PSW - Chapter 76
Chapter 76
She looked up and briefly sized up Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan. Seeing they were two young women, her expression softened slightly, but her brow soon furrowed again. There were fine lines at the corners of her eyes. As she looked at them now, her tone wasn’t necessarily bad, just a bit blunt. “High temperatures, water shortage. In the base’s current state, we can’t afford to support more ability users, unless you’re a water-type.”
“But you need to think it through. If you stay here as a water-type, you’ll have to supply water every day until you’re exhausted. It won’t be easy, even giving it your all.”
“Are you familiar with transformation-type ability users?” Yu Yinan didn’t beat around the bush and got straight to the point. “My sister is a transformation-type ability user, and her ability… is a little different. But it should be able to help the base get through this heatwave a bit more easily.”
Transformation-type? The base leader nodded, sat up straighter, and listened intently. “Go on.”
“Her ability is similar to a transformation-type, but not the same. It’s more like she’s embodying a role, and the role she embodies is… a Saint, a deity.” Yu Yinan grew calmer. She glanced at Zheng Yi, her thoughts clear as she continued, “She can create small-scale, short-duration rainfall.”
Rainfall.
Water-type ability users could condense water, but to achieve artificial rain… the demand on one’s mental strength was extraordinarily high. In any case, no water-type ability user in the base could do it. In this hot weather, even a short burst of rain over a small area would have a completely different impact on people.
“A Saint, a deity?” The base leader mulled over these two words, then glanced at the girl standing obediently by Yu Yinan’s side, who even looked a little timid when she met her gaze. She found it hard to connect those words with her. But, embodying a role? A transformation-type… like channeling a deity, a form of possession? “What does she need?”
“Faith. Pious faith. A heartfelt acknowledgment and gratitude toward the Saint.”
The base leader didn’t reply immediately. She squeezed her towel and wiped away the sweat that had beaded on her skin. “Is this an ability that requires you to accumulate these things first, and can only be used once you have enough?”
“Yes.” Yu Yinan showed a hint of helplessness at the right moment. “I know this is a major restriction, and it involves things like faith and acknowledgment… which are a bit ethereal and mysterious. You might not believe it, but we-”
“I believe you.” The base leader didn’t let Yu Yinan waste any more time on persuasion or explanation. She raised a hand to interrupt her and continued to ask, “How many people’s faith is needed for one rainfall?”
“The amount each person provides is different. If we quantify it, if a person believes or acknowledges her, the value produced is between one and ten. One rainfall requires forty points of faith. My sister needs some for herself, so we’d like to ask for forty-five.” Yu Yinan met the base leader’s gaze as she said this. “Because of the deity’s nature, she only accepts the first three offerings of faith from any given person each month. So the amount of faith the base can provide is limited, as is the number of times it can rain.”
“Wholehearted faith. What level is required to reach ten points?”
“To believe from the bottom of one’s heart that she is the Saint herself. There can be no trace of doubt or hesitation; one must completely associate her with the Saint.” Yu Yinan paused for a moment before continuing, “I’m not entirely sure about the specific level. Perhaps… it’s a feeling of total immersion, body and soul, casting aside all distracting thoughts, even offering up one’s spirit?”
“One’s spirit, huh…” The base leader pondered for a moment. She could roughly understand what the woman meant. In short, the more intense and extreme the emotion, the higher the faith value produced. But to actually reach ten points… She re-examined the two of them. Reaching ten points would make someone no different from a fanatic, wouldn’t it? But she had also mentioned acknowledgment; as long as one wholeheartedly believed from the bottom of their heart that this person was the Saint herself, that would also work. “Doesn’t your sister speak?”
“Ah.” Suddenly being addressed, Zheng Yi let out a startled sound. She looked at the base leader, her face turning redder by the second as beads of sweat dripped from her chin. Zheng Yi stammered for a moment before saying in a low voice, “I-I’m Zheng Yi, and my older sister is Yu Yinan…”
The base leader couldn’t help but chuckle. She tapped the desk with her fingertips. “You need faith to make it rain, but without rain, the others in the base won’t be willing to offer their faith. Three chances a month… a month. No matter how long this heatwave lasts, it won’t go on for a whole month. It should be similar to the extreme cold spell.”
