Seized by the System

Fang Ning had became the landlord of half of an arcane realm after a mere stroll to the outside world. He had no idea what to develop this arcane realm into, so he decided to send an email to toss the burden to Butler Zheng to worry about. In the meantime, he would return to the System Cyber Cafe to rest.

Now that he had the Spiritual Insects Clan to write novels for him, Fang Ning was exceptionally excited to view the results.

These butterflies had nothing to fill their free time on a daily basis, and there was no need for them to worry about what to eat, wear, drink, and where to live like how a human would. They also had no need to brood over interpersonal or romance issues involving both sexes.

Instead, they lived without worry in the Spiritual Insect Realm of the Spirit King Bodhisattva, not concerned about the problem of an apocalypse like those ordinary people outside the realm. In other words, they were basically the best candidates to be the producers of intellectual food.

When compared to humans, these Spiritual Insects have one great advantage – idleness.

An ordinary butterfly would not be idle as the matter of survival was already a challenge to it. However, a butterfly with a human soul would not face much trouble surviving. They had almost too much time on their hands.

After resolving this major crisis on his daily need, Fang Ning felt a rushing relief and elation in his heart.

The novels were settled now, but there was still no progress on the development of a new game. He would probably need to seek for another Clan with a suitable Natural Trait for it…

Suddenly, Sir System reminded him, “Don’t keep your mind on games. Did you forget, once again, that you were supposed to send out a few people as undercovers to other significant influences so that they can spy around?”

A sharp hiss was heard from Fang Ning as he replied in response. “That was just one of my ideas that I’ve never voiced out. How did you know about it?”

“Um… I told you long before that I could sense your thoughts,” Sir System said, sounding unabashed.

“That’s not very good for you to do so. There’s a saying that to invade the privacy of others is not the behaviour of a hero. Be careful that you doing so might decrease your Chivalry Points.” Fang Ning’s advice was earnest.

“It won’t drop. You’ve been seized by me for over a year now, what secrets do you still have that I don’t know?” Sir System felt no guilt.

“How impudent!” Fang Ning was exasperated, but he had no choice but to subside.

Immediately, he quickly made an attempt to switch the topic. “Alright, I’ll send in the spies to go undercover then. What opposing forces do we have? We’ll need to list them down, and tailor our approaches to them.”

“That’s more like it. I don’t know about that, though. You’re the one in charge of the bigger picture here, so you handle it.” With no hesitation, Sir System shook that responsibility off its back.

“Let me think about it.” Fang Ning of course had to take that responsibility on. What use could he be otherwise?

“The devils have a weaker influence overall, but that bald donkey Zhi Nan refuses to relent on his dream to build a groundwork for his ambition. On the other hand, the demons were severely interrupted by humans, and they were born incomplete with flaws. From the gathering at the Divine Gate, we can establish that only the Greater Rat Clan from China and the Western Devil Rats of the demon clan were significant to us. ¹ The clans within the sea do not even have a civilization, with just a few sea demons doing whatever they wanted. On top of that, there are still an unknown number of forces that haven’t revealed themselves. An example would be the Lunar Spirituals.”

After a short analysis, Fang Ning was already feeling overwhelmed. Thus, he attempted to evade it. “I’ll need to include some people into the discussion as I can’t just move on with a tyranny. That will only cause major problems for us.”

“You’re trying to shake the responsibility off again…” Sir System was unconvinced as it spoke with an underlying tone of distaste.

Fang Ning ignored that comment, and moved to the Draconic Penitentiary. He managed to locate Anderson with a quick sense across the building.

Anderson was not in the office to mark the papers. Instead, he was at the activity room in the Draconic Penitentiary. Fang Ning walked to the activity room, and Anderson quickly stood to welcome him when he was just a few steps in.

“Sir, these are the eleven souls that I’ve chosen. All of them are extremely talented and are well versed in combat. They are also extraordinarily courageous…” Anderson immediately leaped into introducing the results of his hard work for this period of time.

“Mmm. Let me see it.” Fang Ning nodded in response before circling the activity room.

Eleven glass caskets were seen around the area, and within each of them was one soul.

Initially, Fang Ning felt a sense of Deja Vu when he scanned the scary environment. He soon recalled the memory – oh dear, this was tapping directly into Anderson’s expertise and occupation…

Before this fellow was detained, he had made quite a number of these glass caskets to provide himself with spiritual force.

If Fang Ning was not around, there was no answer to how long he would have continued terrorizing this world with his sins.

Now, Anderson had morally correct guidance from himself, and could only utilize his talents in evildoing onto efforts that brought benefits to humans…

Currently, the target group of humans was quite small, with only him in it for now.

Fang Ning studied the surroundings in detail. A pale red liquid filled the casket, and it only took him a quick thought to understand that this was a solution made from dissolving the Dragon Clan Honey-flavoured Pill.

