《Master of the System 》Chapter 5
Advertisement
Vremya stared at his holographic display with a deep frown etched in his face. Hums of displeasure escaped his throat as he rubbed his chin. The sound was grating and repeated without pause. Eventually, the Labrador Retriever lying beside him turned her head away from her personal computer. “Alright, grumpy old man,” she said and rolled her eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m trying to make sense of this,” Vremya said.
“Which part?” Karta asked as she climbed to her feet. “Are you still trying to find a user for your system?”
“No,” Vremya said. “I can’t seem to—”
“Old man,” Karta said, her eye twitching upon seeing a familiar symbol on the display. “You have to charge these things.” She went to the base of Vremya’s personal computer and removed a side panel. She bit down on the spirit stone that was inside and removed it before glancing at Vremya. She swallowed the spirit stone and licked her lips. “It takes one heaven-grade spirit stone to power your computer for a year. This one was running out.”
Vremya nodded and looked down. He was wearing a red fanny pack that belonged to Pozhar. It was a dimensional storage tool, and everything the god of fire had accumulated was contained inside. Vremya reached into the fanny pack and pulled out a glowing stone which he shoved into the battery slot of the personal computer.
“Alright,” Karta said and walked back to the front of the display. “Which part were you stuck on? Finding a user?”
“No,” Vremya said, taking a spot beside the dog. “I’m still reading the user manual.”
“What the hell?” Karta asked, staring at the old man with wide eyes.
“Hmm?” Vremya raised an eyebrow. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Advertisement
“I’ve never met anyone who actually takes the time to read the user manual.”
Vremya frowned. “If you don’t read the user manual, how do you know how to use the personal computer?”
“You just know,” Karta said and rolled her eyes. “Everything’s user-friendly. If it looks like a button, then you press it. If there’s a red notification, then you click on the icon. It’s intuitive.”
“My ass,” Vremya said, and the Labrador Retriever beside him couldn’t help but take a peek at Vremya’s backside at his words. “How can something with a user manual that’s 14,465,982,347 pages long be intuitive?”
Karta tilted her head. “Maybe you’re just not very bright?”
Vremya kicked Karta, but his foot was stopped by an invisible barrier. “Why is violence amongst gods banned?” he asked with a grumble. “Such a dumb rule.”
“Well, that’s because we have to be unified to suppress the titans,” Karta said, not minding Vremya’s attempt at attacking her. “Wait a minute.” The dog’s eyes narrowed at Vremya. “You went to sleep before the titans even showed up.”
“Titans?”
“You can Poiskle it.”
“Poiskle?”
“It’s this app over here,” Karta said, gesturing towards Vremya’s holographic display with her nose. “Poisk, the god of searching, created a search engine that compiles information from all over. You just type in what you’re looking for and hit enter. Like this.” She nudged Vremya to the side and swatted at the display with her paws; they moved like black lightning, and if Vremya weren’t a god himself, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with her actions.
Vremya’s eyes brightened upon seeing the results on the display. “I can search for anything?”
Advertisement
Karta glanced at Vremya through the corner of her eyes. “Explicit search results cost you ten spirit stones per image. Don’t be like the god of lust and bankrupt yourself, okay? I’m still counting on you to rent your land to me.”
Vremya slapped at Karta’s head. “What kind of person do you think I am?”
“Say that after wiping the drool off your mouth!”
Vremya cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. There wasn’t anything there, and after examining the dog’s expression, Vremya realized he was tricked. “Nonsense. I’m an upright person.”
“Whatever you say,” Karta said with a sneer. “If you can’t figure anything out, just Poiskle it. I’m going to tend to my chickens.”
“Why do you…, never mind,” Vremya said and shook his head as he watched Karta walk away. The dog told him to Poiskle anything he didn’t understand, so he would do that. “What was it? Dog tending to chickens….” Vremya scrolled through the search results, and a strange expression appeared on his face. “So, dogs can tend to chickens by eating their poop. I see….” Vremya scratched his head. Well, it was a good thing he put that anti-odor tool on her.
After satisfying his curiosity about dogs and chickens and titans, Vremya went back to reading the user manual. Ten years passed in relative silence. Every so often, Karta would come by and check his display to see if he was still reading the user manual. One fateful day, the Labrador Retriever came by and saw Vremya standing in a different position than usual. In front of the old man, there was a display with an app Karta had never seen before. Her eyes widened, and she came up next to the old man. “What’s that? Did you make it yourself?”
“That’s right,” Vremya said. “After reading the user manual, I compiled my own system. Come, let’s test it together.”
***
Smith lay on his back, chewing on a piece of hay. He was a scrawny young man with frizzled black hair. His skin was tan, and his hands and feet were covered in callouses. He was wearing a pair of blue suspenders without a shirt. Clouds drifted over his head, and his eyes were glazed over as they followed one cloud as it crawled across the sky.
