I Hate Systems

Boom!

Bam!

Sounds of explosions resounded throughout the street as the figure of Compass Carburettor was carried over to the surface by the group of ants. They immediately retreated into the ground as he took in a deep breath, gazing at his hands, noticing that they were trembling.

He clenched them into a fist, "Don't give in to fear at this point."

Of course, he had just died now. So, it would be hard to not suffer from any psychological problems as a result. And unlike the previous times he died, he hadn't even achieved his objective this time, so the feeling slammed into him hard.

Core Skill—Info Scanner (Level 4)!

He immediately sensed the positions of the two System Hosts. And the moment he sensed the Mental Energy reserves of the Power Punch System, he scowled, 'All that only used up 20 Mental Energy?'

'It is too energy-efficient.' He gritted his teeth. In the case of Neena, though Directional Misalignment was kind of overpowered, its Mental Energy consumption too was pretty high. So, that could be used against her.

But here, the burly man's abilities were too efficient. And with his Mental Energy reserves, he would be able to fight for at least two days nonstop.

'But, I've managed to develop enmity between two System Hosts.' He sighed in relief, 'At least, there's this one thing.'

But, he wasn't lax, knowing very well of the fact that the System could erase the memory of their respective Hosts and make it seem like this incident had never happened. He couldn't allow that to happen, especially since the teenager would prove to be a great weapon against the Systems.

Core Skill—Directional Misalignment (Level 2)!

His Mental Energy reserves began to drop as the position of every living being was highlighted in his mind, allowing him to sense their movements. He then focused on the teenager and the burly man, noticing their actions turning awkward all of a sudden, 'Here it is!'

A second later, both of them stopped, unable to recall what they had been doing. They gazed at each other in confusion, right when their respective Systems gave them a prompt to distract them.

"Urgh!" Compass Carburettor grunted at the Mental Energy expenditure as he focused it on the burly man, causing the other party to begin walking. Unlike Neena, he made the effect in such a way that it seemed as if the burly man was walking naturally.

After all, the moment he began to walk, the effect of Directional Misalignment vanished as the burly man himself continued walking, not sensing anything amiss. And, even though it seemed like he planned to evade the teenager, he hadn't moved far enough, bumping into his shoulder.

He subtly noticed that the teenager too moved in his way a little to bump the shoulders of each. As it was typically an action to trigger others, the faces of each swerved immediately, glaring at each other.

Adding onto the feeling of loss they were experiencing for some reason, such an action got on their nerves immediately. After all, even though their recent memories had been wiped out, their bodies were full of adrenaline. This placed them on edge.

The burly man only wanted to push the teenager away as a show of dominance. But, the moment he tried to do so, the teenager grabbed hold of his hand, tightening his hold.

Sparks flew between the glares of one another as no words were exchanged. They knew what the other party's intention was, for some reason being able to understand each other clearly.

A battle erupted between them once again as Compass Carburettor watched the scene through Directional Misalignment. At times, he pitched in some favour for the two, causing their attacks to accurately target the other party by making their limbs swerve in unexpected ways.

The battle heated up when all of a sudden, the ground underneath them caved in, creating a massive crater that was at a depth of ten metres from the ground surface.

The teenager looked around, noticing water gushing out from some of the broken pipes passing underground, now laid bare through the crater, 'A sinkhole? Did this result from our battle?'

His gaze scaled the height to the surface, understanding that it was a scalable height, nothing worth his concern. Moreover, it did give him a good arena to finish his opponent, 'Strange, it seems he possesses weird abilities. I don't remember such a thing being possible in our power system.'

For some reason, the sensation of weirdness continued to increase as the teenager gazed at the burly man, sizing up the other party, "Who the heck are you?"

"Your killer," The burly man spat out some blood before rushing towards him, not expressing any intention to speak.

"Fine, I'll first beat you up before interrogating you." The teenager snorted and launched attacks immediately after, wishing to find out the burly man's secrets. Moreover, the strange feeling from before continued to increase, causing him to feel as if he had lost some memories.

After all, in his memory, he had jumped into the balcony of Compass Carburettor's house. But in the next instant, he was here, fighting against this unknown foe, one that possessed strange abilities.

Due to his character, he understood that he had stumbled upon some secret, unwilling to leave it as is.

Standing far away, observing their battle through Directional Misalignment was Compass Carburettor, alert against any other enemies that might spring up all of a sudden.

Right at this time, Grisha arrived beside him, gasping for breath, saying through telepathy, "I've laid a trap for them and prepared this arena for them to duke it out."

"How many ant nests are connected to that arena?" He asked, nodding in praise.

"Three," Grisha nodded, "This was the limit in that location. It was hard to dig underneath them while they were fighting. I had to time my explosions accordingly to their attacks."

"It wouldn't have been possible for anyone without your level of experience to do this without alerting them." Compass Carburettor patted her, smiling, "Thank you."

"Even though it was a plan that was made on the fly, it is still working fairly well." He spoke.

"What is our next move?" Grisha asked, curious to see what he had in store next. After all, he hadn't mentioned the trap in the fortress ever again.

"We wait," Compass Carburettor said, exhaling slowly, "There's nothing else to do but wait for an opportunity."