Chapter 280: System Upgrade, New Functions
Meng Lei hadn’t planned on establishing a god system initially. He had only come up with the idea after he obtained the 48 existential planes.
To him, his main means of gaining strength was still the system. Power of faith was ultimately just supplementary.
After all, the worst thing here was that Meng Lei still hadn’t lit up his divine fire even as of now. Well, that was awkward!
What was divine fire?
Divine fire was a tool that turned power of faith into power of divinity—in other words, it was a power of divinity converter. If power of divinity were electricity, then divine fire would be the power plant!
Even if Meng Lei had vast amounts of power of faith, he wouldn’t be able to convert them into power of divinity anyway without a divine fire.
In other words, even if Meng Lei had 1,000 existential planes acting as his power of faith domains, the vast amounts of power of faith they produced would only pile up and accumulate.
This was a complete waste.
Rather than having that happen, he might as well enfeoff those existential planes to Bubbles and the others and allow them to spread their own faith, earn and accumulate power of divinity, and strengthen themselves.
Once they became stronger, Meng Lei would no longer need to personally attend to a lot of things. There were a lot of benefits to be had.
Besides!
How would Meng Lei possibly have that much time to manage that many existential planes? He couldn’t even be bothered to deal with the Dragon God Empire, much less 48 existential planes!
Therefore, the ideal solution was to enfeoff them to others. Meng Lei believed that Bubbles and the others would definitely manage the existential planes with great diligence for the sake of power of faith.
“You’ve finally smartened up for once, kid!”
Dodola was full of praise for Meng Lei’s idea. It said, “Not only is establishing a god system beneficial to spreading one’s faith, but it can also encourage the subsidiary gods to open up new grounds and forge ahead, such that they would develop the ambition to expand their territory. It’s a move that kills two birds with one stone!”
“With that coming from even you, then there shouldn’t be anything to worry over anymore!”
Dodola’s response further strengthened Meng Lei’s thoughts of establishing a god system.
After that, the group began to take a leisurely stroll around the 48 existential planes. The existential planes were connected via teleportation magic circles, so they were easily accessible.
Of course, Meng Lei didn’t forget to refine their Hearts of The Existential Planes and take full control of them, either.
The 48 existential planes were rich and diverse in variety and differed from one another. Some were marine worlds, some were dry lands, some were fully covered in forests...
With incredibly vast and wide lands and containing abundant resources, all the existential planes were highly suitable to be used as living beings’ habitats and were exceptionally good power of faith domains. The only thing that displeased them was that... All of them were currently being occupied by demons.
Innumerable demons occupied the existential planes, filling the pleasant environments with foul atmospheres as they ran rampant. It was truly irksome!
“What a waste for demons to be occupying them!”
None of them looked favorably upon demons. Apart from the fact that deities and demons were natural adversaries and thus adopted hostile attitudes toward each other, there was also one other reason for this—it was in the demons’ nature to be cunning, cruel, and bloodthirsty. They didn’t easily worship others, so it was far harder to grow demon worshiper numbers than to grow normal worshiper numbers.
Thus, everyone wanted to kill the demons and migrate other living beings there instead.
To be honest, Meng Lei also wanted to kill the demons. However, it wasn’t because he disliked them, but rather... It was because he was poor!
The rebirth had depleted him of 888 million Laws of Nature Origin Crystals and left him with only 880,000 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals. One could say that he had gone right back to square one overnight and become a penniless pauper again!
Thus, Meng Lei was in a panic. It didn’t feel good to be penniless.
The only thing currently on his mind was to replenish his Wealth. He didn’t feel very confident with an empty purse!
“I should be, no, I definitely will be able to replenish everything that I’ve spent if I kill all the demons!”
The moment the thought occurred to him, Meng Lei said, “Everyone, I’ve decided to establish a god system and enfeoff these existential planes to all of you. Do you have any suggestions?”
Everyone exchanged looks with one another. Then, Bubbles scratched his head and asked, “Are you serious, Master?”
“Duh, of course!”
Meng Lei rolled his eyes.
