Chapter 216: Completing S-Rank Class Transfer Task, Fictional Scholar Bai Fu! [56k]

The number of investment conglomerates in the Star Ocean is vast, with Titan Industries’ Eternal Investment Fund being the most renowned.

The Eternal Investment Fund started with the game “Cosmic Web” developed by its subsidiary and, after accumulating enormous wealth, ventured into various investment fields, from traditional industries to emerging markets, and even investing in potential superpower users.

For instance, in the Titan War Group, the Eternal Investment Fund holds a 20% stake in the largest Titan-class battleship production shipyard. Among the nine Transcendent Superpower Users in the Titan War Group, three have received long-term investments from the Eternal Investment Fund during their growth.

Through investments, the Eternal Investment Fund has woven a network that touches on a large part of the explored universe. Although not traditionally considered a cosmic-level force, it can still sit at the table when facing the three major cosmic-level forces.

This time, the investment conglomerate that contacted Bai Fu was called “Origin.” While it lacked the financial and power resources of the Eternal Investment Fund, it was still a significant force in the Edge Star Region.

Before the formal contact, Bai Fu thoroughly investigated the Origin Conglomerate.

Founded several hundred years ago, the current manager of the Origin Conglomerate, Andreas, possesses Catastrophe Tier strength. His most notable investment experience involved elevating the Fire Rain Mercenary Group, once an obscure small faction, to become the second-largest mercenary group in the entire Edge World.

“The leader himself is Catastrophe Tier, maintaining close relationships with multiple Overlords, and investing in the Star Treaty, Arcane Library, and the All-Souls Cult. This makes them a second-tier force in the Edge Star Region. At least, star system-level civilizations like the Star Network would avoid conflict with the Origin Conglomerate if possible.”

Bai Fu nodded silently.

Receiving her first investment from such a high-level investment conglomerate was indeed a joyous event, though she wasn’t overly surprised given her recent performance.

With her recent achievements, attracting investments from large conglomerates was almost expected. They wouldn’t overlook her nearly two million players under her command.

However, upon formally meeting the Origin Conglomerate, Bai Fu was still shocked.

“Let me introduce myself. I am the manager of Origin Investments, Andreas.”

Andreas removed his hood, revealing a pale face that seemed somewhat sickly. He wore a tailored black suit and always had a gentle smile on his face, with the most noticeable features being his mustache and a small patch of beard under his chin.

Hearing this name, Bai Fu, known as the best actress, couldn’t help but show a surprised expression on her face.

Andreas had come to her personally. Was he really that considerate?

Highland, who was beside Bai Fu, reacted even more intensely.

Bai Fu had asked him to observe how interstellar investments were conducted to prepare for managing the Silent Courtyard’s investment department in the future. Little did he expect to meet the leader of the Origin Conglomerate.

Goodness, Andreas’s investment acumen was no less than his!

He had also collaborated with Bai Fu right after she arrived at the Goli Desert, eventually benefiting from her success to become the richest person on the Source Star.

“I don’t like dragging things out. Let’s get straight to the point, Miss Bai Fu,” Andreas said.

Bai Fu nodded with a smile. “As you wish.”

Both parties took their seats, and then entered the formal negotiation.

In fact, they had already communicated online several times before Andreas came. This meeting was just to discuss details.

Soon, both parties signed a one-year short-term cooperation contract.

Over the next year, the Origin Conglomerate would provide 10 million credit points to the Dark Moon Tide without charge. If Bai Fu felt that 10 million was insufficient, she could apply for additional funding, though these funds would be provided as loans, albeit with significantly lower interest rates compared to commercial banks.

To express her sincerity, in addition to the agreed terms, Andreas prepared two gifts for Bai Fu.

The first gift was a rare spiritual construct blueprint:

Spiritual Lock

This was a special offensive spiritual construct that looked like a simple heart-shaped pendant. However, it contained a special skill called Divine Incarnation — it could release a mental surge towards the target, turning them temporarily into the wearer’s disciple. The duration depended on factors such as energy strength difference and target resistance. Once the target entered the disciple state, the wearer could command them to do anything.

