The Idle System Box Set

by Pegaz

  John changed his appearance and his clothes then went to the tavern in the town to gather information. It was just after 11pm when he finished, so the bar was still open.

  While sitting down with a drink, a guard came in and shouted out that there were more than 10,000 people dead and started naming the most well-known like the nobles. When the people in the tavern heard the guard, they all stopped their dancing and singing. What happened next caught John by surprise.

  They all cheered.

  Chapter 33

  The Mastermind

  When the cheering calmed down, John walked up to the bar and asked what was going on.

  “The nobles in this town are responsible for the taxes which they send to the royal family in the capital every year,” a nearby patron said to him. “They overtax us every year.”

  Another man chipped in too. “That’s not all! They have the guards cover up their crimes like kidnapping young women. My brother was a guard and couldn’t stand it, so he quit. A week later he was charged with the kidnappings and sentenced to death.”

  John knitted his brows. “Why didn’t anyone report them to the capital then?”

  “Because those in the capital receive payments to look the other way. The nobles hold all the power and know the right people to get away with it.”

  “Then, what about the other people that have died tonight? Don’t they have families that need them?”

  “Some do, yeah. But more than likely, other family members or friends will take them in. It might be hard on them at first, but they’ll survive. The ones who have died tonight are the people who have helped the nobles or did the same kind of things as the nobles, so we’re happy.”

  “Those that are alive are the workers. We’re all farmers, hunters, carpenters or anything else in that line of work. We’ll have to learn how to use the weapons on the wall in case of an attack, but the capital will send out people to maintain order soon. We’ve just got to survive until then.”

  John smiled, nodded, and went back to his seat in the corner of the tavern with a drink in front of him.

  Maybe, I should go back to the capital then. Most of the nobles who don’t own any land live in the capital to try to get political power. Surely, some will have committed a lot of crimes. If Andrew is a scapegoat, then the mastermind will be in the capital too. I didn’t want to travel too far without sorting that out either. I can’t wait for a reply from master any longer.

  John was going to go further in his travels but unlocking the Sinner Shop changed his mind, and he now wants to go towards the most populated areas and kill the sinners.

  John was not a saint. He was doing this for selfish reasons, like getting more of the sin currency. Nor was he a demon as he was only killing the guilty, and not the innocent. He thought of a name for people like him, and best he could come up with was “A Selfish Punisher”.

  ‘Ding!’

  Unlocked Title: A Selfish Punisher

  John’s eyes widened. He only named himself that for fun and it ended up as a title? He checked his stats.

  Name: John

  Title: A Selfish Punisher.

  Age: 23

  Idlers: 0/158

  Skill Points: 0

  Life Pool: 15.9M

  Sin: 496,651

  He looked at the title for a few seconds.

  A Selfish Punisher:

  Self-named by the user, it represents impartiality.

  Sounds about right, I suppose. Though, with me going around killing the sinners, it might put me closer towards the saint in the eyes of the innocent. I’ll be a demon in the eyes of the guilty.

  If the person who set Andrew up was inside the capital, and he killed those 20,000 people because he wanted political power, then it should count as Greed. If it did count, then that would be at least 500,000 sin points.

  I’m glad I waited for master’s reply before finding and killing him. It gave me a lucky break and I unlocked the shop. I’ll stay the night here, so I don’t raise suspicion towards me and then leave in the morning.

  John asked around for a hotel in town and was given directions. Ten minutes later, he was inside the hotel and booked a room for the night and went to sleep.

  In the morning, he left the town. The guards asked him a few questions which he answered. They let him go.

  It took just over a week to reach the capital, rather than the two weeks from the previous journey. On the road, he changed his appearance to Jonathan and walked into the centre of the city again. He pretended to shop in the market with Life Vision activated while he checked everyone out.

  There were millions of people living in the capital and less than a quarter of them had any Sins at all. There were a total of 62,582 people who had Sins above 25. A single person had over 600,000 by themselves. John focused on that one person.

  ???

  Rank: 5

  Level: 4

  Sin: 629,938

  Shit, that’s the strongest person in the capital! He has to be the mastermind behind the 20,000 deaths that Andrew was framed for. This person can’t be a commoner or a nobody since he wants political power... He must have some reputation or position in the guild or royal castle.

  There are a few Rank 4’s in the capital with Sins too, but it was that person that had John on edge.

  If I go on a killing spree, I’ll lose the element of surprise. That person might even come looking for me. If I manage to kill that person first, it will create a storm in the capital. Depending on the background of the person, either everyone will hunt me down because of a reward or revenge, or will they’ll cheer?

  I need to figure out this person’s background and why he’s in the capital.

  With that thought in mind, John went toward the person in question. Soon, he arrived at the Adventurer Guild. A staff was on the second floor, so John walked up and asked to see the immortal rank quest board. When he went inside the room, he was alone. He turned on Life Vision and saw two people inside the guild masters room, standing and presumably talking as they were facing each other.

