Who Made Her an NPC?!

Chapter 245 : A New Psionic Attribute, Bai Fu Stands Atop the Calamity-class PeakA New Psionic Attribute, Bai Fu Stands Atop the Calamity-class Peak

Chapter 245: A New Psionic Attribute, Bai Fu Stands Atop the Calamity-class Peak

"Finally completed this mission."

The moment she received the game prompt, Bai Fu immediately opened the mission panel to check the rewards in detail.

The experience reward was self-explanatory, but the so-called Random Stat Blessing truly caught her off guard.

She had originally thought it was a permanent buff that increased her stats, but after carefully reading the description, she realized the stat referred to the [Psionic Attribute].

There were many types of psionic attributes, such as Scorching, Illusory, Gray Mist, and Dark. Different attributes determined the development paths of different psionic profession types.

A Psionic Priest with the [Scorching] attribute was a traditional support role that could grant all kinds of buff effects to teammates.

A Psionic Priest with the [Illusory] attribute could be considered an illusionist, with a massive boost to various illusion-based skills.

A Psionic Priest with the [Gray Mist] attribute was rather special—still a support, but focused mainly on crowd control.

The [Dark] attribute, which was Bai Fu’s current psionic attribute, specialized in inflicting all kinds of debuffs on enemies—an old trickster’s favorite.

Generally speaking, whether it was a player or an NPC, one could only trigger the psionic attribute selection once at the B-rank stage. For someone like Bai Fu to obtain a new psionic attribute was extremely rare.

"No matter what this newly unlocked psionic attribute is, it’s a huge power-up."

Bai Fu reached out and tapped on the mission reward.

The next second—

[You have obtained a new Psionic Attribute – [Apocalypse]]

"Apocalypse?"

Bai Fu was surprised—this was a very special psionic attribute.

The Apocalypse attribute, like Scorching, could greatly enhance the effects of various buffs. But unlike Scorching, which worked on everyone, its effect only applied to [Apocalypse Followers].

The so-called Apocalypse Followers referred both to the psionic summons called forth by the Psionic Priest, and to any lifeform that revered this Psionic Priest.

Put simply, this was a very “cult-like” psionic attribute. Psionic Priests with this attribute often held key positions in various psionic religions.

In exchange for sacrificing universality, the Apocalypse attribute granted two additional effects.

The first was that it could apply a [Fragile] state to enemies. The Fragile state increased damage taken by enemies by 5%–50%, depending on the number of Fragile stacks. Moreover, enemies under the Fragile state were more susceptible to being brainwashed and controlled by psionic skills of the mind category.

Bai Fu hadn’t learned any mind-type psionic skills, but the psionic construct hanging from her chest, Lock of the Mind, came with a built-in mind-control skill called [Divine Descent].

"Nice. With this, as long as I stack Fragile high enough, even a Calamity-class could get brainwashed and become my dog."

Bai Fu beamed and continued reading the second effect.

The second effect was even more impressive to her—it allowed the user to temporarily lend 20% of their base stats to their [Apocalypse Followers].

And she happened to have a true spirit summon, Hei Fu, who inherited 100% of her base stats. With this ability and the Mind Blessing, she could instantly raise Hei Fu’s Inspiration to nearly 5,000 points.

While that number was still below her own full-power burst, it was already extremely powerful among Calamity-class beings. She could totally let Hei Fu handle difficult tasks on her behalf without taking risks herself.

Moreover, this stat-sharing ability could also be used to save allies at critical moments—or even to bluff players.

Want to experience S-rank extraordinary power at B-rank?

Want to dominate in missions like a true peerless Starsea warrior?

Want to make other players envy you?

Then come and farm contribution points for the Silent Court faction!

As long as your contribution points are high enough, you could become Bai Fu’s [Apocalypse Follower] and be chosen to temporarily inherit 20% of her base stats.

Don’t hesitate—take action now! Join the Silent Court faction!

"Perfect!"

