9: New day card selection

Lin Yu did not bother to clean up these things.

He just lay down and closed his eyes.

The excessive consumption of his mental energy, combined with the sudden release of the tension that had been taut for five years, brought a sense of exhaustion that engulfed him like a tsunami.

He fell asleep.

He slept a slumber more peaceful than ever before.

There were no nightmares, no waking up to mental pain in the early hours, and certainly none of the numbness brought by endless, cyclical labor.

Five years of accumulated sleep deprivation seemed to be made up for all at once in that moment...

When he woke up again, light streamed through the gaps in the container, shining on his face.

Lin Yu slowly opened his eyes, still a little disoriented.

He sat up and glanced at the digital clock on the wall.

00:01.

Twelve o'clock in the morning.

Achievement unlocked: slept from 00:05 to 00:01.

He had slept for a full day and night.

Lin Yu stretched his body, his bones emitting a series of crisp cracks, but this time, it was no longer a groan of being overburdened, but a long-awaited feeling of ease.

His stomach rumbled.

He skillfully pulled out two palm-sized compressed dry rations from the storage box under the bed.

These were regularly distributed by the relief center; they tasted like sawdust but could fill his stomach.

He also poured out two compound vitamin tablets from a bottle, which he had purchased with his meager savings, considered a "heavy investment."

To maintain basic bodily functions, he never dared to skimp on these.

He hadn't gone mad; even during the most desperate times of those five years, he knew that a healthy body was the foundation of everything.

He unscrewed a bottle of mineral water, ready to swallow the dry rations and tablets together.

His movements suddenly paused.

He looked at the items in his hand.

Compressed dry rations.

Vitamin tablets.

Mineral water.

Then, his thoughts landed on his professional panel.

An absurd yet interesting idea popped into his head.

Lin Yu placed the items in his hand on the workbench, then picked up the compressed dry ration.

After some manipulation.

Using [Compressed Dry Ration Card] Multiply * 256!

Activate.

The next second, a small tower of neatly stacked compressed dry rations appeared out of thin air on the table in front of him.

Exactly two hundred and fifty-six pieces.

Lin Yu picked one up and put it in his mouth.

It was still that familiar taste that made his jaw ache.

He smiled.

He picked up the bottle of mineral water.

Using [Mineral Water] Card Multiply * 256!

Splash.

Two hundred and fifty-six identical bottles of mineral water filled half the workbench, with even a few rolling into the pile of A Small Pebble on the ground.

He then looked at the two vitamin tablets.

Activate.

A small pile of white tablets appeared on the desktop.

Lin Yu looked at the scene before him and smiled silently.

If an apocalypse broke out now and he needed to hoard supplies...

He alone would be a logistical army.

Food, water, medicine—as long as he had a sample, he could endlessly replicate it.

He could survive until the end of the world alone, relying on these things.

After eating and drinking his fill, Lin Yu's thoughts began to wander.

Food and water were just the basics.

What about... money?

Once this thought appeared, it could no longer be suppressed.

He rummaged through his belongings, finally finding all his cash in the inner pocket of his old jacket, which he had worn for three years.

A crumpled hundred-yuan bill.

This was his last asset.

Lin Yu carefully smoothed the banknote on the table.

Use!

Buzz—

A stack of brand new banknotes, still smelling of ink, appeared out of thin air in front of him.

A thick wad.

Lin Yu picked up the stack of money, feeling its incredibly real texture.

He succeeded!

From now on, he would never have to worry about money again!

He could buy the best house in the city, eat at the most luxurious restaurants, and enjoy a life he hadn't even dared to dream of for the past five years!

However, as he began to count the banknotes, the smile on his face slowly froze.

He picked up the first one.

Serial number: QN88688688.

He picked up the second one.

Serial number: QN88688688.

The third, the fourth, the fifth... He quickly flipped through the entire stack of money.

All the serial numbers were identical.

These bills were perfect replicas.

So perfect... they became the most clumsy counterfeit money.

Using a little might be fine, but using too much would get him caught.

He couldn't conjure cash out of thin air this way.

One path to wealth was blocked.

Lin Yu didn't feel disappointed; instead, he found it quite interesting.

He wanted to get rich now... that would truly be a matter of minutes.

However... his gaze swept across the corner of the container.

There was a rusty tin bucket there, filled with some scrap he usually saved.

He walked over and rummaged through it for a long time, pulling out a coin.

One yuan denomination.

Lin Yu held the coin in his palm.

This thing surely doesn't have a serial number, right?...

You won't let me replicate!

Out of a retaliatory, mischievous impulse.

He decided to play a bigger game.

Although he could only multiply by 256 at a time now, he could do 256 times many, many times!

It was just a bit more tedious to operate.

Use!

Clink clank—

The next moment, crisp and dense metallic clanging sounds furiously echoed throughout the entire tin bucket!

It wasn't the sound of individual coins dropping.

It was a metallic storm composed of coins!

Countless shimmering coins gushed out from where they disappeared from his palm, transforming into a silver torrent that violently crashed into the huge tin bucket!

The tin bucket filled up at a visible speed.

Soon, coins overflowed from the rim of the bucket, piling up into a new, sparkling small mountain on the ground.

Lin Yu didn't pay attention to the small mountain of coins.

These glittering things might have held a fatal attraction for him five years ago.

But now, they were just a byproduct of an experiment, proving the potential of the card deck in his hand.

True wealth wasn't these replicable metals, but the ability to create all of this itself.

He shifted his gaze from the pile of money, becoming focused once more.

The playing was over.

It was time to start the real business.

Lin Yu walked to the pile of scrap in the corner and picked up A Small Pebble the size of a pigeon's egg again.

Energy flowed.

[A Small Pebble]

He began to repeat this action.

Craft, complete.

Craft, complete.

This process was as familiar to him as breathing.

For a full hour.

His movements didn't pause in the slightest; his mind was as stable as a precise machine.

When he stopped, seven hundred and twenty gray cards were neatly stacked on the workbench in front of him.

All of them were [A Small Pebble].

A total of seven hundred and twenty cards.

His thoughts focused on the skill on his professional panel that had finished cooling down.

Daily card drawing was still necessary, but reducing it from twenty hours to one hour, he wondered if anything good would come out.

[Card Innovation].

Activate.

[Please select the cards to be deleted.]

Lin Yu's palm slowly swept over the seven hundred and twenty cards.

Select all.

[720 cards selected. Proceed with innovation?]

"Yes."

Buzz—

The seven hundred and twenty cards simultaneously transformed into specks of light, converging into a vast torrent of information that furiously spun and intertwined before him.

The next second, the torrent solidified.

Seven hundred and twenty-one brand new cards, shimmering with various colors, floated and rotated slowly before him like dandelions blown by a breeze, awaiting his selection.