How To Be A System (Dummy-Proof Edition)

Chapter 4. A Library That Is Inappropriate For Children

Arriving at the location marked on the system map, what comes into view is a 5-story pagoda. Although the first to fourth stories contain many marks of time that show their old age, the fifth storey is just that much older looking and contains much more fancy engraving, which doesn't fit at all to the floor under it. It seems just like someone just placed an additional story on top of the fourth floor.

Which, according to the memory of Ren Qingquan's childhood, is actually true. It is said the previous family head who went missing fancied the inheritance pagoda of an ancient martial arts sect ruins she explored. As the only thing left mostly intact is the top floor of said pagoda, she cut it off and placed it on top of the Ren family's pagoda. Although it angered a lot of elders initially, they finally relented to her willfulness, as that family head has contributed 20% of the Ren family's martial arts knowledge.

Anyway, Ren Qingquan felt he had regressed from his main reason for coming here. As he arrived on the first floor, what greeted him was an old man sitting at a counter while reading a book. Ren Qingquan took his identity jade and placed it respectfully on the table in front of the old man.

As for why he placed it respectfully, As the only person guarding the place where the Ren family's martial arts inheritance is located. Ren Qingquan already suspected the old man to be a hidden master, which has been acknowledged by the massive blue dot on the system map.

Looking at his identity jade, the old man placed some paper on it and stamped his identity jade on it.

"You may copy books from the first, second, and third floors as much as you want yourself. You have up to an hour to read and bring one of the books on the fourth floor here for me to transcribe it for you. The time starts upon reaching the fourth floor, so spend your time wisely. As for whether or not you have brought a book, once the time passed, I couldn't bother, and you will be immediately kicked off the fourth floor. Also, I must repeat this for everyone. You are not allowed to share the books in the library with others without permission."

After speaking a mouthful of words at once, the old man went silent.

"Thank you, sir."

After thanking the old man, Ren Qingquan started to browse the first floor. There are actually several people already sitting and reading the books here. Although Ren Qingqian has already gone to the library several times, he is mostly led by his father to immediately enter the second floor and above. Also, his father forbade him to read the book on the first floor. As an obedient child, the young Ren Qingquan followed his father's warning every time he entered the library.

But now, the old Ren Qingquan is no more, he couldn't hold his curiosity for the mysterious first floor. There are several large bookshelves with many old-looking thread-bound books placed haphazardly on the shelf. Reading some of the book titles made Ren Qingquan speechless.

Looking at the slightly familiar online novel style book titles like 'my domineering sect master's tender love vol. 4', 'The demonic master never stops pestering me vol. 7', and 'My black bellied sect brother dotes on me very much vol. 3'. And some suspicious book titles like 'Adventure of Demon Lin (illustration included)', 'My sexy master's secret', and whatnot. Seeing the aforesaid book makes Ren Qingquan understand why his father forbade him from reading the book on this floor.

Entering the second floor, the number of people here is much lower, and Ren Qingquan finally found many normal book titles.

The second floor is mostly filled with common knowledge about the world and esoteric knowledge like formation, pill refining, and some immortal cultivation-like knowledge. But it is actually useless, as a lot of people have tried it but are unable to do so.

Thinking up to this point, Ren Qingquan is reminded by the note he got from the system when he used [Scan]. Something that went like, Please study more about... For further details.

'System, should I read this and remember it slowly, or are there any magical means you could use to record this book faster?'

[Ding! The host may use the 'Scan' function to scan the books within the host's one-meter radius by saying'scan book' mentally.

The scanned book will enter the system's database.]

As expected of the system, the most used cheat is the transmigrator. Then, Ren Qingquan started to walk near those bookshelves one by one. Sometimes he stopped to read a book and then returned it to the shelf.

***

Consciousness space

Ren Qinquan finally arrived at a library where I could scan a lot of knowledge from those books!

Sensing the massive amount of bookshelf space, not including the floor above, I guess Ren Qingquan might require a lot of time to slowly scan them. And so, I choose to continue my experiment.

