I Hate Systems

"It…hurts!" Arak screamed the moment he regained consciousness.

"Arak!" The woman spoke in relief once he woke up, "Thank goodness, I feared you would never regain consciousness."

"I'm fine. But it hurts like hell." Arak said as he got up and suddenly noticed something, "Why do I feel an energy wavelength from you, Ruora?"

"Slayer bestowed a power upon me." Ruora said, "Its sole function is to steal from others and turn it into fuel for your consumption."

"Fuel for my consumption?" Arak asked while flinching in pain.

"Yes," Ruora nodded in response, "It's basically an energy drain ability that can cripple the opponent's foundation selectively."

"But, I can only do that while touching the both of you, since it's a sensitive process." Ruora sighed, "Basically, I have no fighting ability. I'll have to depend on you for that."

"You needn't worry about that. I'm a Saint of all professions…" Arak muttered casually when suddenly, he realised that he was unable to use his powers from the Fantasy World.

Of course, it wouldn't work since his powers only existed in the Fantasy World. They weren't universal.

And in this world, the laws didn't recognise the Fantasy World's laws, turning him useless. "No, I still have one power…"

He stared at his hand, watching the muscles within squirm and bleed before reforming. The process looped endlessly, "I still have the mutated Cheat with me. That's functional here."

He then asked Ruora, "What did Grand Master tell you? How do I lessen my pain?"

"By absorbing the excess development of this world." Ruora said, informing him of the necessary details, "We're in another world now."

"This is absurd." Arak sighed, feeling his worldview being overturned overnight, "So in these worlds, there's what you call Martial Artists?"

"Yeah, and they rely upon an energy medium called Qi. It's something their body produces and slowly accumulates as they consume food." Ruora said.

…

Bang!

"Thrash this place." A Martial Artist sneered in disdain as he kicked a table and sent it flying.

"Hehe, I was waiting for you to say it, Boss." An underling with rat-like teeth let out a lecherous grin as he danced through the tavern, breaking every single wooden item. Tables, chairs, mugs, and even plates, anything that could be broken served as his target.

He never touched or even spared a glance at the people in the tavern and simply enjoyed rampaging over the inanimate objects.

"Haiya!" The rat-toothed underling finally approached the last available object in the tavern, the entrance door and unleashed a backhanded punch, breaking through the door as he grinned. But just when the arm was about to reach the end of its punching path, it stopped abruptly, having slammed into someone.

There was a grunt from the other side, but his punch was stopped, irritating the rat-toothed underling, "Who dares interrupt the Golden Rat's fun?"

"What did the door ever do to you? Did it turn down your entry proposal?" An irritated voice resounded as a man donned from head to toe in rags mixed with leaves muttered, painting the image of a savage.

Standing next to him was a similarly dressed woman, both painting a bizarre picture.

The rat-toothed underling glared at the man, "Who does that grass-pissed punk think he is?"

He pulled out his knife, "Cut off your arm as an apology. Otherwise, don't blame me for being impolite. I don't have experience controlling my strength against people so I might cripple you by accident…"

"Cut the crap and eat my fist." The man cut off his sentence and slammed forth a punch, glaring as he missed the target.

The rat-toothed underling had ducked the punch as he twirled around, causing an emblem to light up on his knife as immediately, it was covered by Fiery Qi, extending to twice the length as it slashed through the man's gut, spilling out his entrails.

"Don't act cocky when you're this weak." The rat-toothed underling snorted in disdain, expecting the man to collapse to his knees from the pain. But strangely, that didn't happen, putting off his focus for a bit as a fist slammed into his cheek, sending him flying.

"Bastard…don't resist when you're at death's door…it…hurts!" The rat-toothed underling suddenly clenched his cheek and screamed in pain. A sizzling sound resounded as his cheek began to melt off, revealing his skull bones.

The rat-toothed underling glared in shock at the man and grunted with all his strength, causing his knife to emit a fiery sheen as he bellowed, "Martial Art—Crescent Moon Fiery Blade!"

