Seized by the System

Mo Xing immediately transferred RMB 500,000 to one of the hero’s online bank accounts right then and there. Of course, he had to go through some specific channels, and that bank account was also brought from the DarkNet by the System, courtesy of Fang Ning’s requests. There was no way for others to trace the account back to him.

After a few more exchanges, Vigilante A left his online contact before he flew off, telling the men that he had to continue to serve justice.

Deputy Director Liu dabbed some sweat off his forehead, “No wonder Director Mo didn’t actively recruit him into our department. Who could stand talking to him like this daily? It’s like we’re putting him on a pedestal.”

Mo Xing scoffed. “It wasn’t because of that. His identity is still a mystery that no amount of investigation can uncover, and if something major happens in the future, I am not some big shot in the Truth Department that can afford being held accountable. When he turned into a dragon just two days ago, I thought his real form was a dragon, but the Truth Department came back to declare that he was definitely a human. They explained that the Fire Dragon was just one of the Celestial Dragon Forms, and that it was formed after it combined with a human. When we relate the incident back to the descent of the demon, my repeated contemplation has landed me only one guess: Fang Ning probably came from outside our dimension; if there are evil beings coming into our world, there must be servants of justice reaching us as well.

Deputy Director Liu sighed, “Thankfully he was the latter of the two. No wonder I could feel that he had no sense of respect or fear towards us, even if we represent the government, nor did he give off the vibe that he belonged with us. That was probably because he didn’t even originate from China!”

Mo Xing said, “That’s isn’t absolute either. He wouldn’t have accepted us that easily if he wasn’t someone from China. However, we can almost be sure that he probably isn’t someone from our time, and that means that there’s no use trying to blackmail him with the moral responsibility and duty argument. As long as he maintains his present principles, we’ll continue to adopt the approach we used today when we communicate with him. We’ll hire him with money, and we’ll maintain the balance in the dynamics. We will not interfere with his operations outside of this, nor he will ours. I’m making this clear today, and do not come to me and tell me that you somehow f*cked up in matters in relation to him. Whoever f*cks this up, I’ll personally throw them out myself!”

A shudder went through their bodies as the men listened. Even though this Director seemed to be quite young, he was really an inscrutable person. He had so many faces to him that it was almost terrifying.

///

After the honorable Sir System vanquished the demon, Fang Ning once again lived comfortably as another period of peace and quiet came.

Well, at least Fang Ning himself was comfortable. Sir System was disappointed.

After the Host had had a tiny achievement in the Dragonization Ability transforming his spiritual sense into a snake, he started to slack off once again. He only stayed in the diligent mode for a week in total…

Within that one week, the Host almost spent every day asking enthusiastically about different points of cultivation, and his enthusiasm increased every time he managed to progress significantly. However, the Host seemed to start getting fed up with the repetitive and boring life of cultivation.

He started talking about work-life balance, and the difference between humans and the System. Humans have a much weaker resistance to pressure, and could easily die without any warning. Hallucinations come easy too, which would cause cultivators to go into qigong psychosis ¹ . To conclude, he just needed to rest.

The System had no idea where the Host’s pressure line stands. If he really experienced a sudden death, then all of its effort in cultivation will go to waste. Thus, it didn’t really dare become too strict to the Host either.

Of course, one of the main reasons for the conflict was also the difference in the System’s and Fang Ning’s concept of time.

The System told Fang Ning that he would only need 10 years to master the dragon transformation for his primordial soul.

In the System’s view, 10 years was almost too short of a cultivation time for such a rare scripture. It even provided the Host with the best training environment, and was ready to teach him step by step. The Host’s spiritual sense was also constantly nurtured by his powerful body, and all of that had given Fang Ning the best possible conditions. All of these advantages had led to the 10-year estimate.

If it were someone else, even attempting to reach to the beginner-level training would be a problem. Even if that person managed to achieve that, that person would not have the complete scripture for the skill, and it was thus impossible for them to cultivate the Dragonization Ability completely. Their chance of stumbling into problems were as high as 80% to 90%, and even if they managed to safely survive the journey, a genius would still need to take at least 180 years for the dragon transformation of the primordial soul, and he or she would need to both train his or her mind and body.

Fang Ning, on the other hand, was dumbfounded when he heard that he would need to take another 10 years to show off. It was then that his initial rush for cultivation faded quickly.

There was no other choice. The System could only sadly spend some precious EXP to quickly let Fang Ning quickly master the maneuvers that were already available presently in an effort to maintain Fang Ning’s baseline motivation in cultivating by enabling him to show off and join in the battle sometimes.

Now, Fang Ning would spend a minimum of two hours a day to practice the Dragonization Ability, which was a great improvement from the previous training schedule where he would only train on alternate days. However, when his progress was compared with the System who wouldn’t even waste a single second, it was too difficult to look at. It was as if Fang Ning was the dropout while the System was the valedictorian.

The System only wanted to disconnect Fang Ning from the Internet after the constant stream of explosion sound effects came from the depth of the System Cyber Cafe…

One random day, the explosions came to an abrupt stop when the System was once again grumbling bitterly to itself. A moment later, the Host’s shriek was heard from the room, “Why isn’t it moving? No, don’t do this, my 12 kill 0 deaths streak is going to be terminated…”

The System paused. Did it acquire a new Curse skill just now? There were no notifications… It soon realized what actually happened.

The System explained, “Trust me, it’s not my doing.”