“Since Master has already made up his mind, then I hope Master can forgive for taking the liberty of raising a suggestion.”
Bubbles lowered his voice and said, “Can we kill those demons? They are simply too detestable. I have no desire to have a bunch of demon worshipers.”
“My thoughts exactly, Master!”
Seisia spoke up and said, “These are good material planes, yet those demons have polluted them. What a huge waste that is!”
“That’s right, Master. Let’s hurry up and kill those demons. Leaving them alive is just a waste of resources!”
“Master, I suggest exterminating all the demons and migrating some humans, Colossal Dragons, or Beast People from Heaven’s Vault Continent over...”
Everyone else also spoke up one after another, with all of them essentially saying the same thing in different forms. They indeed didn’t have any other ideas, either. The fact that their Master was willing to divide and confer the existential planes to them was already a pleasant surprise to them.
What more was there for them to be discontent about?
“Since everyone has the same opinions, then we’ll do just that.” Meng Lei mused for a long while before he said, “We’ll exterminate the demons and migrate other races over!”
“How wise, Master!”
“O my noble Master, your wisdom is like the dazzling and eye-catching stars in the sky, yet also like a lighthouse at sea that lights up our paths...”
Overjoyed, everyone launched into wild bursts of flattery. For a while, all sorts of praises gushed from them like an endless, overflowing river that was out of control.
The next problem was—how should they exterminate the demons?
There were billions of demons in the 48 existential planes. Killing them was no easy task. To quote Zhang Fei[1], “One would have to spend a total of three days and three nights even if they were just killing 700,000 pigs”, let alone that many demons!
However, to Meng Lei, who had already refined all the Hearts of The Existential Planes, this really wasn’t that difficult a task at all. He needed only to think about it, and he would be able to easily wipe out all the demons.
That was what made an existential plane’s master so fearsome. By using Power of Existential Plane, they could easily kill all the low-end living beings in their existential planes.
“Ding! 1 Longhorned Demon killed, 12 Laws of Nature Origin Crystals gained!”
“Ding...”
As Meng Lei commenced his operation, his Wealth value also began to spike insanely. He gained one billion Laws of Nature Origin Crystals after wiping out the demons on one existential plane.
Going by the rate of 0.1 Laws of Nature Origin Crystal per demon, that meant that he had killed as many as 10 billion demons!
Of course, the actual numbers were undoubtedly even bigger.
If 1 Laws of Nature Origin Crystal equated to 10 billion gold coins, then that meant that 0.1 Laws of Nature Origin Crystal equated to 1 billion gold coins.
That was the amount he earned when he killed a Saint Domain Magical Beast, which was the equivalent of a Demon General among the demons.
Was it possible for every demon on an existential plane to be a Demon General? Obviously not. Worlds would always be populated by low-end beings the most, no matter which it was.
Therefore, more than 10 billion demons had definitely died on that existential plane alone.
Fortunately, Meng Lei had employed a humanitarian way of annihilating them. The demons died instantly without any pain or fear and left the world very peacefully.
“Let’s head to the next one!”
Just like that, Meng Lei traveled around all 48 existential planes and began an all-new way of withdrawing funds from ATMs.
About ten existential planes later, the depleted funds were not only replenished, but he had also broken through the 10 billion milestone.
The system’s icy voice abruptly rang out at this point.
“Ding! It has been detected that the host’s Wealth value has broken through the 10 billion Laws of Nature Origin Crystals mark and now fulfills the system upgrade condition. Dear host, will you upgrade the system?”
Meng Lei was stunned. The system was upgrading again?
The last time it had upgraded was when he had broken through to Saint Domain, thereby fulfilling the system upgrade condition. However, this time, the upgrade was actually because his Wealth had broken through the 10 billion mark!
Wasn’t the trash system being a little too willful here?
Dissing aside, Meng Lei promptly gave the order to upgrade the system without any hesitation whatsoever.
“Upgrade!”
“Ding! Upgrading the system requires 10 billion Laws of Nature Origin Crystals. Dear host, will you upgrade the system?”
“10... billion... Laws of Nature Origin Crystals?!”
