I Hate Systems

Forbidden Tale!

“W-What the heck is…aaarghhh!” Fenn bellowed in pain as mysterious words echoed in his ears, nonstop. Even when he closed his eyes, the sound produced by the mouths at the end of the tentacles only raised their frequency to penetrate his hands and reverberate his eardrums.

A thin thread approached Fenn’s left eye, taking advantage of his momentary confusion due to pain to slide between the eyeball and the eyelid, creating a layer that glowed faintly.

And displayed on it, glowing softly were words forming the Forbidden Tale. In his vision, it was as if a wall was hanging before him, displaying a set of words constantly. After all, this layer was transparent, just like a contact lens.

Whether Fenn had his eyes closed or open, the Forbidden Tale’s words were always registered in his mind. On the right eye, the transparent layer between the eyelid and the eyeball displayed Compass Carburettor’s picture, engraving the details in his brain.

And of course, the same was also echoing in his ears as Fenn screamed in pain, unable to escape from this. No matter what he did, his Garuda failed to budge from the spot.

Moreover, the threads had already wound him into a cocoon, preventing him from running away, unable to even shout after a few seconds had passed as he was gagged.

“…” Duketace didn’t state anything, just shuddering in fear at the sight before him, ‘What sort of monster did I release?’

Ever since Pilkan lost his legs, he seemed to have changed, gradually cutting off more and more of his body to replace them with Mental Fragment constructs. Eventually, everything except the brain had already been swapped out.

Currently, Compass Carburettor would only be alive for one more day in the current state, for his Mental Fragment body wasn’t able to provide the nutrients necessary for his brain to function for long.

A day was all that he had left. That was why he asked Duketace to bring him here, intending to deal with Fenn. After all, the final piece of the puzzle lay with Fenn.

‘What the heck is this?’ Fenn thought while staring at the figure of Compass Carburettor that gradually formed before him, taking shape after a couple of seconds had passed.

‘Wait, is that mom?’ His eyes widened in shock before thinking otherwise, ‘No, that’s not mother. She’s someone else, and only shares similarities to mom.’

A lady appeared before him, smiling as she took a step forward before her body collapsed.

“Hah!” As Fenn stared in confusion, a sign resounded before the Mental Fragments created the figure of Pilkan that was stable.

Pilkan took a step forward, not crumbling like before as he muttered, “It seems the powers of the Spirit Morph Crystal are necessary to complete my power accumulation here.”

“Y-You…” Fenn shouted when the gag covered his mouth, ‘You’ll never obtain it!’

“We’ll see about that.” Compass Carburettor smiled as he observed starlight flickering in and out of Fenn’s eyes from time to time. He was forcefully making the other party become aware of the existence of the Main Character System.

“You know…” Compass Carburettor smiled as over a dozen mouths formed next to Fenn’s ears, muttering at the same time, “I am the protagonist of this world.”

“Everything revolves around me.”

The starlight flickering in Fenn’s eyes only strengthened in response as Compass Carburettor smiled at the result. He then stared up, frowning upon seeing fate and luck gradually move in ways to counter him.

He lifted Fenn and stared at Duketace, “Let’s return.”

“No!” Staring at this scene from halfway up the nearby mountain was Larna, screaming in horror as she watched Fenn getting carried away, trapped by the scary foe.

The moment she glared at that scary foe, the other party stared in her direction, alarming her.

“Hmm?” Compass Carburettor frowned before his eyes lit up as he stared at Fenn in surprise, “I see, quite the ambitious plan you have too.”

“He does?” Duketace asked in surprise, “I thought he was just hiding here to cultivate in peace.”

“No, his conquest begins right after he becomes an Ascender. That’s why we targeted him today when he’s the most vulnerable.” Compass Carburettor said, facing his hand towards Larna as it suddenly wriggled to expand rapidly into a stream that rushed at her.

“Kyak!” Screaming in fright, Larna was just about to use her Invoked Spirit to defend against the attack. But upon recalling how Fenn’s Invoked Spirit failed to move after coming in contact with this weird mass, her mind spun into overdrive.

