Seized by the System

Above the azure ocean, peace seems to have been restored. On the main routes, sea transportation activities had begun to flourish again.

Ten-thousand liners rushed through the waves every night on the major routes, the sea monsters that commonly appeared in the past seems to have vanished.

Replaced instead, by a group of patrolling octopuses.

They were extremely intelligent, the leader of the group would often use morse code to communicate with the ship captains, informing them of the situation of the route ahead, if there were any appearances of sea monsters.

Whenever the liners passed by, there would be countless jars thrown into the ocean as a toll fee…

The act of worshipping octopuses had now become a common habit of the lower and middle-class sailors.

The only pity was that, after 30 years, humankind would have to migrate. Against this sort of background, the recovery of sea transportation brought not gratification, but rather a sense of desolation.

Octopus of Destiny, “Twelve Arms”, in the past year, under the guidance of the Heavenly Book, had fought battles North and South, East and West, throughout the length and breadth of the major routes of the Four Seas, all those sea monsters that dared stirred up trouble were now far and few.

Such a speed of conquest was unimaginable in the past.

It had been less than two years since its rise, in the past, this duration of time would not have even been enough to recruit and train an army, let alone sending them out to battle.

However, now was the era where it dominated and proclaimed itself as king.

By virtue of Natural Trait, and relying on the guidance of the Heavenly Book, in addition to a sliver of destiny in the midst of it all, the power of the Twelve Arms had risen rapidly, within two years, it had already reached the Lake-level.

Such power was enough to crush most of the sea monsters in the vast ocean. Few were capable of competing with it, and then there were also those who were fearful of its backgrounds, who did not dare publicly go against it.

The combination of might and the natural talent of the self, brings about such efficiency.

At this moment, above the sea, Twelve Arms was inspecting the ocean routes with a platoon of guards.

Compared to the past, the scale of its formation had increased yet again, the number of octopus guards had increased to 128, each one a Pond-level master.

Besides this, there were even a number of octopus ministers, octopus attendants, surrounded entirely, having learned completely the display of pomp and grandeur from the humans.

The only thing that remained unchanged, was the Heavenly Book that floated above its head, glimmering in gold. Despite having so many attendants, it still carried the black backpack all by itself.

In the past, there had been some toady octopuses who tried to curry favor by offering to carry the bag for it, but they were all rejected.

This was the resident of the Heavenly Book Master, it would never let it be carried by anyone else.

After patrolling for a while, the Heavenly Book suddenly flipped its pages at Twelve Arms. As Twelve Arms gave a nod, the Heavenly Book flew towards a distance afar.

Twelve Arms stared after the Heavenly Book Master who had already gone far away. Although this was not the first time the other party had left, but this time, it had a feeling that the other party may never return.

Whenever it thought of this, it could not help but sighed desolately, “Alas, it seems that this time, the Heavenly Book Master will leave me for good…”

By its side, an octopus minister immediately tried to console it, “My King need not worry, there is a saying among humans, that is called retiring after having made one’s mark. Now that Your Majesty has already conquered the Four Seas, Sir Heavenly Book may think that it was time for it to retire.”

“Is that so? I wonder when we’ll be able to meet again.” Twelve Arms responded, a little unhappily.

Even though it was the King of Octopus now, ruling the entire ocean, it still felt that it could no longer return to those happy days where it was free and unrestrained.

Its dream, to create an honest ocean world, too, seemed farther than ever.

His old friends, the black and white dolphins, had also returned to their pods.

By its side, were too many subjects of its kind instead.

Gone were the days of being ostracized and envied, on the contrary, now, wherever it went, there were always words of praise and pleasant flatteries.

It knows well, that these octopuses were only afraid of its power and background, and each one of them were simply feeding him lies.

When in reality, all these octopus ministers who surrounded him and flattered him, they were all thinking of chasing him down the throne, so that they themselves could become King of the Sea.

Only the guards were perhaps still somewhat loyal, and not as greedy, but that may be to do more so with their stupidity.

Only the Heavenly Book Master, as always, spoke honestly and frankly with it.

“When you become King, it’ll be very difficult to hear the truth. It will be more difficult to build a kingdom where everyone speaks the truth, than it is for you to become God of the Sea.”

“Though it’s not entirely impossible, I’ve read somewhere from a book, that there was a species that was said to communicate directly with their minds. They never lie, and whenever they speak, it is always their true thoughts. But that’s not necessarily a good thing.” The Heavenly Book Master had said.

“Why wouldn’t it be a good thing, if everyone were to speak honestly?” It had asked, perplexed.