In the age of the Starsea, Bai Fu was more eager than anyone else to recruit players into her faction. She understood the value of players better than any other NPC.

After reviewing the effects of the Apocalypse attribute, Bai Fu then opened the detailed description of her Psionic Garden Linkage Degree.

As the name implied, the Psionic Garden Linkage Degree represented her level of connection with the Psionic Garden.

Once her linkage degree reached 100, she would be able to communicate directly with the universe-grade treasure crafted by the now-defunct cosmic power Psionic Garden—called the [Psionic Evolution Tree].

Though she didn’t know what the [Psionic Evolution Tree] actually did, just being labeled a universe-grade treasure meant it was bound to be extraordinary.

After all, publicly available records showed that while the Fringe World had three Transcendent-level beings, it didn’t have a single universe-grade treasure. That alone proved how rare such treasures were, even for Transcendents. If she could obtain the Psionic Evolution Tree, she might be able to contend with those old fossils as soon as she advanced to Transcendent.

"Unfortunately, I need 100 linkage points to unlock it. I only have 10 now. Still a long way to go."

Bai Fu shook her head helplessly.

She closed the mission rewards interface and opened the new mission [Psionic Evolution Tree (2)] that was triggered upon completing [Psionic Evolution Tree (1)].

The requirement for (1) had been to collect ten psionics rated no lower than A-rank. For (2), the task was to cultivate psionics using the Psionic Evolution Tree diagram. The more cultivated, and the higher their level, the higher the rating—and each rating tier corresponded to different mission rewards.

The lowest reward tier was—

1 billion experience points.

The highest reward tier was—

10 billion experience points, a special talent, and +30 Psionic Garden Linkage Degree.

Bai Fu’s eyes lit up.

For others—especially NPCs—this mission would be a massive hassle, requiring both huge amounts of effort and time.

But for her, this mission’s difficulty level was "if you can’t complete it, you might as well go slam your head against a brick and die."

Cultivate psionics?

Cultivating players counted too.

She didn’t even need to guide them deliberately. Just putting some rare psionic unlock paths in the dungeon store would do. Players would purchase them on their own. As the version advanced and the player level cap increased, the mission rating would rise automatically.

This was a mission that guaranteed the highest reward tier as long as you were patient!

"Great. If patience is all it takes, I’ve got plenty."

Bai Fu wasn’t in a rush.

She hadn’t even advanced to Master-tier yet. Even if she got the Psionic Evolution Tree early, she wouldn’t be able to protect it.

After tallying her gains, Bai Fu sincerely thanked Nelis.

The two psionics Nelis had sent had increased her combat power by at least 20%–30%. Of course she had to show gratitude.

…

In the days that followed, as internal strife within the Taim Civilization visibly escalated, Bai Fu became busy again, making her final preparations before the main quest launched.

Whenever she had free time, she would stick close to Yulia to stack layers of Apostle's Heart. The final layer of Apostle's Heart granted a full 320 Inspiration, and she wasn’t far from maxing it out.

Besides stacking layers, she spent a lot of time expanding the private armed company Dark Moon Tide and increasing the exploration progress of the Initial Gate Star Cluster.

No hero stands alone—when it came to building her own power base, Bai Fu had always taken it seriously.

She personally led the effort and spent half a month guiding players to sweep through the entire Chaotic Starpath, capturing every wanted criminal whose name was on the interstellar bounty list.

Then, under the witness of countless news media, she officially signed a cooperation agreement with Starweb, the Tidal Civilization, the Skyeye Alliance, the Cast Civilization, and the Initial Gate Star Cluster branch of Star Pact.

This agreement marked the formation of a new central power in the previously loose Initial Gate Star Cluster.

While this new force was nowhere near as massive as the Free Star System Alliance or the Taim Civilization, it still had close to ten Calamity-class individuals. With Bai Fu, a figure with both immense power and prestige, holding the stage, this force was no longer to be underestimated in the Fringe World—at least not visibly weaker than the Glorious Forces.

