I Hate Systems

Mascot!

Truck-Kun was someone inherently affiliated with Mascot, for everyone that his truck crashed into and transmigrated ended up at Mascot's doorstep. So, it was in his instinct to bring everyone here.

Usually, this instinct only affected his base level of thought process. If he wished, he could go against it a bit. But, it was only during times when he was reigning freely.

At the end of the day, he was still related to Mascot. So, if she so desired, she could crank up his base instincts, which was what happened here. Even though Truck-Kun came to Hazen's rescue, he wasn't able to go against his instincts and brought him to Mascot's domicile.

"Hazen…" Mascot drooled upon staring at Hazen as she condensed a torrent of power in her hands, "Join hands with me. I'll gift you a terrifying cheat in response."

"If you wish for me to join you, then help me once." Hazen displayed zero resistance to her invitation, surprising her for a moment.

After a moment of thought, Mascot controlled herself as she observed Hazen from head to toe, stating, "You want my help? With what?"

"Just the usual," Hazen said, "Help me kill seven Systems and I'll join your army."

"Seven Systems?" Mascot frowned, staring at Hazen with a deep gaze as she asked, "Iterate their names for me, will you?"

"Sure," Hazen nodded as he said, "Monarch, Absolute Progression, Primordial Cultivator, Bullshit…"

As she heard the names he uttered, Mascot's excited expression gradually turned solemn before soon, she glared at Hazen with a death stare, "All Grade 3 Systems?"

"And Regression…" Hazen didn't even finish the sentence when the windows of the truck were broken as Mascot plunged her hand through it, intending to grab him by the throat.

"You want me to go on a suicidal spree just for you?" Mascot glared, "None of you are important enough to afford that, neither you nor Compass."

Tch!

Hazen transformed into a thought and ethereally phased through Truck-Kun, extracting a bunch of thoughts and a portion of his mind, muttering in apology towards him, "I'm sorry, brother. I'll make up for it in the future."

Honk!

Hazen snapped his finger and created a projection of Truck-Kun from his past, watching him condense a truck as he entered it. Mascot unleashed a beam at them as most of the truck was destroyed in the process, throwing off Hazen somewhere deep in the multiverse when he transmigrated in a hurry.

That thought of Truck-Kun was destroyed, but thankfully for Hazen, he stole more of Truck-Kun's memories, creating another projection of Truck-Kun. He then boarded a new truck and transmigrated, travelling to the location where the 24 Rings world was before.

"What the…?" He was stunned to see that it didn't exist there, "Where did it go?"

He closed his eyes and used his powers to detect the spatial coordinates of the 24 Rings world, only detecting a faint trace. "Let's follow this."

The Truck-Kun projection hurriedly amped up his power and drove through the void, following the traces left behind by the 24 Rings world. Partway through the journey, dust fragments began to bombard the truck and immediately, a feeling of tension, madness, worry, etc. began to grow in them.

Tch!

Hazen erected a shield and used his powers to extract the externally induced insanity and threw them away. Thereby, the truck was able to move freely.

But the more they travelled, the greater the intensity of the dust grew, causing Hazen to frown, "Just what the heck is happening?"

The truck was constantly teleporting vast distances through the void of the universe it treaded through. As they were still tracking the trails, the truck couldn't just jump universes randomly. So, their progress was slow.

But they were still crossing a universe every few days.

The longer they travelled, the worse Hazen's mood got, growling in frustration as he couldn't detect the 24 Rings world except for the traces it left. 'Just what the heck happened?'

Had it been in its original location, he could have easily transmigrated into the 24 Rings world through the truck. But the moment it moved locations, its spatial coordinates changed.

Hazen wasn't aware of the existence of the Serpent Universe. It was hard to detect through it, since Compass Carburettor created it to be hard to detect in the first place.

If not for the Fate System using Rhizen to infiltrate the Serpent Universe, it wouldn't have been possible for the Systems to discover it. By the time they managed to even detect its traces, Compass Carburettor would have emerged from Faith Grounds.

"Just where the heck is she?" Hazen slammed his fist on the window of the truck as they stopped. He had been expending a lot of power to travel for so long and was already running low. Unlike Truck-Kun, he wasn't a Concept Representative.

So, he didn't have a power source funnelling into his being. Therefore, after some time of consideration, as Truck-Kun focused on his mental map of the multiverse, Hazen found a Technological World nearby.

He entered it and enveloped his mind around the world, sighing as he absorbed all the emitted Mental Energy. Once he recovered some energy, he manifested past versions of himself and sent them on a truck each to the nearby worlds, all to harvest Mental Energy.

One projection continued to travel as it traced the 24 Rings world. It took Hazen an entire month to refill his energy levels. And that included the Mental Energy gathered by all the projections he sent out.

Subtracting the logistics and travel costs, he barely managed to fill up his reserves. It depressed him when he thought about it, 'I'm still reliant on Mental Energy to replenish my energy reserves the fastest.'

He could deprive cultivation worlds of their energy and absorb them. But he would need to spend time filtering it and altering it to his desire, which consumed a lot of time, energy, and effort. But absorbing Mental Energy was the fastest, especially since he specialised in the mind.

'If only I focused on growing stronger zealously like Compass, I would have attained a better energy gathering means.' He sighed, lamenting at his fate. Only when he lost everything did he change his inherent nature. But, it was too late already.

'I only hope I reach Stencil on time.' He prayed in worry.