Chapter 169: Factory Reset
’What just happened?"
Hot red blood splashed directly onto Gu Fan’s boots, as he watched the twelfth surviving disciple drop on his knees and stare at Gu Fan in shock.
Then he looked at the trembling idiot still holding the sword.
For three full breaths, Gu Fan did not move. He did not say anything.
His face was calm. The kind of calm that comes after one has either achieved enlightenment or committed a massacre. For Gu Fan it was both.
Meanwhile, the stabbed disciple slowly lowered his head, and looked at the bloodstained sword protruding from his chest.
He blinked once. Then again.
He then looked up at Gu Fan and with a loo of confusion in his eyes stammered, "Young Master Fan... I think... I think... I may have been stabbed."
"You think?!" Gu Fan’s left eye twitched, "Your observation skills are truly heaven-defying."
The disciple looked down again, "Will I survive?"
Gu Fan stared him in the eye and then at the hole in the man’s chest
"Brother!" Gu Fan placed a hand on the dying man’s shoulder, and just as he did, the strength in his knees gave up and the man fell flat on the ground, his face smacking the mud underneath him.
He was dead.
"Well! I guess this answers your question." Gu Fan’s stared at the fresh corpse in front of him and the failed quest notification in his head.
This mess was all because that one idiot just couldn’t shake off the Slaughter Array’s lingering madness, and keep his sword in his pants.
Gu Fan slowly turned toward the disciple who had delivered the fatal stab.
The possessed Gu Clan disciple was still holding the sword, his eyes still looked bloodshot, and his face had turned pale. But right now there was a bit of sanity back in his eyes.
He looked at the corpse, then at Gu Fan and then back at the corpse.
"I..." He barely managed to form words in his mind, "I thought he was a demon."
Gu Fan nodded, "Of course you did."
The youth looked relieved.
"And you were the demon hunter who waited till the last breath to ruin it for me," But as Gu Fan continued and the disciple’s expression changed.
"Young Master Fan, I did not..."
Pa!
Before the disciple could try and explain, Gu Fan’s palm struck him in the face and sent him spinning through the air.
Sound of his jaw cracking echoed through the forest and everyone watched three of teeth fly out.
He landed headfirst in the mud beside the now blown tree, his eyes rolled backward, and he fainted immediately.
Gu Fan shook his aching hand.
"Fucking useless trash," Gu Fan cursed in frustration by how quickly his perfect plan had just violently crumbled to dust in mere seconds
[Ding!]
[Current surviving targets: 11.]
[Quest Failed.]
[Surprise Penalty Activating...]
The familiar glowing blue interface suddenly violently flickered, quickly morphing into an annoying grey static buzz as if struggling to catch a proper signal.
Bzzzt... Kssshhh... Bzzzt...
The loud static actively hissed directly inside Gu Fan’s head, heavily grating against his spiritual sense before a sarcastic string of text typed itself onto the static-filled screen.
[Did the Host truly think he could outsmart the System and claim massive rewards without perfectly cleaning up the mess?]
[The Host acted entirely too arrogant, shamelessly sitting on a rock while the fodders violently slaughtered each other.]
"Are you fucking kidding me right now?!" Gu Fan roared furiously in his mind.
"I destroyed this massive Earth-Grade Slaughter Array using my own expensive talismans, while the original protagonist who was supposed to save the day slept with his face in the mud."
[The System specifically requested exactly 12 survivors.]
[The Host completely failed to protect the final product.]
[You only did ninety-nine percent of the required work?]
"Only?!" Gu Fan’s lips twitched, "Did you say only ninety-nine percent?"
He pointed toward the ruined clearing.
"I saved twelve idiots."
[Unn... Eleven not twelve.]
"I saved twelve. Is it my fault you are slow to count?"
[You can accuse me of anything. But the fact is, the Host was required to ensure twelve survivors.]
[The Host ensured eleven.]
[Mathematical conclusion: Failure.]
Gu Fan’s nostrils flared.
"That is not mathematics."
"That is robbery."
[The System does not recognize robbery.]
[The System recognizes consequences.]
"You absolute piece of useless, floating junk!" Gu Fan cursed, as his jaw tightly clenched, "I did all the heavy lifting. So you better back off and give me a partial reward!"
Gu Fan’s hand slowly moved toward the Blood Drinker Sword, "Do you recognize what happens when someone repeatedly insults a future immortal sovereign?"
[The System recognizes empty threats.]
Gu Fan’s hand stopped, and his face darkened.
[The System does not do partial rewards for failed villains.]
[Surprise Penalty Initiating: Complete Inventory Reset.]
"Wait... what?!" Gu Fan’s eyes widened in horror, and his heart skipped a beat, "Reset?! You motherfucking bastard, do not touch my loot!"
Gu Fan’s heart violently hammered against his ribs as he pointed his finger straight at the glowing screen, entirely losing his calm, "I swear to the heavens, if you even dare to touch a single spirit stone inside my inventory, I will find a way to self-destruct my own dantian and drag you straight down to the Yellow Springs with me! I fucking dare you to do it, you floating piece of shit!"
[You can’t see it, but the System is chuckling at the Host’s threats.]
[Does the Host truly believe you can threaten a supreme, multi-dimensional entity?]
[Please proceed to self-destruct. The System will gladly find a more handsome host within exactly three business seconds.]
"You absolute shameless parasite!" Gu Fan cursed, "Do you know how much work I have to do to fill my inventory? I even had to exhaust myself fucking two highly demanding women in one night to get these rewards."
"You cannot just shamelessly wipe out my entire hard-earned fortune over one pathetic extra dead fodder!"
[The System absolutely can. And I will.]
"STOP!" Gu Fan lunged forward as if he could physically grab the interface, "You win! I surrender! I apologize! I will never provoke you again!"
[The System records the Host’s cowardice.]
"This is not cowardice," Gu Fan sighed helplessly, "This is strategic retreat."
[Strategic retreat acknowledged.]
[Continuing deletion.]
"You..." Gu Fan stared blankly ahead at the system interface, "You are enjoying this, aren’t you?"
[The System officially neither confirms nor denies this statement.]
The System replied back in its usual deadpan tone, and then paused for a second.
[But yes.]
[I am enjoying it.]