This Is Not a Good System

Dago was like a man who had slept soundly for a thousand years, finally waking slowly from his dream and rubbing his bleary eyes.

He quickly walked outside, only to realize that the sun was already close to setting, casting its final afterglow.

At that moment, he felt as though his whole body had been brought back to life.

Dago's first reaction was to hurry up and cook. Otherwise, once it got completely dark, cooking by candlelight would be far too miserable.

Besides, his stomach felt hollow, and hunger was making his vision blur.

He went over to the pile of odds and ends, took out the small iron pot, washed it, then scooped two spoonfuls of grain from the rice jar into it. After adding water and rinsing it, he set the pot over the fireplace to simmer.

While the rice cooked, he used smoked dried meat and wild vegetables to make another pot of meat and vegetable soup. Before long, Dago carried the pot of rice and the soup to the table and began eating.

The simple meal tasted like a feast of rare delicacies. In no time at all, he had cleaned every last bite from the dishes.

After eating and drinking his fill and putting away the utensils, night had already fallen completely.

Dago struck flint to light the candle standing on the shelter's table, and its dim yellow glow illuminated the entire shelter.

He pushed open the rickety wooden door and slowly stepped out of the shelter.

He found that the moonlight spilling across the ground was unusually bright. Looking up, he saw two moons hanging high in the night sky.

One was a bright white moon, and the other was a silver-white moon.

The bright white moon was roughly the same size as the moon from his previous life, while the Silver Moon was only about one-sixth its size.

Aside from its size, there was one more difference: it emitted a faint glow of its own, adding a little light to the pitch-black night sky.

Within the Wizard Alliance, the Silver Moon held an extremely lofty status. Even those massive wizard organizations that seemed like gods willingly called it the Origin Moon.

That was because it was the mother of all supernatural things in the world, and it also sheltered and blessed wizards.

Dago shook his head, tossing away the sudden fragments of memory that had surfaced in his mind, and returned to reality.

As far as the eye could see, the dark forest resembled an abyss. Though the moonlight was bright, the towering trees still blocked most of it.

A light breeze swept by, and countless shadows wriggled like monsters waiting to devour their prey. The sight made Dago shudder from head to toe, and he hurried back into the tiny shelter.

The candle flame on the wooden table swayed, and its light gave him an endless sense of security.

He walked to one of the shelter's stone walls, removed a loose stone, and revealed a hollow in the wall.

After rummaging around inside the stone hollow, Dago felt a box. He took it out and held it in his hands.

He blew the dirt off the box, then went to sit at the wooden table.

By the candlelight, he opened the box and saw a copy of the Universal Wizard Meditation Method lying inside.

This was considered the previous owner's most valuable possession. This book represented the first starting point on the path of wizards.

Many of the people gathered in Aina Town had come here with dreams of becoming wizards, just like him. Of course, like him, they were also unfortunate people being harvested like leeks.

Ainak Wizard Academy's admission standards were simple: either possess outstanding talent or have a tiny little fortune.

As for those without talent or money, well, sorry. They could suffer in town first. If they managed to make something of themselves before turning eighteen, they could enter the academy.

At Ainak Wizard Academy, the path of wizards was a business. Unfortunately, the previous owner had neither talent nor money.

Dago opened the old Universal Wizard Meditation Method and began reading it carefully.

Only after the candle had burned down by two-thirds did he finish reading. He closed the book, shut his eyes, and carefully pondered its essence in his heart.

Mental power was the core of the wizard power system, while Meditation Methods were the main way to obtain mental power.

What was mental power?

First, one had to believe that human souls existed. Once one believed in the existence of one's own soul, there had to be a realm where souls existed—the Spirit World.

"Mental power" was the external manifestation of the "soul," and the Mental Space was the outermost layer of the Spirit World.

The Mental Space was like a "small bubble" floating at the outermost edge of the Spirit World. Energy from the Spirit World seeped into the "bubble," forming the mist that drifted through the Mental Space.

After opening one's own Mental Space, a Mental Core would form. It was where mental power was refined and stored, and also where the soul resided.

Once the Mental Core was lost, the worst outcome was soul death, while the lighter outcome was becoming a mindless idiot.

In truth, every conscious soul had the possibility of opening a Mental Space.

It was just that most people lacked the so-called wizard aptitude. Once they reached eighteen, they would no longer have any chance of opening their own Mental Space.

"Relax your body, empty your thoughts, and focus your mind on a single point."

Dago followed the steps described in the book one by one.

The world fell silent for an instant. His vision suddenly darkened, as though he had abruptly fallen from the sky into the Deep Sea, with icy seawater surging toward him from every direction.

The seawater tightly seized Dago, this uninvited guest who had wandered into the Deep Sea, attempting to trap him here for all eternity.

Cold!

Despair!

He could no longer tell whether this was reality or illusion. It felt as though he truly was in the depths of the sea.

He felt himself sinking bit by bit, his consciousness gradually slowing, his soul melting into the sea.

Just as Dago's soul was about to completely dissolve into that sea abyss—

Suddenly, an invincible force erupted from the depths of Dago's soul, and his consciousness instantly cleared.

At once, countless points of light burst forth from deep within his soul, continuously spinning and dancing around it. They wrapped around his soul and transformed into a crimson-gold ball of light.

The ball of light radiated endless brilliance, instantly vaporizing vast amounts of seawater. The water became countless bubbles that floated upward, while the ball of light flew in the direction they rose, moving with incredible speed like a meteor streaking across the night sky.

