Chapter 178: The Mastermind Bai Fu, Major Upgrade for the Fu-fu Corps
After making her decision, Bai Fu immediately responded to the Blessed Congregation via the backend of the Commission Platform, stating she needed to review the commission details before deciding whether to accept it.
The Blessed Congregation responded almost instantly, sending the detailed request within seconds.
In short, the Blessed Congregation wanted her help in finding someone.
According to the Blessed Congregation, the reason they wanted to entrust this task to her [Dark Moon Tide] was because the target was extremely vicious, devious, and vengeful—a highly dangerous individual. Ordinary people would likely die if they engaged him carelessly. But members of Dark Moon Tide, being Undying Ones, had no such concerns since they could resurrect anyway.
Bai Fu nodded silently.
Her company's employees were all fearless Players. That was the strength of her private military company, Dark Moon Tide.
She tackled what other companies dared not handle. She killed who others dared not touch. She covered what others could cover, and she especially handled what others couldn’t. That was Bai Fu. Behind every successful Bai Fu stood hundreds of thousands, even millions, of Players!
"As long as I can grow Dark Moon Tide into a major company, just earning a commission cut from Players doing quests will have me rolling in joy!"
Raise one Yulia?
She’d raise ten!
An iron Bai Fu, flowing Yulias… Hmm, wait, that sounded kind of off.
Bai Fu shook her head and quickly asked the Blessed Congregation to send the target’s strength, background, and appearance.
A few seconds later, a document arrived, and as soon as she saw the photo at the top, Bai Fu froze.
Oh? Wasn’t that Fragment Star?
Looking further, although the name wasn’t mentioned, everything else about the class and details matched.
Bai Fu immediately connected to the interstellar network and searched for recent movements by the Crystalite company. Even the Blessed Congregation had their eyes on Fragment Star—surely the Crystalite company, which she had deliberately drawn in, would be taking big action.
Sure enough.
After she caused that ruckus in Mining Sector No. 3 at Lightscreen Starport using Fragment Star’s name, the Crystalite company began investigating him. They not only sent Fabian—the one who had beaten Lava—to keep tracking him, but also issued a bounty on Fragment Star through the Commission Platform.
They didn’t even bother to hide it. After all, Bai Fu’s signal had been broadcast publicly. Once they received it, the Blessed Congregation and the Redmoon Mercenary Corps must’ve received it too. It was pointless to conceal anything, so they chose to go all-in and try to locate both Fragment Star and the True Spirit Pillar he carried.
Once the Crystalite company took action, the Blessed Congregation and Redmoon Mercenary Corps jumped into the race as well. But despite searching for two and a half months, they found no trace of Fragment Star.
Fragment Star was like a ghost—a ghost drifting above the Sea Lion System. He only spread fear, never appearing in person.
This made all three factions extremely anxious. If Fragment Star had never shown up, fine. But now that he had, how could they not be obsessed with the True Spirit Pillar? They kept increasing the commission reward several times.
This stirred a lot of discussion in hunter circles.
Who was this Fragment Star? Why were these powerful groups after him?
Fragment Star had lived more than 100 years ago. Even back then, he was an obscure figure. A century later, even fewer people knew of him. That was precisely why the Crystalite company dared to search for him so openly.
Bai Fu found it hilarious.
If the Crystalite company ever found out that Fragment Star was already gone and that she had impersonated him, they’d probably die of rage.
She probed the Blessed Congregation a bit more, asking about the exact transaction method, location, and whether there were any additional details. With just this document, finding someone in an entire star system would be nearly impossible.
The Blessed Congregation remained very sincere.
[We have a special device that can detect an item carried by that person.]
[You don’t need to come to us—we’ll visit you personally and discuss the commission in detail then.]
Bai Fu nodded silently. Judging from their tone, they seemed unaware of her connection to Fragment Star, which made sense—she hadn’t been near the Blessed Congregation recently.
She also wanted to test the Blessed Congregation’s method of detecting the True Spirit Pillar, so she accepted the commission.
“Another 200,000 deposit in hand.”
Bai Fu chuckled.
After ending contact with the Blessed Congregation, she quietly waited half a day. The ship finally docked at Ulysses Star.
Despite being remote, the Ulysses people were already aware of the recent events, and when she disembarked from the ship, they had spontaneously organized a grand welcoming ceremony.
[Awesome, Fu-fu! Just arrived in the Star Sea and already got your own planet!]
[Is this going to be our new base now?]
The 3,000 Players Bai Fu had recently recruited looked around excitedly.
