"Yes!" Cheng Yu cried inwardly.
The achievement vanished from the system interface. With the clink of coins, a new entry appeared.
"Strongest Wage Earner System" (gleaming gold) "Host: Cheng Yu (excluded from rating) Ability: Heart-Bewitching Spell (Black Iron, three stars) Equipped title: "The Kid Watched by the Big Shot" (Epic) Title: "The Kid Watched by the Big Shot" (Epic). Ability effects: ... (click to expand) Equipment: None Achievements: None Currency: 500 Rating: I already told you you're excluded from the rating. What more do you want? Without the big shot watching over you, you're nothing."
Cheng Yu's mouth twitched even harder. You're insulting me, aren't you? You definitely are! I was a system owner even before I met the big shot, okay? Fine, the system belongs to the big shot too. Not messing with that. Definitely not.
Looking at his 500 currency, Cheng Yu opened the shop. After one look, he had to admit he was still poor. Everything he could afford was useless to him and excluded from the rating. For example:
"Advanced musical performance (excluded from rating): Like a master obsessed with musical instruments, you make every instrument come alive in your hands. Price: 400 Advanced combat skills (excluded from rating): Supreme among mortals. Without weapons, forty or fifty people cannot get near you. Price: 500 Advanced medical knowledge (excluded from rating): You know how to cure eighty percent of all ailments. Price: 500 Advanced craftsmanship (excluded from rating): Anything crafted by your hands has immense artistic value, with a very small chance of possessing other effects. Price: 300"
Looking at those items, Cheng Yu sighed. He had a long road ahead. Forget it. Let's set a goal first. He looked at the items at the very top.
Then Cheng Yu noticed something odd. The illuminated shop categories were, in order: Excluded from Rating, Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The categories after them-Legendary, Epic, Holy Spirit, Mythic, and Ineffable-were all grayed out.
"What's going on?" Cheng Yu asked the system.
"Legendary and higher tiers involve multiple worlds. A Gold Rank achievement is required to unlock the Legendary category. The same principle applies to subsequent tiers."
* A Gold Rank achievement? Would wiping out this world count?* Cheng Yu wondered.
Then another voice answered in his mind. "Of course, but you'd need to snuff out this world's consciousness. Hmm, essentially, this universe's consciousness."
Cheng Yu looked at the big shot sitting across from him, his mouth twitching. Snuffing out the consciousness of this entire universe was only a Gold Rank achievement?
At that moment, the system's light screen popped up and displayed:
"This world has been assessed as an ultra-low-magic world. Across the entire universe, organisms of comparable size to the host's species possess combat strength no higher than Black Iron, one star. Therefore, this world's consciousness possesses no independent agency. Once a dominant species emerges in this world, the passage of time will produce a collective racial subconscious, known to the host as Alaya-vijnana. It will merge with this world, forming a unique racial world consciousness. In summary, if the host eliminates more than fifty percent of this world's dominant species, there is a possibility of snuffing out its world consciousness."
Cheng Yu curled his lip. When the big shot doesn't speak, you play dead. The moment he does, you start yapping like a lackey, desperate for attention. If I'm a wage earner, you're a lackey-and one the big shot doesn't even care about.
"Please show this system respect, host. Do not slander this system in your thoughts."
That message suddenly popped up on the system's light screen.
Cheng Yu froze.
"Hey, what's wrong with calling you that? I'm the agent personally chosen by the big shot. You're the one who should respect your host. I'm The Kid Watched by the Big Shot."
"And you've had intelligence all along, but only chose to show it now. Shouldn't you give me a gift pack or something as punishment for deceiving your host? Nothing too expensive. Another title like the last one will do."
Cheng Yu perfectly embodied a petty man puffed up by success.
The system was rather speechless too. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be wrong...
So another message appeared on the system's light screen.
"Gift packs are rewards from the big shot. This system has no authority to distribute them."
Cheng Yu laughed inwardly. As if I couldn't put you in your place. Ah, I must be one of the few protagonists in system novels who isn't controlled by his system. What? You say I'm constrained by the big shot? How is that a constraint? That's the big shot's favor and care!
"So, what's this world's dominant species?" Cheng Yu asked the system in his mind.
"Humans."
"Huh?" (￢‸￢)?
"Humans. Specifically, the humans on the host's planet."
"What about the other species in this universe?"
"Aside from humans, even the most advanced species has only entered the age of theocracy."
Looking at the system's answer, Cheng Yu hesitated. He was supposed to wipe out more than fifty percent of humanity?
At that moment, a passage appeared on the system's light screen.
"Therefore, considering the host's current currency and the effects of the equipped title, this system recommends the following item." "Carbon-Based Virus (Black Iron, two stars): All Carbon-Based Organisms below Black Iron, one star, will be infected by this virus and transformed into biological weapons obedient to the host. For anyone infected with this virus, the concept of physical death does not exist. Even if reduced to scraps, they will reassemble and regenerate, continuing to fight for the host. This is the nightmare of every civilization below technological level one." "Price: 1,500 (title effect activated; price after a 70% discount: 450)"
"You had this ready all along, didn't you? I only get one item discount a month, and you've already picked something out for me?"
As Cheng Yu read the item description, images flooded into his mind.
A seemingly normal human was blasted into a heap of flesh and blood. Then that flesh gathered into an indescribable mass, its tentacles studded with sharp bone spikes and its body covered in wide, staring eyes. It resembled both an octopus and a jellyfish.
Nearby, a pile of corpses fused into a fleshy egg that looked over eighty meters tall. It, too, was covered in bone spikes, along with whips made of twisted muscle and sinew. A single lash snapped the neighboring building clean in half.
Holy crap, that's brutal. At the same time, he wondered whether this thing had been invented by some species that worshipped an evil god.
Another passage popped up on the system's light screen.
"Yes. This is a weapon developed by a species that worships Her Majesty the Supreme Mother Goddess, intended to purge low-level civilizations."
Cheng Yu sighed. Oh, so a species worshipping Her Majesty the Supreme Mother Goddess made it. That explains it. I'll see myself out. (〃･ิ‿･ิ)ゞ
It was too brutal. He couldn't stomach it. Forget it, forget it. There'll be plenty of chances later. I'll figure out this Gold Rank achievement another time. I probably won't be able to use anything above Gold Rank in the near future anyway.
But I could use this against species I encounter later. And it's seventy percent off. Wouldn't passing it up be a waste?
Yeah, I'll buy it. What I can't stomach is using it against humans. If some future world has bizarre-looking species, that has nothing to do with me.
Watching Cheng Yu lost in thought, Yog spoke.
"You feel uncomfortable with it now. Perhaps once you've seen enough worlds, or reached a tier above Silver, you won't feel that way anymore."
Cheng Yu gave a bitter smile at those words. "Perhaps. But right now, I'm still human. I can't bring myself to slaughter my own kind."
Time passed quickly, and a month soon went by. Cheng Yu worked at Rainbow, while Lin Mo kept busy with something at the Lin Group.
Meanwhile, Yog sat in Cheng Yu's home watching television. On the screen were the lives of Cheng Yu, Lin Mo, Bai Tingting, Le Shuya, Li Xuehong, and the others. Just then, another pane appeared on the screen.
It showed an old man with snow-white hair and a beard, wearing a long gown washed pale and a pair of worn but tidy canvas shoes.
The old man slowly left the station and headed somewhere.
Yog smiled. "Another actor is in position. It looks like this play is about to reach a minor climax."
Miss Puppet stood silently behind Yog, as though none of it had anything to do with her.
Before you continue