Anthony reeled in the fishing rod and glanced at the new notification. His first reaction wasn't elation.
On pure instinct, he opened the group chat, pressed his palms together, and assumed the posture of a man in fervent, desperate prayer.
Then, with a certain gravity, he tapped open Main Quest — Stage Two.
[Main Quest — Stage Two: Restore More Features]
[Features Currently Closest to Full Repair: World Traversal · Ability Enhancement · Resource Exchange]
[Each individual feature requires all group members to contribute a combined total of 1,000 Points. Once all three features have been fully repaired, Stage Two of the Main Quest will be complete.]
Dead.
The moment he saw that number, the last flicker of hope still smoldering in Anthony's chest went out completely.
1,000 Points a pop. 3,000 total. What the hell — was he supposed to grind for that until the cows came home?
Still — after sitting with the despair for a while, Anthony made his peace with it.
What else could he do? Save up. That was it.
Points didn't have any other use right now besides unlocking features anyway.
And even though the 3,000-Point gap made his heart seize — when he looked at the changes to his [The Angler] stats, Anthony managed to settle himself down.
[Cyberpunk 2077 Affinity Level has increased. Current Affinity Level: 2]
At least the Affinity Level had gone up... Looked at from that angle, this whole venture hadn't been a loss.
With that thought, Anthony turned his attention back to the group chat.
[AAA City Female Ghost: The Check-In feature is live? Sounds like Anthony's plan worked?]
[Let Night City Burn: Yeah. It took a bit of a roundabout route, but in the end I managed to say what I needed to say.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Don't know the specifics, but — well done.]
[Let Night City Burn: Thanks...]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Next time, the fundraising is on you too.]
[Let Night City Burn: ???]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Kidding. But — we've finally taken the first step.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: I just checked in. Got 20 Points.]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: These "Points" — are they the tools we'll use to come back to life?]
Reading Jonathan's words — visibly, unmistakably urgent — Anthony's expression turned distinctly odd.
So. Now that Jonathan knew DIO was still alive, the man had truly snapped to attention.
That message might as well have 'let me resurrect so I can punt DIO back to the bottom of the ocean' written across it in flashing neon.
The most desperate man in the entire group chat to be resurrected had finally revealed himself.
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Not certain, but they're definitely one of the essential ingredients for resurrection. That said, no need to rush — we're still a long, long way from actually getting there.]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: Just managing to unlock all three features would already be a great result.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: I've checked in too — 17 Points. A little less, but hey, first pot of gold?]
[Let Night City Burn: I got 21... What's the drop rate for items? Looks like none of us got anything.]
[AAA City Female Ghost: Scroll down on the announcement. It says the drop rate is 0.2%.]
Staring at that number, Anthony felt an unpleasant memory stir somewhere deep in his soul. On pure reflex, he opened the Check-In feature's annotation.
[Check-In Feature]
[At the start of each standard day, all group members may perform one Group Check-In. Group Check-In awards between 15 and 25 Points.]
[As more features are gradually unlocked, the Points awarded by Group Check-In will increase.]
[...]
Skimming past a great wall of fine print, Anthony went straight to the very bottom.
[Group Check-In has a chance to award random items pulled from the Primordial River, originating from various worlds.]
[Drop rate: 0.2%]
This gacha pool is an absolute scam.
Wait — there's not even a pity system?
Anthony's mouth twitched. He hit the Check-In button anyway.
Sure enough — cursed. Nothing dropped. Just the rock-bottom floor of 15 Points, minimum payout. Anthony collected them with a look of profound suffering and began mentally running the numbers.
Cyberpunk 2077's Affinity Level was at 2 now, and the daily Check-In had a guaranteed floor of 15 Points... Keeping himself alive shouldn't be too much of a problem anymore.
At this rate, it would take roughly a month to unlock all three of the group's features.
There might even be Points left over — enough for Anthony to start experimenting with Affinity Bonds to other worlds.
On the surface, it looked like things were entering the best opening you could possibly ask for phase.
But the more carefully Anthony thought it over, the more he felt — no. This wasn't good enough.
"The margin for error is too thin."
He turned it over quietly in his mind, brow furrowing without him noticing.
Way too thin. In his current state, he had absolutely no buffer for any major unexpected development.
Sure, framing it that way sounded a little paranoid... But the thing was, Anthony felt like no amount of paranoia was unjustified here.
He knew almost nothing about the Primordial River.
And even thinking about it purely on gut instinct, one thing was obvious: as a river connecting all of creation — an extremely dangerous region — if all this place ever did was quietly burn one Point of his lifespan per hour, that was practically hospitality. That was downright friendly.
A sudden flash flood? He'd consider it completely normal. Not even slightly surprised.
And moreover—
Anthony was still running the thought when he raised his head and stared out as far as his eyes could reach.
At the very edge of his field of vision, the Primordial River seemed to split along a razor-sharp boundary. On his side, the water churned in its usual kaleidoscope of shifting colors. On the other side — the surface blazed with the deep, vivid red of fresh blood.
Anthony stared at it. His mouth twitched.
If this place seriously managed to pass by without any surprises — he'd tip the whole river upside down and drink it dry on the spot.
Who in the world would believe that?
And that was exactly why, even with the current setup, Anthony still felt a low, persistent unease about the pace of things.
This was a deep-seated, DNA-level fear of insufficient firepower. Anthony couldn't help it.
"A month... is still too long."
He murmured it quietly, closed his eyes, and let himself sink into the calculations.
The three features needed to be unlocked within a week. Sooner the better.
The faster they got unlocked, the more Points he'd accumulate in reserve — and the more margin for error he'd have when the unexpected inevitably hit.
Until he'd secured genuine, ironclad safety, Anthony was not going to relax for even a moment.
Put it in corporate terms: right now, his lifespan ledger had barely clawed its way out of the red. One market crash, and it was game over. Permanently.
His goal was to reach a position where even if the market did crash, the damage would still be within acceptable range.
"Long road ahead," Anthony murmured to himself.
He sighed — then, on pure reflex, opened the group chat.
And immediately got a face full of sunshine.
[Wordsmith of the Great Yan: This Check-In... seems like quite a marvelous feature. But what use are these Points, exactly?]
[Wordsmith of the Great Yan: Also — the items that Check-In might provide, how does one make use of them?]
[Lord of the White Holy Throne: ?]
What the — someone go fork that seal out of here. Out! Now!
Anthony's first instinct was to cover his eyes — and then, in the very next instant, he froze completely. His eyes snapped wide open and locked onto the username attached to those two messages.
Wait.
Oh my god.
Sound the bells. Light every firework in existence.
Jie finally surfaced.
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Group chat of the Dead
✅ Read up to 40 chapters in advance (all stories)!
✅ Access exclusive posts and updates first!
Let's achieve our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 extra chapter for everybody
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 additional chapters on ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnut-chan