Seized by the System

Ren Ruofeng heaved a long sigh; he had gone on a wild goose chase, but he had ordered the local Special Affairs Department to contact the local organization responsible for the land. They were to rent thirty thousand acres of farmland to the Whitestone people for farming.

It was no difficult matter, since many rural villages were gradually becoming homes for empty nesters.

Great areas of land had been abandoned, since wanting young adults to stay at home just to care for a few acres of land was near impossible. Farming was not only tiring, they had to work from the start of the year to the end just to make ends meet. Furthermore, if they did not plant unique crops, earning big bucks was going to be extremely difficult.

The Truth Department was a big organization, yet they had failed to pull the Whitestone people in. The other influential organizations would definitely be unwilling to be outdone. Nobody’s stupid, the previous realm and Earth would of course have vastly different societal structures.

The Whitestone people may have had trouble fitting in in the previous realm, but Earth would be a different case.

…

Somewhere deep underground in southwest China.

Bai Shixin’s study.

His bookshelf was full of books. However, other than the necessary “Sun Tzu’s The Art of War”, the other books had all changed from the previous ones.

“Compilers: Principle, Techniques & Tools”, “Assembly Language”, “Data Structure”, “Computer Graphics”, “Artificial Intelligence”, “Discrete Mathematics”, “Probability and Statistics”… These books were all arranged neatly together like the teeth of a comb, it was truly a sight to behold. Most humans that have seen it were quite in awe as well.

Bai Shixin was currently buried deep in his copy of “Artificial Intelligence”. He read and scribbled on the book at the same time.

A high-end laptop sat on his study table as well, and it was currently running a few programs and educational videos.

A heartbeat later, the doorbell rang.

He set his book down and breathed a heavy sigh. He cleared his thoughts and left his study before he moved towards the door.

The people that greeted him was the Bai family’s Elder Ancestor, who was accompanied by a young man with eyes that glinted with intelligence.

It was his previous disciple, Nie Yuan, and also his ex-wife’s current husband.

“Shixin, there is a matter that I need to discuss with you and Nie Yuan.”

The Elder Ancestor’s tone was a gentle one. It would appear that he had no idea what had happened between them.

Bai Shixin acknowledged, “Anything Elder Ancestor orders, Shixin will try his best to fulfill it.”

The Bai family’s Elder Ancestor nodded his head before the three of them moved to Bai Shixin’s study.

The Elder Ancestor’s gaze swept across the books and the laptop on the study table before he looked towards the books displayed on the bookshelf. He nodded his head and said, “Not bad, not bad, you’re actually reading these books. Although you’ve lost your magical energy, you can still depend on your intelligence and your longevity to surpass most human geniuses. Becoming a top computer scientist will be as easy as ABC.

“After the Greater Rat Empire has formed, we will need to depend on the new informatization method that the humans have developed to rule the empire. We can no longer use our old methods. When that time comes around, we will need a genius well-versed in that field. You’ve once again thought ahead of me.”

Bai Shixin responded, “Thank you for your praise, Elder Ancestor. You have always looked far ahead, Shixin has just been adopting your thoughts.”

However, he thought darkly to himself, ‘You old fart, although you still have a sinister eye for things, your concept of personal strength above all has roots that are too deep. You merely want to use it as an informatization tool, but you don’t know the true power of this technology.’

The Bai family’s Elder Ancestor had a serene expression, as if he had no idea what Bai Shixin was thinking.

He merely said, “The famous Whitestone people of the previous realm have finally appeared; we all know that they are born honest and will never lie. They are the best choices as our judges of the new empire, they are talents we desperately need. What opinions do you and Nie Yuan both have as to what ways we can use to rope them into helping our grand cause?”

Bai Shixin furrowed his eyebrows, refusing to speak first.

Nie Yuan rolled his eyes and immediately opened his mouth, “Elder Ancestor, Yuan-er has an idea. However, I still want to hear what instructions Master may have…”

Bai Shixin said coolly, “The pupil is superior to his teacher, you have long surpassed me, so there’s no need for me to speak first. Do remember the words ‘never decline shouldering responsibility’.”

The Bai family’s Elder Ancestor nodded his head and said, “Yes, Yuan-er, no need to be so formal, you can speak first.”

Nie Yuan then confidently spoke, “I heard that the Whitestone people want to establish a society where everyone is honest. The establishment of our Greater Rat Empire would be perfect for this. We can offer them the positions of Education Minister and Grand Jury, and we can ask them for help in leading the Greater Rat Empire towards being a nation of simple national customs. I’m sure they’ll be very interested.”