Before that, let's repeat the result of my experiment on my own personal skills. Because the memories regarding the usage of the skills I have are a bit confusing, and all I could get is their basic function and some possible upgrades. So, while previously watching Ren Qingquan demolish a garden and get lost, I have tried some experiments on [Scan] and [Anchor] that make me most concerned. I have finally come to several conclusions regarding both skills.

After slowly looking at the comprehensible part of the scan result stored in [Storage], My current scan seems to be a combination of x-ray, microscope, heat sensing, scanner, what I assume is energy sensing, and the soul memory reader I added. It could only read the memories from the remnant soul like the original Ren Qingquan, though. By the way, the original Ren Qingquan's soul somehow combined with the current host, which should be further studied.

Also, [Scan]'s area is shaped like a ball with my anchor as its center. The more range there is, the blurrier the result will be. It is also the main reason for the blurry map I gave to Rent Qingquan.

As for [Anchor], I have spent several precious points this afternoon on this experiment. I could spend 1 energy to bind something or someone using [Anchor]. It will allow the item or person bound to access one of my skills after I allow them to, and I could also make that skill start on its own.

For example, I have tried to bound [Scan] into two random stones that Ren Qingquan passed by. It allowed me to activate the scan by using those stones as a medium. I could also upgrade the anchor I already have and let them use one additional skill of mine.

I know that when I tried to add another skill to one of the stones, I bound using [Anchor]. It cost me an additional 10 energies instead of the initial 1 to add [storage] skills.

Next, I tried to add [Transfer] to the same stone, which cost me an additional 100 energies.

If we follow that formula, then Ren Qingquan, someone who could allow me to use all seven of my abilities, is worth a massive 1.111.111 Energies.

Of course, at first, I thought I could just use [Anchor] on seven items and let someone keep it with them to achieve an effect similar to what Ren Qingquan has. But sensing the area I could scan using the stone. I realized it was not that easy.

The area I could see without things getting blurry was barely one meter. Not only that, I am also unable to do scan reading just like what Ren Qingquan currently does.

Compared to Ren Qingquan, who allows me to scan things 20 meters in radius before things get blurry, the [Scan] I used with that stone is utter rubbish.

I also compared the scan between a 111-value small stone and a slightly bigger stone that has not been upgraded.As I switched my view to that big stone. The result is that, as I suspected, it actually became worse. The big stone is only capable of scanning things several centimeters in radius before getting blurry.

The most important thing is that I am unable to add [Anchor] skill to any of the stones! Perhaps I could attach [Anchor] after I added all six of my skills first, or maybe there is a certain requirement that hasn't been met. Like only capable of granting [Anchor] to humans? As long as it is possible to use anchors other than Ren Qingquan.

Otherwise, doesn't that mean I will lose my only source of outside information and return to darkness once Ren Qingquan dies?

As I stopped my experiment in frustration, I returned my focus to Rent Qingquan, seeing as he seemed to be done scanning the book on the second floor soon.

***

Ren family's library

As Ren Qingquan used [Scan] on the last book shelf, he finally returned to the stairs and began to head for the third floor. Unlike the first and second floors, there is no one here at all.

The third floor looks a lot more empty, as there is a lot of empty space. There are only several dozen bookshelves here. Every book shelf separates the martial arts manuals based on function and level.

Most of the books on the shelf here mostly contain martial arts skills and several Martial Apprentice and Martial Master Techniques. There might be some Martial Grandmaster technique, but it is incredibly difficult to master, which lowers its value. Ren Qingquan followed the already familiar step of using [Scan], browsing for a moment, and going to the next book shelf. After merely seven minutes, he has finished scanning every bookshelf on the third floor, as the amount of bookshelf is a lot less compared to the second floor.

Before entering the fourth floor, Ren Qingquan checked the system's daily shop refresh counter and used it as a timer for his one-hour visit to the fourth floor.