“Since you’re here to preach about a deity, have you prepared a script for how to do it? Let me see it.”
Unflustered, Yu Yinan took a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it over. Although she could recite the long passage from memory, it was still a bit embarrassing. Besides, some words and phrases might be clearer and more impactful in writing.
“…” After a quick scan, the base leader fell silent.
She read the words on the paper several times, then looked back at the two of them. After a long silence, she finally asked, “Is this a divine oracle from that deity, or did you write it yourselves?”
“…We wrote it ourselves.” Yu Yinan pursed her lips. “But the content isn’t far from the truth.”
“This tenth level… ‘The tenth level allows one to ascend to the outer holy domain, receive the Saint’s blessing, escape the sea of suffering of the flesh, and have the soul ascend’?” This was written in a very strange way. “Your deity just takes away her most loyal followers?”
“It’s a beautiful vision for the afterlife, not that tenth-level believers will be taken away or have their souls ferried to the other side.” Not letting Yu Yinan explain further, Zheng Yi spoke up, saying earnestly, “The apocalypse is full of suffering and disaster, so this is a blessing for believers to be reborn into a peaceful world in their next life.”
“Ahem, don’t you think this is written in a somewhat… heretical way?” the base leader mused, phrasing her question tactfully.
“Why? But the Saint is the Saint, the god of salvation.” As if unable to understand, Zheng Yi bit her lip, a wronged expression on her face. “Can’t I write it like this?”
“My apologies, I’ve never believed in such things.” The base leader didn’t pursue the topic. Based on Zheng Yi’s explanation of a vision for the afterlife… it was barely plausible. She folded the paper again, put it in her pocket, and stood up. “I’ll hold onto this for now. I’m going to gather a few others from the base to discuss this. We’ll give you an answer within the hour.”
Forty-five faith points. If each person gave five points on average, one rainfall would require nine people.
She left decisively, leaving Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan to their own devices. She didn’t seem at all worried they might see some confidential documents in the office.
As soon as the base leader was gone, Zheng Yi picked up a few crumpled balls of paper from the floor and smoothed them out to look at the blueprints. The base leader seemed to be designing some kind of device, but were all of these failed drafts?
[Hmm, I guess she’s trying to design a device to help thunder-type ability users generate electricity and store it efficiently. See, she wants the output voltage to be adjustable to several levels. As for the user’s input… most thunder-type ability users can’t control their power input stably, so efficient utilization and storage require more effort.] Zero One glanced at the blueprints and easily figured out what the base leader was trying to do. [Obviously, she doesn’t have suitable materials here. She’s been considering substitutes without wanting to compromise efficiency.]
Zheng Yi crumpled the papers back into their original state. Meanwhile, Yu Yinan raised a hand to wipe the sweat from Zheng Yi’s brow. “How about I try absorbing the heat with my flames again?”
“Jiejie, I’m fine~” Zheng Yi smiled sweetly, grabbing Yu Yinan’s arm and swaying it like a spoiled child. “Jiejie did a great job.”
“…It was alright. As long as I didn’t make any mistakes.” Yu Yinan’s eyes were downcast. Whatever state or aura she had before seemed to vanish in front of Zheng Yi. “This base has probably cleared out a batch of people already. I don’t know if there will be that many believers left. Pious… acknowledgment… they… probably won’t provide you with much faith.”
“Can we stay here for the entire heatwave?”
“We just need to get through the most extreme few days,” Zheng Yi said softly. She was languid, leaning half her body against Yu Yinan as she discreetly used her ability to conjure some ice cubes to cool them down. Yu Yinan wrapped an arm loosely around her lower back, and Zheng Yi raised her hand to pop a small ice cube into Yu Yinan’s mouth.
“Crunch.” Zheng Yi chewed on an ice cube, finally feeling some relief in the hot, stuffy room. Even the base leader lived in this environment. There wasn’t even a cup on her desk, only a tightly sealed kettle on the floor. In all the time they had been talking, they hadn’t seen the sweat-drenched base leader open it for a drink.
Perhaps things really weren’t easy for anyone.
Yu Yinan felt the helplessness of that alleyway even more keenly now. If she were the base leader, she would probably be just as powerless in this situation.
When survival resources are limited, distribution becomes a major problem. When necessary, choices must be made to save the majority. But such things could never be called right.
