Chapter 78: The Value of the Player, Second Enhancement
The Truth Society President was nearly choked with rage.
He had been contending with the Gene Primordials for twenty to thirty years. Though he had suffered some minor losses during that time, this was the first time he had ever been toyed with by the Gene Primordials like this.
If he hadn't spread the news himself, he could have endured it. But before this, he had already made a huge announcement to the public, claiming Bai Fu was dead—only for Bai Fu to jump out and slap him in the face halfway through the broadcast.
If stabbing a voodoo doll could work, the President would’ve loved to stab Bai Fu and the Gene Primordials into porcupines!
Bai Fu and the Gene Primordials' move was equivalent to suddenly smearing a clump of Oreos on the opponent’s face in the middle of a life-or-death brawl.
In terms of physical damage, it might not be much, but damn if it wasn’t disgusting—the kind of disgusting that sticks with you for life.
“Be born already!”
The President was burning with fury.
Bernardo, standing beside him, trembled and asked cautiously, “President, should I send someone to hunt down Bai Fu immediately?”
The President clenched his right fist tightly. “Raise Bai Fu’s bounty directly to three million. That figure should be enough to send S-rank assassins to escort her to the afterlife. As for ourselves…”
He had thought it through now.
No matter the situation, priorities must be clear.
Bai Fu and the Gene Primordials were both hateful, but the most detestable of all were the Gene Primordials, because all of this had been orchestrated by them in the shadows. Bai Fu was just an executor. If they stubbornly focused on Bai Fu, the executor, they would be falling into the trap set by the Gene Primordials.
“Those old bastards from the Gene Primordials are truly calculating. Unable to find us, they purposely threw out bait to cause us trouble.”
A cruel smile appeared on the President’s face.
Unfortunately, no matter how well those old bastards calculated, they could never figure out his true identity.
In the face of absolute power, no amount of scheming mattered—and coincidentally, he would soon obtain that very absolute power!
“Immediately convene a combat meeting!”
The President had decided—this insult must not be swallowed. The Gene Primordials had to be taught a lesson.
Under his command, the Truth Society began operating at full speed, preparing for a retaliatory strike against the Gene Primordials.
At the same time, the outside world was in chaos over the news of Bai Fu's "resurrection."
In the Community, informed Players began sharing the intel they had just obtained.
【Ah? Didn’t they say Fu-Fu died? How come she revived on the spot?】
【The news that Bai Fu died came from Rattlesnake in the first place, right? Now the Truth Society’s face is thoroughly lost】
【Damn you, Rattlesnake, you really screwed us over. I was heartbroken for so long】
【I heard all the NPCs are saying this was a setup planned by Fu-Fu, Rattlesnake, and the Gene Primordials to trap the Truth Society】
【So that whole thing about Bai Fu falling out with the Gene Primordials was just a show?】
【Seems like it. Tons of NPCs are saying Fu-Fu was actually the Gene Primordials’ ace agent and had been acting ever since the Abandoned Cooling Plant】
【Uh, then is that stuff Fu-Fu and Anya said about being Extraterrestrial Visitors true or not?】
【Who knows? I’m totally confused now. Let’s see what the Gene Primordials say. Why are all these NPCs so cunning?】
【Of course it’s true! Fu-Fu could never be a bad woman!】
【I like bad women!】
While Players were arguing non-stop, many factions also tried to probe the Gene Primordials for Bai Fu's true identity.
“I heard Bai Fu was an ace agent cultivated by the Gene Primordials. Can you confirm this?”
The Gene Primordial members who were questioned all looked utterly confused.
What? Wasn’t Bai Fu a fugitive with a bounty from the Gene Primordials? When did she become an ace agent? You people have such wild imaginations!
The news traveled up the chain and eventually reached the ears of the general who had ordered Bai Fu’s elimination.
“General…”
“……”
The general was certain Bai Fu was not an ace agent of the Gene Primordials. But outright denial likely wouldn’t be believed by outsiders, and denying it might even be embarrassing.
Bai Fu alone had thrown the Truth Society into turmoil. What the hell were the Gene Primordials doing? If they couldn’t even match her, why did they drive away someone that capable?
After a round of discussion, the Gene Primordials finally decided to play dead.
Neither confirm nor deny—just let outsiders speculate all they wanted.
