Wishing Through Objects

Chaoyang had tried responding to those streams of Wish Force, but the moment he made a move, he sensed an icy gaze from the other end—an assault upon his consciousness, overwhelmingly powerful.

Even though he withdrew in less than a second, his consciousness still suffered considerable damage. For several minutes, he felt as though he had fallen into an ice cellar. His body trembled uncontrollably, and he could barely think.

It gave him a deeper understanding of how this place differed from his original world.

Chaoyang now understood that beams of light reaching straight into the sky meant the object of the prayer had already been determined. Only those faint, scattered glows that faded halfway offered him an opening—like Shi Dong Bradley, the squad captain of Glorious Fortress's City Guard.

Shi Dong's request was simple: save his younger sister. Money, medicinal herbs, a healer—anything would do... Perhaps in his desperation, he had sought help indiscriminately and chosen no specific recipient for his prayer. In other words, as long as someone could help him, he would accept it, no matter who they were. That attitude was precisely what gave Chaoyang the opportunity to slip in.

The man's living soul was not particularly strong, but to Chaoyang, who had been starving for so long, it was undeniably a cup of sweet nectar.

"Alright, time to calculate the income and expenses..." Chaoyang pulled out a notebook and began writing and drawing. "This contract brought in around seven hundred Wish Force... Opening the boundary cost about one hundred. A phantom body for half a day was roughly fifty, so four of them came to two hundred... Right, and there were the costs for the ship and the preparations..."

If there was any benefit to his near-starvation some time ago, it was that when resources had been desperately scarce, Chaoyang had clearly felt the process of his own weakening. He had also been forced to learn how to split one unit of power into two. This allowed him to precisely measure the amount of Wish Force in his body and mark it with numbers.

For example, after defining the amount needed to sustain his life for one hour as one unit, he could calculate every other expenditure based on that value.

After subtracting all expenses, the final number left in the notebook was two hundred and twenty-one.

That meant the remaining Wish Force could sustain him at full capacity for another nine days—less than he had expected.

When Chaoyang saw that result, most of his joy immediately vanished.

"Is this a joke? This was a contract involving human life. Why was the return so little?" he muttered. After all that work, he had only extended his life by nine days. No wonder Demons went extinct!

Generally speaking, the amount of Wish Force returned depended on the individual's strength and the specific terms of the contract. Once a contract was formed, the one who accepted the request was also bound by restrictions. If he ultimately failed to fulfill it, he would suffer backlash from the contract and lose several times the Wish Force.

If this had been a job, not even a dog would do it. Unfortunately, he could not quit.

There was no helping it. He could only keep looking for the next person to contract with—and he had to be quick.

Chaoyang planned to walk around the city first and try his luck.

Glorious Fortress was a coastal city. Broad tidal flats stretched along its south and west sides, while the east was occupied by an industrial district that belched thick black smoke all day. Beyond that, Chaoyang knew little more than the game participants did. After all, he had only arrived a few days ago. Once he found the lifeline that was this other world, he had immediately begun planning the Paradise event, leaving him no extra time to learn about the city itself, much less the regions beyond Glorious Fortress.

Thus, whenever he stepped onto the streets, he experienced something new.

The streets here were all paved with blue bricks, and hidden drainage channels could be seen beneath the road surfaces on either side. This showed that drainage had been an important consideration in the city's planning. In parts of the newer districts, steel rails were even embedded in the streets for trams to travel along.

It was clear that these passenger vehicles were powered by steam. Each time they passed through a street, they left behind a long trail of white mist. Yet strangely, they had no enormous locomotive engines, and they started and stopped with remarkable flexibility, making them vastly different from the steam trains Chaoyang remembered.

Still, the main forms of transport on the streets were carriages and people.

Whether freight wagons or passenger carriages, they weaved through the crowd—there were no traffic rules here, and pedestrians received no special consideration. Most of the time, drivers had to rely on shouting to warn people blocking the way. Being grazed by a carriage was nothing unusual. Everything seemed chaotic, yet full of life.

Judging from the widespread use of steam power, Chaoyang estimated that Glorious Fortress's technology was roughly equivalent to Earth's eighteenth or nineteenth century. What puzzled him, however, was that he had yet to find anything related to electricity in the city. Based on Earth's history, this stage should already have seen scattered electrical facilities, little things like light bulbs.

More than that, Chaoyang had tried creating a few small battery-powered items himself, and every attempt had ended in failure.

Since he did not have much Wish Force on hand, he could not conduct further experiments. He could only bury this question in the back of his mind for now.

After all, treating this world like Earth was dangerous.

—Chaoyang raised his head and glanced at the beams of light before quickly looking away.

Even staring for a little too long might draw the attention of certain beings.

To the sources receiving that Wish Force, Wish Force itself was forbidden fruit that absolutely could not be touched by others. Once they noticed someone crossing the line, Chaoyang's current abilities would be wholly insufficient to deal with them.

That was also the main reason Chaoyang never forgot to hide his identity.

...He spent three or four hours wandering the streets, but his luck was a little worse this time. He did not encounter another petitioner like Shi Dong. Although Wish Force stirred above a few people's heads, the amount was basically negligible. Even without asking further, he could guess what those wishes were. Perhaps they wanted to make a windfall, or find themselves a wife. Even if he could fulfill such wishes, the final calculation would certainly leave him spending more than he earned.

"Sir, sir, would you like to buy a newspaper?"

A somewhat childish voice suddenly called out.

Chaoyang turned around and saw a newsboy looking at him eagerly. The boy did not seem to be an adult yet, standing no more than four feet or so tall, with thin, frail limbs. Yet the bundle of newspapers in his arms was thicker than his body.

"Sir, we have the Daily Mail, the Herald, and the Jedi Brothers Newspaper. Would you like a look? Only two pennies each."

Newspapers were useful, but he did not have time to read them.

At least, not for now.

Just as Chaoyang was about to refuse the newsboy, he caught a flicker of Wish Force from the corner of his eye.

It was a pale white, almost impossible to notice with the naked eye. If he had not been close enough, he would never have detected that faint glow.

It was nothing like a prayer that pointed straight into the sky. It was only about as long as a thumb, like a candle flame wavering in the wind, ready to be snuffed out at any moment.

The light came from a corner at the lower right of a newspaper.

Wishing Through Objects?

Chaoyang's heart stirred slightly... Wish Force was not some fixed indicator that appeared above the head of anyone in need. It rose and fell with the petitioner's actions and state. For instance, the beam of Wish Force was most conspicuous when someone prayed with focused devotion, while it dimmed when the plea was less urgent. Likewise, when a petitioner crafted an object with intense longing, part of their Wish Force might condense within it. Those legendary ancient treasures said to possess souls were not entirely baseless. Yet once their makers passed away, the Wish Force within became water without a source and gradually dissipated over time. By Chaoyang's era, only the faintest traces of residual Wish Force could be found in museums.