The Idle System Box Set

by Pegaz

  It was easy enough for John to become the champion, to no one’s surprise. The staff told him he had a choice of going with them or travelling on his own to the capital. Regardless of how, he needed to be there within six months. John changed his mind and chose to go on his own, purchasing all area maps that the Adventure Guild was selling.

  As soon as he put those maps into his storage space, the system scanned them and completed his world map. The capital was quite a distance from here. If he went at his own pace, he could reach the capital in less than four months. That meant there was no need for him to rush.

  For the time being, he wanted to focus on reaching Level 2. He had his feet for speed and defence, along with his armour. Currently, however, he had nothing for attack power.

  He laid down on the bed inside Jonathan’s hotel room, suspecting his previous assaulter would attack again if he went to his other room. Closing his eyes, he had an idea as he felt the Life Power through his blood system and concentrated on his hands, from the wrist to the tip of the fingers. He pushed the Life Power through.

  Pain!

  Gritting his teeth, he endured the pain silently. He couldn’t stop, no matter what. His Pain Sense skill only works on third parties, but his Life Power was a part of him.

  Pop! John heard the first bit of Life Power going through the skin to the outside. Eventually, hundreds of popping sounds followed. Ten minutes passed.

  ‘Ding!’

  Congratulations on advancing to Rank 2 Level 2.

  John smiled at the notice, and he checked his stats.

  Name: John

  Age: 22

  Idlers: 0/135

  Skill Points: 0

  Life Pool: 7,809,155

  Sin: 211

  It was a lot harder to get through the second level. John assumed it was because he was lacking in Life Power. He didn’t even have ten million, though the usual requirement for Level 2 was twenty million. The only reason he managed to succeed was that his power was Silver Grade, which was more potent compared to normal.

  He just had a feeling that he could level up. With creating the Life System in his hands instead of the shins, he could now use Life Power to attack.

  In fact, he even thought of a new way to attack from a long distance.

  Wanting to test this out, he put his right hand up and forefinger out. He held his hand like a gun and concentrated just one Life Power unit into the tip of his index’s fingernail. A small silver ball developed at the end of his fingernail. John released it, but after flying out, it dissipated just five feet away from him.

  He tried again.

  This time he made the one unit of Life Power at the tip of his finger rotate at a high speed. When he released it, there was no loud bang. The projectile silently tore through the floor and kept on going. It was a good thing John aimed down, or else it could have killed someone.

  John stood up, legs a little weak from his training. He checked where the hole was. Its edges were not melted, but it was like a drill went through it. One could see the rotation imprint the silver ball left behind.

  Taking note, he decided to change the technique up a bit. Instead of a spinning ball, it would be cone-shaped. Even more-so resembling a bullet from back on earth. At first, it was hard shaping the Life Power the way he wanted, but after a few hours of trying, he finally managed it. He decided not to test it inside the town, just in case.

  John left town and went into the nearby forest. He turned Life Vision on to look for a target to practice on, finding what seemed like an ape with six arms. He climbed a tree and aimed his finger at it.

  Whoosh!

  The bullet pierced straight through the ape’s chest with no resistance whatsoever. It carried on, going further underground. John could see the hole in the floor but had no idea how far it went.

  John had aimed for the chest to slow the ape down. He wanted to keep it alive to test other attacks on. He concentrated on the Life Power in the shape of a ball at the end of his forefinger, and tried compressing it as much as possible.

  With a lunge, he stabbed the Ape in the arm with his finger and then stepped back. When his finger was still within the beast, he released the ball of Life Power into the ape. John could feel his connection with the Life Power, and as soon as it entered the brain, he made it explode.

  BANG.

  The ape’s eyeballs popped out of the sockets, and it collapsed, dead. John was surprised that such a small amount of Life Power could go so far, but then he remembered where it was placed. The inside of the brain had no defence against an explosion.