The effect of Divine Incarnation was somewhat similar to Battle Etiquette, but much more powerful.

“This is a high-level skill for the Ash Fog attribute spirit energy. My spirit energy attribute is Gloom, so there’s no special bonus when using Divine Incarnation, but it doesn’t matter since it’s still usable without bonuses.”

There were seven different attributes of spirit energy, each with vastly different gameplay styles. When choosing her spirit energy attribute, Bai Fu immediately favored the main damage output attribute Gloom, while Ash Fog focused on control, including brainwashing.

The second gift was a professional team that would provide comprehensive guidance and assistance in constructing the Dark Moon Tide base over the next period.

“You can request anything from the team, from raw materials to supply channels, they will help you connect and resolve issues.”

Bai Fu readily accepted.

Almost immediately after signing the contract, she found 10 million credit points added to her bank account.

To her, this amount wasn’t much considering the constant influx of money from her players. However, with this money, she could advance the construction of the Ulisse’s Star base, including her envisioned large-scale prayer card production factory.

To meet the demand of over a million players, her existing prayer card production lines were insufficient, necessitating an expansion in production scale.

“Smooth collaboration.”

Bai Fu smiled and nodded at Andreas.

After bidding farewell to Andreas, she immediately arranged for Highland to connect with the professional team sent by the Origin Conglomerate to prepare for the construction of the official base.

While she was busy, her communicator suddenly rang.

Ding-ding-ding —

The caller was Tessia.

“I’ve arrived.”

“You actually came? Wait, I’ll come pick you up.”

Ten minutes later, at Yulia’s laboratory.

Before picking up Tessia, Bai Fu was worried that Tessia and Scarlet Leaf would start fighting upon meeting. However, the outcome was completely unexpected.

The extremely unstable Tessia and the highly impulsive Scarlet Leaf didn’t even exchange insults!

But the lack of argument didn’t mean they would warmly greet each other. Their conflicts still existed, just not displayed in front of Bai Fu.

Tessia: I’ll make Scarlet Leaf collapse mentally by getting closer to Bai Fu!

Scarlet Leaf: I’ll punch Tessia to death to protect Bai Fu!

Yulia: I’m excited to watch!

Xia Shi: …

Anya: Get lost, all of you! Bai Fu is mine alone!

After a long silence, Bai Fu broke the ice with a topic: “Are you okay? Has the Secret Tower caused you any trouble recently?”

Tessia replied coldly, “They shouldn’t be paying attention to me now.”

Bai Fu nodded. “Better safe than sorry. By the way, what have you been busy with lately?”

Tessia paused, her mature face showing a rare hint of embarrassment.

“Actually, I came here for another favor.”

“What is it?”

“I want to borrow some undead from you again. Don’t worry, I’ll return them after completing the task, and I’ll pay the commission once I earn money.”

Tessia couldn’t even look Bai Fu in the eye while saying this.

Calling it a collaboration, it turned out to be Bai Fu unilaterally supporting her, which was quite embarrassing.

Bai Fu asked, “How many?”

“Another hundred should be enough. Their strength doesn’t matter; I just need them to help me find someone.”

Finding someone?

Bai Fu asked for more details, and Tessia didn’t hide her recent activities. After separating from Bai Fu, she returned to the place where she grew up, a biological laboratory!

Before joining the Secret Tower, she was trafficked to that laboratory, where she underwent inhumane synthetic experiments. That was when the spider monster took over her body.

Although many years had passed, she still wanted to take a chance and see if she could find any clues about her hometown in that laboratory.

Due to her young age when trafficked, Tessia couldn’t remember exactly where she came from or what her family looked like.

However, the biological laboratory had been completely destroyed by the Secret Tower, and she found nothing useful despite searching for a long time.

Just as she was feeling disappointed, she learned an important piece of information from someone nearby:

[“Every September 2nd, a ragged person wanders around here. I’m sure it’s the same person because of his unique appearance—his eyes are vertical, and he has fine scales under his right eye.”]

