At that very moment, deep in the lower decks of the River Styx, Muzan stared at the pristine white corridors stretching around him, and felt a wave of utter helplessness wash over him.
Deep within his soul, the searing agony — as though he were suspended in the deepest pit of Avici Hell — had not diminished by even a fraction.
And when he tried to stir even a small measure of power, the raw, unbroken unfamiliarity of this body made itself known with painful clarity.
This was not his body. At best, it was nothing more than a vessel that had been fabricated and handed to him.
The intercom showed absolutely no intention of going quiet, its sweet feminine voice pleasantly urging Muzan to please hurry along and report to his assigned containment room for work. Muzan raised his head — and then, completely gave up.
Whatever. Let whoever cares deal with it. That damn capitalist has definitely cooked up some new way to torture me.
But look at the state I'm in — why the hell should I keep running errands for him like some kind of mindless grunt?
Screw that. I'm planting myself right here and not moving an inch. What are you going to do about it?
Strike. I'm going on strike! ——
The instant that thought surfaced, Muzan felt an intense surge of pain erupt from deep within his soul.
Worse than anything before — no longer just searing heat, but the sensation of his soul being kneaded and pulled apart in an endless, infinite division.
Then an electric current surged through the body, rampaging freely, crashing into his soul and bringing with it an even greater tide of agony.
"AAAARGH!!!"
Even after enduring the boundless torment of that hellish prison for so long, Muzan's eyes still filled with raw, undisguised anguish.
Almost on pure reflex, he carp-flopped up off the floor, and then became acutely aware of the cold sweat soaking his back, his gaze sweeping around him in wary disbelief.
What — wait, don't tell me —
He hesitated, then experimentally started to lie back down.
"AAAARGH!!!"
But he hadn't even gotten halfway there before the electrocuted shriek tore out of him again. Muzan sat up in a daze, staring blankly around him.
"All staff are kindly requested to proceed to their designated containment rooms to begin work at their earliest convenience."
The sweet voice on the intercom continued to offer its gentle reminder. Muzan instinctively rolled his eyes.
And then he was zapped by the soul-current again.
"MOTHERF — STOP! STOP THE SHOCKS! FINE, I'M GOING, OKAY?!"
Screaming like a pig being led to slaughter, Muzan hollered with misery and fury, then dragged his dazed and stumbling body along the guiding markers toward the containment room.
As they say — potential is something that gets squeezed out of you.
Muzan, zapped nearly to a medium-well done, eventually relented and shuffled compliantly into the containment room, and began his assigned work at the Fairy Feast.
The Fairy sprites dancing through the air — their sweet, gentle, whimsical forms — gave Muzan at least some small measure of comfort.
Even when the shift ended, the little fairy bestowed something akin to a blessing upon him, and Muzan found himself very nearly moved to tears.
And so, he returned to the main break room — only, before he could even catch his breath, that sweet voice came over the intercom once again:
"Staff member Kibutsuji Muzan is requested to proceed to the Beauty and the Beast containment room to perform suppression work."
Muzan stared blankly for a moment, then it registered.
That absolute bastard of a capitalist!
Can't even let me catch my breath?!
But feeling the electricity already itching and crackling with eager anticipation, Muzan's eye twitched, and he shuffled off in a daze toward the next containment room.
This time, however, he didn't even make it to the containment room.
He had only just reached the doorway — hadn't even pressed the door switch — when the little fairy that had been hovering around him all this time suddenly changed its expression.
It opened its mouth toward him, revealing a ferocious, monstrous visage — and then, in the span of a single instant, that enormous jaw snapped open and shut, biting down with savage force!
In that moment, Kibutsuji Muzan nearly suffocated — but then, strangely, a quiet sense of relief began to spread through his heart.
What arose in that moment was not fear of death, but something like the happiness of release. It's finally over…
As the body was bitten to death by the little fairy, that thought flashed through Kibutsuji Muzan's mind.
But three minutes later, Kibutsuji Muzan opened his eyes once more — his soul, split again from death, poured into a brand-new vessel.
Finally, after a long silence, the sweet feminine voice came once more over the intercom:
"Staff member Kibutsuji Muzan is requested to proceed to the Fairy Feast containment room and perform instinct-based work."
