Before Leopardo was allowed to process the insane mumblings of the mad man that put him through all this pain, his head was grabbed once more. His heart immediately clenched tight as if it knew what was coming in the next few seconds. With a twirl of dark chi in the surroundings, the interim leader of the Southern Capital felt a tugging sensation throughout his body. At first, he thought his blood would be drained since the man in the long coat claimed he was going to heal Nightingale.
But soon, he realised that it was more than just his blood, he felt his life force was being absorbed right into the palm of the devil. “Ah, such vitality. As much as you are a warrior, you knew how to enjoy life too. Compared to what your employees eat on a daily basis, you have outlived them by a hundred times more. Oh little Nightingale, you’ll be getting more than you deserve and trust me, you will need it for the days to come. Hehehe!” Kraft said as he used his chi to maintain the life force on his palm and slowly walked to the barely unconscious little ninja.
“Infused will be memories, techniques, experience and so much more. Unfortunately, you’re getting the whole package, so there will also be undesirable things such as a distaste for monsters and the absolute discrimination against them. But have no worries, a little one on one session with me should ensure that you will be making friends with monsters in no time!” He giggled as he was looking forward to her contribution under him.
The fox leader had wanted to get himself a secretary for some time now. Qui Yue, the little Red Panda Cutie, had been a promising candidate on his radar, but after getting to know her, he had decided against putting her in between himself and Jin. Ayse had been another one on his mind, especially with her feistiness, but as Jin’s Head Researcher she had more than enough on her plate.
He could have easily chosen one of the Foxes like Kiyu for that role, given their capabilities, but they were neither pure and innocent. Not like this girl right in front of him. While her fighting skills needed some brushing up, she had the potential to do so much more especially when he browsed through her memories and saw that her brilliant current battle experience had been gathered in a short span of time. Now that the System and Jin had announced to the world that the Royal Panda Clan was still alive, it’s time for the Fox Clan as its trusty vassal to grow in strength too.
“Only unlike that young Panda Master, who’s willing to take people randomly and sometimes incessantly just for his dungeon instance, I’m a little more refined. Although I got to say his batch of ‘clan members’ has subsequently grown to be a fine group of people. Enemies turned friends? That’s like the classic going from black to white!” Kraft snickered as he inserted the lifeforce into Nightingale while putting in a bit of foxy chi in the mix to make her his.
“Original Bellator Kraft, while it is commendable that you are building up your own clan once again. Please be sure to do so within reason. The System still does not have sufficient processing capabilities to keep everything together.”
“Yes, yes, now quickly go get that titan brain or something. It sucks that you’re giving us such a handicap. Like seriously, you should have done limitations like this for the past generations. That way, those Users wouldn’t have ended up too drunk in power, you dork.” Kraft complained and that rendered the System speechless for a moment.
“The Users under the System required that amount of power to stay alive during that period of time. It was a necessity for them.”
“You mean just as necessary as them going around, doing stupid things because they had an awesome power backing them up?” Kraft shook his head since he had more than a few faces popping up in his mind the moment he talked about it.
“The System will take your suggestion into consideration and review its protocols upon the passing of the current User.” The System stated and Kraft’s gave a sarcastic expression of being horrified.
“You are putting a death flag in his life story! So evil of you! And to think I might be considered a bad person! Perhaps you are the antagonist this whole time!” Kraft exaggerated as he continued to treat Nightingale while Leopardo was convinced the person who was taking his life was completely insane. He could not believe his life would end just like this.
“Oh no, no, no. You’re not allowed to leave us so fast! This time, I will have myself a fantastic time learning all about the insane stuff you guys have been doing behind the people’s back. The quick glimpse previously has already revealed that you are the hypocrite type who just acts like a goody-two-shoes.” Kraft smirked as he wielded his dark chi with another hand and did a telekinetic chi slap at Leopardo.
But as he did that, the entire hideout suddenly shook and the tremor did not stop until a few seconds later. Kraft knew that there was no way his slap could have done and there was only one other explanation for this unnatural tremor. “Peppers already got her spell out?” Kraft asked the System for the coordinates to this particular hideout.
The System instantly showed the distance away from the Southern Capital in a holographic screen in front of Kraft which made him chuckle. “Oh, Peppers… so much for holding back, eh?”
“System is now processing all those who have been killed and putting them in various overflow stacks to ensure that User will eventually keep control of the Zurglings.” The System stated.
“Why the need for so much micromanaging? Just put the Queen under our control and let her handle the revived brood. Say, now that you mention it, I got quite curious when Jin told me his army numbered around eight thousand-odd? You see, cause last I recalled, the number of monsters we captured should be way much more than that.” Kraft pointed out as he leisurely deciphered Leopardo’s brain while at the same time healing Nightingale. Although he had to multitask, the latter was already almost done and he just wanted to make sure she would make an awesome servant.
“That number corresponds to the number of sentient monsters who are able to think for themselves and don’t need to be commanded by the System. Monsters and animals once possessed by the Bone Spirits and Zurglings were not counted in. So are the livestock which had been captured in the Giant World. Also, System has been starting to make sure that the quality of the monsters captured would be of a certain standard following the newly revised protocol. Anything that falls short of the revised standard will be thrown away.”
” HAHAHAHAH! ‘Thrown away’? Haha! Please, you might be able to bluff Jin with the amount of trust you’ve regained in this short amount of time, but you don’t have to do that to me. I know what happens to those people that are killed and ‘discarded’. Instead of buying more items that could expand your processing capabilities, you use them as vessels.” Kraft snorted that the System did not deny such allegations.
“And do not think I did not notice. While the official number for your processing capabilities still stays the same, you actually have a backup System that is crunching the numbers at the backend. And those monsters and people you discarded have been used for that particular backup System” Kraft pointed out.
“The current User has worthy ambitions that are worth pursuing but System also realised that it will be impossible to achieve his dreams without any underhand methods. As the System has said before, this is the real chance to grow and return to former glory and thus we will do whatever it takes to make sure it will be possible if not in this then in the next generation.”
“As such, let the true burden of his glory be borne to the elders while at the same time correct the wrongs that we did.” Kraft grinned gently. He had uncovered all the information he needed from Leopardo before sapping out the last of his lifeforce.
His ‘sacrifice’ would allow him to serve the System…in a different way.
