Seized by the System

As soon as Robert heard his partner’s analysis, he furrowed his brows tightly as he paced back and forth the villa, scanning every corner of it.

This was a typical American family, in a two-story small wooden building.

In front of their building, the lawn was mowed neatly. Evidently, they were passionate about life and were unlikely to be decadent.

After looking at everything, he took his phone out again and logged in to the mysterious website that Jim was talking about.

“As a commoner identified to have no cultivation proficiency, it’s your destiny that you won’t be able to obtain immortality through cultivation. If you’re given 500 years of life, as the price, you’ll never have any descendants anymore, will you accept or decline?”

Once entered, an option box popped out, whereby “YES/NO” was displayed below.

For a family like that, why would they choose “YES”?

He immediately said to his partner, “Jim, look for a guy to investigate their life track record.”

Not long after, Jim passed a tablet to him.

Robert held the tablet up then scrolled to read the content.

“Two years ago, an assessment was done at XX Cultivation Consultancy, confirmed to have no cultivation proficiency. A year and four months ago, their son was bullied in school by a student who cultivated Vigorous Diamond Palm. Seven months ago, the male owner underwent a promotion period but was suspected to have suffered psychological assault, causing him to have unusual performance, so his promotion failed…”

“This is a typical case of those who gradually suffered setbacks during the Era of Vitality because they lacked cultivation proficiency, and couldn’t cultivate basic abilities to defend themselves.” Jim commented beside him.

“Yes, if they’re unable to cultivate basic abilities and have no foundation in resistance, in this era, they’re just like babies without immunity. Their lives are as dangerous as being directly exposed to an infection room.” Robert totally agreed.

In the new era, the difference between those who cultivated abilities and those who could not was just as big as those who used firearms and those who could not when people began occupying America.

A brief moment later, Jim sighed again. “It’s such a pity. The abilities promoted by us don’t even require cultivation proficiency or vitality respiration, it only requires one to consume large amounts of food during the early period. Yet, while America probably lacks many things, the only things we’re not short of are food and fat people…

“For the first stage of a beginner, you’ve mentioned that ‘if one doesn’t have a supreme aptitude, he or she will need guidance to gather the bodily powers hidden in their bodies to form the ‘Golden Seed’. Now, private sanctifying companies offer these with sky-high charges. Obviously, their family doesn’t have that money, and free public services already have a ten-year waiting list.”

Robert shook his head and responded, “This is only one of the reasons. More importantly, although this ability can be trained by everyone, it’s easy to learn but hard to master. Even if they accomplished it, it’ll take a few years for them to cultivate to the second level, and the time required multiplies for every subsequent level. I’m guessing that these people probably wanted to gain five hundred years of life to accumulate more money, and slowly cultivate this ability. The only thing is that they didn’t think that the five hundred years of life was nothing but a scam…”

“It’s not entirely a scam, white man.” An extremely polite sound was heard.

“Who’s that?” Both the faces of Robert and Jim changed, they instantly look towards the source of that sound.

“Hehe, don’t be so tense. I’m your teacher, your intimate friend.” A river of dazzling gold flowed in from the villa’s window, completely ignoring the obstruction from the glass.

“You, you’re the Heart River God?” After all, Robert was one who paid attention to special affairs every day, he immediately recognized the root of this river.

“Hehe, you guessed it right, that’s me. I’m here to tell you the truth.” Golden River glimmered in golden light as it continued making sounds.

It was not known why, but it did not show its human form, perhaps it appeared to be more majestic and mysterious this way.

“Please enlighten us.” At once, Robert and Jim bowed to pay their respects.

“This family was also one of my believers. They made a mistake by signing a Soul Contract with a devil, then entered a conceptual space where time passed by very slowly, and they spent five hundred imaginary years there… Sigh, how poor, how sad. They had forgotten that nothing good in this world comes free, behind everything free, there’s a trap!” Golden River let out a deep sigh.

Robert nodded as he agreed with what it said. Behind everything free was a trap, and after entering a trap, one would then realize that the money spent would be much more than what one had initially thought.

“So this is the truth of five hundred years of life!” Jim came to a sudden realization, then spoke angrily.

“Yes, there are no pennies from Heaven. Even in the upper realm, pills that prolonged an ordinary person’s life by five hundred years are bizarre godly pills that can only be refined by immortal beings or holy Buddhas. For cultivators with proficiency, they usually need to cultivate for tens of years and break through several boundaries in order to have five hundred years of life. This is unlike those myths that you know about, whereby one can become immortal by consuming life elixirs. In reality, it’s not easy at all to achieve it.” Golden River made “humming” sounds.

