Seized by the System

Brett tunneled around the underground. This Earth Hound’s sense of smell may not be as keen as that of Yellow Dog, but it is nevertheless a skill that was unique to him.

This was especially so with Brett’s mythical metal body; he was much more sensitive towards the scent of Heaven and Earth’s Vitality. His body was, after all, almost entirely made by Heaven and Earth.

He sensed a minimal amount of Vitality flowing towards a certain direction and very quickly found something strange.

There were numerous thin strands of Vitality Flow appearing in the air. These Vitality Flows were absorbing the Vitality on the entire Earth and directing them underground to be accumulated at an unknown spot.

He tracked the direction of the flow and came to a place that was somewhat familiar.

The Underground Greater Rat Kingdom. It was so brightly lit that is looked just like daytime, a city that never sleeps.

Brett sat on a rock and looked down at the kingdom from above, trying to sense the source of the abnormality.

This portion of the kingdom was divided very distinctly. There was the inner and outer city that was separated by a wall within the city.

The inner city was prosperous. It was bright and had several tall buildings which were aesthetically different and stood grandly.

If there was not a rocky roof above Brett, he would have had the impression that he was in a prosperous human city at night time.

He could clearly smell that a few familiar human scents coming from several of the buildings, there was even sounds such as ‘Go big!’, ‘Go small!’, ‘You are a winner!’, “Big money’, ‘Come and have a go’, coming from them.

The lights in the outer city were slightly dim. The architecture style was much more modest, and one can even hear clanging noises coming from within. The noises were probably coming from a few factories.

“That’s strange. What are these rats doing?” Brett sensed the atmosphere carefully, confirming this place as the source of Vitality’s abnormality.

To be precise, the place where the Vitality Flow ended was in the inner city’s largest building… within a palace.

He gave the situation a thought and decided not to enter. Instead, he took out his phone to update his Master on the latest information.

“Wait a minute, this is the underground. There won’t be any signal, right?” Brett was about to put his phone away when he realized that there was actually signal underground. In fact, it was full bar…

“These rats really got themselves busy…” Brett was very surprised and proceeded to send a message via WeChat.

After that, he took his time to admire the Rat’s city. It was a novelty for him.

Naturally, he started comparing it with Morality City, where he had stayed for a long time.

He quickly came to realize that the thick scent of humans had come from decadent sites such as casinos and brothels.

In Morality City, everyone was a do-gooder and were hard workers. During their leisure time, people in Morality City would be busy training or cultivating. There would be no sign of any poker cards, what more places of decadent.

Leisure buildings within the city were libraries, sutra depositories, cultural palaces, science museums… They were all buildings such as these, none were used for immoral purposes.

“Only rats would turn this into a dirty place,” Brent said with utmost disdain.

He naturally had no desire for these places. After all, he had studied the Atmospheric Morality Technique and was a gentleman among hounds.

He was, of course, unaware that this was an attempt by the newly elected king, Bai Shixin’s efforts to turn around the city’s trading with humans by creating all these new games.

The Greater Rats were at an era of development and there was a huge demand for human merchandise. However, demand for Greater Rat merchandise was not as popular in the human world.

The only items they could export were cheap geothermal power and basic materials produced through the garbage industry.

China had started a ban for importing garbage and the Greater Rats did not mind the change and got the contract for garbage disposal.

Importing required Greater Rats to spend money and garbage was the only import that was paid by the humans…

Previously, this business was limited to only China. However, the underground tunnels began to be developed, which led to them monopolizing the business and getting contracts from Europe and America.

This industry may not be a glamorous one, but it was able to garner huge profit, especially for a developing region. They were able to obtain basic materials at a low price and the profit was significant for them.

Not long after, Vigilante A appeared silently by Black Dog’s side.

“Master, I’ve discovered that the rats have stolen the Vitality. It is no wonder that it has been decreasing. Their thieving habits are difficult to kick. They have wasted your efforts in trying to educate them and now have the gall to do such a thing,” Black Dog hurried tried to get credit.

“You did well,” Fang Ning nodded at the words and handed him a vial of pills.

“Thank you, Master,” Black Dog reached out with his paw to receive the pills and wagged his tail happily. His brown-nosing was being blatantly expressed.

“I should really not let you have this body to play detective. You are too generous to simply hand over my pills as a reward,” Sir System suddenly interjected.

