In the group chat, after a brief silence, the discussion erupted back to life.
Apparently, everyone had finished reading the announcement and pieced together what was going on.
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: So… we're all dead?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Yes. And in all likelihood, we're all in soul form right now.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Then — these things the announcement mentioned, check-ins and missions — what are those? I don't see anything like that anywhere.]
Facing a freshly-deceased Jonathan, Anthony stared at the holographic interface — which, apart from the message input field, had absolutely no other buttons on it whatsoever — and felt like he was losing his grip on his own nonexistent body.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Ah… those features don't seem to be available yet.]
Anthony patiently answered Jonathan's question, while simultaneously failing to suppress a twitch at the corner of his mouth.
What the actual hell, chat group — is this seriously your upper limit?
What do you mean, all features are temporarily locked due to insufficient chat group energy, and can only be unlocked once enough Points have been supplied?
If you won't give me access to any features, where exactly am I supposed to go and get you Points from?!
Anthony let out a long sigh. Then, in the very next moment, he noticed a new message from David.
[Let Night City Burn: I think I can see what they call souls now… Can't touch anything, senses are patchy. Kind of like cyberpsychosis?]
[Let Night City Burn: Though the feeling itself is unexpectedly… stable.]
Seeing David's message, Anthony felt a flash of genuine surprise.
Why is his soul stable?
For a moment, he sank into thought.
If it had been Carmen or Jie whose soul was stable and wouldn't scatter, he could've understood that. But there was no reason his soul should be unstable while David's was fine, was there…?
Something had to be off somewhere.
[Answer: Your current location is a special region. Due to its nature, your soul cannot be restored to full stability.]
All of a sudden, a system response from the chat group appeared — notifying Anthony of his current condition, and making him blink.
"Location?"
He lifted his head and gazed out at the vast, endless river stretching before him.
"What the hell even is this place?"
Very shortly after, the words that materialized on the holographic interface answered Anthony's confusion once again.
[Detected: You are currently located within the Special Region · Primordial River]
[You have become a Land-Bound Soul of the Special Region · Primordial River]
[While bound to the Primordial River as a Land-Bound Soul, your difficulty of resurrection is increased, and your soul will be continuously eroded by the current of the Primordial River, pushing it toward collapse]
[Your Soul Anchor cannot leave the Primordial River]
A cascade of notifications and explanations flooded the screen, each one more dizzying than the last. Anthony stared at them for quite a while before he finally worked out what any of it actually meant.
Simply put: after getting obliterated by that truck, he hadn't reported to the Underworld. Instead, he'd reported to an even worse pit of a place.
The Primordial River — put simply — was the river connecting all of creation.
As a general rule, no living thing existed here. Because anything living that wandered in got blasted to pieces by the torrents of information drifting in from across every world.
The only reason Anthony was still going was because the chat group had stabilized his soul, buying him three more days. The real problem was — for reasons completely beyond him — he'd gotten rooted here. He couldn't leave.
So his only option was to somehow weather the erosion and keep himself alive.
But what on earth could he actually do?
In the very moment Anthony was turning this over in his mind, he spotted another notification from the chat group.
[Due to the special region you currently occupy, and taking into account your unique circumstances, a special investment is being made: you will receive one free Potential Activation.]
[Potential Activation will determine your Soul Ability.]
In an instant, Anthony felt something like an electric current surge through his soul. He glanced down at his own faint, hazy spirit form — and there, embedded in it, was a sliver of bright white light that hadn't been there before.
A tingling, pins-and-needles sensation spread across his entire being. It was only after about five or six minutes that it finally subsided.
And then, Anthony became aware of a feeling…
His head felt itchy. Like something was trying to grow out of it.
So he reached up and scratched at his head — even in soul form, the relief was satisfying — and kept scratching, and scratching, and scratching, until…
Anthony stared, completely dumbfounded, at the fishing rod he had just scratched out of his own hair.
What the hell is this? Did I just roll a fishing rod out of my dandruff?
[Soul Ability: The Angler]
[Effect: You may fish upon the Primordial River. The items you reel in depend on which worlds currently share a Bond of 'Affinity' with you.]
[Through fishing, you may also use the channels of the Primordial River to establish contact with other group members, and transmit your own power — or even your lifespan — to them.]
[Current worlds with established 'Affinity' Bond: None]
What even is this thing?
Anthony turned the fishing rod over in his hands, utterly bewildered.
[AAA City Female Ghost: I think I get it now… So basically, this is something that pulled people from different worlds together and gave us a chance to come back from the dead?]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Doesn't that mean this thing is breaking some kind of taboo?]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Well… I suppose that's not exactly important right now.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Alright then, everyone — why don't we introduce ourselves? Can't even change our nicknames in here… Fine. My name is Carmen. I'm from the City. Died in the outskirts. I assume we're all from different worlds?]
All he could say was — it really showed she was from the City. That place had a way of conditioning you to take the strangest, most outlandish things completely in stride.
As an important figure from the Moon Plan trilogy, Anthony did recognize her. He just didn't know which point in her story Carmen had died at…
But for now, at least, she'd done him a massive favor.
[Let Night City Burn: …David Martinez. From Night City. Born there. Died there.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Ah, somewhere I've never heard of… And you, Mister Golden Spirit?]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Me? I'm from England. As for where I died — it must have been on a ship. And it seems my soul is still on that ship even now…]
Jonathan's situation was something of a surprise.
[AAA City Female Ghost: Also never heard of it. If this isn't some elaborate prank, I think we can safely confirm we're all from different worlds.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Come to think of it — @Wordsmith of the Great Yan — this person hasn't said a single thing since their first message when they joined. Still in the processing phase?]
Right, come to think of it — Jie still hadn't spoken.
Anthony waited for a while. Nothing. He turned it over in his mind for a moment, then sighed and decided to drop it.
Probably had reasons.
[AAA City Female Ghost: @Lord of the White Holy Throne — and you, if I may ask?]
Carmen's thinking was straightforward.
The group nicknames were all assigned by the chat group itself… so a name like that was anything but simple. Showing the right amount of respect from the start was an important trick to navigating any conversation.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Ah, just call me Anthony. I'm honestly just an ordinary person — I have no idea why they gave me this name…]
Surely it can't be because I died on the toilet, right?
Anthony thought about it with a grimace.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: I'm from Earth. Due to some unusual circumstances, I have a certain degree of knowledge about each of your worlds, and a rough idea of your situations — I've got some information. On top of that, I seem to have gained some kind of special ability. It might be able to help you all.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Help us?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Unlike the rest of you, my situation's a little critical right now — helping you is also a way for me to figure out what I can actually do, and see if there's any chance of saving myself.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: In any case — @Let Night City Burn — could you do me a favor?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: If it's alright, can I test my ability on you?]
[Let Night City Burn: Huh? Me? …What do you need me to do?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Tell me your current condition. Then just stay right where you are and don't move.]
Having said that, Anthony glanced over at the skill description for [The Angler] one more time, confirming that yes — all you apparently had to do was cast the rod.
Then he turned to face the boundless, infinite expanse of the river before him.
And cast.
____
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