Seized by the System

As Fang Ning was about to deliver an introduction, a high-pitched voice burst out from the foot of the mountain.

“It’s said that the Venerable Dragon God is known for his fairness, but that’s not the truth. This time, some people have already gotten the low-down about the opening of the Divine Gate and they conspired to steal quotas from other clans. How vile!”

“Sh*t…” Fang Ning held his breath. ‘Who’s this fellow? Who dares to wield a blade in front of a tiger?’

“Sir, they think your blade isn’t swift enough,” he whispered to Sir System.

“I never use a blade,” Sir System replied coolly.

Fang Ning ignored the System’s irrelevant reply and stared at the distance. He wanted to make out who that brazen fellow was.

With Vigilante A’s upgraded vision and hearing ability, he was able to trace the source of the voice despite being a thousand meters away from the foot of the mountain…

He noticed that the voice had came from the Indians’ faction among the humans.

There were three men and two bulls, where one bull had longer horns than the other. A large group of servants and followers accompanied them…

Fang Ning looked closely and realized that, instead of a man, the bull with long horns was the one that talked.

“What do you mean by long and short horns? Those are a bull and a cow, get it?” Sir System jeered.

Fang Ning’s blood was boiling and he did not care about the animals’ genders. He immediately glided down from the mountain peak and stared at the lying — no, the honest bull.

He looked at the bull in the eyes and uttered coldly, “You are only aware that some people received the news earlier. Do you know why it happened to some people instead of others?”

The bull was not intimidated. Instead, it replied sharply, “Hmph, wasn’t it caused by the selfishness of someone who claimed to be fair and righteous?!”

The noise at the foot of the mountain had died down.

In fairness, many forces were disgruntled about this. However, they also understood that this was normal and nothing was fair in this world.

Particularly, when a clash of interests was imminent, it was important to establish boundaries. Whenever a reward was in sight, who would not want it for himself and his allies?

Whether or not a force knew how to play around with double standards was an indication of how mature it was.

If someone was truly fair and square, he was Idiot No. 1.

It was important to understand that when you were the one taking the blame, unrelated people would never donate a single cent to you or defend you.

Obviously, the Venerable Dragon God was no fool. He lived up to his reputation as the “Eastern Pharos” because a pharos always illuminated objects close to itself…

As they said, there were only cases of giving wrong titles but not wrong nicknames. This situation occurred to some pharos nation many years ago.

Fang Ning wanted to punch the bull to death. However, he could not do so as he bore the title of a Hero.

No wonder so many powerhouses became devils. Those who became devils could freely kill anyone who stood in their paths, which was exceptionally tempting.

Thus, he announced coldly, “I honor the orders from the Heavens and the will of the people and I’m fair in delivering rewards and punishment! Instead of living a moral life, some animals only know how to oppress civilians of this nation. They sit on their high horses and live a lavish lifestyle but disregard the poor and the needy. Yet, they expect to be treated fairly like the benevolent ones. How shameless of them!”

Everybody at the foot of the mountain fell silent.

If a regular Joe were to say this, no one would believe him.

However, Vigilante A said this out loud and he could not be rebutted.

After all, the ones who received the low-down regarding the Divine Gate’s opening represented the forces that leaned towards the benevolent side in this Era of Mystery, regardless of China’s Truth Department or the Bodhisattva Spirit King’s Association of Spirit Kings.

At least, they put on a convincing front.

The bull’s eyes were red with anger. Nevertheless, he could only exhale hot breaths incessantly and failed to say a word.

The three representatives of the Indian Trinity, Maram, Sina, and Kamal kept their mouths shut. They had a placid air about them and did not bother to defend the bull, as if they only wanted to witness the ongoing fight.

Everyone saw this and began to whisper amongst themselves.

“Looks like the Indians aren’t as united as we think.”

“Of course, those three are the disciples of the Trinity. The two divine bulls, however, are totem worships born of their land and there’s a huge clash of interest between them. After all, there’s only so much incense that can be offered by India. With the arrival of two more local idols, the share of incense would be thinned out among themselves.”

“I see, this bull wanted to show how fierce he is but got burned. Also, the other Indians will see that these two divine bulls are no more powerful than them.”

“True, that’s the way to win the people’s support. If you can’t do any better, make sure your opponent is worse than you and you’ll win by default…” Some people sneered.