Ding!
Smith nearly fell off his bench from the sudden sound. He sat up and looked around. What the hell was that?
[Congratulations, user! You’ve been chosen by the Ultimate God of Time Everything System Alpha v0.1.0.]
“The Ultimate God of Time Everything System Alpha v0.1.0?” Smith mumbled and rubbed his eyes. What the hell was going on? Did he eat something bad? Was the sect under attack by an illusionist? No, perhaps he was the only one being attacked. However, he was just a mere laborer! Why did the illusionist have to target him?
[To accept the Ultimate God of Time Everything System Alpha v0.1.0, please draw a circle around yourself on the ground with the quest-completion chalk. You can find it in your right pocket.]
An unfamiliar object touched Smith’s leg from inside his pocket. In response, Smith stripped naked and threw his clothes to the ground. Then, he ran away. He’d have to be a fool to accept something with such a shady name, and Smith was no fool!
Advertisement
Rise of the White Dragon
June 15 of the year 2010, the third awakening happened. Several smaller worlds had returned to connect with the main world as living beings of different races started to appear and some people managed to connect with the origin and gain control of various powers: control of fire, of water, of wind, of air, and of earth... In the midst of all these confusions, towers that gave unimaginable powers began to appear in all corners of the world, where those who already had powers could upgrade and become more powerful or even those who did not have powers could receive powers through tests of the tower. And because of these towers, conflicts started to happen in all corners of the world by those wanting to monopolize these towers.Luan Dimas was betrayed by one of the people he trusted most. However, in his final moments before being killed, he was transported back to four months before the third awakening that started the apocalypse on earth. Being a man who lived for a thousand years and had accumulated several techniques, he now had a new chance to correct some of his early mistakes. Luan decided to make the most of this new chance that the heavens had given to him.
8 1184Malheur aux vaincus - Short stories
I am a reader, not a writer. But in the spirit of contributing to the trove of texts present here, I hope to share some short stories that I wrote: two in French in a Roman Fantasy setting ; and the rest in English: one inspired by manichean webnovels, another one... difficult to classify as a fiction, a little flight of fancy about the 'What if?' game, and last even two poems.
8 200The Dragonborn Comes: A Self Insert
A 17 year-old wastrel falls asleep after a gaming session and wakes up as an orphan, finding himself in a world that he believed to be fiction. He'll face his fears, embrace his shortcomings, and maybe come out of the other side as something more. A moral procrastinator's journey to find his place in a world filled with magic and fraught with danger.Slow-paced story with an SI OC. Enjoy!--------------------------------------------------------------------------UPDATE SCHEDULE:One chapter of 3-5k words per week.--------------------------------------------------------------------------DISCLAIMER:Barring my own OCs (Original Characters), I do not own any of the characters in this story nor do I own the rights to the ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Elder Scrolls’ series. I am but a lowly fan, expressing his love for the stories that he grew up with.
8 142The Change
Percy is accused of the attempted murder of one major and one minor goddess and the fading of a minor goddess. He is sent to Tartarus but years later the gods realize their mistake and bring him back just in time for a war against a new villain. Only this time Percy isn't the same. Tartarus changed Percy and not in a good way.
8 61The Wolf Priestess and the Lion Knight
Kagome died most unexpectedly, but that was not the end of her adventure; being the Shikon, Miko had its perks, one of which was being favored by the Kamis. The Kamis decided that Kagome's soul was too valuable to let slip into oblivion in the underworld, so they sent Midoriko to her and informed Kagome that she would be reborn into another world where her help was desperately needed.Midoriko informed Kagome that she was to be born in the world of Planatos, specifically the country of Westeros. There, she would become a daughter of House Stark, and with her birth, the chain of events that led to the extinction of that House could be stopped. Kagome would have a difficult journey, but in the end, it would be worth it, and in the future, she may be the key to uniting to grand houses and finally finding the love she so desperately wanted.Will Kagome be able to complete this monumental task the Kamis have given her, or will she fall with the rest of her new family? And who is this great love of hers? Read and find out.I DO NOT OWN GAME OF THRONES OR INUYASHA; THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.Start Date: July 21, 2022. Slow Updates.
8 133Phượng về tổ (ngocquynh520 convert)
Phượng về tổTác giả: Tầm Hoa Thất Lạc Đích Ái TìnhGiới thiệu:Từ Hầu phủ dòng chính nữ, đến Quyền Khuynh Thiên Hạ Hoàng thái hậu.Cố Hoàn Ninh cả đời này trầm bổng phập phồng, nếm gian tân, cũng hưởng hết vinh hoa.Nhắm mắt một khắc kia, thể xác và tinh thần mệt mỏi nàng rốt cuộc đã bình ổn tĩnh.Không ngờ, vừa mở mắt, nàng không ngờ sống lại trở về mười ba tuổi một năm này. . . . . .
8 168