Rising of the NPC Queen

Boss… Boss… Rise and shine, my Boss!”

Bianca felt a twinge of irritation.

For some reason, a persistent, buzzing voice had been drilling into her ear for the past minute. She had come here to sleep—what the hell did this brat want?

In a burst of sudden fury, she breached the fortress of her duvet in less than a second, her eyes snapping open to scan the perimeter.

Her vision was filled with mottled stone walls, a flickering incandescent bulb buzzing overhead, and a tear-stained face of a stranger hovering above her.

“Boss, you’re finally awake! Thank the stars!” the stranger sobbed.

*I’m awake?*

Bianca inadvertently caught sight of a cracked mirror nearby. The reflection showed a fragile-looking young woman with raven hair and a face that could launch a thousand ships—or at least a small fleet.

*What the hell?*

She was stunned. She had only taken a nap, yet somehow her “assets” had been swapped for “liabilities.” Sure, her features were now exquisitely refined, but that was hardly compensation for the loss of her… previous self!

In that instant, a torrent of memories flooded her mind.

Bianca remembered. Two days ago, a highly anticipated sci-fi MMORPG called *Celestial Horizons* had launched its open beta. On her way to buy a controller, she had gotten distracted browsing the community forums, laughing at players forming raid groups to besiege the game developers’ families in protest. In her distraction, she had collided with a runaway truck.

She had experienced the ultimate “long sleep.”

Now, she had transmigrated into the game world.

But she wasn’t the protagonist. She wasn’t the villain, nor the villain’s sassy best friend. She was a nobody—a generic NPC without even a dedicated wiki page.

Actually, calling her a generic mob was slightly inaccurate. She held a slightly higher rank than the average cannon fodder.

After all, she possessed a personal subordinate.

Bianca turned her head to look at the girl staring at her with nervous, wide eyes.

Yes, this was her one and only follower.

Alice. Eleven years old, four foot two. Specialties: Eating and sleeping. Bianca had fished her out of a scrap heap in the wasteland. Now, they were both lowly members of the largest local criminal organization: The Scorchers.

*D*mn it all.*

Bianca felt a wave of despair as she reviewed her combat capabilities.

One Bianca ≈ Ten Alices.

In this game world, her strength wasn’t just unremarkable; it was nonexistent.

Two days ago, she had gone out on a debt collection run for the Scorchers. An old debtor had punched her squarely in the forehead, knocking her out cold for forty-eight hours.

With combat stats like a wet paper towel, Bianca couldn’t even imagine a scenario where she rose to power. In fact, survival itself seemed like a stretch.

*You are right, but… Celestial Horizons is a groundbreaking open-world adventure game set in a perilous universe…*

She skipped the middle part of the generic intro.

*Suffice it to say, players take on the role of a Traveler from a distant star, starting on a remote fringe planet to uncover the truth behind the ‘Celestial Horizons’.*

This world harbored ferocious Star Behemoths, manic Psykers, and ambitious evil organizations… Even the aftershocks of their battles were enough to tear stars apart.

*To hell with that.*

Bianca had no intention of being collateral damage in a cosmic pissing contest, dying without even knowing why.

After agonizing over it, she decided to try the one trick every isekai protagonist relied on.

“Come forth, my Cheat System!”

Nothing happened.

Wait… here it comes!

Suddenly, a pale blue holographic screen unfurled before her eyes.

[Name]: Bianca

[Age]: 20

[Race]: Human

[Template]: Common

[EXP]: 0

[Main Class]: Idle Vagrant Lv2 (421/500)

[Sub-Class]: None

[HP]: 50/50

[Attributes]: STR 4, AGI 3, CON 5, INT 3, SPI 4, INS 3

[Skills]: None

[Talents]: None

[Attribute Points]: 0

[Reputation]: 1

A point-allocation system? Powerful. Truly powerful!

Bianca smirked. From a weakling to a powerhouse, this was her road to invincibility!

But her smile froze. Why did this interface look exactly like the player character panel?

She navigated quickly and found the familiar tabs: [Quests], [Map], [Community].

Bianca understood now.

She had become an NPC with a Player Interface. The key difference was the [Template] slot, unique to NPCs.

Templates were powerful; high-tier templates allowed NPCs to crush players of the same level effortlessly. But that was the only perk. She lacked the essential NPC functions. She couldn’t issue quests, she couldn’t train players, and there was no Affinity System. She couldn’t milk players for gold like those legendary merchant NPCs in old RPGs.

