Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

In the youth group’s level-up leaderboard, only five players had reached level three, while over five hundred players were still at level two.

Ruo Manni, as an anonymous player, ranked second on the youth leaderboard, with the male lead, ID Hua Feitian, in first place, and the female lead, ID Xianxian Yufei, in fifth.

Ruo Manni couldn’t recall in the novel which day Hua Feitian reached level four after joining the game, but that didn’t matter. With her mana and health, as long as her damage increased, keeping up with Hua Feitian wouldn’t be difficult.

She decided to use Hua Feitian as a benchmark; once he reached level four, she could complete her upgrade tasks to keep pace, maintaining a top ten level-up speed.

With this plan in mind, Ruo Manni resolved to stay in the city today and focus on learning level two mecha manufacturing.

That day, she spent over four hours studying level two mecha crafting in the war world, where her mana remained unchanged, but her health decreased by one point every minute.

Although her health didn’t decrease much, after a long time, Ruo Manni still felt fatigued and a desire to stop.

She decided to take a break but didn’t want to waste time, so she took on a gold-earning task to balance earning coins and honing her skills. By the time she logged off that evening, she had gained over forty additional coins.

Ruo Manni’s days passed in a routine of practicing during the day and studying at night, with little contact with the outside world.

After Teresa Du’s disappearance, the Fang couple took over her guardianship and initially wanted to bring her to live with them. However, due to Ruo Manni’s vehement objections, they had to allow her to stay in her own home, visiting her in shifts each day.

Moreover, the robot butler was programmed to report any issues to the Fang couple immediately.

Fortunately, for the past two months, she could use the excuse of intensive training for her exams to refuse their daily visits, opting instead for brief video calls each evening.

The couple was very concerned about her mental well-being, fearing she might develop negative emotions due to loneliness. Even the tough Captain Lin made an effort to appear friendly.

Ruo Manni was satisfied with her guardians; they showed enough care and provided attentive guidance without being overly intrusive.

After all, she wasn’t the original owner. Although Ruo Manni felt that teacher Fang wouldn’t notice her changes, she was still getting used to her new identity and felt a bit drained.

Captain Lin, who was unfamiliar with Ruo Manni to begin with, wouldn’t notice any differences.

However, she didn’t want to be too insincere with the couple. After months without face-to-face contact, many things could be concealed over time.

If teacher Fang had the chance to see Ruo Manni training in person rather than just through video calls, he would surely be amazed by the speed of her improved overall combat power.

Living a life with almost no relaxation time except during meals would be unbearable for the original owner, but the current Ruo Manni found this routine quite fulfilling.

Little did she know, during this time, Aoi Dan was infuriated with her and had nearly lost the will to train. Aoi Dan had started plotting to get her special game pod, and there was no way to suppress that desire any longer.

Moreover, the previous plan not only failed to eliminate Ruo Manni but also inadvertently benefited her. Her previously low-level warrior potential had surged to a C rank, surpassing even Aoi Dan, and her cultivation level had also risen significantly.

This incident had become a topic of gossip at school, with every classmate expressing envy. Wherever she went, Ruo Manni’s achievements were the subject of admiration, which was intolerable for Aoi Dan, who had always looked down on her.

She believed she was the destined one, while Ruo Manni, who was supposed to die young, was nothing of consequence.

Aoi Dan thought for several days before coming up with a good plan.

However, no matter how good the plan was, it was useless if she couldn’t get into Ruo Manni’s house to see her. That fool seemed to really suspect her, as she refused to open the door no matter how hard Aoi Dan knocked. For a moment, she felt helpless.

Every time Aoi Dan came to knock, Ruo Manni was aware of it afterward but chose to ignore her.

To Ruo Manni, this woman was a ticking time bomb, capable of exploding at any moment. Seeing Aoi Dan’s barely concealed frustration on the recordings gave Ruo Manni a sense of satisfaction, as if she felt better just knowing Aoi Dan was unhappy.

Once players in the game reached level three, the amount of experience required to level up increased significantly, slowing the progression.

Fortunately, the game rules indicated that from level seven onward, the experience bar would no longer increase by a single digit for each level but would instead double.

However, aside from this minor comfort, other aspects felt unfriendly to players. Starting at level seven, players’ mana and health points would no longer increase with level advancement; they would only change when the basic attribute points were modified.

This was particularly unkind to players with lower overall attribute points. Ruo Manni had realized on her first day in the game that a player’s attribute points directly correlated to their abilities.

Players with high attribute points would have high mana and health, allowing them to tackle upgrade tasks more freely. In contrast, players with low attribute points couldn’t afford the resource consumption and had to focus on improving their skill proficiency to raise their damage output for completing upgrade tasks.

Within level ten, only players with high base attribute points and damage output could make it onto the upgrade leaderboard.

Ruo Manni was confident that she was among the most capable players in the youth group. This was evident as she effortlessly maintained her ranking within the top ten on the youth leaderboard.

She preferred not to stand out too much, choosing to follow behind Hua Feitian on upgrade tasks and consistently aiming to be second. Most of her time in the game was spent learning mecha manufacturing techniques or completing tasks to earn gold and improve her skills. Otherwise, she could easily surpass Hua Feitian and become the top player in the youth group.

However, after leveling up, Ruo Manni no longer received any skill jade slips, aside from gold and mecha parts.

She wasn’t disappointed; it was better to focus on a few skills than to overreach. Furthermore, when she expressed her desire to learn whip techniques to Captain Lin, he found her a basic whip technique set within half a month.

Though it was a basic technique, it was a human-level skill, indicating that Captain Lin had spent a considerable amount of money on it.

Ruo Manni informed Captain Lin about the triple gold item she acquired in the game, stating that she could earn plenty of gold and was fully capable of covering the cost in credit points.

“Manni, you’re so lucky,” Captain Lin said, pleased for her.

But he quickly returned to his usual authoritative demeanor: “However, you still need to prioritize your studies and training. Don’t spend too much time just earning gold.”