Seeing Jie's message, Lin Yuan immediately looked troubled.
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] About that… I should say this up front: personally, I'd be more than willing.
After all, if he helped summon Jie back, then he'd be able to establish a bond with the Arknights side as well. And Lin Yuan had been eyeing the stuff over there for quite a while…
Never mind anything else—if he could somehow change his race into some kind of undead soul, wouldn't he basically become unbeatable?
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] The problem is, I can't afford it.
[The Great Yan Creator of Writing:] But…
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] I know what you want to say. What happened with David was real enough.
Lin Yuan let out a sigh and typed with visible frustration, as if watching a mountain of gold fly away right in front of his eyes.
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] But the issue is that his situation and yours aren't the same. The price required to restore you would be several times higher than what his cost was—probably far higher than anyone else's, too.
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] For the others, I might still be able to bring them back for a few dozen seconds or maybe a minute. But for you… that's probably difficult.
There was no helping it. As one of Sui's fragments, Jie was likely the most absurdly overpowered person among everyone here while alive…
Just to temporarily restore David's soul had required an entire day's worth of lifespan for only half a minute. If it were Jie instead…
Lin Yuan seriously doubted whether burning one full day of lifespan would even let Jie move freely for a single second.
And right now, points were at their scarcest. There was simply no way to temporarily bring Jie back.
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] Still, there's nothing presumptuous about asking.
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] The whole point of this group, in the end, is to get everyone back to life. So if it's possible, I'll spare no effort helping all of you.
Because under the current circumstances, saving others was basically the same thing as saving himself…
[The Great Yan Creator of Writing:] Thank you. I was too impatient…
[The Great Yan Creator of Writing:] Then I'll keep this fishing rod safe for you for now, Mr. Lin. Once trading becomes possible, I'll gift it to you.
When Lin Yuan saw that line, he nearly felt the urge to burst into tears.
You're just giving it away because I asked? Are you my mother? My actual mother?!
Actual generosity!
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] I will never forget this great kindness for the rest of my life!
[The Great Yan Creator of Writing:] Isn't that a bit exaggerated?
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] No. You don't understand. You don't understand just how important something like this is to a fisherman.
[Let Night City Burn:] I… don't really get it?
[AAA Urban Female Ghost:] Relax. I don't get it either.
After chatting a bit more with his groupmates, Lin Yuan once again began getting a headache over the point shortage.
With such an enormous gap to fill, where exactly was he supposed to get that many points?
Letting David continue mooching things off Lucy was certainly one option…
But Lucy herself probably wasn't all that wealthy. Even if they squeezed her dry, would they really get 3,000 points out of it?
Lin Yuan stroked his chin, casting out his fishing rod while thinking.
In the end, he decided it was time to exploit someone else instead.
If one sheep no longer had any wool left to shear, then clearly it was time to find another sheep.
Jie, for the moment, was off the table. Even if Lin Yuan felt that the twelve Sui fragments probably each had a good amount of points to squeeze out of them, the problem was that he simply couldn't afford the cost of restoring Jie.
Jonathan… if he really gritted his teeth, maybe he could manage that one.
But according to Jonathan's own description, the man was currently stuck sharing a coffin with Dio at the bottom of the sea. What exactly was there to fleece from him? Dio's coffin lid?
After thinking it over carefully for a while, Lin Yuan realized that the best option really did seem to be Carmen.
Based on the timeline, everyone had entered the group at the moment just after they died.
And Carmen's death happened to be one of the key turning points in the Lobotomy Corporation series.
Put simply, that story was about Carmen leading a group of people trying to solve the City's dystopian mental crisis. But halfway through, Carmen buckled under the pressure and killed herself. The state of the laboratory then took a sharp turn for the worse, until a genius researcher named Ayin turned things around, founded Lobotomy Corporation, led everyone through a hundred-thousand-year loop, and eventually succeeded in launching something called the Seed of Light.
A story about sin and redemption.
