Chapter 116: The Easiest Way To Get Aggro!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It was almost natural that the other party would recognize whoever was on Fang Ning’s side since Fang Ning could recognize theirs. However, out of four identities they managed to recognize, two of them were fake…
When Qiao Zishan and his men saw Fang Ning appearing out of the blue beside Vigilante A, they weren’t any surprised either. They’ve long had the intel that Vigilante A, the Venerable Dragon God, came with an extremely rare portable space equipment that had an unbelievable capacity in it. It was actually one of the focus points of the Truth Department…
“I, Zishan, extend my sincere gratitude to the Venerable White Dragon, the Venerable Dragon God, and two powerful beings from the Hound Clan. Thank you for rushing over to our assistance even though you’re from afar.” Qiao Zishan led his people to greet the four figures. He introduced his men to them one by one as they all bowed slightly in respect to the two Venerable Ones.
All of them looked humbled in their presence. Even Hai Cheng, who was usually prideful, mellowed and bowed to the Venerable Ones. He even bowed to the two hounds! There was no sign of his usual arrogance, and he did not even look awkward as he moved around with an air of humbleness.
They had no other choice, really. Originally, they wanted to shake hands during this first large-scale meeting in an attempt to strengthen the relationship of both parties. Instead, Qiao Zijiang immediately stopped that idea. Out of the four that came to them, three of them couldn’t exactly shake hands. They’re only worried that the three seniors would feel awkward in the process…
Fang Ning didn’t like to mingle with strangers, so he flew back into the System Space to hermit after some small talk, using isolating cultivation as his excuse. Besides, Fang Ning was also worried that good ol’ Sir System would start another mess without him supervising it. After all, that debuff that lowers intelligence was still there…
The crowd had no problems with it.
Instead of diving headfirst into games, Fang Ning started to fumble around after he returned to the System Space.
Fang Ning asked, “There’re too many people here that I get dizzy just by looking at them. I’ll need to check the System Map to confirm how good they are, and consequently start to analyze how far they’ve been developing their abilities…”
As he spoke, Fang Ning opened the System Map and studied it closely. Well, it was not like Fang Ning had a choice; Sir System would only concern itself with farming. The last thing it would care is how far these people have gone into cultivation.
The System Map for the current area they’re at was still locked at the moment, so the display was still black. On his side was a bunch of blue dots, while the one white spot on the other side could only be Qiao Zishan.
The other five are yellow dots mixed with significant blots of white, with differing levels for each dot. That one called Ding Xiang was the most blotted one, with half of her dot white. Qiao Zijiang followed quite closely after her, with Hai Lan, Mo Xing, and Hai Cheng after that.
Fang Ning felt that his head has grown another size due to the sheer pressure he felt just by scanning the tightly overlapping yet differently sized circles for a short while. He offhandedly whined, “My good sir, your map is great, yes, but it’s not humanized enough for actual usage. See, these big and small circles overlap each other so much, and all this yellow and white is making me confused. Look at the Truth Department, they even categorized their records according to Power Level! It’s much easier to identify people this way.”
The System retorted, “Bullsh*t, that Map was intended for my eyes only anyways, it was not even designed for human study. Who would have the time to even bother with you?”
Fang Ning didn’t take the bait. Instead, he waved at the his precious game book on the table, and it quickly flew into his hand.
As Fang Ning clutched onto his beloved game book, he complained, “Oh, my precious game book dearie, look at how tyrannical your daddy has been! He’s been bullying his owner, so you must help the owner as much as you can, okay? Why don’t you just go with whoever I point and judge Mission 2: Weaker Than None as finished? It’s a long mission line that is repeatable every season, so can I just randomly point at someone now and you just assume that person as the strongest?”
Fang Ning’s beloved game book vibrated immediately, entirely agreeable with Fang Ning’s suggestion.
The System piped up, “Okay, you win this time! Now, throw that sh*tty piece of a book here, I’ll add a Dossier into it so it’ll automatically document whatever living organism that is of value and strength. Then, it’ll categorize them according to the Power Level sourced from the System Map, and further sort them into Righteous or Evil camps according to the intensity of their colors. Happy? We’re all heroes here, we can’t cheat too overtly…”
Fang Ning nodded, “Now that’s acceptable.”
Then, he placed the game book back onto the table in the System Cyber Cafe, and soon heard a notification.
[The System expended 5,000 EXP to add a new functional module: Dossiers.]
The game book then flew. Immediately, Fang Ning leapt to his feet to catch the book in his arms, in fear that the book would fall to the ground. Then, Fang Ning said, “My beloved game book, flip to the Dossiers for your owner.”
Yeap, Fang Ning was so lazy that he immediately came up with numerous ways to simplify his life after he found out that the game book had a certain level of intelligence. It was obvious that the game book was very willing to help its owner, and with a series of flips, the thick book opened to a specific page marked as ‘Dossiers’.
As Fang Ning read the page, his entire being froze in place.
Was he seeing this right?
The first page started with a notification. After that was the basic information on Qiao Zishan.
[Important Note: All glossaries used below were to be studied by the player using common sense. The final definition is at the System’s discretion.]