  Both of these attacks used 10 Life Power units per attack. The ball was compressed as much as possible, while the bullet was shaped into a cone to make it aerodynamic. Still wanting to test things out, John used the full 50 Life Power units to create a bullet. It was compressed as much as possible but still was more than three times bigger than the first bullet.

  John aimed for a rock, keeping his aim as straight as possible. He wanted to figure out how far this thing could travel.

  Whoosh…

  BANG!

  John heard it crashing through everything in its path.

  When the rumbling noises finally stopped, John approached the rock. There was an inch-wide hole with smooth edges all the way through the inside of the rock.

  It looks completely clean. It’s like it just displaced the matter, or whatever it touched evaporated.

  He followed the direction of the hole and eventually came up to a big boulder. This one had no exit hole, which meant this was the maximum distance it had reached. He measured 150 feet.

  Maybe three feet per unit? Or, does it increase with more units used? He needed to do more tests.

  A day later, he confirmed it was 3 feet per unit, no matter how much power he used.

  He named the attack ‘Bullet’, which only seemed appropriate. The small ball that he put inside the ape was called ‘Explosion’. His names were simple but to the point. No need for something like “Heavenly Penetration Bullet Mach 1”, though he’d really been tempted.

  He tested the explosion inside trees. Just 1unit made a hole about 3 inches wide. When he used 50 units, it blew up a whole boulder. He found another ape and then used a 50 unit-sized Explosion attack inside as a test. The creature’s head exploded into millions of pieces, most of which were so small they disintegrated entirely.

  He could also put Life Power into his nails. The long, black nails went through the rock like a hot knife through butter—he didn’t feel any resistance at all.

  Nodding in satisfaction with the experiments of his new attacks, John opened the world map in the system and headed towards the capital.

  Chapter 22

  Mistake?

  John was forty-five years old if one included his life on Earth, but at this moment, he was acting like a kid again.

  He’d changed his mask into a cowboy hat and was shooting everything that moved with both hands shaped like a gun. He shouted “bang!” every time he shot, a silly grin plastered on his face.

  When there was nothing to shoot, he put his imaginary gun into a holster that he made his belt change into. His entire attire resembled that of a cowboy. He even wore spurs on his boots.

  In his training, the cowboy came across apes numerous times. Eventually, he ran into immortal-ranked ones too. He had found the central nest area of the creatures where they guard their young. Seeing it as a challenge, he then started picking them off one by one.

  Killing a Rank 2 Level 1 earned him 1 Life Pool unit. The amount rose by one per level. At level 9, he earned 9 Life Pool units per kill.

  He turned Life Vision on and found the highest ranked member, a Rank 3 Level 1. It was at least three times bigger than any other apes, so John changed his clothes into a brown and green camouflage jumpsuit and jumped into a tree.

  He began to jump from one tree branch to another using Life Power to get within 100 feet of the ape. When he was in range, he ducked down and held his breath. Hi
s hand was held out in front of him, pointing the “gun” towards the ape. He started compressing the Life Power into the 3-inch bullet. He was going to try to snipe it.

  John recalled seeing snipers from television shows, and he remembered that the main point was to shoot when exhaling and between heartbeats. Of course, he didn’t know how reliable this information was, but he was about to find out.

  Half an hour of waiting and John finally got a good aim. He took the shot, waiting until just after the ape sat down for a rest. As soon as he pulled the trigger, he got up and bolted away.

  If his aim was true, the ape would be dead and he would have hundreds of angry apes after him. If the ape didn’t die, he would have to deal with an enraged Rank 3 giant ape at least 15 feet tall and weighing a few tons. Either way, he didn’t want to stick around.

  ‘Ding!’

  10 Life Pool units have been added.

  Congratulations for killing your first rank one immortal creature, we have given you a reward of 1 skill point to place anywhere you choose.

  Congratulations for killing your first rank three immortal creature, we have given you a reward of 1 skill point to place anywhere you choose.

  John smiled. The bullet managed to kill the Rank 3.

