What the hell?
What just happened?
Where did this thing come from?
Zhou Chen stared dumbfounded at the single grain of Star Dust in the bottle. All he did was sign a body donation registration form, right?
In a flash of insight, he seemed to grasp something. He looked up at the female scholar from the Second Anatomy Department and organized his thoughts. "This might be a bit forward, but were you really eager for me to sign this?"
"Huh?" The female scholar froze, thinking Zhou Chen was upset. She scrambled to explain, "No, it's not that I'm wishing for you to die! It's just that the department is really short on materials lately, and my professor gave me a do-or-die order to find ten suitable donors. Otherwise, he's going to delay my graduation..."
"..."
Zhou Chen finally understood. This female scholar, whose emotional intelligence was in the gutter, was desperate to find suitable donors out of Fear of her graduation being delayed. And he was the perfect candidate.
If his theory was correct, the moment he signed his name on the registration form, he had fulfilled the female scholar's inner "desire."
And just like that, a grain of Star Dust had appeared in the bottle.
"...May I take the registration form now?" the female scholar asked timidly. Seeing no objection from Zhou Chen, she breathed a secret sigh of relief, placed the form in her folder, and bowed low.
"Thank you for your contribution."
After the scholar left, Zhou Chen eagerly closed his eyes to observe the glass bottle in his mind and the single grain of Star Dust floating inside.
'I have to grant wishes to accumulate Power?'
'So what's this stuff used for? Enhancement? Recovery? Improving my physical condition?'
Just as the thought 'How do I use this thing?' crossed Zhou Chen's mind, the Star Dust in the glass bottle suddenly lit up, bestowing him with a new set of memories.
A dozen or so seconds later, the bright Star Dust gradually dimmed and vanished. Zhou Chen finally understood.
This was a Wish Bottle!
By granting the wishes of others, big or small, he could accumulate enough "Wish Value" to fulfill his own wishes.
However, the wishes had limits. Absurd things like "become invincible," "get rich overnight," "world peace," or "grant me three more wishes" were out of the question. Even a wish to "repair my Soul" was impossible. For now, he could only make very small wishes.
For example, wishing not to be hungry when you're hungry, wishing not to be thirsty when you're thirsty, wishing not to be sleepy after staying up all night, or wishing not to be tired after a workout...
Only by becoming an Ascender could he make bigger wishes. After all, the Wish Bottle itself was a Forbidden Object, a creation of the Extraordinary World. A normal person could hardly utilize its full Ability.
Although he couldn't wish to repair his Soul yet, he should be able to wish to stabilize its condition. That shouldn't be too big of a wish... Realizing this, Zhou Chen couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement. He was like a drowning man clutching at a straw, seeing a glimmer of hope for survival.
As long as his Soul stopped decaying, it wouldn't collapse.
That would buy him some breathing room to find a way to mend his Soul. At the very least, he wouldn't have to just sit here and wait to die.
'To make bigger wishes, I have to become an Ascender. And after becoming an Ascender, I'll be able to perceive the state of my Soul more directly. It looks like I have to find a way to awaken...'
Zhou Chen mulled it over. Awakening was no easy task. Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person might go their whole life without ever encountering an opportunity to awaken.
The Star Association, on the other hand, had been conducting experiments on artificial awakening. They'd had successful cases, but the failure rate was as high as ninety percent, making it extremely dangerous.
But on second thought, that didn't seem to be a major problem for him. When the time came, he could just save up some Wish Value and wish for a safe awakening.
Of course, he could also just wish to awaken directly, but that would require far too much Wish Value—more than he could possibly accumulate in the short term. He didn't have that much time. So, it was better to settle for the next best thing: undergo a "safe" awakening experiment, which would require much less Wish Value.
After weighing his options for a while, Zhou Chen made up his mind. No time like the present.
He picked up his phone, opened the Star Association's internal app, found the application form for the awakening experiment, and spent a few minutes filling in his personal information and reason for applying before hitting submit.
As someone on the verge of death from Soul decay, he had a perfectly valid reason to participate in the awakening experiment. After becoming an Ascender, his Soul would become much stronger, which might give him a chance to halt the decay and save his life.
To outsiders, it would just look like a desperate, last-ditch effort by a poor soul with a terminal illness who had run out of options.
Five minutes after he submitted the application, his phone chimed with a notification from the Star Association's internal system.
[Your application for the awakening experiment has been approved. A staff member will escort you to the laboratory in 24 hours. We wish you a successful experiment.
This message will be automatically deleted in 30 seconds.]
'Approved. Now I need to figure out how to farm some Wish Value...' Zhou Chen put down his phone and thought for a moment. He got out of bed, glanced around outside his room, and headed straight for the clerk's office at the end of the hall.
He pushed the door open. Inside the office, several hospital clerks sat numbly in front of their screens, processing paperwork.
"Ahem, hey everyone..." Zhou Chen greeted them, but they all just shot him a quick glance before returning to their busy work.
Ignoring the awkward atmosphere, he continued, "As a man on the verge of death, I've realized I still don't know what I want out of life. So I wanted to ask you all, what is it that people live for?"
"You should be asking a psychiatrist, not us. Please don't interrupt our work."
The nearest clerk turned to look at Zhou Chen. His face was gaunt, with dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. He looked like a man-eating beast. It was impossible to tell how many overtime shifts he'd pulled or how many hours it had been since he'd last slept.
"Why do people live? Heh. For endless work, of course. And overtime, and more overtime, and more overtime," someone said with a miserable laugh.
'Corporate drones really have it rough...' Zhou Chen coughed lightly and asked, "Well, do you guys have any wishes?"
"A break! We need a break!"
"Someone come help me finish my work..."
"Sleep. I want to sleep."
Zhou Chen scratched his head. 'I can't help you with any of those wishes.'
"Coffee! I want a cup of hot coffee!" one clerk, who looked on the verge of a mental breakdown from all the overtime, yelled out.
Zhou Chen's eyes lit up. Now that, he could do.
He scanned the office and saw that there was hot water readily available, and next to it, on a cabinet, were boxes and boxes of instant coffee.
'Perfect, it's practically gift-wrapped... Though it feels like the medical department's benefits aren't that great. All they have is instant coffee...'
A moment later, Zhou Chen handed the freshly made coffee to the clerk. The man thanked him in a daze, and immediately, a new grain of Star Dust materialized in the Wish Bottle.
Zhou Chen was deeply satisfied.
After taking a sip of coffee, the clerk looked at Zhou Chen and pleaded, "Buddy, please, could you grab me some food too? I haven't eaten in ten hours..."
Zhou Chen nodded sympathetically, then asked, "Anyone else need food?"
In response, a unified voice rose from the entire office.
"Get me something—"
...
A dozen or so minutes later, Zhou Chen returned from the hospital cafeteria, full and satisfied, with several takeout meals in hand.
After delivering the food to the clerks, five more grains of Star Dust instantly appeared in the bottle. Added to the one he already had, that made a total of six. The once-empty Wish Bottle was suddenly a magnificent sight, filled with tiny shooting stars twinkling and swirling within.
Zhou Chen was overjoyed. This was an excellent start.
Sure, these were just trivial little wishes that didn't provide much Wish Value, but every little bit counts. Pennies make dollars. If he kept at it, he would eventually accumulate a fortune.
'If only I were still living in the college dorms, I'd be the dad of the whole suite...' Zhou Chen stood at the office door, thinking for a moment. He then looked at the rows of patient rooms, and an idea began to form in his mind.