The Idle System Box Set

by Pegaz

  The screens with the numbers on them were everywhere. Each pillar had four of them, one in each direction.

  John strode down the hall, taking everything in. He wanted to make sure to get the lay of the land before doing anything. Once he got close to the wall on the side, he could see a row of counters going all across the area. There were at least seventy counters, but who’s counting?

  He went up to a counter that was practically empty. After a few minutes, it was his turn.

  “Hi, I’m new and need to know how this works. I’ve been told you give information for free the first time?”

  The man in the Daoist robes behind the counter smiled and nodded then handed John a parchment.

  John unrolled the parchment and read the first few words. It’s an introduction to the system. John nodded and walked away from the counter, stood under a pillar and started reading.

  The numbers describe a few things besides being a unique name for the filing system. The first four numbers go from 0001 to 9999; they indicate how many teleportation runes you need to go through to get to the target’s home planet.

  The next four numbers describe the targets strength. 0206 would mean Immortal Rank 02 (Life Stage) - 6th Level. This number goes up to 0909.

  The final eight numbers are the contracts code which you need to register for the assignment and complete the mission.

  To the right is the payment code. Payment is always in Life Stones, unless indicated otherwise. The first number indicates the grade of Life Stone from 1 to 9, and the rest is the amount.

  The screens on the pillars are adjustable; you pull them down while standing in one of the four circles around the pillar. Utilize these screens if you wish to search for a specific mission. For example, you could put in Short Distance, 0606 for strength, and a minimum payment of 5,99. The system will search the database for matches.

  When you know which contract you want, get to the counter quick! The mission is only there for the first person to accept it. Just remember the numbers when asking for the mission.

  John thought to himself. So, it’s pretty simple, I just need to find a mission with the least amount of jumps and 0201 in the targets strength column.

  John looked on the floor, there were four circles around the pillar he was standing under, and the screens were directly above them too. He walked into the ring nearest to him and pulled the screen down, typing in the filter “Short Distance” and “0201”. He left the rest blank.

  The results came up with hundreds of different contracts, so John sorted them out by payment. The highest paying contract came with 1,500, which was 500 Grade 1 Life Stones. John clicked on it for more information.

  Planet 25304. North Continent. Mu Clan. Target is the grandson of the Head of the family.

  Name: Matthew Mu.

  Strength: Immortal Rank 2, Level 1.

  Crimes: Murdered a family for profit.

  Pay: 500 Grade 1 Life Stones.

  Notes: Might have guards around him who are Immortal Rank 3 or higher, will need to get him alone.

  No wonder it’s 500 Life Stones, he’s got bodyguards around him.

  John then put in “No Bodyguards” into the search, but got no results.

  So, they’ve all got bodyguards? Screw it, I’ll kill Matthew Mu.

  He took note of the numbers for the contract and went to back the counter. After some documentation, John managed to get assigned to it. Just before he left the counter, he stopped and turned back.

  “Where do I go to get to the teleport runes? It’s my first contract.”

  “East wall. This is the South wall.”

  “Thanks!”

  John turned to his left and started walking.

  A few minutes later, he came to the wall. There were doors with numbers on them, and according to the parchment in his hands, John needed to go through Teleport #17 to reach the first planet. In total, he needed to take three portals to get to his target’s home planet.

  He was given another informational parchment that described how the portals worked. When teleported to different planets, people would appear in an underground teleport room similar to the mission hub. One would simply need to know the travel route, which was usually written on the contract.

  John opened the door to Teleport #17 and stepped onto the rune. He disappeared from sight.

  When John opened his eyes, he was inside a small room just like the teleport room in the mission hub’s east wall. He left the rune, exiting into a huge circular room with doors everywhere. The doors were all numbered, except one door which said “surface”. John checked the route written in his contract. He needed to go through #6 this time, and then #75 for the last portal. Finding the correct door, he walked to Teleport #6 and went in.

  In a matter of minutes, he was on his target’s home planet.

  When he came topside, the land was all white. It looked and felt like snow, and John wondered how similar this world was to Earth. It seemed like there was a blizzard going on, but there was something a bit fiercer about it than the blizzards that John was familiar with. Moving his body, he realised he felt heavy and a little sluggish, to boot.

  The gravity must be stronger here than the planet I was on. My Temperature Keeper skill must already be working since I don’t feel cold at all. The Senses Pressure skill too, I’m guessing? It would make sense since gravity is a kind of pressure… right?

  Shrugging, John took out the contract parchment. Inside it was a sketch of the target and the rough location of where he was supposed to be. There was also a map of the continents showing where the sect’s teleport room was in this world. At the bottom, the page read, “Destroy this once memorised”.

  According to the information, he’s usually in one of his family’s mansions on the southern part of this continent. It’s going to take me a few weeks to get there, according to this map.

  John destroyed the contract parchment as soon as he memorised it all and took one step outside the rune. He dropped down, landing twelve feet deep into the snow.

