Appraisal - Chapter 4

**Jay (System)**

With all the problems going on there must be some of you thinking, ‘Man this MC guy must be really unlucky.. Buuuut he's still getting through them all unscathed, so is he secretly lucky after all?’ Let me tell you, it's not luck that is guiding me through all the shit that's been going on, it's my cockroach mentality to drag myself up one god damn step at a time until hopefully I can get some sweet peace.

I was walking around in the dusk, tip-toeing so as to not alert Mario, and I found this thin foldable metal piece of technology. When I opened it, the interface looked a lot like the ‘searchers’ we had back at the sect, searchers were holographic Qi devices that could be used to access the sect's library and a variety of other cultivation research/knowledge. I opened up the thing and saw a password screen, from snooping in Mario's head I knew his apartment code 1234, so I put that in… but it was incorrect.

‘Damn this going to be a pain, if I don’t get it soon I'm just gonna keep looking around.’ I tried the opposite, 4321, and to my extreme surprise it actually worked!

‘Dude this guy is a complete idiot.. Did I really pick the right subordinate in the end? Humph, whatever, I'm just going to have to fill in for his weak links.’

‘Right so there should be a big database of stuff connected to this computer right? I need to see how it connects and maybe I can do some trickery with my Qi to emulate the connection without a computer, in order to access it at all times.’

‘Hmm it seems that it's sending a stream of radio waves and a stream is returning back, the little Qi I have right now is plenty enough to emulate that connection, then I need to translate the binary information I get back and all should be well and good.’

‘Ok now that I have access to a wealth of mortal information, appraisal will be no problem, let's pry open my Qi-seal a little more; how about I try and cultivate in order to push out a little bit more of Qi to my dantian.’

1 cycle.

2 cycles.

3 cycles.

4 cycles.

5 cycles.

6 cycles.

7 cycles.

8 cycles.

9 cycles.

10 cycles.

2 hours passed at an excruciatingly slow speed, at the end my frustration broke my concentration and thus ended my cultivation.

'Damn, now I know the reason why every cultivator wants to escape this mortal hell-hole, there is almost no Qi in this place.’

Qi is all life's internal energy - although most life-forms don’t actively cultivate it, due to lack know-how, poor talent in terms of dantian roots, and the lack of passive Qi in the environment. The reason for cultivators' upward expansion and subsequently why lower regions have so little Qi, is because the closer you are to a planet, the stronger the atmosphere is, and Qi is not some intangible magical substance (even if some might argue otherwise) it takes up space, so when there is more oxygen it displaces the Qi and pushes it up.

‘Overall my cultivation here is a nightmare, not only the environment, but also the suppression on my roots make it so only the most pure Qi can get absorbed, so i'm only getting a fraction of the total I could be, I'm only back to Qi-Condensation first stage now, and i'll probably stay around here for a while.’

As I was lamenting over my misfortune, Mr. sleeping beauty finally decided to wake up. ‘It seems like Mario is getting up now, I guess I should find some place to hide, hopefully he doesn't mind me borrowing his closet.’

‘Today is going to be a very hectic day for him, i'm going to make him start his career quest and get a scholarship at “Big Ben Engineering” (one of the best incubators for high potential engineers) if all goes well, he's going to finally step into the cultivation world.’

‘Well let me switch to him now, and guide him through the day's events - also give him a well deserved cheat.’

Commencing Swap to Mario.

**Mario (Janitor)**

|Hahh, this feels nice|

It was almost like the sun rays were finally shining through the wreckage, after a metaphorical hurricane passed and leveled everything to the ground. Yesterday was intense, I got some kind of god system, I quit my job, I leveled up, I gained skill, and most importantly I prayed to God that it was all a dream.

Although the sun rays feel nice they're not all good, they also help to illuminate the problems you don’t want to see. Although I was in a dead end job, with no life and no love, I still had certainty, certainty that I would be in a rat race my whole life, but certainty nonetheless. And now my biggest problem was right in from of me, a pill laying on the nightstand, reminding me that the senile system is still inside, and I have no understanding of our future coexistence.

|Mario, stop worrying, you don’t have the privilege to worry, just focus on what the system wants you to do, and you might get something out of it, who knows?|

|Ok– Focus, open the system so you can see what you need to do.|

[Name: Mario Fixen]

[Quests]

[Job Quest] Contents: Complete the Scholarship opportunity presented by BBE (Big Ben Engineering), and graduate as a top candidate Reward: +1 Engineering, +10 Syscoins Failure: Career Path Closure, 10 years of janitor work. [Side Quest: 100%] Contents: Get a perfect score on the scholarship practical exam Reward: +10 Blueprint upgrade tokens Failure: Punishment Game => 10 hrs of textbook [Quest: Humble Beginnings] Contents: Create your first functioning original device and patient Reward: Basic Qi Cultivation Manuel Failure: Harsh Physical Training Time Limit: 48hrs

[Cultivation: None]

[Skills]

Sweeping 1 Engineering Theory 1 Weight Lifting 1 Appraisal 1

[Alert: Appraisal Skill Unlocked]

|Well damn, it looks like the system got an upgrade or something, its showing a lot more then before|

I looked at the pill that was resting in my hand, it was an extremely simple pill completely indistinguishable from any other med.

|I thought cultivator pills were special, but I guess not, hopefully this thing will last me for the whole day, because I definitely need the focus.|

I popped the pill and went on looking for my textbooks, it was time for some last minute review for the most important test of my life.

