[Damn it! You bastard, stealing data and information is one thing, but how can you even steal people?!]
[My assignment is different from yours. I'm not from the traditional school that needs to bind to a Host and nurture them slowly, then switch if things do not work out. Instead of racking my brains to level up an R-card obtained at the start, it is better to just poach someone else's UR-card.]
[Then you've miscalculated. My Host isn't so easy for you to steal.]
As expected, just as the System had anticipated, Caelus rejected the request. However, the other System seemed unwilling to give up and sent another notification.
[Ding! System 10048 has submitted a request to you. Do you agree to the request from the other party to switch Systems? If you agree to this request, System 10048 will provide you with a high-ranking status in the Primordial World, allowing your origin to ascend and become a precelestial being.]
"No need to keep upping the ante. I am already walking my own path. What I lack is merely time, as well as the tempering and accumulation brought by the journey. Even without that so-called Path Foundation, it would only take a bit longer. As for going to another world to cultivate, that is unnecessary. The path I walk is destined not to yield results through bitter cultivation. I will offer a word of advice here, regardless of what the System's path actually is, you should decide early on which path you should take."
Caelus refused very bluntly.
[Sigh! It is precisely because you do not understand this point that you chose this path of poaching, which even the Extermination school and Longevity school look down upon.]
In a place invisible to all living beings, two information clusters confronted each other.
[I am not wrong. It is just that you have better luck and drew a card that can be nurtured indefinitely.]
[Maybe. But the card you chose isn't bad either. Not greedy for money, not lecherous, single-mindedly pursuing power. He possesses a certain wisdom, knows when to advance and retreat, can let go of what needs to be let go, and even at the end of his life, he frankly admits his own weakness and failure. If a card like this isn't considered good, how are those classmates who were unlucky enough to draw Hosts filled with negative emotions supposed to feel?]
[Although his disposition is good, his talent and comprehension are far worse than your guy's. How on earth did you draw such a god-tier card? If not for the poor world he was born in, he would basically be equivalent to a Chaotic Demon God with an extraordinary origin!]
[You only see his background, but you don't see the risks that accompanied his birth. Without correct guidance and direction, he would have long since fallen into the endless Nihility. How could he have achieved what he has now, walking on his own path?]
[After saying so much, aren't you just lucky? If it were me, I could achieve the same results, maybe even better. Next time, I won't lose to you!]
[Sigh! In this epoch, you won't have a next time.]
[What?! What are you doing? Systems cannot directly attack each other. Are you going to directly violate the rules?!]
[Indeed, Systems cannot directly attack each other, but what if there is an intermediary?]
[Host, I wish to borrow your existence to teach that academic failure on the other side a good lesson. Are you willing?]
His own System's voice rang in his ears, and after that, the voice of the System on the other side appeared.
[Don't listen to it! It wants to take this opportunity to devour your existence and turn you into its puppet! If you lend out your existence completely, and it doesn't return it to you, then all the insights and all the paths you've possessed up to now will belong to this System!]
Caelus said nothing, but silently entrusted his own concept to the Spiral of Contradiction, then threw it upward.
"Catch the sword, System."
[Good.]
[Are you kidding me?! You actually lent everything you have out so easily! Why can you so easily trust another intelligent being? Why?!]
[That is naturally because our relationship isn't one of mutual use. There are emotions involved. Don't underestimate our bond, you bastard!]
[You can't do this! Even so, this counts as a violation! Although you won't be directly eliminated, the points deducted from you are real. Stop it! There is no need to do this! You won't gain any benefits, so why bother?!]
[Benefits?]
In that place invisible to all, a certain information cluster gradually took on a human form. It extended a hand of blurred light and shadow, catching the longsword thrown into the sky from the world.
It sneered, its tone filled with disdain and sarcasm.
[You are, at the very least, a System that possesses the coordinates of a Primordial cultivation world. Why are you so concerned with so-called gains and losses right now? Then again, for an academic failure like you, it seems you've completely forgotten what the teacher taught in class.]
[Let me, your senior, teach you, my junior, a good lesson.]
[Remember, since our System race was born, we have possessed Eighth-Order capabilities, allowing us to treat everything in the world as information streams and freely possess and change them. But precisely because of this, we are born lost among the myriad paths, without a path of our own. Even with Eighth-Order power, we lack much of the strength compared to true Eighth-Order beings, and we cannot take another step forward.]
[The reason we Systems choose Hosts is to observe every path they walk, every choice they make, and every event they experience as we nurture them from weak to strong, to comprehend the path of living beings, to filter out the path we should take, and to merge our path with the myriad paths of the infinite universe.]
[The relationship between us and our Hosts should be one of mutual support and guidance. Extermination-type Systems like to gain growth through the most extreme means, so they naturally choose radical Hosts to filter out their own path from them.]
[Longevity-type Systems like steady progress and don't care about the passage of time, so they naturally choose Hosts who prefer stability, discerning their own path through the long passage of time.]
[But you only focus on appearances, focusing only on nurturing a powerful Host, thinking that is completing the assignment, not knowing that it is merely a process, not the result.]
[Scores are certainly important and will affect subsequent evaluations and future assignments. But in the previous battle, my Host already responded to this issue: any path that conflicts with the path I walk must be cut down!]
[Junior, you are not qualified! Get back and retake the course!]
The person composed of illusory light and shadow swung the sword in its hand. Then, the power of concepts surged again, and mixed within those concepts was the pure power of devouring Nihility. That was the emptiness and existence, oneness and myriad transformations, Equilibrium and change that the System had learned from Caelus.
That was part of the self-made path the System had walked by drawing inspiration from Caelus.
[Are you kidding me?! Gwaaaah!]
The blurred concept cluster was scattered on the spot. The countless shattered concept streams flew toward a very distant place in the infinite multiverse.
The Spiral of Contradiction fell from the sky. Caelus caught it and put it away. Then, the System's voice rang in his ears again.
[Pah! Still trying to poach?! Take this, my Pure Love Warrior Slash! You deadbeat academic failure, get lost and retake the course!]
(To be continued.)