Dual Worlds: I Have a Doomsday World

Having obtained what he wanted, Lin Qi swiftly maneuvered the Impatient Knife out of the unlucky guy, taking his impatient emotions along with it.

The moment the Impatient Knife left his body, the unlucky cyber worker’s dream began to change.

In a daze, he heard his damn boss say, "Starting today, you only need to work ten hours a day, six days a week. Being late once will only cost you a fifty-buck deduction..."

’What kind of merciful company is this? The benefits have improved to such a degree!’

’Even the employees at Red Fruit City’s most powerful corporation, Liu’s Heavy Industries, probably don’t have it this good, do they?’

Not only did his work dreams become pleasant, but he also no longer had to worry about his child’s education.

He seemed to hear a teacher from Liu’s Academy say, "Don’t worry about the tuition. Thanks to your son’s outstanding performance, the academy is willing to offer you a 15-year, low-interest loan. The average annual interest rate is only 24.98%!"

"If he successfully completes his studies, your son will have the opportunity to join the Red Fruit Weapon Research Institute. After joining, he only needs to work as an unpaid intern for three years to become an official trainee..."

A beautiful dream!

What a wonderful dream it was!

He was free from the short-term pressure of his son’s tuition.

And to think—a core department at a major corporation like Liu’s Heavy Industries, and you didn’t even have to pay for the internship!

Just three years of unpaid work, and his family could leap up a social class in his son’s generation, becoming a white-collar family tied to a major corporation.

Unfortunately, the beautiful dream was brief. The unlucky cyber worker suddenly opened his eyes.

He stared at the empty ceiling, a profound sense of loss washing over him.

He slapped himself hard across the face and muttered, "Something this good will never happen to me. I need to work even harder. Even at a small company, I have to keep grinding for the next generation’s future."

"Maybe it’s time to make a decision. I need to get some better Prosthetic Body parts. My current ones only let me work seventeen hours a day. I could look into that 15-year installment plan from the Liu Clan..."

"What am I thinking? I can use second-hand parts. I remember Old Hu recommended the No. 1 Prosthetic Clinic. He said they had a decent batch of Prosthetic Bodies. Maybe that could save me fifty years of struggle."

Eyes open, facing reality, there was no trace of impatience—only a yearning for the future.

He even dared to think about spending money, despite the immense pressure he was under.

Lin Qi witnessed the scene, feeling not empathy, but satisfaction with the Impatient Knife’s effects.

’This single haul of impatience is worth two Wang Zirus. The Cyber World truly is a breeding ground for negative emotions. Just one employee from an ordinary company fed the Impatient Knife this much. What if it was someone from a major corporation, or a cyber madman...?’

Lin Qi had witnessed the power of extreme emotion firsthand from the Aggregated Monster.

It was a power of fear that even Lin Qi found difficult to resist.

And while it wasn’t as easy to harvest fear in the Cyber World as it was in the Doomsday World, negative emotions like impatience were available in endless supply.

Lin Qi was in an excellent mood. Spurred on by his Emotion Weapon Ability, he was on the verge of creating a weapon of "happiness" or "joy."

Fortunately, Lin Qi restrained the impulse.

Weapons forged from emotions like happiness and joy were far less lethal than those made from negative ones.

Lin Qi couldn’t exactly hope his enemies would die of laughter.

’The creation of an Emotion Weapon isn’t a strict process. I could make something like a "Greatsword of Joy" anytime I want, but it wouldn’t be limited to just joy. Many similar emotions would be included. The name is just a label based on my own perception.’

As Lin Qi suppressed the impulse, he continued to think.

’I was originally thinking of making more negative Emotion Weapons, but given how these emotions are classified, it doesn’t seem necessary.’

’When the Impatient Knife removes a target’s impatience, it also takes away many other similar negative emotions.’

’Using multiple Emotion Weapons would actually slow the growth of this Ability.’

