Seized by the System

Vigilante A, who was waiting in midair, was even more annoyed than Tom the Black Cat.

The System said, “Host, is your Obsession working fine, why haven’t they turned red? Is it because you are living too carefree and didn’t feel threatened for a while now, so your ability’s also worsened?”

Fang Ning refuted the System, “Stop accusing me. I don’t feel threatened by these Bucket-level monsters because my power has improved. I am no longer afraid of them, so do you realize how strong I am now?”

The System replied, “I don’t want to know… All I want to know is when are you going to make them turn red?”

Fang Ning looked downwards through the System and was speechless, “I’m never going to feel threatened when they looked like they are going to host a summer sports festival on the beach…”

At that moment, ten thousand noisy octopuses had started to split into twelve different uneven groups and formed a larger circle.

Twelve strongest looking octopuses walked out from each group. They looked like their respective leaders.

The twelve of them started waving their long tentacles and was making a “kaka” voice from their mouth like something was knocking on each other. Their voices were loud and sharp, even Vigilante A, who was floating hundreds of meters above the ground, heard them clearly. However, Fang Ning had no idea what they were talking about.

“Sir, do you have any idea what they are saying?” Fang Ning asked curiously.

The System replied, “Kaka, kaka, kakaka, ka…”

“What the, are you acting dumb again?” Fang Ning was not amused.

The System replied, “This is their language.”

Fang Ning ignored that stupid System. He yelled towards the Draconic Penitentiary as his final hope, “Anderson, look at the broadcast. Can you hear what the octopuses are talking from their voices?”

Anderson replied immediately, “As you wish, your Excellency. They are saying that through a tug-of-war competition, they will decide who is worthy enough to be the first octopus to enter this rich city and take away the best treasure…”

Fang Ning said joyfully, “You understood them?”

Anderson replied, “They are using a type of Morse Code taught to them by Tom the Black Cat years ago.”

Fang Ning was impressed, ‘Such a genius. They understood it after hearing it just once.’

He suddenly thought of something. On the surface, the black cat acted like it was trying to maintain the balance of power from all the major forces through its position in the Global Power Balance Association. However, it was actually spreading rumors around the world to start a war between extraordinaires.

From the report gathered by Anderson, he knew that the black cat was trying to gather Death Energy for its leader, Death.

Death Energy was not the same as Fear Energy. The latter originated from the faith of the civilians.

Death Energy gathered its power from the Path of Death.

So long as death occurs, those who were on the Path of Death would be able to obtain more power. That was like the Path of Heavenly Punishment, which its followers gathered their strength from serving justice.

However, they both had high requirements… normal people would never have the chance to follow these paths.

Fang Ning thought about it and said to Sir System, “I’m afraid that Tom the Black Cat is taking advantage of us. Sir, if you go on and kill those monsters, death will surely occur, and it would obtain more Death Energy. Maybe these octopuses are part of its plan after it became aware of the benefits from previous encounters.”

The System replied, “What? So that black cat is planning to gain more power through me. I will need to teach it a lesson.”

Fang Ning said, “Yes, we need to really punish this troublesome cat. Previously, it was responsible for manipulating the Mahabrahma into sending out that four-headed snake monster to attack us. In theory, it was our enemy.”

The System replied, “Oh, Richman Host, you misunderstood me. What I meant by teaching it a lesson… is to get some money from it. I will use the price of one Vitality Nurturing Pill as the baseline for my calculation. It will need to pay me according to how much Power of Death it obtained through me…”

Fang Ning finally understood its meaning of “teaching a lesson”. He was mind-blown and said, “Are you still the righteous System? This black cat isn’t a good guy. We need to get rid of it immediately.”

The System replied, “Oh, that’s also right. Let me just patrol the surroundings.”

…

Huang Rui saw Vigilante A flying slowly towards the upper area of the city and was looking at something downwards.

He quickly alerted the black cat, “Master Tom, Vigilante A is up to something.”