Although the feelings Bai Shixin had for his ex-disciple were complex, he could not help but nod his head. Nie Yuan was bestowed with extreme talent and was extremely intelligent, and what he had just said was also one of the things Bai Shixin had in mind as well.

After all, Nie Yuan was young and alert; he had only been a demon for less than a year. He severely lacked experience, so the fact that he could think of something like this was good enough.

The Elder Ancestor immediately voiced his praise, “Not bad, despite the fact that both positions hold a lot of influence, I will not spare the effort in offering the Whitestone people these positions. You’re right, Yuan-er, national customs are different from personal beliefs. Simplicity will only allow a country and its people to last.

“You both must remember in this current day and age, any one race that wants to develop and grow, that wants to breeze through countless hurdles, and that wants to last for generations must be equipped with people that are willing to work hard, willing to work tirelessly, willing to sacrifice for their own kind, and willing to give it their all. These people are the backbone of their race, and not those wise folks who only know how to twist their words and resort to political trickery for personal gain.

“These were the words left behind by a famous Chinese scholar, and these are wise words. Races with people like this have all managed to survive until today.”

Nie Yuan nodded his head furiously, the corners of his lips quirked up in satisfaction.

Bai Shixin, on the other hand, was secretly in awe of the Elder Ancestor. Although he stood against them, he could not help but admit that the Bai family’s Elder Ancestor really did look towards the future, since he was obviously making plans for after he had attained divinity.

The Elder Ancestor was planning on indoctrinating simplicity and perseverance into the nature of the Greater Rats, which would in turn guarantee that no matter the challenges, no matter if they descended into a slump, they would still be able to stand up instead of falling even further until there was no hope for return since if that were to happen, he would also fall with them.

Ups and downs were decided by the Heavenly Axiom, so it would be impossible for there to be a race that would continue to develop forever. Brilliance could be enjoyed by anyone that was at their peak, but to be able to continue developing despite descending into a slump was what would truly challenge a race and its survival.

Bai Shixin’s train of thought hovered here and he remained silent for a moment. Then, he spoke, “I believe that the people from the Truth Department also offered similar positions to them, but it’s obvious they were not persuaded. I wonder why?”

The Elder Ancestor laughed dryly, “That Ren Ruofeng was in over his head, he didn’t understand the Whitestone people enough. He was trying to bluff the Whitestone people into achieving something even he couldn’t achieve, so how would he have succeeded?”

Bai Shixin nodded his head and continued, “If that’s the case, please allow me to add on a few things. We have to propose our aim and explain all our methods in detail. I believe a late scholar also said that it is possible for humans to lie, but not for computers. Programs are programs, so bugs are normal, but bugs would never happen on purpose. We can explain things to the Whitestone people using a computer that cannot lie, thus allowing us to establish an honest Greater Rat Empire using informatization.”

The Elder Ancestor was overjoyed at Bai Shixin’s words. He turned towards Nie Yuan and said, “Good, very good. Listen, there’s many a good tune played on an old fiddle. The difference between you and your Master is still big, you should experience more, learn more. Stop wallowing in useless human business and learn from their strong points instead, that way you’ll be able to build a good foundation.”

Nie Yuan nodded his head. “Thank you for your teachings, Elder Ancestor. Thank you for your direction, Master. Yuan-er will not forget what I have learnt.”

The Bai family’s Elder Ancestor and Bai Shixin shared a few more words before the Elder Ancestor left with Nie Yuan.

“How detestable! What a disgrace!!” exclaimed Bai Shixin after he had bid his visitors farewell.

A month ago, Ren Ruofeng had given him a golden opportunity. The Truth Department had discovered that a group of Demon Rats were about to invade China from beneath the western border.

The Eastern underground had the Greater Rats, while the Western underground had the Demon Rats. They had long been eyeing the abundant China and its rich human resources.

After he had gotten this information, he had purposely visited Bai Shifu, who was safeguarding the West. When he had visited and their conversation had veered into this topic, Bai Shifu had naturally asked him for help and advice.

He did not decline and had given countless ideas. One of them was that he would lead the local Greater Rats into ambushing and surrounding these foreign rats underneath the Gobi Desert, which would also allow them to lessen casualties on their end. His demeanor as a General was unmistakable, and he had received the respect of everyone he would lead, thus greatly improving his prestige.

The visit the Elder Ancestor had paid him today was practically slapping him in the face.

It was more than obvious what the Elder Ancestor was implying; he only needed honest folks who were sincere and determined, he did not need wise folks with a knack for words.