But for the moment, all the other elements of that story didn't matter.
What Lin Yuan cared about was a particular substance in it called Enkephalin.
At the very beginning, their proposed solution to the mental crisis was a kind of drug. That drug produced a byproduct called Enkephalin, which could be used as a clean energy source and provide an almost ridiculous quantity of power. Later on, Lobotomy Corporation's main commercial product was precisely that.
Though it leaned somewhat toward the metaphysical side, even with some discount applied, it should still exchange for a good number of points.
And Carmen's death, as the story's turning point, also happened to be the very point at which Enkephalin production began to ramp up on a large scale…
Thinking that far, Lin Yuan smacked his lips thoughtfully.
If Carmen could somehow fleece Ayin for dozens, or even hundreds, of jars of Enkephalin, then wouldn't their current crisis basically be solved on the spot?
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] @AAA Urban Female Ghost, enough spectating. Time to cough up some gold.
[AAA Urban Female Ghost:] ?
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] Stop sending question marks. Your turn. What's your condition like right now?
[AAA Urban Female Ghost:] I can see things, but I can't touch them. I'm trapped inside the water tank in the lab and can't get out. That's about it.
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] Why does your condition seem to be the best out of all of us? Never mind, not important… Is the stuff around the tank Enkephalin?
[AAA Urban Female Ghost:] Yeah. It is.
At once, Lin Yuan understood.
So the timeline had already reached the point where Carmen had become the "bucket."
He still remembered that in Lobotomy Corporation, after Carmen died, Ayin preserved her nervous system intact and turned it into the tank used to extract Cogito and Enkephalin.
If that was the case, then the reason Carmen's consciousness was so unusually complete right now might very well be because of that.
He might even be able to save himself a chunk of lifespan because of it.
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] If I find a way to bring you back for a short while, could you try to get hold of some Enkephalin and exchange it for points?
[AAA Urban Female Ghost:] Maybe?
Seeing that, Lin Yuan thought for a while.
The Primordial River was full of lurking dangers, and right now Lin Yuan had no margin whatsoever for handling sudden disasters…
But then again, since he had no margin in the first place, the standard for what counted as "acceptable error" could just be lowered to don't die from running out of lifespan.
After all, he couldn't even reach the first kill threshold. So his true margin for error was basically wherever the second kill threshold lay.
Carmen wasn't entirely sure, yes—but if this attempt failed, then he'd only be losing one or two days of lifespan. Under the current circumstances, that kind of loss was still acceptable.
And if it succeeded, then the return would be a hundredfold, a thousandfold.
So he cast out the rod.
[Lord of the Pure White Throne:] Let's try it. I'm sending points to you now. Get as much Enkephalin as you can and convert it into points—the more, the better.
[AAA Urban Female Ghost:] Alright.
A string of silvery ripples flashed across the fishing rod.
And in an instant, Lin Yuan's remaining lifespan dropped from thirty-six hours to twelve.
…
At the same time, on the other side, Carmen felt a faint coolness enter her insubstantial soul.
Then, right after, some powerful force of attraction seized her. She blinked in confusion, and in the next moment felt that irresistible pull dragging her—
Then suddenly, she found herself lying dazed inside the water tank, attached to her own nervous system, viewing the surroundings through the nervous system's senses.
Within her field of vision, the clear green Enkephalin refracted a dreamlike light, revealing the entire laboratory around her.
What the hell?
Lin Yuan had paid such a steep price, and yet she couldn't even move properly?
Soaking in the Enkephalin that nearly filled the tank to overflowing, Carmen thought in utter confusion.
And then she saw the sudden text that popped up in front of her from the chat group.
[Detected that you are currently immersed in the high-energy substance: Enkephalin.]
[Would you like to absorb Enkephalin in exchange for reclaimed points?]
Seeing those words appear out of nowhere, Carmen blinked again.
And in her heart, she slowly reached a hesitant conclusion…
Were they about to get rich?
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