Reading Jie's message, Anthony's expression shifted into one of visible difficulty.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: About that… I should be upfront — personally, I am more than willing.]
After all, summoning Jie back would naturally forge an Affinity Bond with the Arknights world. And Anthony had been eyeing what that world had to offer for quite some time now…
Not to belabor the point, but if he could somehow swap his species out for Undead — wouldn't he basically be unkillable?
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: The problem is, I genuinely can't. Not right now.]
[Wordsmith of the Great Yan: But…]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: I know what you're going to say. What I did for David — yes, that's true.]
Anthony let out a quiet sigh and typed on, with the air of a man watching a mountain of gold sail away right before his eyes.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: But your situation is a completely different order of magnitude from his. The cost of bringing you back, even briefly, is exponentially greater — far beyond what it costs for David, and beyond anyone else in this group.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: For most of the others, I could probably manage a short revival — thirty seconds, maybe a minute. But for you… that's genuinely going to be difficult.]
It couldn't be helped. As a Sui Shard, Jie was probably the single most overwhelming powerhouse out of everyone in the group when she was alive…
Just sending David back for thirty seconds had cost a full day of lifespan. If he tried the same thing with Jie…
Anthony genuinely wondered whether burning an entire day of lifespan would even buy Jie a single second of free movement.
Right now, at the peak of their Points crisis, there was simply no way he could afford even a brief resurrection for her.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: That said — there's nothing presumptuous about asking.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: The ultimate goal of this group is to bring everyone back to life. Whenever it becomes possible, I'll do everything in my power to help.]
After all, in their current situation, saving others was the same as saving himself…
[Wordsmith of the Great Yan: Thank you. I was getting ahead of myself… In that case, I'll hold onto this fishing rod on your behalf, Mr. Anthony — keep it safe until the time comes when we can trade, and then it's yours.]
Reading those words, Anthony felt an overwhelming urge to burst into tears on the spot.
Just like that. Just giving it to him. You might as well be his own mother. His actual, biological mother!
Genuinely, sincerely generous!
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: I am forever in your debt — this kindness shall never be forgotten as long as I exist!]
[Wordsmith of the Great Yan: Isn't that a little over the top?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: No. You don't understand. You simply do not understand what this item means to a fishing guy.]
[Let Night City Burn: I'm… honestly not following any of this?]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Don't worry about it. I have absolutely no idea what they're talking about either.]
After the casual back-and-forth with the group died down, Anthony found his headache circling right back to the Points problem.
A gap this enormous — where on earth was he supposed to fill it from?
Sending David back to squeeze more things out of Lucy was technically an option… but Lucy didn't exactly seem to be rolling in it. Even if they milked her dry, there was no guarantee they'd scrape together 3,000 Points.
Anthony stroked his chin, fishing rod tossed out with one hand, thoughts turning with the other.
Eventually, he came to a decision: time to squeeze a different person.
If you've already sheared all the wool you can from one sheep, it means it's time to find a new sheep.
Jie was off the table for now. Sure — twelve Sui Shards, and Anthony had a feeling there'd be no shortage of Points to be harvested from that connection. But the cost of bringing Jie back was simply beyond what he could pay.
Jonathan… he could grit his teeth and maybe manage it. But the problem was — based on everything he knew, Jonathan was currently sharing a coffin at the bottom of the sea with DIO. What exactly was he supposed to extract from that situation? The lid of DIO's coffin?
After thinking it through carefully, Anthony concluded that the most viable option was, fittingly, Carmen.
Based on the timeline, every group member had been pulled in at the exact moment of their death.
And Carmen's death was a pivotal turning point in the entire Lobotomy Corporation storyline.
The simplified version: Carmen had gathered a group of people and set out to solve the City's spiritual crisis — a dystopian affliction of the collective mind. Midway through, the pressure became too much and Carmen took her own life. The institute plunged into chaos. A brilliant researcher named Ein stepped forward to salvage what remained, founded Lobotomy Corporation, led everyone through a hundred-thousand-year time loop, and ultimately succeeded in launching something known as the "Tree of Light."