About half an hour later.
“Knock, knock.” Two knocks sounded at the office door. When Yu Yinan turned around, she saw the base leader had returned. She had concluded her discussion faster than expected.
This time, a string of ability users followed behind the base leader. As they entered, they all sized up Yu Yinan and Zheng Yi in unison before greeting them in a relatively friendly manner.
“We’ve gone over the details and that note,” one of the older ability users said. He glanced at Zheng Yi. “You must be the Saint herself, Zheng Yi, right? We’ll try first. After we’ve taken a moment to prepare, please tell us how many faith points each of us provided.”
After saying this, they all turned to look at Zheng Yi, studying her. From time to time, they would close their eyes as if thinking about something, a process probably not unlike self-hypnosis. The base leader gave Zheng Yi a deep look, then walked up to face her.
[Ding! Feng Shuxian has been detected believing from the bottom of her heart that the Host is the Saint! Determining emotional intensity…]
[Determination complete. Reward: Saint Points +8!]
In that instant, Zheng Yi seemed to hear a distant, murmuring voice. She closed her eyes slightly as if sensing something, then said hesitantly, “Feng Shuxian? …Eight points of faith.”
“Eight points?” The base leader nodded slightly and took two steps back. “Be more pious. I didn’t tell them my name just now.”
At these words, the few people who had been closing their eyes and earnestly preparing their emotions for a later outburst were stunned for a moment. They quickly frowned and tried even harder.
Feng Shuxian… so that was the base leader’s name. Yu Yinan looked at her. The woman herself didn’t seem to have much in common with the name “Shuxian (Gentle and Virtuous).” Having finished her contribution of faith points, she didn’t continue but stepped aside to watch the others.
[Ding! Wang Fengxiang has been detected believing from the bottom of his heart that the Host is the Saint! Determining emotional intensity…]
[Determination complete. Reward: Saint Points +6!]
“Wang Fengxiang? Six faith points.”
“Why so low?” A male ability user couldn’t believe it. Feng Shuxian had also just started preparing. “I wasn’t thinking about anything else, and I tried really hard to believe.”
But the result was right there, plain to see.
“Vice-leader, you only have three chances in total. Next time… don’t let it be like this again,” Base Leader Feng reminded him, then looked at Zheng Yi. “So that’s fourteen points now?”
“Mhm.” Zheng Yi nodded. The base leader seemed quite satisfied.
This determination wasn’t too extreme. Although she had contributed eight points, she hadn’t glimpsed any great truth, nor did she feel any discomfort or side effects. A deity… transformation-type abilities originated from imagination, so this so-called channeling of a deity was probably similar, just with an added prerequisite.
Things went much more smoothly after that. Zheng Yi was able to call out their names directly. Although the faith point values she announced surprised them, upon reflection, they knew in their hearts that the numbers were probably more or less accurate.
Of the next seven ability users who held positions in the base, six contributed seven faith points each, and one contributed eight.
In total, the nine people provided sixty-four faith points, which meant 64 Saint Points. Adding the Saint Points from feeding Yu Yinan and the acknowledgments from Humanity’s Light Shelter and the camp she had previously purified, Zheng Yi had accumulated quite a few.
Host: Zheng Yi
Saint Points: 266
Inventory Slots: 6
Special Abilities: Water/Healing (Beginner)
“I can demonstrate the rainfall now.” Zheng Yi seemed eager. To the base leader and the others, the young woman looked like she wanted to immediately prove she wasn’t lying and that the Saint, the deity, was real.
“No rush. We’ll spread the word in advance.” Since even the number of times faith could be collected was limited, they had to make every opportunity count. The base leader emptied her mind of everything related to the Saint, afraid she might inadvertently connect Zheng Yi with the Saint and waste a chance on some random acknowledgment.
She wasn’t afraid that Zheng Yi and Yu Yinan were liars who had come here just to mess with them. “As for your accommodations…” she mused. The housing in the base was almost completely full. It was a special time, after all. Even though many ordinary people had nothing and wouldn’t have qualified for housing before, the base leadership had discussed it and tried to squeeze multiple people into each room to help everyone survive the heatwave. The residential area was now completely packed.
Even though ordinary people were dying in droves from heatstroke, dehydration, or other untreated illnesses, no rooms had freed up in the residential area. At best, the crowded living spaces had become slightly more spacious.
