The Electronic Wooden Fish?
Lin Mo was stunned for a moment, then reacted and drew in a sharp breath: "Hiss~! Could this be a cheat code that arrived 18 years late?"
In his field of vision, a hologram-like image suddenly appeared.
And in the image, there was nothing but a small, simple-styled wooden fish. Is this a wooden fish? What's it for?
Lin Mo felt puzzled. He experimentally reached out to touch the small wooden fish on the projection.
As soon as his finger touched the wooden fish, a prompt refreshed on the screen: [Would you like to tap 1 to strike the wooden fish?]
Ah... Is this really online praying? The next second, his finger curled slightly, then straightened - tapping 1. "Dong!" A crisp and pleasant striking sound reached his ears, followed by another message refresh on the interface: [Ding! Merit +1]
As the prompt floated up, Lin Mo felt a warmth throughout his body, as if his pores had opened up. "Whew~!" The summer night breeze brushed his face, and a few beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Although there didn't seem to be much change in his body, his head, which had been numb from studying hard during the evening self-study session, instantly regained a bit of clarity. Wow, tapping 1 really can add merit? Lin Mo was somewhat surprised.
It's worth noting that in "After the Great Flood", so-called Merit not only truly exists, but is also a "top-tier resource" that the great powers of the ancient world fight over.
Usually, only some great cultivators who accumulate virtue and do good deeds can obtain this "scarce resource" of merit.
The legendary Nü Wa is said to have achieved sainthood through merit by creating humans and accumulating virtue, ultimately attaining the position of one of the Six Saints of All Heavens.
"So I can also achieve sainthood through merit?" Lin Mo thought of this possibility, and his heart suddenly became fired up.
Then, he reached out again to tap the small wooden fish on the interface. [Ding! Cooldown countdown: 29, 28, 27...] A prompt refreshed. Hmm, there's a cooldown... Lin Mo rubbed his chin.
Counting the time he just spent thinking, the cooldown time was about 1 minute? Would the cooldown time stack? He stared intently at the countdown on the interface, and in the last second before the countdown ended, he quickly tapped the wooden fish twice.
[Ding! Merit +1] [Ding! Cooldown time: 59, 58, 57...] One minute. And the cooldown time didn't stack up. Lin Mo tried a few more times and found that the cooldown time didn't change each time.
Thus, he was quite certain that the cooldown time was fixed at 1 minute.
Calculating this way, he could tap 60 times in an hour, and 1440 times in a day. Even excluding eating, sleeping, and all unavoidable factors, he could still accumulate about 1000 merit points! Lin Mo let out a "Woo-hoo!", then lowered his head and pondered.
So the question is - How much merit is needed to achieve sainthood? Lin Mo thought for a long time but couldn't come up with an answer.
Mainly because there was no reference point. He couldn't exactly go to Nü Wa's temple and ask the Goddess, could he? He thought as he walked home. Of course, his finger on the interface didn't stop "tapping 1".
[Merit +1] [Merit +1] [...]
Along the way, prompts kept refreshing on the interface. By the time he got home, he had accumulated 29 merit points on his panel.
Lin Mo was a day student. His parents rented a small single room for him in the city, only about half an hour's walk from Nanshan No. 4 Middle School.
This distance was too close for taking a bus, but too far to walk. The main consideration was cheap rent. When he was almost at the community, he suddenly glanced at the time on his phone - "It's 11 o'clock!" He suddenly woke up from the interface and looked up at the community gate.
Uncle Qin, the security guard, had clearly seen him, but still resolutely chose to close the gate and lock it. "Hehe." Lin Mo was already used to this situation.
He lived in an old-style community without even a smart door access system. So the gatekeeper uncle, using his own schedule as an excuse, privately set an 11 pm "curfew" for the entire community.
Anyone entering the community after this time must pay one yuan. The excuse was to compensate for his "mental distress". Lin Mo pouted and walked quickly to the community gate. He first glanced at Uncle Qin, who was pretending to walk into the security room but hadn't started resting yet.
"Uncle Qin, tsk tsk~!" He took out a coin and stretched out a hand through the gap in the gate, waving it as if teasing a dog.
Sure enough, moments later, Uncle Qin walked out of the security room with a gloomy face. "Don't come back so late in the future!" Uncle Qin grumpily snatched the coin, but still skillfully unlocked the gate.
And a couple trying to sneak in behind him was once again blocked by his quick eyes and hands. "What are you doing? Pay up! One yuan each!" Your uncle is still your uncle.
Even at 11 pm, his eyesight was still so good, not letting any fish slip through the net.
"You're already up, why do we still have to pay?" The yellow-haired boy was clearly dissatisfied and tried to use his agile body to squeeze past the old man and into the gate.
But unexpectedly, he was blocked outside by Lin Mo, who was one step ahead. The yellow-haired boy looked at Lin Mo with some bewilderment.
The latter also glanced back, thinking, "You little yellow-hair wants to freeload off me?" Before Yellow Hair could react, Uncle Qin seized the opportunity to put his hands on his waist, standing across the gate entrance with his chest puffed out, ready to start arguing, giving off a "my rules are the rules" vibe.
The old man seemed to look at him gratefully. Lin Mo laughed inwardly, hiding his contribution and fame. Usually, he would definitely stop to watch the show.
But now merit was the most important thing. He didn't want to listen to the battle between the couple and the old man, so he went straight through the community courtyard and quickly ran towards the old-style building on the right.
Stomping to control the lights, going upstairs to open the door... All done in one go. The whole process took less than thirty seconds, just in time for the last second of the countdown on the interface to end, and he tapped 1 again. [Merit +1] The message prompt refreshed. Perfect! Lin Mo curled his lips into a smile.
Although he still didn't know exactly what merit was used for, continuing to "+1" was the right thing to do.
The rented room was just a simple small suite. Although it was an old-style community, it had all the basic household appliances and furniture. He efficiently washed up and got into bed, of course not forgetting to continue "tapping 1".
By the time he had everything sorted out, he had accumulated 35 merit points on his interface. Then... He started staring blankly at the merit value on the interface. What exactly can this thing be used for? Lin Mo propped his chin, lost in thought. The main issue was that merit involved problems that were too high-level.
He, a small Qi Condensation Stage 2 cultivator who hadn't even perfected his cultivation, truly had no ideas.
If merit could really lead to sainthood, then the amount of merit needed must also be enormous, certainly not just the few dozen points on the panel.
"Geez, I got a cheat code, at least give me a manual!" Lin Mo couldn't help but complain. Then he opened his personal panel and found a new attribute column - It seems the merit wooden fish and the cultivation system interface are connected...
He thought to himself, then had a flash of inspiration and controlled the merit on the interface to invest into the cultivation technique [National 108th Set of Five Elements Qi Condensation Technique].
He heard a crisp prompt in his ear: [Ding! You invested 42 points of merit into the cultivation technique, cultivation technique experience +8.4 (42*20%)] It really works! Lin Mo's eyes lit up, and he looked at the experience bar on the panel.
The number after Qi Condensation Stage 2 jumped directly from "249/300" to "258/300".