How To Be A System (Dummy-Proof Edition)

Looking back at Ren Qingquan, currently his condition is quite bad. After a whole night of living above the sea inside his boat. I just know this guy actually has sea sickness!

Every fifteen minutes, he can be seen vomiting into the sea. And coincidentally, right now it is exactly fifteen minutes since he last vomited. So… *Blergh*

As Ren Qingquan vomited once again, I wished to give him sea sickness medicine or something. What a pity, I didn't know how to make one.

While he was busy vomiting, I sensed a problem through [Scan]. A pretty big fish is arriving nearby the bowl shaped boat he is using.

Following the direction he is swimming, that fish seems to target the disgusting thing Ren Qingquan left in the sea. For that reason, I don't want to specify what he left.

Anyway, the problem doesn't come from the size of that fish, nor from its target. The main problem comes from the thing that fish must pass to reach its target. With how that fish moves, it will pass the location of this boat's propeller.

Soon, tragedy struck. Along with the sound of meat entering a blender and a massive tremor from his boat. The surrounding water turns slightly redder.

Ren Qingquan's initially fatigued face turned even worse due to the shake. Returning to the corner of his boat, he once again threw up in the sea.

Checking the propeller below, I can only say there is blessing in misfortune. At least, the propeller didn't break during the previous collision. Ren Qingquan, who now looks like a living corpse, continued to ride his boat.

Soon, another day passed and he arrived at his destination. Luckily, there is no more danger on the rest of his journey.

As if a sailor that has sailed for a decade straight, the first thing Ren Qingquan does upon stepping at the island is to kiss the sand under him.

Then, he stored his metal boat before pulling his 2x2x2 meters small metal room, which haven't been used since a long time ago from [Storage].

'Let's rest for a moment.' With that thought, he went inside for a moment to take a nap.

After an hour passed, Ren Qingquan woke up and stored the metal house back into [Storage]. He first decided to collect the 100 fin from Steel Fin Fish so he can experiment on [Devour] with peace of mind.

Opening the system map, he asked me. 'System, can you mark the location of Steel Fin Fish on the map?'

Hearing his request, I activated [Scan] and [Calculate]. Searching for a fish that has the same characteristic as Steel Fin Fish written in the mission description. I quickly locked on a species of fish.

Just like the description, that fish has a steel colored fin shaped like a folding fan. It is also capable of swimming at extremely fast speeds. From the three specimens I found, all three of them have a cultivation realm at the Body Tempering Stage. Which is equivalent to Martial Apprentice to Martial Grandmaster stage in the Martial Arts World.

Changing the color of the dot those fish show into gold. I notified Ren Qingquan about it.

[Ding! System has marked the location of Steel Fin Fish on the system map.]

Seeing my message, he quickly ran toward the location of that fish. Once he arrived near the sea, Ren Qingquan activated his Body Hardening technique followed by his Armament Transformation.

Using Armament Transformation, he summoned a propeller made of spirit qi below his feet. As he jumped into the sea, that propeller quickly rotated under his control and pushed him forward.

Looking at his newly invented technique, I am dumbfounded. Where the hell did Ren Qingquan learn this kind of thing? Is he actually a genius in terms of Magical Technique?!

Moving quickly under the sea, he arrived nearby one of the Steel Fin Fish I marked. Coating his arm with a layer of sword shaped spirit qi, he slashed it toward the fish.

Although the Steel Fin Fish can swim at incredibly high speed, but Ren Qingquan's spirit qi propeller are much faster. So, that slash of his successfully slashed the fish into two.

After making sure the fish died, he cut off the dorsal fin of that fish. Which is the part required by the mission to collect. Then, he continued to swim toward the other two fish I previously detected. Repeating the same movements, he cut the fish off before collecting their fin.

Opening the system map, Ren Qingquan moved toward another golden dot I recently marked. And so, within 3 hours, he already gathered 100 dorsal fins from Steel Fin Fish necessary to complete the mission.

Returning to the shore, he reabsorbed the spirit qi used by Body Hardening and Armament Transformation which make the amount of spirit qi spent turn negligible.

Looking at his wet clothes, Ren Qingquan asked me. 'System, can you store the sea water attached to my clothes and body?'

As it is quite an easy request, I answered him.

[Sure]

Choosing only the sea water, I helped him to absorb them all which in turn dried his initially wet cloth.

Resting for a short moment to catch his breath, Ren Qingquan looked at the sun above. Currently, the sun is located right above his head.

Seeing as there is still a lot of time left before night arrives, he decided to stop procrastinating and start testing [Devour].

First, he selected a stone and granted it with Lv 1 subsystem containing [Devour]. Throwing it far away into the sea, Ren Qingquan walked further away from it.

Then, through the subsystem panel, he activated the [Devour] granted to the stone.

Just like previously when I experimented on [Devour], for the first three minutes the sky is clear and there is no trace of lightning cloud. Then, the feeling of being observed by a massive existence arrived. Three minutes later, lightning clouds start to gather nearby that stone.

*BOOM*

After four minutes, that lightning descended and obliterated the stone into smithereens.

During its glorious ten minutes of life, that stone gathered slightly more than 1 point. To be exact, it gathered 1.5 points during its short life.

Separating it into two parts, I sent 0.75 points to Ren Qingquan.

[Ding! Successfully devoured 1 point!]

Seeing my notification, Ren Qingquan frowned a moment before asking. 'System, please tell me the specific amount of points I gained.'

[Host gained 0.75 points from the previous devour. The system rounded it up to 1 point due to the amount of unrecorded points hosts have previously already reached, more than 0.25 points.]