  John read a few quests on the board, trying to seem like he wasn’t out of place. He tried to listen in on the conversation, but the room must be soundproofed somehow. He couldn’t hear anything.

  After twenty minutes, the meeting ended. Both people left the guild master’s room. John picked up a quest and went to the counter to get it assigned to him, not wanting to arouse any suspicions. While the quest was being assigned to him though, he kept his eyes peeled on the two people walking downstairs.

  The two people stopped at the entrance and shook hands. The person behind the counter handed John back his ID and the quest, which John finally looked at properly.

  Quest: Hunt the infamous bandit group Hell’s Road.

  Description: Over 400 members of the bandit group roughly 1,700 miles south of the capital. The leader is Rank 3, vice leaders Rank 2 and usual members are mortals or Rank 1. They are on the run from different organisations and banded together to survive. They have a branded mark on the left palm as proof.

  Payment: 500 Grade 2 stones.

  Not bad. I didn’t even read this one, maybe this is meant to be.

  John turned around and noticed the person he was tracking was heading back upstairs with another person.

  John walked quickly to the door, opened it, and walked out just in time to see both people. The person he was tracking was a woman who looked like she was in her late twenties or early thirties, black straight hair down to her hips, red eyes, and full lips. She was wearing breastplate armour and wore a sword, hanging at her side.

  She and the man with her walked into the guild master’s room. John looked around and found a staff member.

  “Excuse me, could you tell me who that woman in the breastplate is?”

  The staff member looked up and saw John smiling at her. She smiled back. “She’s the new guild master, Helen. She started here not long ago.”

  “Thank you.” John walked away but was
secretly shocked, trying his best to keep a poker face.

  Damn, what would happen if I killed a guild master? I can’t prove her crimes if I get caught. I can’t say I was sent by the Rogue sect either since their evidence is on Andrew.

  She must have done these crimes to get the guild master position, or this could just be a stepping stone for her! What should I do?

  ...

  Screw it! Just don’t get caught.

  Chapter 34

  Plan B

  John walked toward the town’s exit, noticing some guards stationed there. They were checking all the carriages that came in. As he approached the exit, there was a horse-drawn carriage that was stopped on the side. The guards were looking it over. John had an idea and shot a small Life Power bullet at the horse’s leg, grazing it.

  The horse jumped and started going berserk. Leaping into action, John grabbed the reins and helped calm it down. The guards came over to check what happened.

  “Thank you for stopping this horse,” the elderly guard said. “It’s usually so docile, I don’t know what happened.”

  John smiled. “No problem. I’m guessing something spooked it.”

  More guards came and thanked him. John shook hands with a few of them and proceeded out of town.

  Good. Now, I’ve got witnesses saying John was out of the capital. John changed his appearance back to that of Jonathan and then flew back into the city without being detected.

  Once on the ground, he put away anything that could tie him to John inside his Storage Space. When he was ready, he headed back to the Adventurer Guild.

  He went straight up to the second floor when he arrived and started browsing through swords and armour. Putting a single unit of Life Power into each finger, he spread the Explosion balls all around the second floor, hoping to finish the guild master off the easy way.

  Still pretending to shop, he kept an eye on the guild master, Helen, who was still in her office. After fifteen minutes, she walked out. However, when she stepped onto an Explosion ball, it blew up under her feet.

  Helen hadn’t even received a scratch from the attack. She glanced around the room. The only person here other than staff members was a man in his late teens with long black hair. Without a second of hesitation, she charged at him.

  Arriving next to Jonathan in an instant, Helen went for his collar and lifted him off the ground. He was lifted a few inches off the floor by pure arm strength. In her other hand, she was holding a big sword which was pointed at his neck. He put his hands in the air and acted scared.

  “Who are you?” Helen stared straight into Jonathan’s eyes.

  “My... n-name... is... Jo... Jona... Jonathan...”

  “Why did you attack me?” She pulled her sword away from his neck so he wouldn’t stutter in terror.

  “I didn’t! I was shopping when I heard a noise, looked over and saw you charging at me!”

  “Show me your ID.”

  He got Jonathan’s ID out from one of the bag’s and handed it to Helen.

  “Wait here.” She let him go and snatched his ID from out of his hand before walking over to the staff member.

  The only reason she wasn’t setting off Explosions with every step was that he had removed them after the first one completely failed.

  “Get me all the information you can on this kid. Don’t let him go anywhere until this is sorted out.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” The staff member went down to the first floor and disappeared.

  Helen made sure Jonathan didn’t move. The information came back and Helen read it. It was a short report and only had a single page.

  0 Quests completed, registered xx Time at xx Town. Age 17.

  “How come you haven’t completed any quests?” Helen felt it very strange. “What is your business here?”

  While holding his hands up still, he answered. “I followed a friend here who was in the tournament.”

  “Oh? What’s your friend’s name?”

  That’s when he realised that he didn’t know a single person’s name who he had fought in the tournament. Dammit.

  “John,” he said slowly. “He became the champion.”

  “I find it hard to believe that he’s your friend,” Helen sneered. “He didn’t even give the king any respect. Why would he be friends with a nobody like you?”