Larna brought out her Garuda, making it uproot a tree nearby and throw it with all its might at the approaching stream of gooey mass. The collision impeded the gooey mass’s approach as the Garuda picked her up and took flight, rapidly flying in the other direction.

“I’ll catch her, my Lord. Give me a few seconds…” Duketace was just about to turn around and give chase when Compass Carburettor stopped him.

“No, keep going.” Compass Carburettor paled in response, urging Duketace to move, ‘Crap, crap, crap! It seems I’ve pissed off this world’s fate by targeting Fenn.’

Honestly, Fenn’s fate was stronger than Duketace, Kowla, and Sturrala combined, despite the latter three already being Ascenders.

It was because his potential was just that enormous, capable of changing the entire world in the future. Whenever he targeted those blessed by fate, the world retaliated accordingly.

Therefore, if he remained in the same location for more than a few minutes, Compass Carburettor would be struck down by lightning or encounter some other natural disaster.

Boom!

Thunder rumbled in the sky while Fenn continued to scream in pain. Duketace flew at his top speed, staring at the sky as he understood the reason Compass Carburettor wanted to escape first.

This happened a few times already. And in those times, he carried Pilkan and went to other regions at top speed, evading the disaster brewing at the place.

Even if the world wished to dispose of Compass Carburettor, it couldn’t just cause calamities anywhere it pleased. Only in locations where it was possible was it able to unleash them.

As an undeveloped world, it didn’t have the means to deal with invaders other than hitting them with lightning bolts from time to time.

Boom!

A bolt of lightning slammed into the eagle, defended by a small plate that was formed using Mental Fragments sourced through living beings regarding memories and experiences related to lightning.

The lightning failed to break past the defences, only causing the small plate to glow indigo as Compass Carburettor stared at the sky, noticing that the attacks had just started, ‘Thankfully, I didn’t target that woman too. Disturbing the fate of both would trigger a retaliation beyond what I can currently handle.’

The lightning bolts continued to attack them as Compass Carburettor created shields one after another to defend against them while the metallic eagle soon left the forest area. Beyond that, the lightning stopped targeting them.

Once they left the region, Compass Carburettor stared at the sky, observing the disturbances of fate as he said, “We’ll stop and calm here for two hours.”

“Two hours?” Duketace was surprised.

“Yeah, there wouldn’t be any disasters here for the next two hours.” Compass Carburettor said, staring at Fenn, “That’s a good window of time to finish our work.”

He then looked at Duketace, “Will you be saddened at the loss of a son?”

“Not really, no.” Duketace shook his head, “Even just now, Fenn was ready to kill me if I proved a hindrance to his life. And he abandoned me in the first place.”

“I don’t hold a grudge at him, but there’s no emotional attachment either.”

“Then it should be alright.” Compass Carburettor nodded, watching the starlight seeping out of Fenn continue to strengthen as he was force-fed information regarding the Main Character System.

Just gaining knowledge regarding a System was enough to form it in your mind. Compass Carburettor used the Forbidden Tale only because it also targeted the power system, taking root within both the Dreamland and Invoked Spirit.

Meaning, when he absorbed the Main Character System fragment from them, he would also absorb the powers they had gained.

But as he was in a hurry, he couldn’t wait until Fenn comprehended the Forbidden Tale, instead supplying him with all information regarding the Main Character System to hurriedly grow a large enough fragment in his mind.

And that was displayed by the strength of the Mental Energy stream he unleashed while staring at Compass Carburettor. Through that, Compass Carburettor judged the development of the fragment within his mind, nodding when two hours were almost up, “Okay, it’s big enough now.”

“Goodbye, Fenn.” He said, twisting the other party’s neck to kill him. Mist filled the region as Compass Carburettor absorbed both the Garuda and the Mental Fragments originating from his corpse, taking mere seconds to absorb everything.

He then stared at the tiny blob that exited his body, beginning to dissipate naturally when in contact with the external environment.

He stretched his hand and touched the blob, absorbing it into his body. It was the Main Character System fragment growing in Fenn. And by absorbing it, he stole the entirety of the power that Fenn had cultivated until now, turning the power of the Spirit Morph Crystal into something inherent to the Main Character System fragment he just absorbed.

This was how Systems stole power from the native worlds.