PSW - Chapter 141
Chapter 141
Swept up by the wind and rain, Yu Yinan felt as if she were in a long dream.
The bitterness and grievances of her childhood, years of unattainable desires, the complex emotions of a sensitive soul craving recognition and familial affection… all of it had led her down this path, right up to the sudden onset of the apocalypse.
Compared to the long years of her past, this one year since the apocalypse felt more like a phantom dream.
Perhaps it was only now that she and her past had truly come to an end.
"If you want, you can save her," Zheng Yi said softly. "It's just one person. It won't take many resources. If you don't want to see her, you don't have to keep her with us. We can just hand her over to Zhao Haiyue and the others to deal with. I'll give them all the supplies they need." Given their current cooperative relationship, they would have no reason to refuse the task of keeping one ordinary person alive, especially since Zheng Yi would be providing all the resources.
"…I don't know." Yu Yinan murmured in a low voice. She slowly lowered her head, leaned against Zheng Yi, and gradually raised her arms to embrace her. Her voice grew even deeper. "I don't know."
"Do you want to see her repent before you in tears?"
"…No, I don't." Yu Yinan raised her head to look at Zheng Yi, gazing into those bottomless black pupils, and vaguely sensed that Zheng Yi wasn't joking. She seemed to be asking in all seriousness.
Repentance… there was no need for it. Yu Yinan thought with sorrow: she really knew her "mother" all too well. Even if Zheng Yi were to capture her and bring her back, she would start by cursing them wildly and without restraint, just like she had before, until Zheng Yi or Yu Yinan herself resorted to certain measures.
It could be mental, or it could be physical. When a person feels extreme, unbearable pain, when they are on the verge of collapse, they have nothing left to resist with. A tearful repentance? That would be getting off easy.
"Zheng Yi, don't act," Yu Yinan said. "Don't waste time on matters like this. I was just… overcome with emotion for a moment."
Zheng Yi smiled. "Jiejie, how could I possibly go over your head and do something? Don't worry."
This farce came to a complete end. Yu Yinan composed herself, never mentioned the matter again, and no longer concerned herself with the woman's whereabouts.
Only Zero One knew that Zheng Yi had already been browsing the system store for hypnosis and manipulation-type special abilities; she just hadn't found a particularly suitable one yet.
'With my level of mental strength, if I were to use this kind of ability, could I accidentally turn someone into a complete puppet or an idiot? Or accidentally inject too much power and make them explode?'
Zero One didn't dare answer any of the questions Zheng Yi asked. Of course, in truth, it didn't know the answers anyway. There was simply no precedent for it!
However, given the precision of Zheng Yi's control over her abilities, over-infusion was unlikely to happen. The problem was, Zheng Yi had no idea what the limits of an ordinary human body were… and she'd never had the opportunity to experiment with mental power on anyone.
Fortunately, Yu Yinan's answer made Zheng Yi abandon this plan, and Zero One could breathe a sigh of relief in silence.
The long period of extreme cold seemed to pass in peace.
Fresh vegetables and fruit, occasional fresh meat and poultry, daily rice and noodles, and even the occasional hot pot party with their friends from the shelter… Even accounting for the food Zheng Yi periodically sent to the other women, her total Saint Points increased rather than decreased.
The long, month-plus period of extreme cold brought the apocalypse into its eighth month. It also allowed Zheng Yi to accumulate 37,458 Saint Points.
This enormous sum included all the points generated by the Zhongshan base, the Xuancheng base, and Humanity's Light Shelter during that time. It brought Zheng Yi's cumulative Saint Points to 100,824, successfully surpassing one hundred thousand.
[Ding! Detected that Host's cumulative Saint Points have surpassed 100,000! Reward: Limited Study - Skill Book: Saint's Radiant Grand Healing Formation x1, Special Body-Enhancing Potion x1]
As for the hundred-thousand-point reward, it was too absurd to be called normal, yet… it also made a certain kind of sense. This healing formation, which only Zheng Yi could learn, was equivalent to a large-scale, mass-target healing magic circle packed with special effects. The range of the Saint's Radiant Grand Healing Formation was determined by the host, with the maximum range equal to her maximum mental power. After acquiring it, Zheng Yi briefly tested its feel. With her current mental strength, covering the entirety of Humanity's Light… didn't seem to be a problem. The only issue was that the formation consumed mental power every second, so she wouldn't be able to sustain it for very long.
Zheng Yi didn't use it for real, only testing it slightly inside her house. Even generating a formation just one meter in diameter inside the room produced a light dazzling enough to illuminate the pitch-black space as if it were daytime. The brilliant white-gold light was both sacred and gentle, imparting an indescribable sense of comfort and psychological suggestion. Observing the formation through the dazzling light, one could appreciate the intricacy of every line. When someone (Yu Yinan) stepped into the center of the formation to experience it, according to (Yu Yinan), she felt in that instant as if a god had touched the top of her head. She felt her whole being enveloped in holy light, a sensation of ascending to the heavens on the spot.
Yes, the special effects and psychological impact were more than enough. As for the actual healing effect… it was identical to Zheng Yi's current healing ability. Bringing the dead back to life and regrowing flesh on bones remained an impossibility.
As for the enhancement potion she received, it was naturally given to Yu Yinan to drink.
