Chapter 2
However, Ye Bai did not receive a response from the Aurora. When she looked again at the record, it showed "Communication Disconnected." It turned out that while she was lost in thought, the long-distance spaceship carrying the other party had already taken off, automatically severing the planetary signal.
Knowing that she wouldn't be able to contact them for a while, Ye Bai turned her attention to the advertisement for "Wanjie" in the sky.
The design she had created had now automatically added a billion details, transforming from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. It felt both strange and familiar, and she was eager to learn more. However, the public network on Blue Star was akin to a local area network, offering only game advertisements and no additional content.
It seemed everything required access to the Star Network. Once logged in, she could not only gather information but also directly enter the game.
But there was a problem: registering for a Star Network account cost a whopping ten thousand Star Coins!
Star Coins were the universal currency issued by the Star Alliance, with extremely high purchasing power. This price sounded outrageous—Ye Bai had saved just over three hundred Star Coins in three years, meaning she would have to work for a hundred years just to "go online."
In reality, this price was quite reasonable, as the Star Network connected the entire universe, equivalent to a virtual layer of the cosmos. Once logged in, no matter where one was, real-time interaction was possible. Some less advanced civilizations were even willing to sell a planet just to buy a Star Network account, akin to the only computer in a village that could connect to the internet.
Ten thousand Star Coins...
Ye Bai's expression shifted for a moment, but ultimately, she gritted her teeth and decided to contact the Blue Star Council for the first time.
Years ago, when the wormhole appeared, the solar system became the second-largest transportation hub in the Milky Way. According to the Star Alliance treaty, Blue Star became a public planet, belonging to the entire alliance. Even the New Humans only had residency and management rights, not ownership of the planet. However, as the only intelligent being on Blue Star before its development, Ye Bai held the sole private property here—
The piece of land in Antarctica beneath her when she was frozen.
Today, Blue Star was worth its weight in gold; even a piece of land the size of Ye Bai was incredibly valuable.
In fact, when Ye Bai had just thawed, the two major New Human civilizations that had come here had offered to buy it from her.
Ye Bai had refused.
Her parents had died young, and Ye Bai had built her fortune from scratch, achieving financial freedom in her twenties. Besides luck and talent, she possessed a keen intuition that others lacked.
At that time, she knew nothing about the world a thousand years later, but her intuition told her that this property was not only her last connection to Blue Star but perhaps her only support.
Indeed, later on, because of that small piece of land, Ye Bai registered as an interstellar citizen under the identity of an ancient human.
Conversely, if she had sold the property beforehand, her identity would have been defined by the two New Human civilizations managing Blue Star.
Ye Bai would have been protected, free from worrying about environmental purification costs—but whether she would be treated as a "human" or a "monkey" would depend entirely on others' whims.
Because of Ye Bai's refusal, the Blue Star Council subsequently treated her coldly, which was not without the intention of forcing her to compromise. With no money and struggling to adapt to the Blue Star environment, even if she later found luck in entering Aurora's laboratory, she would eventually have to bow her head.
In fact, just as Aurora had suggested before, now that Ye Bai had citizenship, selling that property would allow her to afford a spaceship ticket to a remote star region, seeking a suitable planet to settle on.
In some less advanced civilizations, the exchange rate for Star Coins was very high; the three hundred Star Coins Ye Bai had saved over three years would be enough for her retirement.
However, even when considering temporarily becoming a monkey at the zoo, Ye Bai had never thought about selling that insignificant piece of land.
She didn’t want to truly be "left with nothing" in this era.
Until now, Ye Bai realized that the "Wanjie" she had created might also exist in this time.
"I want to sell my property in Antarctica."
As she spoke these words to the other end of the communication, Ye Bai's hands trembled uncontrollably.
Choosing to sell her property to register for the Star Network was undoubtedly a gamble that risked everything Ye Bai had. Strangely, what she felt at that moment was not fear, but a long-lost excitement that seemed to bubble up from her very blood...
...
The transaction ultimately concluded at ten thousand Star Coins, a price Ye Bai had firmly insisted upon, and there was competition between the two New Human factions within the Blue Star Council; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to sell it for such a high price.
