Seized by the System

The American representative, a dark-skinned man, was stunned by the display.

He stole a glance at the crowd and murmured to himself, “Luckily I didn’t include that damned son of the Heaven. Hopefully, Chief Hook’s choice wouldn’t disappoint.”

Among the crowd, the man mentioned by the American representative was holding his young and beautiful girlfriend as he marveled at the gate.

“So this is the Divine Gate. It’s definitely difficult to climb. The bear might be fine staying in there for half a year, but too bad for that Indian beauty. The Heavenly Edict said that the Divine Gate will open for a month so she will be famished the entire time. What a sad thing, she must look frail and no longer beautiful,” said William.

His uncle, Robert, was stunned. “William, what did you see?”

“Mm, it’s easy. The first step must be a trial for the psyche. I’m guessing that once anyone steps on there, they would be transported into an illusion,” said William confidently. He explained, “The beauty must have thought she had succeeded in climbing the nine steps under her god’s help, so she was praying to thank her god. The bear, on the other hand, must have thought it had already passed, so it continued sleeping.”

“That makes sense,” Robert realized as he nodded in agreement.

His nephew’s words were sensible and logical, so it should be the truth.

“How do we break through something like that?” he asked subconsciously.

“When you’re honest to yourself, no one in this world would be able to deceive you,” said William profoundly.

“That’s good,” said Robert thoughtfully before asking, “Looks like the bear and the lady had yet to find themselves. That’s why they were in the illusion. Where could we find someone who is completely honest with themselves?”

William shrugged, his gaze tilting up toward the sky. “He’s right in front of you.”

“Hm, if it were the hero, it might be okay. However, he can’t possibly enter the Divine Gate now.” Robert had some ideas.

Not long after, a meek voice called out.

“Can, can I try?”

The four major forces—humans, demons, ghosts, and spirits— turned toward the voice.

An octopus appeared several hundred meters away from the Divine Gate, enclosed in a layer of water bubble, as it waved its limbs around.

A Chinese staff ran ahead to ask, “Who are you representing?”

“The Sea Creatures, of course…” Twelve Arms said.

“There is no option for Sea Creatures, the only options are Humans, Demons, Ghosts, and Devils. There are some minor, minor forces, but you wouldn’t have heard of them anyway. Come and choose a clan to represent, and then you would be able to have a tryout.”

“A sea creature that’s not even a Pond-level wanted to lead a whole clan? What a joke.” A wolf demon smirked.

“That’s right. He has to have some power, or he’ll turn into a dried octopus in this high an altitude.” Another wolf demon agreed.

“Little octopus, you’re a demon as well, so why don’t you join the Demons? When the demons of the Upper Realm arrived, they might even hire you as a circus act performer based on the arms you have.” Several other demons laughed.

Twelve Arms made its way onto the table, blushing. It grabbed a pen with one of its limbs and registered its name.

In the space that indicated for it to write its clan, it paused momentarily right before it wrote anything down, seemingly thought of something, and wrote in a neat font.

The staff was startled and read it out loud subconsciously, “Octopus Clan?”

A new line appeared on the Divine Gate.

“Octopuses, 0 entered, 10 remaining, ascension progress 0.”

“What? It’s just a multiple-legged monster of the sea. If it can lead a clan on its own, doesn’t that mean it’s at a similar standing to humans?”

In that instance, the crowd boiled with confusion.

“Silence! Twelve Arms, you can enter now,” urged the Azure Dragon above the Divine Gate.

Fang Ning was deep in his worry. “Maybe the Octopuses are the third clan on the list. After all, they’ve got potential, so the Heavenly Axiom could definitely pick them.”

The octopuses had had great learning ability and were one of the highly-intelligent animals with each of their eight limbs having separate minds of their own.

In the future, one octopus might be able to take over the job of nine people, so its potential was limitless.

Even in their age of ignorance, they were able to learn to use tools to create their own resting spot. That was a feat many other animals were not able to achieve.

“What are you worried about? It’s so obedient to what the battered book said. Even the pill you gave it, it wanted to give to the book,” said the System enviously.

“Hey, that’s right. Maybe we can even…” Fang Ning did not continue his train of thought.

At this moment, Twelve Arms had arrived in front of the Divine Gate.

It looked up at the gate and headed in without hesitation.

The gaze of the public immediately focused on it.

‘Can it really go past the first step?’

