That night, the soldiers had already gone to sleep except for those on patrol.
The sunlight had already disappeared from the sun and it was now the darkest point of the night.
This was the first time I had ever experienced the deathly silence of midnight in this world.
Hidden under this shroud of darkness was the vast unknown filled all sorts of undiscovered dangers.
I had finally reunited with my companions but for some reason, I wasn’t entirely happy either.
Since this was the job I had chosen for myself; since I said that I would live up to Poppy’s trust and confidence, there’s something I must absolutely do while here—-
—–no matter what, I must live.
As I thought about this, I opened my eyes and subconsciously curled up in my sleeping bag.
Up till now, I’ve made a number of wishes that allowed me to survive in this dangerous environment:
“Ability that allows me to distance myself from fatal danger.” 1 point
“Ability to not get killed by external physical forces” 1700000 points
-The wish I made when I left the village.
“Ability to disguise my body as a normal person who had never had his body and/or appearance transformed into something else in order to fulfill a wish’s conditions”. 200001 points.
“Ability to engage in verbal communications with the human inhabitants of this world” 10 points.
“Ability to prevent the absorption of, and to expel any substance that enters my body that could damage my body or affect the functions of my body.”
-The wish I made right before I encountered that beastial wrath.
That wish had saved a few times already but it’s still unable to guarantee that I wouldn’t die.
In that case, I should max out this relatively new wish ability.
……
After several wishes, my poison resistance-like ability reached 330000 points, at which point, my star ocean no longer experienced a decrease in stars.
This must’ve been the umpteenth time I’ve thought this but, my wishes are just so extravagant—-at least when compared to ordinary people— even so, my star ocean didn’t seem to experience any significant decrease in quantity.
Even if I’m still penniless, this wealth of wish points essentially makes me the wealthiest person alive.
—-Alright, enough chatter for now. Given my resistance to toxins, my next wish should be to prevent “ailments”.
“Ability to prevent the reaction with, and to expel any organism entering my body that could damage my body or affect the functions of my body.”
It was a pretty similarly worded ability and to the best of my knowledge, this wish ability should be able to cover any ailments or parasites.
After all, this change in wording was the fine line separating a toxin and an ailment.
A round of wishing later, the total bill came up to 920000 wish points.
As expected ailments are much more likely to kill a person than toxins.
With these two abilities, I’m that much further away from death.
But…it’s still not enough—
“Ability that prevents any damage or fatal impact caused by a lack of heat”.
Mhm, one can’t be too sure that he won’t freeze to death in the wilderness after all.
Surprisingly, this ability only required 2732 points to max it out. The cost roughly came out to 10 times the value of absolute zero in degrees Celsius. (-273.15)
Finally, an ability that didn’t seem needlessly wasteful. Next is—-
“Ability to prevent any damage or fatal impact caused by high heat”.
Since I’m immune to the cold, it’s only natural to move onto heat.
Di Qi Ju:…
Di Qi Ju:……
Di Qi Ju:………
After 10 wishing sessions, my total point count had reached 2 million. Not only that, my star ocean had become noticeably sparser!
Even though I had over ten million wish points, I didn’t dare to continue investing in it.
This ability…seems to be a bottomless pit!
If it took 10 wish points to cover 1 additional degrees Celsius, I must’ve been able to resist up to 200000 degrees Celsius worth of heat by now!—-
—-Ahhh! I’m such an idiot! There’s no upper limit on temperature!!
200000 degrees Celsius…there’s no way something could produce that much heat right?
If something really did do so, the world would’ve been destroyed by then…being the only one alive then would be pointless.
Time to call it quits for this ability. Moving on—-
“Ability to prevent dying from a lack of oxygen and also be able to maintain a steady supply of oxygen”. 160000
“Ability to prevent dying from a lack of water and also be able to maintain a steady supply of water”. 130000
“Ability to prevent dying from a lack of food and also be able to maintain a steady supply of food”. 110000
Ability to prevent dying from a lack of sleep and also be able to fulfill this need via other methods that didn’t require me to become unconscious ”. 50000
……….
With all these wishes, I should be able to handle this expedition right?
It truly seems like I’m discovering the frailty of human life as I continue wishing.
Di Qi Ju: ……
Wait.
There’s still two more matters bothering me.
First was wish abilities that could murder a person. While I’m not worried about wishes that employ physical forces to kill me, there’s still the possibility of wish abilities that transcend the current physical laws of this world.
