What the hell?
What just happened?
What's he supposed to do now?
Staring at the notification that had just popped up out of nowhere, Anthony — who still had absolutely no idea what was going on — scratched his head. Then he looked down at the group chat.
And saw David's message.
So his ability had actually worked.
For a moment, a faint look of understanding settled across Anthony's face. He started typing, directing his question at David.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Any specifics on what you experienced? I need a description.]
[Let Night City Burn: Ah, yeah. My soul felt like it was drifting in some kind of void — and then, just now, I could suddenly see everything around me…]
[Let Night City Burn: It was like coming back to life for a moment. Couldn't interact with anything, but it seemed like people could actually see me?]
[Let Night City Burn: Not sure if she could hear my voice either… Either way — thank you. Seriously. You let me settle something I would've carried forever. If there's ever anything I can do to repay you, just say the word.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: That state you were in — how long did it last, roughly?]
Anthony didn't touch the subject of repayment at all. He only had one urgent question.
Give me a break — we're all dead. What use is a dead man's promise of repayment?
Win your resurrection match first. Then we'll talk.
[Let Night City Burn: About… thirty seconds?]
Thirty seconds.
Anthony went a little blank. He turned his head and glanced at the chunk of lifespan he'd just burned through.
Right. Twenty-four full hours. That was 1,440 minutes.
...A transfer efficiency of less than one percent? Are you actually serious right now?
[Diagnostic result: This falls within normal parameters.]
[Soul Force suffers massive degradation when traversing the Primordial River. Additionally, your Soul Force is of relatively low quality, resulting in further substantial loss during conversion.]
Reading the chat group's explanation, Anthony felt the headache lodge itself even deeper.
He stared at the wall of text below — annotation after annotation piled up like his university thesis had been inflated with filler — and spent a good while grinding through it before he actually understood what it was saying.
Simply put: it was like an electrical circuit.
Anthony was the battery. The Primordial River was the wire. David was the appliance on the other end.
The only problem was — Anthony's battery voltage was running a little low, the Primordial River's resistance was running a little high, and the appliance's rated wattage was running a little steep.
Son of a — my high school physics is rising from the grave just to spite me.
But honestly, when he thought about it, it made sense.
The Primordial River was a place that had nearly destroyed him outright. High resistance was the least you'd expect from it.
And David — he'd been teetering on the edge of full cyberpsychosis right before he died. The idea that Anthony's meager Soul Force would suffer massive conversion losses trying to take effect on someone like that was entirely understandable.
Unless Anthony could raise the quality of his Soul Force, changing any of this was going to be nearly impossible.
But that wasn't even the part that gave him the worst headache. The real problem was: if sending even a trickle of energy to David caused this much friction, what kind of astronomically wasteful conversion rate would he be looking at when he tried to send energy to someone like Jonathan? Or worse — Jie was in the group too. Just thinking about that conversion rate made Anthony feel physically ill.
He sighed. Nothing he could think his way through right now… At least for the moment, this had accomplished what he'd set out to do. And there'd even been an unexpected bonus on top.
With that thought, Anthony pulled his mind back together and looked down at the group chat.
[AAA City Female Ghost: Did you really… come back to life?]
[Let Night City Burn: Yeah. For me, it was close enough — even if only for a moment…]
In front of the glowing screen of the chat group, Carmen typed her question with something close to open disbelief.
At the same time, she turned to glance at Ein — working silently beside her, same as always — and gave a small wave.
No response. Of course not.
After Carmen had taken her own life, her consciousness had sunk into a kind of limbo. Then the chat group had appeared in front of her, and things had settled into their current state.
In a way, she was probably the one in the best shape out of all of them. Relatively free to move. Basic senses intact. The only catch was that nobody could see her.
The City Ghost's talent, she thought. Terrifying, when you put it like that.
And sure — there was something almost peaceful about floating here, watching her former colleagues. Watching Ein carry on like nothing had changed.
