by Pegaz
“I’m planning on heading for the Sword sect tomorrow. There are a few things I have to do before I get there.”
Their conversation went on a little longer. John asked a few more questions, and Owen answered to the best of his ability. Finally, John shook hands with Owen again and said goodbye.
So, they couldn’t find out who lured the Fire Elementals, but at least they know ‘Jonathan’ wasn’t the man who lured them. I had scanned the whole capital to kill the sinners only moments before the volcano erupted. Nobody was near the volcano, but I wonder why Scan didn’t pick up the Fire Elementals...
Wait… unless… was it because I asked for the scan to filter the icons? I must try specifying the results I want next time I test it. It’ll take me about six months to travel to Sword sect’s public planet, even with Rogue sect’s teleport runes. Still, I need to go around collecting more Sins for another month or so.
John went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately. He woke up so early in the morning that it was still dark outside. Nonetheless, he checked out of his room and began his journey.
Forming a large sword, he jumped on top of it and pretended to use it to fly into the distance.
Chapter 53
Won the Battle but Lost the War
Back at the Rogue sect, Jeremy May was standing outside of the vault that led to the treasury. He still hadn’t gotten inside it even after all this time.
The lock on the vault changed every day and only the Sect Head had the code to open it. The previous Sect Head, Jamie Cooper, was under his manipulation before, so Jeremy was able to get the code for a day. However, on that particular day, he coincidentally received a report that a certain Sider had come back to the sect.
After the battle, he’d gone to the vault with the code. However, the doors did not open for him. The code would change when the time hits midnight or after someone else entered the vault. When he checked, it was still in the middle of the day. In addition, the Elder who guards the entrance reported that nobody had entered that day.
And so, after a few days, he got the rest of the living Elders under his control and had an official coronation ceremony to become the new Sect Head. Things were going fine until he learned of the rule that the first sect master put into place.
The new Sect Head could not gain entry to the vault until two months after his coronation. This rule was to prevent people from killing to become the new Sect Head. It was the runes that the founder, the first sect master, had created that followed this rule. The vault was almost impossible to break through, even with Rank 9 strength. The runes only followed the rule and it was impossible to change, bribe, convince, or sway them.
Jeremy only had a few minutes left before he could open the vault. He was getting excited, thinking about the amount of Life Stones, herbs, and other valuables inside. He saw it only once, many years ago, and since then he’d always dreamt of having it all to himself.
A few minutes later, a code entered his mind. Walking up to the vault, he typed in the 25-digit code.
Dust flew out from the door as it opened.
The old Sect Head hadn’t opened it in such a long time, judging by the dust. He waved his hand, clearing the air. When he was ready, he grabbed the handle on the vault door and opened the door wider. With every inch it opened, his smile got bigger.
With the door open wide enough to slip through, Jeremy squeezed his round body into the vault. However, after only one step inside, his smile disappeared.
Looking around, he saw all the display cases were empty. Someone left the chests open and bags on the floor empty.
Empty, empty, empty.
What? Where…? Where is everything?!
He checked through the empty chests. He opened drawers, cabinet doors, and anything else he could find. Finding nothing in this room, he saw a door leading to the next room of the vault.
Frantic, he went through the door and came to a long corridor with nine deep pits. There were four on the left, four on the right, and a single pit at the end. At the top of the pits were wooden labels, he looked up at the first pit on the left which read “Grade 1 Life Stone”. Looking inside the pit, it was empty. He turned around and looked at the sign of the first pit on the right. “Grade 2 Life Stone”. It was empty too.
The next pit on the left had “Grade 3 Life Stone” at the top, and it was empty as well.
He went through all the pits until the pit on the end which had the label “Grade 9 Life Stone”.
Looking down, it was empty of Life Stones. However, he noticed a small brown object in the middle of the floor at the bottom.
Climbing down the ladder, he approached the object. It was a parchment.
Picking it up, he unrolled the parchment and read it.
Hello, Jeremy!
If you’re reading this, then it’s more than likely that me and my master are dead or manipulated. Good job! You managed to win the battle. Still, I hate losing in anything I do.
Because there’s a 99% chance I will lose against you, I decided I might as well make you lose too.
I stole everything inside this vault. Don’t ask me how, I can’t tell you because I’m dead.
So, while we fought, you did not realise the whole sect’s treasury was with me and you destroyed it along with me. It all happened because of your greed.
I would have also made sure that I destroy the mission hub. Then, at the least, it would bury the treasure along with me.
Hope you enjoy being the poorest sect master in history.
Best regards,
John the Sider.
Jeremy lowered his arms. His mouth was open and his eyes bulging. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fist and scrunched the parchment in his right hand. His nails went through the parchment and dug into the skin, drawing blood not long after.
In his boiling rage, the fat old man released his Life Power. The floor and walls around him formed spider web cracks. Pieces of the wall fell off onto the floor. After a matter of minutes, the whole vault came crumbling down. The angry man realised the vault is almost indestructible but only from outside attacks, not attacks from the inside. He travelled out of the vault just in time to avoid being buried.