  Inside the hole he’d created, John looked up. The sky above him was illuminated by the light reflected off of the snow around him. It was a beautiful sight, but John noted that the snow around him was about to cave in. With no hesitation, John jumped and grabbed the ledge of the cliff, quickly climbing up.

  Guess this makes things easier.

  Opening up the system, he put the skill point into Force’s Master.

  Options:

  Continue - On

  Filter - On

  Dismantler - On

  Life Vision - Off

  Taste - On

  Hover - Off

  John turned the Hover option ‘on’, then took another step to the side of the hole. He stood there, hovering roughly half an inch above the snow. With a burst of excitement, he could feel the life power moving at the bottom of his feet, draining 0.01 Life Power per hour.

  Smiling, John took out his compass to test it. To his utter delight, the compass seemed to function as per normal. He looked at the direction he had to go and started walking.

  His first other world contract was off to a good start.

  Chapter 8

  Silver?

  BANG!

  John landed on his feet. He’d just killed another giant snail—it was his 25th one today and John was starting to get annoyed.

  They’re mortal creatures. I receive nothing for killing them! Even so, I’m still tempted to wipe these things out so they stop annoying me!

  ‘Ding!’

  Emotional state back to normal.

  John took a deep breath.

  They might be mortal creatures, but until I’ve completed Life Stage, I’m technically still mortal too. Only my feet have stepped on the road of immortality, hah.

  John was still hovering above the ground, though around him was no longer the snowy landscape he’d first met here. He was now in a warm climate area, full of trees, bushes and grass. As scenic as it was, it was all covered i
n slime that these snails produced. Not wanting to make contact with the slime, John maintained his hover.

  He’d been on this planet for almost eight days now, and travelled almost halfway to the city where his target was.

  The time left on the third Impurities skill was twelve minutes, and John was getting excited. He looked around and found a tree with no slime on it at all, and he quickly jumped up, digging his fingers into the surface of the tree to push him further up. Then, he sat down on a thick branch, opened the system, and waited for the skill to finish.

  ‘Ding!’

  Congratulations on completing your first Immortal Ranked Skill, we have given you a reward of 1 level in Absorption Speed Beginner, completing the skill.

  Congratulations, the skill Impurities has modified the Analyser Eye. The system has removed Godly Eye and replaced it with Immortal Eye.

  With no warning, his eyes started burning up. The system was forcing the Life Power through the flesh and into the eyes. The Life Power in the neck and head at Life Stage Level 9 did not go to the eyes. This was something entirely new.

  The muscles he’d built from achieving his peak body began to shrink, and even with the pain in his eyes, he could feel his muscle strength increasing as they condensed. John bore the pain, unable to scream out due to his surroundings. Those snails could have immortals, for all he knew. Luring them to him would be a bad idea.

  Minutes passed, and the pain faded. John looked at the new Analyser Eye’s skill, breathing heavily.

  Immortal Eye: As long as you have the information of the Immortal rank, you can see through the target’s strength.

  This skill is pretty good! I know about the first four stages, so if I can’t see the strength then they’re at least Rank 5.

  He looked over his body to check the changes. His muscles were almost gone from any visual point. He looked a lot slimmer, but he knew that he had more raw strength than he did less than an hour ago. John glanced down from the tree, searching for a snail to test his skill on. He found a lone snail a few seconds later. Taking a deep breath, he activated his Immortal Eye.

  ???

  Rank: 0

  Level: 0

  So, does that mean Rank 0 is for mortals? He checked over his stats.

  Name: John

  Age: 21

  Idlers: 135/135

  Skill Points: 0

  Life Pool: 6,336.2

  Immortality List:

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

  Purifier - Idlers 0/135, Compact - 0/3, Speed - 0/3

  Misc List:

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

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

  Force - Idlers 0/135, Accelerate - 0/5, Brakes - 0/5

  Force II - Idlers 0/135, Speed - 0/5, Control - 0/5, Fuel - 0/5

  Completed List:

  Absorption Speed - Beginner.

  Purifier - Impurities.

  Force - Master.

  John looked at his feet and pushed Life Power out of them. What came out was a pure white-coloured liquid that started moving and covering his feet. Then, a darker colour came out and mixed in with the white, staining it silver.

  Wasn’t it supposed to be the white state when the impurities were eradicated? Where’d the darker colour come from?

  John didn’t understand it, and he doubted even his master would either.

  Then, he noticed the new Life Pool amount. From his total of over 25,000 Life Power, just over 6,000 remained. While the power of what’s left was far superior, he now had the problem of keeping up with his enemies regarding usage. With this little amount, he had to kill his contract in one strike while remaining completely undetected. Otherwise, the bodyguards or even the target himself could fight back, which would not be good for John.

  It’s back to one hit kill-or-be-killed fighting style. Who knew I’d be here in the immortal rank, now, too.