Fang Ning replied, “O’ great Sir System, of course I believe you. There’s no System Notification notifying me about disconnection. What actually happened?”

The System answered, “It was probably the external connection I hooked you up with. The entire area is disconnected, including the System Cyber Cafe.”

Fang Ning wrapped his arms around his head, feeling a headache starting. This was the first time he experienced a disconnection in the System Cyber Cafe that is caused by an external factor. Before this, it was the System that disconnected it, and it would be reconnected after a few comforting words or a completed mission.

What could he do now? He could only wait for the telecommunication company to check and repair the internet.

Fang Ning attempted to pry, “Why don’t we run a few hundred kilometers to farm in a nearby city?”

The System’s tone was monotonous. “Go away. Don’t think that I don’t know your real intentions behind that request. You’re asking me to waste so much time just for you to go online?”

Dejected, Fang Ning sighed. He knew that this would happen. He never expected the System to adopt it anyways; even if it wasn’t really smart, it wasn’t easily fooled either, and it would not work if the setting was off.

Since there was no fun to be had without the internet, he had no choice but to pick up the Dragonization Ability and finally take on his commitment in cultivating the scripture. After he trained for two days, the internet was finally reconnected. Fang Ning immediately went online, but this time, he wasn’t there for games.

When he went online, he found out that the place was flooded with enraged complaints. Some were saying that the employees in the telecommunication company were taking their salary despite not doing their job, while some of them demanded the company to compensate them monetarily. Some of them even said that this disconnection was caused by a conflict between the electric and the telecommunication providers, and they even made a ‘formal’ looking statement.

The statement wrote, ‘Dear valued customers, it is with our most sincere apologies that we inform the telecommunication company has entered into a disagreement with our company, in charge of electricity. As of the current timing, we have come to the regrettable conclusion that we are not able to continue providing our customers both our services alongside each other. Existing customers have the freedom to choose with which company they would prefer to continue their service with, however, but we feel it is our duty to inform that a proper internet connection cannot be established within your home should you choose to continue with the internet service provider, even if electricity was supplied. This has come as a result of our company cutting off the electricity to the telecommunication company itself.’

What even is happening? Fang Ning must admit that there was truth within the statement, he could not go online despite being in the self-sustaining System Cyber Cafe, but it’ll still be impossible for him to believe that that was the reason!

Fang Ning was rendered speechless. Finally, he managed to find a seemingly unrealistic, but the most reliable answer from a random forum on the Dark Web. Apparently, when a bunch of unidentified underground monsters were building their nests, they dug through the underground optical fiber cables. For now, the cables were only repaired as an emergency measure, and there’s a possibility that it might break again in the future…

Fang Ning sighed to himself. ‘God, so it’s true then; my time of serenity that I spend sitting indoors, reading novels and playing games cannot be sustained any longer! These god-forsaken monsters are indeed showing up once again after the vitality is recovering!’

Frankly, Fang Ning was very concerned about this even if he was busy playing his games.

Even though humankind seemed to be the absolute ruler of Earth, they were only spread out in very limited areas of the Earth. The Underworld was mostly separated from the humans, and only very few underground structures have people living in them.

Not to mention the large body of water that took up 75% of the Earth’s surface. Humans typically are unable to live on the sea in the long term, and there’s no need to mention living in the sea itself. The seaworld was endless and three-dimensional, and it had a much bigger volume than the land on Earth.

Previously, most normal organisms did not have the intelligence of humans, thus they were never a worthy opponent for humans despite their overwhelming physique. In contrast, humans were needed to do their best to protect them so that they were not the last remaining species on this lonely planet.

The situation was entirely different now. Given the limited surface area covered by humans, it was only a matter of time before their power was challenged. With the emergence of a multitude of weird yet intelligent beings and the availability of land and water for their reproduction and development, the threat to humans was no longer a matter of if, but when.

Fang Ning had no interest in dominating the business market, that was too exhausting. However, in the event that humans were no longer the ruler of the Earth, it will be almost impossible for him to go back to his quiet life of games and novels. If an apocalyptic event was to happen, how could he even think of going back to his introverted lifestyle anymore? He might even be called to start planting for some food….

Before this, Fang Ning had no motivation to improve his abilities and skills. Since the System took over his body, his strength had been improving leaps and bounds. Fang Ning was just a side-character that complimented the System’s achievements.

However, Fang Ning still paid his utmost attention to the outside world even if he was fooling around. He was very concerned with the current issues and news that plagued the world, afraid that he would be caught off guard and perish immediately when disaster happened.

Even though he wouldn’t miss his daily games and novels, he still had a heart and a clear mind. Fang Ning clearly knew the System’s biggest weakness, which was that The System had no sense of battle strategy, and could not understand the intricacies of human interaction. It only knew how to farm for monsters and cultivate its martial art skills, accumulate EXP, and activate and upgrade skills as he trained in isolation. It was hopeless to wish that the System would even bother to look at the bigger picture, much less asking it to understand the complicacies in it.

As the monsters climbed the ladder to become a main influence in this era of vitality recovery, the disconnection of the internet that affected a large area would become a norm.

In order to achieve his ultimate vision of being a hermit until the end of time, Fang Ning finally made a difficult decision as the System stared at him with astonished eyes. He would completely bid his 24 hours shut-in life farewell, and buck up to improve himself. He would return to being that person he was just a few years ago, that man who would go to work and punch his card, and only start his hermit life after work…