Seized by the System

[Thief Ho Mingli has taunted the System by setting his body on fire.]

[The System has switched to Ice Mantra; using the Palm of Ice. The Ice Seal Piercing Snow stuck as fast as lightning, breaking the fire defense of the opponent and hitting him square on the back oh his head.”

[The System caused 75 DMG to Ho Mingli. Ho Mingli is unconscious.]

[The System obtained 500 EXP. The System has leveled up.]

[The System is now Level 2. Health Points (HP) have increased by 10. Mana Points (MP) have increased by 5. Attribute Points (AP) have increased by 1.]

[The System’s automatic allocation process has been completed. Strength increased by 1. Current Strength Points: 6.]

[The System used Dragon’s Cloud-Searching Claw to search Ho Mingli’s body. The System obtained RMB 34522.05, a diamond ring…]

Thankfully no one died this time around, and the cash income was much more than yesterday’s loot. Fang Ning looked at the collapsed man with pity-filled eyes. He saw the entire process when the man worked hard to steal the wallet in the car. This thief used almost all of his strength to get that wallet in his hands. Then, Sir System the Great swooped in and played the system’s default voice line to catch the man off guard. It took no time to defeat the thief. Basically, all of his work had benefited the System.

Fang Ning left the System to its own devices, still busy with its hunt. The messages he received this time were too much for him. Even though he wasn’t able to read the System’s Attribute Interface, he knew that the System probably has a Job as a Martial Artist, with characteristics such as Health, Mana, Strength, and Power. Then, characteristics such as Luck, Innateness, and Perception would probably appear in the future.

It definitely looked impressive, so much that Fang Ning was amazed. Aside from chronic procrastination, he was also a severe video game addict. Sadly, he had no control over the System aside from watching it twirl around town.

When will it be time for him to flaunt the fact he had a System?

Just as Fang Ning was knee deep in his daydreams, an incredibly melodious voice announced chimed in some good news.

[The System has leveled up to Level 2. The survival ability of the System has increased. Calculating the Host’s contribution…. Calculation completed. The Host’s contribution was extremely weak: a 30 minute relief time will be granted to the Host when after successfully returning to a safe location. Warning, the Host can only relax and rest during this downtime. No other activities can be done.]

“F*ck me, relief time? Even this term was used! I feel like a prisoner now. Besides, what are ‘other activities’? Flaunting the System won’t work anymore now.” Fang Ning complained. Even though the plan to show off with the System failed, Fang Ning was still incredibly excited at the thought of relief time.

He stared unblinkingly at the System. It quickly left the underground parking and took numerous turns, before removing the disguise in a random public toilet. He finally arrived in his rented room shortly after.

Fang Ning checked the time as he returned to the room. It was already 9.30am in the morning. There was no use to go to work today, and probably from tomorrow onwards, the word ‘working’ would be entirely foreign to him.

Just when Fang Ning was mourning his half-decent soon-to-be ex-employment, he suddenly realized that he was able to move once again.

He could really move! Fang Ning shook his arms and stretched his legs in his room. While doing so, he found out that despite System the crossing his legs in meditation for an entire night, his legs didn’t grow stiff or numb. Instead, he felt that they were more agile than they had been before.

After he basked in the System’s newfound internal strength in his body for just a moment, Fang Ning quickly called out to the System.

“System? System, come here for a second!”

[The remaining time for the Host’s relief period is 29 minutes 30 seconds.] The System had not specifically replied to him, but coldly reminded him instead.

“D*mn, at least let me see how you look like! Show me your Attribute Interface, your Task Log, the Lottery Wheel… Oh, also the System Marketplace and the System Inventory! Show me everything.” Fang Ning had had a touch of hubris seep into him after he regained control of his body. He felt that the System couldn’t leave him, else it would never have given him the relief time in the first place!

[The remaining time for the Host’s relief period is 28 minutes and 50 seconds.]

“Alright, alright, you win. Show me the System Inventory. You must have that! I can’t see where you hid the things you looted. You’ll need to liquify your loot too, or you won’t be able to increase your survival ability. Do you know how to do that?” After Fang Ning heard the system notification, he knew that he couldn’t simply ask questions. Sir System was not exactly his friend yet. He might as well ask it the crucial questions.

This time, the System finally responded.

