Poverty makes me capable of anything.

Is that even a question? It's a hidden quest, of course I'll accept it!

“I’ll do it!” An Ran immediately raised her hand.

As for why I was able to take on the mission, does that really matter?

Making items can increase experience, but it's obviously not as fast as doing quests.

“Okay.” Colin nodded. “I won’t let you work for nothing.”

Chapter 04: A Series of Missions, Colin's Mechanical Engineering

The first step in a hidden chain of quests.

Colin's Mechanical Engineering

Mission Brief: Colin, the manager of Colin's Repair Shop, is currently undertaking a mysterious mechanical project. However, Colin seems to have encountered difficulties, and the project is not progressing smoothly. He needs some help.

Task reward: 200 experience points.

Task repeatability: unique.

200 experience points isn't much for Anran right now, since upgrading her main class to Lv4 requires 2000 experience points. However, considering this is the only hidden chain quest, it's understandable that the reward is low as the first part of the quest.

Unless the game designers are idiots, the reward for completing this task will definitely be very generous.

In some games, a unique hidden quest can turn a newbie into a legendary figure.

An Ran was completely surprised by this unexpected turn of events. She was already planning to leave work, but now she was full of energy and decided to stay.

The overhead light in the workshop emitted a weak, yellowish glow. An Ran glanced around and noticed that the number of precision components on the workbench in the corner had increased.

This must be the result of store manager Colin's efforts today.

Most of those precision devices were transparent glass tubes with shiny black metal blocks embedded at both ends, and silver wires connecting the two ends inside the glass tubes.

Colin walked to the table, ignoring the glass tubes, and took a piece of paper from the drawer. He turned and handed it to Anran: "These are the design drawings for what I'm going to do next. Take a look first, and we'll start in ten minutes."

After Colin finished speaking, he walked over to a machine.

drawing?

An Ran's eyes lit up. As a mechanic, An Ran would never complain about having too many blueprints in her possession.

The mechanic has a skill that allows them to combine multiple blueprints, with a certain chance of generating a new blueprint.

Anran opened the drawings and looked through them from top to bottom in order.

The structure wasn't very complicated; with her intelligence of 16, she could easily understand it. However, the information she read left her feeling frustrated.

【？？？？（1/79）】

This piece of paper is only 1/79th of a drawing!

Anran really wanted to send a facepalm emoji while playing with snakes.

This is a very impressive set of blueprints, but it's clear she won't be able to get the complete set anytime soon.

She shook her head slightly and began to carefully study the diagram, deciding to complete the task first.

"Is it ready?" Colin stood up precisely after ten minutes.

An Ran nodded: "No problem."

“Let’s get started,” Colin said. “You’ll operate the machine, and I’ll cut the slots.”

Colin was making a metal pillar as thick as an arm. While Anran was controlling the equipment to melt the metal and cut grooves, Colin also took out a drill and began to carve.

The specially designed drill bit tip has an extremely high hardness, making it easy to scratch metal pillars.

When Colin dealt with the metal pillar, it was as if he had transformed into a painter with a pen, depicting his thoughts on a blank sheet of paper.

An Ran, who was daydreaming, noticed Colin's gaze. He was completely focused, but there seemed to be an unusual tenderness in his eyes.

"..."

Oh My God.

An Ran couldn't help but swallow. Could Colin be a perverted mechanic who has some inappropriate desire for metal?

Think about it carefully; the thing we're making right now has the shape of a pillar.

Emmm...

An Ran almost fell into deep thought.

"Focus your attention!"

However, Colin suddenly spoke up, stopping Anran from her wild thoughts.

An Ran's expression hardened. How could that be? Those glass tubes were clearly not things that could be put to use.

But then another voice echoed in my mind: "Maybe it's for heating?"

That makes so much sense!

Anran quickly focused her attention and concentrated on her work.

Time passed slowly, and Colin carved many grooves of different shapes into the metal pillar, even chiseling through the middle of the pillar to form a slightly tortuous channel.

After polishing away the burr, Colin turned off the drill's power. He wiped his forehead, which was now covered in black grime. "Alright, it's done. The equipment can be turned off now."

