Master of the System

Paul stared at the vision floating in his text. He was a bit surprised at how easy it was to complete his first mission. Usually, he spent months at a time to complete an objective, but the newer system required much less effort. Eula, the girl who wanted to hire him, was a princess, and due to her connections, he was able to register his bodyguard business without a hitch; in fact, the proposition was expedited and cleared in less than five minutes—roughly the amount of time it took him to finish his bowl of egg fried rice. It was an impressive bowl of rice, on par with the meals the chefs made in the cooking dimension he had visited once as a mission. It was an odd mission, deviating from what he was used to, and Paul swore he was only sent there because the god he served was having cravings, but that couldn’t be possible: why would a god need to eat?

[Congratulations, middle-aged entrepreneur. You have begun your journey as an immortal CEO. Work hard to bring honor to the techniques you’ve been given.]

[Mission: Start Your Business Completed.]

[Reward: Vremya’s Business Techniques, one heaven-grade spirit stone]

Paul thought about Vremya’s Business Techniques, and the relevant information flooded into his mind. He was used to receiving rewards and knew how to fully accommodate them in one go. Once he confirmed there was nothing left, Paul reviewed the technique. If his last mission was anything to go by, he was now serving the god of time. As for whether or not the god of time’s business techniques were any good, Paul had nothing to reference them to, but he had a sneaking suspicion the god of time had bought the techniques from a questionable merchant. There were five parts to Vremya’s Business Techniques, each one explained in detail: the first part was a submission chokehold; the second was an armlock; the third was a leglock; the fourth was a wristlock; and the last was an anklelock.

[Isn’t that the god of grappling’s beginner moveset?]

[I modified it a little.]

[Huh? Do you even know anything about grappling? Which parts did you modify?]

[Can’t you tell? I changed the name.]

[Heh.]

[What’s that look supposed to mean? And why does your tail always gravitate to the broadcasting button? Move it off!]

Paul once again used his better judgment and pretended as if he couldn’t see the bickering in his vision. To him, it seemed like gods were just like people, but if he were to say that out loud, he’d probably be judged as a blasphemer. Even if this world wasn’t particularly religious, the gods had literally marked him, so he always had to watch what he said. The text disappeared and was replaced by another block of text in an instant.

[New Mission: Becoming a Tycoon]

[Middle-aged entrepreneur, your perception of an entrepreneur seems to be incorrect. An entrepreneur is someone who uses money to make money. A popular method of generating money is by hiring employees, exploiting them, and turning their labor into more money than you put into them. Using your newfound techniques and heaven-grade spirit stone, hire ten employees to be part of your business.]

[Reward: Vremya’s Business Headquarters]

Paul raised an eyebrow at the new mission. It seems like his perception of entrepreneurs was incorrect, but it wasn’t too far off. Logically, the business techniques had to be employed to hire employees. They weren’t used to rob people; they were meant to subdue strong people without hurting them. If he used his usual fighting techniques, the employees he forced to work under him at a low wage would be missing limbs. However, this wasn’t a way to build loyal employees. “If only I had a mind-control technique….” As soon as he finished speaking, the text shifted in his vision.

[Reward: Vremya’s Business Headquarters or Vremya’s Hypnotism Method]

Paul nodded. Now that was more like it.

***

“Oi, you outdated old man,” Karta said, her eye twitching. “Do you even know what an entrepreneur is? You should rename your system to the puppet master system.”

Vremya rolled his eyes and ignored Karta’s comment. Brilliance couldn’t be understood by the dull; there was no way the stinky dog could appreciate his new approach towards entrepreneurship. There was a shaking as the landmass he was on shifted slightly to the right thanks to a blackhole tugging at it, but it didn’t really bother either of the gods.

Karta pawed at her display, and her eyes widened upon seeing a forum post. “Old man! You’re on trending!”

“Trending?” Vremya asked, looking away from his livestream. “Me?” He knew what trending was. On one of the most popular pages that always showed up when he Poiskled things, there was a widget on the right side of the page that displayed most-discussed topics. Vremya swapped displays, switching to the same forum Karta was on.

“Vremya, the god of time, returns with a bang!”

“Titans invaded the snack gods’ meeting, but a primordial god happened to be in attendance. What should’ve been a massacre ended up as a regular day in the park.”

“Kosmos’ portal app is temporarily offline. The reasons are unknown.”

“Snack gods as pets? A good idea?”

Karta licked her lips as she browsed through the different forum posts. As an associate of Vremya, she was also being mentioned a lot; she could ride this wave of publicity and dominate the snack market! She tapped at the screen with her paws, and Vremya leaned over to read what she was writing, completely disrespecting her privacy. The post read, “If you purchase a potato-chip vending machine and install it in your domains in the lower dimension, I’ll give you the god of time’s contact information.”

Vremya’s eye twitched. Not only did the stinky dog make a text post, but she also included a selfie with him in the background. In the photo, he was lying on his back, scratching his balls. Couldn’t the stinky dog have taken a more flattering picture!? In the first place, why did she even take this type of photo? Before he could berate the stinky dog, he noticed the number in the red dot of his messenger app rising like crazy. He had silenced his personal computer thanks to Kosmos’ consistent bombardment, so at least, the machine didn’t beep anymore. Numerous gods were trying to add him as a friend, but he noticed none of them were snack gods.

“Kosmos? You were already here?”

Not only that, but some gods were even arriving in person outside the barrier Vremya had erected. As someone who loved peace, Vremya disliked visitors. However, he resisted the urge to escape into the future; if he did that, his users would die. It was a very important lesson he had learned thanks to Karta’s sacrifices, and he kept it at heart. So, Vremya did the next best thing. He took out a pair of earplugs and stuffed them into his ears. Even though he couldn’t hear, he could still see Karta typing.

“I’m starting a crowd fund: For a hundred million heaven-grade spirit stones, I’ll risk my life and take off his earplugs!”

Vremya’s expression darkened. The number of donated spirit stones were rising like crazy. What the hell did all these gods want with him? He escaped and turned into a river eons ago for a reason! Vremya was about to say something, but he saw Karta pointing at a line of text: if you let me take those earplugs out, I’ll split the money with you half and half.

Vremya stared at the rising spirit stone count. Suddenly, he felt like the time he spent on his systems were completely worthless. Well, it was still an enjoyable process to witness, so he’d continue running them. As for whether or not they could generate profits, who cared? People wanted to give him money for the stupidest reasons.