Lily stopped.
Anya, who was following behind her, took a step forward and nervously clutched her clothes.
"Boss."
"Small problem, don't worry."
Lily held Anya's hand back, signaling Anya not to be nervous.
She was all too familiar with the person standing under the sign.
Martin, a minor supervisor of the Wildfire Gang, her direct superior, with a combat power roughly equivalent to 20 Anya, not much stronger than her after her upgrade.
With his strength, this guy wasn't qualified to be a minor supervisor, but he had a special ability—
He had a rough grasp of first and second-grade elementary school knowledge!
Yes, not only could he write his own name, but he could also quickly calculate addition and subtraction within a hundred, and single-digit multiplication and division were effortless for him.
In the Wildfire Gang, where the vast majority of members were despairing illiterates, Martin, possessing this skill, stood out like a Foundation Establishment grandmaster among Qi Condensation rookies.
So, he was naturally promoted to minor supervisor.
Initially, he was quite pleased with this experience, but soon he realized the problem.
"How the hell am I supposed to make false accounts and embezzle money using 'I can't calculate' or 'I calculated wrong' if I can actually calculate?"
"Are those bastards at my level really unable to clear accounts, or is there a possibility that they are geniuses pretending to be confused?"
Martin was about to crack.
He reflected on his painful experience.
He worked so hard to become a minor supervisor; was it not to make money, but to make the Wildfire Gang great again?
Since the path of making false accounts was cut off, he could only squeeze his subordinates dry!
He constantly assigned various tasks to his subordinates and liked to rush them as if he were a debt collector.
It was best if his subordinates could complete them; if they couldn't, he would find ways to deduct their money and occasionally engage in some PUA tactics.
"Why can others do it?"
Lily's predecessor became a victim.
Debt collection has always been difficult.
Lending a hundred yuan to relatives and friends, one never knows how long it will take to get it back, let alone trying to collect debts from the old geezers of the wasteland who have intricate ties with the Wildfire Gang.
"It was decided at the meeting that you will collect this debt. If you can get the money back, I'll give you 5 points!"
Lily's evaluation of this was—
Damn it, only 0.5 percent, you're even more ruthless than Huang Silang!
And Lily's predecessor's evaluation was—
Please find someone more capable.
The not-so-humanoid Martin immediately threatened.
"Difficult?"
"Lily, the organization's economic benefits haven't been great lately, so salaries might not be as punctual as before. If you don't earn some extra reward money, then..."
"Think about the child you picked up, how cute she is. You wouldn't want her to starve to death because you don't have money, would you?"
Lily's predecessor could only set off after patting Anya's head, and then, she was knocked out by a punch and lay in bed for two whole days.
There are still so many bastards in this world!
It can only be said that in this world, one cannot be too human.
Lily thought so.
Martin's appearance at this time must be to urge her to continue collecting debts.
Sure enough.
As soon as he saw her and Anya, Martin came up with a smile.
"Why has your hair turned white? Never mind, that's not important. I heard you were injured earlier; I was quite worried. Fortunately, you're fine."
After the pleasantries, he immediately showed his fangs.
"Lily, I know it's difficult for you, but the deadline given by the higher-ups is almost here..."
Ding!
Suddenly, two game prompts popped up in front of Lily.
The first one was—
"You triggered the Faction Quest [Debt Repayment]."
The quest comes with a detailed introduction, so no problem there.
SKIP!
Although the game didn't have a skip cutscene function, Lily actively ignored the babbling Martin and read the quest content.
"Quest Description: Your superior, Martin, hopes you can retrieve a debt owed to the Wildfire Gang."
"Quest Objective: No method is restricted; recover as much of the debt as possible. Details ← (Remaining time 47:59:36)"
"Reward: 2000 experience points, 10 Faction Reputation."
"Accept / Decline"
Lily chose to accept.
A reward of 2000 experience is not a small amount; at this stage, if players only do daily tasks like brick-moving and bottle cap collecting, they might not even accumulate 200 experience in a day.
From the reward, it could also be seen that this quest was very difficult to complete.
But it didn't matter.
If she couldn't win, she would run away!
