How To Be A System (Dummy-Proof Edition)

Chapter 8. ‘Fishing’ Makes Me Stronger

For the next few days, except for eating, sleeping, taking a bath, and looking at the refreshed system daily shop in case something important is placed there, Ren Qingquan only stopped training when Xiao Ling reported she had sent the metal he purchased into his storage. Slowly, he could feel the attributes and quality of his vital energy changing.

Every cycle of 'Body Tempering Technique' requires him to practice for 8 hours continuously. Otherwise, the technique will not have the effect of transforming vital energy attributes. Which required Ren Qingqian to practice until most of the day had passed.

At least the crazy amount of movement and time spent doesn't come to waste, as Ren Qingquan could feel the insanely high quality of vital energy generated by the 'Body Tempering Technique'.

'Looking at the quality, it seems my realm might drop after I finish changing the technique'

After all, higher-quality vital energy contains more energy in each strand. Which caused the amount of vital energy strand Ren Qingquan had to decrease.

After more than a week, Ren Qingquan finally transformed all of his vital energy from 'Dragon Dance' into vital energy from 'Body Tempering Technique'.

Opening the system panel, Ren Qingquan finally saw a change in his technique panel section.

[Name: Ren Qingquan

Realm: Seventh-stage martial apprentice

Point: 2

Technique: Body Tempering (Martial Saint)

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

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

Upon checking his panel, Ren Qingquan continued his martial pact for several more days. The old Ren Qingquan was a training maniac, and so is the current Ren Qingquan. Well, at least for now, because the feeling of doing martial exercise is still fresh for him. After all, compared to the entertainment that exists in this era like drinking and eating at a tavern or visiting the Red Light District, training and feeling the increase in vital energy are several times more fulfilling.

That is, until Ren Qingquan sees what the system shop sells that evening after he finishes training.

[Daily shop (refresh at 20:24:19)

Water, 1 point. Description: normal drinkable water.

Air, 1 point. Description: breathable air.

Blood and flesh energy, 1 point. Description: If there is a lot of blood and flesh energy, excess energy will be lost.

Vital energy, 2 points. Description: one strand of energy generated from Ren Qingquan's 'Body Tempering Technique'.

Permanent shop:-

Note 1: ...]

Looking at the item written in the shop, Ren Qingquan couldn't help but feel shocked.

'System, what the heck? Do you even sell something like vital energy?'

***

Consciousness space

Feeling Ren Qingquan's massive fluctuation in emotion, I also feel speechless from my recent findings.

It actually started several days ago, as Ren Qingquan went into training maniac mode. I fell into boredom after scanning every single piece of item Ren Qingquan passed every day.

That is until I just placed [Scan] on Ren Qingquan, trying to understand how flesh and blood energy could transform into vital energy. Who knew [Scan] was actually so amazing? it actually copied the data from Ren Qingquan's vital energy.

After several boring days of repeatedly only seeing Ren Qingquan train, I couldn't stop my itchy hand and created one strand of vital energy and transferred it to Rent Qingquan during his sleep. Although I already used [Calculate] and the results say it is safe. I still immediately pulled the energy back. After all, who knows if adding random vital energy suddenly might cause someone to explode or something?

Seeing as Ren Qingquan didn't seem to feel anything the next morning, I also tried to use [Scan] to check his condition. Which is almost exactly the same as the previous day.

And so, I continued to send vital energy to him for another four nights with an increased amount of strand every night. Except for a slight flushing on his face after transferring five strands at once on the last day. There is almost no change at all in Ren Qingquan's body data. The small change in data every day is still within normal fluctuation.

And so, after a five-day experiment using my own customer, The new product is ready to enter the market.

***

Ren Qingquan's training room

As Ren Qingquan clicked purchase on vital energy, he could feel an additional strand of energy coming from who knows where.

Sensing the pure vital energy transferred, Ren Qingquan fell into silence and could only say, 'as expected of the system, a famous golden finger'.

'Sign. My precious feeling of achievement from training is gone. Darn, I always disliked those pay-to-win people in games. But who would expect I to actually turn into one of them after getting transmigrated?'

Seeing his point return to zero, Ren Qingquan felt a complicated emotion and lost his will to train.

Wait! Now that Ren Qingquan woke up from the high caused by his excitement about martial arts practice, he realized something. As he does a mental calculation, Ren Qingquan is extremely grateful for the system's timely help.

'To generate one strand of vital energy, I need to practice the body-tempering technique for twenty cycles which require one day for each cycle. It requires 1,000 strands of vital energy to break through from martial grandmaster to martial saint. It means I need to train for 20.000 days to achieve the Martial Saint realm. Wouldn't I have turned old already? No wonder this book is called rubbish.'