  At last! I was waiting for my reward… Did it take that long for the system to update? I already got the Rank 2 rewards from killing Matthew Mu. I unlocked them out of order. I need to stop doing that.

  While he was still jumping from branch to branch to run away, he checked on the system.

  Welcome to the Idle System 2.9

  Name: John

  Age: 22

  Idlers: 0/135

  Skill Points: 2

  Life Pool: 7,830,755

  Sin: 211

  Immortality List:

  Purifier - Idlers 135/135, Compact - 1/3, Time - 8mo 18d 7h

  Sin - Idlers 0/135, Ratio - 0/3

  He put both skill points into the Compact skill, completing the skill. He then put all of his Idlers into the Sin category, and the time came up as 12d 12h. John worked it out—the first skill’s original time was one century! If he had only put one Idler into that skill, then it would have taken a quarter of his lifetime at this rank to complete one level.

  As soon as the Compact skill had completed, he could travel 100 feet per unit.

  So, Level 1 Compact increased it from 10 feet to 25 feet. Level 3 made it 100 feet, so Level 2 must have been roughly 50-60 feet per unit.

  Completed List:

  Absorption Speed - Beginner, Advanced and Peak.

  Purifier - Impurities, Compact and Speed.

  Force - Master.

  What he also noticed was that animals didn’t have any Sin. He figured that Sin had more to do with morals, a sort of “knowing it was wrong” type of thing. Animals didn’t have the thinking ability to determine what was good or not, so it didn’t count. John needed to find animals with enough intelligence to see if this theory held.

  Hundreds of apes were rushing around in every direction, looking for the killer. John put a bit more Life Power into his movements, and after only a few seconds, he was very far away from any of the apes. 50 units each step was 5,000 feet, just under a mile.

  John double-checked to make sure he had lost them and sighed in relief. Now that he’d escaped, he wanted to get back to testing his Bullet attack again. The results shocked him. With his new power, a single unit bullet travelled 10 feet, so at 50 units he could snipe at 500 feet instead of 150 feet.

  The Explosion attack made a 10-inch hole for 1unit, too. He couldn’t find a boulder or rock big enough to test the 50-unit bomb, but he was certain it would make a 41-foot hole at this rate.

  During the next four months, he continued to kill every immortal creature he found. Only a few hundred miles away from the capital was a crocodile nest in a small lake. John sniped a Rank 3 Level 2 creature that was resting on the shore and gained 20 Life Power. He only used 10 Life Power units to snipe the crocodile, so he regretted using 50 for weaker creatures months ago.

  Rank 2’s give 1 unit per level and Rank 3’s give 10 units per level? If it goes on like that, will Rank 4 give 100 units per level? Since Rank 3, 4, and 5 are all about altering the neurons in one way or another, then technically I should be able to snipe anyone at Rank 5 Level 9 and below.

  But they will be able to use the same amount of Life Power to do the same thing for much, much longer and if I fail to kill in the first shot. I’ll have a 100% chance of death.

  So, if Rank 3 Level 5 gave 50 Life Power, he’d try to snipe it with 25 Life Power units. The only downside was the distance—he’d have to get much closer.

  He stayed on a branch near the top of the tree as crocodiles couldn’t climb. John was now just outside of the capital city. He still had just under two months until the tournament continued. He decided to scout his assassination target first.

  John remembered the information about the target.

  Name: Andrew Grey.

  Strength: Immortal Rank 2, Level 7.

  Crimes: Plotted against families in the capital for political power, at least 20,000 people dead.

  Notes: Target is cunning, deceitful and ruthless.

  Deciding to enter the city, John strolled without trouble to the centre of the capital, which was a marketplace. He turned Life Vision on and scanned the whole city while pretending to shop.

  System, remove all icons beside Andrew Grey.

  John tried this method first, but after a minute, nothing happened. John was disappointed.

  System, remove all icons beside Rank 2 Level 7’s.

