9: Chapter 9: The Price is Staggering!! Reinforcements!! Reinforcements!!

Time seemed to stretch infinitely at this moment.

Li Yuan leaned against the cold metal wall and slowly slid down to sit on the floor. A pungent odor permeated the underground hall, but he had no time to worry about it right now.

【Skill release concluded. Compensation calculation beginning.】

The cold mechanical voice brought a chill that seeped into his very marrow.

"It's over..."

He thought back to that world-ending Double SSS-rank Class Trial Card. Maintaining it for a mere ten-odd seconds had directly burned his life essence to near-depletion, leaving him with a paltry three days.

And just now, to completely obliterate that Zantar Cockroach, he had once again overdrawn his strength to fire that incandescent white arrow, which condensed triple fire laws.

Although the system prompt indicated an energy deficit of only 0.1, this was the "Compensation Mode" involving life essence! Heaven only knew how much of his lifespan the system would use to fill that 0.1 energy gap.

An hour? Five hours? Or an entire day?

He didn't dare think about it.

In the corner of his vision, the translucent [Remaining Lifespan] numbers ticked silently. He remembered it being 73 hours and 50-some minutes when he checked before sleeping; he'd slept for about 7 hours, and from waking up to chase the Roach until the end of this fierce battle, another half hour had passed. If the settlement deducted even more... he simply didn't dare calculate it closely.

His heart hammered wildly in his chest, and sweat had soaked through his tattered clothes at some point.

"Damn it, just give it to me straight, kill me or cut me..."

The few short seconds of the compensation settlement felt as long as a century.

【Compensation settlement complete.】

Li Yuan's heart instantly leaped into his throat.

【Energy consumed for this compensation: 0.1. Lifespan deduction: 1 minute.】

【Current remaining lifespan: Approximately 66 hours 20 minutes】

...

...

A deathly silence followed.

Li Yuan's eyes widened, and the expression on his face instantly petrified, as if he had turned into a stone statue.

One... one minute?

Only... one minute of lifespan was deducted?!

The gap between this and the punishment he had anticipated—which he thought would be hours or even a day—was far too large! One minute for such massive power!! This was... this was practically a freebie!

"Ha... hahaha... hahahaha!!!"

An unspeakable ecstasy took over, carrying the frenzy of a survivor and unbelievable joy.

Suddenly, a thought quietly wound its way into his mind. This 0.1 energy compensation only cost him one minute of life.

Then... what kind of attack did that trial card, which consumed almost all of his life essence, actually release?

It couldn't be...

"Whew..." He let out a long breath, forcing himself to calm down.

"System, this compensation ratio... when I used the trial card, you didn't take a kickback from me, did you?" Li Yuan continued to smile, but his voice was a bit cold.

Deducting life source, collecting life essence—what did this system want with all that life energy?

"Hello, host! How... how could you suspect the system like that!" Number 1518's voice sounded a bit flustered, but she forced herself to remain calm. "For skills of different energy levels, the conversion efficiency between energy and life essence is naturally different! The trial card involved the fundamental laws of the universe; massive consumption is inevitable! This system executes everything according to the optimal solution of the core protocols!"

The explanation sounded reasonable enough, but the tone of the voice further fueled Li Yuan's suspicion.

Who knew...

"Besides... besides, can the matter of system energy dispatching really be called 'withholding'? It's called strategic resource tilting! It's to ensure the host has the power to break through desperate situations! It is a necessary price! host, you must understand the system's... well-intentioned efforts!" She paused, as if trying to add persuasiveness, making somewhat chaotic excuses.

Li Yuan: "..."

Confirmed!!!

But instead of his heart turning cold, Li Yuan actually felt like laughing... To lie like this, this system really has no experience in deceiving people.

The style of this behind-the-scenes big boss isn't right either...

The muscles on Li Yuan's face stiffened for a moment. It felt as if a small piece of ice was rubbing against his heart—a bit cold, but not much.

Regardless, with only his North Dark Abyss talent, he certainly wouldn't have survived the Zerg Tide without the system. For the sake of saving his life, Li Yuan was naturally willing to forgive her.

Was he angry? A little, but not enough to turn hostile.

Was he grateful? He truly was; without the system, he'd be dead already.

A conspiracy? There probably was one, but looking at this level of competence, it likely wasn't aimed at him.

Trust? It had taken a hit; he'd have to keep a closer eye out in the future.

It's just...

The system's intention is to collect life energy. What does it want to do...

Being a programmer from a science and engineering background, although Li Yuan's survival skills were abysmal, he could still see through things by peeling back the layers...

"I understand, I understand!! After all, loading such an awesome class template is difficult; the system has to grease some wheels up and down." Li Yuan's tone carried a hint of banter.

"Of course!!" Customer Service 1518's voice carried a bit of 'who else but me' pride; she completely missed the sarcasm.

He stopped joking with the system; that wasn't what he should be focusing on right now. The more important thing next was absorbing the Roach's life essence.

His gaze shifted to the bottom of the crater. The Roach's life essence was roughly the size of a fist, its entire body a deep, magnificent ruby color, with life energy seemingly flowing slowly inside!

