Chapter 788
Chapter 788 - 774: Half a Year
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"It’s been half a year already."
Time was merciless, and what was meant to come would come eventually.
On Starcraft, Lu Ping’an welcomed his "half-year" birthday as a turning point in his life. At the same time, he also faced his inevitable "fate."
[Deducting 1000 Life-points for Life Maintenance, current balance: 2161]
After the final big sale, Lu Ping’an worked hard to bring his points to a positive balance, and he even worked overtime to make a fortune just in time for this moment.
Well, it’s time to settle up.
This, this is the last one.
[Life-points are positive, Life Maintenance fees deducted]
Half a year passed, and the previous debt of -6000 points had been settled.
In a sense, his recent efforts to advance and improve his abilities were another reason for his hard work. Only by raising his tier and abilities could he earn Life-points more conveniently and in larger volumes.
In fact, if he hadn’t developed his recent special abilities, let alone having positive Life-points, he would still be struggling with just dozens or hundreds of points, which was nowhere near enough.
"I hope it’s enough..."
But now, it was time for the reckoning.
[Checking vital signs...]
[Calculating body, life, and soul maintenance costs...]
[Distorting reality...]
[Reassembling the body of flesh and blood...]
One prompt after another gave an increasingly ominous feeling.
Looking at the prompts, Lu Ping’an noticed something he had overlooked.
Previously, he had maintained his life for half a year with 6000 points, and the system hint indicated that as his condition "worsened," his maintenance costs would continue to increase.
But from the current prompts, it seemed that as his "tier" increased, his body, soul, and life strength also increased, and the maintenance costs would keep getting higher?
"... just like the Talent Abilities of other professionals, the stronger the power, the tighter the noose."
Lu Ping’an felt a tingling sensation, considering the expected increase in maintenance costs, he had already reserved twice the points, but if...
[The cost of maintenance for the next six months is 3000 points per month. Insufficient funds, death.]
[Instantly insufficient balance, shutting down...]
"Wait, wait, something’s wrong! You never mentioned this point..."
Lu Ping’an’s surprise went unanswered, and it seemed like he was done for.
"...That’s it, you have a duty to inform! According to the basic contract rules and civil law, you should inform me in advance of any amount, at least giving me the most basic preparation time for payment."
Recalling that after obtaining the "Lawyer" rule, the Court of Oblivion had become more "personable" and more able to "accept commissions."
At that moment, Lu Ping’an quickly used the "correct format" to present his position.
[...claim accepted, allowing for a certain preparation time, time of shutdown at your discretion, countdown starting now, three...]
"Three days?" Lu Ping’an breathed a sigh of relief. He should be able to think of a way to handle this himself...
[Thirty minutes...]
"Stop with that old joke!"
Lu Ping’an was fed up with the trouble this time, and he hurriedly began to speed things up.
At this time, opening the Court of Oblivion in the Divine Kingdom was a risky move, and even if he opened it, finding those "leeks" to earn points would take time - half an hour probably wouldn’t be enough.
"... Rule-Level item, it’s up to you!"
In that moment, Lu Ping’an could only think of one solution.
He gritted his teeth and asked the cat to help him go through his inventory, preparing to sell "Quasi-rule level" and "Rule-Level items."
Suddenly, his mind was set. Lu Ping’an had two "garbage orange" items from the Truth-level of the Silent Mountain Range in his hands before.
He never managed to find a use for them due to their subtle performance, and they had been forgotten in the inventory for a long time.
Now taking them out, they were sold in an instant to exchange for Life-points....
[Current Life-points: 2998]
And this number left Lu Ping’an dumbfounded. Both items weren’t very good at the Truth-level; receiving a discount in price as Quasi-rule level was unsurprising. But this exact number? Just two points short?
Although it wasn’t as blatant as 2999, the malice in 2998 was too obvious.
Lu Ping’an looked up at the sky, sensing something.
"... Sell the bird fork bones, too." In an instant, the transaction was complete, and the system prompt arrived.
[Current Life-points 4000, conditions met, starting deductions...]
[Acquired rule building ’Court of Oblivion’, with the following functions...]
Well, Lu Ping’an finally understood.
While the AI acting within the rules was one thing, could it be truly restricted? Were AI’s merely pure tools with no selfishness or self-awareness?
As long as it had the innate rule to "become more complete" and "meet its own needs," it would have the instinct to crave evolution.
Playing with the rules and manipulating opponents within the rules shouldn’t be a problem for it.
Now, after turning a corner, it was still able to get what it "needed" in the end.
Perhaps the "almost there" points and the "exact integer" points were its way of expressing its attitude and desire within the rules.
But at this moment, Lu Ping’an could only let out a helpless sigh.
"... Time to find ways to earn points again." From his standpoint, this was the only way to handle the situation.
His headache wasn’t only about having to deduct a thousand Life-points again.
Once he returned to Earth, he’d probably have only ten days or half a month to earn at least two thousand points to survive.
After all, he was halfway through his journey, and it was almost the end of the month. If he stayed on the ship for another two weeks before arriving on Earth, how much time would he have left to earn points? Two weeks? Three weeks? Or perhaps even worse, one and a half weeks or ten days?
"And it’s best to have a constant stock of 4000 points."
At the same time, he had to consider the situation of consumption.
In the future, he would have to be more prepared, having at least 2000 points of balance before going out. Otherwise, if he stays on the Divine Ship and the points are settled, it’ll be a big problem.
At that time, if he was just a little short, he would probably have to sell his treasures to save his life again.
"... We’ll collect more junk Rule-Level and Quasi-Rule-Level items. It should also be convenient for me as a ’Lawyer’ to analyze them."
Having settled the immediate trouble, Lu Ping’an could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
He began to realize that the sudden increase in "maintenance costs" was due to his breakthrough to the Decree-level.
His previous Mortal body and Cursed-level professional body were different, and now that his Decree-level body has increased geometrically... this was probably the major source of consumption.
But at this moment, there was no turning back... Lu Ping’an guessed that even if he took advantage of the situation and settled his points before advancing to Decree-level, the Life Bank wouldn’t make a loss. It wasn’t going to demand more money on the spot, but it would force him to pay up in the next settlement, which was actually more prone to errors.
Now, he had gotten through an unavoidable crisis, which also made Lu Ping’an feel much more at ease.
But, if he looked back and thought about it, if he really stayed in that state and waited for death, even if his "Life-point acquisition efficiency" increased to 2000, he would still be on the path of death.
"So this is the death spiral race between a professional’s talent and the speed of advancement..."
Those who were meant to have it couldn’t avoid it; it was just a different form of manifestation.
He gained more channels for earning Life-points, but his consumption increased explosively as well.
[Points fully charged, Court of Oblivion begins to expand, Talent Abilities begin to expand, effects increase, consumption decreases, Silver Body ignores malicious costs below Brass, basic attributes increase...]
At this moment, the Life Bank, which always gave value for money, brought Lu Ping’an another surprise.
— End of Chapter 788 —