“You are such a short-sighted system. Black Dog and Yellow Dog have never been paid any wages nor given any reward. How would you encourage them to quickly improve?” Fang Ning said indignantly.

“Well, then I guess you should get back to cracking the case,” Sir System was embarrassed.

“That’s easy, let’s visit those involved first,” Fang Ning said nonchalantly.

After this, he brought Black Dog along with him directly to the palace front in the inner city.

A group of palace guards on duty outside the palace gates immediately spotted Vigilante A. All of them were shocked and lowered their heads as they were afraid of looking him directly in the eye. At the same time, someone had rushed into the palace to report this situation.

For those on duty on their station, the most important person to remember was not their king, but Vigilante A.

If one had offended the king, they would still have a chance at getting help to beg for mercy. With Vigilante A, there would be no turning back if one offended him.

Someone in brightly colored clothes look like the captain of the palace guards appeared sheepishly.

As a leader, he had a little more knowledge. He was well aware that this important figure would never bully the weak, much less slaughter the innocent.

The only thing he could not tell was if the things he had done were considered innocent or guilty… He was, after all, a rat with rat values, which differ greatly from the values of a human being.

“Venerable Dragon God, a big welcome to you. May I know what has graced us with your arrival? Would you like to me inform the king?” The captain asked carefully.

“Yes, please do,” Fang Ning nodded.

“Why go through all that trouble? Wouldn’t it be better if we just let him know we are here to see Bai Shixin?” Sir System said with dissatisfaction.

“This is where you don’t understand, we are about to wake a sleeping dog… If they are feeling guilty, they would scramble to make changes or have a sleep of the tongue, even displaying questionable actions the moment they learn of my arrival. Don’t tell me that you won’t be able to sense it as an Inland-sea Level system?” Fang Ning said assertively.

“Of course, I can. At this moment, the entire palace’s motions are within my grasp, I can sense even the slightest movement. Bai Shixin is handling some documents. He really has been working really hard. It’s just only been a few months and he’s already grown so much white hair. There’s also a lot of wrinkles on his face,” Sir System said stubbornly.

“You are really silly, really… This guy is just acting a show in front of everybody. Even if he has lost most of his ability and is overworked, he is still able to afford some of our Beautifying Pills, how would he have so much white hair? There is only one explanation, he is purposely keeping these white hairs to prove that he is working hard,” Fang Ning said condescendingly.

“Hmm… You have sound reasoning. I am indeed still a naïve and honest system. The world is filled with too much evil,” Sir System said with embarrassment.

“Stop with the nonsense, is he displaying any signs of abnormality?” Fang Ning asked.

“Yes, there is. Mr. Rich Boss is indeed wise. He just received a phone call and is now standing up to take out a USB drive from a cupboard to stick it into his laptop.”

“Good, it means that he is still considered an honest person. It looks like he knows what we have come for,” Fang Ning realized.

“I don’t understand,” Sir System was confused.

“Let’s go in,” Fang Ning was too lazy to explain.

…

In one of the halls within the palace, Bai Shixin was welcoming Vigilante A.

“I take it that the Venerable One is here for the diminishing Vitality?” Bai Shixin calmly asked.

“You are still smart as ever, let’s your explanation,” Fang Ning said lightly.

Bai Shixin did not waste time with any words and immediately pushed the laptop over.

It was playing a video with sound.

There was a woman in white talking to Bai Shixin who was looking wary.

The video was not long and was around 20 minutes long.

Fang Ning went deep into thought after watching the video. He was now aware of the sequence of events.

“I’m glad the Venerable One found out. It was not because I did not want to report to you but this immortal one comes with a strong backing, a lowly one like me cannot afford to offend her. The only thing I can do is to wait for your arrival, then at the very least I am able to account for this,” Bai Shixin leaned against his chair looking helpless.

However, Fang Ning noticed something in his eyes and sharply sensed that this was a person who was slightly emboldened.

“Sir System, it looks like you have met another match. This Bai Shixin is a cunning one. He must feel that this person that came to him is not someone that we can take down, which is why he is keeping a distance from us. If it was before, he would have reported this immediately. This situation affects too many, there is a chance there won’t be any good outcome from this,” Fang Ning was getting a headache.

“Well, she is just in time, I’d like to meet this woman,” Sir System was not afraid at all.