I Hate Systems

Chapter 35: Closed Circuit

Compass Carburettor meditated once again, focusing on his gun before he began to sense the Mental Energy around him. Even though Mental Energy was generated because of thoughts, they were affected based on the emotions of the receiver.

So, he perceived them as emotions. And, the greater he was affected by said emotions, the more the Mental Energy he would receive. It was exactly like a System.

And now, he focused on Anthozoa, noticing tiny bristles covering it. Each bristle was tiny, barely peeking out of the gun. He judged that they were nerves that hadn’t formed yet since they didn’t have anything to connect with.

‘Now, how do I condense them?’ He thought, recalling how his gun functioned. He decided to proceed with the same notion here too, directing the inlet starlight into the gun’s nozzle. He had to mentally exert force to move the starlight.

And, if he wavered for even a moment, his concentration would break and the starlight that he had gathered would simply leave his body. So, he carefully inserted small portions of the starlight into the nozzle, pushing them deep into it as he willed for the gun to activate.

And, as he had hoped, the nozzle began to suck in the starlight. Though, it only amounted to the starlight he had inserted into the nozzle. Anything beyond that wasn’t affected.

Compass Carburettor immediately felt a mild difference in the gun. There was a tad increase in its starlight density. As he was fully focusing on it, and since its initial concentration wasn’t that high, he was able to notice the minute change in density.

The gun processed the starlight as he felt that it had now become his. He then focused on a bristle coming out of the gun’s grip, diverting the converted starlight into it, noticing the bristle slightly grow in length and girth.

‘It works!’ He was overjoyed, immediately bringing in more starlight into the nozzle, stuffing it deep into it as the gun processed it, converting the starlight into his. The starlight that was his was easier to control than the external starlight.

Compass Carburettor continued to push more starlight into the bristle, growing it in length as he eventually extended it long enough to reach the Acorn—the object representing his Skill of Intelligence (Level 7)—in his head.

He then gently touched the end of the bristle to the Acorn, attaching it to the other end. Immediately, he noticed the starlight in the nerve connected to the acorn move, circulating through it before moving into the bristle.

It flowed into the gun as even more starlight began to flow through the nerve connecting the acorn. A minor circuit had been achieved as Compass Carburettor sighed in exhaustion, feeling mentally tired.

But, he didn’t stop at this point, inserting more starlight into the gun’s nozzle, watching the starlight in the mini circuit increase in density. Thanks to that, the bristle absorbed them and began to grow in girth, soon reaching the same thickness as the nerve connecting the acorn and the gun.

Now, the mini circuit’s flow had been optimised, with the inlet and outlet from the acorn being the same. Exiting his meditating session, Compass Carburettor smiled, closing his eyes as he slept. Once he woke up, he did his routine before meditating, focusing on his Darlac first.

Once he had obtained some progress in that, he focused on his Mental Energy Form. But this time, he didn’t work on connecting bristles to the other objects. But, he extended them all the way to the edge of his Mental Energy form, splitting them up into even finer minor bristles, touching them on the edge.

As for their other end, he tried to move one of them, noticing that he was able to do so, albeit with greater effort. He connected the other end of the bristle deep into the nozzle, at the point where it would begin to suck in the starlight.

After this, he struggled, feeling an intense headache as he tried to barely squeeze in the starlight through the finer bristles on the edge of his Mental Energy form. It was hard as he not only had to squeeze them through the tiny entrance but also had to move them through the entire length of the bristle until its end—deep within the gun’s nozzle.

After almost three hours of effort, he finally managed to cause the starlight to reach the end of the bristle. The gun began to suck in the starlight from that point, creating a depression for starlight as more of it flowed through the bristle.

This way, the starlight that came in contact with the ends of the finer bristles were sucked into it and flowed into the main bristle. In this manner, Compass Carburettor created a cycle where the suction of the starlight was automatic.

Upon seeing that it was a success, he sighed in relief, feeling that he no longer needed to break his head to bring in more starlight. Starlight began to constantly flow into the gun and was processed into what he could use.

Compass Carburettor used the refined starlight to create more bristles, connecting them all in the same manner to the edges of his Mental Energy form. This way, the influx of starlight continued to increase steadily while he used them to create more nerves.

Finally, he connected all the nine objects, creating a circuit where starlight flowed through them all. And, he immediately noticed some differences. When starlight flowed into the acorn, the quantity of starlight that exited was slightly lower.

But, when the starlight flowed into the thermometer—the object representing his Skill of Health (Level 10)—and exited, there was no decrease in it. And, when he observed the acorn, Compass Carburettor noticed that its eighth segment was slightly more solid as compared to the ninth and tenth segments.

‘As Health is Level 10, there is no difference. But, since Intelligence is Level 7, it is getting upgraded to Level 8 by absorbing the starlight. This way of development is the same as a System’s.’ He thought, unable to determine if he was happy or frustrated by it.

After all, when he obtained the Money-Making System, he was jubilant at the prospect of becoming better than the rest. And similarly, he wasn’t doing anything differently now, still dependent on the System. The only difference was that a part of the System’s power was now his.