I Hate Systems

Splash!

The Three Star Invader struggled within the platinum pool when he was punched by his opponent and forced to submerge. At this time, the platinum liquid began to seep in through his orifices.

Roar!

The opponent punched with a pike as his tentacled limbs latched on him, causing an injury in his body through which the platinum stream flowed in, constricting his movements a little.

This resulted in a downward spiral from there as eventually, the Three Star Invader was captured and bound, eventually put under the influence of the choker that became his nervous system.

"I didn't inform anyone that I would be arriving here." The Three Star Invader said once he came to their side, "We sneaked out for some fun. So, if we were to vanish for a short duration, no one would notice anything. But the limit is four days."

"That's good enough." Platinum Head nodded in response before making the Three Star Invader board on their aircraft which made its return journey to the 24 Rings.

"Sir, what should we do for these four days?" One of his team members asked in response, "The mission briefing was only until we catch the Three Star Invader."

"We hide and continue," Platinum Head said as he pointed at a small tent on the rooftop of the hotel, "Until the aircraft returns, this will be our base of operations."

His expression turned serious, "The Invaders surrounding our world have noticed our aircraft vanishing. So, they are aware that we have travelled to another universe. It's only a matter of time before they figure out that we're invading their world. So, they'll begin to search soon after."

"Before that, we must create a foundation here, a place where people from our world could live and grow." Platinum Head said, clenching his hand into a fist, "It hasn't been long, but by facing the Three Star Invaders, my strength has improved a little. As the Genesis Hero said, our power improves as we defeat external threats like these Invaders."

"So, this place will become our training grounds." Platinum Head arrived at the edge of the terrace to say, "Our Heroes will come here to train and grow stronger. We don't have enough time, so we must hurry."

"Then, the underground gambling den..." One of the Heroes asked, "We have to expand its reach, right?"

"Yes," Platinum Head nodded, "Other than the one we sent home, we have two Three Star Invaders on our side. We need to raise their numbers and eventually gain control of this entire city,"

"Before the aircraft arrives."

At his words, the Heroes were shocked, "Doesn't that mean we only have four days? Isn't that too little a timeframe to finish this task?"

"Yes," Platinum Head nodded, "You guys aren't aware that time is ticking short for us."

He then glanced at the dragon plushie that sighed before saying, "This world is planning to invade us in full force in two months. I tapped into that information by hacking the essence of this world. As this world is under the Invader System, akin to its Host, it doesn't have a collective consciousness. So, it cannot guard against me."

"Guess there's no time to waste." Dirt Encompass nodded and hid their figures. Another Hero generated a mild wind that carried the dust covering the ground, taking it over to another section of the city where they repeated the same process to take over the Invaders there.

Rinse and repeat, they worked on bringing as many Invaders as possible under their control. Though, Platinum Head exercised control, only targeting the residents with value.

The guests and tourists were spared. It served no use at the moment as the first order of their business was to take control of this city.

The group indeed pushed themselves to the limit, staying as hidden as possible while stealthily converting the Invaders. Even though there was no change in the city's operations, its dynamic had already shifted, from citizens of this world to its traitors.

Moreover, these Invaders--under their control--were able to sense the normal Invaders. So, it was as if there now existed two races operating in the city.

The first was the normal Invaders. The second was the group of Invaders under the control of the 24 Rings. Forming a startling contrast in this situation was the fact that the latter was aware of the former while the former didn't even know what was happening.

...

Roar!

The Three Star Invader bellowed in pain as a team of dragon plushies dissected him to understand their mysteries.

Standing outside the operating room, staring at the process through a one-way view glass was Stencil, her expression cold.

For a moment, her demeanour fluctuated before another collective consciousness took control, but it wasn't able to do much. It stared at her hands, observing the Hero suit covering her, 'Dammit! I can't even move my body.'

Three minutes later, another collective consciousness took charge but failed to go against Stencil's plans. A couple of hours later, a collective consciousness that was Stencil's ally gained control, able to move freely now.

Present in her Hero Suit was an ally collective consciousness whose sole function was to seal her body's movements whenever an enemy collective consciousness took charge. This way, Stencil maintained control over her body's actions.

The dragon plushies continued to research upon the Three Star Invader as Stencil muttered, "The lot of you should calm down. You're not only stupid but you can't even execute a half-decent plan. Just switch off your retarded brains and watch this."

The internal turmoil in her mind paused as a result. When observed in her mind space, holding the key to her body was a collective consciousness that had been strengthened using a Coordinate.

The needles protruding out of it stabbed into thousands of collective consciousness that were now able to see what Stencil saw.

And with that, they were all shocked, watching a steady stream of information flow out of the Three Star Invader and condense in the hands of the dragon plushie. Eventually, unable to endure the pain, the Three Star Invader fainted when a dragon plushie announced with a grin, "I've analysed the powers of a Three Star Invader. Moreover, we were lucky."

It continued, "This Invader attained Four Stars during my torture. So, I've been able to observe their evolution and also gained all the data regarding a Four Star Invader."

It stared at Stencil, "From now on, you'll be able to share your powers with others."

"As expected, that power is here." Stencil let out a cunning grin, causing the enemy collective consciousness in her mind to shudder in response.