《The System Wants To Be Human Again (Paused)》 Chapter 1 - Melvin Hawkins If anyone was asked who Melvin Hawkins is they would respond with a few answers, some would be ¡°a vicious businessman who would do anything for success¡± while others would call him ¡°a fraud who cheated his way to the top¡±. If you asked Melvin Hawkins himself he would say that ¡°he is an innocent man just doing what he has to in order to live. As the head of a massive conglomerate and as the worlds richest man, Melvin was having a blast in life, he had all the money that he could ever want, the heads of many governments on speed dial, and access to things that normal people could only dream of. Even with all that he owned he still wanted more, he kept an aggressive viewpoint for business and any opportunity that he saw he would snatch up no matter the cost for anyone around him.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. His core belief is that the strong eat the weak and that as the strongest he can do whatever he wants to because he is the strongest. This mentality caused him to make many enemies but he did not care because he was untouchable. Looking back on life he realized how wrong he really was. Chapter 2 - The Meeting In the dark of night, a man was running, his right arm dangling by his side uselessly while covered in blood. This man was Melvin Hawkins and it was clear that he was not having a good day. ---2 hours earlier--- Walking out of my office on the top floor of one of my buildings I was in a good mood, looking out the windows in the hallway I admire the sprawling city below dreaming that, one day, I will control all of it. Exiting the hallway I come to a large reception room where the only person in it is my secretary. Nodding to her I say ¡°I am leaving for the night, please don''t let anyone disturb me for the next few hours. She nods back but says nothing. Stepping into the private elevator I contemplate my life. I am one of the richest men in the world and have everything that I could ever want, but even then I still want more. Its almost an insatiable hunger for wealth and power, no matter what I do I will never be full. Is there something wrong with me? Possibly, but it is not like I can do anything about that. It''s so tedious, even if I take a vacation it cannot help me relax, if anything it makes me more stress because of the opportunities that I am missing. *Ding* The door of the elevator slides open revealing a dark room on the other side, white fluorescent flicker to life illuminating a small parking garage and two cars. The cars, one a black SUV, and one a sports car, shimmered under the light. Getting into the Suv I pressed the button notified the gate guards to open the main gates as I inserted the key into the ignition. On the way out of the garage and into the streets of the city, I admire the sign proudly illuminated above the main entrance ¡°Melvin Bussiness Group¡± it reads. I remember 16 years ago when I was planning to start my first company, I was young, lazy, and naive at the time and almost drove that company into the ground. But as soon as I started to taste success I got addicted to it causing me to be do anything to achieve it. After an hour of driving, I had finally reached my destination. Turning into a road I was stopped at a large security gate. ¡°Identification?¡± coldly asked a man wearing a black uniform and carrying a large rifle. ¡°Melvin Hawkins¡± I responded while handing him my identification card. Handing back my card after scanning it he states in a slightly warmer tone ¡°You are good to go, parking spot 139¡±. Rolling up my window I precede to drive past the security checkpoint and into a tunnel leading underground. At the end of the tunnel, there is a large underground space packed with parking spots, most are occupied by large armored vehicles, but some are more standard SUVs and luxury cars. Finding my spot I park in it and exit the vehicle, nearby I spot someone that I know, it is a friend and one of the board members for the conglomerate. ¡°Melvin, it''s good to see you¡± he said as he reached out his hand. Shaking his hand I reply ¡°Roman Bennett, how are you doing¡±. ¡°Tired and not looking forward to this meeting, you know how I feel about them¡± ¡°I feel the same thing, even if some of the most powerful people in the world attend we still don¡¯t get anything done asides from arguing and creating new grudges between us all¡±. Turning I start walking towards a door that is set into the wall on one side to the parking area.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Walking through the door we reach a desk, behind which are two security guards dressed similar to the one at the front gate. We both hand over our identification and after a moment we are allowed to pass. Behind the two guards in a bank of elevators. Entering one Roman Turns to me and asks ¡°Have you noticed that security today has been much tighter than usual?