“I see, thank you for your lesson, River God.” Robert replied sincerely.

If it were not for its detailed explanation, he would have to spend plenty of time to investigate the truth, and countless people would die in that period of time.

“Let us quickly release official notices through some channels to reveal the truth.” Jim quickly said.

“Hehe, get on it, I’ll notify those believers of mine to not blindly listen to rumors. I’ll ask them to be more conscientious, and to cultivate step by step to achieve immortality.” Right after River God finished, it transformed into ripples in the air then vanished.

“Farewell, mighty god.” Robert took a bow again.

…

Regarding the truth of the “five hundred years of life”, it was quickly announced on a number of big media websites, and spread to the whole world.

For a moment, there were innumerable threads and heated comments below the related news on the Internet.

“Turns out that it’s equivalent to a pipe dream, luckily I just took a look and didn’t agree to it.” Somebody was glad.

“Actually, this isn’t too bad, you still felt that you’ve lived for five hundred years. If you’re really old or in a desperate situation, you can still opt for this…” Somebody objected.

“Isn’t that just like peace and happiness…what’s with it? On top of that, it’s free.”

“Yes, it doesn’t sound too bad.”

“What a bunch of fools, you can’t even tell the true meaning behind this, they’re playing an elimination game! They’re eliminating those with weak determination, those who are not suitable for cultivation, and those who are not meant for the Era of Vitality!” A person who truly understood this went straight to the point.

After seeing these comments, Robert was extremely surprised, he did not think that somebody could actually understand the real purpose of this.

“As expected, there are experts everywhere. Internet comments are just like washing sand from the sea, there’s always gold somewhere.” Robert exclaimed, “We’ve just thought about this problem.”

“The problem now is, how can we find this devil? Why is he doing this? What’s in it for him?” Jim frowned.

“It’s not going to be easy, even the Venerable One who has the unparalleled Divine Eye is powerless. Clearly, this person is hiding very deeply, and can make people dream a pipe dream, through the Internet. His spiritual ascension must be one of its kind.” Robert mentioned helplessly, his brain was getting bigger due to this issue, he really deserved the nickname “Luobo Teda”.

“How about we ask River God? It flows all over the world, and has a vast range of followers, it probably has some information.” Jim suddenly had an idea.

“Mmm, you’re right.” Robert knew very well that the River God would not just do a good deed for free.

Previously, it came to inform them of this because that devil laid its hand on its believers, and also because it wanted to expand its influence in America.

After all, America was a place with over three hundred million educated, high-quality groups, and was abundant in human resources.

For a cultivator like it who cultivated the path of godhood, this was just like a piece of fat meat.

“Alright, check the worship method for River God, we’ll invite it accordingly.” Robert said.

Later on, a simple incense burner was set up.

The black and white westerners followed China’s customs as they began burning joss sticks, bowed, extend greetings…

Soon enough, Golden River appeared on the incense table indeed.

“I already know your intentions. Sure enough, I roughly know about the devil behind this, I’m only calling him a devil according to the standard of your realm. In the upper realm, he’s a genuine disciple of a reputable faction, a Taoist saint.” Golden River expressed faintly.

“Uh, a person like him is actually a saint?”

“Haha, the standards of both realms are different. The upper realm is a cultivation world, everything revolved around cultivation, and power is everything. Over here, your realm revolves around your people, and no matter how the reality is, there’s always a mask on the surface.” Golden River smiled as it remarked.

“Ah, River God, please tell us his whereabouts, we must have a talk with him, and ask him about his motives.” Robert’s heart turned cold but he forced himself to maintain composure.

“Mmm, that person is at…” River God mentioned a location then disappeared after.

“Hmph, this so-called River God has ulterior motives as well. The last time we met, I’m sure it knew who that devil is but it didn’t want to tell us, it’ll only tell us if we begged it…” Jim was outraged.

“Hah, you’re going overboard with your words, it didn’t owe it to us anyway. It’s probably because of the Venerable Dragon God that it disclosed the information to us so easily now, or else, how could it be so polite to weaklings like us?” Robert shook his head and rejoined.

“…” Black Guy Jim was at a loss for words, he then asked curiously, “Why didn’t this fellow tell the Venerable Dragon God itself, and ask him to exterminate the devil right away?”

“Maybe it doesn’t want to be involved in this?” Robert was unsure. “This shows that this devil has a powerful background, let us look for the Venerable One right away. For all we know, we might be in danger as well.”

The two of them brought their discussion to an end, then quickly booked a flight to China.

There was nothing they could do since they were really weaklings, and had no capabilities to travel miles. If they were to fly all the way to China, they still had to rely on technology.