Upon hearing this information, Tessia was overjoyed.

September 2nd, wasn’t that the day she was rescued by the Secret Tower?

The ragged person she knew was a member of the laboratory, and she was certain of it!

She had always believed everyone in the laboratory died during the Secret Tower’s attack, but it turned out there were survivors.

Excited, Tessia immediately set out to find that person.

Players were good at finding people, but this time there were too many places to search. Her 100 players were insufficient, and she dared not ask others to avoid drawing the Secret Tower’s attention. Thus, she sought help from Bai Fu.

[You triggered the hidden quest [Truth of the Biological Laboratory]]

[Quest Description: …]

[Quest Objective: Help Tessia find the survivor of the biological laboratory]

[Reward: 2 million experience points]

Upon receiving the game prompt, Bai Fu raised an eyebrow. Was this a hidden quest? And the reward was only 2 million experience points, was it too low?

After getting used to tasks with rewards in the millions, this task made her feel like she was back on the Source Star.

She casually accepted the quest and outsourced it to the players.

“I’ll give you two hundred undead.”

Having achieved her purpose, Tessia left shortly. She wasn’t unwilling to stay, but she couldn’t bear staying knowing Bai Fu was near but unreachable. Instead of watching Bai Fu, she preferred to go back and use Bai Fu’s photo in spells.

After sending off Andreas and Tessia, Bai Fu had some free time.

Seizing this opportunity, she took on several high-level commissions.

The top priority was still completing the class transfer task. Only with increased strength could she afford to slack off.

In the days that followed, Bai Fu led the players through the Star Ocean, reaching other star clusters near the Initial Gateway Star Cluster.

To outsiders, her constant travel seemed like she was trying to recover from the Secret Tower’s attacks and make up for past losses, leading more people to sympathize with her.

[“Good people never have good endings!”]

[“The Secret Tower is truly despicable!”]

Seeing these comments online, Secret Tower members felt elated, thinking, “Wait and see, worse days are coming!”

A month later, Bai Fu completed all her commissions. Her battle score finally rose from 371 to 1000.

[You completed the class advancement task [Glory of the Warrior], gaining a reward of 20 million experience points, one random talent or passive skill, and class transfer qualifications]

[Random talent or passive skill extraction in progress]

[Extraction complete]

[You obtained the passive skill [Holy Spirit Protection]]

[Holy Spirit Protection]: Reduces 10% of incoming damage.

“Perfect!”

Bai Fu was delighted. After returning from the Jin Gu Star and enduring months of hard work, she finally completed the class transfer task. Now, she was just one click away from upgrading from S to S+.

Why hesitate?

Push beyond your limits!

Bai Fu pressed the upgrade button, and a series of prompts sounded in her ears.

[Class transfer successful]

[You unlocked the new class [Fictional Scholar], current level Lv1, Agility +1, Constitution +3, Intelligence +2, Spirit +1, Inspiration +6, Attribute Points +7]

[You completed the final class transfer, increasing 10 life points and 10 spirit energy points per Constitution point]

[You mastered new skills [Formation Deployment], [Coordinated Reaction]]

[You mastered new skills [Advanced Spirit Energy Fine Control], [Advanced Card Crafting], [Advanced Spirit Energy Toughness]]

[You mastered new skills [Fictitious Life], [True Sanction]]

The final class transfer brought a completely different sensation to her body compared to previous upgrades.

From A to S, Bai Fu felt like she was soaking in a hot spring, every inch of her body feeling incredibly comfortable. But from S to S+, she felt like a steamroller was rolling over her, wave after wave of pain almost breaking her apart.

Luckily, the pain didn’t last long. After about ten minutes, everything calmed down.

Bai Fu closed her eyes and felt her body. This time, there were no obvious changes in her physique, whether in body proportions or chest size, seemingly no different from before.

To be honest, this was good news. She was genuinely worried that her chest would grow larger with each class transfer, which would be excessive. Now, this size was perfect!