“Yes, I saw it already. Let me perform my spells,” Tom the Black Cat murmured something, and suddenly, a deep and dark fog appeared and covered both the cat and Huang Rui.

“Find a place and hide,” it immediately jumped below a big rock after it finished talking.

“What about your altar? Aren’t you going to hide it using the Death’s Shadow Disguise?” Huang Rui hid beside Tom and asked worriedly.

Tom the Black Cat replied, “That spell uses too much Death Energy, so I can’t perform it whenever I like. You don’t have to worry about the safety of the altar. That Altar of Death is a powerful item. I am the Spokesperson of Death, I can make that altar visible to whoever I want. Both you and Maggie can see it, but not Vigilante A.

“The Path of Heavenly Punishment that he is on is not stronger than the Path of Death practiced by our Lord Death. His Heaven’s Eye can see through thousands of meters beneath the ground to the magma level, but he will never be able to see the Altar of Death… Besides, even if he can, the Path of Heavenly Punishment forbids him from taking it. I never heard him stealing stuff from others.”

“Master, you are…” Huang Rui said respectfully.

However, before he finished his sentence, he was stunned.

Tom the Black Cat was listening to him praising it, and said, “Why did you stop…”

“Master, your altar. Someone flew past it and I can’t see it anymore…”

He rubbed his eyes and said cautiously, “Master, did you just strip my permission?”

Tom the Black Cat turned and looked. The altar, which was a wolf’s head on a human body, had disappeared.

It was shocked to its core before it realized what happened and scolded, “I didn’t remove your permission… Damn it, Vigilante A! He stole my altar. He’s a horrible person who deserves to die. How can he do that? Taking without asking is equivalent to stealing. This is breaking the rules set by the Path of Heavenly Punishment!!”

…

“Sir, your eyesight is getting worse. You couldn’t find Tom, yet you just nicked this broken altar over. But of course, I understand that the things that you like are surely something great,” Fang Ning said.

The System replied, “Yes, Richman Host, you are getting better at valuing items. It’s just that Tom the Black Cat is better in hiding than Xue Ba the Yellow Dog, I can’t see it. I guess it will be pointless even if we ask the black dog to open the area in our System Map.”

Fang Ning said, “Then look around with your Spirit Gaze.”

The System replied, “It’s useless. My Spirit Gaze is currently a Legendary Esoteric skill. I can just barely sense that Tom the Black Cat is hiding itself using a Mythical level skill. My Spirit Gaze won’t be able to see through its disguise. If I want to improve my Spirit Gaze to Mythical level, I need to spend 10,000,000,000 Experience Points.”

Fang Ning felt shocked before he felt relieved.

Even though Sir System was powerful, it was not invincible. Their opponent was not a brainless NPC that never improved itself forever. It would have evolved its power of disguise when it realized Vigilante A had a strong vision prowess.

The world was huge with its own mystery. He understood that they needed to gather more Experience Points to better defend themselves against the unpredictable.

While Fang Ning was in shock, Tom the Black Cat was furious.

“Damn it. That altar is priceless. Those ingredients on it were hard to come by,” the black cat walked back and forth. It was exceptionally furious, and all its fur had stood up from its anger.

Huang Rui never saw Master Tom in such an angry mood and didn’t dare to open his mouth.

Luckily, Master Tom calmed down rather quickly.

“No, I underestimated that pair of eyes on Vigilante A. He shouldn’t be able to see through the skill that Lord Death taught me, but he can still sense the presence of my altar. Damn it, I’m too far away from Death… Whatever, I’ll set up another one. This time I’ll use more Death Energy and hide it away.”

Tom the Black Cat said calmly, but deep down it felt terrible.

The altar itself was nothing to worry about. It already prepared back up ingredients to build another one, and it wouldn’t cost it a single penny.

The important part was that it will need to spend more Death Energy to hide the altar, and the Death Energy he would use was from itself.

Death would not give it an extra portion of Death Energy. The amount of Death Energy that shared among them after each ceremony had been agreed previously…

That will be a hindrance to its cultivation progress.

