Seized by the System

One week had passed, and the day when the Divine Gate would officially close finally arrived.

The green-skinned frog abruptly appeared and leaped to the front of the first step, croaking vehemently at the crowd.

“Wake up, all of you, wake up! Go and do whatever you need to do, and stop sleeping around here!”

As it kept on making a ruckus, the climbers of the Stairway of Heaven who were deep in their illusions slowly regained consciousness. Even the most soundly sleeping Spirit Bear slowly stirred awake.

How could its sleep be less than perfect?

High in the skies with a soothing breeze curling around it, the Spirit Bear leaned against the steps, inhaling fresh air and bathing in the warm gentle sunlight. It could sleep with a total sense of security there, knowing that Vigilante A will always watch over them…

Immediately, someone who noticed this exclaimed in astonishment, “Previously when the wicked devils tried to cause trouble here, we tried to ask it to wake the Spirit Bear so that it could stop the ruckus. Didn’t this green frog used all its might to reject our pleas, and said that it has no capabilities to wake the Spirit Bear? It was obviously lying!”

“Shut up! Are you planning to bring disaster to your own clan?” His partner quickly shushed him.

The Spirit Bear rubbed its eyes, its face still sleep-muddled. It then boldly complained, “Why did you wake me up? I’ve passed nine steps, and I want to sleep now!”

Its words had elicited a roar of laughter from the crowd. The Russian representatives all grew red with embarrassment, their faces expressing their unanimous sentiment of ‘No, I don’t know the bear.’

Other participants that failed the quest seemed to feel much more comfortable after the bear attracted all the gossip and attention. At least there was no need for them to be exposed to the scorching eyes of the public, which had rescued them from being stuck in an awkward situation. One by one, they filed out of the Divine Gate, keeping their heads low from the attention.

Sina, the Hindu representative and spokesperson for the God of Preservation, walked out with her head hung low. Immediately, she was called by her young Caucasian partner Kamal, the spokesperson for the God of Destruction. They were both heirs and spokesperson for the three Hindu Gods.

“Sina, why did you fail to even cross the first step? Your determination should be better than that b*stard Maram, spokesperson for the God of Creation!” Kamal was pissed and agitated. He had been holding it all in for a month!

No one could understand how it felt to be him, waiting in the sky for an entire month but obtaining nothing in return!

The Indian Trinity’s spokesperson had great status and prestige, and this entailed the attention of all Indians.

Now, the performance of his partners in the Divine Gate was incomparable to the Chinese, the insects, nor the demons and ghosts. How would the others let him live this down without a tough time?

Sina stared at her partner’s face that had become red with rage and embarrassment. She shook her head slightly before speaking in Mandarin, “If one offends the heavens, one will have no place to pray.” (TN: Originally ‘获罪于天,无可祷也’, this is an excerpt from the Analects of Confucius.)

“That – What does that mean?” Kamal was taken aback; he could not understand Mandarin.

“It means that if we continue to not regard the heavens and earth of this realm with reverence, and continue to worship the gods and devils of the Upper Realm, we will suffer from punishments of a much greater scale. If we waited until then, our regret will not save us.” Sina’s voice was light.

Kamal was appalled after hearing the news. In his knowledge, this woman was the best among the three spokespeople in communicating with the heavens and earth.

“Ah, this, this… The trinity are true gods, though, none of them are fake deities…” Kamal continuously shook his head, as if in denial after his faith was mauled cruelly.

Sina explained, “The trinity are the gods and devils of the Upper Realm. They command from afar, absorbing the energy from their believers on Earth to maintain their presence in the Upper Realm. However, they were unable to descend to this realm even after a long time has passed. They did not obtain the recognition from the Heavenly Axiom of this realm. Thus, they are not tolerated by the heavens.”

Indeed, no one was a fool. After this spokesperson of the Trinity was trapped in the illusion for a month, she had contemplated and understood a whole lot.

