Seized by the System

Twelve Arms the octopus, the one-eyed octopus, seven-limbed octopus, black dolphin, white dolphin, octopus demons of all sizes and the normal octopuses were in absolute shock when they heard that.

A moment later, they set their eyes on the black cat who suddenly appeared from thin air.

They could see the black cat pacing elegantly on air, it had a trustworthy smile on its face as it said to the “fishes” present, “Tom the black cat, at your service.”

The “fishes” looked at each other and wondered, ‘Why is this cat here?’

None of the “fishes” spoke, and the situation was extremely awkward.

Tom maintained a smile on its face, but it was silently cursing, ‘What a bunch of village octopuses, how dare they not know about Sir Tom?’

If it had appeared in those giant octopus tribes, their leaders would surround it and treat it as an important guest.

In the earlier years, it had already noticed the potential of these octopuses, thus it taught them Morse Code. Now, they started using it as a noble language, such that this foreign language was used on formal occasions…

A short while later, Twelve Arms broke off the awkward atmospheres, it smiled simply. “I think I’ve seen you before, you probably communicated with Leader Hercules in my former tribe. Sir Cat, I wonder, how would you like to help us?”

Tom the black cat sighed in relief, finally there was an octopus from the big city who had seen the world…

Tom thought to itself, ‘That’s what I’m saying, Sir Tom has a broad network of friends, there’s a saying that rings well, who in the world doesn’t know the cat?’

It still could recall Hercules, which was a strong octopus, and was the leader of a giant octopus tribe.

When Twelve Arms the octopus mentioned “Hercules”, it finally remembered this octopus that had once ruined its plan…

Previously when five hundred thousand octopuses attacked the human’s city, in order to fight for the power to be the first to enter the city, twelve tribes decided to have a tug-of-war.

Wasn’t the “rope” used during the tug-of-war this twelve-limbed octopus?

The fellow had an innocent mind, which was probably easy to be fooled.

When Tom thought about this, it said slowly, “I want to tell you that talking is pointless. If talks could solve the conflict between both parties, why do you think humans invented cannons, tanks and airplanes?”

The one-eyed octopus said happily, “That’s because they’re dumb and greedy, they can never be satisfied, so they need airplanes to steal from one another. Us octopuses are smart and easily satisfied, jars will be enough…”

Tom thought to itself, ‘Wow, they actually replied like that?’

Tom the black cat was startled upon hearing that, but was not flustered. It had seen many situations, wasn’t it just an easy job to trick a few octopuses who had never seen the world?

Why did it want to use the world of Iron Chancellor “Bismarck”?

It was because after the small conflict just now, it had an epiphany, that octopus tribes were actually like Prussians in history, there was a uniform demand.

A unified war of the Octopus Empire would clearly be a huge profit generator!

At once, it said, “If that’s the case, why does this seven-limbed octopus want to farm fishes to eat?”

“Uh?” The one-eyed octopus was at a loss for words, it then pointed at the seven-limbed octopus madly. “The reason is very simple, this fellow is trying to show off after gaining power and wisdom. They no longer want to eat fishes in the sea and only want to eat specially farmed ones, and even pollution-free products…

“It is being picky, hence its demand towards such luxury items can’t be approved, jars are our necessities.”

“What do you mean by luxury item?” The seven-limbed octopus was extremely discontented when it heard that. “Didn’t you hear what I said? It’s for our children and our future generations in case they’re harmed and poisoned by the rubbish in the sea from humans, then they won’t be as smart as we are now.”

Twelve Arms was absolutely clueless about settling this confusing situation, what were “necessities” and “luxury items”?

On its head that looked like a pillar, two eyeballs were turning around innocently, it subconsciously looked towards its dolphin partners.

Unfortunately, its two dolphin partners were immersed in this huge unprecedented debate, they had no time to respond to it.

“Haha,” Tom the black cat laughed, “You octopuses have sapience and wisdom, it’s normal to have such differences. You should read more of human’s historical books, move towards countries from tribes, and move towards cooperation from providing for yourselves.

“Now your conflict is like a replication of human history, you can actually refer to the human’s way of solving problems.”

It looked up and said to the one-eyed octopus, “Don’t you want the fishes you eat to be fresh and unharmed, so that you’ll have healthy and smart future generations?”

It then said to the seven-limbed octopus, “Don’t you want to use jars without worries, so that your future generations won’t have to be worried of all dolphins and sharks?”

Twelve Arms was dizzy from listening to all of that, he wondered, ‘What does this Sir Black Cat want to do?’

It saw both leaders from the octopus tribes nodding one after another.

At this moment, Tom the black cat said again, “Actually everything is very simple, you just have to become one tribe, unify your management and cooperate with one another. Some will produce jars while others farm fish, then conflicts like this won’t happen anymore.”

Twelve Arms vaguely understood when that was said – it seemed like this should be it, at least in the tribe where Leader Hercules was, everyone listened to it so there were seldom conflicts as such?

Both the seven-limbed octopus and the one-eyed octopus looked at each other then said in unison, “Who will become the leader of the tribe then?”

Since they were smart, they had already understood the benefits of being a leader. A leader had more food, greater attraction towards female octopuses, could talk more and worked less…

Twelve Arms on the other hand had never considered this problem, it felt that being an innocent octopus and to crawl back into its jar after eating was the biggest blessing.

Now that the octopus leaders from two small tribes had mentioned it, a bolt of lightning struck through its mind.

So that was how it was, it finally understood that Leader Hercules had always discriminated it and previously looked for excuses to shoo it away for the very reason that it was worried that it would snatch its position away…

Once it thought about this, it wanted to return very badly to verify this with Leader Hercules, but it then heard Tom the black cat speak again.