¡± ¡°I have noticed that too, I wonder if someone important is attending today¡±. Laughing He replies ¡°More important than usual? Most of the meetings have some of the most powerful people in the world in attendance. What makes today any different¡±. Before I can say anything the elevator dings and the doors slide open silently, the hallway that is exposed is crowded with people all standing around and talking. Exiting the elevator we find a place to stand that is off to the side and out of the way. Neither of us makes a move to talk to anyone and we just stand in silence. After a few minutes, a voice comes over the loudspeakers. ¡°All guests have arrived, please make your way to the meeting room¡±. After this announcement is made the crowd in the hallways begin to slowly make their way through two doors on the other end of the hallway. On the other side of the set of doors is a large, domed room, similar to a concert hall. There is a stage one end that is surrounded by around one hundred seats arranged in a horseshoe shape. Finding my seat I sit down. Silently complaining to my self because I am in one of the worse positions, directly to the side of the speaker and almost perpendicular to the screen mounted above the stage. While waiting for the meeting to start, I observe my surroundings, I am on the end of a row with the head of an international bank to my right and an aisle to my left. Shivering as a cold breeze brushes past me, looking around curiously wondering about the source. My eyes wandered towards the wall and I see a slight crack in it. On closer inspection, there seems to be a hidden door that was left slightly ajar. Someone had left it open and nobody noticed or cared enough to close it. Hearing a light cough from the direction of the stage I look over to see a heavyset man walking up to the podium. He picks up the microphone and speaks into it ¡°Welcome honored guests, the meeting is about to begin so please if you have not found your spot find them soon¡±. The lights started to dim and the screen above the stage lights up to reveal seven black humanoid figures. One of them speaks in a deep synthesized voice ¡°Welcome to the 120th annual meeting of the Ronson society, we have a few topics of interest on the agenda for today¡±. For some reason after the figure said that I got a slight sense of unease. As the meeting went on the feeling only became stronger. Glancing back towards the exit I notice a few of the armed guards entering. Then one of the figures of the screen said ¡°our next topic does not require any discussion but we have decided to remove a few undesirable members from the society because they have been acting against the interests of the society as a whole. Bang, Bang, Bang. The sound of gunfire suddenly reverberated throughout the enclosed space. Ducking down I felt a sudden sharp pain coming from my right arm. Taking a moment to process what has happened I look at my arm and notice a splotch of red blossoming through the fabric of my suit. Looking over at the banker who was sitting next to me I stifled a scream. The head of the banker was practically gone, shards of his skull and a lot of blood were scattered across the seat in front of him. Gunfire and screams could be heard throughout the meeting hall. Glancing over to my right I spot the crack in the wall that I had seen earlier, deciding that it would be better to run for it rather than be slaughtered like cattle in a pen I charged at the door. Yanking it open I feel a slight pain in my leg, plaster dust fills my view as someone opens fire in my direction. Ducking through the door I slam it shut behind me. Looking around I seem to have run into a maintenance tunnel of some sort. As I run through the tunnel I can hear the sound of pounding footsteps behind me. Without looking back I throw open another door and jump through. I sign in relief seeing that the door leads out of the building and into what appears to be a loading bay of some sort. Hiding behind a stack of boxes I try to catch my breath. My head is starting to feel fuzzy because of the blood loss and I try to think straight. Realizing that I was not safe where I was I start creeping towards one of the open doors near me. Right before I reached the door I stumbled because of the dizziness and fell out of the open door¡­ And right into the path of an armored truck that was speeding down the road. The last thing that I saw before everything went black was the front grill of a massive black vehicle speeding right towards my face. As the darkness engulfed me I could swear that I heard a quite [*Ding*] like that of an elevator. Slowly the world faded to black. And Just like that, Melvin Hawkins, one of the worlds wealthiest and most powerful men died. He had everything that he could ever wish in life, he had achieved some of his dreams, he thought himself better than everyone else, but he was still mortal. Chapter 3 - When A God Gets Bored In an endless, black void rests a figure made of light. In front of this figure is a screen that appears to just be floating in the air in front of them. Something on the screen changes causing the figure to laugh. In a voice that echos through the entire voice the figure exclaims ¡°Finally something interesting to do¡±. The figure slowly disintegrates into particles of light leaving only the screen to light up the darkness. The image on the screen shifts to a still shot of a man about to be hit by a large black vehicle a look of panic can be seen on his face. _______________________________________________________________________________________________ The first thing that I notice when I regain consciousness was the lack of pain. I was shot then ran over by a truck so I should be feeling at least something. The next thing that I noticed was the lack of any sensation, no sound, no touch, no sight, nothing. I was was in what appeared to be an endless black void of nothingness. ¡°Am I dead?