“Anywhere is fine. A place where my sister and I can sleep on the floor is enough.”
“It won’t be that crude. How about this, you can stay in this building for now. I’ll clear some things out and make a bed for you.”
The other ability users dispersed. In that half-hour, who knew what kind of promotional methods they had come up with, but it seemed they didn’t plan on holding any more meetings. The base leader didn’t go back to revising her failed blueprints. Instead, she led Yu Yinan and the others to a room a few doors down. This neighboring room might have been a conference room before, but now it was a storage room for miscellaneous items, piled high with condensed metal blocks and some metal parts that looked very similar to those in the blueprints.
Several rooms were filled with these things. There were even finished products, but they were clearly unusable, or they wouldn’t have been left here. The base leader opened the rooms one by one. It wasn’t until the third room that the clutter lessened, with only a few unusable metal products piled up. These didn’t look like the things from the blueprints, though. Yu Yinan even saw a large fan with pure metal blades.
“If you don’t mind, you can stay here,” the base leader said. “I’m right next door, and I’ll be here at night. If you need anything, you can always find me in one of these rooms.” As she spoke, she placed her hand on a finished product, closed her eyes, and focused. The product quickly softened, being refined in her hand according to her will. But this piece alone wasn’t enough. She quickly moved her hand to other objects, and in the end, she made Zheng Yi and the others a simple 1.8-meter iron bed and two simple metal stools.
“The middle is hollow, since materials are limited. But the special metal I condensed is quite hard, so it should be fine.” The original items in the room had all been melted down. The base leader glanced at Yu Yinan and Zheng Yi, as if guessing the two girls’ combined weight. “If it softens or deforms badly, find me anytime to reshape it.”
“All the metal in these rooms… did you condense it all yourself with your ability?”
“I condense a little every day to accumulate it. Over time, it adds up,” the base leader said, clearly not thinking it was a big deal. “Some of it was collected from various scrap metals nearby. It’s all waste material; the base has already used everything useful. I just melted the scrap together.”
“Abilities, you know, the more you use and train them, the stronger they get.” It had been very difficult for her at first. She would get a piercing headache after doing very little and needed a long time to recover. She had been caught in the second great rain and collected a lot of rainwater. Now, doing this was much easier, and she could even start condensing some finer, smaller parts.
“As for food and water…” The base leader looked at the two of them, empty-handed, and paused. “You… didn’t bring anything with you?”
“I’m a dual-ability user,” Zheng Yi said. “I also have a personal storage space ability, but the space isn’t very large. You don’t need to worry about our food and water.”
“Then it’s settled. Once the base is ready, you can make it rain at any time, right?”
“Mhm, as long as there are enough faith points, I’m ready whenever.”
“Alright.” She nodded. “You can move freely within the base, just make sure we can find you when we need you. The rainfall… I hope there won’t be any accidents then. The restroom is at the end of the hall on this floor. If you’re not comfortable with that, there’s one on the second floor too.”
“You two don’t look very old, so I’ll say a few more words. I’m not trying to scare you, but if everything is ready and you mess up, or if this all turns out to be a joke…” The base leader was very calm as she said this. “You must have seen something that made you come here. Neither I nor the other leaders are what you’d call kind people.”
After saying this, she turned and left, closing the door for them.
Although she wasn’t direct, her meaning was clear. If they found out Yu Yinan and Zheng Yi were lying, or if they failed at a critical moment… they might just hang them in the base’s plaza to bleed out.
It was the first time Zheng Yi had been warned like this, and she found it quite novel.
She sensed around for a moment. Base Leader Feng was truly gone, and there was indeed no one watching this room.
“Looks like we’ll be staying here for a few days~” Zheng Yi smiled at Yu Yinan and conjured an ice cube, handing it to her. “Should we make the bed now?”
“…Making it rain must take a lot out of you. Are you sure you can agree to this? Forty-five… we don’t know how many people are in this base. We only came in through a side entrance and haven’t had a chance to look around. What if there are hundreds or thousands of people? Wouldn’t that-”
“It’s fine. This faith… isn’t just a one-month income.” Ordinary people had a hard time surviving in the apocalypse. Forget entertainment; during the heatwave, they couldn’t even bear to go outside and could only wait quietly in their rooms for it to pass. The Stamina Recovery Pills that Zero One had unlocked ahead of time were indeed effective. After taking one, her energy was already seventy or eighty percent restored. She could even make it rain right now if she had to.