At last, unable to contain the grief and fury surging within him any longer.
After being tormented in Avici Hell for so long, Kibutsuji Muzan let out the first truly thunderous, soul-shaking roar of anguished fury he had ever released:
"SCREW YOU, YOU BLOODSUCKING CAPITALIST BASTARD!!!"
"Keep zapping."
In the River Styx's central control room, Anthony watched this unfold on the monitors, waved a hand, and issued that instruction to David at his side.
David opened his mouth as if to say something, then stopped himself. Anthony caught this, gave a light chuckle, and added:
"After you're done zapping, remember to throw Adam Smasher in as well. Give him a good zap first when he gets in too.
"These are the only two staff we've got — gotta work them to the bone."
And so, David compliantly pressed the shock button, and — apparently worried it wasn't enough — pressed it several more times in quick succession. Zap, keep zapping, give him all the volts!
Once he saw Muzan finally trudging toward the containment facility, Anthony rose from the central control room and waved his hand:
"Handle the rest according to the normal procedure. I'll leave it to you — just assist Angela as needed."
"Got it." David gave a nod, turned back to the screens, and began the process of deploying Adam Smasher into the branch.
Watching all of this, Anthony felt a quiet swell of sentiment rise within him.
Not bad at all. The Lobotomy Corporation River Styx Branch was officially on track.
Just in that short stretch of time, Anthony had already noticed the stockpile of enkephalins ticking upward.
Do the math — with just a simple round of processing, that was easily a hundred or two hundred points rolling in. Didn't sound like much, but that was what — a few minutes of work?
In that moment, Anthony couldn't help but feel a deep, genuine sense of satisfaction.
"Honestly, in terms of sheer ruthlessness, you're even more extreme than I gave you credit for."
Beside Anthony, Carmen — who had stopped briefly on the River Styx — was watching him with that expression, and then delivered her critique.
Anthony raised an eyebrow and replied:
"What are you talking about? These are enemies, aren't they?"
"Only you could come up with the idea of using your enemies as an ATM."
Carmen rubbed at her temples and grumbled: "The City is already pretty human-centric, but someone like you is still kind of a rare breed."
Looking at Anthony, Carmen felt a wave of exhaustion wash over her from somewhere deep inside.
After all, as far as what had just transpired — she had watched the whole thing from start to finish.
First, he had snatched her daughter away from her. Then, he'd talked Ein around, and set up a whole facility on the River Styx.
Next, he had borrowed a few of the relatively manageable Abnormalities from the current research institute, confirmed there was no risk of escape or damage to the River Styx's main body, and cheerfully set the whole exploitation machine in motion.
In simple terms — he was using Muzan and Adam Smasher.
As everyone knows, Lobotomy Corporation needs employees. And as luck would have it, Anthony's Throne happened to have two sitting in it.
The only problem was, with Lobotomy Corporation's famously human-centric operating model, employees inevitably took losses — and two might not be quite enough.
Faced with this dilemma, Anthony had slapped his forehead and offered up what he clearly considered his stroke of genius:
What if I just had these two employees die and revive? Simple.
Getting a new body was easy — Muzan could regenerate infinitely anyway. Just carve a bit of flesh off him, add a drop of K-Ampoule, and you've got unlimited body replication on tap.
K-Ampoules weren't hard to come by either — all things considered, not exactly a niche product, and the consumption was low. Commission Ein's side to acquire one syringe and it'd last a good long while.
As for the soul — even simpler.
Anthony had simply waved his hand and sliced both Muzan's and Adam Smasher's souls into fine mince, each fragment of soul then tossed back into the Throne to begin its cycle of nourishment.
Then, stuff the fragments straight into ready-made bodies, run a quick patch-up using Artificer technology, and — voilà, one brand-new employee, ready to go!
In terms of squeezing out every last drop of surplus value, even the most ruthless capitalist would weep watching this, and any crime boss would have to tip their hat and say: "Now that's what I call human-centric."
Carmen had been left genuinely stunned watching it — and the worst part was she could barely find fault with it!
In the words Anthony had used to talk Angela around: "They're scum who don't exactly deserve much sympathy anyway — just do whatever you think is right."
