Seized by the System

After a three-day-long reunion with his family, Fang Ning was back in good spirits, and he poured his heart and soul back into work.

The path to divinity was just in front of him. This made his good mood, and he was also particularly motivated.

He asked Tom the black tiger along to the HQ of the Truth Department, which was situated in the Land of Heritage, for a formal discussion with Old Ren about expanding the growing of Yin Attributed medicinal plants.

Tom sprawled on the floor morosely. To him, a whole lot of problems would spring up after growing plants outdoors.

It knew clearly how complicated the surroundings here were, with their abundance of spirits, devils and all. How could it match up to the simplicity of everything back in Morality City?

If it was bored, it could even run to the city and tease some of the felines. In the outdoors, there was nothing like that. Now, the cats outdoors were all strays; not only were they fierce, but they could also carry various types of mutated bacteria.

It was not diligent in the eyes of most cats. Saying that he was lazy was more accurate.

On the contrary, the gray ant was pumped. It had convened a group of its descendants, and they climbed all over and between the black tiger’s rear and head, seemingly singing and dancing.

With more land, the ant could birth more descendants. This was good news to the diligent ants.

In their short lives, there were few moments when they embodied the concepts of relaxing and slacking off.

“The Venerable One’s suggestions from the past few days were astute. Although the Shadow Spirit General is now dead, there are still countless of unbridled spirits and monsters roaming everywhere, and they are still breeding nonstop. With our current defensive power, we cannot cover everywhere in the plots and grounds like before. We can only pick the most pertinent spots to focus our power on. The other plots can be used to plant medicinal plants that aren’t affected by spirits,” Ren Ruofeng said. “In these few days, I’ve already sorted out all the locations required. I’ll pass on everything to this Brother Spirit Tiger later.”

“Mm. Good. Thompson, you and Little Gray here will start working immediately on the restoration,” Fang Ning delegated some instructions to them. Later, he casually asked, “Has Old Qiao resurrected?”

Ren Ruofeng complained, “Now we’re prepared for everything save for the last step. The Bodhisattva is still stuck in the World of Spirits and hasn’t returned yet. What should we do?”

Ren Ruofeng had wanted to press this matter by then, but he thought it would not be appropriate as the Venerable One was busy killing devils. Today, as the other inquired on the matter voluntarily, he found it the right time to raise his question.

“Oh, I see. I’ll try to contact him and ask when he’s going to return,” Fang Ning said courteously.

Deep in his heart, he had also hoped that Old Qiao could resurrect earlier, as this would lessen his stress.

Now, the problem was not that Sir System was short on monsters to farm, but it simply did not have the ability to farm more. In the System’s current level, farming monsters for a century would not even hold a candle to that instantaneous strike just now.

This was how leveling up in the gaming system was special. After advancing to the later stages, the monsters from lower levels were no longer suitable, as killing them was simply inefficient.

It was only a system like him that would never find it tiring. A player himself would have been tired of it way earlier.

“If this is so, then I thank you, Venerable One.” Ren Ruofeng was overjoyed. With Qiao Anping out of commission, he had already felt dissent brewing in the Truth Department as many got ready to oust him from his position with force.

He, as a tactician, had been busy planning and strategizing throughout the year, and so his Cultivation Base had not leveled up. Quite a few young people had highly surpassed him.

Moreover, in the world of cultivation, the people with higher cultivation bases looked down on those without, like how adults always looked at children with some degree of disdain.

Recently Ren Ruofeng had felt that disdain when he gathered up the young teammates for a mission assignment. They had looked at him with a vague sense of resistance.

If he had not had so much support behind him and if they had not just learned a lesson from the debacle in the World of Spirits… Ren Ruofeng would have the reason to believe that they would have chosen to snatch his power from him.

However, those young men were too young. They did not know that there were many kinds of power in this world, and that wisdom was one of the most powerful.

Fang Ning did not know what Ren Ruofeng was thinking about. He only contacted the Green-skinned Frog in secret and asked it to transfer the call to the Bodhisattva Spirit King.

A few minutes later, the Green-skinned Frog transferred his words to Fang Ning. “Master, the Bodhisattva is currently converting a Spirit General. The Spirit General is inherently good, and according to the Bodhisattva, he will be the only way to transform the chaotic essence of the World of Spirits. Also, he’s searching for materials for a treasure of his. He’ll return to Earth in approximately ten days’ time.”

Fang Ning relayed the above to Ren Ruofeng, and the latter relaxed a little. All of it could wait for ten days.