He pulled out his sword, stepped on it and flew to above the destroyed mission hub.
“Everybody get here!” His voice bellowed throughout the whole sect.
It took only two minutes for hundreds of people to come running to where he was. Most of them couldn’t fly, so they waited on the floor while looking up.
“Everybody! Dig up the mission hub! Remove the rubble and find the corpse of the former Sect Head and, if possible, the Sider’s body. Any bags you find, give them to me!”
The people dug underneath them, tossing any rocks they could into their bags or to the side, out of the way. There were between 600 to 700 people digging, but because of the size of the destroyed mission hub and how deep it was, it still took almost ten days to find the first body.
It was the body of a person John had killed, but Jeremy knew they were close now. A few hours later, he found the corpse of Jamie. Jeremy checked the body for any bags but found nothing. The dig carried on for a few more hours when a person shouted he found a bag.
The person ran to Jeremy and handed the bag over. Jeremy was smiling as he opened the bag, there was a bright green glow from a high grade Life Stone. After grabbing the Life Stone, there were a few more others inside, so he grabbed them all. To his dismay, there was only a parchment underneath them. Putting away the Life Stones, Jeremy picked up the parchment and read it.
I got your hopes up, didn’t I? Sorry.
From John
“ARGH!!!”
Jeremy’s veins were bulging out all over his face. Jeremy turned around to look at the person who handed him the bag, then used Life Power to knock the man’s head clean off his shoulders.
“GODDAMNIT!!! I REGRET KILLING THE BASTARD!!! I WANT TO TORTURE HIM FOR ETERNITY!!!”
They could hear his
voice even in the immortal village where Amanda was staying still.
He spat out blood after yelling.
That bastard has caused me to have ulcers! Even in death, he messes with me!
Jeremy looked at his right arm, lifting his robe’s sleeve. The burn mark John had left him was still there. He remembered that day and John’s words.
“I’ll leave that burn mark as a gift to remember me by then.
“You’ve made a huge mistake killing my master and trying to kill me.
“Oh yeah, I’ve left you another gift. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.”
While lost in his thoughts, another person was yelling that they found a bag. Jeremy turned around and looked at the bag inside the man’s hand.
Shaking his head, he said. “You open it. If it’s anything under a hundred Life Stones, don’t tell me.” He walked away after that.
I won the battle, but lost the war. That Sider has taken everything and made sure he destroyed it. We’ll never find anything in this rubble. My loss was set as soon as I killed Jamie. It will take thousands of years to gain that kind of treasury again, even if we kill a hundred times more.
Jeremy left the digging site and went back to his home, depressed.
Chapter 54
Group Mission
John entered a teleport room of the Rogue sect and stood at the centre. Closing his eyes, he pondered over where to go.
I need to head towards the Sword sect, but I should take a detour to get the rest of the Sin points I need. Not too big of a detour either. A populated world like the Adventurer Guild’s public planet would be best. That way I can get millions all at once. Then, I won’t have to worry about it anymore.
After some more consideration, a plan formed in his mind and he teleported away.
A month later, the Defence’s Drain skill levelled up.
Misc List:
Defence - Idlers 225/225, Repair - 0/3, Drain - 3/5, Time - 6mo 8d
Three more levels until I use my skill points. But those three levels will take almost three years. I could get the 1million shop option then get another 870 million Sins to finish it, I guess…? I’m sick of killing people though… I want a more peaceful life. At least, for a little while. The more people I kill, the higher the chances of someone figuring out who I am. If the Rogue sect realise I am still alive, I’m sure Jeremy would hunt me down himself. Especially if he discovered those gifts I left for him.
John sighed and carried on with his journey.
Five months later, John came to a populated planet and went to the capital city.
He bought all the herbs and flowers with Life Power within. If they could survive without sunlight, he purchased their seeds too. In-between the plant shops, he also paid visits to restaurants. He spent a few days relaxing, enjoying the fine cuisine of the planet.
Inside his posh hotel room, John turned on Life Vision and Immortal Eye to scan the whole city. Like the Adventurer Guild’s public planet, there were millions of people with Sin points. What peaked his interest the most, however, was a life aura quite a few miles away. From this distance, it was not any bigger than a pixel. It was only out of sheer luck and good eyesight that he found it.
???
Rank: 6
Level: 2
Sin: 1,402,505
The rest of the people are below Rank 3. I need to get rid of this person first. He’s still low level in the rank, so he’s only strengthened the ankles and shins if he goes by the usual training method. I can’t make a bullet strong enough to kill him though. The bullet that killed Helen was my strongest attack, but this person has completed the Creation and Storage stage. More than likely, he’s able to form the natural defence I’ve read about in a book from Rogue sect.