And so Angela had become her Uncle Anthony's accomplice, just like that.
And in this way, Angela had set off down the road Anthony had led her astray onto, charging ahead at full speed.
Thinking about it, Carmen felt a fresh surge of grief and indignation. She shot Anthony a look of deep, soulful reproach — which left Anthony himself feeling genuinely puzzled.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" "Forget it, never mind."
Carmen let out a sigh, turned away, and finally abandoned any further plan to say something to Anthony. Whatever, it's pointless. My daughter!
"Anyway, it feels like you've changed a lot."
After sighing to herself for a while, Carmen turned back and looked at Anthony — who had, for once, come down off his Throne for a stroll — and asked idly:
"Mm, yeah. Well, the Hades is finished now, isn't it."
Anthony had no intention of hiding it, and gave a ready nod and a smile as he spoke.
At this moment, dark violet luminescence flowed and shimmered across Anthony's spirit-body — breathtakingly beautiful, and his very aura seemed to have grown somewhat more mysterious.
The Artificer's Frame — Hades Series!
As far back as when the River Styx had been upgraded to Level 2, Anthony had already unlocked the blueprint for this thing. And now, at last, with the River Styx reaching Level 3, its forging was complete.
All Anthony could say about it was: whatever else you might say about the City, money was genuinely abundant here.
When he had left the research institute, he had roughly three hundred thousand points on hand. After thoroughly squeezing every last drop of value out of Gallion, that total had shot straight up — climbing to nearly five hundred thousand points!
The slightly awkward part, however, was that after burning through all those points — raising his Soul Strength to 20 and forging the Hades on top of that — he was back down to around two hundred thousand.
Points really did have a way of disappearing the moment you started spending them.
But Anthony wasn't exactly heartbroken about it.
After all, he had already stuffed a money tree called Lobotomy Corporation into the River Styx.
Between Adam Smasher and Muzan working day and night, Anthony had done the math: just those two alone could bring in an extra thirty thousand or so points per day.
Compared to the previous rate of seven or eight thousand a day, it was like upgrading from a pop-gun to a cannon.
And besides, the Hades's abilities were genuinely worth every point Anthony had spent.
He stretched both hands forward, closed his eyes — and then, under Carmen's somewhat puzzled gaze, suddenly broke into a smile.
"This is nice."
He whistled and said it with a smile, which left Carmen a little lost:
"What is?"
"Nothing much. Just a rare feeling — like I'm starting to have some real sense of existing."
Anthony mused on it, feeling the flow of soul energy moving through his body, and said so.
After sitting on his Throne for who knew how long, Anthony had finally finished running through the slow-start sequence.
I have booted up!
The bonuses granted by the Hades were terrifying. Every single one of Anthony's forged constructs had received a surge of power on account of his Soul Strength — even the Altar of Sacrifice and the Angler's Throne had eaten into the Hades's bonuses, doubling their point-generation efficiency once again.
So much so that, just by idling, Anthony could now earn as many as fifty thousand points a day — achieving short-term point independence.
And on top of that, thanks to the Hades, Anthony's Soul Strength had finally begun to translate into tangible value.
Now it worked just like spiritual energy in a cultivation novel — versatile enough for practically anything, the defining feature being sheer overwhelming force; if brute strength could solve it, then it could handle absolutely everything.
Effortless and low-maintenance. Very much in line with Anthony's original vision.
That being: if something can't be handled, throw points at it. And if it still can't be handled, throw even more points at it!
After all, fifty thousand a day — not short on cash anymore!
"You look like you're in a good mood. In that case, I won't pry further."
Carmen looked at Anthony, let out a sigh, and then after a moment asked again:
"So, what are you planning to do next?"
"Next — I'd say the priority is still figuring out how to revive everyone."
Anthony thought for a moment, then gave that answer: "People in the group who haven't been revived yet — Carmen, Himmel, you, Jie — all of that needs to be put on the agenda as soon as possible."
"And you?"
"Same old, same old."
Anthony said it with a helpless expression.
Even now, his own revival conditions were still filled with question marks from top to bottom.
