Seized by the System

In the southern mountainous area of Qi City, a group of western-styled villas, exquisite and luxurious, stood between the mountains like a noble western beauty.

However, the beauty’s predecessor had actually been just a block of unfinished buildings that were mercilessly abandoned by its bankrupt developer husband for seven years.

The truth was, the construction here had been almost complete, but because it was positioned too high, the sales were poor, and many units could not be sold.

When the developer bought the land, he had to rely on a huge loan. However, he could not smoothly return the money. In the end, he could not even afford to pay the interest. The capital chain ruptured, and he had to run away halfway.

For a long time, it caused a headache for local institutions.

However, with the opening of the new area, Qi City became famous because of a dragon. (TN: 有龙则灵 is part of the second verse in a poem written by Liu Yuxi, a poet who was active during the Tang Dynasty. The first two verses in the poem are ‘山不在高,有仙则名;水不在深,有龙则灵’, which translates as ‘Any mountain can be famous with the presence of an immortal; Any river can be holy with the presence of a dragon.’ In this context, Qi City managed to become famous because of the ‘dragon’, Fang Ning, who lives there.)

Where the Pharos of the East resided, housing prices rose in turn. The unfinished buildings even became like hotcakes, and soon, many developers scrambled to take a shot at it, letting the local institutions earn a pretty penny.

After the Son of Heaven, William, came here, he took a fancy to the secluded elegance of the place, and bought several villas for a large sum of money before moving in.

Presently, it was July. The trees were lush, and the mountains were green.

North of the city, where it was hot and noisy with flows of people surging, this villa was a rare location of peace and quiet. It was clear that as a genius businessman, William had a very good pair of eyes.

On this day, the sun was shining. He got out of bed with difficulty, having been entangled with several western beauties.

He decided to get down to business today and visit Uncle Robert, who was staying in another villa next door.

Ever since he was plotted against last month by long-time partner, Black Guy Jim, although his injuries were healed by the Dragon God, his spirit had been depressed. He lost all his fighting spirit, and his entire person had been extremely dispirited lately.

As his only blood-related nephew, as well as one of the only two remaining males of the Robert family, William felt that it was necessary for him to raise his uncle’s morale.

Ever since he found out that money could buy him a long life, he stopped intending to get married and have children. That would save him from having to worry about his children’s affairs, which could hinder his own enjoyment and indulgence.

His mindset was very normal. After all, he was just one of the many adults in the United States who chose to live a single life.

That was why he wished for his uncle, a bachelor who was quickly approaching his 40s, to quickly take over the responsibility of continuing the Robert family line. For this reason, William was even willing to pay the bill for his uncle’s marriage.

For an American who believed in financial independence, his behavior was very rare, and it was a testament to the importance he attached to his family.

No wonder Black Guy Jim, who tried to assassinate Robert, believed that Robert’s death would spur him into being the true Son of Heaven.

After knocking on the door of his uncle’s room and walking in, William found him in front of a computer doing online shopping.

With his Pond-level strength, he could see the contents of the webpage with a single glance.

“Men’s anti-rape steel briefs…” he enunciated each word out loud.

Robert looked back at his nephew, casually closed the web page, and said, “Oh, William, I’m going to an Antarctic science research station tomorrow. I have an old friend there who send me a strange set of data yesterday. I went through it all night and checked out some information, and found a serious problem. I need to go there and have a look.”

William immediately understood, and smiled, “I see, I’ve heard that there are very few women in that place. The Antarctic is now in polar night. As expected, Uncle really is an experienced former spy, your considerations are thorough.

“Hmph, I’ve heard about those peoples’ debauchery long ago. I’m just taking precautions.” Robert rolled his eyes, stood up from the computer, and firmly stretched his body.

The information sent by his old friend let him find his way forward again. Since there were problems with the SBI, he decided to go at it alone.

Besides, he had such an affluent fund-raising station in the form of his nephew inside, and a mighty mercenary like Vigilante A outside. The two greatest difficulties did not exist. The him now was full of energy.

“Uncle,” William wasted no time in clinging onto his legs, “you’ve worked so hard for more than a decade, but ended up almost being assassinated by your partner. Why do you still want to run around?