Players from other planets grew increasingly envious.
Players from Origin Star really had it too good.
Ever since they latched onto Fu-fu, they’d been able to enjoy hot soup regularly, with full emotional satisfaction. Everywhere they went, people cheered for them and looked at them with admiration. This was the kind of treatment a Brave Soul deserved. Unlike them, who worked themselves to death without hearing a single compliment.
[Stupid developers, if you don’t give me a Fu-fu soon, I’ll rate your lousy game one star.]
[Count me in—I’m rating it one star too.]
Amid the cheers of the Ulysses people and the commotion from the Players, Bai Fu moved everything she had purchased from the ship to her residence on Ulysses Star.
Then she found Vic and had him host a three-day celebration (a.k.a. Player-squeezing festival) in the name of the Ulysses people.
She truly couldn’t hold back any longer—she wanted to drain all these Players right now!
[Grand prize of the Celebration Event: (Fu-fu’s lightly-used Gloomy Staff); First prize: (Dissociative Agent5); Second prize: (Summon Lancer + Summon Arbiter + Summon Priest Combo Card); Third prize: (C-rank Advancement Knowledge5)]
In addition to the celebration, Bai Fu also launched a new Challenge Instance [Marine Biology Research Institute] via the Faction interface and stocked the Instance Store with a large array of new items.
These included, but weren’t limited to: Mechanic Blueprints, Prayer Card Blueprints, Skill Books, and some Recovery Potions she had purchased in the Star Sea…
For Origin Star Players, who were mostly stuck at level 30, these were priceless treasures.
Aaaagh! Isn’t it just XP? If Fu-fu wants it so badly, then fine—we’ll give it to her! All of it!
From Origin Star to Ulysses Star, only about twenty days had passed, but the 3,000 Players had accumulated a massive amount of XP—truly an ocean of experience.
Of course, that was only from their perspective. For Bai Fu, whose demands were ever-growing, this amount of XP wasn’t even enough for one full meal.
She had too many things to spend XP on now.
First, leveling up—each level-up now required over 25 million XP. Then upgrading her Skills and Prayer Cards. And lastly, fusing new Prayer Cards. She had a large stock of Advancement Knowledge, but due to insufficient XP, she hadn’t been able to convert it into combat power.
“Final earnings estimate: 500 million XP. Of that, Players from Origin Star will contribute roughly 30%, and the 3,100 Players who came with me to the Star Sea will contribute about 70%.”
On average, each of those 3,100 Players gave her 112,000 XP.
Bai Fu shook her head. Honestly, the number was lower than she had expected, because the experience points these Players had on them were far more than that—but she simply couldn’t extract any more at the moment.
It wasn’t that her methods of squeezing experience were lacking, nor that the Players were unwilling to give her their XP. It was just that these Players currently had too few uses for experience.
They had already hit the version’s level cap, maxed out all their Skills, and even prepared the Advancement Knowledge required for Class Transfer long ago. If they wanted to spend XP now, they could only invest in Skill Books or Sub Classes.
But suitable Skill Books were hard to come by, and few Players were willing to train multiple classes.
Unless the Developers released a new version and raised the level cap, Bai Fu would just be stuck here. No matter how skilled a Succubus was, she couldn’t conjure something out of nothing.
“It’s still because I squeezed them too frequently in too short a time. Even if the Players of Origin Star turned into legendary squeeze-resisters, they couldn’t handle this much from me.”
Bai Fu clenched her fist.
The only thing she could do now was to expand the area of her private Secret Garden dedicated to growing leeks.
It’s settled—you’re up, Hiye!
Bai Fu found Hiye and told her she had learned from the Undying Ones that many more of them existed on other planets within the Dark Zone.
“If we can find those Undying Ones and bring them under our command, then Herbert and the others won’t have any chance of competing with you anymore!”
What she was really thinking was how to best squeeze more Players, but what came out of her mouth sounded like it was all for Hiye’s future.
Hiye was deeply moved by Bai Fu’s words.
That was Bai Fu—always thinking of her, even willing to put herself in danger.
“Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to locate those planets!”
Truth be told, Hiye wasn’t all that interested in the Minister position. The reason she wanted to compete was mainly because Herbert and his team had poached her subordinates, which annoyed her.
But now that Bai Fu was going all out to help her win the Minister position, how could she let down Bai Fu’s goodwill?
Deeply touched, Hiye even pulled out her bank account.
