Master of the System

Pravos exhaled and folded her hands in front of herself. She was sitting in a white room with shining crystals, each decoration created by her own hands. Behind her, there was a gleaming gate leading to the fast-time world. After a week of nonstop work, the preparations had finally been completed! It cost an astronomical sum, a million heaven-grade spirit stones to get everything working, but Vremya had forked it over as if he was passing her a potato chip. Now, Pravos had grown numb to the sight of money. Even if she pocketed a few thousand heaven-grade spirit stones for herself, she doubted Vremya would even care. Of course, as the god of justice, she wouldn’t stoop to such means. Instead, she asked politely and was given a job as the attendant of the fast-time world. Today, just three seconds ago, she had posted the first announcement of the store opening. Of course, she bought advertising space on every app in existence, but for some reason, Kosmos had rejected her.

Pravos took in a deep breath. At any moment, dozens of portals would open up, and she’d be flooded with business. Vremya had already given her a list of things to barter for, but for some reason, she doubted if many gods would have any of the items listed. Well, there was one option that everybody could choose, but Pravos wasn’t sure how many gods would. As long as a god was willing to give detailed information about their users and systems, Vremya would let them use the fast-time world for a total of a hundred thousand years.

There was a crackling sound, and a ripple in space appeared right outside the entrance. It widened into a portal, and Pravos straightened her back in her seat, glancing at the mirror resting on her desk. She wanted to look as noble as possible. Appearances mattered. When a figure stepped out of the portal, Pravos pointed at the mirror with her finger, and it vanished. She cleared her throat. “Welcome to Vremya and Vremya!” She thought the name of the business was a bit weird, but she wasn’t going to correct her boss.

The first customer was a burly man holding a book. The man had orange skin, and he was wearing nothing but a pair of brown shorts. Pravos had no idea what he was the god of, but judging by the book in his hands, he must’ve been rich. It was the fanciest book Pravos had ever seen in her life. Its cover looked like it was made from titan leather, and glistening gems were embedded in it, forming mystical patterns that shifted from time to time. “Are you here to trade that book? How much time would you like?”

“…Excuse me?” An annoyed voice came from the man’s general direction, but the man hadn’t opened his mouth to speak. Pravos shifted her gaze down, and her eyes bulged. The book had opened, revealing two pages. One of the pages had two eyes, and the other page had a mouth. The mouth spoke once more. “Doo you not recognize me, the god of alchemy? What sort of golem are you? Have you lived under a rock with your master for all this time?”

Pravos’ expression stiffened. Had she just offended the god of alchemy? Although she was older than him, the god of alchemy was more powerful than her. It made her sad to admit that, but it wasn’t because alchemy was more popular than justice or anything. It was because alchemy could be used to make a lot more money than justice. It wasn’t fair. Often times, she had to pay money to improve her divinity, but the god of alchemy made money whilst improving his. Pravos was about to sigh, but she remembered she was on duty in the service industry. “Sorry about the mix-up! What can I do for you today?”

The man held the book up and turned it from side to side, letting it take in the view. The book’s gaze finally stopped on the display with the directions on it. Alongside it, there was the list of tradeable items. The book’s eyes widened in surprise. “As long as I hand in any of the desirable items, I can use this world anytime I want?”

“Yep! That’s absolutely right!” Pravos said and nodded, keeping up her professional smile. She could see more portals opening behind the closed doors of the small room. Their rippled edges were easy to spot through the window. She gestured towards her left, and another holographic display popped up. Different environmental settings appeared. “We can simulate every climate and ecosystem you can possibly think of.”

The god of alchemy nodded. It did so by making the man carrying it raise his arms up and down. “In that case, I’ll be willing to trade my personal alchemy furnace. It has the knowledge of everything I’ve ever created contained within it, and it can recreate them all without external help as long as you supply the ingredients.”

Pravos’ eyes nearly fell out of her head. The god of alchemy’s personal furnace. She could buy multiple lower dimensions with it and have enough leftover money to enforce justice on all of them. However, she knew she wasn’t destined for the alchemy furnace. It belonged to her employer. A sigh nearly broke out of her, but she maintained her friendly countenance with some effort. “That’s acceptable,” she said and reached her hands out to take the furnace. “Are you sure you won’t regret your choice?”

The beautiful book scoffed. “I’m the god of alchemy, not the god of time. The next furnace I use will become my next personal alchemy furnace, but I’ll never be able to fast forward crops by myself. Only a fool wouldn’t make a trade like this, and as one of the wealthiest lifeform-technique gods, I don’t mind making a losing trade every once in a while—not that this is a losing one.”

Pravos accepted the alchemy furnace and nodded. How nice would it be to be rich enough not to care about being shortchanged, where the effort to get the money back wasn’t worth the money? Pravos packed away the alchemy furnace in the safe beneath the desk and gestured for the god of alchemy to use the world. “There’s a user inside who’ll be taking care of the plants along with some golems.”

***

Max lay on his back, resting in the green grass. He had watched the world change drastically dozens of times over the past few days. It snowed. It rained. It suddenly put him on the bottom of an ocean. He was thrown into a volcano with only several seconds of notice. Somehow, he winded up on top of a particularly solid thundercloud. He had witnessed all kinds of unthinkable scenes, so when a nearly naked man with a fancy book descended from the sky, Max wasn’t fazed. He sat up. “Sup?”

The naked man didn’t answer him. Instead, the book opened, and tons of spiritual herbs flooded out of it. The world shifted and changed before Max’s very eyes. The floating herbs separated and flew into different sections of the world, spaced perfectly to maximize their growths. After that was done, the naked man pointed the book at Max, and a pair of eyes stared at him. Not long after, a humongous wall of text appeared in Max’s vision.

[New Mission: Take Care of the Spiritual Herbs]

[-Thunder God’s Beard: Every seven lightning strikes, the herb must be transplanted to a different storm cloud.

-Fire Dragon’s Heart: This herb must soak in an active volcano. Consistent pressure must be applied to ensure the herb stays submerged at all times. It is very buoyant.

-Nine-Leaved Blizzard Lotus: This herb requires….

-Toenail of the Giant: In order to achieve….

-Seven-Colored Clover: A rainbow must….

…

…

…

-Screaming Carrot: To successfully pick the carrot, one has to scream at it using noise louder than 500 decibels.]

[Reward: Spirit Elixir]

The list of herbs and the requirements to take care of them went on and on. Max knew it was impossible for him to accomplish by himself; however, he did have little helper golems that had appeared one day along with a third sun in the sky. There was only one sun currently, but there were still dozens of golems. Even though he had the golems to help him, Max was still going to try his best. A spirit elixir could increase his cultivation base by one whole level without any side effects. Since he was always being thrown into crazy situations, he had to get as strong as possible to survive them.

The man with the book flew up and disappeared, leaving Max alone to tend the spiritual herbs. What Max didn’t expect was another block of text appearing in front of him.

[New Mission: Transplant the Thunder God’s Beard]

[Max! I’ll be here to remind you when to do things, so don’t worry. You’re not alone!]

[Reward: One Hundred Spirit Stones]

Dozens of missions popped up, each one pertaining to a different herb. Somehow, it felt like he was being paid to become a gardener, and the salary was surprisingly high. If he continued doing this, perhaps he could cultivate to immortality.