I Hate Systems

Compass Carburettor took in a breath of air, gazing at himself as he noticed the various changes his powers had experienced. Some of them barely resembled their original power, confusing him too.

But, it made sense when he thought of it, given the context of the situation.

After all, he had attained two powers: Personal Fragment, and Core Skill.

First among them was the Personal Fragment called Wish Manifest, one that allowed him to grant wishes, albeit with some clauses attached. This was what his powers in the Cultivation World transformed into, thereby resulting in this personal fragment.

But, it wasn't like he could grant any and all wishes. Only the wishes of those suffering from injustice could be granted through this power. Moreover, it wasn't something that could casually alter cause and effect.

There were set steps required to achieve it. First of all, was healing, whether physical or mental.

Such wishes were granted by summoning a past version of himself that would slightly alter cause and effect regarding the target, taking upon their pain, trauma, injuries, etc. thereby making it seem like they weren't suffering.

Instead, all the sufferings would be borne by this summon.

This was also the method that Hazen had used to revive the Origin Beast. As it had only died, he was still able to affect its fate, manipulating its cause and effect to take on all its injuries, making it seem like it hadn't been injured in the first place.

As this was the effect, of it being injured, then there was no cause for its death. Therefore, it came back to life. And in response, the summon died.

And for material wishes, the thoughts in the Mental Energy formed by those making the wish would be captured by Hazen who would then infuse his own power into it, materialising that wish into reality to help the ones that made the wish.

This was the power of his Wish Manifest.

To a certain extent, it was only an upgrade of his cultivation world powers. But, what confused him the most was what came next.

Sighing, he snapped his finger, watching three other figures appear before him, one man, and two women. Of course, they were all him too. And, the reason they came into being was a certain something he had written in Hazen Village, the basis of his faith, and the substance that resulted in his revival.

He sighed at the power that he awakened as the Main Character after reaching Level 1.

Core Skill—Lore!

This was the core of his Main Character's power, one that had been in him all along, from the moment he had become a System Slayer. And only now did it manifest itself, allowing him to understand the true reason he obtained not one, not two but four Personal Fragments in total, even though other Systems Slayers and even Main Characters only had one Personal Fragment.

Basically, whatever he preached and was religiously followed by the populace became him.

And, since the Luck Based Systems had employed countless Systems to invade Earth, the Darble World and the Apocalypse World to eradicate Secret Society and all traces of him, this left the Cultivation World alone that bore his traces.

And once his Core Skill of Lore finally awakened, it mirrored the Lore he had established in this world.

Lord of Wealth—Compass Carburettor, Lord of Secrecy—Domino Plottopia, Lord of creation—Gahrat, and finally, the Harbinger of Serenity—Hazen.

This was the Lore he had first established in the minds of the people that was followed religiously. And hence, he became the embodiment of that lore, turning into four individuals.

And each individual had their respective Personal Fragments that had experienced some changes as a result of the Lore.

Compass Carburettor stared at the wizened old lady that was now Gahrat. They didn't need any communication. After all, they were the same person but now existed as four individuals, with gradually divergent minds.

Gahrat understood what he was getting at, waving her hand as the figure of Stencil appeared, one that was blinking in confusion, looking like she had just woken up from a long coma.

The moment she looked at the figure of her father, she became awake, rubbing her eyes to see that she indeed wasn't dreaming, "…dad?"

"Haha!" Compass Carburettor hugged her, tearing up in response, "Finally…!"

"I missed you, brat."

"Haha, it's fine, it's fine." Stencil smiled as she gently patted his back, "Aunt Gana took great care of me. And she is basically an extension of you, right? So, I wasn't feeling left out."

He then stared at her appearance, tearing up upon seeing how much she had grown and matured since he last saw her.

After all, she was eight years old when the Money-Making System brought him to the System World. And even after he rescued Stencil from it, she was unconscious, hit by an attack from the Secret Schemer System.

And to treat her, he had arrived at the Cultivation World. Also, even after Stencil had been cured, they couldn't meet, for that would alert the Grade 2 Systems keeping a track of things.

So, they could only communicate after he was able to lift the restriction on himself partially. But this was only a year before the Apocalypse World looped.

And after that, he was killed by Straxia, revived as Hazen that had experienced 16 years in Hazen Village, unaware of everything else.

During the past sixteen years, Stencil was somewhere in limbo, unaware of the passage of time. To her, it only seemed like a second had passed since Compass Carburettor's death and her seeing him.

But for him, things were entirely different. Most of all were the pain he felt for not being part of a majority of her life. After all, Stencil was now 44 years old.

What type of father would wish to be apart from his beloved daughter for the majority of her life?

Compass Carburettor wiped his tears, sniffing as he muttered, "I'm sorry for being a useless dad."