Bai Shixin returned to his study and continued reading his copy of “Artificial Intelligence”. This book was profound and even someone of his intelligence could not completely grasp it immediately. He had to combine theory with practice and go about things steadily and surely before he could make a significant contribution.

It was vastly different from cultivating abilities. There were no epiphanies, he could only go about it step by step.

A long time ago, he and the Bai family’s Elder Ancestor had watched Vigilante A battle Anderson. At that time, Anderson had inferred that Vigilante A was using combat AI technology to increase his reaction speed.

He had already decided then that he would keep an eye out on information related to AI, but he would not pay much attention since the particular field of study was deep and vast. He would have to contribute tens of years of hard work just to accomplish something significant, and there was no need to even talk about surpassing the top human scientists.

That was of course how he thought before he had completely lost his cultivation abilities and had decided to betray the Elder Ancestor and become king with the support of the Truth Department.

Only then did he decided to pour his everything into researching AI, since it would the capital in his turnaround.

Ren Ruofeng had promised him before the launch of the major event that he would gift him with the latest spiritually-controlled mech for him to use as protection.

However, how could he put all his hope into the Elder Ancestor, he would first have to master all the principles and theories behind the tool.

The Bai family’s Elder Ancestor would only think he was learning it so that he could help him build a Greater Rat Empire that used informatization. He would never assume that Bai Shixin had ulterior motives.

…

Time waits for no man, and soon a week had passed.

Vigilante A was still serving justice.

Fang Ning was still practicing cultivation.

Suddenly, the System said, “Huh, one of the Whitestone people are about to turn red on the map. Time for some farming.”

Fang Ning immediately felt nervous. He could not help it, they had such a powerful ancestor… Their ancestor was a scary existence that actually possessed enough power to destroy China.

He quickly asked, “What happened exactly? They’re all so honest, they would never commit a crime out of nowhere.”

The System answered, “In a small town somewhere in Qiongzhou, the fat Whitestone person is in a conflict with a human. He’s the one that’s about to turn red.”

While they were speaking, Vigilante A had already appeared in the sky above the town. Fang Ning could clearly hear the sounds of a heated argument coming from below.

He immediately looked down below using the System View. He could see a warehouse, and the doors of the warehouse had the words “XX Trading, Import and Export Corporation” painted on it.

“Whoever signed that contract for you is whoever you should be looking for. That person was a temporary worker, and his contracts aren’t legally binding. He’s just been fired by us. You have to go look for him, not for me.” A dignified boss in glasses that seemed to be in his 40s was currently sternly and forcefully reprimanding the fat Whitestone person in front of him.

The fat Whitestone person was none other than Shi Da. His face was as red as a tomato, he had essentially become a Redstone person…

They were all born honest, so none of them wanted to go about their days carrying a huge debt. To pay the rent for their 30 thousand acres of farmland, they had expended the last of their magical energy into producing the arts and crafts of their race to be sold.

Although they did not make artifacts, the products possessed the unique style of the previous realm and the unique characteristics of their race, so it was quite a hit on the human market.

They had entered the local town, and under the scrutiny of the passers-by, had set up a stall by the road to sell their wares. Soon, a buyer in a suit had come front to buy everything. He paid a deposit before he shipped everything away on a truck.

The buyer had told them that his boss would transfer the rest of the payment to them in two days.

For the next two days, they had stared at their phone day and night.

The local Special Affairs Department had not only helped them set up a bank account, they had also given the Whitestone people a phone for them to check their account status. Yet, nothing had changed in three days…

Other than a notification of the deposit they had first received, nothing new arrived.

Who would use a trick like them in the previous realm? If somebody had taken a liking to their products, that person would have snatched it away. If they could not defeat that thief, they would have to submit and let them take it away willingly…

They immediately started locating the buyer. When they finally found him, the result was…

He pulled himself together and recounted the experience, “I was just following that person’s trail so that I could find him. He said that after he had gotten all the goods, he had them shipped to be stored in the company warehouse, but he was fired. He had us come here to get the merchandise back. Our clan leader said he wasn’t lying. You only paid a small deposit when you guys bought our products, so we’ll refund the deposit in return for our products.”

The boss let out a harrumph and said, “I didn’t see any goods come in, nor was there anything logged into the registry. I believe that a person used our company’s name to trick you of your wares. We’re preparing to sue him, so I suggest you do the same.”

