Seized by the System

“Alright, Relief Time, no, I meant it’s recess time. Since everybody was paying so much attention in class just now, I want everybody to write an essay after class. The title is: “What is true happiness?” After Principal Zhang was finally done with his first class of the day, everyone in the class evidently relaxed, as the worst part of the day was finally over.

They couldn’t help it, having to expose their histories and where they did wrong as well as what they were planning to do in the future in front of an entire class was no easy feat.

“By the way, the ones that performed exceptionally in class are allowed to call their family; it’ll be good to give them a peace of mind. It’s allowed because it’s the first time you lot are allowed a phone call, the next time won’t be so easy,” continued Principal Zhang, offering his mercy.

Principal Zhang was in a good mood, you see. Other than a few that he couldn’t read at all, most of the awakened individuals in class seemed to be deeply regretful of their actions. It seems that Fang Ning seriously was quite the role model. Of course, the three-course rehabilitation meal played a part too.

“Lu Er, Feng Sancai,…” Principal Zhang called a few names and gave them a time period of 20 minutes for their call, with supervision of course.

When Lu Er heard his name, he was elated. Who knew that old man still had a bit of conscience left in him. Looks like the speech he spent two days memorizing was not for naught.

He finally had the chance to vent his pent-up anger on those two bastards!

He would spend his call scolding his so-called best friends and breaking off their friendship! They would be friends no more!

Instead of helping a comrade that was being chased, the two of you spent the whole night drinking and eating to your hearts’ content! Your sworn brother spends his days eating bread and drinking bland soup in here, while you both must be eating high-quality meat right now!” He thought

…

“Hello, it’s Niu Si. Who is this? Oh, second brother? Why are you calling? Did you manage to escape?” Niu Si was still clouded with sleep when he picked up the call, but once he recognized the caller his mind immediately cleared.

“Boss, boss, Boss Ma! It’s second brother calling!” Niu Si rushed to a door immediately and begin knocking on it rapidly.

“Stop with that knocking! It’s only eight in the morning! It’s not every day that we get to sleep in, so why are you making a fuss? Did we use all the money we got from selling those videos and information?” Ma Da yawned, his mouth going wide. Despite hearing his brother’s desperate calls, he got dressed slowly while a woman with heavy makeup slept on soundly next to him.

“No, Boss! It’s second brother calling!” shouted Niu Si in desperation.

Ma Da’s head was still foggy with sleep, and so he slightly shook his head to clear his mind before opening the door. The first thing he saw was Niu Si’s distressed face, the mobile phone gripped tightly in his hand.

“Give me that!” shouted Ma Da as he grabbed the phone from Niu Si. He spoke into the phone immediately, “Hey, second brother! Did you escape? We’re still not done with preparations over here…”

“Escape my foot! Ma Da, Niu Er, you two heartless and disloyal traitors! I’ve finally seen through you both as people who ignore their fallen comrades. We are no longer brothers from now on…”

Without waiting for Lu Er to finish, Ma Da immediately shouted abuse into the phone: “No longer brothers my foot, how many times do you want to break off our brotherhood? I know that you’re simple-minded so don’t use your brain too much. Niu Si and I did plan to save you, but we failed. However, we managed to get quite a decent recording of what happened, so you shut your trap. I’ll send the video to your QQ!”

…

After clearing the misunderstanding between him and Ma Da, Lu Er had also asked for Ma Da to send him some money. With the phone call behind him, Lu Er’s body pumped with energy and his eyes glimmered with hope, even the bland soup and plain bread they would be having for lunch seemed to smell particularly good.

While the fragrance of food wafted around the canteen, Lu Er devoured his fourth plain bun. Suddenly, the screen in the canteen wavered to show an image of a private room in a restaurant.

Lu Er didn’t pay it any attention at first, but when he heard the sounds of eating around him slow down, he finally looked up. Once he registered the image, Lu Er bit into his lip. Principal Zhang really was a man without a conscience, as he was still educating them despite it being mealtime!

The image on the screen only showed a solitary figure in the room. And that figure belonged to a person that Lu Er has gotten to know quite well these past few days. It was the man that Principal Zhang had reiterated time and time again as the role model of superpowered individuals, but Lu Er only viewed him as a useless b*stard.

From the subtitles on the screen, they were apparently watching a live broadcast. Lu Er can’t believe they would broadcast someone eating just for the sake of educating them.

As he continued watching, Lu Er noticed that the camera was slowly zooming into the automatic turning tray on the wide table, with the person sitting at the table only appearing a couple of times.

On the wide table was a huge variety of delicacies; from the freshest of seafood to the most expensive of meat. There was soup, vegetables, fish, beef; the table had everything you could think of. Steam was still rising from the freshly cooked food, and the glimmer on the food alone told of just how good it must taste. The person’s satisfied expression every time he took a bite of the food couldn’t be fake either.