“You must be strapped for cash, right? Whether it’s for raising those Undying Ones or rebuilding Origin Star, it all costs money. I’ve got some savings—not much, just 2 million Credit Coins. Take it for emergencies. No need to rush to pay me back. I don’t spend much. If it’s not enough, I’ll try to borrow more for you.”
“……”
Looking at the virtual identity verification Hiye sent her, Bai Fu was a bit stunned.
If it was Hiye, then this probably wasn’t for show. She had genuinely handed over all her savings.
Well, damn.
Bai Fu was truly moved this time.
“I don’t really ne—”
“Just take it and use it properly. I’m the supervisor—listen to me!” Hiye patted her flat chest and put on the demeanor of a dependable big-sister leader.
With Hiye speaking so firmly, Bai Fu went ahead and accepted the money.
With their relationship now, it made no difference who held the funds. The Chief Steward wouldn’t shortchange the obedient, silly Empress. Raising one Yulia was raising—raising one Yulia plus one Hiye was still raising.
“I’m going to check in on Yulia, see how her progress is going. We need to solve your issue as soon as possible.”
After bidding Hiye goodbye, Bai Fu headed straight to Yulia’s lab.
Halfway there, she ran into Xia Shi, who looked gloomy.
“What’s wrong?”
“I saw everything.”
“?”
“Anya is helping you host and direct the Undying Ones, Yulia is researching medicine for you, and Hiye is giving you money and access to various channels. Only me—I can’t do anything. I can’t help you at all. I feel like I’m just a freeloader tagging along, eating and drinking for free.”
Bai Fu: “……”
Wait a second—why do I feel like I’ve turned into a psychological counselor Fu?
Jokes aside, Bai Fu still raised both hands and gently pressed Xia Shi’s cheeks, her posture serious, her gaze solemn.
“Do you know how I see you?”
Xia Shi was a bit bewildered by Bai Fu’s gesture.
“N-not really…”
Bai Fu said, “You’re a Money-printing Princess! Don’t underestimate yourself. Your mechanical skills are exactly what I desperately need. Which one of those Undying Ones outside doesn’t need mechanical equipment? But right now, I can’t produce any mechanical gear. I have to collaborate with other factions, which means I have to give up some profits. But if you take over this line of work, all that profit stays in our hands. Think about it—how much money would that be? I’d even have to live off you.”
R-really?
Xia Shi’s cheeks turned slightly red from Bai Fu’s praise, but she quickly realized a new issue.
“I don’t have that ability right now.”
Bai Fu said, “That’s fine. There aren’t that many Undying Ones right now anyway. Just make some simple mechanical gear. If it’s too advanced, they can’t afford it anyway. Do some mechanical repairs. Oh—and if you have spare time, work on equipment upgrades.”
She shared her experience in equipment enhancement with Xia Shi.
If the upgrade limit allowed a 100% performance boost, it was best not to max it all at once. Instead, split it into several stages—+1, +2, up to +N—so she could charge the Players multiple times for the upgrade process. Each fee might be small, but they’d add up over time.
Xia Shi asked doubtfully, “Would that really work?”
Bai Fu nodded. “Of course it would.”
In other games, Players were long used to this. She could also launch some collaboration perks to stimulate Player spending. Previously, the Blessings earned from Prayers at Anya’s Mysterious Shop could only be used for discounts. Now, she could launch a new benefit: collecting enough Blessings could let Players exchange them for free Equipment Enhancement Tickets during special events.
Xia Shi listened in a daze. She didn’t really understand all the schemes and gimmicks. She only grasped one thing—
Bai Fu wanted to be a con-merchant—but the kind who looked really wholesome!
She wouldn’t have accepted such behavior in the past, but she was no longer who she used to be. For Bai Fu, she was willing to fall, to become a con-merchant alongside her!
“I’ll do my best.”
“Train yourself well. Otherwise, I’m afraid you won’t survive my torment.”
After comforting Xia Shi, Bai Fu found Yulia. After two days of adjustments, Yulia had successfully produced over a hundred units of the Dissociative Agent.
So what was there to wait for?
Bai Fu summoned Anya, Hiye, and Xia Shi—the drinking party began!
After using the sixth Dissociative Agent, Bai Fu finally triggered her first instance of Psychic Mutation, a special state that gave her an extra +10% to her mental attributes.
Immediately after, Hiye and Xia Shi also triggered Psychic Mutation, and Anya even triggered her second Psychic Mutation, once again boosting her Talents and Stats.
"Let me take a look."
Bai Fu opened Hiye’s and her own attribute panel one by one.
