Chapter 390: Currency of the Forest Cabin

The Doll Piggy Bank spits out a coin from its coin slot every day. The coin has a number engraved on it; perhaps each number represents a time limit. When Li Yuning holds it, this number is imbued into her body, equivalent to increasing Li Yuning's lifespan.

Different numbers represent the amount of lifespan increased; yes, this does not refer to a fixed amount of lifespan.

If Li Yuning dies an unnatural death, such as through force majeure or suicide, the lifespan amount integrated into Li Yuning's body will be cleared accordingly. Therefore, this does not mean that Li Yuning can do whatever she wants just because she has increased lifespan, nor that she will absolutely never die; it only increases her natural lifespan to a certain extent. This natural lifespan refers to the fate of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

This item is just like Lin Ling; he only provides you with a path to survive, but the continuation of this path is not without crossroads leading to death, and that is a matter of personal choice.

Even so, Li Yuning felt that she had profited; living one more day is better than nothing.

In the blink of an eye, Li Yuning safely reached the age of 18. On the day before the college entrance examination, she shook the piggy bank, and it had indeed become light and airy, just like the weight of her life. The clinking sound of the coins inside as she shook it represented her precarious fate.

"Not much left, huh." Li Yuning was deeply moved. She had originally thought she could use these coins until she died of natural old age like an ordinary person, but she discovered that was not the case.

The largest time unit for the coin numbers is days, and the smallest time unit is hours; the largest digit is in the hundreds, and the smallest is a single digit.

The largest amount of lifespan she had ever received was 873 days, equivalent to an increase of more than two years of lifespan. If she stopped absorbing coin lifespan, she could continue to live for more than two years as long as she stayed honest and didn't court death.

However, staying honest is not only contrary to Li Yuning's nature, but on the other hand, she must frequently come into contact with the Abnormal to find a way to change her fate. This also means "death is like the wind, always by my side," and she inevitably consumes the lifespan amount she worked so hard to increase.

Although Li Jiahong wanted to help Li Yuning purchase items in the shop that could change her fate, Li Yuning sternly refused her old father's help.

Only after interacting with her father as the acting shopkeeper did Li Yuning truly understand what consumption at the Forest Cabin meant.

The coins she received from the piggy bank every day were, in fact, the shopping currency of the Forest Cabin, though her coin denominations were quite small, completely incomparable to the consumption currency used normally.

But Li Yuning was also puzzled; if the shopping currency of the Forest Cabin is equivalent to lifespan, where did she, a person whose fate is effectively exhausted, get these coins? Since these coins are currency, why can't they be used for transactions in the Forest Cabin?

Li Yuning remembered that when she first contracted her terminal illness, her shopping in the Forest Cabin was unrestricted, but after she opened the box and bound it to the Doll Piggy Bank, she became restricted.

Come to think of it, those guests who had been to the shop were all plagued by the Abnormal and, like her, were people whose time was running out. If the currency is lifespan, then why could they use their remaining short lifespan to purchase super-standard items? This is completely unreasonable.

Then the answer is obvious: the money used for consumption in the shop might not represent one's own lifespan.

Li Yuning asked Lin Ling for his opinion, wanting to verify if her guess was correct.

Lin Ling, however, smiled and told her: "Yes, but not entirely. The 'Origin' is the foundation of a life."

He moved the potted plant from the tabletop over, looking with ill intent as the leaves of the plant trembled. He picked up scissors, as he did daily to pick flowers and leaves for tea, and said: "This entire Stone Leek represents Li Yuning's entire root. Those coins are like leaves and petals. When you use up a coin, it is equivalent to trimming off a leaf or a petal. They turn into complete nutrients to fully nourish you. The entire stalk that remains after the trimming represents you yourself."

When Lin Ling said this, the intelligent Li Yuning already understood the true meaning of the "currency" of the Forest Cabin.

The shopping currency of the Forest Cabin, the leaf or petal Lin Ling spoke of, actually represents a person's destiny. Destiny includes fate, luck, and so on; it is not just as simple as lifespan.

A person is like this flower Lin Ling spoke of. Its growth from seedling to adulthood has infinite possibilities, just as a person has infinite destinies in infinite parallel universes. But the possibilities that can continue in infinite space-time are limited, just as the cells that differentiate into leaves, flowers, and stems are limited.

Using currency is like subtracting these limited grown flowers and leaves, consuming a person's limited possibilities, and transforming them into nutrients for one of the infinite Li Yunings to continue on.

This is the so-called "Origin"!

When all the flowers and leaves are completely consumed, it means that only one Li Yuning is left in the infinite space-time, and this Li Yuning is an individual who has lost her way to live. Extinction is her final destination, and this is a withering at the root, a "death" in the true sense. In the future of infinite space-time, there will never be another Li Yuning.

In a way, this is also equivalent to jumping out of the cycle of reincarnation, only to have jumped oneself to death.

After realizing the severity of the matter, although father and daughter Li Jiahong and Li Yuning were solemn, they also felt a sense of relief.

Because they finally thought of a way to change their fate, and that is... to let Li Yuning become one of those Alien Gods who transcend fate!

Only those transcendent Alien Gods can jump out of their original destiny and then survive!

Understanding this, Li Yuning began to investigate methods for a person to become an Alien God; just becoming an ordinary Abnormal would not allow her to transcend.

For the sake of his daughter, Li Jiahong specifically applied for leave from Lin Ling and set off to various parts of the world to find a way for Li Yuning to become an Alien God.

Since Li Yuning did not want him to consume his own "Origin" to purchase items in the shop, then he could at least put in some effort.

Regarding this, Li Yuning was powerless to stop him, but she hoped even less that her father would embark on the same path as her.

A continuation obtained at the cost of consuming "Origin" is, after all, just a chronic death at the root.

When Li Yuning discovered that her "Origin" was not much, she felt somewhat relieved instead and began not to care about her eventual outcome.

She suddenly did not want to pursue the method of becoming an Alien God anymore, mainly because she felt that being human was quite good. Because if she became an Alien God, her ideal of chasing and exploring those myriad unknown Abnormal things would lose its meaning.

Becoming an Alien God would mean losing many unknowns, which also means losing the fun, and this was not what Li Yuning wanted.

Lin Ling was quite satisfied with Li Yuning's choice.