Seized by the System

Once the System finished saying so, Fang Ning felt a slight sliver of courage. However, when the true meaning of the System’s words finally sank in, Fang Ning felt himself waver again.

“You said that this ghost can only mess with a person’s thoughts. So when can it actually injure a person directly?”

“From the extent of its evolution, as well as the speed the environment is shifting nowadays, I would say give or take 2 months, given that nothing special happens.” The System walked on ahead calmly, not at all affected by the ghostly wails and surroundings. Although it was extremely dark around them, the System didn’t seem the least bit affected at all.

“Sh*t, wouldn’t that mean trouble in the future?” Fang Ning couldn’t help the worry that bubbled within his chest. Ghosts and humans were inherently different beings; humans could still be taught, but who has ever heard of a ghost being taught?

Once it goes chaotic in the future, Fang Ning was afraid that not only would his restaurant chain be greatly affected, the online novels that he were reading and video games that he were playing would be too. With the society in fear, nobody would even think to update their novels or to maintain their video game servers…

Once the thought of his daily life being smashed to smithereens surfaced, Fang Ning’s fear was replaced by worry instead.

He couldn’t help it. He didn’t mind not reading his online novels or playing his video games for a couple of days, but any longer than that and he would definitely die of boredom.

Especially now that he was rich, the System didn’t mind that Fang Ning would use a bit of the money to spend on his video games. For the first time in his life, he finally understood the true meaning of paying to win in video games.

Of course Fang Ning knew his limits. He knew that once you started spending insane amounts on video games, there was no turning back. However, Fang Ning is used to self-control. He was still seized by the System, and he had been long used to saving money. Now that he had so much, he just couldn’t resist spending a bit, but a bit was all he was spending.

Fang Ning suddenly came to the realization that a homebody like him was also starting to worry about his country and its people. He found himself quite funny, but he knew that in such a convenient society, convenience for every person depended on another person.

At this moment, the ghost that had been ignored by the human and the System started growing restless. She had been doing her best to maintain the scary surroundings, but all she got in return was ignorance. She was angry, how dare they ignore her? How dare they just ignore her hard work! Did they really think she was harmless?! You just attacked my brother and now you want to just leave?

She hadn’t planned on showing herself to them, content with just maintaining the eerie atmosphere, but she was furious now, and so she appeared before them in red, her tongue hanging long out of her mouth, her nails long and covered in blood.

“F*ck!!” Fang Ning screamed in horror, thankful that he was in the System Space, so he only felt like he had seen a scary GIF. The advantage of having his body seized by the System was that thankfully, the System maintained his body in check; he wasn’t peeing his pants, his heart rate wasn’t increasing. If it weren’t for the System, he doubted that any human being would be able to survive such a shock.

“Get out of the way!” The System was growing impatient. It could accept adding sound effects in the background, but now the ghost was trying to block its way. It could stop the ghost, but blocking one’s view was borderline annoying.

With a grand swing of its hand, the System sent out a long, dragon-shape flame that went flying towards the ghost!

“Ah!!! Ah!!!” The ghost flew upwards into the sky, it’s wails ten times louder than Fang Ning’s previously, before it dissipated into thin air, its wails distant.

In an instant, the will-o-wisps and the eerie atmosphere disappeared, and the street returned to its usual state. The morning sun shone down softly on them and there were even a few people in the distance, preparing for their morning exercises; nothing was out of the ordinary.

Fang Ning, who was previously seeking refuge in the System Space, quickly emerged to view the new notifications. It had gotten to a point where he usually would just ignore the notifications that pop up, but with the appearance of a new enemy – a ghost, the notifications are a must-see for Fang Ning.

[ Female ghost by the name of Zhu Sanmei attempted to attack the System using a body double.]

The System used the Esoteric Skill ‘Flame Dragon’s Celestial Punch’, one Aggro Bar depleted. The third Aggro Bar has dropped to 0 points. First and Second Aggro Bar remain at 100 points.

[Female ghost Zhu Sanmei suffered a critical attack with the Yang Attribute ¹and was suppressed by Dragon Force. Defense ignored!]

[Female ghost Zhu Sanmei received an attack of 1400 points.]

[Female ghost Zhu Sanmei’s double was entirely destroyed; the main body has suffered a fatal attack. The System has received 50 experience points and is 63455 experience points away from level 11. ]

Only 50 experience points. It was no wonder the System was reluctant on attacking the ghost after defeating a bigger monster. However, Fang Ning still felt slightly confused.