Before him was a black sea with countless clouds of Mental Mist floating above it.

The black sea churned violently, suddenly raising terrifying waves that towered into the sky and swept toward the ball of light, attempting to smash it back into the sea abyss.

Just as the towering waves were about to crash down, the ball of light flashed again. Countless crimson-gold rays, like golden swords, blasted the waves into raindrops that filled the sky.

The ball of light became a meteor flying against the current once more, soaring straight up from the sea's surface.

After flying for who knew how long, the ball of light gradually came to a stop. Dago's consciousness could not tell how high he had flown within the Mental Space, but he could sense that the black ocean still occupied the Mental Space below him, with endless towering waves surging upward.

Yet the waves could do nothing to the ball of light, and the ball of light could do nothing to the black sea.

The two sides could only remain locked in a stalemate.

Dago could not be bothered with the black sea for now. He planned to follow the steps in the meditation book and first convert some mental power.

Only with mental power could he control his Mental Space and figure out what the black sea was.

Gather his thoughts and cast aside distractions.

The ball of light slowly began to rotate, becoming the Mental Core of the Mental Space. It drew in a large amount of surrounding Mental Mist and refined it into mental power.

At that moment, Dago's soul was curled up at the center of the ball of light. It was a hazy humanoid body speckled with starlight, with no distinct facial features.

After the Mental Mist was drawn into the ball of light, it was continuously refined by the rotation. In the end, it became a dark-blue droplet that entered the humanoid body's brow.

From then on, Dago possessed mental power. In other words, he was already a Tier-One Apprentice Wizard and qualified to learn spells.

With a shift of thought, Dago's consciousness withdrew from the Mental Space and returned to reality.

"What was that black ocean? And why did an invincible force emerge when I was about to lose myself?"

Dago frowned tightly as he pondered with a grave expression.

Just then, a voice rang out from the depths of his soul.

"Ding!"

"Binding with the host's soul successful."

"Detected that the host's soul was about to be annihilated. Activating the Progress System's First Principle of Self-Rescue During Destruction!"

"System self-rescue protocol initiating. All hope energy will be supplied to the system self-rescue protocol as priority!"

"System energy output has exceeded limits. Overload! Overload! The system is about to shut down and restart!"

"Core error detected: 3#￥#2. Core intelligence has entered dormancy and cannot be awakened!"

"Core error detected: ￥#￥#. Host guidance module missing and cannot be repaired!"

"System self-check initiated. Cannot awaken, cannot repair, cannot awaken, cannot repair..."

"System's ninety-millionth restart complete. Time consumed: ninety millionths of a second. Concept loading successful!"

He naturally understood and received the information carried by those "voices" from the depths of his soul.

While he was still stunned, a grain-sized point of light leaped into view, then split at light speed until it formed a screen of light.

[Welcome to the Progress System after its ninety-millionth restart!]

Dago was completely dumbfounded. He rubbed his eyes hard, but the screen of light before him did not budge in the slightest.

"This is a direct takeoff! Most of the questions about my Mental Space make sense now."

"The system got wrecked right at the start by the abnormality in my Mental Space. That's seriously useless."

"But judging from the information I received, this system wasn't a good system either. It was a system trying to turn the tables on its master."

Dago was so overjoyed that he began dancing around and talking to himself.

Only after a long while did he finally suppress the corners of his mouth, which kept trying to curl upward.

"Phew... For now, I should figure out roughly what this system does."

Dago steadied himself, exhaled a breath of stale air, calmed down, and began studying the system.

With the thought of [Hide], the screen of light vanished.

With the thought of [Appear], the screen of light reappeared.

After repeating this several times, Dago learned that the screen of light was controlled by his thoughts.

After trying all sorts of commands, the screen showed no reaction at all and still displayed the same line of text.

There was no little guiding sprite built into the system, leaving him completely lost. He could only keep experimenting through trial and error, testing the system's functions one thought-command at a time.

However, after trying a huge number of words from both of his lives without getting so much as a fart in response, Dago could only put the matter of the system aside for now.

The night was long, and he had no desire to sleep. He decided to strike while the iron was hot.

Dago's attention returned to the Mental Space.

He entered the Mental Space once more.

This time, the entry was incredibly smooth. He focused his mind, shifted his thoughts, and entered the Mental Space.

The black sea was still churning with towering waves, attempting to devour the ball of light in the sky.

Dago chose to ignore the black sea. The ball of light slowly rotated, refining Mental Mist into mental power and merging it into his soul.

But as more Mental Mist was refined into mental power, Dago noticed something was wrong. He felt that his soul was becoming a little dizzy from mental power.

Helplessly, he could only choose to withdraw from the Mental Space.

In the blink of an eye, the screen of light before his eyes changed.

[Detected an improvable skill: Universal Wizard Meditation Method. Would you like to improve it?]

Dago was completely stunned. He swiftly chose yes with his consciousness.

[Universal Wizard Meditation Method (Beginner 1/100): Progress Value +1]

The characters on the screen jumped, instantly changing into an entirely new version. This time, Dago could no longer suppress the corners of his mouth. Though exhausted, he had no desire to sleep at all.

So he simply read by candlelight through the night, continuing to study the book and the system.

Only when he truly could no longer suppress his drowsiness did he finally choose to climb into bed and fall into a deep sleep.