"It's insane," Li Fang muttered, his voice raspy. He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair, weighing the ethereal, almost sacred value of the Spiritual Coin against the siren song of tapping into the Bank's deepest, most forbidden secrets. "We'd be poking the oldest, most powerful financial institution in this reality – possibly several realities – directly in its metaphysical eye. With a sharpened stick. While standing on a pile of oily rags."
"Subtly," Xie corrected, though her expression acknowledged the insanity of it. "The goal, as I said, isn't to be noticed. It's to be a rounding error, a ghost in the machine and a whisper in the quantum foam of their transactions. If done correctly, with algorithms precise enough to mimic background noise and exploit only the most fleeting, infinitesimal discrepancies, the sums extracted would be statistically insignificant from their perspective. Like a single bacterium siphoning nutrients from a leviathan."
She met his gaze, her own reflecting a dangerous, almost exhilarating understanding of the abyss they were contemplating. "But the risks are immense, Li Fang. I cannot overstate them. One mistake, one miscalculation in the arbitrage algorithm, one poorly shielded data probe, and we could trigger alarms that bring down forces far worse than the Void Sect's Internal Affairs Directorate. We're talking about entities that manage reincarnation, that audit souls across millennia. Their response would not be… subtle."
Li Fang looked at the golden icon representing his Spiritual Coin balance in the QFS overlay. 1. It remained untouched. It represented the origin of this whole mad journey, the impossible cheat code that had dragged him from the brink of deletion. Investing ten percent of that core asset felt like betting the seed corn of his entire future. But what was the point of seed corn if you starved before you could even plant it in fertile ground? What was the saving it if it just meant facing the same inevitable doom?
Dodging the foreclosure or even clearing his debt felt like a small, almost petty concern now, compared to the scale of what the QFS and Xie were proposing. This was about choosing their path. Remain small fish, darting frantically between the shadows, always one step ahead of larger predators? Or attempt to become the shark, to swim in the deepest, most dangerous waters, where the greatest treasures and the most terrifying monsters resided?
A grim smile touched Li Fang's lips. Financial cowardice. The system had a way of framing things. He thought of the endless grind, the constant fear, the weight of his negative karma. He thought of the alternative: a chance, however slim, however perilous, to seize real power, to rewrite his own ledger.
"Alright," Li Fang said, the decision solidifying in his chest like cold iron. The risk of inaction, of slow decay under the CRB's eventual heel and the QFS's disappointment, felt greater, more certain, than the explosive risk of this audacious gamble.
"We need the exponential growth. We need the edge that only playing in their league can provide." He straightened, meeting Xie's intense gaze, then addressing the waiting QFS. His voice was calm, betraying none of the terror still coiling in his gut. "Authorize infusion of 0.1 Spiritual Coin. Activate the Transcendental Finance Module. Let's go play in the Bank of Reincarnation's ghost ledgers."
The QFS interface pulsed with an almost eager light.
[Authorization Confirmed! Strategic Investment Recognized! Host demonstrates commendable financial courage!]
[Allocating 0.1 Spiritual Coin computational matrix to Transcendental Finance Module Activation…]
[WARNING: High-Risk Module Activation Sequence Initiated! System Stability will be temporarily reduced during the integration phase due to metaphysical energy recalibration!]
[Host is advised to maintain meditative calm and avoid strenuous cognitive activity…]
[Accessing multi-dimensional data streams... Unlocking Karmic Fluctuation Analysis Protocols…]
[Activating Predictive Merit Algorithms…]
[Establishing Asynchronous Ledger Interface Protocols…]
[Attempting Read-Only Access to Bank of Reincarnation Peripheral Metaphysical Market Data Feeds…]
The world seemed to tilt on its axis. Li Fang felt that same dizzying, overwhelming influx of raw data he'd experienced during the QFS's initial activation, but amplified tenfold, a billion times over. It wasn't just Neo-Tian's data streams this time, it felt like he was brushing against the raw, unfiltered consciousness of the Bank of Reincarnation. A mystical entity woven from countless souls, infinite transactions, the rise and fall of civilizations, and the birth and death of stars, all distilled into incomprehensible flows of karmic code and spiritual currency. He saw some fleeting glimpses of souls accruing merit, debts being balanced across lifetimes, ancestral curses being levied and lifted, and the rise and fall of spiritual dynasties reflected in cold, hard numbers flashing past too quickly for his organic mind to comprehend.
It was the pulse of the city and of countless interconnected realms, translated into the chillingly precise language of transcendental finance. The unimaginable cosmic scale of it was terrifying, humbling, and almost crushing. He felt like an ant trying to comprehend the workings of a galaxy.
Then, just as his mind threatened to shatter under the onslaught, it stabilized. The flood receded, leaving behind a dull ache in his temples and a lingering taste of metallic substance. The QFS interface settled, displaying a new, complex set of tools and analytical displays, all pulsing with a deep, ethereal light.
[Transcendental Finance Module v1.0 Activated! Ready to analyze and exploit Karmic Arbitrage Opportunities within designated Bank of Reincarnation sub-systems (Tier 4 Core Ledger access required for advanced strategies - Currently Restricted).]
[WARNING: Extreme caution advised! Initial operations carry a significant risk of detection by Bank Sentinels, execution error resulting in capital loss, and karmic backlash from improperly balanced transactions!]
[Minimum viable trades require precise timing and dedicated Qi-Credit buffering (~50 QC recommended per attempted sequence to cover potential fees and minor losses).]
His Spiritual Coin balance now showed 0.9. His Qi-Credit balance remained 318.7. The foreclosure clock showed just over 18 hours remaining. But now, they had the tool, the key to the Bank's hidden back alleys. They had the capital buffer for initial trades.
However, here comes the truly dangerous part: placing their first bet on the karma market, slipping their presence into the ghost ledgers, hoping not to attract the attention of slumbering gods, implacable auditors or simply Bank Sentinels.
Can they do it?
Li Fang rubbed his temples and glanced at Xie Ruolan with her arms crossed at the side, watching the changes in him, both physically and mentally.