Anyway, this wasn't like some Main God Space where failing a quest would result in punishment.
Lily opened the second prompt.
"You unlocked the Faction System."
Following that were dense lines of descriptive text.
The Faction System in Above the Stars was similar to those in other games; players could join a faction after meeting certain conditions.
By raising faction reputation, one could unlock corresponding levels of faction quests, limited shops, limited profession knowledge, faction positions, and so on. In some special factions, one could also gain attribute bonuses.
Joining a faction wasn't necessarily all good; it could cause players to be antagonized by hostile faction NPCs, leading to various negative consequences.
But none of this mattered to Lily, because her faction had already been limited to [Wildfire Gang].
As things currently stood, Lily had no intention of defecting from the Wildfire Gang.
Her view of the Wildfire Gang was different from others.
To other Abandoned Cooling Plant survivors, the Wildfire Gang was a terrifying demon king, specializing in extortion and evil deeds, making people fear them, but to her, the Wildfire Gang was as appealing as a female demon king in a hentai manga.
Being a large force meant the Wildfire Gang had money.
Stealing many things meant the Wildfire Gang likely possessed a large amount of rare upgrade materials and professional knowledge books.
At this point, why wouldn't she stay in the Wildfire Gang and ruthlessly extract their gold, instead of going out to squeeze oil from those struggling poor people?
It made no sense.
How much oil could those poor people have on them?
Of course, she would earn from whoever had money!
Playing a spy to gain players' favor while secretly digging into the Wildfire Gang's coffers—that was the path to ascension.
As for how to extract gold from the Wildfire Gang, Lily first thought of Martin.
Although she had returned most of her knowledge to her teachers, she had still attended a proper top-tier university. Comparing her to Martin was like Tyson beating up a child.
If Martin could be exceptionally promoted to minor supervisor, wouldn't it be reasonable for her to be a logistics manager?
But this was hard to say.
In others' eyes, she was an illiterate who could only write her own name not long ago. Suddenly, after sleeping for two days, she even understood a bit of calculus—that was too shocking.
Would she be caught and have her head opened up?
What a pity.
If she lived in a place where people believed in something, she could totally pretend to be a charlatan and shout, "The Heavens are dead, the Day will reign!" and then get rich by selling indulgences to believers.
Damn it, why is making money so hard?
Lily sighed inwardly and looked up: "I'll complete the quest very soon, but..."
"But what?"
Martin, whose words were interrupted, was a little displeased.
Lily made a request: "I want to go to the gang's library first."
The Wildfire Gang piled all the books they collected, useful or not, in the library, but not everyone was qualified to enter the library.
"Library? How many words do you know to want to go to the library?" Martin burst out laughing.
Lily remained calm. She pointed at Anya: "For her to read. She's still young and can learn."
Heh.
Martin didn't bother to dwell on this matter anymore: "Just mention my name, and you can enter the smallest public library freely."
That was exactly what Lily wanted to hear.
After smiling and giving a few more assurances, she sent Martin away.
Although Martin had already walked the path to his own demise, acting now was still too risky. She would wait a little longer.
After having dinner with Anya, Lily didn't delay and headed straight for the Wildfire Gang's library.
After giving Martin's name, the doorkeeper didn't make things difficult for her.
She stood by the bookshelf, her gaze sweeping rapidly.
"Brother, You Smell So Good," "Arithmetic," "The Art of Being Human"...
"What is all this stuff?"
Lily was speechless.
No wonder this small library could be entered just by mentioning Martin's name.
Hard work pays off; after searching around, she finally found the professional knowledge book she had been longing for.
"Three Minutes to Get Started with Psionic Prayer"
Lily took the book off the shelf.
Although the book was filled with symbols she didn't recognize, it didn't stump her at all.
"You have started reading 'Three Minutes to Get Started with Psionic Prayer.' Current progress 0.3%."
This was the charm of the player panel!
Three minutes later, Lily received a new prompt.
"You have unlocked a new profession [Psionic Apprentice], Spirit +1, Inspiration +1, Attribute Points +2."
"During the reading process, you comprehended new skills [Frenzy], [Hardening], [Spiritual Vision]."