Seized by the System

Duke Yun had his confidence restored when Vigilante A passed a phone to Brett.

“This is the newest device to summon the Dragon God. Same as usual, after you activate it, wait outside. When an enemy is near, I will arrive in a jiffy.”

Duke Yun found the suggestion agreeable as he heard it. ‘Dogs have the best olfactory sense.

‘With that, it would make the enemies’ infiltration as difficult as ascending the heavens.’

Of course, he did not know that the might of the System Map was much stronger than the any dog’s nose.

The black dog received the phone and placed it inside the pouch on its neck.

Duke Yun suddenly said, “I don’t think it was convenient for Mr. Celestial Hound. Xuan, go and retrieve an interspatial equipment to gift to Mr. Celestial Hound.”

Brett was excited having heard that. Vigilante A nodded without refusing.

A bangle-type artifact appeared in Yun Xuan’s hand. It automatically adjusted to Brett’s foreleg, fitting it snugly.

Having gotten the bangle, the troublesome pouch on Brett’s neck disappeared. It was easy as pie for it to understand the usage of the interspatial equipment.

Fang Ning was impressed. Duke Yun was the duke of an entire city and had an abundance of riches, after all. Many powerhouses in China did not even have one interspatial equipment.

Being able to gift whenever he wanted to was a benefit to being someone who built his influence on foreign lands. It was tough, but once he succeeded, the returns were extremely high.

Brett thanked Duke Yun with its paws crossed and burrowed away.

…

A thousand miles away from the Cloud Fog City, the heads of the Nine Forces of the Siberian wilderness had met up at a clearing in the forest.

With six white auras and three black ones, each of them was emitting a tidal aura that indicated their Pond-level status.

The three heads who had attacked Duke Yun were present too, and they were chatting with the other people casually.

“We’ve given Yun Hui two days, he should have packed everything he’s got and probably waiting for us to receive the goons,” said a two-meter-tall white man as he smirked.

He was Manson, one of the heads who poisoned with the help of the Eastern European sorcerer Yun Hui just two days ago.

“Don’t be lax, Manson. I don’t care about the other things, the most important one is their Well of Vitality with the Vitality Spirit. That is a treasure as rare as an arcane realm. The Russians wanted it. If we can’t get it for them, they might not adhere to the agreement. The totem Spirit Bear is not something we could fight against,” said a solemn-looking black man with his arms crossed.

“Don’t worry. We’ve given Yun Hui two day’s worth of time to move the well for us so it wouldn’t be too much of a problem. I think it’s time. The Russians just sent me a text, saying they are leading the Giant Spirit Bear here. We should move,” said Manson confidently.

The others nodded without disagreement. To them, the assets Yun Hui accumulated over the years were already as good as theirs.

“We will surround them from eight directions and block their escape route through the air as well as underground!” Manson waved his arm as he saw the nods and sped away.

The other eight Pond-level powerhouses went according to their planned route and dashed at the Cloud Fog City.

To them, it was something that just happened naturally.

…

“Gather the employees and their family members in the square! Raise the central defenses, don’t let them be hurt by the battle happening afterward!” Ordering the twelve landlords under him, Yun Hui began distributing tasks.

Out of the hundred thousand manpower he had, about forty thousand had trained under him.

Materialistic things can be rebuilt after they were destroyed, but human talents are difficult to cultivate.

Seeing his behavior, Fang Ning nodded. He had just checked on Yun Hui’s Dossiers entry and it listed him as ‘Neutral’.

Evidently, as an ambitionist, Yun Hui’s standpoint could be swayed depending on the situation. He was not like other people where their alignments were relatively stable over a longer period of time.

Half an hour later, the scouts and sentinels placed around the Cloud Fog City had relayed messages that enemies had been detected to come from eight directions surrounding it.

Three groups of them charged straight toward the Cloud Fog City, five other groups were swerving to the side as if trying to flank it.

The total number of Extraordinaires involved was about ten thousand people with varying strength, but all of them were beyond Bucket-level.

Meanwhile, the nine Pond-level powerhouses had not been seen by any of the scouts.

“We might still make it if we run now.” Aside from Landlord Liu and Landlord Yun, the other ten landlords had yet to witness Vigilante A’s power, so they felt a little unsure when they heard the news.

It was natural for most people to want to flee when faced with an unrivaled enemy.