He carefully climbed down into the crater and picked up the crystal. It felt warm to the touch, not at all like the Drone's crystal which carried a hint of chill; instead, it felt like warm jade!

"Such a big lump... will I choke if I swallow it?" A somewhat nonsensical thought flashed through Li Yuan's mind; the size of this thing was truly staggering.

He took a deep breath and, without further hesitation, put the precious crystal into his mouth.

As usual, just like the Drone's life essence, this seemingly hard crystal softened instantly upon contact with saliva, like butter meeting a hot knife.

It turned into a torrent of energy far larger than the Drone's essence, automatically surging down his throat and instantly dispersing into his limbs and bones!

He immediately looked at the system interface.

The most important data began to jump rapidly:

【Remaining Lifespan: Approx. 66 hours 20 minutes】 → The numbers soared like they were on a rocket! Finally, they stopped at—【Approx. 71 hours 20 minutes】!

It increased his lifespan by a full 5 hours!

Next:

【Energy: 0.3 】 → The numbers also began to explode! 【22.3】!

Energy was directly restored by 22 points! Far exceeding the total consumed for the kill!

Then, the essence data under the status bar:

【Essence: 24】 → 【34】!

Essence increased by 10 points!

"Hiss—" Li Yuan couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air, his eyes exploding with sharp light!

These gains... were quite good!

A single Zantar Cockroach provided 10 times the essence and lifespan of a Drone! Energy recovery was more than 10 times that of a Drone!

"This cost-performance ratio is much higher than killing Drones. High risk, high reward! The ancients truly did not deceive me!" Li Yuan licked his lips, his gaze becoming incredibly fiery. "Does that mean the more powerful the bug, the more lifespan and energy it gives? It's just that Roaches are too hard to fight; maybe hunting Zerglings would be a good choice."

This discovery caused the slight wariness he'd felt because of the Zantar Cockroach to be instantly replaced by the temptation of massive profits.

"A Zergling's combat power is definitely stronger than a Drone's, but it should be far inferior to a Roach's, right? The difficulty of killing one is probably somewhere in between. If the life essence provided by a Zergling is more than a Drone's, wouldn't hunting Zerglings be much more cost-effective than laboriously killing Drones?"

Once this thought arose, it could no longer be suppressed. He needed to accumulate lifespan more efficiently!

Just as he was immersed in beautiful visions of his future hunting plans—

"Shhh... sizzle... shhh..."

A faint but persistent noise came from the command room next to the hall, its door half-open.

"What's that sound?" Accompanied by the Light Guardian, he cautiously made his way toward the command room.

The closer he got, the clearer the "shhh" sound became, interspersed with intermittent human voices!

There was still usable communication equipment here?!

Excitement!

He dashed into the command room. The equipment was indeed still running. A red indicator light was flashing weakly, and the nearby speaker was continuously emitting that intermittent voice.

"...zzt... This is... Human... Prey Star Domain Seventh Fleet... Third Escort Detachment..."

The voice was somewhat distorted and broken due to signal interference, but the news of reinforcements made Li Yuan's heart tighten!

He hurriedly fumbled with the control console, trying to adjust the channel to strengthen the signal.

Under his clumsy manipulation, the voice in the speaker became much clearer:

"...Repeating... This is the Prey Star Domain Seventh Fleet, Third Escort Detachment."

"Now broadcasting the latest battle situation and instructions to all survivors at the planetary outposts of the 'Edge' sequence."

"The Zerg mothership invading this system has been destroyed by our forces. The main Zerg force has withdrawn from this system."

"The support fleet has departed from 'Watchman' Starport and is expected to arrive at the 'Edge' sequence star domain in 15 standard planetary days to execute reclamation and rescue missions."

"Repeating, the support fleet is expected to arrive in 15 standard planetary days."

"All surviving personnel receiving this message, please hold your positions and wait for rescue. Seek out safe areas to hold your ground as much as possible to preserve effective strength."

"Reinforcements are coming! Repeating, reinforcements are coming!"

"May the starlight guide you... zzt... This message will be broadcast on a loop..."

The broadcast ended there and began a new cycle.

Li Yuan stood blankly in front of the control console.

Reinforcements...

There really were reinforcements!

And they would arrive in 15 days!

Humanity... had not given up on this place! He had a chance to return to the world of human civilization!

An unspeakable surge of excitement rushed to his heart, but then...

He subconsciously looked at the translucent countdown in the corner of his vision:

【Remaining Lifespan: Approx. 71 hours 15 minutes】.

Calculated out, that was less than three days.

And the reinforcements would arrive in fifteen days.

If he didn't hunt enough life essence before boarding the support ship...

"Reinforcements... fifteen days, huh..."

He muttered to himself, the corners of his mouth curling into a cold arc.

"It seems that if I want to live long enough to leave with you... in these fifteen days, I not only have to keep my life going, but I also have to save up a sufficient 'coffin fund'!"

His gaze turned once again to the points of light on the system map representing Zerg lives.

Hunt!!!

The lifespan issue must be resolved before leaving this planet!