“Because in this world, there exists not only just the Octopus Kingdom; if you all tell the truth, and you encounter a cunning opponent in the future, the kingdom may fall, others may easily deceive you, but you have lost the ability to deceive your opponent.” The Heavenly Book Master preached no major principles, but instead presented an example that could not be refuted.

Twelve Arms glanced towards the direction of the Heavenly Book, its words echoing in its mind.

It had a feeling that its ideals seemed to be getting farther and farther away.

However, it did not want to give up, if it gave up, then how would it be any different from the rest of the other octopuses?

Conquering the seas may not have been its wish, but a real world is what it desired.

It thought to himself, having secretly made a decision.

…

Inside the System Space.

Fang Ning cradled his beloved game book that had gotten back from its long journey, having had to console and soothe it for a good, long while.

Its thick, gold cover flapped about occasionally, as it poured its heart out of all the woes of being away from home.

Even though there was a silly octopus that it could communicate with, it would never be as good as being in Master’s embrace…

“Ugh, that’s enough from the both of you,” Sir System said annoyedly, “Do you still want to let it fulfill our plans?”

Fang Ning scorned, “Hey now, watch your tone, my precious baby’s been working hard for the past few years, and has just finally come back to me; not only are you not rewarding it, but you’re also being envious of it, how could you still call yourself a fair and just System? Getting jealous over one of your own creations, really, you’re just another Zeus.”

“Spare me the nonsense, yesterday, you just said you wanted to me to hand over a surveillance thread to this sh*tty book and even let it become the chief officer of the Soul Array Computer, didn’t you? You know this concerns the Heavenly Order right, whoever manages to converge first, gets a major advantage; what’s more when our opponent’s an actual God, do you really think you still have time to waste? Hurry up and get on with it so I can implant the surveillance thread into the book and level up its abilities.” Sir System asserted plausibly.

“Forget it, you’re just jealous of the talented,” Fang Ning said, not willing to waste any more words, “Let’s begin.”

Within moments, the golden book disappeared.

Reappearing moments later.

System Notification: [The System consumed 10,000,000 experience points and has implanted a surveillance thread into Advanced-level Game Book operations. Game Book leveled up to Master-level Game Book, now possessing partial system features.]

“Thank you, Master.” The golden book suddenly spoke, its voice just like that of a five-year-old boy.

“Hey baby, you finally learned how to speak, your System Dad’s such a scrooge, only letting you have this function now.” Fang Ning said, delighted.

Having worked as a programmer for over 10 years, Fang Ning understood well what it means to implant a thread, it was basically to install an external program function into an existing operating program system, often used for virus software.

What Sir System was doing now was taking part of its functions and delegating them to his precious game book by implanting it through a thread.

Now, his precious game book who could previously only try to communicate by means of flipping its pages had finally acquired the ability to speak, seeing as this had always been one of the functions Sir System possessed.

“Mmhm, he’s just afraid I’ll be too powerful and steal his limelight, he’s always been so stingy.” The golden book affirmed.

“Damn it, the two of you, talking trash about me right in front of me, there’s no respect for the System at all!” Sir System complained, indignantly.

“Alright alright, let’s not talk about this now. We need to build a Soul Array Computer, which is a little bit tricky, mainly because of how complicated the framework is, it’s best we leave this to Yellow Dog to handle.” Fang Ning shifted the topic.

“You go handle this, but is this sh*tty book really capable of comprehending such advanced technology?” Sir System expressed doubt.

“Hey, don’t underestimate me, I was the tutor of an emperor y’know, I’ve studied these human technologies many times before with Twelve Arms; unlike you, muscle head, who only knows how to farm and train, but never studies. Aside from copy-pasting, you wouldn’t know a single thing about masteries and creating inventions.” Refuted the golden book.

“Ugh, sh*tty book, why do you sound like me so much? Dang it, I knew I shouldn’t have given you those extra features.” Sir System said in dismal.

Looking at the scene before him, Fang Ning felt very pleased internally, as his precious baby acquired more and more functions, it would naturally gradually be able to compete as equals with Sir System, and he would no longer be able to easily cheat him anymore…

Thinking so, he deliberately spoke, “Baby, there’s one thing that you got wrong. Your System Dad’s actually great at mastering as well, in fact, he’s well versed in the ways of scheming. That’s why, in the future, you have to help look out for Master and don’t let him deceive Master.”

“Understood, Master, I promise I will not let him deceive you.” The golden book said confidently.

“GET OUT!” Sir System yelled furiously, enraged. “Go do whatever you guys are supposed to do!”