Within the black starry dotted realm known as space, held two unfathomable beings floating near a planet's vicinity. Similar to Earth's condition, the massive habitable oblate spheroid, called Herth, could be considered its twin. However, its topography and size was clearly different compared to the former.
Stellar spaceships and satellites were taking rounds in safeguarding the planet but despite having high-end technology, none of them noticed the two humans of similar race, hovering in a site that was already considered as trespass.
Surely the two were non-existent in the eyes of the world, as both of them were wearing a special kind of invincibility item that camouflages the user away from the prying five senses.
Not long after, one of these unwelcome guests, an elderly man spoke. "Have you decided which locations to choose from? Remember your given maximum distance is just a third of the total area of the landmasses lumped together" He said to his wife beside him, which his words answered partly their unidentified reasons for appearing. "Or are you gonna do 'that' again?" He added.
She nodded and pointed out a specific country. "I'm gonna drain away some essence needed to fully use the maximum distance to boost my searching efficiency. After all, I wouldn't be able to fully search the all of it within the time limit and the results of my scan are not detailed enough if that's the case. I should focus on one particular location which my intuition points the strongest."
"I thought you'd say that. Anyways, it was a deep pity that your 9th System 901 died. He was a real treasure and would've made it to the top 100 if he didn't perish before fully maturing." He sighed before he darkly hardened his expression. "10 is the limit for failure. If your 10th System won't show promising results and high survivability..."
"---then I would rather call death a reward" His wife bitterly cut him off before taking out a formation-inscribed token. She activated it with a drop of blood and suddenly her vision was filled with rough golden sketches of buildings, sceneries, and deceased human souls. On these souls were short descriptions of the person and numbers indicating the soul's IQ and EQ. Due to her method of choosing, another set of words appeared on them--the amount of luck, and talent/s.
Her actions and methods show some of System Building Association's ways of choosing its limited 1000 members.
System Building Association--as its name suggests, is a place where almost every main character's cheat is born. Be it a system where it grants the user heaven-defying potential, abyss-level destructive artifact, or world dominating skills, just a mere mention having one of these limited 1000 systems are enough to spark bloodshed that could at least dye a whole planet red. Such a claim isn't an exaggeration when you realize more than a hundred billion planets in the cultivation realm are fighting for even just one glimpse of these cheats.
While the old woman was doing her meticulous search, her husband kept a safe distance away from his wife to avoid disturbing her. He took the job of safeguarding her during this vulnerable process, sparing no effort in unleashing his power as a System Trainer. He temporarily took charge of some of the patrol ships whose routes happen to intercept their spot. He did the job without causing too much of a commotion and disguised his meddling from the planet's intercom.
'She only has 24 hours worth of time and she could not be disrupted just to evade an oncoming ship.'
In taking in a system, there are important requirements needed to be met by the trainer and the candidate. It was without saying that luck plays a massive role in this aspect. Since there is a time limit in replacing a dead system, one must immediately choose a new one. However, the person needed to be deceased within a week or else they aren't susceptible as replacements. In short, luck holds the ultimate decision.
Planning beforehand was considered impossible due to several hindering factors such as the contradicting lifespan of both of the subjects and imposed restrictions by the SBA on the System Trainers.
Because Herth is the only special planet that has the main qualities of creating a superb system, it became the all-powerful System Building Association's most highly valued and protected planet---without Herth knowing.
Among the planets of the cultivation realm, weirdly, only Herth doesn't contain the essence needed to develop magic. Therefore, intelligence developed to it's peak to subconsciously compensate for that.
It so happens that the most important factor in creating systems was not the amount of magic an individual has but how high one's level of intelligence and critical thinking is.
_____
Meanwhile, inside the talked planet, lights from several flying cars made the night view breathtaking. Zoom in close enough and you could see creative-shaped buildings happily showcasing their hologram advertisements while handy robots could be spotted accompanying their respective owners on the streets. Despite being at the time where mostly half of the world was dead asleep, the city was still bustling as it was during the day.
During that specific hour, a male teenager shot up awake from his bed. He had a gruesome dream about piles of several mutilated body parts of humans, that even needed the power of imagination to identify which was which. He clearly remembered them suddenly moving against the law of nature and wriggled together to form some ghastly creature. He dashed away in fear and accidentally fell down a cliff. Just as he was about to land on piles of sharp bloody rocks--snap! He was back to reality.
"Screw those horror movies!" He kicked off a pillow and regretted immaturely accepting a random challenge online to binge watch some nightmares. He was sweating profusely despite the high-end air conditioner's existence within the room.
As if his sweat was draining all the water within him, he felt his throat parched. "I'm thirsty" He uttered and stood up. Just as he was about to step out of the room, he unintentionally saw the digital clock near the door.
3:21 A.M.
The figure stood frozen for a moment. 'Well what do you know. The optimum time for supernatural activities to expose themselves' He thought and hurriedly went to his drawer to pull out some tiny bottle.
