Chapter 5: Sending Wishes with Objects

Chaoyang had tried to respond to these wishing powers, but as soon as he began to move, he felt a chilling scrutiny from the other end—it was an erosion of consciousness, overwhelmingly powerful.

Even though he withdrew faster, the whole process taking less than a second, his consciousness still suffered considerable trauma. For a few minutes, he felt as though he had fallen into an icehouse, his body trembling nonstop, almost unable to think about anything.

This also led him to a deeper understanding of the differences between this place and the original world.

Chaoyang now understood that a direct beam to the sky meant the object of prayer had already been determined, only those faint scattered lights that had stopped halfway could offer him a gap to seize—like the squad leader of the Magnificent Castle's city guard, Sidong Bradley.

Sidong's request was very simple, which was to treat his sister, regardless of money, herbs, or doctors... Probably because of the desperation of seeking help in a crisis, he hadn't chosen a specific object of prayer. In other words, as long as someone could help him, he would accept anyone. It was this attitude that gave Chaoyang an opportunity to sneak in.

This person's soul was not very strong, but for him, who had been thirsty for such a long time, it was definitely a sweet nectar.

"Alright, time to calculate income and expenses..." Chaoyang took out a notebook and began to jot down, "The contract this time collected about seven hundred units of wishing power... Opening the boundary costs about a hundred, a half-day projection of a body is roughly fifty, four would be two hundred... Right, and there's also the cost of the ship and preparation needed..."

If there was any benefit to the experience of almost starving to death previously, it was that during the time of extremely scarce resources, Chaoyang vividly felt his own weakening and was forced to learn how to make do with half the amount of power. This allowed him to measure precisely the amount of wishing power within him and to denote it with numbers.

For example, he had set the amount needed to sustain life for one hour as a base unit, one, and all other expenses could be calculated based on this value.

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

This meant that the remaining wishing power could sustain him in full condition for nine days, which was a bit less than he had expected.

Upon seeing this result, the joy in Chaoyang's heart immediately dissipated by a large margin.

"What the hell, this is a life-saving contract, how could it only yield so little?" he couldn't help but mutter, having done so much work only to extend his life by nine days, no wonder demons went extinct!

Generally speaking, the amount of wishing power received as feedback depended on the individual strength of those making the wish and the specific content of the contract. Once a contract was fulfilled, the one who had made the promise would also be restricted, and should they fail to deliver in the end, they would suffer a backlash from the contract and lose several times the wishing power.

If this were a job, not even a dog would do it, but unfortunately, he couldn't resign.

No choice then, just had to continue searching for the next contract subject—and quickly.

Chaoyang planned to first take a tour around the city and try his luck.

...

Magnificent Castle was a seaside city with vast beaches to the south and west, while the east side was the industrial zone, constantly emitting thick black smoke. Beyond these, Chaoyang didn't know much more than the participants of the game—he had also just arrived here a few days ago and immediately started planning for Paradise activities after discovering this otherworldly lifeline, with no time left to understand the city itself, much less the areas beyond Magnificent Castle.

Therefore, every time he walked the streets, he experienced something new.

The streets were all paved with green bricks, and hidden storm drains below the surface indicated that the city's planning had placed heavy emphasis on the importance of drainage. In some parts of the new district, steel tracks were embedded in the streets for trams to shuttle through.

It was clear that these passenger vehicles were driven by steam, leaving behind a long trail of white mist every time they crossed the street. Strangely, they lacked large steam engines on their heads and their stops and starts were very agile, quite different from the steam trains in Chaoyang's memory.

However, the primary means of transportation on the street were still carriages and people.

Whether it was carts loaded with goods or coachmen pulling passengers, they all moved intermixed within the crowd—here, there were neither traffic rules nor any special consideration for pedestrians. Most of the time, coachmen had to use their voices to warn those who blocked the way, and it was common to get a scrape from a passing carriage, everything seemed so chaotic, yet it was also brimming with vitality.

From the widespread use of steam power, Chaoyang judged that the technological level of Magnificent Castle was roughly equivalent to that of Earth in the 18th to 19th century; however, what puzzled him was that he had still been unable to find any elements related to electricity in the city. According to the history of Earth's development, this stage should have already seen the sporadic appearance of electrical facilities, like light bulbs and such novelties.

Moreover, Chaoyang had also attempted to create some small gadgets with batteries, but without exception, all ended in failure.

Due to the limited wishing power he had on hand, he couldn't conduct more experiments, and so he could only temporarily suppress this curiosity.

After all, it was dangerous to consider this world the same as Earth.

—Chaoyang looked up at the beams of light, then quickly diverted his eyes.

Even a slightly prolonged gaze could possibly draw the attention of certain beings.

For the origin of these wishing powers, the wishing power itself is an absolutely forbidden fruit for others to touch. Once any overstepping behavior is detected, with his current ability, he certainly wouldn't be able to cope.

This was also the main reason why Chaoyang always remembered to hide his identity.

...Walking around the streets took up about three or four hours, but this time he was slightly less fortunate and didn't encounter another wisher like Shidong. While a few people had a trickle of wishing power over their heads, it was essentially negligible. Even without further inquiry, he could guess what these wishes were likely about. Wishes like trying to make a quick fortune, or finding a wife to marry—such wishes, even if he could fulfill them, would definitely end up being a losing deal in the final calculation.

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

Suddenly a somewhat immature voice spoke up.

Chaoyang turned his head and saw a newspaper boy looking at him with eager eyes. The boy appeared underage, barely reaching a height of one meter forty, slender and frail, yet the stack of newspapers in his arms was thicker than his own body.

"Sir, here we have the Daily Mail, the Herald, and the Jeddy Brothers. Would you like to take a look? Each is only two cents."

Newspapers were good things, but he didn't have time to read them.

At least not at the moment.

As Chaoyang was about to refuse the newspaper boy, he suddenly caught a glimpse of faint wishing power out of the corner of his eye.

It shimmered a pale white, almost imperceptible to the naked eye; if not for being close enough, he would almost certainly have missed the presence of this faint glow.

Forget about those beams that pointed straight into the sky; this one was barely the length of a thumb, like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished by the slightest breeze.

The light originated from the lower right corner of one of the newspapers.

To embed a wish in an object?

A thought flickered through Chaoyang's mind... Wishing power was not like a fixed indicator that hung over the head of whoever needed it. It fluctuated with the behavior and state of the wisher, such as when the wishing power's pillar of light was most prominent during focused prayers, and dimmer when the request was not so urgent. Similarly, when a wisher crafted an object with a great longing, it was also possible to embed part of the wishing power within the item. The soulful artifacts of ancient legends weren't baseless; rather, when the creators passed away, the embedded wishing power would become rootless and dissipate over time. By his age, only the faintest traces of wishing power could be found, hidden in museums.