In this respect, the representatives of the Trinity seemed to be much more intelligent than the local divine bull idols.

When the two divine bulls overheard the snide remarks, they became ever more furious. They would have charged towards the mass of people had they not been intimidated by Vigilante A’s reputation of being a wise and formidable figure.

Therefore, they could only brace themselves against the onslaught of jeers and humiliating remarks.

Fang Ning felt a surge of satisfaction as he saw this.

This was reality!

As long as he was powerful and spoke logically, he could let his opponent bear the shame. His opponent was unable to argue with him till the end because doing so would be unreasonable. If his opponent tried to be violent, he would end that person with one hit!

On the contrary, he never encountered such a situation when he played games online. He had never convinced someone with a differing opinion successfully, no matter how logical his arguments were.

Luckily, he had the System to seize him and to pave a smooth-sailing path to success for him, which made him the proud person he was today.

Winning like that was a breeze.

As soon as this idea popped up in Fang Ning’s mind, he quickly concealed it.

“It’s too late, I’ve seen everything. At least you still have a heart and know how to be grateful,” Sir System nagged. “You’d better get some more goodies for me from the reopening of the Divine Gate.”

Fang Ning pretended not to hear the System’s words. After reprimanding the insolent divine bulls, he flew back to the top of the mountain and summoned the Divine Monument.

“Reveal thyself, Divine Monument. Show thyself, Divine List. Open up, Divine Gate…”

“Ascension to the Heavens begins here…”

He recycled the same speech from last time. Much time had passed anyway and most likely no one remembered that, so no one would accuse him of being repetitious…

“Can’t you use some new phrases? So boring,” Sir System whined.

‘Damn, this idiot remembers everything clearly.’

Following that, everyone lifted their heads. All of a sudden, millions of golden light rays radiated from the top of the mountain and a giant, golden gate emerged within the bright light.

A dark fog could be seen beyond the gate. Not an inch of the golden light ray was able to penetrate the fog. It was a completely different phenomenon as compared to the last time.

The people who ascended the Divine Gate last time might not remember what Vigilante A said, but they never forgot the fog beyond the gate.

The ten steps that were clouded by the dense fog could still be seen. The view beyond the ten steps was covered and it could not be seen clearly.

The present scenery bore a stark contrast to that of the past. A number of people began to make comments.

“Eh, Mr. Rich Boss, you did give the wrong speech,” Sir System ridiculed Fang Ning.

“Huh, how come?”

Fang Ning gazed at the sight behind the gate. It was hidden beneath the dismal dark fog and he had no idea about the things that laid beyond the Divine Gate. A feeling of terror surged in his heart.

He quickly telepathized through the Divine Monument. “Baby frog, what’s the matter now?”

The green frog immediately replied, “Axiom Daddy made an update on the functions at the last minute. The Stairway to Heaven still needs to be climbed and it lies beneath the dark fog. The front is the same as last time. The first step is a test of the cultivation of the heart; the second step tests power; the third step tests knowledge, but with a lowered difficulty; the fourth step leads one towards the Realm of Terror. The more powerful one is, the more rewards that can be gained from that realm. In other words, Axiom Daddy won’t dish out rewards freely like the last time.”

“Hmm… Looks like I’m right, the Path of Ascension to Heaven has become a reality. One wrong step and the tester will ascend to Heaven to be a Buddha,” Fang Ning mused.

“Hey, don’t jinx it,” Sir System snorted.

“Nonsense, the baby frog has already stated that the Heavenly Axiom Server updated its functions at the last minute and added a new copy. What does that have to do with me?” Fang Ning snapped back at the System.

Then, he turned to face the dumbfounded people at the bottom of the mountain and announced, “The Stairway to Heaven lies beyond the Divine Gate and within the dark fog. The ones who are wise, brave and courageous will get a chance at climbing the stairs once they pass three steps.”

He would not share the news with unrelated people for free. Ultimately, he was not a generous person to begin with. Due to the constant seizing by Sir System, he was still a regular Joe and he felt angry when someone did him wrong.

He revealed this insider info out of respect to those who worked for the Heavenly Axiom. If a person was genuinely good, he would naturally let Sir System save him when he was in the Realm of Terror. If a person was evil, he had better pray for luck.

After he finished his announcement, he secretly telepathized his allies and told them all about the complete functions.