I Hate Systems

"Hahaha…Keuk!" A man roaring in the streets grunted in pain as his hands were severed by a flash of blue. He turned around and stared at the figure of Peika, his lips suddenly curling up with a cunning smile as his eyes shone with starlight, "You're too late, dear."

"Die!" Peika cursed in anger to send the head of the man rolling on the ground. She looked around, feeling an eerie sensation when the entire residents of the town stared at her while emitting starlight from their eyes, 'What the heck is happening to the world?'

In the past few days, problems began to crop up nonstop. And the cunningly perverse commonality among them all was the staunch similarity to the entity that had taken over her younger brother. They all struck her as the same person.

'But, how is this possible? Even the legendary Conjurer is incapable of that.' She frowned, observing a sharp decline in her allies.

Just the day before, one of the three Superior Invokers that formed her elite team betrayed her, having chanced upon a Forbidden Tale somewhere that he comprehended, tasting the fruits of it.

When his Dreamland developed rapidly in response, he began to comprehend it religiously, which ended up resulting in Compass Carburettor taking over his mind. With that, he betrayed Peika and escaped.

It wasn't just him that did this though. Dozens of such cases had cropped up in Hitlawn. And outside, the situation had become progressively dangerous, with entire Clans falling victim to this.

Strangely though, the moment an entire Clan fell victim, things returned to normal there as the Invokers there reverted to their original lives.

The world was changing strangely but at the same time maintaining its original course. Basically, Compass Carburettor was working on making the influence of the Forbidden Tale the most fundamental part of being an Invoker.

He was trying to take over the power system itself, which was actually working.

With the passing of every day, Peika observed more and more of her colleagues falling under its effects. Only the powerful fate protecting her allowed her to not fall victim to the effects.

…

"Yum!" Compass Carburettor licked his lips, causing his hand to expand like a worm and devour an Ascender that was dropped before him by the Lan Clan Head.

In Clans fully taken over by him, their growth was staggering, resulting in the birth of multiple Ascenders. So in every Clan with excess Ascenders, the Lan Clan Head brought one to this secluded location where they were consumed by Compass Carburettor.

Main Character System—Level 6!

By consuming Ascenders, Compass Carburettor was levelling up the fastest, for in this world, becoming an Ascender was to change their entire fate and transform from a mortal to an immortal that could live for many centuries in the bodies of others.

So, they had a small fraction of a protagonist in themselves, which was what Compass Carburettor absorbed, allowing him to level up little by little.

And with so many Clans around, the number of Ascenders produced was startling, to say the least. Compass Carburettor was consuming one at least every few hours.

By absorbing Ascenders, he was gradually gaining powers of Ascenders and the variety of traits they could have. This was why he was consuming one per Clan, just to gain the variety present in this power system.

On the other end of the spectrum, he was making everyone comprehend the Forbidden Tale. With that, their growth as an Invoker became countless times fast, resulting in it being the functional component without which an Invoker stopped being relevant.

So, not only was he gaining control over the peak of the power system, but was also taking over its base stage.

His goal was to fully take over the power system though, for this was a valuable chance he was being presented, one where he had no enemies in the world to worry about. If he failed to take advantage of such a situation, he would fail as a merchant.

Hence, he wished to become the core of this power system. To achieve that, Compass Carburettor began to research the Invoker Crystal, one that turned a normal human into an Invoker.

He had already replicated its effects during his breakthrough to become an Ascender. Now, he was only focused on recreating its effects from scratch.

Invoker Crystals were created using Mental Fragments in the Dreamland of an Invoker who had a specific type of Invoker Crystal Scroll. So technically speaking, Compass Carburettor already had all the materials to produce Invoker Crystals en masse, especially since he had already comprehended its Scroll.

What he was attempting to create now was a Scroll whose effects would awaken one into an Invoker. The type of their Invoker Spirit would vary depending on their affinity.

And since he was at it already, Compass Carburettor wished to solve one of its primary defects, one where Invoked Spirits couldn't influence the fleshly bodies. So, he referenced the Senses Scroll, taking it to the extreme where the Invoked Spirit could cause the fleshly body to gradually mutate and gain the traits of its respective Invoked Spirit.

This meant that an Invoker now had to train harder to master it, causing the act of growing in strength to be many times more difficult. But since they already had an advantage thanks to the effects of the Forbidden Tale, this was balanced.

The result that he arrived at was a platform that awakened a commoner into an Invoker. The type of Invoked Spirit their Nascent Soul could grow into would become apparent based on the tattoo forming on their forehead.

Using the effects of the Senses Scroll, the Suppression Scroll, and many others that could mildly affect the body through the mind, Compass Carburettor also took the effect of his stare—one that transformed everything into Mental Fragments—and incorporated it into what he termed 'Invoked Spirit Influence'.

It was this 'Invoked Spirit Influence' that influenced an Invoker's body, allowing them to exhibit partial traits of their Invoked Spirit, becoming stronger and no longer having weak bodies that could be taken out by an arrow.

Moreover, thanks to this 'Invoked Spirit Influence', there now existed Invokers that could treat injured people and heal their injuries too. Of course, for both healing and wounding others, 'Invoked Spirit Influence' played a primary part.

Thanks to his experience in the Gaider Realm, Compass Carburettor replicated the awakening altar, confident in the changes to the power system that he not only made it stronger and more versatile but also made it his.