by Pegaz
There were other less secretive sects too. To join the best ones in the universe, you needed to reach at least Immortal Rank 3 before the age of forty. John was well ahead of time for that deadline. The Rogue Sect didn’t have any rules against joining any other type of organisations, as long as you don’t divulge information and activate the blood oath. John absentmindedly pondered over which sect to join in the future. It was just a passing thought though, since he had another sixteen years left before he had to make a choice.
The names of the sects reminded John of some of the novels he used to read. There was the Sword Sect, Dual Cultivation Sect, and even the Death Sect. These are the top three sects in the universe. Each sect had their own planets with mortals like the Rogue sect. They each had unique cultivations, techniques, shops, resources, and everything else John could think of.
After a month of being in the library, the Force’s skill Brake completed Level 5. The whole skill was completed, so it faded away from the chart.
John remembered when the system updated from 1.9 to 2.0, it took all of his skill points away. However, he also saw it forcefully take all the Idlers out of the Maximum Idlers skill, which had over thirty-eight years left to complete the level.
Back then, he was angry that his skill points disappeared, and even more upset when the skill points availability reverted to no points. But now that he thought about it, maybe, the system took away those points in exchange for removing the Idlers out of the skill. Otherwise, he’d have no Idlers for over thirty-eight years.
So, thinking up to this point, he put 1 Idler into Maximum Idlers and the time came up as 1s. The skill time had reset after updating from 1.9. Of course, John couldn’t have known because he was scared to put any inside at that time.
After seeing the first result, John walked outside the library and banged his head against a tree quite a few times. Did he go back to being stupid again? He should have tested it sooner!
Maximum Idlers and Maximum Workers were the only skills left when the system was updated. John’s theory was that, if it updated to 3.0, maybe the timers on whatever skills were left would be reset. He would have to keep a mental note of this.
John turned the Continue option off and put all idlers into Max Idler, then Max worker and kept repeating that until Max Idler skill would have taken over a month to complete. He had gained 23 levels in both Max Idler and Max Worker.
He turned the Continue option on again and put all Idlers into Force II’s Speed skill. It came up as 1mo 5d. John finished his last book of the day and checked his stats.
Welcome to the Idle System 2.9
Name: John
Age: 23
Idlers: 0/158
Skill Points: 0
Life Pool: 15.6M
Sin: 0
Misc List:
Maximum Idlers - Idlers 0/158, +1 Max Idlers - 157/2159
Maximum Workers - Idlers 0/158, +1 Idler Workers - 59/2061
Force II - Idlers 158/158, Speed - 3/5, Control - 0/5, Time - 1mo 5d
Completed List:
Force - Accelerate, Brakes and Master.
Force II - Fuel.
John still hadn’t heard from his master in all these months about the mistake he reported in, but the device wasn’t connecting either. It would take at least nine months of travel to get back, even at full speed. Even if he did go back, what could he do as a Rank 2? If there was a power play from that Vice Head Jeremy May who was Rank 9 Level 9, John could do nothing but watch, get taken hosted to be used against his master or get killed.
So, John decided all he could do was wait. In the meantime, he could explore a bit of the planet, kill a few creatures, and see what fate had in store for him.
Chapter 31
Confirmed
John was just about the leave the capital when he saw a young kid looking around in a shady manner. He was following a man, staying a certain distance away. The kid tried to make it look like he was busy doing something else, but he wasn’t too convincing. John assumed he was about to pickpocket the man. An idea suddenly came to him. It was the perfect chance to test a part of the Sin System.
???
Rank: 0
Level: 0
Sin: 0
John followed the kid and kept an eye on the man as well. The man’s bag was tied to his belt. Was that the kid’s target?
As if on cue, the kid closed in on the man while he was distracted. With the silence of a gentle breeze, the kid undid the knot on the bag and took it. It was almost perfect until the kid started to run, bringing attention to himself. However, the kid was fast and left the scene without being caught.
What surprised John the most was that the kid’s Sin points remained at 0.
So, stealing isn’t a sin? No, that can’t be right. My guess is... if they know their crime is wrong, but know it must be done to survive... maybe, that cancels the Sin?
Murder isn’t necessary to survive, but if it was self-defence then maybe the Sin wouldn’t be counted. I need to find someone who fits this description.
John turned around and started asking around for anyone well-known in the capital, an ordinary person like a farmer. He wanted someone who would never murder another, but who would kill in self-defence. Going around the town, he sought information for almost an hour before learning what he needed. He was in luck, as someone had killed in the tavern last night.
A carpenter had been drinking with his friends when a drunk thug tried to steal from him. The man pushed him and was about to call for help when the thug pulled out a dagger and lunged at him. They struggled, and the knife ended up in the stomach of the drunken thug, who died not long after.
