The Idle System Box Set

by Pegaz

  “Hello, I heard you have a letter for me?” the old man smiled at John.

  “Ah, sorry for my lack of manners.” John did his best to sound as formal as he could. “My name is John. You must be the Sect Head then?”

  The old man nodded.

  “I have a letter for you from Outer Elder Amanda Burch.” John picked up the letter from inside his bag and walked up towards the Sect Head. He gave him the parchment, then backed up a few feet.

  The Sect Head removed the rune, opened the letter, then read it.

  John could see surprise bloom onto the Head’s face.

  “So, you’re a Sider?”

  John was stunned. The letter was about him being a Sider?

  “Yes.”

  “Come here. I’m going to see if what Amanda said is true about your impurities.”

  John relaxed a little. At least being a Sider didn’t seem to put him in ill favour of the Head. He approached the man once more, prepared to have his body checked again.

  “Hold your arm out, and I’m going to insert Life Power through your wrist,” the old man smiled and reassured John. “Relax, it won’t hurt.”

  John put his left hand out and waited. The Sect Head grabbed his wrist and John could feel the Life Power enter him like what Amanda did. This power was different, though. It was more concentrated and stronger than Amanda’s. As John felt it navigating through his body with unmatched precision, he tried his best not to gawk at the Head’s skill.

  “Amanda was right. You have no impurities whatsoever. The Life Power that you’ve just collected is already moving at twenty-fold the speed of a normal person. You also have a peak body before Life Stage, which no one has attained for thousands of years too. It seems as if you are made to be an immortal.” The old man paused and ran his fingers through his beard as he thought aloud. “I’ve never accepted anyone as a disciple before. How about it? I’ll teach you the best fighting methods, the best absorption techniques, and give you the best resources. In return, you help protect this sect if it ever comes down to it.”

  John’s eyes were wide open, his mouth gaping. He was frozen in place, unable to think or speak. The old man laughed heartily at this. Slightly flustered, John tried to recompose himself, finding his words stumbling out of his mouth in an unorganised fashion.

  “Er, I’ve never done this, ah, so, I don’t know if I’m doing it right, uh... I greet Master!” John put his left palm up and his right fist into his palm. If he remembered correctly, this was the martial arts way of greeting. It was very close to the hand-motion for a duel to the death, and John prayed he didn’t mix them up.

  The old man smiled. “That’s probably the best way to greet me, to be honest. I don’t like people kowtowing, bowing, or getting down on one knee. That kind of thing is too formal for my taste. While the tradition is for you to pour me a cup of tea, that’s not my style either.”

  With a wry grin, the Sect Head chuckled and continued, “My style is never to use connections to get where you’re going. So, unless you’re on the brink of death, I forbid you from telling anyone below the Grand Elder rank that you’re my disciple. Those who know your identity will only be the Grand Elders in the sect, and they will keep the secret.”

  John opened his mouth to speak, but the Head raised his hand to stop him.

  “I don’t want you to have an easy life, and you need more experience. Fighting as a mortal and fighting as an immortal is completely different.” His gaze hardened as he looked down at John in an equally mischievous yet serious light. “While fighting as a mortal, you factor in the fitness of your body, the equipment and techniques you use. But with immortal fights, they focus on the speed of your Life Power, the amount of Life Power you have, and the way you use Life Power. Only then will the body and techniques gain importance.

  “However, that’s for when you’re in Life Stage, at the very least. Right now, you need to absorb more Life Power, purify it as much as possible, and store it inside your mind. Purifying it changes the colour. Life Power is originally green, but that’s not purified. Life Stones carry the Life Power, and they’re these types of rocks.”

  The old man took out a Life Stone after saying that, and John jolted in recognition.

  “I’ve found a few on my travels before coming here,” John tried to bite back his excitement and he took out one too.

  “Brilliant!” The Head beamed proudly at John. “This stone stores the natural Life Power from the earth and purifies it to a certain degree, but not much. It just makes nature able to grow faster, that’s all. Once it is purified completely, it changes to the colour white. That’s when there are zero impurities inside, and that’s the aim of every immortal. To my knowledge, no one in this universe has obtained that colour yet, though. Even an individual such as myself still has a shade of green Life Power mixed into my white aura.”

  John nodded. With the system, he should be able to get a pure white colour somehow. He had a gut feeling that the Idle System 2.0 had a lot in store for him.

  “Anyway, let’s take the first step nice and slow.” The Head’s gaze softened and became warm and inviting. “For now, I’ll arrange a decent place for you to live that has plenty of natural Life Power. You need to get to Life stage as soon as possible so you can begin your other training. It should take you roughly two years if you’re fast.”

  John couldn’t help but bite back a snicker. I wonder if I can halve that time...

  “When you reach that stage, come find me again,” the old man continued. Then, with a quirk in his eyebrows, he added, “Oh, my full name is Jamie Cooper. I’m over 34,000 years old, and like you, I’m a Sider.”

  John felt his jaw drop again.

  Chapter 4

  Another Way

  “WHAT!?” John couldn’t believe his ears.

