I Hate Systems

The Fate System's plan was pretty simple. Destroy a few of Mystique's worlds, cause them to latch onto the Serpent Universe, and turn every sentient creature within to go insane.

Adding onto this, he forced the insane underlings of the Invader System to recklessly march towards the 24 Rings world, pressuring Stencil and Rhizen further. It prevented them from doing anything else for the time being.

He invited Slayer to the Serpent Universe, and using the key that controlled the Serpent Universe, he allowed Gehera to sense Slayer's aura. And as this happened right after the madness infection, Gehera lost her mind to rage and rushed towards the mouth.

Using the dragon plushies, Gehera teleported to the forefront of their battleground. She didn't even require their permission. With a swing of her hand, she devoured the powers of one, using which she crossed half the Serpent Universe.

The Fate System kept the portals on the invader side functioning, allowing Gehera to blaze through them and arrive at the mouth in a matter of minutes. Following that, the Fate System destroyed the portals once the invader army had arrived at the vanguard.

As the two armies fought a bloody battle, Gehera was cut off from her allies, having arrived deep into the enemy side. In her state, she couldn't control herself and fought Slayer with all her power.

While hiding, the Fate System caused the Serpent Universe to crash into more of Mystique's worlds, raising the intensity of madness and other chaotic outbursts.

As the entirety of the Serpent Universe was polluted from the repeated crashes, the madness seeped. And in their highly intense conflict, Slayer and Gehera's defences towards madness weakened, causing them to be fully infected over time.

With that, they were unable to realise what the Fate System was planning.

As Gehera was no longer lucid, there was none to control or determine where the Serpent Universe was heading. Thanks to that, the Fate System made a beeline toward the System World itself.

Slayer didn't realise the scheme in his maddened state, having his hands full facing Gehera. If he was lucid, he would have figured out things long ago.

But he was already obsessed with getting his hands on Gehera's power, the last part of the puzzle that made his powers complete. Secondly, the Fate System's oath on fate where it swore to never leak the whereabouts of the Serpent Universe to anyone else blindsided him.

The intense fight and the madness were the final masks that shielded him from seeing the entire picture. As a result, by the time Anak managed to recover, it was too late.

The Fate System had already parked the Serpent Universe within the System World. Immediately after that, Zaira locked the System World, preventing anyone from leaving it, only possible if their foundation surpassed the System World's, which wasn't possible.

The System World's foundation was the highest in the multiverse.

"Welcome," Zaira opened the Serpent Universe's mouth and stared at her prey, "To the System World."

"S-Shit!" Slayer instinctively used all his powers to flee, despairing upon staring at his body flicker once before failing to leave the System World.

Mental Energy instantly flooded the Serpent Universe as it drilled into Slayer's body, transforming into sub-atomic-sized creatures, each weighing a thought. They gorged on his body and began to rapidly devour his mind.

"This…is Mental Energy?" Slayer was flabbergasted as he stared at what was happening to his body, "I…never know you attained such a fearsome height of skill with it."

"You know my obsession well," Zaira grinned, "I prepared this Core Skill just to make Arnark mine when he sets foot in the System World. I only ended up using it on you."

Despair set in him before soon, Slayer simply…sighed in defeat, "I was close to success."

"Yeah, you were alarmingly close." Zaira acknowledged his efforts as the Mental Energy continued to dig deeper and deeper into his body, "You just…underestimated Fate. That's all."

"Fate, huh?" Slayer spat out in defeat, "Suck a fucked-up concept."

"Such is fate." Zaira nodded as she placed her palm on Slayer, clenched her hand into a fist, and yanked with force, extracting the entirety of Slayer's mind, having converted it into Mental Energy.

His thoughts, memories, will, abilities, etc. everything that he possessed was transformed into Mental Energy and extracted from his body. His body was now useless scrap, only containing remnants of power she deemed useless and not suitable.

With a snap of her finger, she threw Slayer's empty body out of the System World, and into a scrap world that was regarded as the multiverse's dump yard.

Zaira stared at the Mental Energy figure of Slayer as she opened her mouth and devoured it. A day later, she condensed a Coordinate and poured a torrent of refined Mental Energy into it, transforming the Coordinate into a System.

Immediately in response, Anak and Arak fainted as something seemed to change in them inherently. Upon seeing that, Zaira smiled, expending copious amounts of Mental Energy that shaved off a tenth of her Mental Energy reserve. And the fruit of that costly endeavour…?

Grade 4 System—Representative (Level 300)!

"I'm…reborn." Slayer opened his eyes, now a complete System, a Grade 4 System at that. He observed himself, muttering, "I'm stronger than before. But more than that,"

He stared at Zaira, "My loyalty towards you is absolute. Is this what a System entails?"

"Pretty much," Zaira said, "A System that has set foot on the System World is absolutely loyal to me. That's what the concept of System entails."

"I see," Slayer clenched his hand into a fist as he approached Arak and Anak, patting them as he propped them up, "I've now become someone that can Host them."

Immediately in response, a fragment of himself branched out and entered Arak, turning him into his Host.

This was Slayer's power as the Grade 4 System—Representative!

It was a power where he could turn Genre Representatives into his Host. As it was originally the concept he had created through the birth of Arak and Anak as Martial and Immortal respectively, Zaira conceptualised that into a Core Skill while using the rest of his accumulated power to form a concrete foundation.

With that, she created her fourth Grade 4 System.

"Now," Zaira's eyes twinkled with a maddened desire, "I can finally do something about the Genre Representatives."