"Four hundred thirty-one million ounces."
Raven said indifferently, "This time, the settlement is conducted using Source Crystals, the most commonly used currency among Sublimators. All of them are of the highest purity that can be mined from the Border.
To acquire it, Golden Palace, the largest group of Sublimators in Northern Europe, had to mortgage an entire resource-type Border under their name. They secured this sum from those Dwarf bankers, and the ultimate winner was an Abyss Archaeological Team affiliated with the Astronomical Society Technical Department. They won't have to worry about funding for deep exploration for at least ten years.
You may not fully understand what this price means, so I'll put it bluntly. Two point one ounces of Source Crystals is exactly the amount of Source Substance in an average adult. According to today's exchange rate from the Astronomical Society, you can exchange it for more than two million Dongxia Yuan at any of their departments. However, this official exchange rate is a rip-off, like the pittance a game system gives for recycled gear. The black market price is at least two-thirds higher, and even then, such crystals are often unavailable.
Unless they are desperate, no Sublimator would ever exchange their Source Crystals for money. This stuff is the hard currency of hard currencies.
Now you can calculate how long you'll have to work as a temporary contractor for the Astronomical Society to earn that much."
Seeing the look on Huai Shi's face, as if he couldn't even imagine such a number, Raven seemed to chuckle. She leaned in close to his ear and whispered, "That archaeological team just had a stroke of dumb luck in a Level 6 Hell, where they found a fossil… Now, are you sure you still want to live an ordinary life?"
"..."
Huai Shi remained silent for a long time. He looked skeptically at the Raven before him and asked, "Why do I always feel like you're trying to scam me?"
The Raven felt sad, having already prepared the trap and found no takers.
Huai Shi sighed. "Your next line is going to be, 'Surely your big sister wouldn't lie to you?'"
"..."
Raven was at a loss for words.
"Then I will tell you," Huai Shi sighed again, "—Yes, you would."
"You're suddenly all into self-study, making it hard for me," Raven said, lighting up a cigarette with no trace of shame and shaking her head in lamentation. "I'm kindly offering you a job to make money, you know."
"Any rational person knows that getting rich overnight isn't sustainable. The only 'work' you can do from home by just clicking 'share' is mindlessly repeating things like an echo."
Huai Shi had made up his mind not to be fooled. "No matter what you say, I won't risk my life for money."
Raven rolled her eyes, completely unconcerned, as if flashing a 'You'll eat your words' meme.
Huai Shi really wanted to know what kind of ridiculous things she was looking at on her phone every day.
After firming up his resolve, he got up and headed to the kitchen. He had only eaten a little at noon, and now, just after three o'clock, he was already getting hungry again.
But when he opened the cupboard, he froze in place.
"Where are my dried noodles!"
"I just bought them last week; there was a whole row of them!"
"..."
The Raven, under Huai Shi's intense gaze, rolled her eyes. "Bro, are you blaming me because your noodles are missing? Do I look like the source of all evil? Besides, not even a hundred pounds of noodles could keep up with your eating—five meals a day, half a pot each time. You're going to eat through mountains of rice and noodles, you know?"
She paused, then gave a smile that made Huai Shi slightly uneasy. "Also, are you hungry again?"
"..."
"Congratulations! Happy growing!"
Raven flapped her wings, making a clapping sound. "After a regular person becomes a Sublimator, they enter a second growth phase where the Soul influences the body. In this stage, a Sublimator's body will grow again, gradually reaching the limits of a normal person in all aspects, and may even exceed them in some respects.
At seventeen, you're already in a growth phase, and combining that with another growth phase brings double the joy—of course, along with quadruple the hunger and more than eight times the needs.
So, unless you want to end up with stunted growth or even muscle self-digestion, you'd better stop skimping to the point of eating plain boiled noodles."
For some reason, Huai Shi felt increasingly uneasy.
"So what should I eat?"
"Generally speaking, high-calorie foods. The higher the calories, the better. It would be ideal to have the whole set: blissful fatty cakes, blissful fatty chicken, and blissful fatty drinks, and just binge until you're stuffed. This is also the cheapest option. The downside is that you'll have to use the bathroom a dozen times a day and risk social death from your classmates' laughter. Furthermore, after six months, you could develop hormonal imbalances and elevated cholesterol, leading to high blood pressure, anorexia, and other illnesses."
Huai Shi's legs turned to jelly with fright. "Is life as a Sublimator always this rough!"
"Of course not, but other Sublimators have money."
At this point, Raven sighed helplessly. "It's a pity. If only a kind person like me could help you make a supplemental Potion."
She paused for a moment and then winked expectantly at Huai Shi. "But without money, your dear sister can't even afford the raw materials."
"So, you were just waiting here for me, weren't you!" Huai Shi asked expressionlessly. "If you want money, just say so."
"Taking from you to use for you, how can that be called a scam?"
Raven laughed heartily, speaking at a leisurely pace, "One vial a day, one course per week, and your growth phase will be over in about a month. Considering how well we know each other, I won't even charge a processing fee. Just the cost price: 2,600 Dongxia Yuan per vial. For a month... hmm, 100,000 should be enough."
"Spend a hundred thousand for a 'Happy Growth Package'?" Huai Shi pointed to his nose. "Do you think I'm crazy?"
