The explosion of bullet comments in the live stream was completely within Lily's expectations.
With such a cool entrance, plus the white hair buff she specifically applied to herself, if she still couldn't capture the players' souls, she might as well go find a block of tofu to bash her head in and die.
But how much popularity she could gain remained to be seen; she'd let the bullet fly a little longer.
Lily opened her game panel.
After killing the burly man, she gained 150 experience points, just enough to level up.
[[Unemployed] has been upgraded to Lv3, Strength +1, Constitution +1, Attribute Points +1]
Lily's attributes had changed slightly.
[Template]: Ordinary
[Experience]: 71
[Main Class]: Unemployed Lv3 (0/1000)
[Sub Class]: None
[Health]: 60/60
[Attributes]: Strength 5, Agility 3, Constitution 6, Intelligence 3, Spirit 4, Inspiration 3
[Skills]: None
[Talents]: None
[Attribute Points]: 1
[Reputation]: 1
Lily added her free attribute point to Constitution, bringing her Constitution to 7, which doubled her health bar compared to an Ordinary minion, making her completely worthy of being called an Elite Monster.
The bad news was that the Unemployed, this blank slate class, had a maximum level of Lv5; to continue increasing her strength, she urgently needed to learn a new class.
The good news was that the game had no hard limit on the number of classes, so she could just learn any new class.
This was one of the differences between Above the Stars and other games; players could use experience to unlock new main class slots, thereby learning more classes.
However, it was generally not recommended to learn too many classes at once. People had their limits, and even a Saint Liver practicing many classes simultaneously would fall behind the main player force due to lack of experience, thus missing many major events.
In the early stage, it was best to specialize in a certain class, and only consider class combinations after acquiring high-level skills and talents.
Lily already had a plan for her future leveling direction.
The so-called 'mixed learning' was a way of leveling up by lying down.
In terms of attribute allocation, it was mainly Constitution with secondary Agility, focusing on running away with a big move if she couldn't win.
She had considered the main class for the longest time. Above the Stars currently had four open schools: Technology, Body Cultivation, Psionic, and Spirit, each containing a vast number of main classes.
Origin Star, where she was located, was a beginner planet with a "Wasteland" theme, allowing only some Technology, Body Cultivation, and Psionic main classes.
At this stage, Lily preferred the latter two.
It wasn't that the Technology system wasn't strong enough, but that the latter two were more cost-effective.
First, she would learn a tank class or a support class that could buff herself to increase her survival rate.
As for what came after, that would depend on how many gold coins the players could help her extort from the developers once her popularity soared.
After closing the game panel, Lily opened the Abandoned Cooling Plant section of the Xingyou Community.
As soon as she entered, she saw players going wild.
[Big sister with white hair, please, please use your ultimate boot humiliation on me!]
[Foot fetish perverts, go to hell!]
[Actually taking a sneak peek? Where is morality, where is the bottom line, where is her home address?]
[I've been waiting for half a day, where's Galio? Why hasn't he reached level 6 yet?]
As she watched, a link popped up.
[A female NPC voting thread has been posted in the general section next door, everyone go vote! Click ↑]
[Holy cow, it's a phishing site, this is the real link: ***]
Lily's mouth twitched.
She didn't click the link but opened the general section herself.
The cause of the matter was this: Not long ago, a player from the Abandoned Cooling Plant posted a video of Lily in the general section, saying that she was the best-looking female NPC in Above the Stars, challenging anyone to debate it.
This move immediately hooked a bunch of videos and photos.
Subsequently, a player collected these videos and photos and opened a separate voting thread—
"The First Above the Stars Most Popular Female NPC Competition"
As soon as the post was released, it immediately attracted the attention of countless players.
They immediately started a cyber battle in the post.
[I can only say that cuteness is worthless in the face of sexiness.]
[Impossible, my wife Mary Rose is invincible!]
[I laughed, Tifa is heaven.]
[You simply don't understand how beautiful a rich woman can be.]
[Why isn't that giant mech from the promotional video included in the options? How can you say her gender isn't female?]
[I choose mech girl, she is the popular choice!]
When Lily clicked in, the battle was still ongoing.
There were a total of 43 contestants, and after over an hour of competition, the 1st and 2nd places were already fixed.
The giant mech that appeared in the promotional video was far ahead on the list, demonstrating a terrifying and despair-inducing dominance.
Behind it was the NPC from the closed beta who was resurrected by the developers under the players' charge.
As for the third place, it kept changing.
Lily scrolled down and found herself at 15th place.
[Mysterious Girl X who doesn't play by the rules]
"There are quite a few experts."
This ranking was very good, because those ahead of her had either appeared in the game's PV or had already accumulated some popularity in the closed beta.
A pure passerby like her wouldn't even have been eligible to participate initially.
But with one performance, she forcefully broke into the upper half of the rankings!
Lily nodded slightly.
What a pity, if her entrance effects had been cooler, her ranking would definitely have risen further.
She casually refreshed the post. At this moment, something magical happened: her votes increased by 108 in one go, jumping from 15th to 14th place.
Huh?
Lily thought she was seeing things and quickly refreshed the post.