A story about sin. And redemption.
But setting aside its tangled web of elements for now — what Anthony actually cared about was a specific substance called Enkephalin.
The original solution to the spiritual crisis had been a pharmaceutical compound. During its synthesis, it produced a byproduct: Enkephalin. Enkephalin could serve as a clean energy source — one capable of providing an almost limitless supply of power. This, in time, would become the primary product that Lobotomy Corporation sold to the world.
It had psionic undertones, which meant some conversion loss. But even accounting for the discount, it should still trade for a solid haul of Points.
And Carmen's death, as the story's turning point, was also the exact moment when Enkephalin began to be produced at scale…
Anthony turned that thought over slowly, clicking his tongue.
If he could arrange for Carmen to squeeze Ein for a few dozen — or even a hundred — canisters of Enkephalin, the current crisis might just be survivable.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @AAA City Female Ghost — stop watching from the sidelines. Time to drop some gold.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: ?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Don't give me question marks — it's your turn. What's your current status?]
[AAA City Female Ghost: I can see things, but I can't touch anything. Trapped in a tank in the laboratory, no way out. That's about it.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: How are you somehow in the best shape out of everyone here? Never mind, it doesn't matter… Is the tank surrounded by Enkephalin?]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Mm. Yes.]
In an instant, Anthony understood.
So the timeline had already advanced to the point where Carmen had become the bucket.
He remembered — in Lobotomy Corporation, after Carmen's death, Ein had preserved her complete nervous system and fashioned it into a vessel for harvesting Cogito and Enkephalin.
That, he now realized, was probably also why Carmen's consciousness was so unusually intact.
He might even end up saving himself a considerable chunk of lifespan because of it.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: If I find a way to revive you temporarily, do you think you can get your hands on some Enkephalin and trade it in for Points?]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Maybe?]
Anthony sat with that for a moment, thinking it over.
True — the Primordial River was riddled with hidden dangers, and he currently had zero margin for error if anything unexpected hit…
But then again. If he had no margin for error regardless, that just meant his threshold for "acceptable risk" had already dropped to one thing: don't die from running out of lifespan. Nothing more.
The first kill line was already out of reach. In practical terms, his actual buffer was whatever space remained before the second kill line.
Carmen wasn't certain, but even if his gamble came up completely empty, the cost would only be a day or two of lifespan. Given the current situation, that was within acceptable range.
And if it worked — the return would be a hundredfold. A thousandfold.
So he cast the rod.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Let's give it a shot. I'm sending lifespan your way now — do whatever you can to get Enkephalin and convert it into Points. The more, the better.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Got it.]
A cascade of silver-white ripples shimmered along the length of the fishing rod.
In an instant, Anthony's remaining lifespan dropped from 36 hours down to 12.
......
On the other side, Carmen felt a sliver of coolness seep into her intangible soul.
Then — a powerful pulling force. She blinked, confused, and in the very next moment felt that irresistible gravity yank at her—
And found herself lying inside the tank, anchored to her own nervous system, perceiving the world entirely through its field of vision.
Crystalline green Enkephalin filled her sight, refracting the light into something almost hypnotic, tracing out the full shape of the laboratory in its shifting, gemlike glow.
What on earth? Anthony had paid a cost for this — so why was she unable to move properly?
Submerged in the Enkephalin that practically overflowed the brim of the tank, Carmen stared at the inside of the vat with complete bewilderment.
Then she saw the text that had just popped up in the group chat interface before her.
[Detected: You are currently immersed in High-Energy Substance · Enkephalin.]
[Initiate Enkephalin absorption for Points recycling?]
Carmen blinked at the words that had suddenly materialized.
And somewhere in the back of her mind, a slow, dawning conclusion began to form.
…Are we about to be rich?
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Group chat of the Dead
✅ Read 40 chapters ahead of everyone else.
✅ Get cool exclusive stuff and updates!
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!
🚀140 MEMBERS = 5 extra chapters on all stories for supporters!
👻 P - Walnut-chan