Meng Lei couldn’t help but gasp and remark, “What the hell! Must you use that many Laws of Nature Origin Crystals just to upgrade yourself? Isn’t this daylight robbery?!”
As though it hadn’t heard Meng Lei’s dissing at all, the system repeated coldly, “Ding! Upgrading the system requires 10 billion Laws of Nature Origin Crystals. Dear host, will you upgrade the system?”
Meng Lei suppressed the heartache from having to part with the money, and then he gave the order to upgrade—albeit in an extremely disgruntled manner.
Whoosh!
The 10 billion Laws of Nature Origin Crystals that he had only just earned were instantly reset to zero, and Meng Lei turned into a pauper once more.
“Ding! System upgrade commencing!
“Upgrade Duration: Three hours.
“A friendly reminder: During the upgrading process, all functions of the system will be shut down. Dear host, please wait patiently.”
“Go ahead and upgrade all you want! All the better if you’re broken in the process! Upgrade all the way into the sky, and don’t come back if you so dare! Goddamn it!”
Meng Lei felt like crying as he stared at his empty Wealth attribute. He had only just earned 10 billion Laws of Nature Origin Crystals through his own abilities and hadn’t even spent that much time with it, yet they were all gone now?
Wasn’t this frustrating?
Wasn’t this infuriating?
Despite his displeasure, however, Meng Lei was still very much looking forward to the results. The system had gained two new functions—Limitless Pickup and Brutal Plunder—after its previous upgrade.
Even though he rarely used Brutal Plunder, the function’s powerful capabilities were an undeniable fact.
Limitless Pickup didn’t even require any further explanation. Just how many benefits had the function brought to Meng Lei?
The Gods-Slaying Rat bloodline, the Hundred-Armed Giant bloodline, various fusion laws of nature fragments, as well as the Crystallized Divine Spirit Extracts and Soul Ice Marrow droplet used to enhance his divine spirit...
All of these had been thanks to Limitless Pickup.
It was no exaggeration to say that Meng Lei wouldn’t be where he was today had it not been for Limitless Pickup.
It was apparent how great the benefits that the system had brought Meng Lei after its upgrade were.
This was also the reason why Meng Lei hadn’t hesitated to upgrade the system at all, despite the astrological cost. The rewards that he had received post-upgrade were far more than what he had spent.
“I wonder what kind of new functions there’ll be after the upgrade?”
Meng Lei was full of anticipation.
“Master, you...”
Bubbles and the others were utterly confused at the sight of Meng Lei, who had suddenly stopped in his tracks and adopted a look of anticipation.
What is Master secretly so thrilled about? C’mon, tell us and let us share in the joy, too!
After all, happiness is better off shared with others!
“It’s nothing.”
Meng Lei waved them off and said, “You can return to Heaven’s Vault Continent and discuss the migration issue with Puhaman first. A sudden wave of inspiration has struck me, so I’m going to go into seclusion here instead.”
A sudden wave of inspiration?
His subordinates didn’t quite know what to say anymore. How long had it only been since his breakthrough? Yet he had been struck by inspiration again?
Compared to Master, we’ve practically lived our lives in vain!
Incredibly ashamed of themselves, Bubbles and the others quickly returned to Heaven’s Vault Continent via the teleportation magic circle.
Three hours passed in the blink of an eye, and the system’s cold, emotionless voice rang out once more.
“Ding! The Most Powerful Pickup System upgrade complete!
“Ding! The Most Powerful Pickup System at your service!”
Although its voice was cold and emotionless, it nevertheless sounded like music to Meng Lei’s ears. He exclaimed, “The upgrade is complete at last! Hurry, tell me, system, what new functions have you gained?”
“Dear host, the basic pickup function has undergone a few changes after the system upgrade,” The system stated emotionlessly, “The chargeable functions Limitless Pickup and Brutal Plunder have been removed, while the following new chargeable functions have been added—Super Pickup, Super Plunder, and Super Enhancement.”
“Super Pickup, Super Plunder, and Super Enhancement?”
[1] A major character in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. A military general that served under warlord Liu Bei
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