And so, Ren Qingquan just sits in his training room and surrenders to his fate as a system's worker while trying to think about how to increase his point.

After the last lesson from devouring a garden, which caused massive mayhem in the Ren family, Ren Qingquan suddenly found an idea about how he could get a huge amount of energy without causing a huge ruckus.

Walking outside of his training room, Ren Qingquan tried to search for Xiao Ling when she suddenly appeared from God knows where.

"Xiao Ling, get me a fishing rod and some bait. I want to relax and go fishing at the river."

"Yes, young master."

After some time and making sure Xiao Ling had already gone away using the system map, Ren Qingquan went to his storage room and placed some of the metal on the [Storage] function. After several minutes, Xiao Ling returned with a bucket and a pair of fishing rods.

"Young master, here is the fishing equipment you requested. I also have to ask the coachman to prepare the carriage. Do you need me to accompany you while fishing?"

"There is no need."

After Ren Qingquan waved to refuse Xiao Ling's offer, he went to the carriage, followed by Xiao Ling, who was holding his fishing equipment.

Upon arriving at the carriage, Xiao Ling placed the equipment and left.

Going outside to fish is actually what Ren Qingquan could think of to gather points secretly and safely. Of course, fishing is just a way to hide his real target.

Actually, Ren Qingquan could just use [devour] on random soil outside the Ren family's house, and it would not be noticed by anyone. But Ren Qingquan suspects his protective father might have some hidden expert guarding him somewhere. Never mind, scratch the 'suspect' and 'might'. His father definitely sent someone to protect him secretly. Ren Qingquan could see a blue dot that had been following him since he left the Ren family's house. As the system is his trump card, of course he wants to hide it as much as possible, even from his family.

Arriving at the riverbank, Ren Qingquan descended from the carriage and placed his fishing equipment. After placing the bait on the fish hook, he sat down with his feet entering the water.

'System, use [Devour]'

With that command, a small vortex came into existence at the sole of his feet.

That is right! Ren Qingquan planned to slowly use [Devour] on this river. This river bank is located quite near the Ren family's house which doesn't waste a lot of travel time, and far enough from Burning Sky City's harbor, which makes it rarely visited except for boats that travel at the center of the river.

The size of this river is also pretty wide. It is at least 100 meters in width with a pretty fast current, which makes the small vortex on his feet inconspicuous.

After close to three hours of sitting, the energy on his panel finally increased by one.

'System, how come the amount of energy gained is much lower than the garden?'

[Ding! The Ren family garden, which the host thoroughly devoured, used precious soil and contained plants with high energy content, which caused more energy to be gained upon absorption.]

Hearing system's explanation, Ren Qingquan just stayed on the river until night. Looking at his bucket filled with two small fish, Ren Qingquan smiled. After all, the biggest catch today is the two points he gained from [Devour].

Before returning to the carriage, Ren Qingquan spent all his points in exchange for vital energy. With that, Ren Qingquan's realm finally returned to the Ninth Stage Martial Apprentice.

***

Consciousness space

Looking at Ren Qingquan's means, I must acknowledge his intellect. While Ren Qingquan was fishing, I also secretly used [Anchor] on many things in the river. From a fish, a branch, a light rock, etc. As long as it seems to be capable of moving using the river's current, I spent a little time anchoring it with [Absorb] skill.

By the way, I also attached a fish with an extra [Scan] as I wanted to experiment with whether or not I could use the skill attached using [Anchor] if the creature I anchored into died.

With this, I finally found out which aspect of the [Absorb] skill got weakened. Compared to Ren Qingquan, who could generate two energy every three hour, *cough* 50% tax *cough*. I decreased the tax as we are on the same boat right now. If Ren Qingquan died, I might also get imprisoned in the consciousness space. Anyway, I regressed once again.

I could feel the pulling force of [Absorb] on a stone I spent 1 energy to anchor, which is weakened to a mere 2% of Ren Qingquan. Not only that, half of the energy absorbed is missing to some unknown place. But still, at least I finally found a way to generate daily income. With that, I opened the panel that I just updated.

[Name: System

Skill: [Storage], [Transfer], [Calculate], [Absorb], [Scan], [Create], [Anchor]

Energy:17450

Daily income: 5 energy]

After the previous experiment on [Scan] and [Anchor] using stone, and adding this experiment, my energy decreased by more than one hundred. At least now, I could generate a daily income of five points a day. Not including the point Ren Qingquan gained from his daily 'fishing'