【Received a new transfer: 10,000 Star Coins】
【Please confirm whether to register for a Star Network account? This will cost 10,000 Star Coins】
【Confirm】
There was no extra helmet; the personal terminal implanted at the back of Ye Bai's neck heated up, upgrading the Star Network interface in five seconds.
【Registration successful, welcome to the virtual universe!】
After a moment of disorientation, Ye Bai found herself in another world, where her senses struggled to distinguish reality from the virtual.
She didn’t waste time exploring her virtual personal space but hurriedly proceeded to the next step:
【Would you like to log into the game "Wanjie"?】
【Connecting...】
Ye Bai watched as the starry river reversed before her eyes, as if she were undergoing some kind of traversal. The timer above her vision glowed bright red, indicating her account balance—
She had three days left.
---
**Chapter 2**
Before long, Ye Bai's eyes brightened.
Illuminated by candlelight, she found herself in a closed stone chamber, standing on a platform adorned with strange patterns, which appeared to be a damaged magic circle.
Directly in front of her was a tightly shut stone door, carved with a familiar trident tree totem, faintly glowing.
"The login interface has even turned holographic..."
Having never seen anything like this, Ye Bai marveled for a moment before looking down at her "body":
She was wearing the initial gear—a gray and white tank top and shorts. Although her gender and race hadn’t changed, her physique was not the same as in reality; she was taller, more muscular, and had the standard model physique that looked good from any angle.
As her gaze fell on her body, Ye Bai felt she could adjust the bones, muscles, and fat of this body. This was the "face-sculpting" feature, allowing her to directly replicate her real-life appearance in the game if she wished.
Ye Bai merely glanced and made no adjustments.
She didn’t know how much the two versions of "Wanjie" overlapped, but as the creator, she was well-versed in the game’s data design.
The core design of "Wanjie" was an open world with high freedom. When creating a character, there were no race or class choices; instead, body type and character attributes were interconnected.
This not only affected the character's initial attributes but also influenced the growth coefficients after leveling up.
Specifically, a character with maxed-out muscles would have a strength growth rate of 1.2 times that of a standard physique, while agility growth would only be 0.7 times.
The penalties outweighed the benefits, which was the cost of being "specialized." The advantage was that players who had determined their career paths early could meet job transfer requirements at lower levels.
However, for Ye Bai, who understood many advanced item acquisition methods and hidden quests in the game, there were plenty of ways to level up. Any attribute with a 0.3 deduction in growth coefficient would not be worth it in the later stages, so she naturally chose to become a versatile warrior!
As for the facial aspect, it had little impact; aesthetics were quite personal. No matter how well one sculpted their appearance, it would only yield a basic charm value. However, it was worth noting that an "Eldritch appearance" that exceeded normal human aesthetics would lower charm values, affecting NPCs' initial favorability towards the character.
Ye Bai stepped off the platform, knowing that she could no longer change her appearance... well, unless she paid to do so. However, when she created "Wanjie," the shop was still in design, and she hadn’t found anything similar in this holographic version of "Wanjie."
The stone chamber was bare, the only notable feature being the totem-adorned stone door in front of her.
Following the login "cutscene" from her memory, Ye Bai reached out and pressed her hand against the core of the trident tree totem.
The totem on the stone door lit up with a mysterious glow, simultaneously sending a thought back to Ye Bai—
【Identity】
【Key】
Seeing this, Ye Bai's eyebrows twitched, and a bold idea suddenly emerged. She input her GM (Game Master) account for "Wanjie."
Identity: Bai Ye
Key: 009527#
【Character creation successful】
"Of course, it can't be that easy..." Ye Bai let out a sigh of disappointment at the prompt.
Creating a character meant she had just completed the registration for a new account, not logged into her existing one.
If she could log into her GM account, she could easily pull out any item from her inventory and sell it for a fortune at the game auction house. As for her character's strength, being an administrator meant her combat power would exceed the game’s limits, making her a one-hit wonder against any boss.
But that was to be expected. If she could log in, the first thing she would feel would likely be horror. Currently, with the two versions of "Wanjie" having the same settings, it was already a tremendous opportunity for her.
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