Chapter 76

Chapter 76: How Can I Compete When Even the Genius Needs to Cheat?

“Haha, I’m finally with my cultivation in isolation!”

A small, white dragon flew around the System Space speedily. It zipped around excitedly to show off the excellent results of the cultivation. It formed the shape of an “S” one time, then the shape of an “O” the next time.

Fang Ning then said, “Half a year of cultivation! All those days and nights I worked overtime made it possible for me to cultivate the Elementary Dragon Form, how easy! Watch my Ice Dragon’s Breath and my World of Ice and Snow…”

As the dragon flew around, its mouth was never closed as it breathed breaths of ice, causing snow to dance around in the System Space.

The System uttered, “Easy my head. You only practiced cultivation eight hours a day. Not only did you also take the weekends off, you also took Lunar New Year, Qingming Festival 1 , Labour Day, National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival off. How can you call that working overtime? I’ve never seen someone take so many days off in the span of half a year. The fact that you managed to cultivate it successfully was because I increased your Perception…”

“Haha, what do you know? This is called balancing work and rest to achieve high efficiency.”

“Anyways, I saw some encrypted information on the Internet that said people don’t usually take days off when they cultivate in isolation. Most practice cultivation for a minimum of 18 hours a day but some go as far as 24 hours in cultivation, not even stopping to eat or drink.”

“That’s because they don’t have a System taking over their bodies, so they have no choice but to force themselves. Let’s not talk about it anymore; what matters is that I’ve successfully cultivated it. Let’s kill all those monsters that torture humans beyond compare, I still have to surf the Internet.”

“Don’t you want to compare the results of our cultivation so that you can humble yourself?”

“What, what did you say? I’m in my dragon form now and I’m flying fast, so the wind is making it hard to hear.”

A barrage of System Notifications popped up then, [The System has just finished cultivation in isolation that spanned half a year.

The System has cultivated Woodworking Skills to master-level; current skill cap reached.

The System has cultivated Art of Disguise to master-level; current skill cap reached.

The System has cultivated Crafting Ability to master-level; current skill cap reached.

The System has cultivated Culinary Skills to master-level; current skill cap reached.

The System has learned Martial Realm “Like a Butcher Dismembering a Bull” from master-level of Culinary Skills. One-Hit Kill rate has increased greatly, Defense Break rate has increased greatly.

The System has cultivated Healing Skills to master-level; current skill cap reached.

The System has learned beginner “Alchemy Skills” from master-level Healing Skills.

The System has learned beginner “Zither Skills”.

The System has learned beginner “Calligraphy Skills”.

The System has learned beginner “Illustration Skills”.

The System has set up new buildings “Alchemy Lab” and “Study”.

The System’s Flame Attribute Dragon Series Martial Arts has achieved bottleneck of current skill level. Effect: Power of Flame Attribute Dragon Series Martial Arts has increased by 100%.

The System has started cultivation on Wind Attribute Dragon Series Martial Arts.

The System’s Dragon Series Martial Arts has achieved Fusion of more than half, the System has learned the new Dragon Series Martial Arts move “Dragon’s Breath Hell”.

The System has used the corpse of the Lord of Seven Emotions to craft the rare equipment “Aggro Bracelet”. Effect: Stores Aggro, maximum storage equals to double the current Aggro Bars. Currently able to store 6 Aggro Bars worth of Aggro.

The System’s maximum Morality and Health Points has increased greatly after cultivation in isolation.

The System has killed the Elite Nightmare Demon. The System is equipped with master-level Crafting Ability, the System is prepared to use the Elite Nightmare Demon’s soul and spirit to craft Legendary Space Equipment.

The System has eliminated a serious threat towards the people of China, Host has obtained Favorability of all Attributes from the Celestial Dragon Form.

The System has obtained a large amount of Heroic Fame, Friendliness of all Areas in China has upgraded to “Friendly”. “Ji City’s” Area Friendliness has upgraded to “Confidence”, Ji City’s map has been unlocked. “Qi City’s” Area Friendliness has upgraded to “Worship”, Battle Arena Function has been unlocked.

The System has been viewed as malicious by an unknown area.

The System’s Reputation has improved to “Known to All”, Morality Bar has increased by one, the System currently has four Morality Bars.

The System has obtained a large amount of Morality, all four Morality Bars are full.

The System has obtained 120,000 experience points.

The System has eliminated a parasitic demon, uncommon Superpowered Individual “Zheng Dao” is incredibly grateful and has decided to pledge his life to the person that saved his heart and soul. Zheng Dao’s qualifications meet the System’s most basic requirements, the System has activated “Follower” Module. Current Follower count is one, maximum three Followers allowed; maximum Follower count increases by one every ten levels.]

Fang Ning took a while to finish the massive wall of notifications and learned the true difference between a genius and a study slag; the progress the both of them had made in half a year was miles apart. The difference in innate intelligence was definitely there, but the difference in how they used their time efficiently couldn’t be overlooked too.

“No, you must have cheated!” exclaimed Fang Ning suddenly.

