Seized by the System

The Japanese Archipelago.

At a corner within a huge crypt, there were many greyish white polymers resembling human brains being formed.

The God of Plagues was fiddling with those greyish white living things, which were being aggregated into individual human brains.

Each brain was hundreds of meters in circumference and they were numerous. After thousands and millions of evolutions, no living being had ever possessed such huge brains.

There were many greyish white silk lines connecting theses brains.

There were light flashes on these silk lines, giving them a mysterious and strange look, much like something seen in a science fiction story.

If an outsider had witnessed this, they would be sure to get scared dumbfounded.

“All we need is to accumulate eighty-one of these living brains for the biological computer to finally form in order to deduce the Heavenly Axiom of this world,” the God of Plagues could not help admiring his work.

“Why must it be eighty-one of them? Does using a biological computer with humankind’s technology require a pole number of the path?” The Moon Goddess looked up at this scene with curiosity.

“It’s nothing, just a habit from before. Actually, eighty or eighty-two would not be a problem as well…” The God of Plagues replied simply.

“…” The Moon Goddess had no reply to this.

“Oh, one more thing. This might be useful for both of us. The inheritance of the Culinary God has started,” The Moon Goddess paused a moment before she suddenly brought this up.

“Oh, he’s just a minor god, there’s not much value in his inheritance, which is nothing but culinary matters. It’s pretty boring. If it was about inheriting the Land of Heritage left by those mysterious beings, I’d be interested. Unfortunately, we missed the opportunity,” the God of Plagues was not at all concerned and continued admiring his work.

“I did hear of a secret, that the Culinary God did not fall but had hidden his spirit within an illuminated artifact which will descend into this world via the Land of Heritage,” the Moon Goddess suddenly said.

“You are truly a disciple of the sages; you are indeed well-informed. Lowly gods such as us cannot compare. If there was a god’s spirit that is able to become the core of this biological computer, its power will increase tenfold and will probably possess many mysterious abilities,” the God of Plagues’ eyes lit up at her words.

“This is the reason I am revealing this secret,” said the Moon Goddess casually.

“Hoho, then I must really thank you. If the spirit of the Culinary God is able to meld with this biological computer, there will be a higher chance of me restoring my place in the future,” the God of Plague was delighted.

“The Land of Culinary is currently being developed, but it will only last for a moment. In order to pass on his inheritance, I believe the Culinary God’s soul would not leave the realm. This will be our only chance,” the Moon Goddess said lightly.

“I’ll leave for the land immediately. Do help me take care of this place, Moon Goddess,” the God of Plagues did not ask for the way to enter the Land of Culinary. Obviously, he was already aware of how to get in.

He is, after all, a god. Mortals would need the Heavenly Axiom to announce certain matters but gods did not need it.

The God of Plagues disappeared from the crypt.

After a while, the Moon Goddess lifted her head to look at the squirming big brains and suddenly reached out to touch them. A white light flashed on one of the big brains and disappeared.

How would she not be tempted after listening to the God of Plagues boasting about its greatness?

There was no such thing as ‘friends’ between gods…

…

At the Underground Greater Rat Kingdom.

The whole city was under curfew. All members who were of not of important positions were instructed to take a month’s leave and to give prayers and incense to the clan temples in their residential areas on a daily basis.

Clan temples were located in the middle of the neighborhood and took up quite some space, which were usually as big as a park.

The temples worshipped the statues of ancestors. There was the statue of the current king, as well as the tablets of greater rats who had died upon descending. There was also the worship of heaven and earth. Other than that, there were no other gods.

Based on this, one can see that they were quite similar to China, which was above ground.

They were practical, worshipping whoever they were indebted to. As for those illusory gods, not many were being worshipped.

A group of people had just returned from worshipping at the clan temple and were chatting on the benches at the temple grounds.

They were well dressed and spoke eloquently, they wore suits and had cologne on. There were no signs at all that they were demons. They looked exactly like small-time white-collar office workers in the city.

Only cultivators were able to tell from the demonic energy emanating from them that they were not human beings.

They were unlike inferior demons from myths and fairy tales. Each one of them looked confident and full of spirit.

“Hopefully one day, we could also enter this clan temple to be worshipped,” a young man with glasses said enviously.

“If we work hard, there will be a day,” someone at his side encouraged him.

“Sigh, recent online news has been reporting on human beings panicking. Not many are willing to work and many are living in a drunken stupor. They’ve really affected me and I’ve recently lost my drive,” the bespectacled rat demon shook his head.

“There are those who are in a drunken stupor but those aren’t the majority. There are still many making preparations for future migration. Grains and vegetables, oxygen and energy, a reserve of all these items need to be prepared, there are many things to be done. I heard that there is now no concept of ‘unemployment’ among humans. As long as you are mobile, you will be rounded up for work. There is now no rest day for them, and it seems like they will be more tired than we are. Those benefits they have that we’ve always heard about have also been cut down tremendously. Those who are mobile but not doing work are being forcefully reformed.”

“Yeah, ever since the new king sat on the throne, we’ve finally had the concept of rest. These few months have been quite easy on us, there is even better efficiency at work. If our ancestors were able to witness this, they would probably be greatly comforted,” the bespectacled rat nodded.

While they were chatting, they did not notice two people in front of them.

There was an old man and a young man, who passed them by in invisible mode.

“Master, are you comforted?” Nie Yuan asked with an ulterior motive.

“…” Elder Ancestor Bai said nothing, but his eyes had a cold look.

This was how it is, no matter how tolerant one would be, when there was a comparison between the old and new king, one would be bound to feel unhappy.

This had nothing to do with virtue, but with basic instinct.

It looked like Bai Shixin’s good days would be over soon, Nie Yuan thought to himself.

There was no way the elder ancestor would let someone easily have the foundation that he had worked so hard to build.

Just by looking at the statues being worshipped in the temple and one would be aware that the elder would be able to tolerate it if the other person did not put up his own statue in there.

Now, he was sharing the offerings with the elder ancestor, that was looking for death.

However, it would not do as well if he did not place his own statue in there.

If Bai Shixin did not do it, he would not get anything from this newly created clan during a time when offerings and incense were at its most valuable. He would not be able to surpass the elder ancestor.

This was different from the feudal dynasty above ground where emperors did not enter the temples while they were alive. They would only appear in temples after death.

That was because it made no difference to them when offerings and incensed were offered up to them. Even after death, it was of no use to them. They could not enjoy anything no matter how much offering and incense were given to them.

If there were any gods or spirits that had appeared in the past, these rulers will force their subjects to build them places of worship.

There was no reconciling their own contradiction.

Both sides had the same stand when it came to the Greater Rat Clan, they would not be destroying each other anytime soon.

However, when it came to sharing offerings and incense, they were often at loggerheads. One more for you meant one less for me.