Fang Ning couldn’t see the edges of the enormous wide space that appeared in his mind. He had entered here right after he shut his eyes. This space has no light source, and yet it was as bright as day. Sadly, most of the space here was still empty. Only a tiny corner has a small pile of things – the loot obtained from the System’s fight for justice.

Tens of thousands of dollars were tied in stacks, some golden accessories, diamond rings, smartphones….

Ah, this was unbelievable. A gross calculation concluded that the System’s work from last night till this morning amounted to more than his previous annual income. Unfortunately, he was a total introvert before this, and he had zero idea where to get in touch with these people who were willing to buy these stolen goods. Everything he had said just now was just to trick the intellectually slow System.

However, this couldn’t stop the imaginative Fang Ning. He ended up giving a suggestion to the System, “Oh, did you know, System, you could just go to the Dark Web.”

[The remaining time for the Host’s relief is 21 minutes.]

Fang Ning knew that this System, that was rapidly changing the conversation topics, had no idea how to work the Internet. The technologically un-savvy System was probably feeling very weird at this moment. The tiny amount of information it had about the Internet was probably gotten from his memory.

Now, Fang Ning was almost sure that the System probably downloaded the Martial Arts package, and not anything concerning modern technology. If it wanted to understand anything, it needed to get them from his own memories.

Fang Ning felt a growing headache after he nailed that fact down. These things could only stay here for the time being, but the cash was still usable for now. Fang Ning was thankful for the help from the various novels he had read that equipped him, a total introvert, with some degree of investigative and tracking knowledge.

Fang Ning only had 20 minutes left from his relief time.

Then, he pounced on his laptop and flipped the switch to go online. Even though he was a chronic procrastinator and a severe internet addict, but he was not dumb, and his intelligence was decent.

A night without going online was borderline unbearable. He quickly went online to scan the Weibo posts in his city that he had missed and skim the local news to get updated on the current situation.

Soon, he saw the viral blog post. It was already so popular that it was the top news on the site.

“Vigilante VS Superpowered Individuals! The Superpower knelt after ONE PALM!”

That blogpost colorfully illustrated the details on how the System defeated the thief just previously. It even included a complete video. As an observer, Fang Ning never realized how handsome he (the System) was.

It probably came from the dashcam in one of the vehicles around, and the owner of the car posted it on Weibo after he found the footage.

Comments were already flooding the post, and some of the comments even mentioned that they had seen similar scenes.

After Fang Ning spent a long time reading the comments, a pop-up sprang from the browser. “The Webpage is no longer available.”

Fang Ning slowly came to the realization that this world was probably changing already, and he had probably lost the chance to live a simple life, waiting to die.

That fire meteor gave him the System, so it was entirely normal for it to bring things to other people. He had experienced some terribly unlucky incidents, but he never really been the luckiest person around. However, he felt some sense of gratitude. In comparison, he did have quite a strong System. Judging from the System’s abilities since yesterday night, the System was quite reliable, despite its intellectual shortcomings. He wouldn’t need to worry much in the future.

///

“Miss Zhao Ying, please look at this body again. Are you sure that he’s the dead person that you posted on your Weibo?” In some unknown place, below ground, a fat man’s corpse was lying in a dark, cold drawer.

Zhao Ying took a shaky glance before turning away quickly. She nodded, “Yes, it’s him.”

“Alright, you can leave with them now. However, do remember that you’ve signed a confidentiality agreement with us. If you intentionally break it, you’re liable to legal responsibilities. It’s better if you could forget everything that’s happened.” A strict voice rang in her ears.

“I understand, yes, I understand. I’ll forget this as soon as possible.” She stuttered out quickly as she moaned about her unlucky fate. The rich Internet friend that she was catfishing turned out to be a fugitive in the end, and the handsome man that saved him had also become a fugitive.

However, she was thankful that she was busy posting on Weibo and was slightly shy to have had any actual interaction with the man. She was waiting for him to come and talk to her, actually. She was probably let off the hook here because she knew nothing of importance.

Sadly, she would probably never meet the handsome man in the future. She hadn’t even managed to thank him.

After Zhao Ying left with the two people, another group of people surrounded the chilly drawer. They wore crisp suits and ties. Some of them even had sunglasses on them. However, all of them had one common characteristic – they were very strong. There was no way that they were recruited temporarily.

Their eyes were lit with the fire of desire as they looked at the body, as if it were hiding some incredibly rare treasure.