A fiery arc of Qi flew through the air and slammed into the man, severing him at the hip, and causing him to collapse to the ground in two pieces.

"What the heck is this?" Despite his attack succeeding, the rat-toothed underling hollered in despair as his bones began to melt and a few seconds later, he collapsed to the ground and turned into a murky puddle.

Hiss!

The onlookers winced at the grotesqueness of the fight. But that wasn't the end as soon, their eyes popped up in shock, staring at the man's severed halves combine like dough and reshape into a pristine form.

"That hurt, you damn bastard!" The man was of course Arak, having been active in this Murim World for three months now. But before he could reorient himself, a fiery palm slammed into him, gorging a hole in his chest.

His eyes turned blank as he collapsed to the floor.

The boss of the rat-toothed underling glared at Arak, "Frightening bastard, you dare kill my underling?"

"So what?" Arak got up with a start, fully healed as he rushed forth, getting pummelled once again. His entire shoulder was torn off by a fiery palm.

But immediately in response, the burnt parts regenerated while the rest morphed like dough tendrils and joined into a mixture that rapidly solidified into Arak. Glaring at the boss, he rushed forth once again, sustaining threatening attacks each time.

The one-sided slaughter persisted for close to an hour before which the boss was running on fumes, having been exhausted of all his Qi. His reaction was a step late when suddenly, Arak touched him, "I finally reached you."

Boom!

The boss's face turned ashen as his limbs began to melt. At this time, Ruora appeared between the two and quickly touched him with her right hand, placing her left on Arak as she muttered, "Transfer."

Immediately, a set of knowledge and substance regarding the usage of the Fiery Qi to produce magical attacks was stolen and merged into Arak.

"No…what have you done?" The boss stared in despair, having lost the Martial Art that he had developed all his life.

He was still able to cultivate Qi and give it a scorching nature. But it could only be used to form attacks the likes of which were used a century ago, somewhat bland and without a decisive elemental effect.

Arak then focused as he placed his hand on the boss's mouth and dripped a droplet of blood into his mouth. This time, it didn't have any effect of death but only of immortality.

It immediately countered the effect of death melting his body and even regenerated his body into a pristine condition. "It's done."

"You still killed one of them," Ruora complained.

"Hey, he was maintaining his distance and severed my body into two. I couldn't reach him on time." Arak defended himself as he turned around and began to walk away, "Let's go, more Martial Artists are waiting to be purified."

A century ago, a genius Martial Artist comprehended the laws of the world and developed a set of magical arts that allowed a Martial Artist to gain elemental natures to their Qi and even form spells.

He spread the ideology and when Martial Artists realised they were many times stronger than before as a result, a revolution occurred and everyone began to develop in the field.

In a matter of years, the world shifted genres from Murim to Magical. The shift wasn't entirely stabilised yet as Martial was trying to reclaim the world. But once he disappeared, the world fully delved into being a magical society.

Martial Artists evolved into battle mages and were called Martial Artists only because of culture.

The quest given to Arak by Slayer was to devour this magical element and revert the world to its Murim roots. Ruora's power facilitated that process. And the more he absorbed the element, the more he gained control over his own Cheat.

It was all just Slayer's scheme. He designed the problem—Arak's pain—and he designed the solution too, making Arak employ his ginormous fate to overwhelm the Murim World's.

After all, if an average joe with powers were to do the same, the world would simply course-correct itself and continue evolving. But, when someone like Arak with fate exceeding the world took action, the Murim World simply couldn't resist.

And as he continued to devour this magical element, he was further absorbing the Murim World's fate, forming an empirical relationship with it. That relationship was Slayer's true goal.

Unbeknownst to Slayer's scheme, Arak was happily behaving as a pawn would. Even if he had fate almost on Slayer's level just because of the fact that he was Arnark's son, that didn't mean shit when he played into Slayer's schemes.

After all, the difference in their experience was heaven and earth. When even the likes of Compass Carburettor, Arnark, Zaira, and Conjurer suffered from his schemes, what could a diamond-spooned child do other than fall victim unknowingly?