“We are in real trouble this time!” Kamal growled lowly as he scanned his surroundings, “The vitality within the next quarter within the borders of India will definitely experience a steep decline…”

“Exactly. It is imperative for us to gather all secular institutions and temples now to discuss the possible measures to handle this problem.” Sina looked grave as she spoke.

“There’s only the two of us representing the Trinity’s spokesperson though; Maram was not around, which makes it difficult for us to command the others.” Kamal felt a headache quickly growing in his head.

“I know where Maram is.”

“Where?”

“The Draconic Penitentiary.”

Kamal’s realization hit him as he hissed. “He went in there! No wonder there was no news from him in the past year. How can we get him out of there, then?”

“Ransom him back.” Sina’s reply sounded difficult.

“D*mn, this is too disgraceful. It’s all Maram’s fault!” Kamal immediately became infuriated.

He is a young elite who knew much about the current affairs. Normally, he feared the strength of China, and was unwilling to act against the country. However, Maram used his background from the last century to direct his actions towards China, and had aimed to one day surpass China. In the end, he got himself roped into the Draconic Penitentiary.

“No one would know if we don’t tell. Let’s just say that he had gone somewhere to put himself through the mill.” Sina quickly suggested an idea.

“How then should we collect the money to pay the ransom? Throughout this past month, I fully understand how big of an appetite that Vigilante A has. He has collected a generous amount of rare specialties from all clans for just one course. He was even picky about it! Not everyone could attend his class.” Kamal had no intentions to dig his own pockets to rescue an opponent, nor was he planning to get the funds from his family.

“We’ll let his family pay for it in the name of worshipping our God in the Upper Realm. They should be way more anxious about this than we are.”

After the two concluded their discussion, they returned to meet the other Indians.

The representatives from India all watched how Sina returned after a crushing defeat. None of them were happy about it, but they did not have the guts to express their dissatisfaction. Instead, they maintained their expression to be obedient and submissive looking.

This is the result when the strong stepped up to lead. No matter how dissatisfied the underlings were, most people would no longer behave like the old times and reprimand the strong. They would not show their anger in their faces, and would only choose to silently suffer through it.

They would only squeak out a complaint if they could no longer endure it.

They looked at the representatives of China from afar. They were having a celebratory party right then and there. Multiple representatives from smaller countries were busy flattering the young heroes with gifts in their stride, handing them out as consolation prizes. Even the neighboring countries of India who used fear them behaved as if they had found a new country of power to play up to.

Humans were now the first of all clans, with a progress of 14 steps. A total of eight humans went in the Divine Gate, Vigilante A included.

All of the progress that the humans had made was all achieved by someone else!

This was an obvious display of power and influence, a way to boast and to gain allies. This was contradictory to China’s usual style that sought to maintain a low-profile; they now acted like an overnight millionaire. This was contemptuous!

It was a pity. Why couldn’t India have a chance to be overnight millionaires too?

China already had multiple instances to flaunt their wealth before their stunt as an overnight millionaire. India, on the other hand, never had much chance to be rich. Instead, they were usually the one who was stepped on by others…

(TN: All instances of ‘overnight millionaire’ was a metaphor to explain the situation of the countries’ resources, while also depicting how different countries behave after the Divine Gate.)

The American representatives had left right after the Divine Gate closed. They had a better grounding, and a higher ambition. Zhi Nan had cheated them before this; the Robocop that was developed with great difficulty had lost its human feelings and emotions after it had cultivated the Demonic Ability. Thus, it was deemed as a tool by the Divine Gate, and was rejected from entry.

However, that incident did not harm their foundations. All harm that was made was all on their image. If that was the case, how significant could the damage be?

To the Eastern people, those from the West always had a hide so thick that no shadows could be seen. (TN: A gigantic item’s shadow cannot be seen due to the sheer size of it.) History had clearly shown that the West had never cared about their image; instead, they focused solely on actual profit and benefits.

