Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

Ruo Manni had been in the game for almost three hours. If she used a recovery potion to restore her health and mana to their optimal state, she would have enough time to complete her leveling task.

So far, only three players had reached Level 2, and if she completed the Level 3 task today, she would take the top spot on the leaderboard.

From this perspective, her strength was definitely better than the protagonist Mina-Olli’s, Ruo Manni thought proudly.

However, she only entertained the thought; while she wanted to achieve impressive results and gain others’ admiration, as an orphan, it was wiser not to attract too much attention.

After browsing for a while in the War Realm for useful gossip and finding nothing, Ruo Manni decided not to waste more time. She took out the plain long sword from her inventory and began practicing her swordsmanship.

Ruo Manni’s memory was excellent; after “reading” the jade tablet twice, she clearly remembered all eighteen sword techniques. Unfortunately, her martial arts level was quite low, and her body couldn’t keep up with her mind. As a result, her initial practice was disjointed and clumsy.

The first time Ruo Manni practiced swordsmanship took a full half hour, and she only managed to go through all the techniques once, resulting in a pitiful increase of just one skill proficiency point, while her health had dropped by over thirty points.

During the second round, while she was smoother, there were still some stumbles, and the skill proficiency increased by only one point again. The silver lining was that her health only decreased by twenty-one points this time, showing significant improvement.

By the third attempt, Ruo Manni finally managed to connect the eighteen techniques more fluidly. Although her movements were still soft and lacking strength, her skill proficiency rose to two points, and her health consumption was just fifteen points, with some damage value added.

Though the process was somewhat tedious, Ruo Manni felt a sense of satisfaction from physical activity.

However, practicing in War Realm meant her health would continuously decline. By the time she completed the tenth round, her health was down to just over two hundred points.

Despite this, the results were gratifying. Ruo Manni had raised her proficiency in basic sword techniques to Level 1 and had developed some momentum, achieving a damage value of ten, while the health bar of the fire beasts was a hundred points.

Satisfied, Ruo Manni decided that after school, she would focus on improving her basic sword proficiency offline, aiming to reach Level 2 before logging back on to tackle her leveling tasks, believing it would make fighting much easier.

Given her low warrior level was a significant hindrance, Ruo Manni planned to concentrate on swordsmanship training in real life, resorting to meditation only when tired.

Though she didn’t feel fatigued yet, her low health made her reluctant to take further risks in training. Noticing she had an hour left before logging off, she decided to head back to town to learn armor crafting.

The abilities of an armor craftsman in the real world correspond closely to the data in the game, especially in War Realm, where almost all data is restored with near-perfect accuracy.

In reality, Ruo Manni is already a Level 1 mecha manufacturer, so in the game, she doesn’t need to start from scratch. As long as she passes the assessment, she can obtain the title of Level 1 armor craftsman and then learn to craft Level 2 mechas.

The novel didn’t mention it, but Ruo Manni realized that War Realm could be quite capricious. During tasks, the game can teleport you instantly to the task location, but once the task is completed, it leaves you to find your own way back. If you can’t figure out the way, you’re left wandering in the wilderness.

As long as you’re not completely directionally challenged, you can eventually find your way back, though wasting time is your own problem. In War Realm, time and coins are almost equivalent.

When she came to complete the task, the system teleported her here, and Ruo Manni had no idea which direction Starfish City was in. The game’s provided flat map only shows a two-kilometer radius. Reluctant to waste time, Ruo Manni had no choice but to open the exchange shop, hoping to find a location map.

The result was painful; no matter the world, earning money always lags behind spending. Did a simple location map really need to be so expensive?

A small map costs five gold coins! If Ruo Manni hadn’t earned over ten coins today, she wouldn’t have been able to afford it.

But now, under pressure to spend money, Ruo Manni clicked to exchange, and immediately a 3D map unfolded before her. The map showed two light points: one was her ultimate destination, Starfish City, and the other was her current location.

This clear and practical map made Ruo Manni feel a bit better about her small expenditure, reassuring her that her money wasn’t wasted.

After memorizing the route and direction, she clicked to minimize the map, which then became a small marker under her attributes. In the future, whenever she wanted to use it, she could simply click to open it. This convenience made Ruo Manni feel that the five gold coins were worth it.

Just as she was about to close the exchange shop, she spotted an item that caught her attention.

Anonymous Item: A player using this item will have their ID hidden from other players for one month.

Without comparison, this one-month item cost one gold coin, which was significantly more expensive than the map. After all, the map was permanent. At that moment, she didn’t realize that updating the map would also cost money.

However, Ruo Manni truly needed it. She hoped that her ID, Lin Kexin, would gain fame, but she didn’t want others to find out her real identity. Hiding her ID wasn’t a foolproof plan, but it could at least buy her some time—she just needed to get accepted into the Xuan Gu First Military Academy.

Once she was accepted into the Xuan Gu First Military Academy, her safety would be guaranteed, and she wouldn’t be as worried about others discovering her true identity.

Thinking about the existence of Aoi Dan, Ruo Manni still felt it wasn’t entirely safe to hide her ID, so she decided to spend ten silver coins to exchange for a black veil that covered half her face.

Although the veil had a hazy beauty to it, making her even more eye-catching, after adjusting her vision and putting on the veil, others wouldn’t be able to see her features clearly. As long as she didn’t speak, Aoi Dan wouldn’t be able to recognize her without special identification skills.

Satisfied with her appearance, Ruo Manni set off for Starfish City. Players had two modes to return: one was to pay five silver coins for instant teleportation, and the other was to run back on foot. Looking at the map, she estimated that running back would take about ten minutes.

To save some money and improve her lacking stamina, Ruo Manni chose to run back without hesitation.

To her surprise, once she started running, she found that with her stamina level of 8, running was no exaggeration. When she reached Starfish City after ten minutes, she didn’t even feel out of breath, and her life points had only decreased by two, while her mana points actually recovered by two.