Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

Immersed in her monster-killing skills, Ruo Manni completely forgot about the players around her, focused solely on grinding.

Two and a half hours later, she suddenly heard a system announcement: “Congratulations to player Hua Feitian for leveling up to Level 3, becoming the number one on the youth group leaderboard, rewarded with a special upgrade package and five gold coins, plus twenty leaderboard reward coins.”

As the announcements about Hua Feitian leveling up rang out, Ruo Manni was battling the tenth Fire Demon Beast, completely engrossed.

After several minutes, the beast finally fell, and Ruo Manni nearly collapsed from exhaustion, only to be enveloped in a golden light signaling her level up.

Then she heard the system’s world announcement: “Congratulations to the anonymous player for leveling up to Level 3, becoming the second on the leaderboard, rewarded with a special upgrade package and three gold coins, plus fifteen leaderboard reward coins.”

Ruo Manni felt exhilarated by the gold she earned after reaching Level 3 and couldn’t help but admire Hua Feitian, realizing that despite her higher base stats, his leveling speed was impressive.

After completing the task, Ruo Manni moved out of the Fire Demon Beast’s attack range. Exhausted, she sat down on the ground without caring about her posture, then opened her ID panel to check the changes after leveling up:

Player ID: Lin Kexin
Player Level: Level 3
Experience Bar: 10000100000
Mana: 1200055000
Health: 30000310000
Psychic Skill: Telekinesis
Skill Level: Level 2
Proficiency: 330010000
Casting Distance: Twelve meters
Damage: Unable to determine

Martial Skill: Basic Swordsmanship
Skill Level: Level 1
Proficiency: 51100
Damage: 51 points

Ruo Manni noticed that her base attributes hadn’t changed at all, while the experience needed for each level was becoming increasingly long, prompting her to sigh deeply. It was true that in the War Realm, the higher the level, the harder it became to level up.

From her hazy memory, the male protagonist in the book took over five months to level up from Level 1 to Level 10, while the female protagonist, who initially had weaker combat ability, took an extra half month to reach Level 10.

However, with the government’s strong promotion, most young players in the War Realm understood that this period was meant for honing their fundamentals. So even though leveling up was slow and tedious, diligent young players wouldn’t abandon the game for these reasons.

Leveling up to Level 3 had brought her eighteen gold coins, making Ruo Manni very happy. Combined with the coins she earned today from tasks, she had over fifty gold coins. With a little more effort tomorrow, she would have enough to learn Level 2 Mecha Manufacturing.

Ruo Manni checked the youth leaderboard again; no players had reached Level 3 after her. This meant her leveling speed was much faster than others. If she completed another leveling task tomorrow, she might surpass the male protagonist and become the top player on the leaderboard.

Although being number one felt great and brought in more gold, Ruo Manni didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself. Tomorrow, she planned to do tasks for gold like today, honing her combat skills, and once she had enough gold, she would return to the city to learn mecha manufacturing.

That night, before entering the game pod, Ruo Manni browsed the internet to find out how many credit points were needed for Level 2 mecha manufacturing at the specified guild website. She realized that the War Realm was truly a paradise for broke mecha manufacturers.

To learn even the basics of Level 2 mecha manufacturing online through the guild required at least five thousand credit points, and more advanced techniques needed even more. Mastering Level 2 mecha manufacturing would require over twelve thousand credit points, while Level 3 would triple that amount.

Most of her credit points were spent on the spacial game pod and special potions, and she needed to save for the hundred thousand points tuition for the Xuan Gu Military Academy. Learning Level 2 mecha manufacturing wouldn’t be a problem, but she wouldn’t have enough for Level 3.

Since the novel focused on the female protagonist, who was a mecha manufacturer, it didn’t mention the mecha manufacturing techniques in detail.

Ruo Manni learned from inquiries at the game guild that studying mecha manufacturing in the War Realm was nearly free. As long as players worked hard, they could earn enough gold for learning. Even using credit points for lessons cost only one-fifth of what the guild charged.

The War Realm was indeed a paradise for broke mecha manufacturers; as long as Ruo Manni had enough mental energy, she could keep learning indefinitely. Her current mental energy was already sufficient to support her as a Level 4 mecha manufacturer.

Closing her eyes, her heart burned with determination. She couldn’t remain indifferent knowing that humanity faced great peril.

However, as a powerless orphan, growing strong enough to influence the world in ten years felt like a fairy tale. The world was vast, and aliens were formidable, making her feel incapable of making a difference.

Yet yesterday, discovering the low cost of learning mecha manufacturing ignited a faint idea in her heart, which became even stronger upon realizing that acquiring gold in the War Realm wasn’t difficult.

This is also the confidence that Ruo Manni has in her determination to become a level seven master within five years.

After thinking for a while, Ruo Manni suddenly remembered that she hadn’t checked her most anticipated upgrade gift pack, so she quickly clicked to open it.

This time, the system rewarded her with three jade slips, an accessory, and five willow leaf flying daggers.

Ruo Manni was taken aback; having three jade slips at once felt a bit excessive. As she recalled, the protagonist usually only received one jade slip with each upgrade.

However, she certainly wouldn’t complain about the surplus. Afraid that the system might have mistakenly given her too much, which could be taken back upon discovery, she hurriedly picked up the three jade slips labeled one, two, and three to “read” them, and the results left her incredibly surprised.

The first jade slip taught a lightness technique, the second one was a body tempering technique, and the third, as expected, was a psychic flying dagger technique.

After all, since she received the willow leaf flying daggers, it was logical to be given a skill to practice with them; the system couldn’t possibly “know” that Ruo Manni had learned flying dagger techniques in the real world.

Ruo Manni had originally thought that the earth-level body tempering technique she had been practicing was no longer suitable for her. She had even been considering how to obtain a human-level technique, but the system provided a timely solution, giving her exactly what she needed.

Even though she hadn’t started practicing yet, with the previous jade slips and the comparison to the psychic flying dagger technique, Ruo Manni felt confident that this set of body tempering techniques would definitely not be inferior to human-level methods.