285: Stay true to your path

Lin Yu stopped all movement.

The room was deathly silent.

The dozen or so bats that had already been created hovered in the air, motionless.

The recent attempt had not yielded ideal results.

Whether he let the sub-consciousness work alone or coordinate with the main consciousness, the efficiency was appallingly low.

This was illogical.

Such a powerful technique should not be limited to just charging up before a battle.

There must be something he hadn't considered.

Lin Yu sat down again, forcing himself to calm down and review the entire process.

Where did the problem lie?

Was the computing power distributed unevenly? Or was there an error in how the instructions were conveyed?

He once again submerged his Spiritual Power into his sea of consciousness.

The "processor" he had split off was quietly maintaining the Stacking state of ten [Multiplication Card]s.

It was like a loyal sentry, meticulously executing the background standby instructions.

Lin Yu attempted to issue the order to create a follower again.

This time, he broke down the entire process into finer details.

Step one, mobilize the power of the [Myriad Card Creator].

Step two, gather the materials.

Step three, extract the information from the [Growth] card.

Step four, perform Stacking.

...

He converted every step into the most basic instructions and input them into the sub-consciousness.

Then, he began to time it.

At the same time, he picked up a portion of materials himself and began to create using his most practiced method.

A race against himself.

Five minutes later.

The bat in Lin Yu's hands flashed with light, completing the final shaping.

He turned his head.

On the other side, the manufacturing process controlled by the sub-consciousness had only just reached the fourth step.

The progress bar was despairingly slow.

It took nearly another twenty minutes for that bat to barely take shape.

The time spent was even less than he had imagined!

But this "less" was relative to the previous collaborative work.

Compared to him doing it himself, the efficiency was still worlds apart.

Lin Yu also tested using his split consciousness to assist him in creating high-attribute bats.

He led the core Stacking process, letting the sub-consciousness handle the miscellaneous tasks of gathering materials and stabilizing the form.

Unfortunately, the total time calculated in the end was almost no different from when he threw himself into it and did it all alone.

It seems this thing is still conserved!

Energy cannot be created or destroyed out of thin air.

The ten percent of Spiritual Power he split off only had ten percent of the efficiency.

This was fair.

Fair enough to be somewhat irritating.

Lin Yu thought silently.

Or perhaps, were there other optimization plans?

Was there a key node he had overlooked that could make these things work in the way he envisioned?

How troublesome, truly troublesome!

He leaned back on the sofa, feeling a rare trace of fatigue.

This fatigue did not come from the consumption of Spiritual Power, but from the sense of powerlessness when exploring the unknown.

All his abilities came from the [Myriad Card Creator] profession.

But the profession itself did not come with an instruction manual.

All the techniques and usages required him to explore and trial-and-error bit by bit.

It was like a primitive man suddenly receiving a supercomputer but only being able to use it to crack walnuts.

If only there were a team.

Everyone could research together and brainstorm.

Or, if only there were someone who could teach him.

A true, top-tier Card Maker to tell him how this path should be walked.

The longing in Lin Yu's heart became incomparably strong at this moment.

This method of crossing the river by feeling the stones, relying entirely on his own slow realization, was too slow and too unstable!

Who could guarantee that he would be able to break through the next bottleneck with a flash of inspiration?

What if there was no flash of inspiration?

Would he be stuck in place forever?

On the path to becoming stronger, such uncertainty was not allowed.

But...

Another thought quickly suppressed this longing.

A team? A teacher?

Who could be trusted?

His core secret was infinite replication.

It was the [Myriad Card Creator] profession itself.

Once this power was exposed, what kind of covetousness would it attract?

Did he have the ability to protect all of this?

Lin Yu did not want to use his own life to test other people's humanity.

After comprehensive consideration, a good university might truly be the optimal solution for now.

A university was a hall of knowledge.

There were top-tier theories, the most abundant public information, and countless experience summaries left by predecessors.

He didn't need to expose his core secret.

He only needed to learn, absorb, build a team, and research like a normal, gifted student.

To transform that systematic knowledge into the resources for his own advancement.

That was a place meant for research, producing countless topics every year.

He could learn the underlying logic of card construction, advanced techniques for using Spiritual Power, and the combat systems of different professions.

When he had laid these foundations firmly enough, he could look back at the bottlenecks he had encountered.

Perhaps everything would be easily solved.

Just like how he had deduced the [Stacking] technique by observing Lin Yao's professional characteristics and drawing inferences.

His train of thought became clear in an instant.

The College Entrance Examination.

This special examination, which Qin Zhan and others viewed as a "dialogue across space," had a more realistic and urgent meaning for him.

He had to get into the best school.

Obtain the best resources.

Pave the most stable path to the heavens for himself.

Lin Yu stood up, and the previous trace of fatigue and irritation was swept away.

Replaced by unprecedented firmness.

He walked to the center of the room, looking at the hovering bats.

The assembly line work could continue.

He reached out, and a new portion of material condensed out of thin air.

The black bat silhouette appeared again.

This time, his movements were more steady and more focused.

The light at his fingertips was steady and bright.

A [Growth] card silently merged into the bat's body.

Lin Yu's movements did not pause in the slightest.

Once his train of thought was clear, his state of mind was as steady as a Panshi Badge.

The trace of irritation and fatigue from exploring new techniques earlier had long been washed away by his firm goal.

Now, he was the most efficient and precise component.

For the College Entrance Examination, for stronger power, and to protect his family's future, he could discard all unnecessary emotions and distracting thoughts.

The assembly line started again.

And it was faster and steadier than before.

In a state of undivided attention, his control over Spiritual Power and his processing of card information reached a new peak.

The "Blood Pack" that originally took five minutes to complete was now forcibly compressed to four and a half minutes by him.

Don't underestimate these thirty seconds.

When the base number expands to thousands or tens of thousands, the time saved will be a terrifying figure.

In the room, the number of black bats was increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Twenty.

Thirty.

Fifty.

...