I Hate Systems

Hovering high up in the sky was Earth Star, eyes closed, feeling the pulsating sensation of the essence of the world, attuning himself to it. A minute later, he muttered in shock, "Why is it a dozen times easier to feel it here as compared to before?"

"It's just a coincidence." Rhizen waved his hand casually, "Keep up with it. Try to make the attunement process faster. Your powers should theoretically allow you to harness all the energies in a universe naturally."

"Okay, I'll try." Saying so, Earth Star focused on the essence of the world and clenched his hand into a fist, gradually extracting it before he seeped it into a native.

This was a world take over by Apocalypse very long ago. The original natives had long since been wiped out by zombies. And over the years, the zombies began to drop in numbers too, for they were just living dead.

Some zombies had evolved to live on and maintain their deteriorating bodies, but in the end, that was their limit. No new lifeform could be birthed in this dead world.

If not for the war, some other Grade 3 System would have appeared to modify the laws of the world and birth new races, sparking a brand-new cycle.

As that hadn't happened yet, this world was left barren. Rhizen had arrived here to refine the corruption left behind by Apocalypse and transform it into another base for his Post-Apocalyptic Dispatch Society.

Moreover, he was preparing it for a training ground in preparation to counter the Luck System in the future.

Kiek!

The native screamed in pain when a portion of the world's essence surged in it. The power was too much for its fragile body to withstand as it exploded immediately.

"You shouldn't stop once you seep in power into its body." Rhizen advised Earth Star, "That zombie too is part of nature. So, try to affect the gravitational field acting in its body, use it to help stabilise the world's essence and force its body to acclimate to it."

Earth Star listened to his advice and after a few attempts, succeeded. The first time was purely coincidental, but after that, he began to succeed on his own, eventually raising his success rate.

In the meantime, Stencil hurled out chokers that enslaved the natives with a greater concentration of the world's essence in them. Lightning flickered as their bodies turned volatile.

One of the zombies latched onto a nearby zombie and devoured it, gaining all its mass. Of course, it wasn't stable, but as lightning continued to flicker in its body, its body stabilised. The world's essence was harnessed by the lightning and permeated through all its cells, helping rebuild its body.

After a few tries, Stencil succeeded, creating a stronger zombie. Following that, she and Earth Star farmed the same actions, creating stronger and stronger zombies.

Eventually, the number of zombies dropped down to a handful as the world's essence was completely expended. It was fully concentrated in the few surviving zombies as Stencil made them devour each other, resulting in a victor.

Earth Star kneaded the world's essence like dough and stabilised it with the victorious zombie.

Boom!

A torrent of energy burst out of the zombie that now resembled a hill, possessing a suffocating amount of power, enough to plunge any average world into chaos on its own. It was a miniature apocalypse itself.

Roar!

The zombie let out a guttural scream as it stared at Earth Star, intending to attack him when suddenly, its body flinched in fear, for massive eyes manifested behind it, staring down on it with a suffocating presence.

The zombie turned around and came face to face with a whale twenty times its size, one that opened its mouth to clamp on it and crunch its body into pieces in a matter of seconds.

Burp!

The whale finished digesting the zombie as it flew around the world, unleashing a jet of water from its blowhole. The water in the jet dispersed and fell down onto the parched earth like rain as immediately, grass began to grow.

Stencil inspected the grass, commenting in surprise, "They possess a power that can destroy the Systems."

"That's Nacre." Rhizen said in pride as he retracted the whale and arrived before her, "I've been observing your luck values while you helped me."

"I'm sorry," He sighed, "Infinite Regression is a concept that's beyond me. It's impossible to destroy. After all, it's the Core Skill Manifestation of a Grade 4 System."

"I expected that myself," Stencil said sullenly, "All I can do is circumvent around it and maintain my powers. But as long as it exists, I have an inherent weakness that could be taken advantage of any time by the Systems."

"Yes, but it's not like we don't have any solutions." Rhizen smiled as he extended and patted the ground, causing a gigantic pearl tree to form, "My home world has been modified by the Regression System to regress every two decades. I've been living and adapting to that for more than a millennium."

"I cannot destroy it but I can offer you a solution." He smiled, "Why don't you implant some of your powers in my home world?"

"When your dad split into four, Gahrat operated and made many arrangements in my world. We can use that to tie you to our world." Rhizen said, "And using my powers, I can help you harness the power of Infinite Regression through Luck."

"Sounds like a plan." Stencil became happy in response.

A group of people from Rhizen's home world arrived and began to set up base while Rhizen brought the duo to the Apocalypse World.

A massive world whose skies were blotted to the brim with Hosts of Grade 2 Systems relentlessly searching for it and the people that had become used to such a scene.

Large groups dressed in armour of various sorts went through portals, heading to other worlds to battle the apocalyptic creatures there. There was progress everywhere as Stencil was able to feel the presence of her dad in practically every area, "How much was he involved in this?"

"You mean Compass? Not much, to be honest." Rhizen said, "Technically though, it's Gahrat. But yeah, both were the same individual before the split."

He pointed at the sky, "All our Mutated Beasts reside there, forming a library of sorts that we could gain possession of by meeting the requirements."

"That's the secret to our rapid development."

"That feels pretty similar to my Concept Representatives." Stencil commented upon observing their powers.

"What a coincidence," Rhizen let out a smile and remained silent.