“Haha, this fight for the leader’s position is just like what I’ve said, it can’t be decided through anyone’s talks, it has to be done through iron and blood!” Tom the black cat said faintly.

That was right, those years when Prussia and Austria fought for the hegemony to unify Germany, was there a result from just talks? In the end, who did those German states have to listen to?

The one with the biggest fist.

It pondered proudly, by the looks of it, both parties would certainly have a huge fight and had conflicts that involved blood;

As for the twelve-limbed octopus, it would certainly understand very quickly that only by bringing a whole octopus tribe together forcefully, these internal tragic events of killings would never happen again…

It had already pictured the post-development in its mind, a rising Octopus Empire would be born in iron and blood due to Sir Tom’s eloquent tongue.

When the one-eyed octopus heard about this, it looked at the seven-limbed octopus again, but there was a look of cruelty in its eyes.

As soon as Twelve Arms looked at them, it instantly objected subconsciously, “No, how can octopuses kill octopuses? We can kill each other just for a position!

“Isn’t that just like the idiotic humans that you speak about? Us octopuses should be able to face ourselves truthfully. Let me ask you now, and tell me loudly, who do you think it more capable of being this leader?”

“Myself!” Both the octopus leaders replied at the same time, then stared at each other with rage.

Twelve Arms rubbed its head upon hearing that, it was speechless, as they both seemed very honest now.

It suddenly forgot that though they might be honest, what they said might not be the truth…

Troubled, it said to its two dolphin partners, “It looks like we need another partner who can differentiate the truth and the lie…”

The black dolphin nodded, whereas the white dolphin sneezed and agreed as well.

Tom the black cat was dumbfounded, it thought to itself, ‘Damn, this octopus looks so strong and has twelve arms, it has such an intrinsic gift, but it is actually a Buddhist octopus?

‘After all that Sir Tom has said, you didn’t even listen to any of that? Why don’t you use your arms to stop them and appoint a leader?

‘This is simply ridiculous!’

Right then, when Tom the black cat was dispirited, Twelve Arms the octopus made a new move.

It started to sincerely raise a limb from under the water, on top of it was a dark black-colored bag.

Not knowing if it was a wrong impression, Tom kept feeling that the bag carried a familiar smell…

However, it was certain that it had never seen this bag.

Later on, it saw Twelve Arms the octopus seemingly chanting something.

A long time after, a gigantic book that was shining in golden light appeared, it looked just like an artifact and looked very blinding. Promptly, it flew out from the bag and stopped in mid-air.

Could this fellow really be a blessed octopus, how could it have an artifact with it?

Why was Sir Tom not as blessed?

For an instance, Tom the black cat was extremely envious of this dumb octopus.

“Mighty, kind, wise, intelligent Heavenly book… that only exist in the heavens and not on earth, please tell me, where can I find a partner who can identify truths and lies?”

The black cat was absent-minded as it listened to Twelve Arms and its lengthy flatters, it was exceptionally shocked at once.

It thought to itself, ‘Old Man Huang had never once boasted about me, it looks like I’m quite humble after all… I must let him explore more flattering ways in the future.’

It then looked at the book and thought to itself again, ‘I already know the answer, if this book is able to answer as well, I must get it…’

A short while later, it saw the gigantic book that was shining in gold flapping, start making fluttering sounds.

The black cat was dubious, but it quickly came to a realization. Wasn’t that the Morse Code that it had taught the octopuses?

It seemed like this book was unable to speak human language, so it communicated through the code.

“Destined young octopus Twelve Arms, to the west of China, there’s a man called ‘Xie Dong’, in the Truth Department Public Relations team. He has a magical ability that allows him to do that, you can seek help from him.

“Or you can look for Shi Gan the leader of the Whitestone people, it is in China too.”

“Thank you, mighty… Heavenly book for your generous pointers.” Twelve Arms gave regards sincerely, and its other eleven limbs were in a bowing position.

Afterwards, the golden book flew back into the dark black-colored bag again.

Once Tom heard, it knew that the book was right. It was very clear of the abilities of Xie Dong and the leader of Whitestone people.

At this moment, its eyes were glimmering. Instantly, its thoughts and scheme of wanting to fool Twelve Arms as its backup substitute disappeared into thin air.

Since it was clear that the octopus tribes needed to be unified, whether it was Leader Hercules or a few other octopus leaders, any of them were probably more suitable than this Buddhist octopus.

This time around, Huang Rui came up with a terrible idea, he forgot that “one might know one’s face but not one’s heart”. It seemed like the demonic energy has indeed made him silly, he must be treated as soon as possible.

As for this Heavenly Book, it was truly remarkable as it actually knew about characters in the world.

Since it needed to harvest Death Energy, wasn’t this book equivalent to Yama’s Book of Life and Death?

Eh, just when it wanted to become Death, this book appeared at the right time, it was simply a gift!

The book and the cat must be fated!

Despite keeping its cool on the surface, Tom secretly rubbed its paws together and was ready to obtain this golden book from Twelve Arms.

It would not make a personal move as this was its principle, it needed to think of a way such that the octopus would take the initiative to give it…

Tom the black cat had no idea that its thoughts were actually quite right.

The precious game book was Sir System’s only product, it could distinguish characters and their alignment, their age and strength. It could also record detailed messages of all characters, which could be considered as a small Book of Life and Death.

…

In China’s Truth Department Public Relations office.

Everyone was celebrating Xie Dong, who had just been promoted as the leader. They teased him to treat them to dinner after work.

Xie Dong laughed happily and agreed to it, as he received compliments from everyone else, he thought to himself, ‘It wasn’t easy, after working hard for eight years, I finally am going to succeed.

‘Thank you China, thank you Truth Department, thank you Venerable Dragon God, thank you Director Hu, thank you Advisor Ren, lastly thank you my wife, my children, and my parents…’