“You, you’re obviously lying,” accused the fat Whitestone person, “our clan leader has just went to the local Special Affairs Department. Before he left, he told me to keep an eye on you so that you won’t run away. You’ve always been lying, from the beginning till now. You’re definitely lying even now.”

The man retorted fearlessly, “Come and hit me then if you dare… All you aliens better leave now; you’re in our territory, so you have to follow our rules. I don’t care if you think I’m lying or if you think he was telling the truth, I’m bringing this case to court and I’ll have the judge decide.”

At the same time, the man was thinking, ‘Hit me, hit me if you dare.’

‘We have the Venerable Dragon God patrolling our skies every day. If you so much as lay a finger on me, you’ll be gotten rid of and I’ll be able to walk away a free man.’

‘The products have just been resold, and I earned more money than I could count. What I never expected was that this bunch of idiots had some powerful tricks up their sleeve; locating the buyer so quickly.’

‘Locating this warehouse so early in the morning, and stalling my plans.’

‘However, it should be fine. They are nothing but idiots after all, a few choice words would be more than enough to handle them. If not, I’ll still be able to earn some money for personal injury.’

…

“You, you, you!” Shi Da has never been a person with a knack for words, and he had been bullied by this man until he was all red in the face. He fumed, “I’m going to kill you, you liar!! That merchandise was the result of days of our hard work. If you do not return them to me immediately, I will beat you to death!”

Fang Ning was shocked; no wonder Sir System had said this Whitestone person was going to turn red…

These people did not lie, if they said they were going to kill you, they really would. They were not like humans, who only said these things to scare or threaten people, or who would only throw a few punches.

“Stop him immediately,” ordered Fang Ning at the System, “and as for that despicable boss, how dare he use such a trick to bluff an honest person. I’ll have him turn red immediately!!”

The System replied, “Understood, he is red now.”

Just before Vigilante A could make a move, Fang Ning suddenly spoke up, “Forget it, let me do it. I’m a powerhouse of Bucket-level now after all, and this con man has cheated me a few times in the past too. I want to farm him myself, so that my intentions can be understood.”

The System agreed, “Letting you practice would be good, since it’s not like there would be a lot of experience.”

At the same time, the boss was still fearless and arrogant. He pointed to his left cheek and taunted, “Hit me, hit me here. If you can’t kill me, you’ll be stuck with me for the rest of your life!! I’ll be honest with you, the God of China only cares about us, they would never pay you aliens any attention.”

Right after he finished speaking, a loud smack was heard. A slap had descended from the sky, which had sent the boss flying meters away. He hit a tree, and fell to the ground unconscious.

The fat Whitestone person was stunned. He looked at his own hand and thought out loud, “I didn’t hit him, so why did he fly away? Was it God hitting him for me? Then God must be really nice. The God from where we came from would never care about something like this.”

In mid-air, Fang Ning felt really liberated from the slap he had just given, and he felt like slapping him a couple more times… It was no wonder Sir System enjoyed beating people up so much, beating people up truly was addictive.

With the existence of these vile characters that deserved a beating, it could not be helped that China’s image would be corrupted. China was too big, so the existence of bad apples was no surprise.

However, China would never be inherited by bad apples like this. Instead, it would be inherited by people that are willing to work hard, willing to work tirelessly, willing to sacrifice for their own kind, and willing to give it their all… They were China’s true backbone.

Suddenly, the System spoke up, interrupting Fang Ning’s thoughts in the process, “Huh, Host, look at the weird notifications that have just appeared.”

Fang Ning was busy letting out steam, he had completely ignored the System Notifications.

Sir System’s reminder prompted him to check the notifications immediately.

The System Notifications read, [The Host attacked swindler Wang Dafu of his own accord.]

[The Host used the attack “Hand of Spiritual Sense”.]

[Wang Dafu has been rendered unconscious.]

[High-level game book obtained 50 experience points, activated Self-upgrade Module.]

[The System obtained a small amount of Morality, a small amount of Reputation.]

Fang Ning was speechless. How was that possible? He was the one that had hit the person, but his precious game book was the one that had obtained the experience?

He was not jealous, merely confused. Previously, the game book had stolen the Morality the System had obtained after killing the Wise Grand Tutor, so the System could only receive 12 million experience points, nothing more.

Now, he was the one that had knocked out the swindler, yet the game book was the one that had gotten the experience points?

He then heard Sir System resentfully said, “How despicable. Firstly it stole my Morality, then it stole your experience points. This old book really can be thrown away…”

Fang Ning suddenly came to understand the situation. So that was how it is, Sir System had watched really closely the last time; this time around, it did not care much cause it was too little…