After reading that information, Ren Qingquan asked me another question. 'System, do you know the difference in effectiveness between my [Devour] and the [Devour] each level of subsystem has?'

[With host's 'Devour' as 100%, every level of subsystem has the following absorption effectiveness.

Lv 1: 1%

Lv 2: 3%

Lv 3: 10%

Lv 4: 20%

Lv 5: 40%

Lv 6: 80%]

Seeing the information about [Devour]'s effectiveness, Ren Qingquan frowned and thought. 'That means, the Lv 1 subsystem is the most effective in terms of price to performance ratio.'

While picking a stone and toying with it, Ren Qingquan continued his thought. 'Previously, the system said the strength of the sub system's function is also affected by the main system. So, I just need to upgrade my own [Devour] until it causes the amount of energy swallowed by a Lv 1 sub system to be more than 1 point. '

After being in a daze for a long time, Ren Qingquan suddenly sent me a request. 'System, can you change the shape of [Devour]'

Although I am not too sure about what Ren Qingquan wanted to do with a change in shape for [Devour], I still tried to check whether it is possible to do it.

After tinkering for a moment, I am a bit dumbfounded because it is actually possible to change the shape of [Devour]. Of course, I still need to spend energy and upgrade [Devour] to add that function.

And so, I told him about it.

[Ding! It is indeed possible to change the shape of 'Devour' by spending points. The more points spent, the more flexible its shape will be.]

Testing the water, he spent 1000 points to add the function to change shape to [Devour] and granted the stone in his hand a Lv 1 subsystem.

Throwing the stone into the sea, he changed the shape of that stone's devour from the ball shape it initially had into a ball connected with a thin string. The stone is located at one end of the string and the ball shaped [Devour] is located at the other end.

He makes it so only the ball shaped part will devour the thing, while the string part only transfers the energy into that stone.

After this point, I understood Ren Qingquan's goal. He wishes to check whether the lightning struck the ball part that devoured things or struck the stone where those devoured energies end up. If the lightning only struck the ball part which devoured, instead of the stone where energies truly end up,

Just like before, after six minutes, the sky starts to darken. After another four minutes, lightning descended and struck at the location where the ball shaped [Devour] is located!

Just when both of us were happy, I saw that lightning took a sharp 'L' shaped turn and struck the stone.

*BOOM*

With that sound of explosion, sea water got thrown out to the sky as the stone with Lv 1 sub system got obliterated from this world.

As Ren Qingquan seems to be a bit stuck, I decided to lend a helping hand. After all, although now I already got an idea how to use [Devour] to increase my energy. Who knows, by letting him go wild, he might thought of an even better idea. Furthermore, this great me is a believer of free will. I don't want to force my will onto others as much as possible.

[Host, the amount of points you gained through 'Devour' is affected by the amount of energy your target has. So, if you devoured a high energy target, the amount of points you gain from 'Devour' at some time span will increase.]

'Higher energy will grant more points?' As if a light that parted the cloud, that word directly gave him a new idea. Raising his head to look at the still cloudy sky, he smiled.

Taking two stones, he granted both of them with an Lv 1 subsystem containing [Devour] and placed one at the sand. Running far away from that stone, he activated the [Devour] on that stone.

After ten minutes, that lightning struck once again. This time, Ren Qingquan doesn't stop and throws the other stone at his hand toward the place where that lightning has just struck.

Activating the [Devour] on that second stone, it successfully devoured the lightning from that cloud.

Within four minutes, a notification from the system arrived.

[Ding! Successfully devoured 1 point!]

After six minutes, another lightning descended and obliterated the second stone.

In the last second of its life, that stone successfully sent another point to him.

[Ding! Successfully devoured 1 point!]

Just like he expected, the energy contained inside that lightning is a lot! Even when most of it has already dispersed, the remaining lightning is still enough to let a Lv 1 subsystem to devour 2 points of energy within 10 minutes. Removing 1 point from the cost of granting a Lv1 subsystem, it netted him a 1 point of energy/ 10 minutes.

Which means within 1 hour, he can obtain 6 points. Although it seems a bit underwhelming. But, who said he can only throw one at a time.

If he throws 10 or even 100 Lv 1 sub systems together and lets them swallow the lightning, his income will also multiply by that much.

And so, Ren Qingquan immediately followed his idea and gathered more than 100 stones. Granting all of them with a Lv 1 sub system, Ren Qingquan threw one of them as bait.

After ten minutes, that lightning took the bait and obliterated his first stone. Next, he threw ten stones with the Lv 1 System toward the area that just got struck by that lightning. Activating their [Devour], Ren Qingquan smiled upon reading the notification that keeps on appearing

[Ding! Successfully devoured 1 point!]

[Ding! Successfully devoured 1 point!]

Everytime I sent that notification, Ren Qingquan's smile got wider and wider.

After ten minutes, the promised lightning strike came once again. This time, the lightning cloud was quite generous and sent 10 bolts of lightning. One for each stone.

*BOOM* x10

Counting the number of notifications I sent during the last 10 minutes. Ren Qingquan realized there are actually only 8 notifications. Which means, the points devoured are lower than expected. 'Looks like the amount of energy within a bolt of lightning is also limited.'

Then, I saw Ren Qingquan staring at the place where 10 bolts of lightning had just struck. With an evil smile, he threw another 10 stones containing the Lv 1 subsystem.

Looking at the result of Ren Qingquan's experiment, I nodded. As expected, allowing him to go wild is indeed the right thing. He actually found a better way to absorb energies than the one I thought of.