Master of the System

Max wiped the sweat off of his brow. The sun was bearing down overhead, and his armor was uncomfortably hot. Even with his reinforced constitution provided by his cultivation level, the temperature was still unbearable. He glanced at the line of people waiting to get into the capital city and couldn’t help but feel sorry for them. The ordinary people were definitely suffering due to the heat. Normally, it never reached these extreme temperatures, but things hadn’t been normal in the capital city for a while. The most abnormal thing, however, was the text invading his vision.

[The previous system has been removed and replaced by Vremya’s Harassment System Alpha v0.1.0. Anger is a powerful emotion. Irritate, annoy, and harass as many people as possible to get anger points. You can use anger points to exchange for items useful for cultivation.]

This new line of text was completely different from the last one. At least, the last one wanted him to do good in the world. This one…, Max scratched his head. He had no idea what the purpose of this one was for. He suspected he was being used for someone’s amusement. However, even if that was the case, the rewards the system offered were just too good to pass up. There was a shop that he could view within his vision. Everything he wanted, he could buy. He could buy money. He could buy beer. He could also buy fruits that enhanced his cultivation, but he wasn’t too interested in those. Max exhaled and stared ahead. Since he could buy money, why did he even need this job anymore? Well, first, he had to see how many anger points he could accumulate before thinking of quitting. The thing was … he wasn’t very good at provoking people.

The next person in line walked up to Max. “Hello.”

Max cleared his throat. Perhaps he’d test it out right now. “Your breath stinks.”

[You have earned 1 anger point from Merchant A.]

One anger point was equivalent to one dollar. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad deal. If he told everyone on the line that their breath stunk, then he’d earn at least three hundred anger points. That was more than he made in a day with wages being criminally low.

“Excuse me?” The merchant glared at Max. “Do you know who I am?”

Max cleared his throat. Should he continue to provoke the man some more? No, that would be a bad idea. What if the merchant actually had some power? “Sorry, I wasn’t referring to you.” He pointed at the merchant’s horse. “I was talking to the horse.”

[You have earned 3 anger points from Horse A.]

…The horse understood him? Should he go around insulting animals? Max cleared his throat and gestured for the merchant to step aside. After a quick inspection of the carriage, Max let the merchant through. The horse’s tail flapped, and Max wrinkled his nose as the horse took its revenge by pooping in the bag attached to its back right in front of the guard. Max scratched his head. Even though these words seemed more malicious than the previous ones, it still offered the better deal.

“Excuse me,” a feminine voice said.

Max raised his head. A woman was standing in front of him wearing all white. She had a veil blocking her face, but Max could still tell that she was a beauty from what little he could see through the thin material. “Yes. Identification, please.”

The woman smiled at Max before reaching into her purse. A white light flashed, and a rope flew out from within the bag. It wrapped around Max and sucked him inside. He didn’t even have a chance to scream.

***

“Huh?” Vremya blinked at the pure-white display. “Where’d Max go?” He glared at Karta. “Is this a result of installing that weird system?”

“Are you blind?” Karta asked. She leaned over and slapped the display. A recording of the previous event appeared. In the recording, near the corner, there happened to be a small video of a flowing river. Karta’s eye twitched, but she pretended not to see it. “That woman kidnapped Max. Also, it isn’t a weird system. I got it from the god of wrath.”

Vremya shook his head. “You think it isn’t weird, but what good does it do? I pay Max money to make people mad? Is this what gods find amusing these days?”

“Pretty much,” Karta said, bobbing her head up and down. “The trolling trend started out of boredom. People’s livestreams were stagnating, and to pump up their numbers, everyone tried something new. The god of wrath made the trolling system, mainly for comedic effect. The user gets beaten up, and some people find it hilarious to watch lower lifeforms suffer.”

Vremya snorted. “What a waste of resources.”

“It’s not,” Karta said. “Some people modified the god of wrath’s system and made it legitimate. They added cultivation techniques that improves the user’s strength upon getting hit, and they gave the users items that prevent them from dying but still allowed them to take damage. You should’ve seen the numbers on the god of mischief’s livestream when his user almost became a god through being beaten. I saw it myself!”

Vremya scratched his head. It really seemed like there were systems for anything and everything. Instead of using other gods’ templates, what if he made his own? If the god of wrath could do it, then he, as a primordial god, could do it too. He grunted, not wanting to argue with Karta anymore because he knew he lost but didn’t want to admit it. “You’re sure the god of wrath has a way to kill gods?”

“He’s the god of a cardinal sin,” Karta said, slapping Vremya’s thigh. “If he doesn’t have a way, then no one does. It comes at a pretty cheap price too, doesn’t it? All you have to do is install the system in a hundred people who have hearts of justice.”

Vremya rolled his eyes. It was a pretty cheap price. Since he had already offended the god of justice by purchasing a hypnotism technique, it didn’t matter if he offended her some more. The only issue was finding users. For some reason, the almighty Poiskle search had failed him, and he had to look through the lower dimensions on his own. Luckily, he already had one user with the heart of justice, but there was an issue. “How come I can’t see where Max is?”

Karta shrugged. “How would I know? I’m not careless enough to let my users get kidnapped; this is my first time seeing something like this.”

“Hmm?” Vremya raised his head. A portal had opened right outside of his barrier. Was Kosmos back? Hadn’t she said she would leave him alone?

Karta’s nose twitched, and she sniffed a few times. “It smells like laundry…?” She glanced at the naked old man sitting beside her. “Do you wear different skin suits?”

Vremya didn’t know what to say. The question was just that stupid to him. He focused his attention onto the portal. Instead of the crazy lady, four women dressed in white robes appeared.

“Evil god! Come and meet your maker!”

Never mind. Vremya shook his head. Although the women weren’t Kosmos, they were still crazy. He turned his head towards the confused dog. “Are you the evil god they’re referring to?” There was no way he was the evil god. He hadn’t done anything that would warrant an evil title.

“I think that’s the god of justice and her allies,” Karta said. “They’re here for you. Are you going to launch them into the future?”

Vremya shook his head. “How am I going to get Max back if I do that?” He wasn’t dumb. He could easily connect the dots between the god of justice’s appearance and the kidnapping of his user. “Of course, if they’re a pain in the ass, I don’t mind sending them into the future with a bunch of titans.”