Entering the fourth floor, just like the third floor, is empty without any soul in sight. Similar to Ren Qingquan's memory, the fourth floor somehow contained a lot more books than the third floor.

Ren Qingquan stopped caring and started spamming [Scan] once again. The only difference was that he decreased the amount of time spent reading and walked a lot faster.

Similar to the third floor, the fourth floor contains martial arts skills that have been divided into sections based on function and also a lot of martial arts art techniques ranging from the Martial Apprentice realm up to the Martial Saint realm. Although similar to the Martial Grandmaster technique on the third floor, the Martial Saint technique on the fourth floor is incredibly hard to practice.

After he finished scanning the books on the fourth floor, Ren Qingquan checked the time he had left by looking at the system shop's refresh count.

Seeing as he only had around ten minutes left, Ren Qingquan just took a random martial arts technique before chatting with the system while seemingly reading the book.

'System, I want to check on the book I have scanned.'

[Ding! Additional library functions have been added. The host may check the library function to read the scanned books.]

Ren Ingquan immediately opened the system panel.

[Name: Ren Qingquan

Realm: Ninth-stage martial apprentice

Point: 3

Technique: dragon dance (martial grandmaster)

Skills: Tiger subduing palm (middle),Feather step (low), iron cloth (low).

System functions: devour, shop, scan, map, library, calculate, and system storage (1 cubic meter).]

Choosing the library function, Ren Qingquan searched for the book he was currently reading. After comparing the books and making sure they have the exact same content, Ren Qingquan nodded in satisfaction. Although he knows system skills are definitely amazing, there is no fault in rechecking.

'System, could you recommend a book from the fourth floor for me to copy? After all, if I used a technique I haven't borrowed, it might arouse suspicion.'

[The system recommended that the host choose 'Body Tempering Technique', a martial arts technique located on the third row of the eighth shelf. As the 'Body Tempering Technique' seems to have a specialness compared to other techniques.]

Returning to the book I currently read, I walked to the eighth shelf and picked up the 'Body Tempering Technique' as if by coincidence. Not long after, I could feel my body being pulled by a force toward the stairs.

Holding the book and standing still due to confusion on the third floor, he realized the time to browse the book had passed and the old man really had the ability to kick him.

Returning to the first floor, Ren Qingquan placed the 'Body Tempering Technique' on the old man's table.

After taking a brand new blank book from a shelf behind him, the old man started to copy the book using his blood qi, which is the energy generated when practicing martial arts technique and is required by martial artists to use martial arts skill.

Accompanied by a light burning smell and page fluttering noise, the initially blank books started to be filled with words and images exactly the same as the original 'Body Tempering Technique' Ren Qingquan had previously placed.

In less than ten minutes, the 'Body Tempering Technique' has been copied. It is indeed much slower than a photocopy machine. But damn, it is just that much more impressive.

After getting the books, Ren Qingquan realized he hadn't scanned the books on the first floor, and so he started to scan the books there.

While Ren Qingquan was scanning the books, he heard a familiar soft voice.

"Young master, I thought you were resting in your room. I have been looking for you for some time. It is time to replace the medicine in your body. The family physician is waiting in your room."

Looking at Xiao Ling, Ren Qingquan tried to answer, panicking for a moment before slowly relaxing. After all, even if Xiao Ling is a Martial Lord of unknown origin, she definitely would not do anything funny in the incredibly guarded family library.

"I am feeling a bit bored, so I tried to visit the family library. Then, let's go back to my room."

Led by Xiao Ling, Ren Qingquan returned to his room, where an old man surrounded by a faint smell of medicine had been waiting. After the physician finished checking his wound and applied a new medicine to it, he said I could start training in martial arts again the day after tomorrow. Otherwise, it might lead to hidden injuries instead.

With everything done, Xiao Ling finally left with the old physician, and Ren Qingquan was left alone in his room.

Feeling tired, he finally called it a day and just took a rest.