The Problem of Lifespan, the Goal of Immortality

Gao Linzhi then assigned the task to Xu Gou.

What? He just said he wanted to "balance work and rest," so didn't that already give him time to rest?

He then began to use his newly acquired Mystic System Skill —divination, sorcery, and inspiration—to deal with the watchers.

Damn it, if I weren't a time traveler with the Power of Space-Time and hadn't obtained the Dark Gold Talent of "the Only Ordinary Player," I would definitely have been easily found, captured, and refined by these people, just like the other rebellious lone wolves.

He first used his divination skills.

"Please provide the items used for divination. If you don't have any, you'll need to provide detailed information about the person you're divining for."

"Divination requires the user's lifespan to pay for the skill."

"The less detailed the information, the longer the lifespan that needs to be paid for."

"The person who plotted to harm me through divination, the information provider, the explosion just now, the people who ambushed me..." A series of information flashed through Gao Linzhi's mind.

"Warning: Insufficient divination information. You will have to pay a large amount of lifespan. Do you wish to pay?"

Upon seeing this, Gao Linzhi frowned immediately.

He then looked up the Game Help.

"If the lifespan consumed by divination is replenished upon Revive After Death?"

"Dear Noble Player Noble 23, upon Revive After Death, the resurrected being will be a body that has exhausted its lifespan."

"This means that when a person ages and is resurrected, they will not have a young body, but an aged one."

"Dear Noble Player Noble 23, it's like this."

Gao Linzhi immediately understood.

Very realistic.

The game is incomplete; players are not Immortality, they only have the ability to resurrect.

This immediately raised the value and difficulty of divination skills significantly.

You cannot use Revival Stone; you must use real lifespan.

Moreover, game players themselves naturally age; after dying and being resurrected, they are still old.

From this perspective, only powerful factions can afford to support players specializing in divination.

Because they have enough cannon fodder.

Wait a minute, it seems my own power is not insignificant either.

He can recruit players specializing in divination, as long as he offers a sufficient price.

This also reminded Gao Linzhi that in addition to improving combat strength, he also needed to improve lifespan.

Otherwise, it would be ridiculous to defeat all enemies only to lose to time in the end, leaving your enemies dancing on your grave.

So he asked the Game Help:

What is my current lifespan?

"It's related to physical constitution. When your physical constitution reaches 10, you have a base lifespan of 100 years. For every additional 10 points in physical constitution, your lifespan increases by 1 point."

"Currently, the maximum lifespan for a player is 178 years."

"Depend on..."

Gao Linzhi currently has 795 points of physique, which translates to a lifespan of 178 years.

While it makes sense upon closer examination, given that whales are much stronger than humans, their lifespan is only 80 to 100 years.

Upon seeing this, he suddenly remembered that one of his subordinates was an expert in divination.

That's the "Dragon Fruit" who likes to pretend to be an old lady; anyone with eyes can tell she's no more than 20 years old.

She's probably around 18 or 19 years old and likes to act old and lecture others.

I was probably in high school when I was scolded too much by teachers and parents.

He then found Dragon Fruit and explained the situation.

Experts are experts, after all.

Dragon Fruit calculated in a very serious manner:

"Divination naturally consumes one's lifespan."

"The more advanced the product, the more it consumes."

"This is destiny."

"But there are many ways to solve this lifespan problem."

"For example, combining it with some cost-shifting skills."

"It is possible to transfer the lifespan that one is about to consume to another life."

Gao Linzhi immediately understood; there was another way to do it.

"For example, transferring the cost to some monsters with longer lifespans."

"In this regard, we can make use of many captured monsters."

Gao Linzhi.

It seems that the value of Demonic Creature Lair as a source of resources has increased significantly.

"Skills are static, people are dynamic."

"Just like ancient sacrificial divination."

"In ancient times, when they performed sacrifices, they would often consult the heavens for divination."

"Initially, divination was performed using the lives of many, many people; the higher the person's status, the better the results."

"Moreover, initially, people performed the sacrifices, but later it was changed to cattle, horses, and sheep, which is a kind of transfer of responsibility."

"And in this Skyfall World, it's the same..."

Dragon Fruit seemed to have finally found its purpose, and proceeded to talk for a full hour.