  John sighed at that thought. At least, he wasn’t here to wipe out a whole family. Yet.

  Another thing John noticed was a little delay when absorbing Life Power. It took a few minutes after he stopped absorbing for the numbers to stop increasing, and it also took a few minutes for the numbers to start rising when John began absorbing again. Talk about lag...

  John assumed it was because of the Purifier’s Speed being Level 0. If the skill completed, then after the impurities were removed, it would become instant Life Pool numbers instead.

  The only thing he was left wondering about was what the Compact skill did since it didn’t increase the speed, purity or strength of the Life Power.

  With that thought in mind, he put all of his Idlers into Purity’s Compact skill. The timer came up with 3mo 15d 13h.

  John suddenly had a thought and turned Life Vision on. His eyes darted around—his idea worked! He could tell the strength levels of the things in his field of vision, even through objects. Enthused, he checked all the creatures’ strengths in the surrounding area. The highest one he could find was an Immortal Rank 1, Level 6.

  This combination of skills would help as an assassin. He could see where anyone is hiding, and he could read their strength too.

  Technically, I should be in Starting Stage too. I just cheated a little and went into Life Stage a little ahead of schedule. Because of that, though, I have to kill within a few strikes or else I’m dead. It’s a bit on the edge, but I don’t want to just sit there playing chess and reading books! I want to go out, explore and find new cheating ways to gain power!

  There are trillions of planets, and each one is different than the others in one way or another. Then, are these people on this planet considered aliens? Or, did they somehow travel through space and settle down on this planet? What about other planets? How come so many planets are suitable for humans to live on? I want to find answers to these types of questions.

  John laid his head back, running a finger through his hair. With a start, he noticed how long his hair had gotten. It was now just above his eyes. He had it cut the week before he arrived at the Rogue Sect, and then he’d been almost bald. How did it grow so fast?

  He pulled some of the hair down a bit more, squinting at what he saw. The colour wasn’t his usual brown hair. It had turned silver, the same colour that his Life Power had turned when it became impurity-free. That’s when a bit of silver in the corner of his eye caught his attention. With a start, he glanced over and found his hair reached all the way down to his chest on both sides of his face.

  A little bit of Life Power flowed through the hair, which he noted in a moment of realisation. He pulled the hair at the back of his head, finding it was just as long too.

  Well, my master is going to have a heart attack at this. Especially when I show him the colour of my Life Power to go along with it.

  Because of my combination of skills, when I get to the target’s hometown, I can now scout the whole area instantly. I was worried I might have to ask around for information, but guess this helps out a bit.

  Whoosh!

  John heard the noise of something travelling very fast and looked up.

  He still had Life Vision activated, so he could see the figure of a person flying in the sky. That person was going very fast in the southern direction.

  ‘Ding!’

  ToolTip - The Rogue’s Key can be taken out and infused with Life Power to fly.

  Again, why don’t you tell me these things earlier? If I had the speed of that guy, I would have been there days ago!

  At the thought of the Rogue’s Key, the reddish object flew out of his chest and hovered above his hand. Upon closer observation, John saw it was a small sword. As he stared at it, it started to increase in size until it was just big enough for him to step onto.

  John was feeling pretty good until the sword started to fall. In a panic, he quickly snatched the sword out of the air before it could fall out of the tree.

  So... how do I use Life Power to fly with this the
n?

  John turned Hover off and decided to give it a try.

  He stepped onto the sword, pushing Life Power from his feet into the blade. The sword began to hover with John on it. The sword wavered under his weight, but he managed to steady himself. According to the system, this was draining his Life Power by a whole point every second. Upon realising this, John immediately stopped his life power, causing the sword to fall. In a swooping action, John landed onto the branch, retrieving his sword too.

  This is for those who have much more Life Power stored, especially going as fast as that person in the sky just now.

  With a sigh, he placed the rune back inside his chest and carried on travelling in the south direction.

  Eleven days passed, and John arrived in a massive city with buildings stretching as far as the eyes could see. There must have been hundreds of thousands of houses, flats, shops and other buildings. There must have been more than a million people there too.

  John got close to the city doors, but before entering, the system’s chime alerted him.

  ‘Ding!’

  Discovered another Rogue’s Key in the area.

  Chapter 9

  Deal

  John came to a complete halt, head swerving in all directions.

  System, which direction is the other Rogue’s Key located?

  The map opened up on the system display, a yellow key icon blinking directly in front of where John stood. It was to the south. Trying to still his racing heart, John carried on through the city gates.

  As he passed through, John noted that, just like the world that he had come from, there were weapons on top of the city walls to kill any dangerous creature that got too close. John watched the map closely scanning the crowd with his Life Vision. He could now separate each one of them thanks to the Dynamic Vision skill.

  When he got close to the icon, he found he was just outside of a tavern. John zoomed in as closely as possible on the map. The icon was in the corner of the tavern. Peering through the walls, he saw a man sitting down in the assumed area, drinking.