Seized by the System

Chapter 1129: No Discount

It did not take long for Fang Ning to realize that coding pills was no easy task.

It can be said that it was not easier than planting them from scratch, despite taking up much less time.

He spent ten days and finally coded the first pill, the Dragon Clan Honey-flavored Pill which was a shiny light red pill.

The ingredients that were used were common soil, sand and stones.

As they said, there was a world in a grain of sand.

“The cost is so low. Mr. Rich Boss, from now on, you have work to do.” Sir System remarked excitedly.

“F*ck off, you think I’m stupid? Do you think I’m gonna be a programmer for the rest of my life?” Fang Ning cried exasperatedly. If this went on, he would probably end up as the world’s most exhausted programmer.

The key was to avoid copying and pasting. He had to move each piece of data carefully and then connect them together. After all, this was unlike programming on the computer.

Earlier, he made quick progress on installing the Vitality Transformation Equipment. The difference laid in the fact that it was for external use. It all depended upon whether that equipment could transform and output Vitality and there would be no negative implications.

On the contrary, the pill was for oral consumption. If he got a section of the code wrong, the pill would become poisonous. Moreover, it was to supplement his cultivation, so how could he afford to be careless?

He altered the code again and again and checked them numerous times before wrapping up his task.

He wrote only thirty lines of code in a day and spent half an hour doing so. The processes of designing, editing and debugging took up nine and a half hours of his time. Whatever you said about only having eight hours a day proved that you were not a qualified programmer in your boss’s eyes.

“Sir System, eat this and let’s observe the effect.” Fang Ning instructed.

“Why don’t you eat it? You want me to test the poison?” Sir System retorted.

“Listen to yourself, you’re the most experienced when it comes to consuming pills, so of course you must eat it. Furthermore, you’re using my dragon form.” Fang Ning felt displeased.

Sir System could not say anything in return, thus he swallowed the pill.

After a while, Sir System exclaimed. “No good, the effect isn’t great. It’s not as good as the pill I crafted manually last time. At most, it has only one tenth of the actual effects.”

“Why? This pill of mine and your pill are formed from the same data. Also, it’s made from human labor as well.” Fang Ning felt suspicious.

“Perhaps you don’t work hard at all, that’s why. After all, even if you work for a day, you won’t get any money despite working overtime every day.” Sir System guessed.

“… F*ck.” Fang Ning swore, then he sighed in relief. “In that case, my experiment has failed and I still have to eat your manually-crafted pills. Indeed, cheating is out of the question. The world is limited by mysterious Orders. No wonder the gods won’t turn rocks into gold, despite how easy the process is.”

“Hmph, you’re lazy anyway, or else you can keep on experimenting.” Sir System remarked with a hint of annoyance.

“I’m not going to continue experimenting. Right, now that the gods have fallen, my Dream-Cultivation Method should be easy to find. Better if I can locate the fallen God of Dreams and God of Sleep and inherit their bequeathal directly from them.” Fang Ning finally remembered what he was supposed to do.

He could not help it. He procrastinated too often and things were easily forgotten.

“Eh, ten days ago, you said that you wanted to cultivate in isolation. You’ve changed your mind so quickly.” Sir System felt surprised.

“This logic is correct. Before I cultivate in isolation, I must choose a proper cultivation technique.” Fang Ning asserted. “Besides, you’re the one finding the technique. I’ll go cultivate something else in isolation and once you return, I can cultivate by sleeping and there’ll be no delays.”

Sir System could not rebut Fang Ning, so he quickly pushed this duty away. “I’m a dumb System. I’m not good at finding things, so you’ll have to do so on your own.”

“Hey, this isn’t right.” Fang Ning heard the System’s response and felt doubtful. “A long time ago, you were worried that I would die. Now, you chase me out without a care in the world? There must be something fishy going on.”

Sir System defended himself vehemently. “I just don’t want you to laze around. You can use my incarnation for long-range control.”

“Fair enough, or else, I would’ve assumed that you were about to take over my position and get rid of me.” Fang Ning was relieved at last.

Therefore, Fang Ning controlled the System Incarnation of Vigilante A skillfully and walked out of the System Space.

After he stepped out, Fang Ning realized he could not tell where he actually was. The entire universe seemed to have descended into a state of chaos.

Clusters of stars in the infinite distance collided with each other and earth-shattering sparks appeared. There were even explosions but no sound could be heard.

The planets were like dumplings in a large pan. They were being boiled and squeezed. Some of the planets even had their outer layers stripped off of them…

Shockwaves could be felt beneath his feet. Occasionally, oddly-shaped objects appeared in the starlit sky and then vanished without a trace.