Gao Linzhi listened very carefully.

He values anything that concerns his life.

Just as I expected.

If this skill requires sacrificing one's lifespan every time, then this profession is rather useless.

Players will not choose this.

How many years can you live?

Each divination session consumes one unit.

How many divinations can be performed?

He died a long time ago.

"Of course, if it involves matters of core importance such as divination, I'm afraid it can't be delegated."

Dragon Fruit hesitated, "It still requires expending my own lifespan, especially to probe the secrets of heaven and glimpse the future."

Gao Linzhi nodded.

The Mud Bodhisattva developed festering sores all over its body because it pried into the secrets of heaven.

Gao Linzhi then told her what had happened offline before asking, "How should I divine the person who harmed me?"

Dragon Fruit looked as if it hadn't expected this at all.

"Young man, if you want to find out who harmed you, you can first narrow down the possibilities."

"For example, we can first look at the Total Contribution List twice."

"The Total Contribution List will include 100 names."

"The people who have the ability to harm you are most likely on this list."

"The vast majority of Ordinary Player, and even the vast majority of upper-level players in companies, cannot afford such a high price; they cannot afford to offend you."

"Because your strength is already very high."

"The only people truly capable of dealing with you are a very small group."

"It's safe to say that over 99% of companies and wealthy families are unwilling to offend you."

"They are even less likely to resort to such intimidation tactics. Their best approach is to endure, relying on tradition and family genealogy to outlast you, just like those dynasties and aristocratic families in history."

"Although they despise peasants, when peasants rise up, they will humble themselves and endure the opponent's dynasty, rather than uniting on a large scale to eliminate the peasants."

"Because there are also deep-seated contradictions between powerful families, making it difficult to achieve universal unity."

Gao Linzhi's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected that this Dragon Fruit, whom he had initially thought was a funny girl, would have such a profound understanding of history.

Indeed, to learn such a mysterious skill as divination, one truly needs the qualities of a god.

"Take the Xu Clan and Liang Clan, for example. They're doing well enough to live their own lives now. How could they dare to touch you?"

They truly hated Gao Linzhi.

But I dare not touch it, I truly dare not touch it.

These are all facts.

After thinking about this, Gao Linzhi gained a lot.

So he nodded and said, "Alright, you can begin the divination."

Dragon Fruit immediately got to work.

Of course, after the operation was launched, a series of budgets were drawn up.

No wonder they're so proactive; they're looking for investment opportunities...

This is using other people's money to make a movie.

Soon, the Dragon Fruit will list the names of all one hundred people on the Overall Ranking.

Gao Linzhi watched the whole thing from the sidelines.

Her divination targets were extremely precise.

"From this list of 100 people, identify those who harbor extreme malice towards the Canxue and are currently taking action."

She then wrote all the information from the real world onto a talisman and burned it.

Finally, they seized several cruel and bloodthirsty demon turtles from the trading company, which were said to feed on fishermen, as offerings for the transfer of the turtles.

After doing all this, she applied to use the village ancestral hall and set up an altar in the courtyard of the ancestral hall.

The altar was quite grand, requiring 99 villagers and three days to set up.

"When transferring the item, must evil things be used?" Gao Linzhi asked.

"No, this just lightens my moral burden."

The Dragon Fruit explained, and then muttered incantations before the altar.

"Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, Three Star Dao Lord follow me."

She then killed a demonic turtle with a single stroke, and used a torch to burn its shell to examine its patterns.

After all that commotion, Gao Linzhi were opened wide.

That's true professionalism.

Simply activating a game skill and getting the result is too unprofessional!

Finally, Dragon Fruit gave three names.

These are "United Association * Ya Zi", "United Association * Chaofeng", and "United Association * Suanni".

"The Nine Sons of the Dragon; this is a naming convention based on the dragon's offspring." Gao Linzhi immediately recognized the other party's naming method.

Upon seeing this, Gao Linzhi a cold smile.

They really are from the Company Union Federation.

Those bastards, they sent a team to chase after me before.

At the time, because he didn't know much about divination, the other party divined his true situation.

This is the flaw of rising from the bottom – going it alone, it's hard to do everything perfectly, there will always be some flaw.

Of course, the other party didn't gain anything after the divination either, and was also turned into a puppet by himself.