However, seeing the confidence the duke exuded, no one dared to even suggest to flee.

Duke Yun might not have been able to take on the nine Pond-level fighters, but it was still an easy task for him to beat Basin-levels like them.

To the ten landlords, Vigilante A was famous, that part was true. However, their enemies are the nine Pond-level fighters who were followed by the Russian totem, Giant Spirit Bear, who was said to be at the peak of its current realm!

Some people were regretting their decision already. ‘I should’ve known better to have stayed with Yun Hui. But we’ve all sworn a Heavenly Oath to serve Yun Hui. If I had run away and left him behind, I would no longer have the capability to advance.’

As the leader of a whole organization, Yun Hui would not be as compassionate as Fang Ning to his subordinates. He had utilized many methods to control his men, not having to care about heroic points. He would draw the line at harming people or ethically dubious acts so as to not burning the bridge.

The ten landlords were unable to voice their displeasure, so their morale was low.

However, there were things that had to be done. They flew around in the sky, gathering more than a hundred thousand people in an orderly fashion before falling into their teams according to their work ranks.

However, the gathering was mixed with the children and babies crying despite their parents’ effort to contain them. It was obvious that the kids were scared by the constraining atmosphere.

Wang Qi, along with his wife and foster daughters, were standing in a corner of the square with Captain Liu.

He set the suitcases down, and let Keiko, Sanori, and Saki sit on them while utilizing some of the powers he cultivated to sense the danger around them.

He could vaguely feel that the aura of the landlords above them was unstable, it was as if they were fearing something.

Basin-level powerhouses like them had always been looked up to by Mug-level fighters like them.

However, he realized they were in a similar situation as him, like crows without branches on which to land.

“Daddy, will we be safe?” asked his younger foster daughter, Sanori, with a terrified look on her face.

The elder Saki was playing on her phone as she said apathetically, “There’s no use being afraid. Just play a game on your phone or something.”

Wang Qi caressed his daughter’s heads and comforted them. “Don’t worry, didn’t you see the green dragon just now? He’s a powerful helper our duke had hired. He will definitely chase our enemies away.”

Sake heard that and suddenly became excited. She raised her phone and pointed at the screen, saying, “You mean this green dragon? Only Sanori saw it just now, I wanna record it this time.”

Wang Qi forced a smile. His daughter was right, it was no use being afraid.

In a dangerous situation like this, the only thing citizens like him could do was to drift along the waves and hope the green dragon who appeared suddenly could stop their drifting like a Sea-calming Divine Cudgel ¹ .

Duke Yun scanned through the square, and upon seeing that people had settled down, he returned to the city hall and waited for the enemies to arrive with Vigilante A.

Vigilante A had been meditating the whole time. He opened his eyes after a short while and said, “Looks like people outside were in a state of unrest…”

Yun Hui explained with a smile, “They didn’t know much about news from outside, especially about your capabilities. The enemies actually look strong on the outside, but they were actually pretty weak themselves. Please don’t mind them.”

Vigilante A shook his head and said, “It’s just human nature, why would I mind things like this? If that was the case, I think it’s best for your to broadcast something to them to calm their nerves.”

Yun Hui was a little startled. It was only after Vigilante A had described his plan that he understood and expressed his admiration of the plan.

He did not expect a dragon god of the Upper Realm would also place such level of importance on human technology and actively learning new things. It was no wonder that he could become famous in only half a year.

In comparison, him, a local person, had always looked down upon technical workers, treating them like a regular workforce. When he was deciding to promote someone, he had always looked at their foundation base as a standard. Looking back, it seemed rather biased.

Hearing Vigilante A’s plan, he called a technical worker and whispered an instruction to him. The employee went to carry out the task with confusion on his face.

Before long, the digital billboard erected in the square before the city hall suddenly lit up.

A sound came out of the side of the screen as employees and their families who were engaged in whispers and mutters quietened and looked at the screen simultaneously.

Duke Yun appeared on the screen. Seeing their boss, the people began to calm down.

‘Since important people such as him was still inside, we needn’t be worry so much?’

“Everyone who follow me, I thank you all for not abandoning this place. Please do not worry, as I have managed to secure the strongest Extraordinaire in China, the Venerable Dragon God, to help us and our city. These thieves think they can invade the land we built with sweat and blood, but that is just their hallucination!

“The Venerable Dragon God was kind enough to allow us to broadcast his action when he vanquishes the enemies. Just keep watching this space!”