The patrolling guards found out and took the carpenter away. They got statements from everyone in the tavern and determined that the man should be released soon.
John asked for the location and ran there as quickly as possible. This was too big of a chance to miss.
When he got there, a man was walking out of the small building next to the jail cells. The cells were in open view so everyone could see who was locked up. John walked up to the man.
“Hello,” he greeted. “Are you the carpenter who killed the drunken guy last night?”
The man’s head was down as he walked. When John asked, he looked up and nodded. John then checked his stats.
???
Rank: 0
Level: 0
Sin: 0
John smiled. It’s confirmed.
He was so happy at the confirmation that he grabbed a few adamantium coins worth £1,000 each from his bag and gave it to the man.
“Self-defence is not a crime,” he said as he walked away, “so hold your head high.”
The carpenter looked at the five coins. This amount was a few months’ wages to him. He quickly put them away and made sure no one saw him with that much money. Then, smiling and holding his head high, he headed home.
So, if you kill in self-defence, then it’s alright by the system. Killing because of hatred is a Sin. I’m guessing other different things add to the Sins like theft and rape, but I don’t know the value of each Sin yet. All I know is that 25 points are what the system values as a life. Now, what about killing a person with Sin for money as assassins do? I’ll need to check when I get back.
John walked out of the capital. He tossed a stick into the air. It landed pointing south, so John followed that direction.
Two weeks later, he was still travelling southward on the road. He noticed there were two people following him for some time. They were both Rank 1, so no danger to John, but he thought they might be scouts for some bandits. Each of them had more than 100 Sin points.
John noticed a thick tree not too far off. He approached it and walked around to the other side, disappearing from view. The two people following him were confused. The target was gone. One of them walked to the tree and peeked around it, then walked around it.
The other scout followed suit and walked around the tree soon after. The targ
et had completely disappeared.
John was hovering in the air far above the trees with Life Vision on and the map open. There were two icons that showed his followers’ positions. Using the tree as cover, John had flown straight up into the sky. The scouts kept searching for an hour until they eventually gave up and carried on. John followed them from the sky.
He saw them go into a valley and John picked up other people through Life Vision a mile away from them. The valley went deeper underground and formed a cave system, and the scouts walked into the cave and met up with the other people. John concentrated on his hearing skill, but still couldn’t pick up anything, so he got closer.
There was a man as a lookout inside a bush above the cave. John decided to drop in on him. The man had 184 Sin points, so John snapped his neck from behind. He turned Hover option on just in case there were traps at the entrance of the cave, then proceeded to sneak inside. His map only showed a grey area when he was inside the cave, but had all the people’s icons marked.
All the people here had over 100 Sin points. Besides the two scouts, only the leader was an immortal, but he was still only at Rank 1 Level 4.
John went in guns blazing.
There were a total of one hundred thirty-eight people inside the cave, plus the guy outside who was the lookout. That added up to more than 10,000 Sin points. John walked into the first open room in the cave. There were eight people in this room, each doing different things like playing cards, sleeping, etc. John made sure to shoot the people who could alert others first.
When all eight people were dead, he checked to make sure no one was close then began looking around the room. He found coins, cards, swords, armours and a few other things, but nothing to tell him who these people were.
Thus, he carried on clearing the cave room by room.
After some time, there were less than fifteen people left. They were all surrounding the only immortal left alive in the group, who was sitting at the head of the table. They were all drinking when John walked in and started shooting. Fifteen shots, fifteen people dead. It only took 3 seconds.
All these people had coins on them but not much else. He looked at the cave wall behind where the leader had been sitting and on the floor were drag marks. Walking up to the wall, John noticed a crack from the bottom to the top. He punched the wall and then started pulling… a door opened up!
He finally confirmed that these guys were bandits. There were loads of loot here, but John didn’t want any of it. Nothing really caught his eye except something he found in an old chest. He picked up what was called a ‘Blood Stone’, which he read about in the library.
‘Ding!’
Do you wish to use the Blood Stone as a catalyst to propel the Sinner System to full function?
Chapter 32
First Town
Yes.
John was surprised that this stone could help the Sinner System. Blood Stones usually formed on battlefields where millions of people died. It absorbed the blood that was spilt over many years, making it quite a rare object. However, these stones were pretty much useless. The only thing they were used for was weapon forging, and it was typically melted down to mix in with the metal for adding colour. A small amount of killing intent was then infused into it.
Maybe, because it was a war, the Sins count? I still need to test a few things.
The Blood Stone started glowing brighter. John was immune to the heat, but he could still feel the stone getting hotter by the second. After a few minutes, the stone began melting. The blood that was coming out of it was entering through John’s hand into his bloodstream.
The stone was the size of his palm, but by then, it shrunk to the size of a baby’s fist. It continued to shrink to the size of a pea, until it disappeared completely. John could feel the blood moving up his arm and into his brain. That must be where the system is.
