – and below.)

Countless celestial bodies had fallen in war. The game’s title, Night of the Stars, truly lived up to its name.

“Why did you stop? It was just getting to the exciting part.”

After a long stretch of silence, the woman next door asked anxiously.

Anran cleared her throat. “I’ll keep going after I get the book.”

“…”

You cliffhanger bastard…

“Then we’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning. Tonight’s dinner time has already passed,” the person next door said with some regret.

“Emmm…”

There was nothing she could do. Anran could only wait a bit longer. She had to stay here for six days anyway, so there was no need to rush.

She just had not expected stories from the real world to be so attractive to NPCs in a game. Maybe that was something she could make use of.

Anran turned and went back to the bedside. She was just about to go to sleep when she spotted the lamp beside her bed.

She reached out and took the lamp apart. Her hands were skillful and her movements quick. In no time, the lamp had been dismantled into a pile of parts. Then Anran put it back together again.

“You completed the repair of [Ordinary Lamp]. Evaluation: A. Experience gained: 11.”

As expected, it worked.

Anran’s eyes lit up. At last, she had found something meaningful to do in this endless night.

And so Anran began an endless journey of repeated disassembly and reassembly…