Seized by the System

“That was well played, Sir System. You just gave him a taste of his own medicine.”

Fang Ning was impressed. Black Pot had previously deceived them with asymmetric information and now, Sir System used that to trick him as well.

The only difference was that Sir System did not lie, it just did not tell the truth.

“Well done, right?” Sir System said proudly, “If he dares to trick me again, I’ll let him know what blood tastes like.”

“Very well. That way we don’t have to worry about not getting our promised share in the future,” Fang Ning said in approval.

The game plans of Sir System were getting more unusual day by day. This made him concerned that Sir System might be evolving too quickly.

Unfortunately, he had no way of checking its source code. Otherwise, he could have found out why.

Sir System used to be slow-witted. Now that it had become so intelligent, it worried him a little.

If it exceeded his own intelligent quotient and emotional quotient, then what would be his purpose of existence? He might be seized eternally without getting any rights to exercise his freedom.

It seemed like he needed to work harder. So, Fang Ning secretly made up his mind to stop bothering himself with the matter here. He then went back to System Cyber Cafe to work.

…

Time flew; ten days went by in the blink of an eye.

Sir System called out to Fang Ning.

“Bad news. Everything’s falling apart,” Sir System said hastily.

“Stop making a huge fuss over nothing. Calm down. Stay calm.” Fang Ning remained undisturbed and composed. His intuition told him that it was not a big deal.

“My reward is vanishing…” Sir System said bitterly, “How can I calm down?”

“Oh, it seems like there’s something wrong with the solidification process of the arcane realm. Could it be the God of Plagues who’s pulling some dirty tricks behind our backs?” Fang Ning made a guess.

“Yes, you’re right.” At this point, Sir System displayed an image of Land of Culinary.

There was no one but Chong Daqing at White Jade Square, but no one knew what it was waiting for.

It looked like the power of blockade had faded.

The thick white smoke that was diffused all over had faded as well. In many places, the landscape had already been revealed.

“I knew it.” Fang Ning sighed as he said, “It’s not easy to just observe and stand idly by. The God of Plagues isn’t a non-player character, so he won’t go against us one-to-one willingly. He knew that he can’t fight us face to face, so of course he would do something behind our backs. Needless to say, he must be getting to the bottom of it and interrogating the Greater Rat Clan now…”

“How dare he do something like that!” Sir System was burning with rage. “Just because he can’t get it, he’s preventing the others from getting it as well. What would he even get out of this?”

“Hehe, that’s the mentality of a wicked person!” Fang Ning shook his head and sighed. “Not letting others get what he can’t. A good person would help others attain their aims even if they can’t attain theirs. At most they’ll just turn a blind eye, they would never stand in other people’s way.”

“What a despicable fellow. No wonder he’s an evil god!” Sir System was furious.

They could have gotten a part of the output from the grotto-heaven, but the God of Plagues had decided to cut the ground on which someone else stood after he realized that he could never get it himself.

A hateful being like him should be wiped off the face of the earth!

He did not threaten Vigilante A directly, but he had used a different method.

After a while, Black Pot was well aware of the situation with the help of Sir System.

He was silent for a moment before he said, “Gods aren’t that immature. God of Plagues just wants to show us the possibility of it. If he’s not given a part of it, he would not let us get it as well.”

When Fang Ning heard that, he was stunned. Then, he nodded. “You’re right, Culinary God. There’s still some white smoke left, and this shows that he has left some room for manoeuver. He’s just trying to test us and see how we react to it.”

“What should we do?” Sir System said.

“We have no choice but to negotiate with him,” Fang Ning said helplessly. Now, he finally understood what it feels like to deal with an evil god. If he made the first move, he would be bringing troubles upon himself. If he did not, he would be constantly pestered. He’s just a piece of stinky tofu!. ¹

They could only wait for the right time to come for them to defeat him completely.

“Negotiate? Won’t I be giving my share to him for nothing?” Sir System was frustrated.

“Not at all. Looking at the current circumstances, all four parties have to negotiate and come to a mutual agreement. We have the strongest powers, Culinary God has the most rightful claim, the Greater Rat Clan is providing for the strength of solidification. God of Plagues have nothing good to contribute, but he has the strongest destruction power,” Fang Ning said flatly.

The System responded immediately, “Then you can go ahead and negotiate.”

“Eh,” Fang Ning said in surprise, “you’ve negotiated with him quite well for the past few times and you even managed to turn the situation in your favor. I couldn’t have done it as well as you did.”

“That’s because I had all the advantages on my side. I just had to be shameless. However, the current situation is complex, I’m afraid I can’t handle it,” Sir System said plausibly.

“…” Fang Ning had nothing to say. He suddenly realized that the complexity of the problems handled by Sir System had an upper limit. It could not be too high, or else it would be in fear and trepidation.

…

In the Underground Greater Rat Kingdom, gloominess casted a shadow all across.

There were about ten hospitals in the Greater Rat Kingdom, but very few people had visited them in the past. The number of outpatients was a hundred times less than the ones in the first-class hospitals of humans.

This was because Greater Rat Demons were demons after all. As they were strong, they did not fall sick easily. Besides, they were all born less than twenty years ago. This meant that they were less likely to get sick because they were still young. As for the semi-formed greater rats, they were not qualified to be treated in hospitals like these.

Their lifespans of ten years were treated as cheap consumer goods. A minor disease could be treated, but a serious illness could result in them being put to death. They were not treated like demons in this case.

Bai Shixin had foreseen that the number of hospitals they built was actually for the expansion of Greater Rat Demons in the future, for them to train health personnels in advance.

However, every hospital hall was now packed, and all the hospitals operating were in use.

Thirty percent of the tens of thousands of Greater Rat Demons was ill and they occupied all of the hospital wards.

The civilian houses nearby were requisitioned as a temporary placement for the sick demon rats.

At the same time, they had to spend a huge amount of money hiring human doctors and nurses to look after them.

At the very least, they had to be given fluids to prevent them from dying of hunger and thirst when they were unable to move.

If it was not for Bai Shixin who came up with preventative measures for all sorts of disaster beforehand, many demon rats would have died due to illnesses.

In god’s eyes, the life of a demon was more worthless than a man’s.

Bai Shixin understood the reason for that. For a demon to produce wisdom, it first had to cultivate before it could refine its wisdom. The process itself was lengthy and arduous.

Demons were unlike human beings, who were endowed with unique advantages and had a direct basis of wisdom, where wisdom could be produced only after several years of nurturing.

This advantage of human nature gave a great convenience to the gods who needed to be worshipped with incense.

Therefore, there were many gods who were willing to protect human beings, but only a few of them were willing to protect demons.

This was because the spirit and wisdom of demons developed slowly, so it was hard for them to provide the gods with a lot of power.

The resources needed to spend on thousands of people were only enough to breed one wise demon!

Gods were calculative, so the decision needed to be made was clear. That was why they tried to suppress the existence of demons, and strongly promoted the existence of humans.

However, that was the case in the primitive Upper Realm, which was not necessarily the case in this world. In this world, science and technology existed.