  “We met in the Adventurer Guild just after I registered.” He felt his face begin to flush. “He saw me going to try a difficult quest and told me not to do it. He gave me advice and said if I wanted, I could follow him to the capital and see some fighting to broaden my view.”

  “And where is John now?” Helen knew about John taking on the quest earlier today, and because he’s an immortal and a strong fighter, she had kept tabs on him.

  “He gave me some advice and then left earlier to do a quest.”

  That surprised Helen. She started to doubt her certainty of this man being the culprit.

  “What quest is he on?”

  “All he said was that he was off to kill some bandits. He didn’t tell me where or how strong they were, but he did say it was only a Rank G quest.”

  Helen put down the sword and started thinking. John must have meant IG quest, but just said G because this man’s a mortal. This Jonathan kid answered every question correctly. I don’t feel any Life Power on him, so he can’t be the attacker.

  “Sorry for inconveniencing you,” she said slowly. “Can you tell me if you saw anyone else here?”

  Jonathan shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t notice anyone while I was up here.”

  “So, why did John leave you here? Aren’t you friends?” Helen wanted to probe more information regarding John now. This was a decent opportunity.

  “He said I could follow him if I wanted, but I will never be any good that way. The only way to be a good fighter is the leave the nest and survive on your own. That’s what he said anyway.”

  Helen nodded. “He’s right. Most people form teams to tackle stronger quests, but unless you form a bond where you can trust someone with no doubt, it will never work.”

  Helen asked a few more questions about John and concluded that the two weren’t very close. John probably saw himself in this kid and helped him a little, but other than that, couldn’t be bothered with him. She rested her case and went back to her office.

  Jonathan carried on, pretending to shop for a while to be less suspicious. After a while, he left the building without making a purchase.

  Making sure nobody was following him, he walked into an alley and flew straight up. When he was roughly 150 feet in the air, he positioned himself almost directly above the Adventurer Guild.

  Time for Plan B.

  Looking at his right hand, he had an idea to try. If it worked, he’d get the 600,000 Sin points. If it didn’t, he’d be in a lot of pain with no payoff.

  Jonathan watched from above until Helen sat down in her office. By the look of it, she was going through paperwork. Jonathan put his plan into action.

  He put 50 Life Power into each finger and his thumb for a total of 250 units. Then, he closed his hand to make a fist, and all the units merged. As they merged, the area from his wrist to fingers turned bright silver. His hand started splitting apart because of the recoil. 50 units is the maximum amount his body could use at once without harming himself.

  Gritting his teeth, he was trying to shape his Life Power into a giant bullet, which was hovering above his knuckles. His skin was splitting and healing just as fast, blood drops forming on the cracks of the skin before being repaired. After a few seconds, his fist was covered in blood.

  Through the gruelling pain, he managed to shape the Life Power into a 15-inch long and 5-inch round cone. But he knew this wasn’t enough, so he let the bullet dissolve.

  He brought both hands together and put 50 Life Power units into each finger, thumb, and palms for a total of 600 units. The Life Power took shape in the centre of his palms. Both his hands from the wrists up to the tip of his fingers were split
ting apart this time. It was breaking apart so fast that his skin’s regeneration couldn’t keep up.

  What was formed was an 18-inch long, 6-inch round cone-shaped bullet, but it was glowing bright silver as it was compacted as much as possible. Eyes narrowing, John aimed at Helen and fired.

  The bullet travelled so fast that it broke the sound barrier.

  By the time the bullet was fired, both of his hands were virtually skinless.

  Chapter 35

  First Sinner’s Purchase

  As soon as he fired the bullet, Jonathan descended. His hands started healing almost instantly. After a few seconds, they were fully recovered.

  The noise from breaking the sound barrier echoed throughout the capital. Everyone who heard it looked into the sky for the source, but all they saw was a white cloud evaporating.

  Helen was sitting inside her office reading some paperwork when she heard the noise, and as soon as she heard it, a feeling of dread came over her which paralysed her for a split-second.

  Then, her world went dark.

  ‘Ding!’

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

  Congratulations for getting your first million sin, we have given you a reward of 1 skill point to place anywhere you choose.

  He checked his stats as soon as he heard the system.

  Name: John

  Title: A Selfish Punisher.

  Age: 23

  Idlers: 0/158

  Skill Points: 2

  Life Pool: 16.2M

  Sin: 1.1M

  Misc List:

  Force II - Idlers 158/158, Speed - 3/5, Control - 0/5, Time - 8d

  No point getting the sin-to-time ratio in the Sin shop. I’d only have 100,000 Sin points to transfer. That would be less than 1d 4h total. If I put the skill points into anything in Force II before the 8d time is over, the time on the new skill would quadruple. I’ll wait for that to finish, then I’ll use the skill points for Control after starting Speed Level 5.

  He noticed there weren’t any guards running to the Adventurer Guild or any of the guild staff searching for him. The body of Helen must not have been found yet. So, he started killing the other sinners.