"Have you been well, Money-Making System?" Stencil asked upon staring at the kneeling figure of Ying.
A mental energy stream slammed into her, bringing a reply from the Secondary System.
[I don't want to see you.]
"Ah, I see." Stencil nodded and took out a choker that she placed on Ying, watching him squirm in response as electrical currents drilled into his body and began to influence the System fragment within.
Ying soon fell under her control as Stencil continued to unleash her power before eventually condensing a mysterious stream between the two. It was the fate connection she shared with the Money-Making System.
It was strong, terrifyingly so thanks to the effect of Infinite Regression strengthening it daily. Stencil unleashed some of her abilities, observing there to be no effect on the fate stream. Rather, even if she damaged it, the fate recovered within a second.
As her body continued to grow, so did the fate stream, 'It seems I cannot sever it as quickly as I had hoped.'
Stencil frowned as she stared above, watching the dents on the 24 Rings she had covered the hunter world with deform grandly under Zaira's attacks, "It cannot last any longer under her attacks."
She sighed, 'I originally wanted to sever the fate between us and escape from this place. But it seems I need to bring Ying with me and work on severing the fate at a later date.'
Through the choker, she gained enough information about Ying.
"We're leaving. Cover my tracks." Stencil looked at Earth Star to see the other party nod in response. She then took off to the skies with Ying in toe as the 24 Rings rapidly morphed into a rotating sphere that slammed into the heavenly hand unleashed by Zaira.
"You won't escape, brat!" Zaira's voice reverberated throughout the universe as through the Astral Network, she transmitted her influence. At present, she was pregnant, carrying a precious secret of the Systems.
And hence, she didn't wish to implicate that by appearing at the scene personally. Thereby, she attacked through the Astral Network, which worked to Stencil's advantage.
After all, the strength Zaira was able to exhibit through the Astral was only the peak of Grade 3, for its foundation only allowed that—as it was created by the Grade 3 System, Tell-Tale.
Boom!
The rotating rings splashed out from the attack, flying massive distances away. But before the second attack struck Stencil, another batch of rings appeared to defend her and her group.
As for the first batch of rings, they stabilised themselves and rushed towards Stencil in a matter of seconds, creating a cycle where rings were constantly flying in and out of the contact point.
Tch!
Zaira clicked her tongue and focused, observing that all the Grade 3 Systems were busy at the moment. Mascot was rampaging around after gaining Immortal's army.
So, to strengthen herself, she began to seek out all the Systems in her worlds and kill them one after another. None of the Grade 1 Systems were able to handle her army and were killed one after another.
It would take some time before Zaira could revive them. This created a lot of losses for her, since a significant amount of Mental Energy was expended in the process.
Even if the Systems weren't killed, to avoid that fate, they had to return to the System World prematurely, causing a loss on their investments, not to mention the hundred thousand Mental Energy they had to spend for the return trip alone.
And when this happened in large droves, the System World's gains slowed down rapidly. It had to be noted that the majority of the System World's Mental Energy income was generated by the Grade 1 Systems.
Not Grade 2, Grade 3, or even the legendary Grade 4 Systems. Yes, Grade 2 Systems controlled the races over many worlds while Grade 3 Systems controlled hundreds of worlds each.
But in the end, their numbers were limited. The number of Grade 2 Systems was in the three digits while the number of Grade 3 Systems was in the two digits. So, even though their Mental Energy revenue was the greatest individually, but when compared as a collective whole, they paled in comparison to the Grade 1 Systems that numbered in the billions.
After all, at most, a few Grade 1 Systems were present in a world. And even then, they pretty much controlled the upper echelons of the respective world.
And yes, the majority of the presence of Systems in the myriad worlds of the multiverse was Grade 1 Systems. So, if they were being targeted, the System World's finances would take a severe hit.
After all, even if a Grade 2 System Host were to be killed, all that was lost was a mere fragment that the Grade 2 System could casually regenerate. But, in the case of a Grade 1 System, its death meant an end.
Zaira herself would have to expend a lot of the respective Mental Energy to revive the System that might have even lost a few levels in the process—depending upon the damage it sustained to its Core Skill.
Hence, the majority of Grade 2 and Grade 3 Systems that were free had jumped to intercept Mascot's actions. The remaining were busy controlling the System World's losses sustained during the previous war.
Losing the Tell-Tale System was a crushing blow to the Systems.
"No one's free…" Zaira sighed as she focused on the Regression System that was helplessly recuperating within the System World. Having used its Core Skill Manifestation, the Regression System was unable to use its Core Skill for a century, not to mention its other abilities or for that matter, even accumulate Mental Energy.
There were still 25 years before it could recover.
Moreover, Mascot's actions presented a chance for the other Genre Representatives to take advantage and free up their worlds from the grasp of the Systems better.
"It seems I have no other choice." Zaira sighed, "If possible, I didn't wish to reveal the Secondary System's existence to him. But since Stencil needs to keep it alive to successfully sever her fate, it's the best choice."
Immediately in response, she formed a connection with three individuals in total as immediately…
Boom!
"Kyak!" Stencil shrieked in shock when all her rings exploded suddenly, injuring her in the process as an individual descended into the void.
His arrival caused the fate of the entire universe to converge upon him rapidly, as if happy to be in his mere presence.
"What a monster." Stencil paled in fright, as after her recent growth, she became capable of observing the true terrifyingness of the entity her father fought against.
Grade 1 System—Main Character (Level 99)!