With the support of this agreement, players from all factions within the Initial Gate Star Cluster successfully united.

Now they had a shared goal: to fully support the development of Dark Moon Tide!

Starweb, the Tidal Civilization, and the others were taking a gamble too.

It was obvious to anyone with a brain that civil war within the Taim Civilization would eventually erupt. The Free Star System Alliance and the Three Major Interstellar Civilizations would then intervene one after another. This war would be massive, and every force in the Fringe World would be affected.

To stand firm amid the storm, shutting themselves off wasn’t enough—they needed a guardian deity.

Given their strength, none of the Three Major Interstellar Civilizations would take them seriously. So in that case, they might as well trust Bai Fu!

If Bai Fu could advance to Master-tier, her protection would spare them from worrying about their own safety—at least for the foreseeable future.

All in all, this agreement was a win-win.

With the help of Bai Fu, the players, and the Initial Gate branch of Star Pact, all the disruptive elements within the four civilizations were swept clean, ushering in an unprecedented golden opportunity for development.

Under the support of the four civilizations, the players under Bai Fu had a stable source of experience. The fleet of Dark Moon Tide quadrupled in size in a short time, now exceeding two hundred starships. By pushing the limits, they could transport the entire faction's players to the battlefield in one go. The number of bases also grew from one to three. The second base was built with effort from the Origin Foundation, located in the sector where the Origin Foundation headquarters was. The third base was constructed with contributions from all four civilizations and was situated within the Tidal Civilization’s territory.

Moreover, Bai Fu had newly founded several companies.

One called Dark Moon Mining was managed by Old Nissen, responsible for developing the Dark Domain; another called Dark Moon Culture was managed by Gao Yuan, handling the development of various peripheral products; another called Dark Moon Heavy Industry was managed by Summer Poem, overseeing construction engineering and weapons production; another called Dark Moon Biology was managed by Yulia and Cecia, in charge of biopharmaceutical research.

Right now these companies were still far smaller than Dark Moon Tide, which had become the premier mercenary organization in the Initial Gate Galaxy Cluster, but Bai Fu believed that given a few years of growth time, these companies would eventually rise with her into a colossal tide sweeping the entire Edge Worlds.

“Grow bigger and stronger, and create glory again!”

…

Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, half a year had passed.

Half a year in the vast star sea was but an instant, yet for all members of Dark Moon Tide, six months meant earth-shattering change.

“Finally maxed out Apostle’s Heart, and reached level‑25 on Shadow Controller. Now my stats…”

Bai Fu opened her data panel.

Life 121728/121728

Psionic Energy 301824/301824

Qi 16075/16075

Stats: Strength 787, Agility 984, Constitution 1245, Intelligence 807, Spirit 1065, Inspiration 3749

Stat changes were not the greatest difference. The biggest improvement came from her prayer card blueprint collection.

Over the past half year she had synthesized a large number of new prayer cards, bringing her total prayer card blueprint count above two hundred. Most of these were summoning types. With those summoning cards filled in, her Psionic Legion was not only massive in scale, but fully functional: capable of melee combat, ranged attack, output, control, and healing.

One standard Legion could easily overwhelm a weak Calamity, and she could now command two such standard Legions simultaneously.

The cost of such tremendous improvement was that she had nearly spent all the experience she had saved over these six months.

But it was not a major problem. The Taim Civilization’s main storyline was about to begin. Once she and the players joined the battlefield, there would be no worry about lacking experience.

Apart from Bai Fu, others in Dark Moon Tide also improved in strength.

After consuming a large amount of psionic crystal, Yulia’s base Inspiration stat had reached 1700. She was steadily approaching Calamity rank.

Anya, Vic, and Siphris, driven by the Penalty of Sin spear, showed significant growth in psionic power. Anya had reached S+ rank, Vic was not far from S+, and Siphris had finally returned to S rank.

As a mechanic, Summer Poem’s rank remained at S, but thanks to continuous player support, her mechanical legion far exceeded peers of the same rank. It would not be a problem even against S+ level psionicists of other streams.