Within a few sentences, many children had stopped crying, they had all been intimidated by his loud voice.

In terms of charisma, Yun Hui was definitely way better than Fang Ning, being the leader of a city.

Fang Ning could only ride on the fame and credit that the System earned to pretend to be badass…

Phrases like ‘born with the decree of heavens’ and ‘in broad daylight’ were only intimidating when broadcast with the System’s sound effects.

It was then that the people in the square paid attention to the screen.

Just as talked about by Duke Yun, the screen changed soon after, replacing Yun Hui’s image with that of a huge green dragon. The background turned into a cloudless sky.

“Looks like the enemies are arriving!” Recalling the duke’s speech, many people in the square began to worry.

A new figure appeared on the screen. Different from Duke Yun, the figure appeared in the lower right corner of the screen, leaving the majority of the screen for the green dragon.

“The new guy looked like he was a weatherman…” said someone.

“It can’t be, it’s probably a powerhouse who’s fighting alongside the green dragon,” protested someone else.

However, a broadcast soon after laid the debate to rest.

“Good day, everyone. I am Anderson, the Venerable Dragon God’s deputy warden. You may have heard of me through my former famed days, and I think that’s the best. I shall not waste any more of your time on my identity and shall provide you with a live commentary. The Venerable Dragon God had discovered the location of the enemies through the help of Celestial Hound Xue and is going to vanquish them. This is an opportunity of a lifetime…”

Hearing Anderson’s self-introduction, a few of the ten landlords frowned. They remembered a mysterious organization that tiptoed between organizations, and that the second-in-command was called Anderson.

“Isn’t that the winner of last year’s Dark Tournament? Anderson, the strongest Pond-level powerhouse, unparalleled Spiritual Slash!” Someone yelled in recognition.

“I didn’t expect them to become the Dragon God’s helper.”

While the few people who recognized Anderson discussed him, most other people saw the green dragon diving with great speed.

The broadcast had entered a slow-motion state.

It was because a huge black tortoise had appeared on the ground. It was about six or seven meters tall, huge for regular people, but like a chick in front of the green dragon.

Anderson’s commentary followed immediately after. “The black tortoise’s real name is Abraham, the twelve landlords of Cloud Fog City would probably know him. Hailing from Africa, it is a Pond-level fighter and the leader of the Third Force of wild Siberia, the Shell Marsh. Let us be calm and watch how many rounds it could withstand in a battle with the Venerable One…”

After Duke Yun had given the speech to his employees through the broadcast, he joined his twelve landlords hovering above the square like a normal employee as he watched the live stream.

His behavior immediately soothed the ten landlords who were still unsure just a minute ago.

‘The Duke is not an idiot. If he was not sure of what he’s doing, how would he do things like this? He would still be preparing for an escape like before.’

They focused on the live stream and could tell Anderson did not make up a tale just to humor them.

“That really is Abraham. When I went to the Shell Marsh for trade, I’ve seen it show its true self in his anger. I think it must have eaten a dozen or so people before it could calm down,” said a landlord.

“Hm, it’s it alright. With its strength, it should be able to fight the Dragon God for a while?” mused another.

“Let’s watch on.”

It was after they watched the stream that they understood why the Duke seemed to be so at ease, and that they did not understand strength at all…

As the green dragon dove forward on the screen, the black tortoise seemed to have been gripped with fear. Its head retracted into the shell with a speed that’s even faster than the green dragon’s dive.

However, it did not deter the green dragon. The green dragon opened its mouth and swallowed the black tortoise whole! Its hard shell that it uses to defend against its natural enemies had not worked at all!

‘That’s it? A Pond-level Extraordinaire who could compare with Duke Yun’s might couldn’t even stand one attack from the green dragon?’

Anderson’s following remarks had confirmed everyone’s guesses.

“Alright. This Pond-level Tortoise Demon Abraham, the leader of the Shell Marsh, had already been neutralized by the Venerable Dragon God. This is the natural outcome. The Venerable One is a Lake-level powerhouse, so how could a mere pond affect a whole lake? Let us see where the second enemy is hidden and whether it could withstand a few more attacks?”

In the square, when the audience witnessed the green dragon kill a powerful enemy without any problem and heard Anderson’s commentary, their unease faded away into relief.

Some daredevils even opened up bags of snacks…