But Carmen, if she was being honest, wanted to live.
The chance to come back — that would be more than enough.
A will to survive that had awakened, inexplicably, after she'd already chosen to die.
She let out a small, self-mocking laugh. Then she started typing again.
[AAA City Female Ghost: @Lord of the White Holy Throne — how did you do that? And is there any chance of going further?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: It's a little complicated to explain. Short version: it's about burning resources. In theory, burn enough and you can push it further.]
Anthony hesitated for a moment, then gave a deliberately vague answer.
Not technically wrong. The resource in question just happened to be his own lifespan.
[AAA City Female Ghost: Then, could you still—]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Not right now. I told you — I'm already on borrowed time myself.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Understood. I'm sorry — I overstepped.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Is there anything I can do to help? If you can manage what you just did — or go even further — I'm willing to assist. I'll pay whatever cost it takes.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: …That is a spirit worthy of admiration. If there is anything I can do as well, I will not hesitate.]
Seeing Carmen and Jonathan's responses, Anthony quietly exhaled.
Good. At the very least, the foundation of trust had been laid.
But the same truth held regardless.
You want to help? There's nowhere to even start. You're all dead.
Still — if this was a chat group, and the group rules mentioned mutual assistance, then there had to be a channel for it. There had to be.
His best guess: the "channel" was probably tied to the locked modules he hadn't unlocked yet. The most pressing thing right now was figuring out how to open those features one by one.
Which brought him right back to that same legendary, infuriating loop.
Unlocking features requires Points.
So go get Points!
Getting Points requires the group's features.
So go unlock the features!
Unlocking features requires Points.
So go get the Points!!!
There's no end to this, is there?!
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: I'm genuinely grateful that everyone's willing to trust me… But even if you want to help, there's no route to do it right now.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: That said, I'll do my best to figure something out. I'm a dead man too — and since this chat group exists…]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Everyone in here wants to come back to life. That's the one goal we all share. I hope that from here on out, we can work together with real trust — and fight for that together.]
Anything more would've drifted into hollow platitudes — those who revive first lift those behind them and all that inspirational nonsense. Anthony thought for a moment and decided to stop there.
Because next, he had something more important to do.
With that thought turning over in his mind, he looked back toward his ability — [The Angler] — and the new text that had appeared alongside it.
['Affinity' Bond established with World: Cyberpunk 2077 at Level 1]
[Current Bonded Worlds: Cyberpunk 2077 (Level 1)]
[Soul Ability · The Angler — Text Updated]
[While fishing, you may randomly reel in items from any Bonded World. Item rarity is determined by the World's Affinity Level. Certain items may be exchanged for Points and other resources.]
Well. He'd officially become a fishing guy.
Fishing guys sometimes came home empty-handed — that was just the nature of it. But he couldn't deny what he felt when he read those lines: a sense that the death loop he'd been stuck in might actually have a way out.
You can call me an empty-handed loser when I've got nothing to show for it. But right now? Right now I've cracked the game wide open. What do you call me now?
And beyond the relief — beyond the sheer excitement of having a lifeline — there was something else stirring in him too. A kind of irresistible curiosity.
What exactly would he reel in?
From the world of Cyberpunk 2077, of all places?
Driven by that curiosity, Anthony couldn't help himself. A short laugh escaped him. He turned to face the vast, boundless Primordial River — and cast the rod.
Then he waited. Quietly.
Hours stretched by. Long, uneventful hours. The rest of the group had long since run out of things to talk about and dissolved into idle chatter, killing time the way dead people apparently did.
Anthony sat like a monk in deep meditation — and finally, finally, lifted one eyebrow.
He felt it.
The float was bobbing.
Without a moment's hesitation, Anthony yanked the rod.
Something had taken the bait.
I didn't come home empty-handed! Did you hear me?! I didn't come home EMPTY-HANDED!
In that instant, Anthony hauled the rod back with every ounce of enthusiasm he had.
[Item successfully reeled in!]
____
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