‘Ding!’
Sinner System has been removed from Foreign Objects and merged with Idle System.
Sinner Shop has been unlocked.
A fourth tab popped up at the top of the system screen, so John opened it up.
1M Sins - Sin to Time transfer option, 100 Sin to 1 second ratio.
10M Sins - Idle Absorption +4 per minute.
100M Sins - Merges all user’s knowledge of Absorption techniques and creates a new technique, the more you know, the better the technique made.
Underneath the shopping list was a basic introduction.
Absorb the Sins of others to use as currency or to convert into Life Power. Sin is generated when you do anything on the list when it is not needed for survival. Killing others with Sin will not generate any sin.
The deadly sins are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride.
Having any of them do not generate Sin by itself, it is the actions caused by the sins. For example:
If someone was greedy or envious of someone else’s money and killed him for it, that would generate 25 points.
If someone killed because of an insult that caused his pride to be hurt, that would generate 25 points.
If someone killed because of wrath, that would generate 25 points.
If someone uses a borrowed knife to do any of the crimes because of any of the seven sins, they both generate points.
The user can gain the same sins for the same reasons.
If a person kills to survive, he will not have any of the seven sins as a motive so will not count.
How Sin is calculated:
Theft = 1 Point.
Forgery = 3 Points.
Kidnap = 5 Points Per Hour.
Extortion = 10 Points.
Arson = 15 Points.
Murder = 25 Points.
Rape = 50 Points.
Torture Per Minute = 100 Points.
Oh, so that guy with over 100,000 Sin points could have tortured or kidnapped someone rather than killing 4,000 people. If the assassins kill those who have sinned for Life Stones to survive, then they shouldn’t have any either, unless they become greedy and kill for wealth instead of survival or justice. But this also means that Andrew knew nothing about the crimes and was just the fall guy.
The best thing in the shop is the 100M option to create a new technique. Maybe, I should save up my Sins for it? But then again, the cost is too high. I could complete all of Rank 2 with that amount. Maybe, I should save up 10M for the +4 per minute instead since that will help a lot in the long run…The sin to time transfer is tempting, but right now I need the Idle Life Power per minute to reach Rank 3.
I need to find one hundred guys that have the 100,000 Sin points. That would be best, but I’m not that lucky. Guess, I’m going to do what Danny did at the start and just kill all the sinners in a town. I’ll change appearances and put a hood over my face too. I don’t want the assassin’s mark on the mask to be involved.
John opened the third tab and looked at the world map. There was a small town less than 100 miles away from here. These bandits probably got their food and other supplies from there. It was more than likely that they have more members in that town.
John checked the cave for anything else he might have missed. He took a few coins and put it inside one of his bags before leaving the cave. The wildlife would take care of the bodies.
He started walking towards the small town. An hour later, when he got within 20 miles of it, he began flying and went directly above the centre. He turned Life Vision and Immortal Eye on and checked everyone inside the walls.
Even though it was called a town, close to fifteen thousand people were living and working inside. Those who had less than 25 sins were removed from the map, and those left were all marked as icons. Over two-thirds of the people in this town had more than 25 sins. It was so many that John had second thoughts about killing them. What if he did? Would the other people be able to survive without their help?
John flipped a coin.
Thousands of lives were either going to survive or die by a coin toss. If the people knew that, they wo
uld probably riot at the very least. Heads to kill, tails to leave. John flipped the coin. It travelled straight up for more than a mile, then he let it drop to the floor inside the town. John followed it down.
The coin travelled so fast in its descent that it impaled the floor. John dug around it until he found the coin.
It was Heads.
There were no immortals in the town, so John could relax a bit while he killed the sinners. He walked towards the southwest part of town to start there.
He snapped the necks of two men who were drinking in the furthest house.
‘Ding!’
Emotional state back to normal.
He felt guilty for killing mortals, even though they had the sins. All he could think after he killed them was, What if they have kids or other innocents that depend on them to survive?
However, once you’ve done it the first time, the second time is much easier. That saying was true. He soon stopped thinking, and the system removed any guilt. This sped up the slaughter process.
He was aiming for the people inside houses or any other type of building first, trying to kill as many as possible before anyone could realise what was happening. After an hour, he had killed more than 3,000 people, but that was only a quarter of all the icons inside the town.
Another hour went by, and the guards finally noticed a dead body and started investigating, which lead them to finding more bodies. They called all the guards that were on duty. Once they counted over 500 corpses, they got the guards off duty to help too.
John had killed 11,253 people after a mere three hours. He’d gained almost half a million Sin points.
What he noticed was that the so-called “nobles” that lived in this city had far more Sins than the average person he killed. They must have had the guards in their pockets, or maybe they were friends with the right people who made their crimes disappear.
