I Hate Systems

"There was once a shepherd," An omniscient voice resounded, originating from the mysterious three-headed entity.

'That's the Main Character?' Zaira frowned, focusing as she was able to sense hundreds of Main Character System fragments in the three-headed entity, confirming the other party's identity.

It was then her expression became one of alarm, actually paling in fear as she noticed a vast surge of fate congregate in the region, swirling towards the Main Character, 'No, he's using everyone here as spectators for his play!'

'If this level of fate congregates and sparks whatever he wishes to create, it would signal a disaster for us.' For the first time in forever, Zaira panicked, hurriedly activating one of her oldest powers.

Core Skill—Tell-Tale (Level 299)!

"There exists no shepherd!" There was a flux of energy following her booming voice as the congregating fate began to dissipate in response. She was using the power of the Tell-Tale System to counter Compass Carburettor's Core Skill of Lore.

The Main Character grunted softly in response before which, he continued to speak, "Protecting his sheep from the wolves…"

The massive stretch of fate began to converge once again, this time even stronger than before, causing a seed of fear to bud in Zaira's mind, 'Even when I'm activating Tell-Tale's Core Skill, it's still not enough to offset the Main Character's Core Skill?'

Upon seeing the convergence of fate accelerate, she gritted her teeth, "It seems I have no other choice."

She raised her hands to bellow with an omniscient tone, "Come!"

Boom!

Instantly, a mysterious creature resembling a long-necked monster with a billion hands resembling tentacles in place of fur coating its neck appeared, rapidly understanding the situation at hand upon staring at the convergence of fate.

Grade 3 System—Tell-Tale (Level 299)!

"The sheep existed in peace, protected by the wolves…" The Tell-Tale System spoke aloud, combining its power with Zaira to double the effect, mentally heaving a sigh in relief upon seeing the convergence of fate dissipate gradually.

Zaira was able to unleash the power of all Core Skills that were in her database, at full power. This was why she refrained from summoning any System to the scene and intended to deal with it herself by relying on her Core Skills alone.

After all, she didn't wish to create chances for Slayer to sneak attack her Systems using the war as an opportunity. Losing thousands of Grade 1 Systems didn't matter. If she could create them once, she could recreate them from scratch again.

As long as she found suitable enough Mental Energy to act as a template.

And, the population of Systems were indeed booming, so she wasn't concerned with their deaths, if any. But, she was of course concerned about the fate of the Grade 2 Systems and beyond.

Grade 2 Systems formed the vanguard of her forces against the Genre Representatives, capable of creating their own genres. That was how they managed to kill the Genre Representative—Hunter!

Hunter wasn't strong in the first place, being an obscure Genre Representative. But suddenly, a group of Grade 2 Systems invaded his world and rapidly popularised the genre, ending up fully taking control of it and resulting in his death.

Above that were Grade 3 Systems, capable of changing the very genres themselves. They were her personal force against the Genre Representatives. Even for Systems, Grade 3 Systems numbered very few.

To date, her forces barely surpassed the strength of the Genre Representatives. Immortal and Magister were just those well-known among Genre Representatives. There were dozens of them, almost equal in number to the Grade 3 Systems.

Therefore, if she were to lose even a single Grade 3 System, it would tip the balance to the other side, especially since she would lose all data regarding the Grade 3 System—if it was killed by the Main Character—when killed, or worse, stolen.

But now, since the strength of Compass Carburettor's Core Skill of Lore was beyond her expectations, Zaira had no other choice but to summon her trump card, the pillar of Systems—Tell-Tale System.

It was the System that had created the Astral Network and pretty much shaped the path of power progression for the Systems. If not for the Tell-Tale System, the Systems would have never attained the concept of level-up through gaining Mental Energy, consuming those of the same genre to eventually become Grade 2, and many others.

It could be said that the Tell-Tale System was the keystone to the rise of the Systems. It also meant that its death would signal their fall.

[Hurry, leave!]

Zaira said upon seeing that the Main Character's actions had been neutralised, urging the Tell-Tale System to leave. After all, despite its terrifying powers, in terms of brute strength, it was the weakest among Grade 3 Systems, possessing power inferior to even Grade 2 Systems.

So, Zaira was truly worried about its safety.

Boom!

Suddenly, the entire world collapsed, transforming into Mental Energy that vanished into the Main Character's body.

It was the new power Compass Carburettor had gained from Conjurer's world. Adding onto Gahrat's power, it allowed him to convert massive worlds into Mental Energy just like that.

"T-This makes no sense…" Slayer, having been observing everything from far away muttered in disbelief when suddenly, the Main Character glared at him.

Dota—System Punishment!

Through Domino Plottopia, Compass Carburettor unleashed this familiar ability on Slayer, "You're one sneaky bastard, I'll tell you that."

Boom!

Slayer was sent flying as countless defensive abilities that he had erected in advance shattered like glass, even cracking his body. If he hadn't become the Genre Representative equivalent of the Fantasy World, that one attack would have turned his situation dangerous.

Compass Carburettor didn't stop at that as he glared at the Tell-Tale System next, understanding instinctively that it was his natural enemy.

"No!" Zaira's Mental Energy construct enveloped the Tell-Tale System in a protective embrace, activating countless Core Skills as she readily expended a world's worth of Mental Energy to defend against the attack.

But an instant later, the majority of the abilities that she had unleashed fractured mysteriously, transforming into Mental Fragments, after which they became Mental Energy and returned to the Main Character's body in an instant, causing part of the System Punishment to seep through the gaps in the defence and slam into Zaira's energy construct, exploding it.

"And you…" Compass Carburettor glared at Conjurer, observing the other party's fear as for some reason, part of his body had become limp mysteriously, "One of your worlds is already mine. Next,"

"The rest will follow suit."