“Oh, you’re saying I multithreaded right? Since there’s no third party here and we’re in a secure environment, I switched all the surveillance threads to be used for cultivation…”

Fang Ning was speechless, ‘No matter how amazing a genius was, it was still possible to get distracted when doing a task. But when compared to a cheating genius like the System that used multithreading…’

He rolled his eyes, ‘You’re still going to be the person that’s doing all the hard work in the end anyway. I get all the benefits; so the more amazing you are, the better for me. I don’t feel any shame, but I do think it was quite a shame that demon died since that means you can no longer turn on the Speed Gear…’

Fang Ning then said, “All right, since that fellow is dead, does that mean we can leave now?”

“We’ve already left, the realm just collapsed. But I saw a notification that said my master-level crafting could craft a Legendary Space Equipment out of the soul and spirit of that Elite Nightmare Demon, so we might be able to recreate that realm again. We promised that we won’t destroy its soul and spirit completely, so we can use it to craft equipment. But we can no longer enjoy the effect of sped-up time, since the demon used human lives to do that.”

Hearing this, a lightbulb went off in Fang Ning’s head, “That isn’t too bad. Although this System Space is quite wide, it only houses my consciousness and the enemies that you locked into the System Jail. You wouldn’t dare put my brain in here, so Vigilante A can’t be in here either. If we could craft something similar to the realm of the demon from earlier, even if we couldn’t do anything, we could still lure a few Super Bosses in so that we can take our time farming them in that realm. Then we won’t have to worry about being surrounded.”

The System was excited upon hearing Fang Ning’s words; the Bosses were still on its mind, “That’s a good idea. I’ll start crafting immediately, we’ll use all our experience points from the next level on this instead.”

Fang Ning responded in shock, “You keep using the experience points on other things instead of leveling up, aren’t you afraid that our level is too low?”

“Not to worry, reality isn’t a game where your level plays a huge part in being a pressuring character. Although it is still fairly important, a huge part of my power doesn’t depend on my level.”

“All right, I understand. You mean that a powerful tenth level could also take on a twentieth level, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Levels are of course naturally important, but more towards in helping the improvement of overall qualification, the hitting of a skill’s caps, the addition of Aggro Bars and Morality Bars, as well as the increasing of the maximum Morality and Health Points. But even if we got to a high level, if our training isn’t on par, then there’s no point in being at such a high level either.”

Fang Ning no longer cared about the levels since he couldn’t use most of the System Skills anyway. However, the “Follower Module” that had appeared at the end of the System Notifications peaked his interest.

With the unlocking of this module, Vigilante A would no longer be a lone wolf and would even have a subordinate as backup. Every time he referred to himself using the traditional term, Fang Ning would no longer have to feel secondhand embarrassment in the System Space.

Although they were still far from ordering the Follower around, they at least had something to work with already. With Fang Ning’s shut-in personality, he would not actually care about it, at best he’ll just get someone to care about it for him.

The System’s requirements really were quite high, though. Zheng Dao’s B+ Grade Vitality Cultivation only met the minimum requirements; it was obvious that the System didn’t allow just anyone to be its follower, since that would just give it more to worry about.

Fang Ning went to check on the System Map and noticed Ji City’s area had been unlocked, which allowed him to immediately pinpoint Zheng Dao’s location.

As it turned out, Zheng Dao had the same indicator as he did – a blue dot. However, his indicator was very pitifully small, and it was also located in an underground room. This obviously meant that Zheng Dao would never attack him. You could even say that with a simple order from Vigilante A, Zheng Dao would even have to go on suicide missions.

Fang Ning didn’t exactly have it in him to do such a thing; he would never used Zheng Dao as a mere pawn. Especially with how excellent Zheng Dao’s qualifications were, finding a replacement would prove difficult.

He then thought, ‘With such a loyal and highly-qualified subordinate, my life as a shut-in will be easier now. I can order him around using Vigilante A’s identity, and then I no longer have to go around running errands. He can even help me with lots of things that I was too lazy to do in the past…’

…

At the same time, Zheng Dao felt an immense relief wash over his heart and soul. He was still locked in the underground interrogation room of the Institute for Special Training, but he knew that the demon that had plagued him for months had finally disappeared.

He had passed his days alone by blaming himself. He was a psychotherapist, which meant his responsibility was to heal the hearts and souls of others. However, he allowed himself to be used as a vessel by the demon, and he had hurt others using the channels which he should be using to heal instead.

If it wasn’t because of his Psionic Ability, he would’ve fallen into a severe depression long ago. It was hard to live as a vessel for a Nightmare Demon when every second you close your eyes, all you could see were frightening images.

He could only attain temporary peace by using his Psionic Ability to fight the demon.

If committing suicide could destroy the demon and solve everything, he would have chosen to do so. Suicide was a common happening in this modern day and age anyway.

However, he didn’t want another person to suffer as the vessel of the demon.

Somebody reported Zheng Dao’s change immediately and not long after that, Hai Lan and the Qiao siblings promptly arrived.