After triggering [Psychic Mutation], the genetic compatibility probability for the [Prophet] gene between her and Hiye indeed increased. Hiye's probability rose from 23.8% to 29.1%, while hers increased from 32.3% to 36.4%. A pleasing improvement.
"Effective. That’s a relief."
Bai Fu let out a breath.
At this moment, Yulia came up to her. "During my recent research, I discovered that the Original Sample of the Dissociative Agent might be a living organism."
“?”
Bai Fu’s pupils shrank.
Yulia explained, "I suspect it wasn’t synthetically developed, but rather sliced from a certain special lifeform."
Bai Fu nodded silently. She was beginning to understand why she could sense the location of the Brainworm after using the Dissociative Agent, and why repeated use could lead to multiple Psychic Mutations and eventually allow one to change their race into [Shadow Wraith].
This Main Story Quest from Vic ran deeper than she had imagined!
In any case, she would have Players follow Vic to push the Main Story Quest forward. The current primary objective was to rescue as many of the captured Ulysses people as possible, and rescue missions like these were best handled by Players.
With that in mind, Bai Fu summoned Vic, handed over the remaining Dissociative Agents to him, and assigned a group of Players to his command.
Vic was greatly moved and promised earnestly that he would treat those Players well.
Bai Fu smiled and sent him off.
With everything in place, the next step was naturally to spend all the XP she had squeezed from the Players.
Bai Fu first leveled up Advanced Force Field and Summon Priest to Lv10. At Lv10, Advanced Force Field’s coverage reached 300 meters, and all other effects saw a substantial boost.
Next, she opened the Void Card Creation function and got to work.
Her current True Spirit Summon Army formation was as follows—
[Priest holding the center, flanked by two Big Black Fus, frontline with Lancers, second row ready-to-self-destruct Tiny Bai Fus, behind them were the card-playing Tiny Black Fus and Fixed Void Ball, while up in the sky were Arbiters and Void Energy Orbs suppressing the field.]
This Summon Army was already quite comprehensive. Its burst combat power was no less than that of a Hei Fu. However, at this stage, it still had one serious flaw—lack of effective control skills.
If the enemy was fast or adept in stealth and surprise attacks, this Summon Army would be a bit clunky.
Therefore, Bai Fu’s goal this time was to fuse a True Spirit Summon Card with a control Skill.
Just pour in XP!
She dumped over 40 million XP in one go and successfully created a [Thorn Guardian] card. The Thorn Guardian’s ability was to form "thorns" using psionics to restrict or bind enemies. These "thorns" also had a damage component and could trigger Extra-dimensional Erosion’s explosion effect and percentage-based HP deduction when binding.
"Very good."
Bai Fu was quite satisfied with the card’s effect.
Up to now, the strengths of Psionic Class were finally showing through her. She might appear to be just one person, but with Hei Fu and her Bai Fu Corps summoned, she could instantly unleash triple her combat power.
"Still got 400 million XP left—let’s level up."
Bai Fu invested the XP and leveled [Miracle Constructor] from Lv7 to Lv19, bringing the total level of her main Psionic Class to 94.
This level-up brought a major boost in Stats, and her attributes became—
[Stats]: Strength 143, Agility 280, Constitution 423, Intelligence 271, Spirit 253, Inspiration 991
The stat increases were substantial, but all of this was within Bai Fu’s expectations. What truly surprised her was that after this upgrade, she found that all her Skills consumed less psionics.
"This is..."
She suddenly recalled one of the key differences between Disaster-class and S-rank Psionicists—the former had far superior mastery and efficiency in psionic usage.
"So this kind of change isn’t instantaneous—it accumulates gradually with level, building up over time, finally transforming qualitatively upon reaching Disaster-class!"
Bai Fu had a hunch that as she continued to level up, the cooldowns on her Skills would also shorten.
Lower Skill costs and shorter cooldowns—these two changes alone were enough to give her strength another major leap. Maybe she'd even unlock some special abilities.
Not bad, not bad.
After closing the attribute panel, Bai Fu found herself without anything particularly urgent for the moment.
She stayed on Ulysses Star for two days. When the agreed day with the Blessed Congregation arrived, she had Yulia hide away temporarily and personally went to the outer space area to receive the people from the Blessed Congregation.
At the moment she met them, Crystalite also received the news.
"The Blessed Congregation beat us to it and went to Bai Fu first. What now?"
The higher-ups of Crystalite furrowed their brows. Just then, they received a new update—
A guest named Cersia had arrived!