Those “protagonists” Bai Fu had recruited from various places earlier had each revealed their talents. Among them, the fastest growing were Ichi and Teresa, who had fought alongside players across many battles.

They came from Indigo Star. Having witnessed Bai Fu eliminate calamities that had plagued Indigo Star for centuries, they regarded Bai Fu as their idol and teacher. Since joining her in the star sea, they had thrown themselves into everything they did. As a result, in just over two years they had been promoted from B-rank to S-rank, becoming Dark Moon Tide’s rising stars, earning respect from both NPCs and players.

“You’re getting stronger and stronger. I can’t even reach your heels now.”

Cecia wiped the sweat beads rolling down her forehead, looking helplessly at Bai Fu as she slowly retracted her finger.

Just now she had been sparring with Bai Fu.

But Bai Fu had defeated her using only one finger.

Yes, just one finger. She didn’t summon her Psionic Legion. She didn’t call Yulia or Hei Fu. A few months ago she could still oppose Bai Fu’s two hands.

She knew Bai Fu had become far stronger after advancing to Calamity rank, so she trained desperately, just hoping to narrow the gap a bit. But the more she trained, the wider the gap became.

Bai Fu smiled and comforted Cecia: “You’ve hit a bottleneck now. Once you break through it, your strength will enter a rapid growth phase.”

Cecia nodded.

She understood that this kind of progress couldn’t be rushed.

What really frustrated her was that in another type of combat, the gap between her and Bai Fu had also grown larger!

How could this be?

Her physical constitution was many times better than Bai Fu’s.

Should she request drug support from Yulia? It would be too embarrassing. If Scarlet Leaf found out, she wouldn’t have face to stay in Dark Moon Tide anymore.

Cecia sighed inwardly.

At that moment, Bai Fu’s communicator suddenly rang.

The contact was Scarlet Leaf: “Bai Fu, Secretary-General Yin Zhu wants to speak with you.”

“Hm?”

Bai Fu slightly raised her eyebrow.

Yin Zhu didn’t lightly contact her. Whenever she did, it meant something big had happened. Two months earlier Yin Zhu had contacted her and told her that the Three Major Interstellar Civilizations had once again gathered for a meeting, reaffirming the previously signed interstellar peace pact. The implication was clear: agent wars could be fought, but they must not intervene personally and let wars spiral out of control.

Any one of the Three Major Interstellar Civilizations wanted to absorb the other two, but the three-way standoff prevented them from making reckless moves. Outside those civilizations, other powerful factions existed.

Those factions did not have as many Transcendent-rank or Domination-level members as the Three Major Civilizations, but if the three civilizations went all-out with hostility, those others might pick fruits from their conflict.

In short, that meeting by the Three Major Civilizations made it obvious that something big was coming.

What big thing?

No need to think—it was about the Taim Civilization.

“This time Scarlet Leaf contacted me likely because the Taim Civilization has movement.”

As Bai Fu had guessed, things were exactly as she thought.

“One of the candidates for supreme leader, La Nie, was attacked en route to a local speech. He survived by a narrow margin. The Taim Civilization’s factions had now completely torn at each other’s faces. The supreme leader just issued a severe condemnation of those behind the scenes. Civil strife should begin soon. Prepare yourself.”

Scarlet Leaf brought not only the news but also a new psionic construct blueprint for Bai Fu.

Zenith Sovereign

This was a staff-type psionic construct, with greatly superior attributes to the Gloomy Staff. It provided 200 points of Inspiration bonus, plus 20 percent skill effect boost, psionic energy recovery speed increase, and came with a psionic scatter skill.

“Thank you.”

Bai Fu did not behave formally with Scarlet Leaf.

Once the conversation ended, she immediately began to mobilize her forces.

Half a day later, she consecutively received contacts from Nilis and the supreme leader.

“Set out. It is time to let Dark Moon Tide sweep across the Taim Civilization.”