“It’s much safer here, so you can just settle down here. I’ll even give you a villa and a senior position in Asia to ensure that you won’t have to worry about your source of income.”

Robert shook his head, as if he did not realize that to many people, the things he had in his hands were things that others could not achieve even after a lifetime of struggling.

His gaze was firm, and he only said, “There are some things that one just has to do…”

For the pleasure-seeking William, it was hard for him to understand his uncle’s mindset. He even resisted it from the bottom of his heart.

However, this did not prevent him from admiring him.

Since he was incredibly smart, he also understood very well; it was precisely because people like his uncle existed, that people like him were able to play in the world.

Furthermore, since he knew that he could never do something like that, he especially admired the people who could…

Therefore, he had always been generous with his donations.

If it were any other rich people, to donate several hundreds of millions of dollars without even batting an eye was something that was very hard to picture.

…

The next day, Robert, wearing his ‘arriving today’ men’s anti-rape steel briefs, went to the US Antarctic science research station without hesitation.

A week later, he called William by satellite phone with a very urgent tone.

“William, listen to me. Hurry and inform Mr. Pharos-guy. I’ve found out something very important.”

…

In the darkness of Antarctica, the cold winds howled.

The place was covered in snow all year round, and was currently experiencing polar night.

The bright moon, appearing on the horizon in the distance, hanged extremely low, bringing dim light to the glaciers in the polar night.

Under the reflection of the ice and snow, people could barely make out the scenery around them.

Of course, this did not pose any problem to Sir System.

Vigilante A stood on a glacier and looked down at the nearby sea.

Under his feet was the Black Dog Beret carrying a fish tank on its back. The fish tank seemed to be unaffected by the cold weather.

For some reason, recently, every time Brett went on business trips, it would always carry that fish tank and the Dragon Carp along with it.

Fang Ning could not be bothered with it. After all, since his underlings were spending more time together, it could also promote tacit understanding and enhance camaraderie.

Standing behind him was an elderly white man as well as the former SBI agent Robert.

The old man had neatly combed white hair and wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses. He looked like a professional professor.

His gaze swept towards the tall and strong Robert from time to time, but the heroic and handsome Vigilante A was all but ignored.

Right now, it was around time for the tides to happen.

The waves surged out layer by layer, hitting the glaciers and stirring up waves of spray.

When they swooped in front of the three men, they suddenly stopped, as if encountering a layer of glass, and scattered into countless pieces.

“Old George, tell Mr. Pharos-guy about your discovery,” Robert said bluntly to the old man.

“Alright, my dear little Robert.” The old man withdrew his creepy gaze and immediately pulled out a thick stack of reports from his bag. “These are my observation reports for the past two months. I discovered that recently, the waves have been rising every day at high tide. The rate of increase is exponential.

“The initial stages of the growth might not be obvious, but once it reaches a critical point, it will burst out suddenly, just like how the lotus flower can completely grow all over a pond in just 30 days.”

The old man said this with deliberate emphasis.

Robert nodded, expressing that he understood.

The old man then continued, “According to my calculations and predictions, in just one year, the waves of the high tide will grow enough to cause a huge natural disaster. At that time, many developed cities located by the shores all over the world would be wiped out.

“I’ve already sent a report to relevant agencies in the United States long ago, but instead of facing the problem, they wrote back and ridiculed me. They said I was too old and was unsuited to do investigation work anymore, so all my data was wrong. Recently, I also discovered that someone was stalking me, which is causing me a lot of fear.

“Then I recalled that there was once when we were chatting online together, Robert, you suspected there were some problems with the upper strata of the USA. If you died, you told me to ask your nephew to avenge you. That’s why I secretly kept all these information that should have been destroyed and told you in secret instead, without even knowing if I would be captured by the CIA, or investigated by the FBI.”

The old man kept reiterating the way he took greats risks, trying to draw Robert’s sympathy.

Robert turned a deaf ear and silently stood a little further away.

Vigilante A remained expressionless, not saying anything.