When it came to power, quality was more valuable than quantity.

It was just like the Tier Three Aggregated Monster Lin Qi had encountered in the Doomsday World.

Even a mindless monster like that instinctively absorbed only a single type of emotion.

It fed on the fear of an entire city’s survivors to grow into a peak Tier Three being.

Now that this power was in the Cyber World and under Lin Qi’s control, its potential ceiling seemed even higher.

Having now grasped the Emotion Weapon, Lin Qi’s control over his own emotions was more precise. He quickly reined in his scattered thoughts and continued experimenting with the Impatient Knife.

Harvesting impatience from the cyber worker was expected. Lin Qi’s next target was... a cyber madman!

There were cyber madmen in Edge-12, and Lin Qi knew the identities of several of them.

They were all regulars at the No. 1 Prosthetic Clinic.

Aside from Doctor Lin, few other Prosthetic Doctors were willing to treat them.

After seeing them so many times, Lin Qi had come to remember some of their faces.

This time, Lin Qi’s target was a gang member.

The gangs in Red Fruit City weren’t as rampant as those in other Cyber Cities; they all operated under the rules established by the Liu Clan.

But the most prominent characteristic of gang members was that they all came from the bottom rungs of society.

Facing immense pressure to survive, the vast majority of them needed to increase their personal strength by any means necessary.

Prosthetic Implantation was the best method, bar none.

They underwent massive implantation of mismatched Prosthetic Body parts with terrible compatibility, often without even pairing them with adequate Suppressors.

Cyber psychosis was an unavoidable, common, and frequent affliction for gang members.

Now, Lin Qi was testing just how much emotional power a cyber madman held.

Lin Qi had previously guessed that cyber madmen would possess even more emotional power than ordinary people.

Their nervous systems were on the brink of collapse, making it easier for emotions to fester.

Coupled with the immense pressure to survive, Lin Qi couldn’t even begin to imagine how much impatience these people felt day to day.

Sure enough, the moment the Impatient Knife sank into the target’s body, Lin Qi felt a powerful surge of emotion replenishing it.

It doubled!

The Impatient Knife’s current emotional reserves nearly doubled in an instant.

This was the impatience of three people combined: the seed Lin Qi had planted, the impatience from Wang Ziru managing his camp, and the impatience from the cyber worker at his job.

The sum of all three barely rivaled the total emotional output of a single cyber madman.

At the same time, the instant the dagger entered, Lin Qi sensed that he could launch a lethal attack at any moment.

Cyber madmen had virtually no mental defenses. Without any need for emotional catalysis, the Impatient Knife could instantly appear above their Sea of Consciousness.

Lin Qi had no desire to kill, so just as before, he quietly withdrew the Impatient Knife.

He wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but Lin Qi felt that as he withdrew the Impatient Knife, the breathing of this early-stage cyber psychosis patient grew much calmer in his sleep.

’Extracting negative emotions can significantly reduce the pressure on their nervous systems. According to the Prosthetic Body capacity formula, Y=X(Mm+Bb+E), emotional stability means an increase in the E value.’

’Looks like my lethality against Pure Prosthetic Implanters has increased again.’

’For enemies whose Prosthetic Body capacity is nearing its limit, I can trigger their emotional collapse and kill them in one strike with the Emotion Knife. This method is far stealthier than my previous abilities.’

’As for the teammates of an Implanter, I can even extract their negative emotions to temporarily boost their E value, increasing their Prosthetic Body capacity.’

Lin Qi suddenly had a strange thought.

This method of strengthening himself by extracting emotions seemed a bit sinister.

But when considered in the context of the greater Cyber Society, it seemed Lin Qi had the potential to contribute to cyber-harmony.

With fewer negative emotions, cyber workers would feel less pressure, experience less fatigue from the same workload, and thus create more profit for their companies.

And when used on cyber madmen, he could temporarily alleviate their symptoms, helping to maintain regional stability...