Anran complied, and the mechanical arm that had been holding the metal pillar loosened. Colin grabbed the pillar, overjoyed, unable to hide the delight on his face.

"Perhaps I'm not mistaken."

An Ran muttered something under her breath.

"What's wrong?" Colin asked, puzzled.

"It's nothing, it's nothing." An Ran waved her hand. "I just meant it's getting late. If there's nothing else, I'll head back now."

"Oh." Colin nodded slightly. "Thank you for today. Consider it overtime and I'll pay you double."

"what?"

An Ran was surprised. She had thought there would only be experience rewards, but she didn't expect there would be money too!

Regardless of what Colin was doing, Anran's opinion of Colin immediately improved.

"The first stage of the mission [Colin's Mechanical Engineering] is complete. Reward: 200 experience points."

Leaving the Colin repair shop and walking home, Anran was in a great mood. She even bought some fruit from a roadside stall, which was quite extravagant.

……

"call!"

In a separate compartment of "Your Grandpa's Weapon Shop," Zhou Jieyu sighed deeply. She took out the pelu coins she had earned from a day's work from her pocket. After deducting food and drink, she had only saved 20 pelu coins.

To see that map, I need to save up for another three days. And to gather enough money to go to the nearby main city, I don't know how many days it will take.

At this moment, Zhou Jieyu felt very uncomfortable.

Through the forum, she learned that not every new player is as miserable as she is.

Players with a skill in the real world quickly unlock the corresponding secondary profession, enabling them to find a decent job in the game and accumulate experience and money.

As for those adventurous players, they team up to fight monsters and do quests. Although they have a tough time in the early stages due to a lack of equipment, they level up very quickly.

Players like myself, who only know how to eat, drink, and sleep, are too lazy to go out and explore, and have no followers, are at the very bottom of the player pyramid.

In her current state, still letting herself go, Miss Zhou Jieyu is almost despairing of life.

She even started to miss her older brother "leading the charge." Although he would be under control, at least she had someone to help her come up with ideas.

No no no.

Zhou Jieyu quickly shook her head. She had promised to cause a stir at the Night of Stars by herself, so how could she give up so easily?

I, Zhou Jieyu, will become stronger!

Clenching her fist, Zhou Jieyu suddenly heard voices outside: "We're delivering goods to Shuangyue City tomorrow, why hasn't your girl come back yet?"

The old man at the weapons shop calmly said, "We encountered a downpour on the way, and we won't be back for a while."

"Then what can we do? The other party needs your goods urgently, and the time cannot be delayed. You can't travel far yourself."

The old man frowned: "Let me think about it."

"I need to leave by noon tomorrow at the latest, so don't miss it."

"Stop nagging, your grandpa has a very good memory." The old man waved the person away impatiently.

Chapter 05 Why do all the NPCs here look the same?

Zhou Jieyu rode a bumpy tractor from the ruined town, heading towards the distant Twin Moon City.

Because the shop owner's daughter was unable to return in time, the matter was dropped, and the shop owner had no choice but to assign the task to Zhou Jieyu, an "outsider".

Zhou Jieyu was naturally more than happy to let her go to a big city.

At present, the number of players who can go to big cities is so large that even if you can't count them on one hand, you can still manage with two feet.

The tractor sputtered and chugged, but it was much faster than Zhou Jieyu had imagined. The journey of several hundred kilometers could be completed by noon, and they could reach the city before sunset.

At this point, Zhou Jieyu started to show off. Hearing that they were almost at Shuangyue City, she leaned against the railing of the carriage and immediately clicked on the "Leading the Charge" avatar.

"Brother, I'm going into town!"

"???" The leader of the charge sent three question marks in a row.

"I said I wanted to go into town!"

"Huh?" The one leading the charge didn't quite catch up with his sister's train of thought for a moment.

"Twin Moon City!ヽ(#`Д?)?┌┛〃"

After sending the message to Zhou Jieyu, she angrily closed the chat window.

She was angry and didn't want to deal with that stupid older brother for the time being.

"Twin Moon City?" The leader of the charge was stunned for a moment, then suddenly remembered that it was a large city in 1886.

My sister said she was going to Twin Moon City.