Whatever comes, becomes what remains.

It's like having an extra group of guards on the perimeter.

The other party tried to trick me, but I ended up fighting back.

Now they're blocking my doorway again, using mushrooms to intimidate me, doing this kind of thing.

It now seems that they simply do not allow these opportunities to be given to people at the bottom of society.

It sounds nice in name only, to prevent power from falling into the wrong hands and thus disrupting order.

In reality, when they held power, they disrupted order quite often.

In the past, given the intelligence and physical talents of people from lower social classes, the worst they could hope for was to become a son-in-law and be taken in by the family.

In the past, they could allow an ordinary person to start from scratch and become a billionaire.

Because once the other side rises to power, one must comply with the rules they set and thus integrate into their circle.

After several generations of intermarriage, they became one of their own.

After several rounds of investment, most of those trillion-dollar unicorn companies became their shares.

This is the result of playing the game within their rules.

However, times have changed.

If things were in the current state, ordinary people would rise to power and take absolute control.

Because once they rise to power, they will wield immense personal strength, which will directly determine their physical life or death.

Their past wealth, connections, and rules will be unable to restrain the new rise of these individuals.

This is what they absolutely will not allow.

They can't turn an ordinary person into the best in the world.

We will not allow the other party to occupy the top spot on the leaderboard for an extended period of time.

Of course, Gao Linzhi also had a simple way to break the deadlock: quickly marry a direct descendant of a powerful family, join them in their evil deeds, and oppress the common people together.

A simple thought reveals that this path will definitely be very smooth.

Because now many people are willing to accept Gao Linzhi.

In fact, there have always been people who want to arrange a marriage between him and others.

However, Gao Linzhi would never marry any woman.

He desires to enjoy eternal bliss and live as long as heaven.

Don't give him any of that bullshit about love or forever.

Having lived two lives, he had only one thought at this moment: to increase combat power!

For him, women meant risk and instability.

He would never associate with any woman or engage in any emotional exchange.

He will treat everyone equally.

But he absolutely forbids anyone from getting close to him, let alone into his heart.

Those emotional types, once they possess overwhelming Powerful, will almost certainly be betrayed.

Those who know, know.

Gao Linzhi, having read countless novels and watched numerous TV dramas, and having lived two lives, was well-versed in the historical changes of both eras. Of course, he wouldn't make such a silly mistake.

Having obtained the three names, Gao Linzhi decided to activate the Curse Technique.

He used his Advanced Curse Technique.

It's easy for him to use.

"Advanced Curse Technique: Curse a target by paying a certain price."

"The greater the strength of the target, the higher the cost."

"The cost is insufficient; the skill will fail to activate."

"Since you are Noble 23, you will be exempt from the consequences of failure."

Gao Linzhi was overjoyed and chose to curse the three people.

The hidden perks of being a big influencer are really good.

He immediately began paying the price, which he chose to purchase a large number of items from the in-game store.

These items are rather useless, and there are daily purchase limits.

For example, a "healing talisman"... can heal minor injuries, but the effect is not significant.

Gao Linzhi basically bought them all.

This also resulted in his Skyfall Stone consumption being relatively stable every day.

Of course, he was also spending money to keep the total number of Skyfall Stone constant.

Soon after he consumed items from the in-game store worth 30 million Skyfall Stone, the Advanced Curse Technique was successfully activated.

"Ding! Congratulations, player, you have successfully cast Curse Technique."

"You have cast a curse on the Players' United Association * Ya Zi, 'United Association *Chaofeng', and 'United Association *Suanni'."

"It will continuously reduce the luck of the three people in the coming days, with a significant effect."

"You have established Divine Anomalies connection with the three of them. You can use your spiritual powers to observe their situation through the Spirit Realm."

After the curse, Gao Linzhi naturally wanted to see its effect.

He then activated the Advanced Inspiration as prompted by the game.

Then a bizarre scene appeared before his eyes.

A thick fog appeared before my eyes.

Within every wisp of mist lies a person, or a place.

Three bright lights shone through the mist.

This mist must be the Spirit Realm mentioned in the game hints.

This Spirit Realm seems to be a reflection of the real world, similar to a mirror world.

Gao Linzhi looked carefully at the three bright lights.