This concern wasn’t as absurd as it sounded, based on the lessons given to me by Miss Poppy, wish points had the ability to grant such a wish.
The omnipotent wish points allowed anyone who had sufficient points, to transcend the natural laws.
In this dangerous environment full of wish point-wielding, intelligent life forms, guarding against such an unexpected ability was required.
But such an all encompassing wish might end up being a bottomless hole similar to my previous wish. In fact, the benefits of such a wish might be too low as well.
I must consider this carefully…if possible, I should think of a more targeted wish.
Let’s see….
Di Qi Ju:…
Di Qi Ju:……
Di Qi Ju:……
“Ability to prevent any damage and threat of death from energies of natural or supernatural origin”.
If it transcended the natural laws of the worlds, it was probably an “energy” of sorts.
With my high school student brain, this was the best I got.
Then…it’s time to test if this is a bottomless hole as well.
……
I can’t add anymore points…it’s 1.62 million.
It was a lot of wish points but it was still within the acceptable limits. The fact that it even had an upper limit surprised me, furthermore, it was even lower than my “external physical forces” wish.
Don’t tell me…high heat includes a majority of these “energies” as well? So the amount I needed to defend against energies was much lower after having made that wish.
Wish abilities are even able to complement each other?
While this was merely a conjecture, it was a highly likely one.
This ability might not have much connection to the expedition but what if I encounter some unknown intelligent lifeform? This ability would come in handy then.
After all, I had already encountered a giant worm in that ravine, it isn’t strange to imagine that I would encounter another deadly life form.
The next matter that concerned me was my disguise ability.
“Ability to disguise my body as a normal person who had never had his body and/or appearance transformed into something else in order to fulfill a wish’s conditions”.
Within my head, that image of me hitting the ceiling reared its ugly head once more.
With all the wishes I made tonight, I wonder what would I look like without this disguise ability?
As I thought about this, I anxiously tried to invest more points into it once more. The stars didn’t decrease…thank god…
Di Qi Ju:……
But…
A disguise is just a disguise in the end. In reality, I’m no longer the human-sized Di Qi Ju.
Unless…I cancel my other wishes with another wish…but without them, I can’t guarantee that I will be able to live in this world.
I don’t even dare to live without my disguise ability not to mention my other wish abilities…
I’m…such a coward aren’t I?
I wonder if I can wish for bravery?
No…
If I had to rely on wishes to become brave, that would truly mean that I, Di Qi Ju, am a coward through and through.
It’s just facing myself…it’s just facing the reality of my real self, that’s all.
I’m sure I can do that.
Having come to a new world, I’m no longer that nerdy Di Qi Ju who didn’t give a hoot about the world outside of books and exams.
I have friends, a job and a wealth of life experiences that I would have never experienced before.
Because of these, I want to live a life that was true to myself.
I want my “true” self to excel in this world through its own hard work.
I need a wish that will help me honor this decision—-
“Ability to rein in my “Ability to disguise my body as a normal person who had never had his body and/or appearance transformed into something else in order to fulfill a wish’s conditions”.”
200001 wish points.
Completely breaking off from this disguise ability wasn’t possible. That would only destroy my current life. It might even cost me everything…
—but, I’ve at least given myself a chance to face up to my true self.
A last chance for my bravery.
……
……
The next morning, Breman appeared in this second campsite.
The entirety of the campsite was given the order to gather. From the looks of it, there were a hundred of us here.
Di Qi Ju: Are we going to sortie?
One’day High: It’s probably a rally.
Di Qi Ju: Huh. We’ve penetrated this deep into the wilderness already. Is there even a need to boost our morale in a rally?
Halfmoon Leak’age: The next area is something that ordinary people aren’t able to endure after all. Some morale boosting is definitely needed.
Di Qi Ju: Mhm, *yawn*—-
Lee Sole’shot: Ah, Little Ju didn’t get much sleep last night? You’re still yawning.
Di Qi Ju: I guess you could say that, ha ha.
Mo Chuan: But…
Mo Chuan: Something feels different about you.
Di Qi Ju: Hm? In what way?
Mo Chuan: It’s as if…you’re more confident.
Di Qi Ju: Is that so…
Di Qi Ju: That’s great.
Footnotes:
Credits:
Special thanks to Steve Granger, Ichitsuzen, and LaRue Martin!!