'This was a hundred-thousand-point cumulative reward, for crying out loud. Couldn't it be a bit more practical?' Zheng Yi found the flashy formation hard to judge, placing it in the same category of dubious utility as the Saint's Halo she had received at the beginning.
[…Isn't it… perfect for you? With this formation, you'd be a living Saint, wouldn't you?] Zero One felt its assessment was quite fair. [Look at those special effects, that psychological suggestion! Just envelop all of Humanity's Light, activate your halo, ascend into the sky with your power, and descend riding a water dragon. If you don't become a god, who will!] Even without the water dragon, simply hovering in mid-air would suffice. In such a brilliant light, it would be difficult to see the water currents beneath Zheng Yi's feet anyway.
Zheng Yi sneered at Zero One's sales pitch and ignored it.
Host: Zheng Yi
Saint Points: 71651
Backpack Slots: 11
Special Abilities: Water/Healing (High-Tier)/Personal Space (Low-Tier)
During this period, even with Zheng Yi's daily routine of adding two nutrient solutions to the water and various other food expenses, she hadn't spent many Saint Points. There had been no fighting, and Yu Yinan's mental power had grown nicely after drinking the previous limit-breaking potion, so there had been no need to spend points on Stamina Recovery Pills. When all the miscellaneous expenses were tallied, the total was surprisingly low.
This left Zheng Yi with a massive balance of over seventy thousand points!
What did this mean? Zero One had almost never had it so good! Forget saving up seventy thousand Saint Points; even breaking the one-hundred-thousand cumulative milestone was something few hosts had ever managed. And achieving that within a single year… was practically unheard of.
With this many Saint Points, she could cover Humanity's Light with the most expensive Apocalypse Shelter Barrier for a full year! The apocalypse itself hadn't even been going on that long!
[This is insane…] Zero One no longer had any desire to format itself. In fact, it was determined to preserve this memory at all costs. When it returned to the main system space, it would back it up obsessively, frame it, and brand it into its memory core. Not only that, it would upload the memory crystal and set up a pay-per-view service for all the other Saint Growth Plan systems to worship!
Even though the mission was far from complete, and the original plot hadn't run its course—in fact, it had probably gone off the rails long ago—none of that mattered anymore. It, as a Saint Growth Plan system, as the entity designated Zero One, had done absolutely nothing during this entire mission!
[My dearest Zheng Yi, my dearest Host… I can no longer bear to imagine the day the mission is complete and I must part ways with you. Good heavens, as a system, my life is eternal, and I fear I will spend that eternity replaying this experience countless times, forever reminiscing about you, cherishing your memory. Good heavens, when that day comes, how could I possibly greet a new host? How could I ever choose to bind with someone else!] Zero One thought to itself that it was completely and utterly ruined.
'…' At Zero One's choice of words, Zheng Yi raised an eyebrow, seemingly displeased, but she said nothing, only spitting out a single, cold word: "Format."
Zero One: […]
Why were its moments of deep emotion always so thoroughly crushed?
The period of extreme cold drew to a close. As the ice and snow melted and temperatures rose, Humanity's Light Shelter became a hive of activity once more. They raced against the clock, issuing various missions and hurrying to cultivate crops in the planting zones. They also seized the opportunity to continue spreading word of Zheng Yi's deeds throughout the shelter, while simultaneously mass-distributing the detection devices developed by Yun Lingjian in an effort to expand their territory.
Having survived the extreme cold, the next major concern hanging over the leadership was the approaching period of extreme heat. They wished they could store all the ice and snow to use for cooling later. But storing ice long-term was incredibly difficult. Even if they dug a simple ice cellar, the insulation wouldn't be very effective. Without a constant supply of electricity to keep it cool, the ice would likely melt early in the hot season. And if they did use electricity for that, it would be more efficient to just save that power to run the air conditioners later.
With everyone so busy, Zheng Yi didn't leave right away. She wasn't lacking for Saint Points, so she generously gave a communication mark each to Zhao Haiyue and Zhou Xiyue. That way, if the shelter ran into trouble, they could call for help immediately.
"The extreme cold is over, so I won't stay any longer. I gave Yun Lingjian some powdered meteor fragment, which should allow her researchers to just barely withstand its energy. Perhaps they'll have more breakthroughs in the future." Zheng Yi waved a hand dismissively. "Remember to let me know if you get any news about the meteor fragments. Creatures near them have a higher chance of mutating. If you don't want this wasteland to become even more dangerous and difficult to survive, it's best to collect all the scattered fragments as soon as possible."
"Alright. We'll contact you immediately if we hear anything." Zhao Haiyue had mixed feelings about the powerhouse's departure, even a hint of reluctance. After all… those hot pot parties every few days during the cold spell had been far too tempting. Zheng Yi's power might be terrifying and her presence intimidating, but her cooking was simply out of this world.
…Perhaps it was the contrast with Yun Lingjian's cooking, but throughout the cold spell, Zhao Haiyue had found herself eagerly awaiting Yu Yinan's invitations to their gatherings.
But she knew business came first, so she didn't mention such trivial things. Instead, she said, "When you leave Pujie, if you run into any mutated beasts that have come out to forage after surviving the cold…"
"Don't worry. We'll clean them up as we go," Zheng Yi replied breezily. She took Yu Yinan by the hand, said her goodbyes, then brought out their modified car and set off.
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