One recovery pill for 30 Saint Points in exchange for a fixed income of 45 Saint Points, plus potential continuous returns later on. No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t a losing deal.
‘The time of the divine gift is fixed, subject to the deity’s will, and unchangeable.’
Besides, Yu Yinan had emphasized from the beginning that it would be short-duration, small-scale rainfall. As long as the time and area weren’t too excessive, it shouldn’t be a problem.
“What if they accumulate faith points later and ask you to make it rain multiple times in a row?” Unlike Zero One’s worries, this was what concerned Yu Yinan. One rainfall might not be a big deal for Zheng Yi, but what if they asked her to do it twice or even more in succession?
“It’s fine, I have a way.” She could extend the prayer and “communing with the deity” process before the rainfall, avoiding a rapid drain of her energy in a short period. Paired with the recovery effect of the Stamina Recovery Pills, it wouldn’t matter even if her mental strength was temporarily insufficient.
After all, on the night she killed Yang Zhengming, Zheng Yi had endured the pain of overexertion to continuously “purify” them.
Besides, if the base’s request for continuous rainfall became too much, she could first hint at a higher failure rate when the deity descended too frequently. Secondly, even an ability like deity possession consumed the user’s mental energy. Zheng Yi could easily explain that she couldn’t withstand frequent possessions.
As long as the rainfall was successful, the people of this base wouldn’t make things too difficult for them. Besides, that Base Leader Feng…
She probably wouldn’t do something like that.
Zheng Yi chewed on her ice cube and looked out the window, getting a glimpse of the base’s layout.
There were rows of residential buildings, likely left over from before the apocalypse. In addition to those buildings, there were also “simple earthen huts” that looked like they were built by earth-type ability users. The huts didn’t look very safe, but they could probably provide some shade.
If it rained, these earthen houses would probably be washed away, right?
On the other side was a wall enclosing a building, built by who knows how many earth-type ability users over who knows how long. The high earthen wall completely enveloped the building within, especially the top, leaving only a large gate at the front for entry and exit. Zheng Yi guessed that was where the base stored its water.
As she looked, she saw an ability user being carried back to a residential building on a stretcher. If that was the water-type ability user who supplied the base, then everything would make sense.
Yu Yinan stood behind Zheng Yi. For some reason, she suddenly lowered her head, rested her chin on Zheng Yi’s shoulder, and loosely wrapped her arms around her.
Was this the apocalypse? There were many kinds of ability users, but not all of them could survive well. Aside from a few with ridiculously overpowered abilities, the average ability users… if their powers were geared toward daily necessities, they lacked the strength to protect themselves. If their powers were combat-oriented, they were helpless against extreme weather or certain natural disasters.
After experiencing the extreme cold, most shelters would realize a heatwave was coming. But water was a daily necessity, consumed every day, and the upper limit of a water-type ability user’s power determined the supply. Even with conscious saving and storage, when the critical moment arrived, proper distribution was still difficult…
“I wonder how Humanity’s Light Shelter is doing,” Yu Yinan suddenly murmured. She was able to get through things safely because Zheng Yi was by her side. If she hadn’t met Zheng Yi, walking this apocalyptic path… Yu Yinan didn’t know how she would have ended up.
Chu Yi and Grandma Xu were good people, too. Thinking of this intense heat, Yu Yinan worried about Grandma Xu. Although she was an ability user, she was sixty-seven years old. She wondered if she could endure it. Ah, but Grandma Xu had probably saved up a lot of contribution points from doing bounties, so at least she wouldn’t be short on water, right? The water resources at Humanity’s Light… should be more abundant than here.
Zheng Yi didn’t push Yu Yinan away, tacitly allowing her actions. She studied the base’s layout and listened to Yu Yinan mention Humanity’s Light. Comparing the two, the difference was stark.
Although Humanity’s Light called itself a shelter, its facilities and regulations were relatively complete. They even had the spare capacity to build a school and a library. Whether in terms of resources or other aspects, it was far more developed than this base.
Get instant access to all the chapters now.
Comments
Post a Comment