"W-W-What is happening? How did this information leak?" Zaira was in a state of fluster before her senses spread across the System World. She immediately detected the location of the Wise Old Man System, shouting as her figure appeared before it, "I knew it!"
"Only you could have figured it out."
"Hahaha!" By this point, the Wise Old Man System had already lost itself to madness. It simply rampaged around without any semblance of intelligence.
'Dammit! To think Mystique was able to influence them!' She grunted in frustration as she carried the Wise Old Man System and threw it back into the quarantine area, along with the rest of the maddened Systems she captured.
One after another, she threw them back along with the polluted Mental Energy from the other areas. Before they could permanently seep into the area and become a part of it, Zaira extracted and dumped it in the quarantined area.
The last on the list was the Ancient Strengthening System. By the time she arrived before it, things had turned for the worse.
She stared at the ground, grunting in anger as two mountainous entities lay in a bloody mess. The blood of each had mixed, causing the madness to permeate.
Another Grade 3 System fell victim to the madness. Zaira tried to save it, but upon seeing that the madness had even infiltrated its Coordinate, she couldn't do anything. Sighing, she had to cut off the entire piece of earth seething with madness and dump it in the quarantined area.
She sealed them all, sighing as she watched the two Grade 3 Systems duke it out the moment they recovered. "Dammit!"
Unfortunately for Zaira, her troubles were only beginning. After all, during her hurry to protect the System World, she hadn't realised that Slayer had been kidnapped. And by now, even worse news awaited her.
…
"W-What happened?" Slayer looked around in fluster, observing that he had been brought to a random universe where there was no Astral Network.
He stared at the three Grade 1 Systems in alarm, "W-Who are you?"
"Guess?" All three said simultaneously, causing despair to set in him.
"I'll only need to kill you anyway…" Slayer said, intending to attack using Immortal's power, for that was the fastest way to break out of a situation.
But suddenly, his recent memories were wiped out. Moreover, none of his powers worked. It was as if they didn't even exist in the first place. Well, how could they?
Origin Art—Procrastination!
Primary Factor—Exploration!
The trio had erupted with their respective abilities.
The Origin Art of Procrastination cause Slayer to delay his retaliation response, preventing him from acting against them even with a defensive ability. It was thanks to this that Ahjar was able to kidnap Slayer through his Primary Factor of Exploration.
Universe Weapon—Hate Erasure!
Hate Erasure destroyed Slayer's memories involved with the intent to harm Compass Carburettor.
Universe Weapon: Universal Anthozoa—Survival Life of a Fragile Mortal!
Tertiary Factor—Restriction Order!
Restriction Order suppressed the Representative System's powers. Yes, it was this power of Arnark that Ahjar had stolen. This one ability was an absolute counter to the Systems.
Following that, Universal Anthozoa turned Slayer into a mortal. Patting Slayer on the shoulder with his gloved right hand, Compass Carburettor grinned and punched with his left, shattering Slayer's teeth, "You have…schemed against my family time and again."
"Don't expect a happy death."
"Wait," Ahjar stopped him in a hurry, saying, "It's seriously draining to keep him as a mortal like this. Both of us will run dry at this rate. Why don't we…use him as fuel?"
"Fine, I'll do that first. By the time I vent fully, he would be dead." Sighing in disappointment, Compass Carburettor stabbed his hand through Slayer, activating Lore and Tell-Tale in conjunction as he yanked out the Representative System's Core Skill.
With a flicker, the Core Skill was swallowed by Faith Grounds and instantly digested. Now, Slayer was nothing, just a hollow System filled with Mental Energy. If not for the effects of Universal Anthozoa that turned him into a mortal human, Slayer's body would have begun to vaporise by now.
"There's still more than three-fourths of the Representative System out there, right?" Hazen asked, "Wouldn't he recover his strength once we halt our abilities?"
"Of course, he would recover." Ahjar rolled his eyes, "But isn't that what we want?"
He grinned, "If he doesn't wish to vanish, he would have no other choice but to retract enough of his fragments and beg Zaira for a Coordinate big enough to house a peak Grade 3 System. And most of those fragments would have to be fused with the Coordinate to recreate the Core Skill, the heart of a System."
"What do you think happens when he does that?" Ignoring the figure of Slayer coughing out blood, Ahjar stared at Hazen.
In enlightenment, Hazen nodded like a hen, "The Genre Representatives would become free."
"Mostly Immortal." Ahjar shrugged, "Currently, he's consuming the biggest fragment of the Representative System. And he's also resisting the hardest."
'We triggered his cultivator's nature enough.' Ahjar moaned internally, truly finding peace in the chaos he had created. He stared at Compass Carburettor in delight, 'I truly found the most interesting guy. As expected of my taste in choosing Hosts.'
At this moment, Compass Carburettor retracted his hand and stared at Slayer, urging him coldly, "Go on, retract as much of your body as you need."
"I'll pummel you after that."
Slayer stared at Compass Carburettor, sweating buckets as he felt unbridled fear. He intended to rely upon Immortal's power to leave the place first, for allowing the Genre Representatives to break free of his control would truly madden Zaira.
The beatings he received when Magister broke free continued to haunt him. He didn't wish to disappoint her further. But, the moment he tried to escape, his body remained rooted to the spot.
"Wow, look at this dumbass, lol!" Ahjar stared in disdain, "You're thinking of teleporting away in the presence of the Concept Representative of Space? When did you become such a noob, lol?"
'If Ahjar's talking like this, it means he's absolutely confident with the situation.' Compass Carburettor recalled the time when he first arrived at the System World. This was the manner of speech used by the Money-Making System when it slapped him with its tongue repeatedly.
It would have caused him anger, that was, if he remained as Compass Carburettor. But with the Psyche Star filter removed, he just stared at Ahjar taunting Slayer calmly, simply recalling the relevant experience.
'Maybe his true identity is the Concept Representative of Taunting.' The multitude of experiences in him thought as such for fun.