Murmurs passed around, saying, “Look at its dumb, honest look, it might be able to get through it.”

“That’s right, isn’t it the same anywhere else? The more honest someone looks, the more possible that they are the protagonist. Perhaps this octopus is our protagonist today.”

“Mm-hmm, I think so too.”

The scene that followed the first bit seemed to have proven that to be true.

Twelve Arms crawled onto the first step then turned around. It was as if it was also in confusion.

However, soon after that, it reached up with one of its limbs.

The strong limb that was covered with white suckers latched onto the smooth step as it pulled its body up.

A wave of squeals washed over the mass.

“Look, it’s getting up, it’s advancing!”

“Yeah, I can’t believe a tiny octopus of the sea could achieve something even the strong spirit bear and one of the spokespeople of the Indian gods couldn’t!”

“Unbelievable, could it be carrying the will of Heavens itself?”

“I’m so jealous. The benefits must be humongous to get to step onto the stairway,” someone blurted out with green eyes.

However, what followed had stunned people again.

Twelve Arms reached out with a new limb and wanted to increase its force pulling upward, but the new limb turned around in mid-air and stuck itself on the frame of the Divine Gate.

Hence, everyone witnessed the gag of two octopus limbs having a tug-of-war with its body being the center point.

One wanted to go up, the other wanted to go home…

Twelve Arms was confused at first, but it immediately expressed its helplessness in its huge dark eyes.

“Uh, it is destined to have a constant tug-of-war.” Fang Ning could relate to Twelve Arms.

“Hehe, that’s what happens when you have so many minds…” The System did not hide its schadenfreude.

“That’s right. I have only you sharing a body with me, and you already made many of my decisions for me. It has twelve limbs, each moving on their own accord, I couldn’t even fathom how much it must struggle. Needless to say, the second limb must have been affected by the illusion. It must think it had completed its mission and can go back to bed, so it wanted to get out.”

Having heard William’s analysis, Fang Ning immediately copied it as his own.

“The Divine Gate was such a difficult climb. I expected many of them to climb at least three or four steps before hitting a difficult point. I can’t believe so many have been stumped in the first step itself.” The System was surprised.

“Hmph, the predecessor of the Heavenly Axiom, Mother Nature was someone cold and unfeeling, it would never spare any leniency to anyone. Even if you’re a nice, honest man, you’d be eliminated as long as you don’t meet the requirement for life.”

Fang Ning said, “Axiom Daddy must have inherited that trait, and it would only be stricter. Only by being stricter to themselves can they come out victorious. So, Sir System, you have to avoid being proud and impatient and continue to work hard.”

“You’re right, Billionaire Host. Looks like I have to knock on the temple block every day at 6 a.m., I can’t let you have your beauty sleep anymore,” the System said.

System Notification: [The System saw through the Host’s lies and successfully countered.]

Fang Ning yelled, “What bullshit notifications are these. Tell me honestly, did you make these up to play me?”

“Uh,” The System stumbled on its words, “these are system notifications. I only added a little bit of what I wanted to say in it…”

“You bastard, no wonder I felt like the system notifications are getting weirder and weirder.” Fang Ning immediately scolded it, “Don’t add random stuff in the future. I want the original notifications, not your customized ones. You’ll interrupt my judgments, you know that?”

“Oh, I understand now,” admitted the System.

At this time, words appeared on the gate again.

“Octopuses, 1 entered, 9 remaining, ascension progress 0.”

The news of the three creatures that entered the gate to climb the stairway had spread swiftly.

In mid-air around the Divine Gate, living beings gathered and kept accumulating.

They came with all sort of floating paraphernalia.

There were clouds, flying carpets, flying boats, flying swords…

There were also some helicopters from the science-based community. Of course, those were almost-cheating, so the people inside had been wearing their masks to avoid being recognized…

All the creatures began to whisper and discuss among themselves.

“I can’t believe the honest-looking octopus would be stuck on the first step. How can people survive this?”

“Actually, it almost passed if it weren’t for its own legs pulling themselves…”

“That’s right too. What a waste of effort. It looks like it might even be endangered.”

“That’s right. If this tug-of-war kept on going, it would be split in half. Too bad for the potent octopus.”

Fang Ning just wanted to laugh.

‘How could it split it in half?

‘Back then, Twelve Arms was pulled by twelve octopus leaders, it had no problem…’

With three failed attempts, who would be the first being to pass the first step?