¡± I pondered. I was not sure if it was my imagination but a light appeared in the distance. It slowly moved closer and eventually, its form revealed itself. It looked like a human made of light, the exact opposite of the shadowy figures on screen at the meeting. ¡°So, the man who felt himself above everyone has been reduced to such a state¡± spoke the figure in a voice that echoed throughout the entire space. ¡°I can sense confusion in your soul¡±. ¡°Just to clarify you have died and I have decided to bring you here¡± the figure continued ¡°I am Stray the Lost God, the space before you is my domain, I am permanently stuck here because of a seal place on me by a few other gods. I can only be an observer on events happening outside of this space, recently however I have noticed that a part of the seal has weakened allowing me to transfer your soul here the moment you died.¡±Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. ¡°You see, being stuck here is very boring and I can''t interact with people, I can''t leave through the crack because the gods would detect the flaw and patch it, however, I can give you a part of my powers, release you into the world, and watch the fireworks.¡± ¡°The amount of power I can give you is limited but I found an interesting idea. In your world, there was a set of novels that I read where the main character is given a system like that in a video game which grants them quests and gives them rewards for completing those quests. That got me thinking, can I make one of those systems. It turns out that I can, the only problem is that the system has to adapt to any situation it faces, it cant be generous with the rewards to save energy, but it also needs to encourage the host to complete quests.¡± ¡°Looking at my options I settled on one, find a shrewd greedy person on the verge of death to turn into the system. Can you guess who is the perfect candidate?¡± I try to speak to the self-proclaimed god but no words come out. A sinking feeling appeared in my probably nonexistent gut as the figure of light looked in my direction. ¡°I selected you because you fit all the criteria, though I did have another reason. You thought yourself above everyone, even the gods, and I find this amusing. I may have a small grudge against a few of them because of the whole being locked away for eternity thing, If you gain enough power you might be able to free me and cause chaos in the lower realms¡±. ¡°Well, Melvin do you consent to become a system and regaining your humanity or would you rather have your memories wiped and chance the rebirth cycle? Who knows you might reincarnate as something useful¡­ Like a frog¡±. I try to respond to the entities question by saying that I don''t want to become a system, but unfortunately, I have no way of speaking due to my current form. ¡°Seeing that you have remained silent I will assume that you consent to becoming a system, I wish you the best of luck¡± The entity waves their hand in my direction and I am assaulted by a splitting headache. As my consciousness fades I here the entity say one last thing ¡°I have installed a basic interface for you, as well as a tutorial function so that you can actually do something¡± ¡°Oh and one last thing, this is important, remember if your energy reaches zero¡­¡± I could not hear the last part as my senses shut down and everything faded to black again¡± Chapter 4 - Interface When I was able for coherent thoughts again decide that my life could not get any worse. I have died and was trolled by a god. All my assets gone and worst of all I am still stuck in a black void. As my mind clears I begin to contemplate what lead me to this point. The purge of the members of the Ronson Society makes no sense to me. To the society the members of the upper class were like its lifeblood so why did the higher-ups purge us? Just thinking about it causes a headache. Sitting in the vast void I think about the past, the greed that I had is still there but rather than for wealth and power it is instead greed for colors, sounds, anything to alleviate this boredom of mine. I begin to sympathize with the Stray, this darkness is insufferable. [*Ding*] As if to answer my prayers I hear a noise that breaks the silence. [System Initilising] [Loading, Please wait] [|||| - - - - - - - - - - - - -] A light blue display appears in my vision and a loading bar begins to fill up. Eventually, it fills to its max and the display fills with text. [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] [Welcome to the system management interface V0.9.0] [Warning: Minimal functionality activated, please wait about (8 Years) while system updates] [Menus:] [Status] [Powers] [Library] [Host Selection] [Host Management] [Notifications] [Mail (1)] [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] Seeing that it will take 8 years for the system to upgrade I feel cheated, most of the menu option is grayed out and the only ones that only two of the menus are active the library and the mail menus. Right next to the mail menu is a large red number 1. Mentally I try to select the mail option and much to my surprise the screen changes. It displays a single message titled ¡°Welcome¡± from Stray, the lost god. ¡°I see that the interface has awakened since you can read this, I was not able to transfer enough power through the crack for all of the capabilities to activate and it will take a while for enough energy to traverse the gap, that is what the update is you see¡± ¡°As it will probably take some time for the update to happen I have left some presents for you in the library tab, there is also a manual on how to use the interface. Best of luck to you. Sincerely, Stray the lost