It was just that things had been moving fast these past few days, and Anthony could already make out a few of those question marks clearly.
Things like: needing the River Styx to be upgraded to its maximum level, needing his Soul Strength to be maxed out — and even then there were still more question marks above those.
Looking at it made Anthony's teeth ache.
For a moment, Carmen looked like she wanted to say something, but in the end said nothing.
What was there to say, really — right now, the two of them had the most stubbornly locked revival conditions in the whole group. There was genuinely no one else.
Originally she'd thought at least Jie would be stuck alongside them in the revival backlog, but then David's one critical cast had put Jie on track to revive even before Minato and Himmel!
Carmen was still managing okay — even if the Seed of Light remained a distant prospect and the Smoke War wasn't over yet, at least there was something to look forward to. But Anthony's situation was just…
For a moment, Carmen patted Anthony on the shoulder with an expression full of sincere sympathy.
"Hang in there. But besides that — what else?"
Carmen said it and turned back to ask.
"First things first, let's go take care of Jie's situation. Might as well earn another batch of points while we're at it — I'm never going to complain about having too much money.
"After that," Anthony mused, then continued: "I want to tackle the materials bottleneck. I need to keep developing. A lot of things have been stalled for way too long."
The points crisis had eased up, but thinking it over, Anthony realized there was still a lot left to do.
For the next round of skill upgrades, he'd gone over them — and the theme was: having points alone wasn't enough. You needed sufficient materials on top of that.
Take, for instance, the Angler — a Soul ability that hadn't gotten a proper upgrade in eight hundred years.
No way around it — he was genuinely short on materials.
Sure, the Throne wasn't hurting for points right now, and he could go down a level any time he wanted — but the fishing rod itself was completely out of options.
And then there were the Artificer's subsequent blueprints — quite a few of those also required materials of all different kinds.
"You have a plan now?"
"Didn't have one before, but now — well, you know, the River Styx is at Level 3."
Anthony shrugged and said it.
Ever since bringing Angela back and binding her to the River Styx to some degree, Anthony had wasted no time upgrading the River Styx to Level 3.
After unlocking yet another pile of blueprints of unknown future utility, what Anthony cared about most was the mobile city capability that came with the River Styx's upgrade.
Now, the River Styx's mobility was no longer limited to point-to-point coordinate transfers between worlds.
It was genuinely, truly adrift on the Primordial River!
It could drift along the full length of the Primordial River, seeking out the entry points to different worlds as it went. Once a matching entry point was found, it could actively enter.
And this was exactly what Anthony was doing right now.
"My plan is: once the River Styx finds a suitable world, I'll bring the group friends over and we'll raid it together — grab as many items and materials as we can. Think of it as a team-building exercise. What do you say?"
"Honestly, very on-brand for you. 'Spotted a new continent,' is it."
Carmen quipped, then asked:
"When are you planning to start?"
"Oh, it already started."
Anthony smiled and said it calmly: "The moment the River Styx upgraded, it was already underway on the Primordial River."
Carmen was visibly taken aback — then, feeling as though she'd just had a faceful of smugness from this person in front of her, went quiet for a long moment and finally rolled her eyes.
"Fine, if you've already got everything sorted out, just call me when something comes up. I'm going back to check when the Smoke War kicks off."
"Sure — oh, one more thing, remember to come lend a hand later. Jie's revival is going to need your help."
Anthony gave a nod, then, as if he'd just thought of something, called out casually to Carmen as she was leaving. Carmen gave a weary nod, then pressed the chat group's back button.
But in the moment of returning, she suddenly remembered something.
She realized that she and Anthony had been talking for so long that, without noticing it, her attention had drifted so far off course — she'd forgotten all about her daughter!
Carmen immediately slapped her thigh, just about ready to storm back onto the River Styx — only to see Anthony give a polite little cough and thoughtfully activate the phase-transit engine, beaming Carmen straight back where she came from.
[AAA City Ghost: ?]
In the chat group, Carmen's unmistakable question mark appeared.
[AAA City Ghost: @Lord of the Pristine Throne, Anthony, give me back my daughter!]
[Konoha's Yellow Flash: ?]
[Frieren the Fading Battle Mage: ?]