***

As I walked into the stadium that housed my test, I saw people of all different backgrounds come in, I walked in the single file registration line, striking up a conversation with the person in front of me.

“Hey, what's up.”

“Mhm” he mumbled back.

“My name's Mario by the way, what about you?”

“Mhm”

“Umm you look pretty prepared, is it ok for me to ask what the test is like? Like how many questions and how long is this thing?”

“Damn, your screwed” he smirked back

I have met a lot of people like him before, so I made sure not to let my annoyance ruin my mood and asked the same question again.

“How many questions in the test and how much time do we have?” I repeated with a twitchy smile

“Do you not know anything about the test, what have you been doing in preparation, jerking off or something? It’s 3 hours with 35 questions, each set of 5 gets progressively harder, well I can rest easy knowing the morons like you are taking the test and boosting the curve for us.”

|Damn, what a bum, he looks quite young as well, probably from some wealthy family with a private tutor or something, why is he even trying to get the scholarship in the first place.|

|Hey system, can you appraise him, I want to see how much of a threat he is?|

Appraisal Commencing…

[Name: Unknown (appraisal not at sufficient level)]

Background: This is the common ‘Arrogant Young Genius' character who has been fed with a golden spoon, he has great confidence in his skills but will drop out in the first round.

Threat: None.

|Oh wow, this thing seems to know a lot about him, I guess there’s no reason to worry, no amount of money can motivate this guy to study, I'll probably blast past him easily enough.|

As I entered the room I appraised anyone I could lay my eyes on and racked up profiles of the test takers

Arrogant Young Genius [Threat: None]..

Under-qualified beginner [Threat: None],

Businessman [Threat: Very Low],

Arrogant Young Genius [Threat: None],

Passionate Engineer [Threat: Moderate],

Passionate Engineer [Threat: Moderate],

Arrogant Young Genius [Threat: None]...

As I appraised I noticed patterns: the “Passionate Engineers” tended to be talking together about something engineery while the “Arrogant Young Geniuses” were alone (and were very commonly found), and the “Under-qualified Beginners” were either extremely nervous or not nervous at all (probably already given up). In the end I noted the threats, but only truly getting surprised about one.

[Name: Chris Oilson]

Background: This is a ‘Hidden Master’, his name present in the hundreds of patents he has created, although he has low notoriety due to mostly living in isolation he is still extremely proficient in the field, best course of action would be befriending or swiftly incapacitating.

Threat: Very High

|I didn’t know anybody at his caliber would be coming to this thing, maybe he’s just here to blow off some steam or something, I mean I've played my fair share of video games to understand how fun smurfing is.|

|Well Ma, I'm going in, wish me luck!|

Scribble- scribble– scribble…

Commencing swap back to main consciousness…

**Jay (System)**

‘Damn that was difficult to appraise those people like that, I thought he was going to be like a regular person and appraise a table or hidden treasure or something, but no… I mean I’ve read enough books that I can pretty much predict how someone's character is going to be (especially for mortals), but still, that shiz got me nervous.’

‘Well, good thing I searched their appearances on the database, because otherwise I wouldn’t have found out about that Chris Oilson bloke, it seems another route has opened up in the little MC’s life - maybe I can get this guy to mentor him that will definitely cut down the time.’

‘It seems my subordinates luck is finally starting to pay off, anyone who gets me as a system is already MC worthy in my opinion, now that he has climbed over all the tedious stuff, I think it's smooth sailing from now’

‘Hmm, it seems like he’s struggling a bit on this question 10, I think I should offer some help at a very fair price of 10 Syscoins - I mean I did offer to give that reward above he just needs to pass and he can pay his debt. I mean this Syscoin thing is total BS, I’ve seen the other system have a currency, but whyyy, just offer physical rewards as prizes…’

‘Well whatever let me offer a “free-question pass” to him.’

‘Damn it looks like the Hidden master is already done, he’s definitely being called a genius or a moron by everyone right now, probably a moron, because the only people who finish this early are people who give up.’

‘But whatever that's fine with me, as he passes I'm just going to use my Qi to scan over his test, a little bit of course only a little.’

‘Boom– Done, answers taken, offer for free answer given, offer accepted, 10 Syscoins deducted…’ I ran through a long list of operations with my subordinate, eventually he got the answer for number 10, wrote it down, and moved on.

***

‘Okay the test is in, I'm excited to see the results of my newly groomed specimen, I mean going off of the test I scanned from the Hidden Master he got everything right except question 1 (the easiest one of course), but who knows even experts can make mistakes.’

There was a large group pooling around a stage as the instructors were about to release the scores.

… Drum Roll Please….

Mario Fixen (100%) Chris Oilson (98.95%) {Who the hell cares} (91.15%) … … …

‘DAMN Okay, my man really came in first before the hidden master, that’s some respect right there.

‘Speak of the devil, here the master comes.’

“Excuse me everyone, does anyone here know this Mario Fixen?”

*The crowd was silent*

The man in green hesitantly raised his hand,

“Umm, Yes that's me.”