After this was solved, Fang Ning asked Tom the black tiger to stay behind and start on production on the abandoned plots as soon as possible.

…

After the discussion, Fang Ning left the office building of the Truth Department. He had wanted to leave the Land, but then his interest was piqued when he looked upwards and saw the buildings that were arranged orderly.

How was the new life of humans in those buildings?

He thought for a while, assumed invisibility, randomly chose a building and walked towards it.

This building that he chose was over 200 stories tall and was as wide as a soccer field.

When he looked upwards, he had to stretch his neck to see the highest end.

In front of the building, there was an esplanade blanketed by greenery. There were several passers-by in the square, all of them in a hurry. Some elderly people were playing chess and chatting nearby.

Fang Ning passed by the square and walked to the entrance. There was a security kiosk in front, and everyone who went in or out the gate needed to swipe their cards.

“You have three more times to exit the building.” As the voice spoke, an old man swiped his card, hobbled out from the building into the square, found his companions there and started to chat.

Fang Ning entered the building while invisible. His presence did not sound the alarm, so it was made evident that the security could not ward powerhouses off and could only be used to manage the civilians.

As he walked into the building, a spacious hall welcomed him. A floor plan of the building was directly across the entrance along with a row of advertising columns.

On the columns there displayed six words in bright red — “Cultivation Is Glorious, Laziness Is Shameful”.

“Eh, isn’t this talking about you?” Sir System suddenly popped out to snark at him.

“F*ck off…” Fang Ning said calmly.

Then, he walked to the floor plan and read it meticulously.

“There are 264 stories in the building, Residences for normal civilians are on floors 1-30, floor 31-100 is for beginners in cultivation. Cultivators graded under Pond-level are all considered as beginners. Floors 101-200 are for cultivators above Pond-level, while floor 201 and above are reserved.”

“The living area of normal civilians is 100 square meters. There are three rooms and a hall in a house for five people.”

“Cultivation beginners enjoy a unit with four rooms and two halls each. Suites are provided for families. Every floor has an exclusive recreation area with more than 1000 square meters.”

“Cultivators on Pond-level and above enjoy a huge, customized space that is equipped with exclusive rooms such as cultivation rooms…”

Fang Ning only had a thought after reading through the plan. Rooms were assigned completely based on power and cultivation bases and units that were on higher floors were unattainable otherwise even if you had money.

“Eh, millionaire, judging from your cultivation base, shouldn’t they give us an entire building if we moved in…’ Sir System said gleefully.

“Yes, your ego is too big. How could we fit in that in a single building? We’ll need ten of them,” Fang Ning scorned.

“Hmph, it’s not as humongous as yours.” Sir System fumed.

From where Fang Ning was at, he saw a family of three enter the hall from outside the building and walked towards the elevators on the right.

The family — two adults and a little girl — chatted as they walked.

He tailed them on instinct.

The little girl was speaking to her parents with an air of innocence.

“Dad, dad, Xiao Ying from the Wangs next door said that they’re going to move to the 31st floor next Sunday. When are we going to move too?” she asked.

The man’s expression showed his embarrassment. He placated his child, saying, “Our house now is good enough, is it not?”

“Not at all. We have to come down to play every time. I heard Xiao Ying say that the floors above 30 have all sorts of gyms and playgrounds, unlike us who need to come down every time to play.” The little girl pouted.

“That’s it. A good-for-nothing piece of garbage like your father can never in his life advance beyond the 30th floor!” In a sudden, the woman beside them interrupted the girl impatiently.

“What, what do you want? Talking about this in front of the kid?” The man’s shame had somewhat morphed into anger.

“Huh, if you don’t have the guts to hear it, then please put your mind on cultivation! Mr. Wang next door wasn’t better when you were in school, but now he’s already on the second transformation, and you’re not even a beginner! How dare you raise your temper at me?” The woman suddenly raged.

Bored by the family drama, Fang Ning directly walked into the lift.

“Look, this is the result of marriage!” Sir System laughed without an ounce of sympathy. “Now you know why marriage and childbirth rates are decreasing by the day. Getting married is one more step to the grave — being single is the best thing ever.”

“Best, your ass. You, system, have some twisted morals,” Fang Ning said, speechless.

“That’s the truth. It’s not I that have twisted morals. If I’m not here, the most you can do is wed a feisty woman like her. How would an obedient, demure lady like Liu Yao date you? Let me see if you still want to marry by then!” Sir System said righteously.

“…” Fang Ning had nothing to say to that, so he could only sink into silence.