god¡±. Opening the menu for the library I was immediately greeted by a massive wall of bookshelves materializing in front of me. The screen then switched to show the titles and cover of many thousands of novels. Sighing in disdain at the sight of all the fictional novels, I begin my search for the manual that will explain the functions of the interface. Finding a book aptly titled ¡°Running your own system for dummies¡± I select it. The book opens and I notice that it is only a single page long. [Steps to running your own system] Summon a host Assign the host quests ¡°Liberate¡± energy from the creatures the host kills Reward the host Strengthen the host Repeat If I had arms I would have chucked the book off into the distance never to be seen again. It was clearly written as an afterthought and had no explanation as to what I am supposed to do next.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Taking some time to calm myself down I randomly choose a novel from the large library that Stray has ever so ¡°graciously¡± granted to me. As much as I find fictional novels to be a waste of time it seems that I have 8 years to waste before I am able to do anything. ____________________________________________________________________________ ---8 Years Later--- I can¡¯t say that I have taken all this time to my self very well. The only thing that I have been able to do for the past few years is to read the novels in the library. I mean it sucked at first but slowly I learned to enjoy them, similar to how if you bang your head on a wall for long enough you eventually go numb. I have made more sense of my situation though. From the novels I have read I now understand what a system is, but for what reason does a system exist for. Most act for the host but gain nothing in return, so why do they exist. ¡°Sigh, its a work of fiction, anything can exist in fiction¡± Before I can finish my thoughts I was interrupted by a sharp [*Beep*] [*System Update Complete*] [*Basic Functions Are Now Avalible*] Opening the menu I see that all the options are available and no longer grayed out. Mentally opening the Status menu a new screen appears on the display. [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] [Status] Name: Melvin Hawkins Titles: [System], [Proffesional NEET] [Status]: Disembodied soul, system Strength: N/A Agility: N/A Endurance: N/A Dexterity: N/A Ether: N/A Intelligence:5 Soul Strength: 7 (Note: The average person has their status values around 1) Cultivation level: N/A Linked Hosts: 0 / 2 Energy: 100 / 3000 Daily Energy Production: 0 per hour Average Income From Hosts: 0 per hour Void Energy: 0 Title Effects: [System]: Is a system created by a god Grants access to the management interface [Proffesional NEET]: Granted to those who spend years alone, reading web novels Has no effects, but the title holder should really go outside and get some sun. Active Powers: none Passive Powers: none [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] Curious as to why my soul strength is valued at 7 and a bit peeved that I got the Professional NEET title, I decide to move on to the next Menu. [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] [Powers] (Powers can be developed through the use of energy and void energy and upgrade the system) (Energy and Void Energy can be harvested from monsters the host kills, when the host is cultivating, or from consuming artifacts through the use of the recycle function) [Spacial Storage]: A space in which hosts can store things (Cost:50 Energy) [Store]: A store that the host can buy from, prices are set by the system, costs energy to create a weapon or item (Costs: 100 Energy) [Recycle Function]: Recycle items into Energy and Void Energy, System can set a percentage of this energy to give to the host (Cost: 300 Energy) [Basic Manifestation]: Creates a body that the system can possess, must stay within 100 km of a host, the body cannot exceed the cultivation rank of 9th tiered ether gathering, costs energy to create the body (Cost: 1 Void Energy, 10,000 Energy) [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] Not seeing the point of staying in the shop menu because I cannot afford anything I open the host selection menu. [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] [Host Selection] (The system can choose from one of the available hosts to bind to, The system will then choose a way for the host to die, the new host will be transferred into a new world where they will be reborn) (The system may also choose a random soul that has recently died, choosing this option does not give the system a chose in the soul they bind too, the host will be reborn as a child and have no memories but it is free since it is following the natural reincarnation cycle) [Options (1)] Jeffery Adams (Summon cost, 50 energy + Starting kit 15 energy = total cost 65 energy) A mob boss who runs the largest gang in City K earning the nickname Sinister Six because it took 6 days for his gang to wipe out the 3 other major gangs in the city when rising to power. [Further info cost 10 energy] [Random Selection] [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] Deciding that I could not wait for a child to grow up I selected the option for Jeffery Adams. A menu showing the options that I can use to kill him pops up. [Select cause of death] [Truck] [Murder] [Disease] [Random] Selecting ¡°truck¡± because it was the first option I wait in silent anticipation since I will no longer be alone. [*Ding*] [*Choice confirmed*] [*Please Wait*]