I Hate Systems

First of all, Arnark hated the fact that there was another System in his genre. Secondly, he didn't like how he was barred from attaining Grade 2 for the time being.

It was a setback, especially since he had to face Compass Carburettor soon enough.

Upon arriving at the Fantasy World, Arnark observed the streams of fate in motion, observing some of them influencing his body, causing him to scowl in response, "Dammit!"

'My inherent nature is causing my fragments to hum in response and wish to join with Compass. The greater his growth as the Main Character, the stronger this pull.' This was the reason he wished to kill Compass Carburettor.

Had Compass Carburettor just been a regular terrifyingly strong individual with main-character tendencies, Arnark wouldn't have bothered with him. After all, no matter how much someone was worthy of being the Main Character, if Arnark himself hadn't acknowledged them, then they would never inherit the power of the Main Character System.

After all, he himself was the Main Character System.

Unfortunately, this was precisely the problem. Compass Carburettor was, in the end, an individual that he, Arnark had acknowledged as someone worthy of being the Main Character in the past.

Therefore, the record had already been established in himself. This meant that there was always a chance that Compass Carburettor could steal his powers in the future once his Main Character trait becomes stronger than Arnark himself.

The rules that Arnark himself set up came to bite him in the back. But in the short while, even if he wishes to do so, he didn't have enough time to modify this rule through the use of Lore.

Earlier, he was waiting to reclaim all his fragments and become whole. Attempting a change in his inherent nature was dangerous otherwise as the free Main Character System fragments might evolve and create more variables.

But now that he had become whole, Arnark didn't have enough time to wait until he changed himself through Lore.

There was one problem with Lore.

Long back, when Compass Carburettor obtained Lore, it immediately took effect based on a simple statement he had created and split his powers into four versions—Compass Carburettor, Hazen, Domino Plottopia, and Gahrat.

It was because until then, Compass Carburettor's fate, or rather, his weight on his timeline wasn't anything worth mentioning. So, the moment Lore took effect, it instantly changed his entire being.

For Skills that changed the cause and effect of the entire world, they had some limitations. Freezing the time of the world wasn't that big of a deal. At the end of the day, a strong enough being could do so.

But heading into the past and tweaking the timeline? That wasn't easy. To achieve it, the entity would have to carefully make changes and permeate its power through the timeline necessary to do so.

And, depending on the foundation of a world, its fate varied. Fate was basically an indicator of the sturdiness of all the variables of a world's timeline. Meaning, an incident that was bound to happen—for example, a volcanic eruption—will definitely happen.

It couldn't be changed even if someone were to tweak the past. Fate acts to ensure the original course of the timeline is maintained.

But, this had a limit.

The fate permeating a timeline was only as powerful as the world's foundation. The greater the foundation, the stronger the fate. Meaning, to ensure the volcanic eruption is prevented, more energy and time were required to disrupt the fate acting there.

This was why when the Systems attacked the Fantasy World, Slayer sealed the fate of the universe and prevented the Regression System from regressing the timeline of the place.

As one of the worlds with the sturdiest of foundations, the fate amassed there was unsurmountable. So thanks to that, Slayer was able to prevent its timeline from getting affected.

But, that was just a temporary measure. If none interfered, the Regression System would have been able to affect the timeline after a few decades of effort. Whereas, for a weak world, it would have been able to fully influence that world's timeline in a matter of seconds.

This was why fate was so damn important.

Originally, for Compass Carburettor, his fate was so weak that the Core Skill of Lore at level 1 was able to shred his fate apart and bring out the effect of the Lore he had established.

It also meant that at that point in time, if the Regression System had chanced upon him, it could have casually regressed him back into a sperm.

But for Arnark, that wasn't possible. His fate was one of the, if not the strongest among all existences, on a level just below the likes of the top Genre Representatives like Mascot.

His timeline was robust, the fate unbudgeable. So, to change his inherent rules, he would have to use Lore for a long time and gradually seep in its effects through his timeline, spanning millions upon millions of years before eventually reaching his birth.

And from there, he would have to make changes until the desired effect is reached. Time was needed for that, at least a few centuries.

It had to be noted that even for Compass Carburettor, to change himself from an inherent perspective using Tell-Tale, it took him 75 years.

And considering Arnark's history, not to mention the overpowered eleven Core Skills he possessed, he would need too much time, time that he didn't have at the moment.

After all, based on what he observed, the current Compass Carburettor was growing at an alarming pace and his potential as a Main Character was increasing. And as someone acknowledged by Arnark himself, the Main Character System fragments were already showing signs of heading to him.

'Just to erase that rule, it would take me years. But, I only have months before Compass attains that ignition threshold in fate.' He scowled in response, 'Had I attained Grade 2, I wouldn't even have to worry about him. My strength would have been on par with a Grade 4 System when that happened, easily allowing me to crush anyone that stood in my way.'

The Main Character System was just that overpowered of an existence. But now, this setback was holding him back, to an extent he considered as he stared at the back of Slayer, 'Do I erase my identity as a System and become an entirely new race? If I were to steal master's power, that is possible.'