Seized by the System

Ren Ruofeng thus started his stay in Vigilante A’s farm villa.

In the next few days, he had become good friends with the Dragon Carp, without anyone knowing.

It must have been the night when he, drunk and out of his mind, poured a glass of wine into the aquarium.

This made the anxious and disappointed fish very satisfied. It had thought that someone had still remembered to clink glasses with Sir Dragon Carp…

And so, Ren Ruofeng’s daily habit was to drink alcohol with Dragon Carp while boasting and reminiscing.

The days passed like that.

Fang Ning had heard that recently, Qiao Anping of the Truth Department had successfully broken through, as though a passing fool in martial arts had given him guidance. As such, he had been enlightened in the Path of Sanguinity and successfully reached Lake Level.

Qiao Zishan had also broken through to Mid-Lake Level, cementing his position as the best among the younger generation.

Fang Ning was very worried about this new information. “The others are catching up fast. Sir System, it’s been a while since your experience had a sharp increase.”

The System sounded aggrieved. “I’m very hardworking, you know. It’s just that there are only 24 hours in a day. Those reared by us also need some time to grow.”

Fang Ning immediately reassured it, “I’m not saying you are slacking off. I’m just saying that we need to farm some bigger monsters. Some of those old ones are good at hiding, and only the Truth Department has any clues. He may be a retired member of the department, which has classified policies, but we are also working with the Truth Department and should know something.”

He took back his body and controlled Vigilante A to walk into the living room. He was met with a drunk fish-human duo.

The Dragon Carp had flipped onto its back, its pale belly facing up. Tilting its head, it boasted, “Back then, I followed Long Da and Long San, the two masters, riding the winds and clouds to slay demons in the East of the Bodhisattva Mountain Range. The scene was filled with the beating of drums, waving yellow flags and crowds of watching people. Those two masters had not even attacked when I crushed the Demon with a flap of my tail…”

Ren Ruofeng, clutching a wine bottle and two, lay his head on the aquarium and also boasted, “You’re truly fantastic. It’s so much better for me, unfortunately. The most dangerous thing I have ever encountered was following them to an incompletely developed arcane realm in Central America. There was a very terrifying Demon there. We unfortunately didn’t have the advantage of the hosts and couldn’t risk our resources, so we retreated. Thinking back now, it must have been an easy one for the Americans.”

Vigilante A’s eyes lit up. Ren Ruofeng continued.

“If it weren’t for me, we couldn’t have returned without harm. If Qiao Anping had died there, how could he be so proud now?

“I’ve done so many great deeds for the Truth Department, yet now they’ve hidden the bow after all the birds are gone, and dismantling the bridge after crossing the river…

“That stubborn old geezer of a Head must have thought Old Hag Hong’s working attitude is better, and it was now time to remove the whiteheads…

“How evil, this is clearly an excuse to help that old hag rise. I’m not satisfied.

“I’ve always predicted such a circumstance, but not such a process. I thought I could proudly retire and hand my post to a wise and intelligent person, but instead I had to leave in disgrace. How evil, old geezer, you would have your comeuppance.”

The Dragon Carp was also absolutely drunk, grumbling, “At least someone took you in, and was treated like a VIP. Mine was much worse. The Descended needed extra hands, and Long Da and the others had suggested to just throw down someone that eats for free without work. They even said that in that time, the True Dragon’s home didn’t have extra food. At that, I felt, this isn’t good, aren’t they talking about me?

“I immediately surrendered, of course, and so could Descend earlier to the Lower Realm. However, I ended up losing all my power, almost became fish soup, and became a parrot for the unknowledgeable Zhao family. It’s no better now either. All of you, no matter human or canine, could sit at the table at the banquet,while I, possessing True Dragon blood and also living in The Venerable One’s home, could only savor the smell.”

Fang Ning suddenly understood. This fellow had boasted that the reason was “having been influenced by the True Dragon, it acquired a dream of protecting the world and so volunteered”. He had felt skeptical about it back then, and now that he had heard that, it was true after all.

However, this fish was, in fact, also a connoisseur of good food. He had thought making some high-class feed was enough, but he had not expected it to eat human food.

…

10 minutes later, Vigilante A, manning the flying sword, flew freely to a tropical island in Central America.

This island was situated in the Caribbean, and used to be a busy key stop on sea routes. According to Ren Ruofeng’s words, the place had become an important American army base. It was easy to infer that the entrance to the arcane realm was taken by the Americans.

However, at that moment it was totally desolate. On the uneven island, tropical trees grew scarce, the bark marred with scars.