  Only a thousand or so icons remained. John remembered the sketch of Andrew. He was able to see the basic outline of the face if he concentrated hard enough through Life Vision because he completed the Dynamic Vision and Senses Sight skills. Through this method, he counted out eight-hundred of the icons.

  An hour passed, and he continued to stroll the marketplace, pretending to shop. That’s when he noticed a flower store and in the corner of the window was a sign which had the words “All flowers are grown in the wild before coming to this shop” written on it.

  Looking inside, he still had Life Vision on. His gaze landed on the flowers.

  ???

  Life: 10

  That surprised John. Did that mean if he ate a flower, he’d gain 10 Life Power units?

  However, before this surprise sunk in, he saw the face of a customer inside. It was his target. The system added the new information to the display.

  Andrew Gray

  Rank: 2

  Level: 8

  Sin: 0

  WHAT!? He’s levelled up, but that’s not the problem. If he’s guilty of the crimes the sect said, then it would be impossible to have 0 Sin! What’s going on? Did the sect make a mistake?!

  Chapter 23

  Guild Rank IG

  John would not kill someone with 0 Sin, even if the sect gave him a mission to do it. Conflicted, he made the system remove all other icons other than Andrew Grey’s symbol and walked away.

  He went to a nearby hotel and booked the best room possible. It was a pretty penny, but John was still a billionaire so he didn’t even twitch at the price. The staff guided him to his room, treating him nearly like royalty. Once inside his room, John took out the device his master gave him to contact him at any time. It was a small metal ball with a tiny hole. John used his sharpened claw to push the button.

  The device started vibrating, so John placed it on the floor. A few seconds later, blue lines came shooting out of it, and it projected Jamie’s face in the air.

  Wow, technology is advanced in some areas. Didn’t have this back on Earth. How come the living conditions are less developed when they’ve got this kind of gear?

  “Hello, John,” Jamie’s voice rang out, clear as a bell. His face on the projected image scrunched up, as if unsure. “What’s the reason you’ve decided to contact me? It’s been almost a year since you’ve left, I wasn’t expecting a cal
l from you for a few years.”

  John did a martial arts salute at the hologram.

  “Master, as you know, I can see through things as long as I’ve got the information.” John swallowed, hoping his master would accept this without question. “On my travels, I’ve noticed that it works on people too. And because I have the information about my target’s activities, I can see things about him too. However, when I found my target, I realised that the information that was provided is false. I could not see his crimes.”

  John waited a few minutes for a reply, assuming there was a time lag between the two of them since they were a very long distance away from each other.

  “I will contact the people who inspected these crimes,” the Sect Head finally spoke. “I trust your judgment. You have not been wrong yet. I even heard the story about how you helped Michael. He sang you praises like you were his own son.” Jamie chuckled warmly at that part.

  John gave a wry smile. “Thank you, master. I’ll wait for your call.” John did another martial arts salute and then picked the metal ball up and pushed the button, ending the call.

  No telling how long it will take for an investigation. I’m guessing the real culprit used Andrew as a fall guy… John went to his king-sized bed, lay down and checked his stats.

  Name: John

  Age: 23

  Idlers: 0/135

  Skill Points: 0

  Life Pool: 10.2M

  Sin: 0

  Misc List:

  Force II - Idlers 135/135, Speed - 0/5, Control - 0/5, Fuel - 4/5, Time - 19d 14h 42m 12s

  John had completed all Sin skills and unlocked the 1:1 ratio he’d been waiting for. The total time was 3mo 3d 12h. He then started raising the level of Force II’s skill Fuel. Level 1 was 1d 6h, which was ten years of time without his 135 Idlers. Level 2 to Level 4 was 18d 18h total on top of that. The final level started at 20d. John fell asleep soon after checking.

  The next morning, John went to the Adventure Guild to look up the kind of quests they had to offer there. Even though he got the maps, he needed information about immortal-ranked creatures.