After all, they had nothing to lose. In this clash, the only ones hurt were the Truth Society. All they had to do was enjoy the benefits brought by Bai Fu.
……
Bai Fu closed her personal terminal.
The Truth Society had raised her bounty on the dark web to three million. From eight hundred thousand to three million—this was a leap.
But she didn’t care. The Goli Desert was so vast; even if the Truth Society wanted revenge, they wouldn’t be able to find her anytime soon. She could now enjoy the eighty thousand they had already transferred to her.
She took out a small portion of the money to share with Sword Qi Soaring and the others. Most of the rest would go toward building the Garden of Silence base, and a smaller part for buying materials to make Prayer Cards.
To her, only money spent was truly useful.
After sorting out the funds, Bai Fu opened her quest log. A new notification popped up.
【You completed the mission [Little Yulia’s Request (1)], and received a reward of 100,000 XP】
She had already found the location where Graham was hiding. Next, she needed to extract information from him about where the Truth Society was holding the people used to threaten Yulia.
That was the content of Little Yulia’s Request (2), which had a reward of 150,000 XP—a generous amount.
“Let’s go back first.”
Bai Fu wasn’t in a hurry to go after Graham.
Given her current strength and the number of Players following her, attacking that base and capturing Graham alive was too difficult.
She planned to return to Shelter Number 11 first to regroup, then bring more Players along to ensure the mission’s success.
On the way back to Shelter Number 11, Sword Qi Soaring and the others glanced at her several times but held back from speaking.
Though they said nothing, Bai Fu knew what they wanted to ask. It was nothing more than the rumors outside saying she was the Gene Primordials’ ace agent, that all the Extraterrestrial Visitor stuff was made up. Hearing these things too often naturally led to doubts.
Let them guess.
The more wild guesses the Players made, the better it was for her.
As the vehicle entered the Goli Desert, Bai Fu suddenly received a new notification. The contribution value for damaging 【Truth Unknown】 had risen from 1.19% to 1.83%.
“Hm?”
她 remembered that the last time this contribution percentage had also suddenly jumped from 0 to 0.28%. What was going on? Could it be that this progress bar would automatically rise by a segment every now and then?
After browsing the dark web and the Player Community, Bai Fu finally figured out the situation.
It turned out that while she was on her way back to Shelter Number 11, the Truth Society had dispatched many people to launch a new round of attacks against the Gene Primordials.
Because this round of assault came so suddenly, the Gene Primordials suffered considerable losses. However, since the Gene Primordials were one of the Five Major Factions, their counterattacks also caused a certain degree of loss to the Truth Society.
“The Truth Society attacked the Gene Primordials because I provoked them and then suffered losses—so even indirect destruction counts toward the contribution value, huh.”
Bai Fu’s mind immediately became active.
It seemed her grand spy plan could be implemented. She would use Players to scout out the locations of the Truth Society’s bases, then publicly reveal those base locations—she only needed to sit back and profit.
A few days later, Bai Fu returned smoothly to Shelter Number 11.
Under Gao Yuan’s arrangement, the second wave of Players who came to join her had already been settled at the Red Sandworm Camp. During this period, the Gao family’s convoys made several trips, performing a basic repair on the Red Sandworm Camp.
Their first cooperation could be described as highly successful.
Considering that the number of Garden of Silence Players had already exceeded one hundred, Bai Fu didn’t have enough mission rewards to distribute among all of them. So she decisively proposed deepening cooperation with the Gao family.
“What kind of cooperation are you suggesting?”
“If I remember correctly, your family occasionally takes commissions and then assigns them to Wanderers in the Goli Desert, right?”
Bai Fu explained her thoughts to Gao Yuan.
No matter how efficient ordinary Wanderers were at completing commissioned tasks, they could never match the Players. Rather than going through the trouble of working with other Wanderers, the Gao family might as well hand over this entire business to the Garden of Silence.
Once word of mouth spread, the Gao family could fully imitate the Makarov family’s dark web model to build a commission platform, take on more commission tasks, and assign them to the Players.
One had to admit, this pie looked delicious.
The Gao family worked under the Makarov family, and Gao Yuan knew very well just how profitable a well-established platform could be.
He was moved. Over the past few days, he had gotten a glimpse of the Players’ strength and realized that Bai Fu hadn’t been exaggerating when describing their power.