[Founder of the Golden Spirit: ?]
[Strictest Father of the Demon King: ?]
[Let Night City Burn: Huh? Are you talking about Lady Angela? She's right next to me, working overtime]
[Frieren the Fading Battle Mage: Whoa, what's going on?]
[AAA City Ghost has sent a transport request to Lord of the Pristine Throne]
[Transport request has been declined by Lord of the Pristine Throne]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: Ahem, Carmen, you know how it is — the branch has only just gotten started, we need people to do the work, you know]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: Come on, it's all family]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: Besides, for Angela, there's really no difference between the main body and a copy — at that level of intelligence, just hook up a few extra ports and frames to the data and you're good]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: Isn't there still a frame and a port back at the lab?]
[AAA City Ghost: And that's your justification for kidnapping my daughter?!]
Faced with Carmen's interrogation, Anthony compliantly chose to temporarily sidestep the topic.
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: Ahem — speaking of which, @Grand Flame Wordsmith, how are things looking on your end?]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: I've been in the City for nearly two days now. Judging by Po's side, the Grand Flame's temple seems to be flourishing nicely]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: Mm, that's right — Second Brother has been traveling far and wide lately, and many new temples have been built]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: How's the revival progress?]
[Grand Flame Wordsmith: At the current scale, give it a few more days and the conditions for memory should be satisfied]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: By that reckoning, the timing isn't far off at all]
After a quick mental calculation, a brilliant, vivid smile broke across Anthony's face.
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: In that case, let's start getting things ready]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: The conditions for using the Glass Window are all met now — it's time to get your revival plan underway]
[Lord of the Pristine Throne: I'll be heading over to Terraria right away]
With those words typed out, Anthony's soul reached out swiftly, linking up with the fragment he had split off and set aside long, long before.
And then, inside the ancient temple of the Grand Flame, the presence known as Po opened his eyes.
He rose to his feet and surveyed the study he found himself in — his gaze sweeping across the room until it landed on Jie's soul, sitting quietly in the corner, reading.
A mechanical arm was propped in front of her, helping to turn the pages. Artificer technology — provided by Anthony, courtesy of his personal care and attention.
The idea of a study existing inside an ancient temple did sound a little bizarre, but Anthony could only say: Nian's drive to get things done was genuinely something else.
The day after coming back from that gathering, she had picked up her study and moved it wholesale into the ancient temple.
Which had left the incense-burning visitors rather dazed for the past several days, unable to figure out why the temple's back room was suddenly off-limits.
Jie raised her head and met Anthony's gaze, and gave a small nod. Anthony, for his part, asked directly:
"Where's Second Brother?"
"He should be outside. Try the back courtyard — he might still be playing chess against himself."
Jie said it with characteristic warmth. Anthony waved a hand, and headed out of the study. It didn't take long before he found Wang sitting at a chessboard, deep in thought.
Without the slightest hesitation, he walked straight over — and while Wang was lost in his trance, picked up one of the pieces and clacked it down onto the board.
"Hey, Second Brother. You useless chess player! Put down that rubbish game of yours!"
Wang raised his head, looked at Anthony with an expression that was a little vacant — and then couldn't help but feel his eye beginning to twitch.
He had a vague sense that just a couple of days ago, this person had been fairly well-mannered.
And then, ever since that Sisuitai family gathering a while back, he hadn't picked up a single good habit — but every form of address the other brothers and sisters used had been absorbed wholesale!
Why is it always the bad stuff you learn and never the good?
"Stop picking up that kind of address. What do you want?"
And so Wang frowned and spoke to Anthony with evident displeasure.
Anthony's face broke into a smile, and then he said it calmly:
"The time is right. Hurry up and get ready — we're going to rally everyone, go and blow up Nian, and after that we revive Jie."
Wang: ?
Wang blinked first, then looked at Anthony, then looked down at his own chessboard — and practically swept every last piece on it straight into the box in one motion.
Then he shot to his feet.
"Then what are we still waiting for?"
He said it in a rush:
"We're taking down Nian, right? Then let's go already!
"I can't hold back anymore — let's blow Nian to pieces!"
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting in The Long Dark with My Waifus
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!