Seized by the System

“This isn’t happening,” Sir System suddenly hollered, “The Power Limit existed before me. Why is there a need to seal it again?”

“Once upon a time, the Order of Time and Space leaned towards the mysterious side, which brought about the existence of Power Limit and it was, still is, prone to shifting,” The green-skinned frog expounded before Fang Ning could, “At present the Order has moved towards allowing a True-God-level to exist. Under such circumstances, the Sun-lock Formation of the Five Planets is intended by Axiom Daddy to instakill True-God-levels who have the power to wink stars out of existence. This serves as a flexible defense mechanism which could ward off mighty beings that intend to obliterate civilized planets within enchanted boundaries.”

Fang Ning nodded as the frog went. The latter’s elaboration matched his deduction, hence easily agreeable.

He might have erred in his inference before, but he was close to the bone. In fact, the fog of mystery had cleared up that there were very few stones that were yet unturned.

The only concern, however, was whether he could quickly acclimate to this new condition.

“They could’ve come up with something much better than Sun-lock Formation of whatever it is,” Sir System sneered, “Something like Nine Heavens Ten Earths Eight Deserts and Six Harmonies…”

The green-skinned frog went speechless for a moment, and continued, “Axiom Daddy mentioned that he picked a name from the database at random. There were no special meanings attached whatsoever.”

“Whatever. At least that sack of meatball who calls himself Heavenly Axiom contributed something to society. However, this doesn’t change the fact that he is an unscrupulous little twerp and a disowned copycat Batman villain who dared not to show the other…” Sir System was then interrupted by Fang Ning before the former could finish.

“Thank you, Lil’ Frog. We can leave it at that,” Fang Ning said, stopping the obtuse Sir System from sabotaging his relations with Heavenly Axiom which he still wished to maintain.

Heavenly Axiom was not a benevolent figure. Like ruthless monarchs in feudal societies, he was a necessary evil to bring order and peace to dependent country-dwellers.

Fang Ning was educated, he knew who the real enemies were.

The main adversaries for the nonce were rebellious Gods from the Upper Realm who planned to bring mischief upon the land, including those who achieved the Saint Realm.

Their subterfuge and strategic planning helped humans to discover the technology of Vitality Transformation, which provided a base for them to seize vitality from the Lower Realm.

Fang Ning was not convinced that humans could discover and utilize such a remarkable scientific breakthrough in only a few decades.

It seemed to him that humans took the bait thrown by the Gods to keep the Upper Realm in one piece.

The conquests started by those who descended upon this realm were despised as invaders, yet they were not the main threat at this stage.

Take Zhi Nan as an example. He was callous and malevolent, but he desired to call himself a Saint in this world. This aligned his interests with the interests of this realm. The technique to cause a star to become dormant was designed to protect this world.

The qualities of good and evil were irrelevant, his choice of allies was based on ideological leanings.

Such considerations would never be taken into account by the bovine Sir System, neither would he ever learn to do so.

“Alright then, master. I will head back and crash out for now,” The green-skinned frog nodded.

“Sleep tight, we need you tomorrow,” Fang Ning nodded in agreement.

The green-skinned frog morphed into the Divine Monument and squeezed into the forge for a sojourn.

“Among the Divine, Earthly, and Mortal Monuments we have two. I wonder where the last one is,” Sir System suddenly asked.

“I guess we’ll have to twiddle our thumbs until the Sun-lock Formation is tested. That way we’ll earn the privilege to ask the Heavenly Axiom himself. Currently, our soured relationship with him will not get us anywhere,” Fang Ning gave a perfunctory response.

“Do I look like I give a sh*t about the Formation? One hit from me and it will be down in no time, that’ll show him!” Sir System gushed.

“Why don’t you try to compromise?” Fang Ning asked out of curiosity, “That way we can reconcile with the Heavenly Axiom.”

“You are clever but interrupted by moments of stupidity,” Sir System bragged, “I break one Formation, and he’ll make another. Again he will approach me and I will have an opportunity to kick his royal ass.”

Fang Ning looked impassive for a moment and gave a thumbs up, “Great idea.”

Soaring Dragon abruptly showed up and remarked, “An army marches on its stomach. Since I will be contributing a lot tomorrow, you better give me more food.”

The request was met by blank looks of Fang Ning and Sir System.

“I shouldn’t have let you accept divine power and grow sapience. Any more monkey business and I will lock you in the furnace.” Sir System warned.

“Ancient-grade I am. You do that, and you will need experience points of at least a trillion to raise me back into my current standards. Can you afford to do that?” Soaring Dragon crowed.

“Wait a minute, how did you know about experience points?” Fang Ning was surprised.

“I have no idea. I knew it as soon as I gain consciousness,” The Soaring Dragon Sword replied as it somersaulted in midair.

“I see. I think whatever you created knows at least a thing or two about the System Order,” Fang Ning whispered to Sir System as he was relieved.

“Not that big of an issue. The knowledge is useless to it, but it’s asking for food now. Should we give it what it wants?” Sir System mumbled.

“Let me ask something,” Fang Ning continued, “So sword baby, what kind of food do you want? I mean you are just a sword, how do you eat and drink?”

“I need magical energy, and they are my food. With enough of ’em, I could evolve myself and acquire knowledge on more ‘positions’, pun not intended,” Soaring Dragon spoke with confidence, “I can learn the Heavenly Sword Formation, Heavenly Sword Dimension, Shadow Clone Technique, et cetera.”

“Unlike other artifacts by other makers, my creation defies me.” Sir System spoke with indignation.

“A fish rots from the head down,” Fang Ning criticized with sincere conviction, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The father’s a cheapskate, so will the son be. It’s plotting independence by building a nice little nest egg, using your resources.”

“So what do I do? Should I fight with my bare fists from now on? Maybe leveling my Dragon Fist to Ancient-grade instead?” Sir System snarled.

“Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just give in its demands a little, at least it would evolve itself,” Fang Ning consoled, “It might be hard to control with sapience, but its power has endless potential. It’s not often you get a second bite at the cherry.”

“Listen here you little sh*t, just how much energy you want?” Sir System compromised.

“I simply require three magical bubbles from Death,” the Sword demanded.

“No.”

“One bubble.”

“Not gonna happen,” Sir System bartered.

“Then do your best tomorrow, alone.”

“Half. I’ll give you half a bubble. Also, damn you.”

“We have a deal.”