I Hate Systems

[Yes]

Upon hearing the System's response, Neena frowned, faintly shuddering as she asked, 'Will more of such things occur?'

Upon seeing the System remain silent after that, Neena was perturbed, worrying about her plans going awry. She only wished to use her abilities to gain a better life and eventually become the head of a company.

That way, she would truly reach the peak of her career. After that, she would marry a handsome man, get a happy family and lead a life of vanity for the rest of her life in a massive mansion.

But, if creatures like the Pomeranian she saw became commonplace, then things would become hard for her. The number of variables would increase, causing many things to change in their society.

She didn't want that. As she thought as such, Neena gazed at the back of Compass Carburettor, frowning, 'It seems you are the key to knowing more about this, Compass.'

She then decided to probe for more information from him.

'Alright, I've baited them both.' Compass Carburettor mentally smiled upon sensing the emotions behind the Mental Energy streams they emitted.

This was something he was wondering about all along. At the start, when he first met them, he didn't receive any Mental Energy from them despite them talking to him—excluding Rhizen. But after some time had passed, they had begun generating Mental Energy when they thought of him.

It puzzled him at first, unable to understand as to why such a thing happened. As for him, when he wasn't thinking of any deep thoughts, he opened a small hole in his Mental Energy Form, causing a Mental Energy stream to land on them while he was conversing with them.

This way, his identity wouldn't be revealed.

As he always depended on Mental Energy to confirm his thoughts and suspicions of others, he had been especially attentive against the System Hosts, including Rhizen.

As long as the Systems within the System Hosts sensed Mental Energy streams being generated from him, they wouldn't pay him any attention, thinking that he was just another regular human.

But if he didn't generate any Mental Energy, even while talking to them, then it would be odd. They would immediately come to realise that he was either a System Host or the System Slayer hired by the Coincidental Luck System.

His identity would be revealed immediately.

And that would cause all his plans to fall apart.

At least, until now, no System with a power similar to his Info Scanner had made an appearance. So, that gave him a guarantee that his identity wouldn't be found out through a System's basic level of probing done through the Mental Energy.

When he first talked with Rhizen, he was surprised to sense Mental Energy from the other party. It seemed the Coincidental Luck System had no reason to hide them, despite the fact that probably every System that entered this world would have known about his identity.

That was when he also thought of not hiding his thoughts before the System Hosts, at least when he conversed with them. And, when he meditated, that was all he focused upon, refining his thoughts to maintain a clearer state of mind.

This way, his mind wouldn't suddenly think of any thought that would reveal information about him to the enemy when he opened a hole in his Mental Energy form.

If he didn't exercise firm control over his mind, he was bound to fail, especially against opponents of such calibre.

He determined that the level of rashness Neena and Krager exhibited differed as compared to Regriel. They were all trashes in a certain way but weren't as basic as Regriel.

If Regriel was a one-dimensional character, then Neena and Krager were probably between that and a two-dimensional character.

Of course, he only concluded that after carefully observing them for a quarter day.

…

Meow!

A cat skipped over a wall of tree roots that jutted out of the ground, landing on a small rocky patch as it looked at the crown of trees before it.

It noticed a silhouette within the thicket of trees, calmly unfurling something. The cat slowly walked forward, absolutely silent in its steps, inching forth like the predator it was, crouching a little with the intention of pouncing upon the enemy.

All it saw was the shadow within the thicket of trees. As, even though it was bright now, the canopy of the thicket of trees completely blocked any light from entering in, causing the place to be almost dark. If not for the sunlight casting on them horizontally after being reflected by the nearby rocks, it would have been impossible for even the cat to see anything within.

Just when it was about to pounce upon its enemy, the shadow of something loomed above its head. Though, the shadow was a mere dot. But, within a second, it increased in size until covering three times the size of its body.

The cat's hairs stood on end in alarm as it jumped back in a hurry when suddenly, the shadow aiming for it abruptly stopped when it was two feet above the ground.

It unfurled its wings, unveiling a grand wingspan of three metres as it used the momentum of its dive and its abrupt pause to unleash a powerful gust of wind that accurately locked onto the cat, as if the bird knew its direction of jump beforehand.

The gust of wind was like a shockwave that slammed into the cat, sending it reeling into the air before it slammed into the trunk of a tree, unable to even orient itself, bleeding as it slid to the ground.

The cat noticed that the creature that attacked it resembled an eagle at first glance but also had traits of a vulture. And, it was alarmingly huge but possessed the lithe and light-bodied grace a bird had.

And, held in its beak was a large worm that it had hunted. When it was returning to its nest, it had coincidentally noticed the cat sneaking towards its nest, taking action.

Even though it seemed like the cat had suffered injuries from the impact, it had already healed itself completely. But despite that, it lay there, looking like it was unable to move, meowing in pain, trying to use its injuries as bait.

The bird looked at the cat, staring at it as it took a step forward. But right at this time, a mango that had been growing on the tree fell off, its stem being damaged from the cat's impact. As it had ripened, it fell from the slightest impact.

And coincidentally, it fell on the cat's tail, causing it to spring up in alarm instinctively, paling in response when it noticed that it had jumped towards the bird instead.