  Jamie burst into laughter. “Sorry, wanted to see your reaction to that!” The Head clutched his ribs, as he choked his words out in between his laughs. “It was the best way to confirm whether you’re a Sider or not, kiddo. If you didn’t have that much of a reaction, you would have been lying. I’m not a Sider, but my name and age are real though.”

  John became a bit sceptical at this point. He watched Jamie calm down and continue with his explanation.

  “Let me start from the beginning.” The Head took a deep breath before settling into his throne. “The first Sider in the immortals’ sect became the Sect Head more than 300,000 years ago and relocated the sect to this planet. This was long before the Sider who gave technology to the mortals. He renamed the sect ‘Rogue’ because of some kind of ‘sport’ he was a fan of back in his home world. To this day, we don’t really know what he was talking about, but his decision has been held in place.”

  “Sport… Wait, a game? A video game?” John blurted out, knowing in the back of his head that he was mostly talking to himself at this point. “It must be Ass***in’s Cr**d Rogue... “

  “Ah, it must be a popular sport known throughout the ages in your world.” Jamie nodded sagely, not so much surprised as he was pleased.

  John bit back a chuckle.

  “If it’s named Rogue, does that mean you guys are assassins then?” It was mostly a joke, but John couldn’t help but ask. In all seriousness, he wondered if killing an immortal would add to the Life Pool. Killing a mortal creature didn’t seem to work, so maybe this was the alternative.

  Jamie smiled. “We are.”

  John would have fallen out of his chair if he’d been sitting.

  “Really?!”

  “Underground, there is a mission hub and special portals that transfer you to different planets. Most of these planets have immortals too and can communicate with other worlds as we can. Some planets have immortals but don’t have access to different worlds for one reason or another. There are even some planets with no immortals, yet they can communicate with us.

  “There are trillions of planets out there, and one way or another, we have access to most of them. Most will take month
s or possibly even years of travelling, but the connection still does exist. When we receive a mission, we send in people to investigate, and we determine the rank of the mission depending on numerous things. We rank them one to ten, with ten being the highest. We don’t let anyone go on a mission without being at least beginning Life stage, and even then only Rank One missions. Oh, and we only kill those who deserve it. That’s another reason why we investigate first. The first Rogue’s Sect Head made sure that he set that rule up.

  “Payment is usually in Life Stones or objects that can generate Life Power. The Rogue Sect is the top-rated assassin sect in the known universe, but we don’t have a lot of people. Our team is made up of only elites, and most of the time they’re out doing missions. We teach assassin techniques mainly, but not only that. Escape, movement, self-defence and torture techniques are available in the library too.

  “Everyone has free access to these in the library, but in return, you have to make an oath of blood never to reveal anything you’ve learnt in the library to anyone else, including other people in the Rogue Sect. Never tell anyone the location of the Rogue Sect and never betray the Rogue Sect.

  “If you feel like this sect doesn’t suit you, you’re welcome to leave as long as that oath stays in place. It is completely impossible to remove and stop the oath from killing you if you break it.

  “In this universe, there are countless people who prey on the weak, who profit off wars and think they’re above any laws… To be optimistic, at least that means we’ll never run out of jobs. Even if our team were to expand by the hundreds, it still won’t be enough to complete all missions.”

  John took in all the information with patience. If he could get Life Pool units from killing immortals, then joining this sect could be his best course of action. For a while, anyway. He waited as Jamie took a long drink from his glass and placed it back onto the table.

  “I’ve got the best beginner’s technique here to help get you started with absorbing Life Power.” Jamie reached into a bag that hung from his chair and pulled out a book. “Buckle down and give it a read. For now, I’ll get a Grand Elder to sort out a living quarter for you.”

  With a nod, John received the book from Jamie. Without further ado, he sat down on the grass and started reading.

  The book detailed a breathing exercise that was special for absorbing Life Power. When properly used, it could draw power from any source that had Life Power. As John flipped through the last few pages, he heard a familiar sound.

  ‘Ding!’

  Congratulations on discovering a way to help the system’s skills. We have increased the level.

  So after the update, I can help increase the level rather than steal time?

  John opened the system.

  Welcome to the Idle System 2.0

  Name: John

  Age: 21

  Idlers: 0/135

  Life Pool: 1

  Options:

  Continue - On

  Filter - On

  Dismantler - On

  Life Vision - Off

  Taste - On

  Immortality List:

  Absorption Speed - Idlers 0/135, Beginner - 1/3, Advanced - 0/3, Peak - 0/3

  Purifier - Idlers 135/135, Impurities - 0/3, Compact - 0/3, Speed - 0/3, Time - 22d 20h 18m 41s

  Misc List:

  Maximum Idlers - Idlers 0/135, +1 Max Idlers - 134/2159

  Maximum Workers - Idlers 0/135, +1 Idler Workers - 36/2061

  Wow, so it did increase my level. If that’s the case, I need to go to the library and test my luck.

  John looked up at Jamie, who was sitting back in his throne. “Master, while I wait for my living quarters to be assigned, I wish to go to the library and gain some knowledge. Could you tell me which way it is?”

