Chapter 28

Chapter 028: Fate Points and Fate Source

Early morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

Yan Cang was awakened by sunlight filtering through the gaps in the wooden window.

He let out a long yawn, stretched his arms, and sat up from the comfortable bed.

He felt that he had slept incredibly deeply, without even a trace of a dream.

After waking up, he was refreshed and clear-headed, and the faint restlessness from last night had vanished without a trace.

"Really good sleep..." he murmured contentedly.

Out of habit, he sank his consciousness into the Fate Net, ready to browse the forum as usual and see what new things had happened overnight.

Then, with confusion, he noticed quite a few posts about "Beast Anomalies" and "Night Attacks."

"Beast anomalies? Attacks? Last night? Did that happen?"

Yan Cang tried to recall...

Perhaps it was because he had actively withdrawn half of his physical strength before sleeping, but last night was as quiet as sleeping in his home on Earth.

He hadn't even heard any unusual sounds.

But even if he slept deeply, if the wooden cabin had been besieged and battered by beasts, there should have been some vibrations, right?

Could the upgraded wooden cabin have such good soundproofing?

In his confusion, Yan Cang suddenly remembered the [Fate Protection] that was running continuously on him.

"Looks like I was really groggy and forgot about this..." He scratched his head.

Then he quickly got out of bed, took out the toothbrush, toothpaste, and towel he had bought yesterday afternoon from his Mental Space.

After brushing his teeth and washing his face to fully wake up his brain, Yan Cang once again focused his attention on the Fate Net Forum.

With a rough glance, he found that quite a few people claimed to have encountered beast attacks or disturbances last night.

Most of the posts described thrilling scenes: heavy thuds, spine-chilling low growls, the harsh scraping of claws on wooden walls...

However, judging by the results, most cases only involved some damage to the outer walls of the wooden cabins, and only a very small number actually encountered danger and were eliminated.

But with a massive base of over a billion people, even a tiny minority was enough to trigger huge public panic.

It made it seem like everyone was in that situation.

Involuntarily, Yan Cang became curious about his own "experience" last night.

With a thought, he called up the operation log of [Fate Protection].

This Talent ability, when running continuously, silently avoids all "possible" and "certain" dangers.

And when successfully avoiding them, it consumes corresponding energy based on the level of danger.

At this moment, what he wanted to see were these records:

[Record 1: At dusk, attracted by the faint light emitted during the wooden cabin's upgrade, an adult male bear prepared to visit at night. "Fate Protection" subtly evoked in it a strong craving for a wild beehive 1.2 kilometers to the northwest, causing it to turn and leave. Energy consumption: Minimal.]

Looking at this line of record...

Yan Cang was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh.

"Wow, so it can play it that way, huh?"

He had originally thought that the operation of [Fate Protection] would be more straightforward and rigid, like making the beast suddenly slip and fall, or scaring it away with some strange noise.

He never expected it to be so... creative.

Directly inserting a "find honey" priority task into Brother Bear's mind?

It really is flexible!

But how much energy does this "Minimal" amount actually refer to?

It shouldn't be much, right? A few dozen Fate Points?

Thinking this, with a single thought, he switched the energy unit in the log from internal measurement to the more intuitive "Fate Points."

Then, as soon as he saw the number, the smile on his face instantly froze.

[Record 1 (Energy Consumption): 768 Fate Points]

"What? Seven hundred and sixty-eight?!" Yan Cang was stunned.

He felt that buying two carefully cooked braised bear paws at the Trading House wouldn't even cost over seven hundred Fate Points.

"Wait... spending this many Fate Points, why not just summon a lightning bolt to strike that bear dead?"

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than Yan Cang couldn't help but spend a tiny bit of energy, converting it into a thread of "Omniscience" Fate Power.

Then, he instantly got the answer: "Oh, so directly striking it dead with lightning actually consumes more energy."

Unlike trees, which naturally attract lightning.

The reason it cost over seven hundred Fate Points was that it additionally arranged for that bear, on its way to find the beehive, to stumble into a deep pit, struggle in vain, and ultimately die trapped inside.

To eliminate future trouble?

"Fate Protection, you're too extreme! I'll just personally dismantle you right now..."

As he spoke, he paused.

He recalled that when he originally set up this ability, the logic was to automatically avoid danger when it came knocking.

But it would prioritize the lowest energy-consumption plan, usually just leading the threat away.

However, if it predicted that the target would leave temporarily but continue to attack in the future, it would trigger a more thorough resolution mechanism.

That adult male bear was clearly fixated on the wooden cabin.

After eating the honey, it would still come back to check on this source of light.

Thus, it was directly assigned a fated death.

And if he wanted to modify it, he could choose to cancel this "eliminate future trouble" setting.

But then, there might be a strange scene of wild beasts wandering back and forth near the cabin, repeatedly testing it, like clocking in steps on a punch card.

A strange scene wouldn't be a big deal, but he was worried they'd be persistent, repeatedly triggering the protection mechanism.

Over the long term, the total energy consumption might actually be higher.

After thinking it over carefully, Yan Cang said, "Forget it! Let's just leave it as is."

Actually, when he calmed down and calculated, the energy corresponding to 768 Fate Points was roughly equivalent to the total physical strength of over seventy adults.

For someone now sitting on a massive Energy Pool, it was just a drop in the bucket.

Using such a small cost to completely eliminate a problem was actually very cost-effective.

But now that the Trading House was online and Fate Points had a clear purchasing power as an anchor...

Seeing this kind of consumption still stung a bit.

"It seems my mindset hasn't shifted yet." Yan Cang rubbed his chin, pondering.

"Fate Points are currency for others, but for me, they're essentially energy... Looking at consumption in terms of 'Fate Points' can lead to misjudgment."

"I should add my own unit of measurement."

"Hmm... let's call it Fate Source! 1 Fate Source equals 100 million Fate Points."

With that, 768 Fate Points became 0.00000768 Fate Source.

Looking at that string of zeros and the decimal point, it immediately felt much more comfortable, as if nothing had been consumed at all.

"Perfect." Yan Cang was very satisfied with this mental victory.

Next, he continued to look at the subsequent consumption records.

He found that aside from the bear in the evening, the entire night had been uneventful. [Fate Protection] only had the "Standby Energy Consumption" to maintain basic operation, roughly 1 Fate Point per hour, which was negligible.

After reviewing the records, Yan Cang heard a gurgling sound from his stomach.

Time for breakfast.

He pulled up the Trading House, thought for only a moment, and then went straight for his goal:

"This morning, I'm going to eat bear paw!"