It was obvious that humankind was now divided into two parts – China and its supporters, and those that still acted against China.

The current crisis of the return of the moon was already handled by the Dragon God. When humankind failed to realize where the real enemy was, they would naturally have a life-or-death fight among themselves.

The one who had hegemony over the Era of Vitality, could then have the authority to distribute resources, which in turn would lead the humans in their country and clan to have a bigger opportunity for cultivation. That would directly cause an increase in powerhouses in their country, which would mean a higher chance to impart their culture and clan in these turbulent times.

///

Within the ranks of the gathered demons, laughter of disdain could be heard. “Hmph, look at those humans. What time it is that they decide to divide their forces? They will soon regret this!”

“Heh heh, are we in a better position than them? Most demons probably don’t even know what their surname is! At least the humans have their country and races.” Some demons said in self-mockery.

Lie Huo, the tanned man who was the temporary leader of the Western Devil Rats and that Volcanic Rat that managed to pass the first step, proclaimed to halt the rowdiness among the demons. “Stop saying these words of bad luck. We got second place anyways, and we had three steps as progress. Take it slow. As long as we demons unite, the final winner has yet to be determined.”

“You’re correct, Brother Lie. This time, our efforts in climbing the Stairway to Heaven was done in haste. We were inexperienced, too. We could unite ourselves after this and exchange our experiences every day. With that, we can increase the numbers of the able and the clever. We would definitely overtake the humans.” Elder Ancestor Bai agreed.

Even though the son that he recommended had failed to cross even the first step, the knowledge and leadership skills that he displayed has made him the pillar of support for numerous clanless demons who had no one to lean on.

It must be noted that not everyone had the heart to be the leader of an alliance, and not everyone had the ambition to be called a king. Most people, or to be more accurate, most demons, wanted to just live a peaceful life, where they were protected by a big brother.

Thus, after Elder Ancestor Bai said his words, he had obtained the immediate agreement of a great many demons.

A strong Arctic Wolf Demon said in response, “That’s correct, Elder Ancestor. We should also start a Demon Alliance so we no longer stay as a group that has no cohesion. We must not repeat our mistakes and fight among ourselves for the sake of resources just like how the humans did. We mustn’t kill our own kin and plot against each other in the quest of snatching resources.”

“Haha, your words are extremely accurate, Brother Wolf. What about the others?” Elder Ancestor Bai went ahead with the current.

“Agreed,” piped up Lie Huo. He always wanted to obtain material possession from his status, and to catapult on the name of an alliance to consolidate the Devil Rats. With that, the Devil Rats would no longer go rogue like how they did before.

A moment has passed before a demon asked, “Since we want to start an alliance, then according to what Brother Wolf said, how are we going to allocate the cultivation resources among the demons?”

That was the real focus of the main point of discussion. The core of all conflicts among humans or demons would finally land on these resources. This was the unchanging fact from the past to the present!

“Haha, of course, the strong will rule. The strong should take up a larger portion of the cake. We could routinely evaluate hundreds or thousands of elite demons, and concentrate all our resources on them. Other weak demons could make do with whatever that was leftover to survive. We must not waste our cultivation resources on them.” The Arctic Wolf Demon sounded confident.

“That’s a reasonable method.”

“We should do that.”

“We must not be wasteful…”

Those who were present were naturally the powerhouses within the demons. When they heard what was said, they immediately concurred.

Once this Demon Alliance was formed, they could then officially exploit the weaker and smaller demons of their cultivation resources. They could then gather these cultivation resources for themselves. That sounded almost too perfect!

The smile on Elder Ancestor Bai’s face was slight, but he refrained from making any comments. How could the difference between the strong and the weak be determined and evaluated by merely a yardstick or two?

The fact that some seemingly weak beings could survive in this cruel nature until today was the best proof that the weak were also considered as the strong in certain aspects!

However, he would not explain this to them. At least not now.