"But that's really a fair price. After all, no one would think a Sublimator can't even come up with 100,000," Raven said, glancing sideways at Huai Shi. "Besides, surely you understand the difference between those who spend money and those who don't? If you don't build a good foundation during your growth phase, the future difference won't be just a little. If you achieve the best effect, purely in terms of physical fitness, you could even become a military ace.
Incidentally, the packages offered by the Astronomical Society start at 300,000, and their effectiveness is another matter entirely. Of course, they can also be provided for free, as long as you sign a contract with them—if you believe there's such a thing as a free lunch in this world."
"..."
Shouldn't any thinking person know that's absolutely impossible?
"So, work hard, young man! A hundred thousand? Put in a little effort, and you'll have it in no time."
Raven pulled out a test tube from underneath her wing, dangled it in front of him, and whispered in a tone as if a Demon were tempting him, "I support 'try before you buy,' eh."
"In your dreams! Even if I, Huai Shi, starve to death, I'd sooner jump from here... jump... jump... GLUG..."
The last sound was him swallowing saliva.
Huai Shi stared at the test tube before him. As it swayed with Raven's movements, a seductive scent wafted from its open top. An indescribable hunger awakened within his body; every cell in his limbs and bones screamed with ravenous hunger.
Heartbeat accelerated, saliva secreted, pupils dilated, stomach contracted.
The instinctual hunger kicked his freshly made, still-warm resolve to the curb. It then dove headfirst towards that tube of pale green Potion, metaphorically grabbing Huai Shi's head and screaming madly in his ear: Drink it! Drink it! Drink it!
Ten seconds later, Huai Shi let out a long sigh. He tasted a rich flavor, like fine wine, spreading from his mouth. His limbs felt as though they were soaking in a hot spring, and he couldn't help but shed tears of regret.
"So delicious!"
"All done?" Raven asked kindly.
"You're going to start asking for payment now, aren't you?" Huai Shi became instantly alert.
"No, what I mean is, now that you've finished eating..."
Raven transformed into a silver quill, summoning the Book of Fate from within Huai Shi's Soul.
"—let's have a simple and joyful digestive exercise."
Without waiting for Huai Shi to speak, an Event Branch was selected.
Huai Shi's vision went black.
And then, he died yet again.
In that instant, Huai Shi saw a torrential rain pour from the sky, endless and vast, as if drowning the entire world. Yet, he found himself bathed in fire.
Thick gasoline ignited, flames covering him inch by inch.
In the midst of a massive explosion, he could feel his body shattering to pieces, but unexpectedly, he didn't feel fear. Instead, there was a sense of relief, as if he were finally liberated.
He even found himself smiling.
Never had an experience of death been so serene, so tranquil that Huai Shi almost feared its calmness, yet it held not a trace of hatred or spite.
He simply accepted it all.
He closed his eyes, waiting for the end to come.
Even when the death log ended, Huai Shi had not yet snapped out of it, remaining in that near-numbing tranquility.
This death was so profound.
So profound that he even forgot to breathe, forgot he was alive.
It wasn't until his face was about to turn blue that he reacted, gasping for air and coughing so violently he almost vomited the noodles he had eaten the night before.
He quickly covered his mouth, afraid of throwing up.
He had just drunk a Potion worth thousands; if he vomited it up now, wouldn't that have been for nothing!
Money brought me peace.
"Oh! It seems you've gained some remarkable insight!"
Raven clicked her tongue in admiration. "Such an emancipating type of death is indeed rare. Experiencing it more could benefit you. Who would've thought that Red Gloves fellow could grasp an even more profound essence at the moment of his death? You really lucked out. How do you feel now?"
"I just feel very hungry."
Huai Shi lifted his eyes to look at her, expressionless. "I especially want to eat roasted Raven. Boiled is fine too."
Thinking back on that tranquil death made his skin crawl. While he could sense how incredibly rare such a peaceful and serene death was, the terror it brought was more profound and powerful than other deaths.
So calm and composed, one could even say indifferent.
There was no lingering affection or reluctance; before dying, he had even lost any hatred for himself.
It was as if... his life had no meaning at all.
"What's so precious about this kind of thing?"
He rubbed his forehead, trying hard to drive that serene stillness out of his consciousness, not understanding what this sudden onset of a Sage State was.
"See for yourself."
Raven flipped the Book of Fate around, showing him the record on the title page.
Apart from the removal of the words "Stress Period" from the previous entries, there wasn't much change, just a new eclipse emblem signifying his successful sublimation.
The Miracle Imprint and Stigma sections were both empty, and the Skills below them were unchanged.
Only...
"My Death Perception skill has actually reached Level 1?" Huai Shi was astonished.
A single death experience had fully activated a skill that had remained greyed out, no matter how many times he'd died before? This skill was half the reason he'd managed to scrape by until now, relying on it to sense good fortune and avoid disaster. And now it had leveled up just from one inexplicable death?
"After all, it's a rare type of death. It probably also has to do with life experience. Let's set that aside for now, as there's still plenty of time tonight..."
Raven paused, then flashed that smile that made Huai Shi uneasy again. "So, how about experiencing the new feature of the Book of Fate after sublimation?"
"Goodbye!"