The System said, “He talked for so long, but I don’t get it at all. Mr. Rich Boss, can you explain it to me?”

Fang Ning said exasperatedly, “You don’t even understand this? Don’t you often surf the Internet? This is the beginning of a typical Hollywood disaster movie; an old scientist discovers a clue of an impending doomsday, but the corrupted upper elites of the USA turn a blind eye to him.

“So, his only other choice is to take great risks to try to find us. It seems the reputation of the Pharos of the East has resounded throughout the world.”

The System said, “So that’s what he meant. However, for something like this, there’s no point seeking us out anyway… This should be a natural disaster, I don’t see any red or black monsters nearby.”

Fang Ning considered, “Let’s call the Yellow Dog over here.”

The System continued, “Indeed, it’s time for the scapegoat to shine…”

However, even before Vigilante A threw out the scapegoat, someone, no, some-fish willingly threw itself out first…

“Master True Dragon, for matters regarding the sea, this Dragon Carp knows best. These few days, Brother Brett gave me some spirit pills and allowed me to recover some of my magical energy. I can go into the sea to check.”

The Dragon Carp jumped up from the fish tank on Brett’s back and spewed human words.

Old George looked at the talking carp in astonishment, his eyes shining.

Robert’s expression was normal, he had already seen a talking tree before. After all, a carp, in oriental myths, was an existence that could transform into a dragon, so the fact that it could speak was nothing to be surprised at.

Fang Ning took over Vigilante A’s body and nodded, “Hm, not bad. It’s rare that you’ll take the initiative like this and be willing to undertake such a large responsibility. If you succeed, I won’t hesitate to give you a reward.”

The Dragon Carp excitedly jumped out of the fish tank and dived into the sea.

The Black Dog stared at the sea with intense eyes.

Taking advantage of the idle time while the Dragon Carp investigated, Fang Ning asked Old George, “Dr. George, with your knowledge, do you have any guesses?”

Creepy Old George looked solemn for the first time.

Instead of answering, he raised his head to look at the moon on the distant horizon, and said, “The greatest possibility I can think of, is that the moon is approaching us.”

Fang Ning considered, the tidal phenomena did seem to be due to the gravitational pull of the moon on Earth.

It was something insipid, as if he was told by an instructional science fiction novel.

Robert questioned, “If that’s the case, it should have been discovered by observatory experts first, not you, Old George. Do you think maybe an underwater volcano or crustal movements are causing the tidal anomalies?

“I’ve already checked the data, the moon has been getting further away from us. Billions of years ago, it was only half as far away from the Earth as it is now. How could it suddenly be approaching us? Who has such a great ability to push the moon against the laws of nature?”

Hearing this, Fang Ning immediately looked at Robert.

This person really did his homework, unlike the System and himself, who immediately flew over when they heard that something big was happening.

After Brett opened the map, Sir System immediately busied himself with finding monsters. Like, Fang Ning, it did not want to use its brain…

Old George frowned, “I don’t know why either. Maybe those observatory experts’ eyesights have gone bad? Can’t they see the moon is getting nearer to Earth?

“However, even if they were collectively sleepwalking, if a change happened to the tides, the moon should have already approached quite a large distance. They should have observed the distance by now.”

Fang Ning nodded. Since there were so many contradictions, it proved that this matter was indeed abnormal.

This happened to be Vigilante A’s weakness. He did not have the patience to slowly analyze and track.

Sir System was even worse. It had problems even understanding…

Thankfully, they had a scapegoat. This proved the great master Fang’s foresight and wisdom, who roped in enough friendly allies early on so he did not have to fight alone.

The System and Fang Ning had not realized that right now, there really was a monster in their surroundings that was watching them.

However, this monster did not have a physical body. It belonged to some sort of illusory existence.

“Heh heh, Vigilante A? So what? Faced with a natural disaster like this, you’re doomed to be helpless!!”

“Ha ha ha, I really hope that Black Cat quickly scatters me. I really want to see your eyes full of fear and helplessness. At that time, I, the Eight-headed Serpent God, will be resurrected again…”

In the air, that illusory monster watched Vigilante A standing on a glacier, and laughed gleefully.