I Hate Systems

"Shit! Shit! Shit! Fuck!" Zaira's frustrated screams resounded throughout the System World as she was unable to access that particular universe after Compass Carburettor shattered her projection and destroyed the Astral Network in that universe.

Zaira's mood worsened as she thrashed about within the System World, scaring all the Systems as she continued to holler her lungs out, "That fucker, Compass! How did he attain such heights?"

Her screams continued to increase in pitch, but they were in truth hiding the fear brimming forth from deep within her, "A Genre Representation...how?"

"How is it possible? How did he attain it, and so quickly at that. Just how can this be true?" She was getting insane at the unbelievable possibility that she had witnessed.

After all, the moment she her projection was destroyed along with the Astral Network, Zaira was unable to observe what was happening in that universe anymore. But before she could do something to reinstate communication, to her alarm, she felt weak all of a sudden.

All the data regarding the Invader System, Waning Essence System, and the Secondary System vanished from the System World's database, preventing her from using those Core Skills ever again.

It meant that somehow, all that information had been forcefully extracted from the System World, at a level beyond her control. And this was possible only through one ability in the multiverse.

A Genre Representation!

And, Compass Carburettor's Genre Representation was one that extracted one's entire being into it, an ability perfectly geared to be used upon both Systems and Genre Representatives.

"In that case..." She thought of something and quickly focused her attention on a Murim World, shocked to see the world getting a bit stale, as if it had lost all its life.

Though, a couple of seconds later, energy began to funnel out of this world. The same thing was happening across all the Murim Worlds as this mysterious energy rapidly condensed into a sphere, intending to birth their Genre Representative.

Boom!

But suddenly, the sphere exploded as the energies dissipated, returning back to their sources. They tried to condense repeatedly but met with failure every single time.

It was as if Martial wasn't alive anymore. It was why the Murim Worlds were working to condense another Genre Representative. Unfortunately for them, it seemed the seat of Martial was still filled, which was why they failed to create a new Martial.

Moreover, only the Murim Worlds with a deeply embedded concept of Murim attempted this. The remaining Murim Worlds were already breaking out of their mould to branch in other directions.

Some of them rapidly jumped into other genres.

Without Martial, the inherent mentality of Murim Worlds weakened. So, the chances of natives birthing ideas regarding game-changing technologies/cultivation practices/evolution pathways spiked. This caused things to change at a fundamental level.

This meant that the original framework of Murim was collapsing. The evolution that was limited to just being confined to the Murim Genre was now spreading everywhere.

It was chaos, as without a proper framework, things started to gradually spiral out of control as methods, techniques, weapons, abilities, and power were being birthed that had appalling negative implications.

And such worlds, without fail, entered the domain of Mystique as their development and evolution branched out in every possible pathway, with the only limitation being one's imagination.

Zaira observed how the worlds spiralled into chaos in a matter of hours. This was why such worlds innately tried to create a Genre Representative to maintain their original mental framework.

But as that failed, the worlds were left defenceless, helpless to their changes.

This was what happened to a world without a Genre Representative. Development didn't proceed through one primary pathway, akin to a river, but just became a mess of tributaries without a primary flow big enough to create an identity.

Such chaotic worlds would implode eventually, as that wasn't their original fate. Of course, there existed worlds without being under a Genre Representative. But such worlds had an identity of sorts and maintained themselves.

But in the case of these Murim Worlds, when they tried to do that, they failed, for Martial already existed, so they couldn't recreate an existing concept. But just as what happened to the data of the Waning Essence System, the Invader System, and the Secondary System in the System World, all information regarding Martial vanished.

That was what resulted in such chaos.

Bzzz!

A Mental Energy stream landed on the System World as Zaira immediately caught onto it and used it as a medium to transmit her consciousness, observing the figure of Slayer within the universe where they had been fighting just now.

"Where's Arnark?" She shouted the moment she was able to observe the universe, unable to sense traces of anyone, both allies and enemies. Only Slayer was there.

"I'm not sure." Slayer said, fear evidently expressed on his expression, "I just know that they fell prey to Compass's trap."

"Fuck!" Zaira raged as the communication was cut off by Slayer who then vanished from that universe. He had only intended to show that to Zaira in order to keep her attention occupied on whatever was happening.

In the meantime, he wished to continue developing just as before. It was what he always wished for.

'Moreover, Mascot is thrashing about in a lot of places. And that's the perfect ground to harvest some juicy Systems.' Slayer licked his lips and began to leave faint markings in every universe he went by.

These markings slowly but surely spread across such universes, making subtle additions while gathering data like a Cartographer. The info was then transmitted to him for analysing.

Slayer planned to profit between the war raging between the Systems and Mascot to grow stronger. Moreover, he had begun planning to trace and find the Serpent where Stencil, Earth Star, and Gehera was hiding within, 'Compass should have planned something. Otherwise, why would he go to the pains of morphing a universe to create such a strange, unstable entity.'

"The moment I discover traces of it, I'll snitch to Zaira. That would put more than enough on her plate that she would stop worrying about me for a considerably long time." He muttered and continued on his way, shaking his head, "After meeting Mascot, she has changed quite a lot."

Recalling her face, he laughed, "Did she express concern for Arnark back then?"

"Well, it makes sense, since even if she doesn't see eye-to-eye with Arnark, he's still the Main Character System, the most special System to exist that is as strong as the strongest of Grade 3 Systems while still being a Grade 1 System." His eyes turned sharp, "If Arnark were to reach even Grade 2, not to mention Grade 3, there would be none to oppose him in the multiverse."

"Having such an overpowered entity is never good for my future." He began to whistle as he arrived at a battlefield and observed a group of System Hosts fighting against some cheat-wielding Braves, "Hopefully, Arnark and Compass take each other out. Or at least..."

He licked his lips, "They cripple each other to the extent I can swallow both."