How To Be A System (Dummy-Proof Edition)

Ren family garden

Upon arriving at a small garden full of flowers with a table and a pair of chairs made out of stone, Ren Qingquan immediately touched a plant and used [Devour] on it.

[Ding! Host used devour, 0 points gained. Note: points under 1 will be accumulated until they reach at least 1 point before being shown.]

Looking at the panel with exactly the same word as when he devoured the water, Ren Qingquan kept on using devour to target the surrounding plants.

Even when he keeps on using [Devour] until the garden has been filled with bald spots, just like a middle-aged man with huge pressure in life, the system still gives out the same notification.

[Ding! Host used devour, 0 points gained. Note: points under 1 will be accumulated until they reach at least 1 point before being shown.]

Unwilling to give up, he started to crazily touch plants, grass, soil, and even the stone table. Looking at the garden that has been turned into a pit without any sign of greenery at all, finally a new notification sounds.

[Ding! Host used devour, 1 point gained. The shop function has been unlocked.]

Seeing the notification, even the extremely hot afternoon couldn't stop Ren Qingquan's excitement. He immediately opened the system's [Shop] function, trying to check what kind of items he could purchase.

***

Consciousness space.

Looking at how Ren Qingquan finally used the [Devour] function and gained an increase in points, I am relieved. But I also feel speechless because energy seems to be harder to gather than I initially thought.

Thinking so, I opened my own panels.

[Name: System

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

Energy:17603]

As could be seen by my current point of energy, indeed, I have taken a little bit of the energy devoured by Ren Qingquan. *Cough* 75% *Cough* Alright, that is a lot, but it is not the most important thing right now.

The most important thing to do right now is to add the item to the shop function. But thinking back to the list of items I could create, I secretly apologized to Ren Qingquan for his soon-to-be disappointment.

***

Ren family's bald garden

'Open system panel'

As Ren Qingquan thought so, a panel opened in front of him.

[Name: Ren Qingquan

Realm: Ninth-stage martial apprentice

Point: 1

Technique: dragon dance (martial grandmaster)

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

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

Choosing to open the shop function brings a new display into view.

[Daily shop (refresh at 23:59:47)

Water, 1 point. description: normal drinkable water.

Soil, 1 point. description: normal soil. Might be fertile.

Air, 1 point. description: breathable air.

Sunlight, 1 point. description: blinding light, contains some heat.

Permanent shop:-

Note 1: Items sold in the daily shop will be randomly refreshed every 24 hours.

Note 2: Upon purchase, items in the daily shop could be repurchased in the permanent shop.

Note 3: Except for certain items. Purchased items will be sent to system storage.]

Looking at the list of items sold in [Shop], Ren Qingquan's expression full of excitement suddenly turned into the expression of someone who had accidentally eaten shit.

"What the hell, all that hard work just to buy some dirt?"

System, I demand an explanation!

Screaming in his head, Ren Qingquan's fantasy for a sudden strength gain using the system suddenly disappeared right in front of his eyes.

[Ding! The system may currently only sell something the host has come into contact with.]

Reading the system's explanation, Ren Qingquan's expression started to calm down, and he focused on the word 'currently'.

"System, what do you mean by currently you could only sell something I have come into contact with?"

[The system is currently at version 1.0, and with an increase in the host's strength and points, the system will slowly upgrade itself. As the system version increases, the items sold in the shop will also increase in quality and diversity.]

So the system could still level up?

Looking at the garden turned pit, Ren Qingquan started to continue his demolition work. After all he already destroyed the garden beyond recognition, devouring more of it shouldn't matter much.

With that mentality, the initially shallow pit slowly turned into a massive bowl-shaped pit several meters deep. Looking at his masterpiece, Ren Qingquan finally stopped.

Without realizing it, he has stayed in the garden for quite a while. Maybe an hour? Having no clock or timer is quite a pain.

Slowly moving from the garden to the pit, Ren Qingquan immediately tried to return to his room.

Escaping from the crime scene, he first cleaned his body, shoes, and clothes from any trace of dirt or plants. Then he started to walk stealthily. Walking through the place, he rarely passes people before finally arriving at the door of his room.

Finally arriving at his safe little nest, he 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, calculate, and system storage (1 cubic meter).]

"Is this perhaps how a farmer felt when he harvested his crops?"

Looking at the score increased from 1 to 3 from his hard work. Although he doesn't know what to spend his point on yet. And so, he asked the system another question. Ren Qingquan, as someone with brains, definitely doesn't want to buy those useless-looking items in the shop.

He doesn't know how, in the future, he will buy those items. But that is for later stories.

"System, except for the shop, are there other ways to spend those points?"

[Ding! The host may spend time using the calculate function to derive or upgrade techniques and skills. Points could also be used to upgrade system functions like system storage, calculation, and scanning.]

"Then system, help me to upgrade the Dragon Dance technique."

As his only martial arts technique, Dragon Dance is of course extremely important for him. Although currently Ren Qingquan is unable to train in martial arts due to his wound. The more powerful it is the better.

[Upgrading the dragon dance technique requires 500 points. Insufficient balance, upgrade canceled

Reminder: With more technique data, the cost of upgrades and derivations may decrease.]

What a rip-off! Ren Qingquan has removed a garden from the Ren family, and all he could get is 3 points, and it requires 500 points to upgrade dragon dance. Does the system want him to devour a mountain?

Remembering the system's name, the system might want him to devour a mountain.

Looking at the reminder, Ren Qingquan remembered. As a core member of the Ren family, he could browse the family's library and borrow martial arts-related books for free at any time. Of course, with his current status, he could only browse the most common kind of martial arts book for free.

For the more important martial arts book, he has permission to browse and create a copy once a year. Luckily, he still had the chance to copy it once.

Thinking until that point. Ren Qingquan quickly took his identity jade, something to identify himself, and also used to stamp on documents. Which is required to access the family library and use his once-a-year chance to access the important martial arts book part of the library.

Opening the door to his room and leaving the comfort of his small nest. Ren Qingquan moved to the Ren family's library, following the path in his memory.

After walking for several minutes, and passing through several unfamiliar places. Ren Qingquan must admit he went lost.

For the second time today, he cursed whoever built this place to be this huge.

"System, do you have a navigation function or something?"

[Ding! System has used scan to craft a map. From now on, the host may see the system map using the map function.]

Suddenly, the panel changed into a slightly blurry circular map with several dots of different colors. In the center, there is a white dot and some blue dots of different sizes dispersed randomly around.

[The white dot is the host's current location, and the blue dot is the location containing vitality. The size represents the amount of vitality the creature has. Currently, the system map only shows a 100-meter radius around the host.]

"System, could you mark the location of the family's library?"

[Ding! Host, please ask other people around as the system is not a miracle worker yet.]

Wait, system, did you just use sarcasm?

As he waited some time for an answer, Ren Qingquan finally just shrugged and walked to the nearest blue dots. There are three blue dots jumbled together near that location.

Arriving near the location, he finally found a group of servants cleaning the road and trimming some plants. After asking about the location of the library, a new landmark suddenly appeared on the system map. It is shaped like a book and located at the north-west of the system map's frame. It seems the library is outside of the system map's range.