The natural defence formed once you completed the Storage stage. Because there were one trillion neurons and each one could hold much more after the Storage stage, they leaked Life Power out to form a veil like John’s Defence skill. The natural defence took Life Power to form and was colourless too.
John’s Immortal Eye was the only reason he could tell the difference between a Rank 2 and a Rank 7. Without it, he wouldn’t be able to tell.
If someone stops absorbing Life Power for too long in these stages, they could drop in their rankings to a point where their body could store the Life Power. If their body was in bad shape or full of impurities, they could even drop back to Rank 3. Though if they did drop that far, it would be only a matter of collecting more Life Power to climb the ranks again, since they’ve already performed the requirements to advance.
This fluctuation stopped at the end of Rank 7, when all branches and cells were strong enough to keep the Life Power inside. This was also the reason few people got Rank 8 or higher. It was an uphill struggle.
John had an idea he wanted to try.
He formed one sword out of a million threads. It was close to 6 feet long, 3 feet wide, and though the blade was thick, both sides of it thinned out until the edges were as thin as a hair. The hilt was one solid piece of metal and over two feet long. It was like someone inserted a metal pipe into the sword as a handle. It was a hefty blade, weighing a hundred pounds or so.
Changing his appearance to his Jonathan disguise, he flew above the capital while holding the great sword. Once he was 40 miles in the air, he pushed Life Power from his back and propelled himself down, breaking the sound barrier and plummeted towards the earth like a meteorite. He swung his sword downwards, when the sword got halfway through the swing, he disappeared.
Reappearing above and behind the person he was trying to kill, his blade appeared with no warning. The target would have no chance to even react.
‘Ding!’
Discovered another Rogue’s Key in the area.
It was a good thing that John was so concentrated on his attack, because that message could have messed it all up. Ignoring the message, John’s blade sliced the man in half with no resistance.
BOOM!
Cutting through the entirety of the man’s body, the sword hit the ground and created a crater.
‘Ding!’
Congratulations for killing your first Rank 6 immortal creature. We have given you a reward of 1 skill point to place anywhere you choose.
He teleported back above the city, letting the sword disappear.
Thank God the person was outside the capital city, or else innocents could have been buried. I didn’t think about the impact the sword would have on the ground!
He took a deep breath and relaxed a little.
This is the last time for a while.
Putting his hands up, he formed the Rapid Fire spheres and millions of bullets flew. It took less than a minute to kill all his targeted sinners. Once the deed was done, he then teleported back to his hotel room.
Congratulations for getting your first hundred million Sins. We have given you a reward of 1 skill point to place anywhere you choose.
The notification surprised John. Pleased, he checked over his stats.
Welcome to the Idle System 3.0
Name: John
Title: A Selfish Punisher.
Age: 32
Idlers: 0/225
Skill Points: 4
Life Pool: 148.6M
Sin: 162.4M
Misc List:
Defence - Idlers 225/225, Repair - 0/3, Drain - 3/5, Time - 1mo 7d 23h 35m 46s
If I use my skill points to finish Drain and Repair once the level finishes, I can save... 16 years of time! I think it’s worth it at this point of time. I need 101 million for the Sin shop, but I’ve got over 60 million extra to spend on the transfer. That would lower the time a bit.
Before he could do his plan, the system went off again multiple times.
‘Ding’
Discovered another Rogue’s Key in the area.
‘Ding’
Emotional state back to normal.
John took long, deep breaths to calm down.
Still? How many of them do I need to kill to not
get emotional at the mere mention, sight, or thought of Rogue sect members? I think the system can sense the Rogue’s key in the same radius as the Scan. There are two groups that entered the scan at the same time.
John checked the one group which came from the western side. They were headed east. Nobody had manipulated any of them. However, looking at the other group heading north, they were all manipulated.
???
Rank: 5
Level: 4
Sin: 89,294
Status: Memory Manipulated.
This person had the highest rank, but not by much. He was walking in front of everyone else. There were fifteen people total and eight of them were Rank 5. The others were Rank 4. All of them were wearing the Daoist robes and masks of the Rogue sect. John figured they were on a job and did not care about stealth.
Are they here for me? Do they know I’m alive, or is this a coincidence? I’ll play it safe for now. Next time I need to remember to use the system map instead of Life Vision and Immortal Eye when searching for Rogue sect members, it’s faster.
John changed his appearance to the Rogue sect’s Daoist robes and mask too. His plan was to find out what they were here for by asking directly. Taking a deep breath, he stood up and walked out to the balcony. He formed a sword under his feet and flew towards the sect members.
Flying in front of the group, he descended at a slow speed. John looked straight at the leader who was walking in front of the pack.
He asked, “What job?”
The leader looked up towards John.
“A family, not a single target. If you want to help, you won’t get any rewards since you didn’t go through proper channels.”
“What family?”
“Gibson family, local powerhouse.”
John nodded. “How many?”
“More than a thousand people. They are all inside their family mansion today. Any other time, they’re separated by a large distance on this planet and would take months of hunting.”