I Hate Systems

"How the heck did the situation derail to this extent?" Zaira shouted in anger while glaring at the Regression System that flinched in response, "Even with you at the scene, how did this happen?"

I'm…sorry." The Regression System could only bow its head in response, "Focusing on three dangerous fronts meant I could only take care of the most pressing worries first."

"Fine, I'll hear about it later," Zaira said before condensing a shield to defend against Immortal's attack. Her words confused the Systems.

After all, the Regression System only needed an instant to transmit all the information to her through a Mental Energy stream. It wasn't like she was a human that needed to sit through a bunch of collated files and spend hours reading through them to understand the situation.

But, it was indeed confusing, as when Zaira appeared, she wasn't in her energy-condensed form, but that of a human, a flesh and blood entity. Moreover, the pose she appeared in was one in which her hand was gently placed over her stomach.

The stomach was flat, but something seemed amiss with it, which was what the Tell-Tale System could feel. As it was the closest to Zaira and also the most sensitive regarding everything—since it dealt with changing the worlds from the bottommost strata of world order—happening around them, it noticed that even though Zaira seemed the same as usual, something seemed off about her.

Currently, she wasn't the System World projecting itself onto this place but an individual that owned, controlled, and ruled the System World.

The Tell-Tale System noticed traces of mysterious powers on Zaira. None seemed intent to harm her though, but rather amplified her strength by a tad bit. But it was just…strange.

Currently, Zaira stood as a flesh and blood entity, standing 500 metres tall.

Similarly, Immortal too stood at 500 metres tall, a flesh and blood entity—since he was completely influenced by the apocalyptic setting now.

The two titans stared at one another as tensions seemed to rise in the air.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Slayer was in a state of fluster as he focused all his power to raise the defences of the Fantasy World. Arnark too agreed, seeping in his powers through Slayer to reinforce their world better.

As for the five Universe Relic wielders, Slayer sent them back to the Fantasy World, using them as the beacons to erect a world-formation, muttering with a solemn tone, "I only hope we're left in one piece by the end of this."

"Let's hope so," Arnark said, even himself being unable to predict in what direction this battle might go. He then stared at Magister, noticing his shocked expression to ask, "Didn't you know Immortal the longest? Was he always this powerful?"

"I…never knew." Magister said, his eyes refusing to even look an instant away from the standoff between Zaira and Immortal, "I've known Immortal since his golden age. We competed over our worlds during the end of his golden age. But, this is my first time seeing his peak."

"How did he lose power to fall from his peak state to his golden age?" Magister muttered in disbelief, stating countless reasons and theories that he negated immediately with countering retorts, creating an endless cycle of self-discussion, "The power difference between those two ages is…astronomical."

"He's rivalling the current hegemony of the System genre…alone."

Swoosh!

The truck—that Compass Carburettor had transformed into—crashed into the mountain to spill out into Mental Fragments. He didn't have the Mental Strength to take up form anymore, not even having the ability to recall all the fragments to form a sphere.

The Mental Fragments spilt all across the mountain, wriggling like tiny worms as they gradually moved over to the impact spot where a good quantity of Mental Fragments had burrowed into the mountainside.

The rest of the fragments were naturally pulled in this direction, attracted by the mass of Mental Fragments that naturally joined with each other to begin forming a sphere that grew in size gradually.

A truck appeared nearby as Truck-Kun sighed in disappointment that their plan failed even before it could begin. He reacted on time to bring out the rest into his truck and evade the impact. Only Compass Carburettor had been compromised.

"Seriously…" Truck-Kun stared with a solemn expression, noticing the two titans having a mental faceoff as both sides glared at each other. The tension was already stretched taut as is, but their continued glare spiked it further until…

Shrrppp!

Like a paper being torn, part of the ground was shredded just from their gazes. The Apocalypse System hurriedly repaired the damage as the World Spirit System continued to replenish its strength as quickly as possible, harnessing every bit of its available means.

"Immortal…you're a dying entity. Why don't you make things easier for me and just disappear? This state of yours is only temporary before you vanish anyway." Zaira spewed out with a mocking gaze. But in truth, this was to veil her alarm.

After all, in the current age of System domination, she had become so powerful that the other Genre Representatives had to join hands just to barely oppose her and fail at even that. Moreover, the power of the systems had already surpassed the peak of what the Genre Representatives entailed.

Even if they were killed, it was only temporary. Their revival couldn't be stopped. So, with their growth unhindered, it was only a matter of time before Systems ruled over everything.

But reality struck her hard, twice!

First was to realise the fact that Mystique was able to corrupt even her, not to mention the other Systems as he had done before. And worst of all, the majority of his worlds were in a dormant state.

This meant that the Mystique she had faced to date was just a trial version of the original, dormant for who knows how long.

And finally, here she was, faced with the second fact. Immortal's peak strength actually was on par with the current her, the System World, with three Grade 4 Systems, a few dozen Grade 3 Systems, and hundreds of Grade 2 Systems, not to mention millions upon millions of Grade 1 Systems whose numbers continued to grow at an exponential pace.

"Fuck!" She grunted in frustration, her gaze trembling in disbelief when suddenly, the spear in Immortal's hands transformed into a wooden staff with golden embroidery. His dragon body morphed into a humanoid monkey as his index finger scratched his ear once.

"Impossible! That's just a myth, not reality!" Zaira screamed in disbelief, her body trembling in shock as all the Systems, including Slayer, Arnark, Truck-Kun and Compass Carburettor were the same.

After all, Immortal's current transformation opened the doors to an entirely new realm of possibilities.

"Of course," A set of concise words streamed out of Immortal as his wooden staff expanded in length, "The desire to make myth a reality is what birthed cultivation."

"And that's what I truly represent."