She wasn’t an NPC with player powers. She was more like a “Special Player” who couldn’t respawn!

*Good lord. So everyone else plays an MMO, and I’m playing Hardcore Mode? One life and it’s game over?*

Bianca nearly fainted from rage. She wasn’t a pro gamer, she didn’t have foreknowledge of the plot, and her template was trash. And she had to beat a permadeath run?

Some people were alive, but really, they were already walking corpses.

“I’m not playing! This game sucks! Let me out!”

Silence.

Bianca rubbed her forehead vigorously. Panic was the enemy. She needed to be rational.

She turned to Alice. “Has anything happened outside recently?”

Alice stared at her for a long moment, ensuring the question was directed at her. “Boss, nothing big. Just a weird group arrived from the west yesterday.”

“Weird how?”

Alice puffed up her cheeks angrily. “Very strange people. They all wear the same clothes, they talk a lot, asking everyone questions. They break into houses and rummage through chests. Some of them even stab themselves with knives for fun!”

Bianca’s expression turned peculiar.

That description… it screamed *Players*.

Alice continued, “Boss, they are so bad! They even looted the Scorchers’ supply crates. The Gang Leader said these aren’t normal drifters, we need to hit them hard!”

Bianca’s face turned a sickly shade of green.

*Hit them hard? The players are going to run you over with tanks!*

“No! We cannot provoke them,” Bianca grabbed Alice’s shoulder. “I need to see the Gang Leader immediately. Tell him to stop seeking death.”

Alice looked confused. “Why, Boss? The Leader already killed several of them! He called for a rally to hunt the rest. He said if we go, we get paid! More effort, more money!”

Alice waved her small fist excitedly.

Combat = Money = Fun!

Bianca’s heart stopped.

*It’s already started?*

*Child, this is not a laughing matter!*

They were doomed. Given the psychopathic nature of the average player—who would split a passing earthworm in half just to see if it dropped loot—Bianca knew that as a member of the Scorchers, if she didn’t flee now, she wouldn’t even leave a bone behind.

But where could she run?

She was in a settlement called the Rusty Cooling Plant, located on Terra Prime, the starter planet. A century ago, a great war devastated the planet, leaving it a nuclear wasteland. Outside the settlements lay pollution and monsters.

With her stats, stepping outside the gates would likely result in instant death. Even if she survived, the main plot events would eventually wipe her out.

*Calm down. Think!*

“How does an NPC survive in a game world?”

Her brain spun at light speed.

Raw power wasn’t enough. What if the developers used her as a sacrificial lamb for the plot? Or turned her into a boss mob?

Ultimately, an NPC’s fate was in the hands of the writers.

But then, she remembered a forum post from the beta. An NPC had died early in the story, but the player base loved her so much they review-bombed the game, forcing the devs to rewrite her survival.

It happened often in long-running Live Service games. Once a character becomes popular, they gain plot armor. Even a nobody can become a main character with enough fan support.

*Eureka!*

Bianca’s mind opened.

If she transformed from a nameless grunt into a fan favorite, would the “World Will” (developers) buff her accordingly?

It was worth a shot.

Perhaps, the path to salvation lay there!

No NPC knew the player psyche better than her. She was a player, and she could lurk in the community forums to see exactly what they craved.

She could be the perfect waifu, the perfect anti-hero, whatever they wanted. She was all ears.

At that thought, Bianca exhaled a long breath.

*Brace yourselves, kids. I’m going all in.*

“Boss? Are you… are you okay?”

Seeing Bianca suddenly fall silent, her face cycling through shades of pale and green like a broken traffic light, Alice couldn’t help but panic again.

She had hoped the Boss was back to normal, but given the expression on her face, Alice worried that the punch from the debtor had rattled something loose upstairs.

*Please don’t let the Boss be broken!*

Alice lunged forward, tears streaming down her cheeks, snot bubbling. “Boss, snap out of it! If you’re gone, I… I’ll go fight that old b*st*rd who hit you! I’ll bite him!”

Bianca rubbed Alice’s head, her touch firm. “Hush. I’m thinking.”

Becoming a beloved character in the eyes of players was no simple feat. First, she had to define exactly what made an NPC popular.

Bianca crudely categorized popular NPCs into two main archetypes:

The Thirst Trap.

The Soul.

She wasn’t just making this up; she had data to back it up!

Whether male, female, h