Bai Fu smiled and shook her head, starting to review her newly unlocked skills.

[Advanced Spirit Energy Fine Control], [Advanced Card Crafting], and [Advanced Spirit Energy Toughness] were upgrades of existing skills.

[Formation Deployment] and [Coordinated Reaction] were core skills for the spirit energy summoning flow. The former significantly increased the limit of controlled spirit energy constructs, while the latter greatly enhanced the coordination among constructs in the spirit energy army, making them very useful in both combat and prayer card production lines.

[Fictitious Life] and [True Sanction] were special active skills.

[Fictitious Life] was a defensive skill. After consuming 20% of her spirit energy, she gained an extra health bar. This fictitious life bar had a maximum of 20% of her total health, and attacks would first deplete this fictitious life. Until this bar was depleted, her body and soul wouldn’t sustain any injuries. The cooldown time was one hour.

“Wow, amazing!”

Bai Fu’s eyes lit up.

Fictitious Life + Holy Spirit Protection, combined, significantly boosted her tankiness, truly turning her into a tank.

[True Sanction] was an offensive skill. Its effect matched its name—it converted the next attack’s damage into true damage, but the cost was high, requiring the sacrifice of 10% of her maximum health, with a 10-minute cooldown.

Of course, to Bai Fu, 10% health wasn’t much.

Her health bar was already thick, and with the 20% bonus from Fictitious Life, plus her ability to quickly regain health via Vitality Drain copied from Tessia, she was well-equipped.

“Level up, level up.”

Bai Fu continuously invested experience points, leveling up all the newly unlocked skills that could be upgraded.

Now, she had over 1.7 billion experience points, and there was no need to be frugal.

After leveling up her skills, she spent nearly 500 million experience points to reach Level 10 in [Fictional Scholar], the maximum level. She allocated the remaining free attribute points to Inspiration as usual. After the upgrade, her attributes underwent dramatic changes.

[Health Points]: 44431/44431

[Spirit Energy]: 82695/82695

[Qi]: 4800/4800

[Attributes]: Strength 199, Agility 394, Constitution 621, Intelligence 435, Spirit 470, Inspiration 1503

Base Inspiration: 1503 points!

To Bai Fu’s knowledge, this number was extremely impressive. Many S+ level spirit energy prayer mages who had stayed at that level for years might not even have this high an inspiration score, yet she achieved this with her main profession at Level 110. This was the benefit of having a solid foundation.

She clenched her fist, feeling an overflow of power within her.

Before the upgrade, she could barely hold her own against Tessia with all bonuses. But now, even with Tessia’s buffs, she could overwhelm Tessia, though not necessarily defeat her.

“I wonder if I can compete with weak Catastrophe Tiers?”

Just as this thought crossed her mind, Bai Fu shook her head.

Too difficult.

Even with bonuses, her Inspiration attribute could match some weak Catastrophe Tiers, but the gap in other areas was still too great.

It was better to focus on the distant awakening task.

After reaching Level 110, Bai Fu received the awakening task. It was straightforward, with two conditions:

One, collect 2 advanced knowledge.

Two, raise one basic attribute to 2000 points.

“Still 497 points short of Inspiration. Looks like I need to level up the Dance Mistress class to gather more free attribute points. Otherwise, who knows how long it will take to gather enough points through quests.”

Bai Fu closed the attribute panel, took a bath, and changed out of her sweat-soaked uniform.

Exiting the bathroom, she found her communicator ringing. The caller was Jiujiao.

“Bai Fu, just received an urgent message from the spy in the Secret Tower. The Secret Tower is testing a special kind of bug with them. This bug seems to have strong contagious abilities, and the Secret Tower plans to use it for a large-scale attack!”

Bai Fu furrowed her brows.

It’s finally happening?

Luckily, her strength had greatly improved. It was time to complete the task of collecting more prototypes for the Dark Domain Bug Queen.

PS: Set the bowl for the monthly ticket~

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