10 9

Vice was currently curled up on the floor, clutching at his head. The amount of pain he had just experienced was the greatest he'd ever had. It was only after five minutes of this agony that he finally picked himself up and dusted himself off. His pitch-black eyes were currently glowing in a peculiar blue light, much to his surprise as he could see blue lines on the floor in front of him.

'What the hell is this?' Vice thought.

'The system's given you the coordinates in real time you idiot. Go and follow them quickly, before you lose your target,' Favian replied hectically.

Vice sprinted toward the blue lines, ignoring most of his surroundings as he did so. The blue lines curved around any obstacles, and so he didn't need to focus on anything other than running right now, as his mind was still a bit bogged by the previous influx of information from the system.

'System, is it always going to hurt this much when you do something like that?' Vice asked as he jumped over a food cart.

[DING! Affirmative]

Vice sighed after hearing this and put his focus onto getting to his destination as soon as possible. There was a blue minimap engraved into his mind by the system, which he could visualize whenever he closed his eyes. The red dot that had been moving away at a fast speed was currently frozen at what seemed to be a house.

'Shit, it has found its target. I'm too far away right now to make it in time,' he thought and tried to sprint even quicker than before.

After almost ten minutes he finally arrived at the location. Vice was able to make out the large green house that had lots of shrubbery around it like a greenhouse. Roses, violets and sunflowers along with a multitude of different flowers were within Vice's vision, and the moonlight made them all look mystical as if they were magical herbs.

"AHHH, HELP ME," a female voice screamed out.

The red dot that was within the minimap in Vice's mind suddenly darted away from the building. Without a single thought he rushed after the dot.

'What is that? Is it a ghost?' Vice thought as he stared at the widowmaker that was only a dozen meters ahead of him. It looked like the figure was wearing a wedding dress, and the long white dress dragged against the ground as it ran away. However, the proportions of the figures upper and lower body didn't fit what he expected, as its lower body was many times larger than its upper body.

'Oh? I didn't expect this turn of events. You'll laugh when you find out, I think,' Favian said softly.

'Favian do you know who this widowmaker is? Tell me if you do.'

'No, you'll have to find out yourself dumbass,' Favian replied, after which he went mute despite Vice continuously asking him the same question.

"Fuck, guess I'm on my own then," Vice shouted. He wasn't able to close the distance between himself and the widowmaker, much to his frustration. Whenever he tried to pick up the pace it would as well, almost as if it was toying with him.

Vice had to weave through the small streets, many of which were filled with food stalls and other carts that impeded his movement. On the other hand the widowmaker was somehow able to move through them.

'Damn it, I didn't want to use magic in the city or else I might have to deal with those pesky police forces,' Vice thought. He'd been contemplating for a while but realized there was going to be no way for him to catch up at this rate.

Purple wisps of arcana undulated around Vice's hands, and tiny purple wisps crackled around it chaotically. A huge burst of mana was released from within Vice, thickening quickly until it solidified into a weapon. Two blackish-purple daggers sat in Vice's hands.

Vice looked at the weapons in his hands with rage, and threw them at the widowmaker. Immediately after throwing them he turned around and walked away.

'I fucking hate this chaotic roulette sometimes. What if this was a battle to the death and I was given such a useless weapon,' Vice thought.

'You need to start embracing the chaos Vice. You need to become an expert in all of these weapons or else my teaching will become useless. And hey… what the hell there's no need to call daggers useless, they're really over powered actually,' Favian said.

Vice trudged back to his villa with his head drooped and knuckles clenched. The moment he made it back, after checking up on his mother who was comfortably sleeping, Vice went into his room and began to cultivate. Tendrils of different colored particle swooped into Vice's chest as he sat in a meditative position. His horns glowed brightly as he cultivated, pulling at the particles with a strong gravitational force.

Unlike regular humans who could only wait for the arcana particles to move toward them, Vice was able to instinctively pulled those particles from his surroundings, aiding in his cultivation greatly, and putting him in a category above almost all of his peers. Of course, there were individuals from rich families or families with a strong background in cultivation that were able to afford the expensive concoctions which Vice wasn't able to.

Vice sighed out in relief as he finished his meditation. His muscles felt a lot less tense than they had been for the stressful days he'd just been through. 'Cultivating always relaxes me so much, I'm glad,' he thought as he slowly opened his eyes. He savored the refreshing feeling for as long as he could, until he finally felt the need to hop off and get back to work.

[DING! The host has progressed to the next level by 10%]

'Huh? What's this?' Vice was jolted to his feet by the notification, which took him completely off guard.

'You progressed really far in one day is what it means. You haven't cultivated since gaining this bracelet, so the reward seems pretty darn good,' Favian said.

Vice looked at the black bracelet on his left hand curiously. 'So you can boost my cultivation speed? What else can you do for me? Do you have a name?'

[DING! To answer the host's question, the system's previous user named it Lee, however, feel free to rename the system at any point in time. And further functions will be organically given to the host, it would be a shame if the new host were to die from all of the information transfer available]

'Lee? Oh come on that's such a stupid name. Hey Vice, name it something else. Something cool like Elon,' Favian said.

Vice stared at the mirror in his room blankly as he thought of a name. 'I don't want to make it something pointless or without meaning. How about Virtue? It has the opposite meaning to mine,' he thought.

[DING! The system has now been renamed to Virtue. Thank you host, how would you prefer to be addressed as?] Virtue asked in its characteristic monotone voice in Vice's head.

'Oh just call me Vice, there's no need for anything different,' he replied.

'And here you could have made it call you prince or even king. You're really no fun most of the time Vice,' Favian said.

'Oh, why don't you go look for some other person to annoy Favian? Oh? Got nothing to say? That's exactly what I thought,' Vice thought with a smirk on his face.

"Ahh it's still dark outside, what should I do?" Vice muttered under his breath as he stared outside of his window. He then decided to take a quick shower and freshened himself up. After checking up on his mother, who was still asleep, Vice left for the woods.

Restok as a city was covered by woodland and forest in all directions, and different roads were paved through to the different areas you could go to. The main road out of the city, which most carriages used, was the road to the main city of the human kingdom, Dia. This road was the most used, and therefore most highly protected road. This meant that a lot of merchants and travelers would use it to get to their destination, despite it being a detour.

Vice walked past multiple carriages as he used the main road out of the city to reach thick into the beast range nearby. He wanted to fight something to test out his skills. Also, he was still furious about the incident previously against the widowmaker, and subconsciously wanted to relieve this stress against some creatures.

The dimly lit road that was difficult for regular humans to navigate was expertly handled by Vice with his dark vision. Only a couple kilometers from the start of the road, Vice jumped into the tightly nit pine trees, disappearing into the thick foliage and bushes. Slowly the evergreen area transformed into a sickly brown, and the previous pine trees that stood tall in the area were instead replaced by weeping willows with brown leaves. Ravens cawed under the moonlight as Vice walked past the dreary area.