It proved she hadn't misread, because her votes increased by more than 30 again.
Strange.
Just now, her votes were increasing by one or two at a time. Could it be that someone had mistakenly farmed votes and given them to her?
Lily scrolled through the post and finally understood the situation.
It turned out that Excavation Princess had flashed in and used her ultimate.
Excavation Princess was originally voting silently. When she saw a player comment on Lily with "What's the use of being good-looking, she'll soon disappear," she immediately saw red.
You are not allowed to insult my favorite Mysterious Girl X!
Excavation Princess used the skill [Over-Interpretation].
[I can guarantee that Mysterious Girl X is a very important plot NPC!]
Even though Lily had only appeared for a few minutes and said only a few lines, she still managed to write a two-thousand-word essay explaining that Lily was no Ordinary person.
[In my opinion, she is most likely an undercover agent sent by some organization to the Wildfire Gang. As for whether she is related to the main storyline, that remains to be verified later.]
Players who didn't know Excavation Princess were stunned after reading the post.
Especially those players whose hair was falling out from being tormented by essays almost knelt before her.
How can you write so much?
Players who knew Excavation Princess, however, immediately sang a dirge.
[Everyone, disperse, Excavation Princess is acting up again.]
[Excavation Princess might be right, but it's unlikely Excavation Princess is right.]
Facing the doubts, Excavation Princess remained very calm.
It doesn't matter.
A storm cannot fell a tree that has already fallen!
[Let's wait and see if you don't believe me.]
If she guessed wrong, she would continue to play dead. If she guessed right, she would jump out and settle scores!
Excavation Princess's [Over-Interpretation] was exceptionally effective, directly bringing a large wave of attention to Lily.
Some players were true fans.
Others were simply looking for fun.
But no matter their purpose, they all cast their votes for Lily.
You cast one vote, I cast one vote, Lily ascended on the spot.
15, 14, 12!
[Tenth place, holy cow, made it into the top ten!]
[Darn it, why aren't you voting? Vote, all of you, vote for me!]
Supporters of other NPCs immediately panicked when they saw this scene.
Referee, someone is using cheats!
They couldn't care less about anything else and quickly went to call for external support.
No one expected this voting event, which originally didn't have much attention, to become the most popular event since the server opened.
[Sixth place, everyone, lend your energy to my wife!]
[The power of unity, please, with your roar, destroy all obstacles!]
In just 20 minutes, Lily surged from 15th to 7th place!
But this was not her limit yet.
30 minutes, 6th!
47 minutes, 5th!
On her way to challenging for 4th place, she encountered strong resistance.
But so what?
[We unite!]
After half an hour of tug-of-war, Lily managed to exhaust her opponents' vote reserves, securing 4th place before the voting deadline.
Yes, 4th!
This wasn't 4th place out of four people taking an exam; it was 4th place out of 43 people!
If the voting hadn't ended on time, Lily felt she might even have surpassed that big sister in the revealing outfit playing the zither.
The Zither Girl used her ultimate up close, building a wall of sighs with the support of the perverts, but the sword of the fun-seekers was not without its edge!
Seeing the final result, all players supporting Lily cheered to their heart's content.
[We are the champions!]
[Holy cow! Awesome!]
Of course, some players were not convinced, and they argued endlessly over the ownership of third and fourth place.
[Pfft, only fourth, still far from third.]
[What did Mysterious Girl X do to you?]
[Classic.]
[You're not broken, are you?]
[Filial.]
The two sides argued for a long time without a clear winner, finally agreeing to settle it in the second competition.
[Zither Girl is the best!]
[Nonsense, Mysterious Girl X is the best!]
This wave of arguments unexpectedly brought a lot of attention to Lily.
Lily: "6."
Excavation Princess truly was a woman of astonishing wisdom.
She had never expected her appearance to generate such high popularity; she could only say she had never had such a wonderful start.
However, she also knew that such popularity was fleeting.
Fun-seekers came and went quickly.
She was currently like being in a senior kindergarten class and getting fourth place; as the game's plot progressed, she would encounter more formidable opponents.
In just version 1.0 [Dark Star Stirrings], Above the Stars had opened many new starter planets with various themes for players to choose freely.
These starter planets all had their own main storylines, and hidden within them were many exciting side quests. Just imagine how many popular NPCs would emerge from these storylines?
Not only that, the number of habitable planets controlled by cosmic forces like Rebirth Empire, Supernova Battle Group, and Titan Industries, which appeared on the game's official website introduction page, must be as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. How many heroes could emerge from so many planets?
Countless, simply countless!
Lily steeled her heart.
Damn it, I'm going to blow them away!
She refused to believe she couldn't rise.
Next, she would simultaneously improve her strength and consolidate her surging popularity.
Lily thought of Excavation Princess's post.
Undercover agent?
Not a bad way to whitewash herself.
As a token of gratitude to Excavation Princess, she would plagiarize it!
While thinking, Lily had already arrived near her home.
She looked up, and outlined by the setting sun's afterglow, a person stood beneath the weathered sign of the Abandoned Cooling Plant by the roadside.