Chapter Forty-Three: A New Choice

Upon seeing the string of logs, Fan Bei finally understood what the legendary “earning money while lying down” truly felt like.

Across both his past and present lives, he had always been industrious, yet never experienced such a sensation. He had to admit, watching the logs appear incessantly was a delight beyond measure.

He skimmed through the logs and found there were two hundred entries. In less than a day, this gentleman had consumed two hundred Spirit Cores in one go!

Inviting a wealthy patron to play the game—what a thrill...

Take Da Bai, for instance; after several days of toil, he had only managed to earn a little over a hundred.

Currently, Fan Bei possessed seventy-five Spirit Cores and three Mutant Fruits stored in “Father of Systems.”

He flipped to the inside of the cover—his reserve of mental power now reached “11370.8”!

He had finally broken ten thousand again. It was time to work on the “Housekeeper” system.

But first, he needed to master the crucial skill of “Appraising Loyalty.”

Just as Fan Bei had this thought, Da Bai called from the doorway—it was time for dinner.

After the meal, Fan Bei summoned Da Bai, asking it to push the iron ball into the bedroom.

Once inside, he sighed, “Da Bai, the shelter has finally been cleaned up. Next, we’ll need to recruit more people to work. Yet it’s hard to distinguish loyalty from treachery. Your nose is so keen, able to sniff out evil creatures—if you could also sense loyalty and betrayal, I’d be at ease, not worrying every day about someone causing harm.”

He had considered this before: since Xiao Bai could guarantee Chef He’s loyalty, it should possess such a skill. Of course, it couldn’t be achieved by merely smelling with its nose; there must be another method.

If Xiao Bai were to teach Da Bai, it couldn’t fake it. Any deception would not be recognized by the system—it surely understood this.

Da Bai nodded enthusiastically, “Master is right. I should learn such a skill so you can sleep more soundly at night.”

Then it pawed at the iron ball, barking at it.

“Xiao Bai, did you hear what Master said? Do you have this ability? If so, hurry up and teach me.”

“Your master’s imagination is vast, but not very reliable,” Xiao Bai said resentfully. “No matter how keen your nose, you can only smell scents. Evil creatures have their own unique smell—that’s detectable. But how do you sniff out virtue and loyalty? Are good people fragrant and bad people stinky?”

“So you don’t have such a skill?” Da Bai retorted, dissatisfied. “How did you guarantee Chef He was a good person then? He said he wanted to be good and you believed him? You’re so cunning—you wouldn’t be that gullible.”

“Of course I can, but it’s complicated. Even if I explained, you wouldn’t understand, much less grasp it—after all, your intelligence is only two,” Xiao Bai sneered.

“Then I’ll start adding points to intelligence next time I level up,” Da Bai gritted its teeth.

“If you boost intelligence, you’ll be a useless dog,” Xiao Bai quickly interjected. “How about this: your master isn’t stupid and is diligent and eager to learn. I’ll explain the method to you, and you relay it to him. Whether he can comprehend it, that’s not my concern.”

When Fan Bei heard Da Bai’s retelling, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—indeed, never underestimate this creature.

It knew it couldn’t fool the system, but since Fan Bei didn’t have one, it could deceive him.

But it didn’t know that, though he lacked a system, he was the father of a system.

As long as the skill it imparted wasn’t faked, “Father of Systems” would absorb it automatically.

Thus, for the next half hour, Da Bai relayed Xiao Bai’s method to Fan Bei, word by word. To cover it up, Fan Bei purposely took out a notebook and made notes on the bedstand.

Upon listening, he suddenly understood.

Xiao Bai had confirmed Chef He’s trustworthiness because the latter had prayed to it as a “kind and noble being” and opened his heart completely, establishing a spiritual connection. Xiao Bai was also helping him break free from a certain evil, vicious entity, freeing him from a fate as a puppet.

Though that evil entity was far stronger, its connections were spread thin, so Xiao Bai could still undermine it.

It was like an emperor with immense power and thousands of concubines—his energy stretched too thin, so someone could still slip a cuckoo’s egg in the nest.

After reading, Fan Bei nodded—this made sense.

He then opened “Book of Systems,” checked the first page, where knowledge and skills were listed.

Sure enough, a new skill appeared at the bottom.

“Mental Link: Those who master this skill, if their mental power is strong enough, can establish a spiritual altar, allowing others who worship them to pray and thus sense the other’s loyalty.”

He likely wouldn’t master it immediately, but Xiao Bai hadn’t played tricks—a pleasant surprise. It seemed determined to forge a new persona.

However, after reading the skill, Fan Bei felt a bit troubled.

With this, the Housekeeper System would become a dual management structure. Servants would be loyal to the housekeeper, who, by virtue of the system, would be loyal to Fan Bei.

The question arose: were the servants his, or the housekeeper’s?

But then he realized this would make it easier to motivate housekeepers, freeing him from managing servants himself.

And with the system’s guarantee, he needn’t worry about housekeepers amassing too much power and rebelling—at most, he’d have to maintain a few tasks.

Nothing in the world is perfect—even as the father of systems.

Since “Father of Systems” now possessed the skill, Fan Bei lay in bed, pretending to sleep, but in reality, began crafting the Housekeeper System through the night.

Da Bai, exhausted from half an hour’s recitation, slipped outside for water.

With a “good person” nearby offering sacrifices, Fan Bei considered maintenance costs and decided to include the “level-up attribute allocation” ability.

A weak housekeeper can’t manage subordinates well.

While creating the new system, he recalled a plan he’d recorded in his private diary:

He needed to modify the contents of the “Intelligence” attribute—not to boost IQ, but rather enhance mental willpower, such as endurance and determination. This would prevent hosts from becoming too smart, exploiting loopholes, or even speculating about his existence.

Every system has vulnerabilities.

As he turned this idea over, a prompt appeared on the system creation page.

“Intelligence already encompasses numerous mental attributes. By reducing these, you can activate a new system option. Restoring the original attribute will require a huge mental power cost.”

The possibility of unlocking new system options—excellent.

Human thoughts shift constantly. Upon seeing the prompt, Fan Bei reconsidered and decided to simply rename “Intelligence” as “Spirit,” saving himself future trouble.

He confirmed the modification decisively—what’s there to fear if it turns out poorly? The system isn’t for him, after all.

Restoration wasn’t an option.

Once confirmed, the four attributes in the “attribute allocation” system changed from “Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Charisma” to “Strength, Agility, Spirit, Charisma.”

He could now choose to activate one of three new system options:

“System Space,” “System Shop,” “Skill Exchange.”

At first glance, the latter two seemed redundant.

A shop could sell skills—why add an exchange feature?

But upon seeing their details, he realized the differences were significant.

The System Shop’s contents needed to be supplied by Fan Bei and could also recycle items submitted by hosts.

Skill Exchange, however, could create something from nothing. As long as the host offered hundreds of thousands of mental power, they could exchange for new skills or techniques—just like his “Father of Systems” book.

With the System Shop, he could exploit hosts steadily, filling it with junk and enticing them to spend.

Just that shop alone, Fan Bei could think of eighty thousand tricks.

Skill Exchange could drain a host in one go—some skills Fan Bei couldn’t afford himself, but hosts could exchange for them...

As for System Space, it was purely a benefit for hosts—the classic standard. Without it, one could hardly claim to be an authentic system.

He faced a dilemma.

Which should he choose?