There were collapsed walls and broken bricks, blood spilled on the ground. The so-called army base was no more. Obviously, there had been a large battle here.

The System sounded surprised. “That’s weird. I wander around the world every day, and seeing this, there must’ve been a serious disturbance. How come I didn’t see this from the sky?”

Fang Ning thought for a while, and said, “Maybe someone wanted to conceal it, and without using up your experience to activate your Heaven’s Eye?”

The System agreed, “Probably, maybe, possibly so, since this is not a key area to watch over for me because the Friendliness Attribute here rises slowly.”

Fang Ning: “Then you’d better be careful. Concealing things like that, there must be something suspicious.”

Vigilante A, walking on the island, had already activated his Spirit Gaze, sweeping it around like a searchlight.

“Found it. The entrance to the Realm is beside that rock by the stream.” Sir System sounded excited.

Of course, the moron did not even listen to his words. Fang Ning was speechless. He looked through the viewpoint of the System, and saw it. There, beside a flowing stream, was a slightly glowing interspatial door near a large rock.

Vigilante A, in a flash, appeared outside the interspatial door.

Fang Ning said with pity, “It’d be good if we could have someone to explore it, so we can save the effort of going in. Oh yes, summon Long Fan. Judging by Ren Ruofeng’s tone, those in the Truth Department must be quite free.”

The System, unusually, did not argue against Fang Ning. On anything that could prevent risks and increase the rate of survival, it would never fight against its host.

Even if it seemed that Vigilante A was unrivaled on Earth, it did not mean that he was equally unrivaled in other spaces, just like when he entered the Land of Heritage back then.

…

Qiao Zijiang was doing her hair in a hair salon, since she was rarely this free.

She received a phone call, and when she saw it was Vigilante A calling, she immediately told the hairdresser to stop.

“Yes, yes, it’s that island in the Caribbean, right? I know the place. Alright, I’ll send Little Dragon there now.”

Long Fan had already snaked out of her Spirit Pocket, wailing pitifully.

“How motivated you are. As soon as you know it’s Sir Venerable calling, you immediately come out. Usually you’re not that diligent,” said Qiao Zijiang unkindly.

“He, he.” Long Fan would not argue with her. Thinking of which, he had not seen Brother White Dragon for a long time, and he missed him. Maybe this time, he could get some benefits from this.

“Go on, be careful on the journey there. Don’t die too quickly, since you’re leeching off my power,” Qiao Zijiang told him.

Humans were not trees or plants, and they had emotions. After living together for a while, she had already had some sort of feeling towards the twelve spirits.

“Got it.” Long Fan flew away.

The location had been stated, and it was a place he had gone before. He could still remember clearly — everyone had nearly died there, thanks to Ren Ruofeng coming up with the “Two Tigers Fighting with Each Other” strategy, which effectively handed the whole mess to the Americans later. That was how everyone came out alive.

The last time he saw Fang Ning had been a few months ago. Now, his strength had increased sharply, entering Basin Level. It had also helped Qiao Zijiang’s strength to increase accordingly, nearing the border of Pond Level.

Because of his speed, he was gone in a wisp of smoke.

After approximately two to three hours, he finally arrived at the island where Vigilante A was. He immediately spotted a meditating Venerable Dragon God from the skies.

No choice, he was the great hero Dragon God and the Eastern Pharos, with a all-encompassing aura. Without any disguise it would always be that eye-catching.

He carefully approached, and did not dare open his mouth to interrupt.

Fang Ning, unusually, used the White Dragon form again and flew out, greeting his brother.

“You’ve finally come. That’s good, since there’s something I need help with.”

Long Fan finally relaxed. Compared to the expressionless Venerable Dragon God, he preferred chatting with Brother White Dragon. The latter made him feel like he was human, while the former felt like a god.

“Brother White Dragon, whatever task you need me to act as messenger, just ask.”

“This looks like an arcane realm space. Brother Dragon is good at investigating, and so I’d like to ask you to go check it out. Of course, there are some Dragon-clan Honey Pills here, and I hope you would accept this for use in the journey.” Fang Ning had already known Long Fan’s temperament, and unflinchingly took out three Vitality Pills to hand to the Stygian Snake.

Long Fan was extremely happy. Of course there would be something good in it. Helping Brother White Dragon was much better than working with Qiao Zijiang.

Let’s not think about him. Follow the right boss. Rightly follow a generous boss, and you could earn enough once. Follow a stingy one, and not only would you get brainwashed, but you could not even have a raise after years of work.

