Chapter 3: Idle System

"Please select opponent in next 30 second" [System]

'Huhh… Idle System?! I guess I miss playing my idle games to even hallucinate about this.' Thought Alex while looking at the hologram panel in front of him.

Soon, the countdown passed.

"Host has not selected an opponent. The opponent will be randomly generated." [System]

"Match complete… Opponent Ant." [System]

"Estimated time of winning in 1 second." [System]

"Battle ends. You receive 0,0000001 Soul Points."

"Next match opponent Ant. Estimated time of winning in 1 second." [System]

"Battle ends. You receive….." [System]

At first, Alex ignores this, but the sound keeps ringing inside his head.

'Hmm…. Don't tell me… This is...' Angus immediately inspected his body.

Now his body and mind are strong enough to handle the burden of inspecting his body. He already could do it a few months ago but still chose not to do it since he didn't feel the need to do it.

As Angus inspected his body, he didn't find any chance at his body or anything wrong besides his chi.

'Maybe it was because it gave too few soul points for me to notice it.' though Angus while still believes the system is real since he could still hear the notification.

'Either I am crazy or this is the real deal like in those fantasy books.' While thinking this Angus inspected his chi as it seems different than in his past life.

He found out that his almost non-existence chi changes into strange energy that is easier to control. He could circulate this strange energy easily despite having a toddler body.

If it is an ordinary chi from his past life, he needs to at least meditate or train very hard just to move it a little bit. Unlike chi this energy seems also very gentle as Angus knows just how dangerous chi is no matter small it is.

As Angus contemplated the system and his body, "Battle ends. You received 0,0000001 Soul Point" Angus keeps hearing battle notifications from the system every second.

Irritated by hearing the same sound over and over again, he immediately searches his way to the setting option of the idle system through various actions like calling system, notification, and setting.

In his past life, every game he played always had a system setting to configure the games itself to become more comfortable for the user to play. The basic setting such as mute notification sound always has in every single idle game he played before.

After a series of tries, he finally could summon the Idle system menu with thought, he sees a transparent holographic panel in front of him.

In the holographic panel, he found some functions such as notification and enemy choosing. He also sees the inventory and shop tab but grayed out being unavailable to select. The only available is the Host chart tab.

Looking at this, he immediately looks at the notification setting and mutes some of the notifications while leaving the few important ones.

Then, he finally looks at his Host chart to find out about his status.

Host: Angus Victory

Age: 1 Year Old

MP: 1/1

Strength: 1

Dexterity: 1

Intelligence: 1

Vitality: 1

Soul Point: 0

Besides that, he didn't find any explanation about it. No experience or even level like in the game from his previous life. After inspecting carefully for hours, he still didn't find anything about it. 

Then, he went back into the enemy selection function. From it, he found a list of a lot of people and harmless animals. Rather than animals, it could be called a harmless insect for now.

For the people listed, all of them are left with [???] in their name beside his family. He speculates that it happens because he didn't know their name yet.

All the people in the list are grayed out, being unable to be selected. The one that is available for him is only some harmless insect such as ant, mosquito, wasp, etc.

After doing a few more tests, he began to become more interested in this system. Since his days were always boring, he finally felt like getting a real toy to play with for a long time.

He chooses the most possibly benefited harmless animal that he could defeat before going into sleep as he is quite fatigued from thinking all this stuff.

As time goes by, four years have passed since Angus received the idle system. He finally knows how absurd this system is to his body. 

Each time Angus won, he got a little bit of a soul point. This soul point could be converted into other attributes with a certain ratio.

He could exchange 5 soul points with one of his strength, dexterity, intelligence, or Vitality. As for mana he could exchange 1 soul point for 1 mana. 

Although the change is very small, as a seasoned fighter, he knows this small change could decide his life in a dangerous situation. 

He also believes in the future the conversion rate will increase as his body grows stronger like in those games he played before.

In summary, he will get stronger by doing nothing. But, this is a headache for him as he didn't want to become stronger. 

To be exact he didn't want anyone to know that he is a strong person because afraid of being betrayed and hunted by anyone like in his past life. Angus's last moment in his past life already gave him enough lessons to understand this. All he wants is to live a peaceful life

'Haa… Such a troublesome just for wanting a peaceful life' Thought Angus inwardly

Still, unlike his past world, this world is filled with many kinds of different dangers. Not only he needs to think about the danger from humanity but also from nature itself.

The only reason he is now in a safe place and at peace is because he is the son of the duke inside one of the biggest kingdoms in the world.

After contemplating a little bit, he chooses to hide his strength and only use it just to protect his dearest one and himself. 

Angus didn't want to get betrayed or have another bloody brother fight anymore. Because of this he developed a lazy nature and likes to read books during these past years. 

He also concludes that this idle system works similarly to idle games he played in the past. But rather than experience, it gives him soul points.

After a few times secretly testing his idle system in these few years, he already got the gist of how the system works. Inside the host chart, it is similar to the status panel of any player-based game.

MP represents his current mana

Strength represents his body strength

Dexterity represents his body speed and reaction time

Intelligence represents his mind work speed and memory

Vitality represents his body endurance

What confuses him is he didn't have HP (Health point) like in the game. At first, he thought his health was too small to be calculated but after a few times of testing, he found nothing about it at all.

He speculates that since this is a reality, the system decides that HP is too hard to be calculated by number or his HP is too small to be calculated by the system. After all the system only shows integer and rounded numbers.

After four years, his soul points have already accumulated by 15 points from killing various kinds of insects. All these years he still couldn't choose people as his opponent.

Angus speculated that he needed to beat them in real life first before the automatic virtual battle worked or he still didn't have enough strength to win a battle over them in a life-death battle. 

A spar battle and a life-death battle are quite different. The latter has a high degree of difficulty compared to the former.

'Well, that didn't matter since I don't want to become stronger anymore. I just want to enjoy this peacefulness.' Angus returns to reading his book within the shade of a tree inside the mansion's garden.

But, he is soon disturbed as he notices a butler approaching him stealthily. Even though he never trained, his senses are still better than any ordinary person.

After a while, the butler showed himself, "Sorry to disturb you, young master Angus. You got called by your father in his study room." Said a servant with butler clothes.

"Father? Alright, I will go see him now. Thanks for the notice, Moro." Angus stood up from his lying position reluctantly before going toward his father's room.

Arriving in front of the room, Angus knocks on the door *Knock* *Knock* "Come in." as Angus hears a response from inside the room.

The moment Angus entered, "Ahh.. Angus, you are here." [Jacob]

"Yes, is there anything you need, Father?" [Angus]

"Actually, in three years you will enter the royal academy like your brother. So, I want you to study early so as not to tarnish our family name." [Angus's father]

"Okay..." [Angus]

"So, starting tomorrow you will be tutored to not fall behind with the other nobles."

"Err… does this also include physical training?"

"Yes, moreover it will focus more on physical training since you never trained on it before. I know you don't like to do some physical training but at least you need to get the basics of it." said Angus's father

'I already know all the basics just from looking at it, Damn it... *sigh* I guess I will play along as long as I don't do anything absurd.' thought Angus inwardly.

"Haa… Alright, Father. Is there anything else?" [Angus]

"No, you can go now. Also... I expect something from you, Angus." [Jacob]

'No..no… Don't expect me anything. Just let me goof off around.' Thought Angus

"A-Alright… Then I shall go now." As Angus exits the room.

Looking at his son out of his room, Angus's father could only sigh inwardly before going back to his paperwork and forgetting about any unnecessary thought.