He would die (cough...in discomfort) if he could not replenish his water supply. Grim reaper would welcome him either ways so he decided to risk his life and continue down towards the dark kitchen to grab a drink. His ears were all perked up trying to catch some suspicious sounds while closing in towards the refrigerator.
Sigh. Just when he thought he had gotten over this type of fear, it came waltzing back in despite the 'impenetrable' mental barrier he had struggled to put up. It wasn't his fault that he was scared! Well rationally it was but nevertheless, it wasn't! After all, supernatural situations were things science and technology couldn't possibly explain and the unknown were always the scariest. Furthermore, he had just so happen to experience a traumatic one, four years ago.
Anyways, let's bury that resurfacing zombie of a memory right back at its grave once more.
No one would want to hear about that.
The teen was secretly delighted to reach his goal without mishaps. Grabbing a glass, he filled his throat with refreshing water. He was craving for something sweet to eat, however there was none in the kitchen this time.
As if the spirit of cliché didn't want to let go of such an obvious opportunity to slay a defenceless rabbit, a separate sound of footsteps appeared just a distance behind him and it was coming closer each second.
The sound rattled eerily and the teen's heightened vigilance picked up these series of goosebump bombs with intense psychological impacts. The hands that were about to refill his glass tensed up along with his whole body.
'Death is coming' His fear came up with an exaggeration, dealing a heavy blow to his already weakening mentality.
As expected, the chicken inside him went loose and several chilling scenarios appeared in his mind as if trying randomly claim the identity of the unknown source of panic. Luckily the mad siren his subconsciousness was wailing made him regain his reflexes and immediately unleashed the lid of his ultimate weapon, the tiny bottle.
The sounds of footsteps magnified and the paranoid teenager was ready to turn around and splash the exorcism water to the oncoming unidentified target.
"Argen? You were thirsty too?" A familiar voice resounded from where the footsteps was. The youth's frightened nerves relaxed and pocketed the exorcism object.
'Thankyouthankyoutthankyouthankyoutthankyouthankyouthankyouplotthankyouthankyoutwistthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou' He incessantly thanked his luck for betraying his dreaded expectations.
Heck! Fainting wasn't out of the subject if he comes face to face with another ghost. Comedic scene or whatnot, imagine laying on the floor defenceless while an unknown entity was roaming around or dead straight staring at you.
"Yeah. You too?" Argen faced his older sister showing her his glass.
She nodded and flashed a light smile after Argen's affirmation. She grabbed a glass herself and her arm unintentionally nudged a plastic packet down the floor. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about this!"
She bent down to pick up the object.
"Since you like sweet things, I just remembered that the day before, the company created a new formulae milk. It's still a sample though. Wanna try? I heard from my colleagues that it was really good! You were already asleep when I came home so I couldn't really tell you a while back." She placed the packet near him and opened the refrigerator to fill her glass.
Argen's eyes sparkled.
If it's sweet despite how it looks, then count this 14-year-old in!
He took the small packet and poured its contents to a glass of hot water before stirring it. The sound of spoon hitting glass resounded throughout the tranquil kitchen and Argen could already hear his taste buds screaming in excitement. Tasty things were always a medicine of his after a nightmare and coincidentally sugar didn't grace it's presence in the kitchen tonight.
The sweetness of the milk immediately overpowered any flavor lingering inside his mouth--- a total eradication. Even the bitterness formed from just waking up was erased. He finished the last drop and thanked her before going back to his room without a hitch while his older sister was still loitering inside the dim kitchen with the same smile.
_____
The sun announced it's arrival by shamelessly blinding Argen's sleepy eyes awake. He grumbled and stood up prepare for school.
The teen went down to have his breakfast. He was doused with confusion when he saw the generous amount of food on the table.
There he saw his dad in his business suit beckoning him to the table with the family. His mom was wearing her formal attire while serving the dishes together with Argen's older sister.
Sometimes, Argen wonders why his family was so stubborn in refusing a robotic help, even though the cost was always within budget. He never asked though as he felt this was benificial for excercising his lazy limbs.
"Why the feast today?" Argen asked as they began digging in. He took the a special meat dish that was made for himself and listened to their answer with bulging cheeks.
"Well you seem to have forgotten that today me and your dad would be out to our business trips for at least a month. Our wedding anniversary is a week from now so we're trying to hold the feast at breakfast for you two to take part in. Our flights take off at 9:00 am you see." His mom happily ate a part of a fish dish.
"Oh!" Knowing the reason, Argen greeted his parents "Advanced happy anniversary" before his eyes went to look for something at the table.
Instead of cake, a bowl of salad proudly held the precious position of food star at celebrations.
'As expected of my family with excellent tastes for disgusti---cough...healthy foods.'
Well at least he was spared in some way by allowing him sweets even if it was just a little. But, the thing was the sweets were made healthily.
He swiped his meal clean and bid his family goodbye before heading to school riding it's provided car.