Long Fan, having benefited, immediately said grandly, “I’ll deal with all of it. I’m the top spy among Qiao Zijiang’s followers. She has twelve spirits, and excluding me and that old sheep resembling a big lump of cotton, the others are eating and doing nothing. Yet, she’d said she wanted to cultivate the Path of Chinese Zodiac Protection without giving up on the others. How tiring. With her IQ, she would have almost reached Pond Level.”

Fang Ning felt a spark of interest, and asked, “Don’t worry about the others. We Dragon’s are part of the twelve Chinese Zodiac animals. If she wants to cultivate the Path of Chinese Zodiac Protection, does she have the Spirit of the dragon? I have to ask this.”

Long Fan froze, realizing he had, with his glee, leaked a secret. But then, he thought, ‘Am I mad? Why should I keep secrets about that girl who always wrung me dry with work?’

Brother White Dragon was actually closer to him. Besides, it did have a little to do with the True Dragons.

Long Fan said, without concern, “The other eleven spirits and I, when resting, always stay in Qiao Zijiang’s Spirit Pocket. That’s a small space especially used to store spirits.

“One of those spirits are strange. It has a form of a dragon, but always looks half-dead, not speaking to others and ignoring everyone as though they owed it 80 thousand. When Qiao Zijiang tells it to do something, it never listens. Qiao Zijiang must have had reservations towards it, for she never did force it.

“Oh yes, I remembered something. Once, when Qiao Zijiang and several others were in a perilous situation, we all thought we were dead. Only that spirit didn’t seem to care, and it spoke for the first time.”

Fang Ning asked quickly, “What did it say?”

Long Fan replied, “It said, ‘Such a small scene has scared all of you like that? If not for my spirit losing almost everything somewhere when it descended, I would need just a fingertip to kill this demon. Back then, when slaying a demon in the Bodhisattva Mountain Range, I didn’t even let my elder brothers attack. I crushed the Demon with a flap of my tail.'”

‘Damn, this information was good.’ Fang Ning realized he had been lazy back then. If he had gossiped with Brother Long Fan for a few more days, wouldn’t he know that?

The System said impatiently, “Are you done talking? Do you need some more time — maybe talk at night in the light of a burning candle? Just let him go inside the arcane realm for a look. If there’s no great danger, then I can enter and farm to my heart’s content, earning back more experience.”

Fang Ning then remembered his real goal. He did not feel guilty, but said defiantly, “Why are you pushing me? Didn’t you hear all that information he just gave up? If my guess isn’t wrong, then the real master True Dragon sought by the Dragon Carp — Master Long San’s spirit is not far from us. We fakes are in some danger.”

The System argued, “What danger? So what if True Dragons had descended? With experience, we are even more genuine than them. I don’t care about that. Just ask Long Fan to go inside.”

Fang Ning immediately understood. True, that Dragon Carp could not even identify the authenticity of Vigilante A. That meant that the Dragonization Ability, having been perfected by Sir System, was a very high-level art, pure to the extreme.

When he has risen to Mythical Level, the True Dragons of the Upper Realm probably could not compare to the aristocracy of Sir System’s blood. Who would dare say he was a fake?

They would only think that it was due to Master Long San’s mostly-lost spirit possessing him. That way, it would fit perfectly with the lies he used to trick Chong Daqing. Was that considered an accurate hit due to an inaccurate blow.

Or, was it arranged by fate — that Sir System was a concentration of the combination between the True Dragon spirit and gaming system rules?

Was it here to protect him, descendant of the dragon?

‘Well, I could remember when playing that simple boring online game which lets members stay online where the title was the traditional Chinese character ‘Dragon’. Of course, that’s not the real version, but one modified by many ‘Gods’ which lets one stay online.’

Fang Ning shamelessly made wild connections, since wild thinking was free of charge.

After a while, Long Fan, following Fang Ning’s instructions, slipped into the portal. Soon, he came out, his expression panicked.

Waving his head and tail, he said, “It’s not good, Brother White Dragon, Venerable One. Let’s escape. There’s a great demon in there!!”

The System was overjoyed. “Good. Host, immediately call Black Dog to activate the Thousand-mile Assistance. I’m going in now.”

Fang Ning understood what Sir System said. Since Long Fan could flee, it meant that the danger was not that great. No matter whether it was a trap or not, as long as there was the Thousand-mile Assistance, they could escape. They had more than a hundred Morality Bars, and there could not possibly be any impediments which could stand such consumption.