“Where are we now?” Fang Ning’s head ached as he observed his surroundings and asked the System.

Meanwhile, the digitalized world laid behind him. There was only an image and no actual presence at all.

He was not interested in how both worlds were connected to one another. He only wanted to know whether communication was still possible between both worlds.

“You should still be in the Milky Way. As for the exact location, I haven’t the faintest idea, since the outside world is in a state of chaos and there’s no longer any concept of time and space.” Sir System explained.

“F*ck, I don’t even know where I am. How am I supposed to look for the gods’ bequeathal after their deaths? What a joke!” Fang Ning’s head hurt like hell.

“Look at you, you don’t even an idea and you expect me to look for it? Luckily I didn’t agree to it.” Sir System said firmly.

“Yes, take one step at a time. At most, you exhaust that System Incarnation of yours which you spent billions of experience points on.” Fang Ning muttered and then walked towards the distance of the universe.

“Eh, don’t worry. I’ll just hang on to the System Incarnation and you can hide inside it if there’s any danger.” Sir System consoled him.

“Hey, isn’t that unnecessary?” Fang Ning rolled his eyes. “I might as well remain in the System Space and provide commands while you take action.”

“It isn’t the same. If I take action, it’ll waste my time. Right now, it’s the same as riding a car for me and I can still do my own things.” Sir System asserted.

“You’re so calculative. You even want to take this little bit of time into account.” Fang Ning remarked helplessly.

Plan B was just behind them, and Fang Ning felt at ease. No wonder Sir System mentioned earlier that they still had to work despite the presence of trouble.

The universe was vast and turbulent. Only a God-level incarnation could weave his way around such pandemonium effortlessly.

If it were for other living beings, they would have been vanquished by the tumultuous space after taking only a few steps.

A System was a System after all and it was proficient at evading danger.

Fang Ning could not command Sir System, but he could command the non-sentient incarnation. He seized every opportunity to take the easy way out.

However, after a few steps, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Ripples ebbed in space and squirmed around. Various kinds of strange illusions appeared and at times, he could see many types of terrifying images which were hard to describe.

“No, this is a wild goose chase. Sir System, you should use your Heavenly Merits and bless me with Heavenly Fortune. With this method, it’s like throwing a die which will determine the direction I should go.” An idea sprung to Fang Ning’s mind.

Sir System blew a fuse when he heard this. “I don’t even want to talk about this! Dammit, I’ve been tricked by Earth’s Heavenly Axiom and the Merits that I’ve accumulated have now become an IOU that can’t be exchanged!”

“Eh, last time you mentioned that the AJO platform and the Justice Points were created based on Heavenly Merits. Now, it looks like your sensitivity towards wealth is indeed amazing.” Fang Ning said in awe.

“So what? I’ve been duped and there’re still a hundred thousand Heavenly Merits left. There’s no place for me to exchange them at all.” Sir System cried angrily.

“Forget it. Why don’t you try it and see?” Fang Ning suggested.

“It’s hopeless for sure. I’ve gotten Earth and that Heavenly Axiom will certainly be finished.” Sir System’s remark proved that deep down, it was still honest.

System Notification: [The System consumed one hundred Heavenly Merit Points and attempted to activate the skill “Heavenly Fortune”.

The target of Earth’s Heavenly Axiom cannot be located and the skill cannot be used.

…]

“I knew it would be like this.” Sir System grumbled.

“Hold on, it isn’t finished yet, what’s the meaning of that ellipsis?”

“It’s looking for a target.”

System Notification: [The Origin of the Universe can offer discounts to exchange Heavenly Merit Points produced in this realm. The discount rate is 1%. At present, ten thousand Merit Points is required to activate the skill “Heavenly Fortune”.]

“Look, it worked.” Fang Ning exclaimed in surprise.

“So unscrupulous! This shouldn’t be called a bone discount, it’s just bone dust…” Sir System cried woefully.

“Be grateful, at least it’s not bone scraps.” Fang Ning consoled it.

[The System consumed ten thousand Merit Points and activated the skill “Heavenly Fortune” which lasts for 24 hours.]

“Alright, go look for it now and don’t waste time.” Sir System urged.

“Let’s go.”

In Chinese, 打骨折, which literally translates to “giving a bone discount”, means offering no discount at all. Based on this phrase, the author used puns by including the words 骨折, 骨粉 and 骨渣 which translate to “bone discount”, “bone dust” and “bone scraps” respectively.