Master of the System

Patrick stared at the floating text in his vision. Become the ruler of the world through the market? What the heck was this?

***

Gloria furrowed her brow. “Mission? Die if I fail? Whose shitty prank is this?”

***

Logan stroked his chin and raised an eyebrow. “System? I don’t think I’ve read about a system in any books before….”

***

Vremya frowned at Karta. What was the stinky dog doing? “Aren’t you overdoing it?”

“What do you mean?” Karta asked, her ears perking up. “Since there’s no one else around competing for users, this is the best method!”

Pravos released her personal computer and turned towards Vremya. “What is she doing?”

Karta snorted. “I’m assigning ninety-nine users my marketplace system. They’ll each work on a different part of the world, and then when there’s no where else to expand, they’ll consume each other to grow. Eventually, there’ll be one winner who owns the whole place.”

Vremya rubbed his chin. It wasn’t a bad idea, not a bad one at all. It was a shame he couldn’t do the same with avatars. Unlike consuming markets, if one person killed another, the majority of the spiritual energy they consumed over their lifetime wouldn’t be refunded. Well, it didn’t really matter what the stinky dog did. “Just make sure your interactions with my avatar aren’t counted as heavenly interference.”

“No problem,” Karta said. “Like you said, nothing material is being sent down there.”

“Good.” Vremya nodded. “It better stay that way.”

Karta rolled her eyes. “You’re not the only stuck in this black hole, okay? I know better than to sabotage myself.”

***

Grandpa Vremya frowned. It seemed like the airship was under attack, but who was brave enough to attack the boat with a Moon Lotus Sect banner atop its deck? Since the inner disciples weren’t knocking on the cabin door to ask him for help, then they obviously had the situation under control. The ride was a bit bumpy, but with the barriers etched into the boat’s formations, it wasn’t an issue. Right now, he was condensing his third foundational pillar. His first ability was attracting. His second ability was condensing. His third ability was going to be based on absorption. Whenever Gravitat had fought with the titans, his black holes had always grown larger after pulling the titans inside. Clearly, it must’ve been absorbing the mass into itself to grow.

It wouldn’t be long before his third pillar solidified. He had the help of millions of spirit stones after all. Also, the attraction radius of his first foundational pillar had increased thanks to the creation of his second foundational pillar. With his third one, he suspected the radius would increase once more. As for his combative abilities, he wasn’t worried about it. The Frostwind Armor Golem would be enough until he reached the golden-core stage.

After a few hours, the boat hit the ground. At that point, Grandpa Vremya suspected there was something wrong with the pilot’s skills, but after he thought about who the pilot was, he decided not to say anything about it. He stepped out of the cabin and looked around. The inner disciples’ faces were pale—paler than they usually were—and most of them were glaring at Azalea, but when the cabin opened, they turned towards Grandpa Vremya and glared at him instead. If he had been a responsible guide and drove the boat, perhaps they wouldn’t have had to suffer such trauma on the journey to the pocket realm.

Grandpa Vremya ignored their glares and shifted his gaze onto Azalea. “We’re here?” he asked and looked around. The other nine boats were parked in a neat line, and there were nine groups of people on the ground in front of them. The disciples were chattering amongst themselves, and a few even pointed at Grandpa Vremya. He descended from the boat, and the disciples behind him glanced at each other before following.

Azalea adjusted her ribbon before descending from the boat, positioning herself slightly behind Grandpa Vremya and to his side. Compared to the rest of the inner disciples, the group behind her was much more disheveled. They didn’t have time to cultivate and prepare themselves for what was to come since their flight was so … turbulent. The other inner disciples who had guides in the golden-core stage seemed much more relaxed, and it was easy to tell by the way they presented themselves. A frown appeared on Azalea’s face. Since that was the case, it was going to be quite difficult for her group to gain the most from the pocket realm, meaning Grandpa Vremya wouldn’t get the feather of the silver chicken. She glanced at Grandpa Vremya’s countenance, and from what she could tell, he was completely relaxed. A twinge of annoyance plucked at her heart. Why was she worrying about it when he wasn’t?

“Shall we enter? Let’s not waste any time,” Grandpa Vremya said, addressing the nine core disciples.

Ruby stepped forward, approaching a circle drawn on the ground. “You were actually the last to arrive,” she said. The rest of the core disciples surrounded the circle and withdrew tokens from their robes. Grandpa Vremya patted himself down before glancing at Azalea. She took a token out of her pouch and passed it over to Grandpa Vremya. He stepped forward, and when he filled in the last spot around the circle, the line on the ground lit up. Light traveled up his feet before ending up in the token. Beams of yellow shone from the nine tokens, converging at a point above the disciples, and a portal formed in the air.

“Go on through,” Michelle said, gesturing for the inner disciples to approach the entrance to the pocket realm. “We’ll be right behind you. Don’t move when you get inside. If you die, we’re the ones who’ll be punished.”

Azalea stepped forward, but an inner disciple grabbed her sleeve. “Will it be dangerous?” the inner disciple asked. “I know we’re assigned guides to keep us safe, but our guide has a lower cultivation base than I do….”

Azalea frowned. “It’s alright,” she said. “He might look old and weak, but he’s still a core disciple, isn’t he? Besides, there’s no such thing as absolute safety in the world. Every foray into a pocket realm is filled with danger, and it’s not uncommon for accidents to happen.”

The inner disciple pursed her lips. Was she being cheered up or scared away? She wasn’t quite sure, but the man with gray hair certainly wasn’t inspiring any confidence in her. As she approached the portal, she asked an inner disciple, who had been on Michelle’s boat, “Did your guide tell you anything about what we’d be facing inside?”

“Yours didn’t?” the questionee asked. “Who was it?”

“Senior Brother Vremya,” the inner disciple said, gesturing towards Grandpa Vremya with her head.

The questionee merely stared the inner disciple in the eye and patted her shoulder. “Good luck, sister.” With that, the questionee stood behind Michelle, and after a gesture from the latter, the questionee entered the portal without looking back.

The inner disciple glanced at Grandpa Vremya. He turned back to look at her. When he saw there wasn’t a red ribbon on her head, he frowned. “What? Are you going in or not?”

The inner disciple swallowed and stepped through the portal. Luck played a great factor in whether or not someone would be successful. It seemed like—for this mission—she wasn’t going to be very successful. In fact, she’d count it as a boon if she made it out alive with a good story to tell. After she passed through the portal, she rubbed her eyes. It was pitch-black. She held her hand up and inserted some spiritual energy into her palm. A glowing ball of light appeared, and before she could take in her surroundings, something dull struck her head, and the ball of light faded.

“Are you crazy! Didn’t your guide warn you about creating lights? Were you trying to get us all killed?”

Question marks appeared over the inner disciple’s head. All she wanted to do was examine her surroundings. It wasn’t her fault her guide had locked himself in a cabin the whole time! A moment later, another ball of light appeared. There was a thumping sound followed by a pained cry. The light went out.

“Why are all of you summoning lights? Which guide didn’t inform their disciples!?”