Lu Er looked down at his plain bun, with its cold crust. He suddenly found it very hard to swallow, as anger bubbled at the pit of his stomach…

If Lu Er somehow found out that this man enjoying a delicious full-course meal and the man that had put him into this place were the same person, the anger that he felt would probably be amplified ten-fold…

…

[ You’ve extracted Aggro from Lu Er, you’ve extracted Aggro from Feng Sancai, you’ve extracted Aggro from XXX…

Third Aggro Bar currently at 100/100. ]

As the notifications continued popping up, Fang Ning, who was enjoying his meal in the VIP Crown private room of the restaurant, immediately knew that the Special Affairs Department was secretly broadcasting him eating again.

All the Aggro was also probably extracted from the students in the rehabilitation center.

Fang Ning had found out from the System that the Special Affairs Department had installed various cameras in his restaurants to monitor his daily life; he was just acting as if he had no idea.

To give those people a peace of mind, and also to draw a clear line between him and Vigilante A, Fang Ning was more than glad to let them monitor them, as long as it satisfied them.

This was why Fang Ning had decided to eat at his restaurants. Besides, the kitchens at the restaurants were all bigger and more equipped than the kitchen at his house. It was also easier to get ingredients through the restaurants, so the System had decided it would be more efficient to cook from here, and easier to get an apprentice at the same time.

Thankfully the Special Affairs Department knew to at least help Fang Ning save some face, as they hadn’t installed any cameras in his home. If that had happened, Fang Ning would have to hire a few bodyguards to check the cameras as he wouldn’t exactly be able to use the System to check on them. Besides, it wouldn’t exactly be a good idea if his ridiculous antics during Relief Time were broadcasted live…

Fang Ning wasn’t worried about being recorded; his conversations with the System all took place within the System Space anyways, so there really was no chance of the System being exposed.

And so, Fang Ning sat there and peacefully enjoyed the meal prepared by the System, all under the watchful gaze of a huge group of people.

The advantage of doing this didn’t stop there, either. If the Special Affairs Department had decided to broadcast him eating to the students at the rehabilitation center, it would always anger a few people. It was no wonder the System depleted the Aggro Bars as it pleased, seeing as how it could be refilled so easily just from being broadcasted eating. Fang Ning had asked the System once on the Aggro extraction’s radius, the System had just simply answered that it could extract Aggro within its map. It was obvious now that the map must cover an extremely wide area…

The broadcast could only show physical appearance, and not the contents, of things. If the people watching could also see contents, their jealousy would only be amplified.

The dishes in front of Fang Ning were not only all made from the finest and most expensive of ingredients, the skill involved in preparing them was top-notch too.

How much did you think a meal like this would cost?

Three thousand? Five thousand?

Not including the System’s labor put into cooking the food, the ingredients alone for a single dish would already cost three to five thousand. The entire course cost between seventy to a hundred thousand. If you include breakfast, three meals a day would cost Fang Ning two, three hundred thousand. It was obvious that a great part of Fang Ning’s monthly income of twenty million went to food.

Of course, all the money spent on food wasn’t for nothing. According to the System, eating all those herbs and expensive ingredients would improve his health, as it would gradually enhance the properties of his bones and nerves, thus allowing him to save on the precious Attribute Points that only increased one per level. Furthermore, his organs would also be strengthened too, which in turn would slow down the breaking down of his organs.

Sadly, Fang Ning himself couldn’t actually feel all the positive effects on his body. Maybe his body really was changing for the better, but Fang Ning couldn’t exactly see any obvious improvements to himself. The System would never lie to him though, so Fang Ning could only come to a conclusion that the changes would only happen after he had been eating those ingredients for a long time.

However, there was at least one advantage that he had already obtained; after Fang Ning’s persuasion, instead of before, when it had eaten its own cooking, the System had allowed Fang Ning to eat its cooking instead now. At least Fang Ning could now finally enjoy the amazing taste of the food entirely.

The suggestion Fang Ning had given actually went like this: “Since you can’t actually taste the difference in taste, allow me to handle the food, at least while I’m doing so, you can train instead.”

Fang Ning had spoken with so much confidence that the System couldn’t rebuke at all. It couldn’t exactly ask Fang Ning to cook in its stead either. Since Fang Ning himself didn’t have the System’s cooking skills, no matter how expensive and exquisite the ingredients were, Fang Ning’s cooking would probably only be able to bring out one tenth of the enhancing properties of the ingredients…

As Fang Ning gradually finished his full course meal, he still felt that he could eat more.

As for the people watching his live eating broadcast, the anger that they felt for him could make them explode with rage. Although some of them have seen him eat a few times, it didn’t help in dispelling their anger at all.

As Lu Er watched Fang Ning eat, the rage in his stomach boiled on. He finally knew how to answer Principal Zhang’s homework: True happiness is simple. It is when you eat meat while I eat bread, when you prosper while I suffer.

He swore in his heart that once he left this godforsaken place, he would make himself the most famous track and field athlete for one reason and one reason only: so that he would be able to eat for the rest of his life what Fang Ning was eating right now.

Lu Er of course didn’t know that even if he succeeded in his goal, it would not be possible to achieve that, as Fang Ning was the only person in the whole world who could enjoy the System’s cooking…