I Hate Systems

"Seven millennia?" Compass Carburettor found it hard to believe, "Time flows at the same rate unless morphed by some special power."

He used the power of Lore and Tell-Tale to help Hazen, healing his injuries before making him regain consciousness.

"Yes," Hazen nodded, "You underestimated Zaira, Compass. She had used Martial's incompetence to fool you. Him being a pseudo-Host to the Waning Essence System wasn't the end goal of plan, but just the start…"

Hazen said in despair, "Her goal wasn't to eventually turn the Murim worlds into a farm by fully turning Martial into a host. No, her true intention was to use the Murim worlds as fuel and pour all their timelines into Martial once he fell victim to your Genre Representation."

"Thereby, it resulted in a time dilation."

Compass Carburettor closed his eyes and focused on Faith Grounds, looking into the history of Lore and Tell-Tale's actions there, shocked to see that problems began to crop up when Martial was unable to feel any more power funnelling towards him.

The reason wasn't the birth of another Martial, but all his worlds had been used as fuel to alter the timeline of Faith Grounds.

Zaira had three ultimate powers of space and time at her disposal: Regression, Reincarnation, and Transmigration.

Once Regression recovered from the after-effects of unleashing its Core Skill Manifestation, it had gone to support Reincarnation and Transmigration. With a third Grade 4 System at play, Reincarnation and Transmigration managed to trap Technocraft and Mystique within the world—created by the fusion of the Core Skill Manifestations of Reincarnation and Transmigration and the Genre Representation of Technocraft.

It was just a temporary solution, but thanks to that, the three Grade 4 Systems were now free. And once Reincarnation and Transmigration recovered from the after effects of using their Core Skill Manifestation, they targeted the Murim Worlds.

Using the combined efforts of the three and taking advantage of the fact that the Murim Worlds had lost their defender, Martial, they expended the worlds.

Irrespective of who might win, Zaira only wanted time. She wanted as much time as possible while her threats—Compass Carburettor and Arnark—were out of the picture.

And she did have enough confidence in achieving it, for all her life, she had been employing the power of Tell-Tale. One of her first Systems was the Tell-Tale System, so Zaira was fully aware of the intricacies of its function.

Therefore, the moment she launched an attack using Martial, Lore and Tell-Tale took action to stabilise the world. But too much essence of time was flowing into Faith Grounds, enough to shatter its balance.

And hence, with Tell-Tale taking the lead, they actively shaped the laws of the world, resulting in a solution to dilate their time with the rest of the multiverse. As a result, one year in Faith Grounds was seventy years in the multiverse.

'I did wonder the reason she brought Martial into the picture back then. So, she had a scheme all along.' Compass Carburettor grunted in frustration as he stared at Hazen, "Stencil…what happened to her?"

"I'll show you everything." Hazen said, "Before I arrived here using one of Truck-Kun's trucks, I accumulated the memories of everyone."

He condensed a sphere of Mental Energy and pushed it towards Compass Carburettor.

Thump! Thump!

Compass Carburettor was nervous as he extended his index finger and touched the sphere of Mental Energy, rapidly absorbing everything as the sequence of events played in his head in order.

…

"So, you're Compass's daughter." Rhizen stared at the two figures that had appeared before him, "Stencil, right?"

"Yes," Stencil nodded in response, "I heard a lot about you from aunt Gana."

"You're the embodiment of luck."

"Well, kind off." Rhizen smiled wryly in response, "Luck does have its limitations though in that even if an opportunity presents itself, if I don't have the capability to take advantage of it, then my luck's wasted."

"I…was wondering," Stencil asked as she looked around, noticing that Rhizen was alone in the world, hunting an erratic zombie of sorts, "Can you help with my situation?"

"I've been briefed a little by Compass, but you need to explain the rest yourself." Rhizen said as he plopped on the ground. A breeze blew past, ruffling the mud to form a dune that coincidentally hardened itself to form a chair for his bum to rest upon.

'What the heck just happened?' Stencil was shocked by the scene, for she knew Rhizen hadn't unleashed any abilities. The very nature was revolving around him, innately catering to his every needs.

"You are?" Rhizen then stared at Earth Star.

"You can call me Rahakh." Earth Star replied, "It's a pleasure meeting you, Rhizen. I've heard a lot about you from sir Compass."

"You are pretty strong. I can feel a power capable of harnessing the world's strength in you." Rhizen smiled wryly as he stared at Stencil, prompting her to speak.

"It started when I replaced my core with a fragment of Immortal." Stencil began to explain the incidents revolving around her, eventually speaking about the Core Skill activation—Infinite Regression—of the Grade 4 System, Regression.

"Infinite Regression…" Rhizen muttered, "To think you guys reached such a high level where a Grade 4 System felt necessary to take action."

He sighed, "And here I am, still lacking the means to deal with Apocalypse even after so long."

"Haven't you brought more than a dozen worlds under your control already? You're strong." Stencil said as she sensed the sheer power emanating from Rhizen, "With your strength, and considering how Apocalypse is weakened after unleashing its Core Skill Manifestation, I think you have a fair chance at killing it."

"Unfortunately, I can't." Rhizen said as he stared at the sky, "Until I destroy the Luck System, exposing my location will only cripple everything I've worked for."

He then thought of something and stared at Earth Star, "Let's do things this way."

He pointed at Earth Star, "Rahakh will focus on harnessing the essence of this world to force the natives to fuse into one creature."

He looked at Stencil, "And you will work on refining it into a functioning creature holding the entirety of the essence of this world."

"Do that, and I'll help you deal with the issue plaguing you."