I Hate Systems

Muscle Lantern fainted from the information influx, feeling a headache. But at this moment, his body took on a coping mechanism, activating his powers as it shone with a gentle light.

The muscles in his brain wriggled ever so slightly before stopping. But upon noticing this minor fluctuation, Compass Carburettor broke into a smile, 'As I expected.'

The previous day, when Muscle Lantern used his trump card, Compass Carburettor noticed that Muscle Lantern's entire body potential was unleashed, including his mental powers.

After all, the human brain too was a fleshly organ. And Muscle Lantern's power was capable of strengthening that too, just that he never was capable of that unless he unleashed his trump card.

But as he never explored in that direction, he hit a wall and failed to improve beyond his current limit. It was why Compass Carburettor first spoke three unknown terms that confused Muscle Lantern momentarily.

And in that instant, he overwhelmed Muscle Lantern's mind, making him feel like he was getting attacked. Hence, thanks to his honed senses as a professional Hero, his powers were instinctively activated.

It was like standing under a waterfall. An untrained person would simply lose balance and be washed away. But a trained individual would position themselves better and distribute their body weight accordingly to the splashing water, ensuring their form remains stable.

That was how they remained under the water for extended durations, naturally being tempered by the force.

Compass Carburettor was following the same principle, which was why he maintained a steady downpour of information into Muscle Lantern's mind, tempering it as his powers automatically morphed his brain muscles to endure the load.

It was the simplest brute-force way of doing things. But that was enough, considering the power Muscle Lantern possessed. His true strength didn't lie in him being able to control his body muscles to grow stronger or weaker.

Nah, that was nothing in the eyes of Compass Carburettor.

What he was curious about was Muscle Lantern's ability to also affect the bodies of others. And the only thing limiting this was his knowledge of the human body. The more he understood, the better he would be able to make the changes.

What Compass Carburettor was feeding him was exactly this. Not just theoretical knowledge, but also the sensation of every single organ, bone, and muscle fibre in existence functioning up to the most minute of details. It was as if Muscle Lantern had become a cell and lived in every part of the body, experiencing what it felt like to be a certain organ, bone, tissue, etc.

Thanks to this, though slow, Muscle Lantern was maturing at an alarming pace. There was a limit to how strong he could get though, for, in the end, his power was just body modification and not altercation.

But, in terms of training? It was exemplary in that his powers would allow his students to train faster and understand their power better. This was why Muscle Lantern's students were terrifyingly strong Heroes.

And now, Compass Carburettor intended to strengthen that aspect further. 'Even if not now, a time would come when this world gains enough strength to rival the Grade 1 Systems altogether.'

'As for the Grade 2 Systems and beyond,' His eyes curled up for an instant, 'I'll take care of them.'

Honestly, even he couldn't put a cap on how strong he had become now. After all, even though he lost Lore and the majority of his previous powers to Arnark, and even the Secret Society member--with the Dreamland created using the Core Skill Manifestation and Genre Representation--was stolen by Stencil, there was plenty left behind.

Replacing Lore was its counter-power, the Tell-Tale System. It had entirely become his, completely devoured by him. The second was the right-hand Secret Society member who resulted in a nuclear explosion that wiped out all Grade 2 Systems on the battlefield.

Only his body was destroyed. His core--the Invoked Spirit--was still alive. And during the past seventy-five years, Compass Carburettor erased all the Secret Society members, pooling everything they gained into himself to condense all the powers in him.

He didn't just pool them like before but layered them accordingly to their effects, creating new powers as a result and experienced them all, truly making them his own. As to how he made that?

Remember the virus he created using the Main Character System fragment?

He turned himself into that, an amalgamation of billions of viruses. Each virus was a Mental Fragment containing all his information--genetic, energy signature, mental signature, ego, personality, intelligence, memories, etc.

Therefore, even if the majority of his body were to be destroyed, as long as a single virus remains alive, he could drink up sunlight and regenerate himself to full health. And most of all, this was barely scratching the surface of his power.

After all, with the power of Tell-Tale, he had the time to imbue his entire history, concept, and power in every single Mental Fragment he owned, truly making everything his. Every part of him possessed his complete story and was being updated in real-time.

If he so wished, it would only take him a second to infect the entire world as the virus cells could create a world of Compass Carburettors. This was why he was unable to determine how strong he had gotten after he consolidated his powers. After all, he was now a...

Calamity!

That was why he was focusing on helping his daughter's world mature. From the moment the Money-Making System entered her body, she lost everything and had been embroiled in this grand mess. She didn't have a home to return to, especially since she could only recall bad memories on Earth.

Therefore, as this was a world she was building from scratch, she had a sense of belonging here. He could feel that from the meticulous care given to even make the people mentally immune to the Systems, keeping the world as fair as possible--for Systems were the representatives of unfairness.

It still had its fair share of problems, but she was solving them one after another. And hence, as a father, Compass Carburettor only intended to add more solutions to the mix, that's all.

He wouldn't interfere with the world's development. The natives would decide that. He was just there to ensure all the necessary materials were available for the development to make its course.

"Isn't that right?" He smiled at the unconscious Muscle Lantern, paid his bill to the café and took his leave.