“It’s all because of this bunch of stupid octopuses. If they could just start massacring sooner, Vigilante A wouldn’t have the time to muck around. Hmph, hopefully, Vigilante A is also injured when dealing with these octopuses. That would make me feel better,” Tom the Black Cat said angrily while looking at the octopuses having their tug-of-war competition on the beach far away.

…

Fang Ning was looking at the same time.

“Man, that octopus acting as the rope is really unlucky… well, it has four more legs compared to all the other ones. Even among the octopuses, these abnormal ones are discriminated against by the others.”

A big octopus was stuck in the middle of the other octopuses. Besides being stronger, it also had a difference compared to the others. It had twelve long tentacles.

Unfortunately for it, all twelve tentacles were wrapped tightly by other thinner tentacles and were being pulled away from its body.

At that moment, the pair of innocent black eyes on its cylindrical head were darting around, like it was finding someone to scream to about its predicament.

The twelve leaders were not a bunch of idiots, either. In order to hasten the process and enter the city earlier, they decided to use a two-into-one knockout format.

That large octopus with twelve tentacles was unlucky enough to be chosen as their makeshift rope.

The rule was simple. Each group consists of six leaders, and each leader would grab onto one tentacle. Whichever group managed to pull the head of the middle octopus to their side wins.

After that, the six leaders would be split into two groups with three octopuses each.

The final round would be decided within the three octopuses who won the last round, and whoever pulled the brain over would win.

Fang Ning was watching happily. ‘This competition by these bunch of aliens is really entertaining. This would become so popular if I could stream this online.”

The System said, “I am so bored. I shouldn’t have come so soon.”

Fang Ning was speechless, “I said earlier to come after your followers spotted your enemy. You were the one being impatient. Look carefully, in case something happens.”

But nothing happened…

Two hours later, the strongest leader happily held up the exhausted twelve-legged octopus and walked towards the town.

The System said, “Finally, they’re done. They’re really patient…”

…

“Leader Heracles, can you please put me down?” The twelve-legged octopus asked the thinner-looking octopus below it with a sad tone using Morse Code.

“No way. I will only let you go after I get my treasure, just in case the others try something shameless,” Heracles the Octopus wagged one of its tentacles and rejected its request.

It felt that it was kind enough to accept this weirdo with twelve tentacles as part of the octopus family and need not treat it with respect.

At that moment, a camera appeared on top of a building not far apart from those octopuses, and two people started speaking in English.

“Look at that, George. Two stronger looking octopuses are walking into the human city. This will make headlines.”

“That’s right, Han. We are going to get filthy rich this time. Look at how close they are… That one must be exhausted from all the traveling, and it is being carried by its weaker friend. I’ already thought of a great title.”

“What do you have in mind, George?”

“Friendship between brothers or warriors?? Two octopuses exhibit bizarre behavior…”

“What a great title. Every online media platform in China will be crazy about this. Those media outlets are so rich, and they love these article styles. George, you are once again ahead of the pack in our industry.”

“Hehe, I am called the Clever George by the others. This isn’t just any random nickname.”

Two reckless tabloid reporters stared at that two octopuses without breaking their gaze.

They were crawling on empty streets as if no one was around to see them.

Soon they would come upon an even more shocking image.

…

That smaller octopus entered multiple empty households, but it would walk out without doing anything.

All that while it was still holding its brother octopus.

In the end, it stopped in front of a luxury shop selling cleaning utensils. It looked inward through the glass and suddenly, it threw that octopus away…

It entered the shop alone.

After a while, it crawled out full of items. Out of eight of its tentacles, six were holding something.

It was holding three brand new gold-plated basins, two gold-plated toilet bowls, and a gold-plated sink.

“Hahaha, I can make my house look better with these…”

It was making “kaka” voices out of joy.

At a corner, the two tabloid reporters were shocked by what they saw.

Han said, “George, seems like your title can’t be used anymore?”

George replied, “No, I have an even better title now.”

Han said, “What is it?”

George replied, “The betrayal of two octopus brothers! Why?”