It was a waste of time, destroying the monster and getting nothing out of it. "System, where is... I have slain the demon, so where is my reward?" I demanded. The system replied coolly, "Host, there is no reward for you, for I did not tell you that this was a mission."
I slapped my forehead, glaring at the annoying system. "Look, you know what? You want to play smart with me, huh? Stop fooling around and give me my points." I pounded my fist into my open palm, and I seemed to see the system shaking and trembling before me. "Okay, host, I am going to give you your points," it relented.
"How many points have I accumulated?" I asked. The system then showed me my calculated total. Zero points? No... wait. Good. Once everything was calculated, it had actually accumulated to 2K.
"What can I purchase with these points?" I asked eagerly.
"Host, your points are currently too small to purchase anything valuable," the system stated flatly.
"But what do you mean they are too small to purchase anything valuable?" I snapped.
"Host, valuable items all start from 10K and above—but you only have 1.5K."
This was terrible. I had thought that maybe I could finally get some cool weapon to kill my enemies easily, to turn this world into chaos. But I had not known that these points were far too little to do anything for me. For a moment, I began to think that this system was playing me for a fool. I thought I had been outsmarting it, but it seemed like it was the one outsmarting me instead. Come to think of it, I had never done any of the missions, nor planned to do any of them, but somehow, it had all turned out like this, as if I had successfully completed a mission against my will.
"Your points may not be able to purchase anything of value now, but there is a gift," the system said. "I am very impressed with your performance, so there is a blind box for you."
Hearing what it said, my inner excitement peaked. I decided to calm down and listen to what else it had to say. Clearing my throat, I told the system, "Well, where is the blind box? Let me see what this king can get for himself."
With that, the system made three blind boxes appear before me. I looked at them. They sat idly in the air. "Pick," the system urged. But I did not just grab a box without thinking about what it contained. Carefully, I selected one and opened it. Inside, I saw a fruit. A dime fruit.
After all my effort, the thing it chose to give me was a damn fruit. The veins on my forehead bulged with anger because I still could not believe it. I asked the system if it was doing this on purpose. The system chuckled and said, "Host, it is just your luck. The blind boxes all had good items, and what you picked was your own choice. I gave you different options to choose from."
"So now, what is this fruit about? Am I supposed to eat it?" I grumbled.
"Yes, the fruit. You are supposed to eat the fruit, host," it confirmed.
"This is so useless. You cannot do anything right. You are always taking advantage of this king," I muttered. The system chuckled again. It then added, "Host, well, you should eat the fruit. Maybe you are going to get a better outcome—better than what you expected. "
I grimaced but decided to eat it. It belonged to me, after all. After all the stress I had gone through, I deserved it. I bit into the fruit. Ella, standing before me, was eyeing it greedily. "Hey, can you give me the fruit?" he asked. Immediately, I turned around, pretending as if I had not heard him.
"Hey, don’t be mean. I stayed with you in this place while you were fighting the monster," he protested.
"Yes, you stayed with me in this place—under the bed—while I fought the monster. Such a useless servant," I scoffed, continuing to eat my fruit. After I ate half of it, there was still a little bit left at the bottom. I was already full for some weird reason, so I threw the remainder to Ella, and he picked it up. He took a deep bite, not caring that it was my leftover.
I furrowed my brow, wondering for a brief moment why this guy was so eager to eat the fruit, but I just ignored it. Our interaction the whole time had been invisible to Casper because time had frozen.
Even though Casper was a high immortal cultivator, the system’s power was above his. I was above his power as well. After everything was done and I had received the system’s gift, time returned to normal.
Now, I looked at the woman who had been ranting about the high priest or whatever. Not that I cared about any of the mortals here, but she had mentioned the demon—the demon that had created this puppet. Well, he was familiar. He was my child, so to speak. I called him my child because he was one of the demons that I, the Demon King, had blessed with power. And the power I had blessed him with before my dethroning—I wanted it back. I wanted it for myself. So, I needed that demon.
I leaned down to the woman who was collapsed on a pile of human skin and hair. It did not disgust me in the slightest. I asked her, "You—what did you see? Who was it behind you?"
The woman looked at me with wide, terrified eyes and cried out, "Demon! Demon!"
Come on. Directly calling me a demon right to my face was an insult. I did not even have my horns out.
"Oh, don’t worry. He is not a demon; he is a messenger of God, so you can trust him," Casper said, his chubby body shaking as he smiled warmly at the woman.
The woman looked at me, then back at Casper, before her anxiety seemed to calm down slightly. "Messenger of God? You—you are a messenger of God?" She stared with her eyes wide open. "Please save me! Please save me!" she started crying, repeating the words several times over.
"Yes, I am the messenger of God," I said haughtily. "So you can trust me with your problem, woman. Now, please tell me. Please."
"Okay... This demon—the demon—has fled away. But it was the high priest! He is the one doing all of this," she sobbed. "He is the one doing all of this. I saw the high priest disappear and then appear here, consuming all of the young hollow that were present, sucking their flesh. But for some weird reason, he fled away."
I wondered to myself: could it be because he had sensed my energy? The high priest. A lot of strange deaths had been occurring around this city, and it was all similar to what had just happened here now. "Please tell me more," I pressed.
"Oh..." the woman tried to continue, but after she finished that last word, she fainted dead away right at that moment. It seemed she had been waiting to collapse. I could not let my truth slip. I was done here. Thinking of this I walked out of the room.
I was about to leave when the system sent me a new notification. It hit me with a fresh mission: "Find out who is behind the deaths happening in crayan City, and slay the villain."
"I am doing no such mission, system," I declared, walking away. "You shall not tell this king what to do!"
The system then responded slyly, "This time, I shall reward the host with a powerful artifact if the mission is fulfilled without any mistakes."
My footsteps halted. Hearing what it had said, I stood frozen in place, the system’s promise echoing in my mind.