[Qiao Zishan, Sex: Male, Hobbies: N/A, Age: 25. Identity: Leader of the Special Investigation Unit of the Truth Department.]
Those are the normal ones. The following detailed evaluative information, however, displayed how begrudging Sir System can be.
[Alignment: Righteous]
[Power Level: Basin-level. Description: A basin. Note: The basin is very deep, and is self-regenerating.]
Fang Ning took a moment before he snapped back into his senses after he read the Power Level column. He gave it a good thought. Did Qiao Zishan somehow anger Sir System before? Why did the System give him such a peculiar Power Level?
Still, that circular blot did have a size of a basin on the System Map, so the System most definitely did not falsify the statistics. It almost seemed considerate and normal.
Also, extremely suitable for such a lazy person like yours truly.
Even though the name was plebeian, it did manage to prompt him to immediately conjure an image in his mind of Qiao Zishan’s power as shown on the System Map after just a glance at the power level.
However, after Fang Ning moved on to flip to another page, he completely understood the System’s real intention. The System was not being considerate! Instead, that half-wit had another plan. It was indeed a genius when it came to learning combat-related issues…
[Qiao Zijiang, Sex: Female, Hobbies: N/A, Age: 18. Identity: Member of the Special Investigation Unit of the Truth Department.]
[Alignment: Neutral with an inclination towards Righteousness.]
[Power Level: Bucket-level. Description: A bucket. Note: That bucket is quite deep, but with a possibility of leakage.]
“Pfft!” Fang Ning once again confirmed the System’s real intentions.
///
As Fang Ning continued to flip the pages to check if there were any more weird denotations. He had no hope whatsoever with how low Sir System can go…
Well, he did find more disastrous ones.
[Mo Xing, Sex: Male, Hobbies: N/A, Age: 35. Identity: Member of the Special Investigation Unit of the Truth Department.]
[Alignment: Neutral with an inclination towards Righteousness.]
[Power Level: Cutlery-level. Description: Redundant. High probability of dying immediately after joining.]
///
[Hai Cheng, Sex: Male, Hobbies: N/A, Age: 27. Identity: Member of the Think Tank Group in the Truth Department.]
///
Fang Ning spoke slowly and calmly after he entirely grasped the System’s intentions, as if he was trying to look cool, “System, I’ve completely acknowledged your abilities in improving our skills and our combat powers! Your levels are set that way because you wanted me to spread it out, right? Then, people will say things like this everywhere: ‘Even a bucket-level powerhouse dares to challenge me, a basin-level master?’ Who would be able to stay calm in that situation? All of them would know that it originated from me, so our Aggro would definitely increase continuously everyday. Look at you, planning so wisely.”
The System sounded wronged as it lamented, “Host, you always like to drag people through the mud without good reason! I have no plans like that, and all that was not set without thought! It all came from the System Map’d evaluation, and are entirely based on facts. Remember how you immediately thought of basins and bathtubs when you saw a great opponent on the Map? I sensed all of your thoughts clearly, especially when they’re that strong!”
“Besides, all of this was to give you the best convenience you can have! This is much more realistic than the Grade ABCD that the Truth Department came up with, no? If I put it this way, you could immediately grasp the entire picture with just one glance. Grade A Powerhouses can be entirely different in terms of power! Some lower level ones could kill those that are of higher level than them because even though they looked weaker than the other party, they actually have more depth.”
“With this way, I could differentiate these special cases, and prevent you from tripping over them. See, I’m so humane with you! How could you misunderstand me when I’ve gone to such lengths to categorize things for you? It’s so difficult being a System…”
Sir System’s machine gun speech had Fang Ning dumbfounded, the latter clutching his precious game book, completely silent… With all of these excuses given, Fang Ning could just forget about asking that fellow to spend more Experience Points to change it.
Fang Ning breathed in and accepted his fate. “Forget it, it’s fine. I’ll be using it privately anyways, and I would never breathe about any of this to even a soul. Though, after you mentioned it, I realized that even though the names are sh*t, they’re quite graphic indeed…”
The System immediately answered, “Host, you finally understood my efforts. I looked up all of the Power Level descriptions from all of the novels you humans have, and I concluded that mine is the best when it comes to inclusivity. Still, you did manage to inform me that you humans take names so seriously that we could gain Aggro in such an easy way! I never thought of that advantage when I made this. You better start spreading this out, stop reading those books of yours…”
Fang Ning felt blood well up in his mouth as he kept shaking his head to show how firm his stance was. “See, your intentions are exposed now! No, I don’t have such a thick skin like yours. I’ll use this privately, and I don’t even dare to tell this to anyone. I have a bigger plan that I need the Venerable White Dragon’s image intact to execute…”
The System tried to convince Fang Ning. “Wait, I could pay you…”
Fang Ning chided, “Do I look like someone who could be bought over with money? Let me think about it, I’ll need to come up with a way to go about this. It’s good, yes, but we need to avoid poking the beehive.”
The System beamed. “I have faith in you! You can do this!”
///
At the same time, Qiao Zishan and the others of course had no idea that they had undergone a makeover by an immoral System, and were now labeled as basin-level and bucket-level powerhouses.
Instead, they just sat together and discussed their next move.