  “Eager, aren’t you?” The Head smiled. “Fine, but first you need to complete the blood oath. Once you go to the bottom of the corridor, turn right. It’s the building next door. A Grand Elder is in charge of protecting it. Tell him I sent you.”

  “Thank you,” John said. He then approached the throne and Jamie helped him complete the blood oath.

  Once the oath was sorted out, he stood up and did a martial arts salute. Soon, he was on his way. After another journey down the decorated halls, John reached the library. He told the Grand Elder about Sect Head sending him here and was allowed in.

  First, he wanted to look at purifying techniques. It was his priority to reach the pure white stage since, apparently, that was the greatest Life Power there was. He walked around and found six books of purifying techniques. He sat down to read the first one and found the system didn’t react at all. The second book, nothing. Third, fourth, and fifth, nothing. Then, he read the sixth book.

  ‘Ding!’

  Congratulations on discovering a skill to help the system’s skills. We have increased the level.

  Purifier - Idlers 135/135, Impurities - 1/3, Compact - 0/3, Speed - 0/3, Time - 22d 18h 54m 35s

  Wait, it didn’t increase the time for the next level? Damn, this is brilliant! But, wait, why did it not level up on the first five books?

  John re-read them again. He could tell that the first five books were third-rate, but the sixth book was top class. That’s when it hit John.

  “Master gave me the best beginner’s absorbing technique, and it worked. This is the best beginner’s purifying technique that they have too, and that’s the only connection I can see. If that’s the case, I need to find the best advanced and then the best of the best techniques to level them up again.”

  For the next few hours, John scoured the whole library, hunting for different techniques no matter what grade, hoping to get lucky.

  “Hello.”

  John jumped at the voice. Turning to see where it came from, he saw the speaker was a middle-aged man with red hair and a black beard.

  “Hello.” Holding back a yell, John greeted the man in return. “Ah, who are you?” He wanted to scold him for startling him, but his Emotional Resistance skill kicked in.

  “I am Grand Elder Robert,” the redhead spoke with an even, calm tone. “Sect Head has asked me to acquire a living quarter for you. I’ll get my disciple to show you the way. Of course, I haven’t told him who you are because it’s Sect Head’s orders.”

  “Ah, forgive my rudeness, then. Thank you for helping me, Grand Elder.” John got to his feet and did a martial arts salute.

  Robert just pointed at the exit. John nodded and went outside, where he saw a man who looked around the same age as him. He was wearing the same black and silver robes that the sect had given John, and he was also a redhead with a black beard, like Grand Elder Robert. He had blue eyes, a fleshy nose, and his hair and beard covered quite a bit of his face. John noted the similarity between this man and the Grand Elder.

  John smiled. “Hello, are you Grand Elder Robert’s disciple? My name is John, and thank you for showing me the way.”

  The man just nodded, turned around, and walked away. John followed.

  Chapter 5

  Advance

  An hour later, they stopped in front of a bungalow. The man gave him a set of keys, and John entered the building by himself. It was massive, fully furnished with kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a lounge and a living room. In the very middle of the house, there was a round patch of grass like what the Sect Head had.

  Around the grass was what John would call a “man cave”, though instead of video games and beer, there were setting-appropriate games like chess and cards.

  John sat in the chair that was in the middle of the grass.

  Detecting Life Power, absorbing.

  That surprised John. The system automatically absorbed it. The speed of absorption and the purity were what must primarily be affected by the skill levels then. Realizing that his guide was still present, John stood up and looked at the man, feeling a bit awkward with his presence.

  “Ah, would you like a game of chess? At least, let me get you something to eat or drink! Yo
u know, as thanks for bringing me here.”

  The man just shook his head, turned round and left.

  Strange man... I wonder if he’s got something wrong with his tongue or throat. Maybe, he can’t speak?

  The man disappeared from view and John felt more at ease.

  So, this is my new home for a while... It’s nice! Big too. The system automatically absorbs the Life Power, purifying it and storing it for me, so I need things to do while I stay here or else I’ll die of boredom.

  John stood up, locked the door as he left the house and went towards the library again. He went to find the Grand Elder in charge of the library.

  “Hello, I was just wondering if I’m able to take some books,” John found the man easily enough. “Originals or even copies would do. I just need something to read while I’m in my house.”

  “You can because of your identity,” the Grand Elder said slowly. “But should you? You need to concentrate on obtaining more Life Power to reach Life Stage quicker.”

  John knew this could come up, so he had an excuse ready beforehand. “It’s alright! My mind can split to do two things at once. I can read, while the other part of my mind is absorbing Life Power. If you want, you can come and see! Have a game of chess with me or watch me read a book while I’m absorbing it.”

  John’s statement stunned the Grand Elder for a second, but a smile slowly spread across his bearded face. “No wonder you’re his disciple. Even though we know what you are, it’s still surprising that you can do that. Only people at the peak of Storage Stage should have that natural ability. Looks like that’s another handicap everyone else has compared to you.” He paused as if to contemplate further. “Fine, take some books, but leave a record of which ones you’re taking. Copies only.”

  “Thank you!” Excitement clearly visible, John went inside the library and took a copy of every book there was. It took him two hours to write all of it down for the record. His hand felt dead afterwards.