Watching the string of question marks Jonathan had hammered into the screen, Anthony couldn't help but let out a short laugh — followed immediately by a quiet, heartfelt sigh.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Long story short, that's roughly how it all went down. Any thoughts?]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: …What does he do after that?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Quite a lot, actually.]
Anthony's expression grew visibly pained.
Sure, the world of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure had this concept called "fate" — but the problem was, the enormous cascading chain of fate that followed was, by any fair accounting, almost entirely DIO's doing.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that DIO alone had driven the plot of every part of JoJo except Part Two. All of it. One man.
As for what, specifically, he'd gotten up to?
To borrow DIO's own famous line on the subject: do you remember every piece of bread you've ever eaten?
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: For starters, your descendants won't get a moment's peace — several of them will come within a hair's breadth of dying because of him. Some of their friends won't be so lucky. Plenty of innocent people die too. And then there's—]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: That's enough. You don't have to go on.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: I'm begging you, Anthony — I now have a reason I absolutely cannot afford not to come back to life. It may sound a little selfish, but…]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: No, it's fine. I completely understand.]
Because the man on the other end of this conversation was the genuine, authentic embodiment of the Golden Spirit — a gentleman's gentleman, through and through.
If someone like him wasn't urgent right now, something would be very, very wrong.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: That said, you don't need to panic either. The story proper doesn't kick off for quite a while yet.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Right. I understand.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: Even so — as a soul right now, just like David, I can barely sense anything around me. And yet… I can faintly feel the passage of time. And at the moment, something about how time is passing feels deeply, deeply wrong.]
Hm?
That was a new wrinkle.
Anthony blinked, mildly surprised — but let it go almost immediately.
Whatever. When you're already covered in lice, one more itch doesn't register. One more surprise? Honestly, not a dealbreaker at this point.
Besides — no matter how tight things got, could anything be tighter than his own lifespan?
He glanced sidelong at the forty-four hours he had left, shook his head with a quiet laugh, and decisively converted his Points into lifespan.
A wave of cool relief washed through him all at once, and for one glorious moment, his entire being felt like it was breathing again.
"Ahhh… feels like I'm actually alive."
He watched his lifespan spike back up to sixty-five hours, murmured something vaguely appreciative, and turned back to face the river — swinging the rod out once more.
This is the life. The angler's life.
This time the float bit fast — barely an hour. Anthony almost felt the urge to tear up a little.
Could it be? In this life — have I finally, finally transcended the Cursed Air Force Tier?
Then he looked at what he'd reeled in, and went very, very quiet.
A battered leather boot dangled from his hook.
[Worn Leather Boot]
[Recycle Value: 4 Points]
Grass (a plant).
Something wasn't right here. Anthony felt it in his bones.
It suddenly came back to him: a Level 1 Affinity Bond with a world meant the loot pool was a complete wildcard — bizarre items, wildly fluctuating prices, and a tendency to skew cheap.
And he was still in the "lucky streak" phase. He hadn't gone dry yet.
But if his dry spell stretched on even a little — if his catch rate dipped below break-even — he could genuinely end up spending more lifespan fishing than he was earning back.
1 Point equaled 1 hour of lifespan. That meant 1 Point equaled 1 hour of fishing. If a single fishing session didn't even net 1 Point, he was actively bleeding out.
And even if his luck held and he stayed in the green — how long was it going to take to grind out enough to unlock the Daily Check-In? And that was just the first feature in a long line of features probably waiting to drain him dry. God only knew what each subsequent unlock would cost, or how many months of his nonexistent calendar it would eat through.
Anthony's brow furrowed. He held the expression for a long moment, then exhaled — a long, slow breath.
"I'm going to have to put in more work..."
He muttered it half to himself, turning back to the group chat panel, turning things over in his mind.
Jie still hadn't said a word, even after all this time. But according to the group's member status display, she was still there — dead, but not yet dispersed. He'd set her aside for now.
The options in front of him were two.
Option one: establish a Bond with a new world. The problem? Every world currently represented in the group leaned psionic or magical — and none of them could touch Cyberpunk 2077 when it came to raw income per hour.
Beyond that, there was the mechanical constraint of [The Angler] to consider.
[The Angler] could only fish from the currently active Bonded World. And the active world could only be swapped once every twenty-four hours.
If he made the switch and the new world turned out to be a low-earner, he'd be a single bad session away from flatlining. He couldn't afford that gamble.
Which meant, really, there was only one option left.
Cyberpunk 2077. Again. Still. Always.
He cast the rod back out and stared at the group panel, thoughts drifting — until, all of a sudden, something clicked.
Wait.
He'd read the group announcement. Check-ins awarded Points. Which meant — if he could unlock Check-In early, the cash flow problem solved itself.
So — was there any method that both raised his Affinity Level and unlocked Check-In ahead of schedule?
It sounded almost too convenient to exist. But the more Anthony thought about it, the more he was pretty sure it wasn't impossible.
Because the Check-In feature was a Main Quest — available to every group member. Anyone could contribute.
And that, right there, was the opening.
The plan forming in his head did require Comrade David to make a small sacrifice. But only a small one.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: @Let Night City Burn — up for a little job?]
[Let Night City Burn: Is there something I can help with, Anthony?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Yeah. I'm going to bring you back like before — the same state as last time. Duration this time is…]
Anthony glanced at his remaining lifespan. Then typed, with absolute conviction:
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: One minute.]
[Let Night City Burn: One minute? But — you're doing this again so soon? Didn't you just say your own situation was pretty precarious…?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Which is exactly why I need you. I'm making a bet. Whether or not I win it comes down to you.]
[Let Night City Burn: …Go on.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Can you figure out your current location?]
[Let Night City Burn: Probably still the Moon? Maybe on the return ship already.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Good. Second question — you saw Lucy earlier, right? And she could hear you when you spoke?]
[Let Night City Burn: That's right.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Alright. So here's the thing — when you come back this time, could you go say a few words to her?]
[Let Night City Burn: Say a few words?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Yeah. Like, oh, I don't know — something along the lines of "I'm adorable, please give me money" — that kind of vibe. Point is: can you, within one minute, say whatever you need to say so that she grabs whatever she's got on her — chips, cyberware, consumables, anything — and tosses it your way?]
On the other end of the screen, Carmen read Anthony's words carefully.
Something felt off.
[AAA City Female Ghost: Hold on a second. Something about what you just said isn't sitting right with me.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Doesn't this sound… exactly like a con?]
[Let Night City Burn: ?]
[Let Night City Burn: Wait, wait, wait — a con? So I'm supposed to go… con Lucy?]
____
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