“Hey, System, why did you waste one Aggro Bar on some ghost? I thought you were going to save your Esoteric Skills for the enemies that would appear after the Celestial Weapon was done?”

He knew that the third Aggro Bar was almost full, and after chasing Lu Er for four hours previously, it had been topped off completely.

“Oh, you really do get on people’s nerves. Aggro can be extracted very easily, so I decided to test out my skills. Using some average skill to defeat that ghost wouldn’t be enough to teach it a good lesson. Sadly it was worth so little experience points, so it was definitely just a puppet.”

(I get on people’s nerves? Isn’t it just because you need Aggro?) Of course Fang Ning would never say that out loud. He would never treat the system with disrespect. Especially now that all kinds of monsters and demons were appearing, he mustn’t do anything too hasty.

It made sense to Fang Ning now, as to why the System was working so hard to train previously. If it hadn’t been Level 10 just now, it wouldn’t have been able to use an Esoteric Skill. Without the skill, the ghost wouldn’t have been defeated so easily and would have instead latched onto them. The System might not care about that, but Fang Ning probably would’ve lost his mind if that happened.

“Puppet or whatever, it really is none of my business. At least I have a peace of mind now, so if you have anything you want to order me to do, go on ahead and give that order,” said Fang Ning, finally at ease and void of fear. The System took care of such a scary ghost with a swing of its hand, so Fang Ning had nothing to worry about.

“There is one thing though, Lu Er was defeated earlier so we now have enough experience points to imbue the Celestial Weapon with a special ability. What function do you think would attract the most criminals?” asked the System without hesitation.

Fang Ning had expected that question sooner or later, and so he answered instantly, “Of course it would be the ability to maintain eternal youth and to be immortal. Awakened criminals would undoubtedly be courageous in climbing to the peak of the criminal world, to these people, money and beautiful women would be easy to obtain. Immortality and eternal youth however, have always been the two things that humans always lusted after since the dawn of time. The West has tales of fountains offering eternal youth, the East has legends of herbs offering immortality, why do you think that is so?”

“You’re not wrong. However, imbuing these two abilities requires experience points that I do not have, so you’ll have to lower your demands.”

“Then only abilities like longevity or extreme power will be able to attract people.”

“That would be easy, but we cannot grant them extreme power.”

“But of course, if their powers were to increase dramatically, then there’s no point to us forging a Celestial Weapon anymore.”

“Alright, I’ll be able to imbue the ability of longevity into the Celestial Weapon within these few days. What appearance do you think the Celestial Weapon should take to make it the most attractive?”

“We have to take in the fact that we want to attract monsters from all around the world. So it would be best to combine Western and Eastern elements, so that even foreigners would recognize its prowess. Gold has always been seen as a treasure since the olden days, so make it a golden…” suggested Fang Ning.

“Alright, noted.”

……

“What? Vigilante A destroyed your Life-Saving Double with a single skill? And now even your true body is starting to break down?” In a bleak and eerie residential area somewhere, a man with a sinister face was speaking to the ashes in an urn.

“Yes, Master. He was too powerful. I’ve never seen a skill like that, and it seems to be extremely effective towards ghosts and spirits. There was no way of avoiding it at all,” a woman’s voice answered weakly from within the ashes.

“Sh*t! That Feng Niao gave me unreliable information, he told me that Vigilante A was just a Wuxia head with limited potential and had a power level of F. What bullsh*t! I wasted 200 thousand for nothing!” The sinister-looking man spat angrily. Suddenly, he realized that something was wrong and immediately questioned, “Didn’t I only order you to follow him? Why did it escalate into a fight?”

The woman hesitated before answering, “I thought that since Master wanted to recruit him in, I thought I could maybe test his skills…”

“Who told you to do as you please?!” scolded the man immediately before going, “I’ll only tend to your wounds after three days so enjoy the pain!”

“No, Master. I don’t think I’ll be able to last that long,” wailed the woman in pain. Her true body was experiencing a terrible pain, like she was being operated on without anesthetics. She didn’t want to stand the pain even for a second longer.

“Hmph! You deserve it! You better stop doing things before I specifically ask you to. I am the only person in this entire world that can keep you alive, don’t think I didn’t know,” sneered the sinister-looking man. He covered the urn once again and put it into a box made of sandalwood.

The woman’s cries of pains could no longer be heard, but the man’s eyebrows were still scrunched together.