The only problem was he wasn’t sure how many Players Bai Fu could actually recruit. If it was just the current one hundred or so, then proposing to build a commission platform might be a little too fanciful.
“Let’s try it first. Even if it doesn’t work out, you don’t lose anything.”
Bai Fu remained very optimistic about the prospects of the commission platform.
Once she really set up this platform, even if there were no main missions on her side, she could still easily draw in a large number of Players.
The reason was simple—Players who joined other factions or acted solo had to find missions on their own. But those who joined the Garden of Silence wouldn’t have to lift a finger; missions would come to them, and they could even pick the ones they liked.
Full marks for gameplay experience, right?
After much consideration, Gao Yuan eventually reached a preliminary agreement with Bai Fu. The two sides agreed to discuss the establishment of the commission platform further once Bai Fu eliminated a few more Wanderer camps.
After sending off Gao Yuan, Bai Fu went to meet the newly arrived Players.
“Damn, it’s really Bai Fu! Bai Fu didn’t die!”
“I’m crying, everyone—you don’t know, I chased all the way from the Abandoned Cooling Plant, and I finally caught up today.”
Bai Fu received an enthusiastic welcome.
A few Players even asked if she was the Gene Primordials’ ace agent. She pretended not to hear and instead redirected their attention with another matter.
【Trial Mission】
As soon as they heard that, the eyes of the Players present lit up. They had already heard from Starfish‑bro and others just how awesome the previous Trial Mission was.
“This time, let’s wipe out the other two Wanderer camps that previously caused trouble at Shelter Number 11.”
Upon hearing this news, Old Nissen couldn’t help but be stunned.
He recalled those days long gone.
Back then, he too had passionate aspirations to unify all the Wanderer camps in the Goli Desert and bring a peaceful, prosperous future to that chaotic region.
But just as his dream was about to be realized, the Truth Society came, Yulia was taken, the Watchers Camp was scattered, and he became a cripple living under a false name.
That pain, etched into his bones, was something he would never forget.
“What’s wrong?”
A voice rang in his ears.
Old Nissen turned his head and saw that it was Bai Fu asking.
He shook his head. “Nothing, just remembered something.”
Bai Fu said no more.
After making sure the new Players were ready, she led them out.
Over seventy Players boarded four vehicles and set off in a grand procession toward the depths of the Goli Desert.
Because she had already gotten the locations of those Wanderer camps from the Gao family, Bai Fu didn’t need to capture any prisoners this time.
Just charge in!
【You killed...】
【You killed...】
【You completed the hidden mission [Eliminate Camp Juan]...】
This was when the Players’ value showed again.
With Players clearing the way, Bai Fu’s efficiency in eliminating those two camps drastically increased. Even with travel time included, the whole operation only took a day.
If she had done it alone, it might’ve taken three or four days—if it even succeeded.
In the end, Bai Fu successfully gained 120,000 XP.
She did a quick count. There were over a dozen well-known Wanderer camps in the Goli Desert. If she could eliminate all of them, she could gain at least another 600,000 to 700,000 XP. Combined with the XP she had already saved, that would be enough for three more level-ups.
Total Level: 33. With 200 to 300 Players and a large number of Prayer Cards, this setup should be enough to take down Graham.
“The path to an Advanced Class doesn’t seem so distant anymore.”
Just as Bai Fu was calculating where to find two Psionic Knowledge Chains, a new announcement was posted on the Game Community.
The much-anticipated Version 1.1 was about to be released. After the update, features like the Leaderboard and Arena would be unlocked, and more Newbie Villages would be added for new Players to explore.
These features didn’t really concern Bai Fu.
Since it was just a minor functionality update, Players wouldn’t be offline for long, so it wouldn’t affect her plans.
However, Bai Fu still underestimated the impact of this update.
At midnight.
When all Players were forcibly logged out, she suddenly received a game notification.
【Plot Participation Verification (0%……20%……100%)】
【Current plot exploration progress on Origin Star: 0.2%】
【Character role correction in progress (0%……6%……)】
【Character role changed from [Passerby] to [Key Hidden Plot Participant]】
【Character profile correction in progress (0%……4%……)】
“What the—!”
Bai Fu’s eyes widened.
In the next second, joy overflowed from her eyes, completely uncontrollable.
After all this time, she had finally ushered in her second enhancement!