Since they were selected to be warriors, the treatment they receive should definitely be upgraded from what they had previously. Anderson has submitted an application for an increase of military expenditure, with its main focus on pills.

There was no need for souls to breathe. If they were soaked in these Honey-flavoured pill solutions daily, their growth in strength and capabilities would definitely be faster than their peers.

Anderson continued with his introduction, “These eleven souls are the strongest of them all, and are each wirelessly connected to eleven spiritually-controlled mechs within the Draconic Arcane Realm next door. They trained hard everyday, and have experienced a significant increase in their combat abilities. However, I have noticed quite some problems.”

Initially, Fang Ning managed to get twelve of those, but one of them was taken by Achilles, the athletics enthusiast. Since the man has been working day and night and was bored, Fang Ning had decided to conveniently ignore and allow his actions.

As Fang Ning was listening to Anderson’s introduction, his heart lurched slightly at something. He asked with a nod, “What problems are you referring to?”

Anderson spoke with ease. “These spiritually-controlled mechs have three sources of energy, namely magical energy, spiritual force, and technological energy sources. None of the three can be absent, as being without any one of them would cause a steep decline in combat time. It will also make it difficult for the mech to handle the environment of any complicated vitality battlefield.

“Thus, their maintenance will be very burdensome. Spiritual force is our strength and will not be a problem since the eleven souls selected all have spiritual strength above Pond-level. We’re probably the only one in the world with this. However, the replenishment of magical energy will be more difficult. Thankfully, these spiritually-controlled mech each have their own magic pool installed, and could slowly conduct their powers to convert vitality into magical energy.

“Technological energy sources will be a bigger bridge for us to cross. The consumption of energy to keep such a gigantic thing running will be massive, especially if it was involved in a high intensity battle. We will need to replenish the energy source approximately every hour.”

As his thought went with Anderson’s speech, Fang Ning came to an idea. “Regarding the third issue you mentioned, don’t the humans have a plethora of high-tech energy solutions? Nuclear power or high energy battery storage, we can just ask the Truth Department to replace these.”

“That’s entirely correct, sir, I was also planning on providing them some suggestions,” Anderson quickly responded.

“Alright, let’s put that aside. I have something to ask you,” Fang Ning continued, “Andy,, you’ve been analysing the information we have everyday. Could you update me the happenings in the world nowadays?”

Anderson was immediately interested. Does this mean that the Venerable Dragon God finally had the intention to claim sovereignty?

He quickly answered, “As your subordinate, I have been diligently performing the task daily, and have poured blood, sweat, and tears into the task. Now, I can recite all influences in this realm, no longer big and small, from the top of my head; hidden influences and powers excluded.”

“Do tell me more about this.”

“According to the Divine List, humans, demons, ghosts, and devils are the four clans that are the main players in this time. Humans are then subdivided into those within China and outside of China…”

Anderson’s incessant talking had indeed significantly cleared up Fang Ning’s muddled brain.

“With so many influences and powers around, there must be some evil seeds hiding within the flock. We must prepare against a rainy day,” spoke Fang Ning.

“How just and kind you are, Venerable One. What are you planning to do?”

“Send some spies undercover to all clans, and keep a close and constant watch on their movements.” Fang Ning sounded smug.

“Um…” Anderson was hesitating, as if he was trying to say something but could not find a way to do so.

“Do voice out if you have any differing opinions.” Fang Ning looked at Anderson. It seemed like he was not entirely agreeable about this idea of his?

“Actually, Venerable One, you could know the actions of all clans under the skies with the Divine List in your hands. Of course, this Divine List seems to have its own limitation – the Lunar Spirituals were not shown because it was a subset of humans. However, I thought that with its constant evolution, you would be able to know everything that happened in the world without even taking a step outside in the future. Thus, Venerable One, if your aim is to know all matters of all clans in the world, you should put your emphasis on evolving the Divine List…” Anderson pointed out with his keen observation.

“Oh, that’s true.” Fang Ning was abruptly enlightened. Still, he tried to cover that up and said, “Heheh, I have so much treasures that I actually forgot that it existed. Your reminder was accurate. There is no need for us to go around the sun to reach the moon. What spies? It will be inefficient and time consuming.”

Heaving a big sigh, Fang Ning lamented over the fact that even with his intelligence that could easily diminish Sir System, he was still incomparable to these aged and old monsters. One idea that took all his brain power to come up stood no chance against Anderson’s deliberation.

“Heh heh. I’ve always heard of the human idiom that even Homer sometimes nods. Venerable One, even with your extraordinary intellect and wisdom, you are not always free from error. This is exactly why we, your subordinates, exist.” Anderson quickly took the chance to flatter his boss.

Fang Ning immediately became content. Even though he could not cover all the grounds, it would be enough if his subordinates could. Liu Bang was not a master of strategy, but what he had was Zhang Liang and Han Xin. ²