Chapter Forty-Four: Passing By Each Other

After considering for a while, Fan Bei admitted to himself that his first instinct was to choose the “System Space,” as a way to prove that the system he had created was both legitimate and authoritative.

However, he quickly corrected his stance. He couldn’t bind to a system right now anyway, so it was best to save the official label for later activation. What mattered most at this moment was accumulation.

So, he promptly chose to activate the “System Mall.” In his previous life at work, he often heard people say that second-rate companies made products, first-rate companies built platforms, and top-tier companies set standards.

Since the system manufacturing industry was just beginning, launching a platform to gather resources seemed a worthwhile endeavor.

Having settled on the new option, Fan Bei continued crafting the “Butler” system.

“Mission Guidance, Upgrade & Attribute Allocation, Novice Gift Pack, System Mall”—he included all four options for now, planning to remove any if his mental energy ran low.

He had already rehearsed the other template content he needed to fill in, so it was a matter of entering it again.

“Name: ‘Butler’; Category: ‘Wizard’; Alignment: Lawful; Revenue Share: still 5%.”

He remembered that hosts would certainly feel the revenue share was too low. For instance, when Lang Sheng, the host of the Good Person system, completed “Exchange Missions,” he would definitely notice.

After all, Xiaobai had already shared the formula for using the Core of Spirit; the other party must have it too, and that formula boasted an absorption rate of at least sixty percent. The contrast would be obvious.

But Fan Bei had a way to deal with this.

As the creator, he had to always pay attention to user feedback. Through log tracking, the moment he noticed a host becoming rebellious, he would unlock an upgrade mission, allowing them to see the hope of a higher revenue share.

Anyway, with the maximum capped at forty percent, there were still intermediate steps at ten, twenty, and thirty percent—let them climb slowly.

In truth, reaching twenty percent was more than sufficient, since exchange missions didn’t require complicated formulas or materials and came with no hidden dangers. Paying double for all these advantages was still an excellent deal.

After quickly filling in the details, Fan Bei checked the end of the manufacturing template, where a prompt soon appeared:

“System ‘Butler’: Current production requires the consumption of 16,500 points of mental energy.”

As expected, the cost was steep. Dabai’s system only had two options—Mission Guidance and Upgrade & Attribute Allocation—costing 9,000 points in total.

Mission Guidance consumed less than 1,000, while Upgrade & Attribute Allocation took 8,000. Excluding these two, the remaining options together required 7,500 points.

He thought for a moment and decided to remove the “Mental Link” skill from the Novice Gift Pack.

The required mental energy dropped to 15,500 points. It seemed that integrating a skill cost about 1,000 points, though there was a chance of failure—after all, Dabai couldn’t acquire it.

So, the “System Mall” would consume 6,500 points, which seemed reasonable.

Just as Fan Bei was about to start saving up his mental energy to build the “Butler” system, a new thought occurred to him:

“Wait, since the revenue share can be increased slowly through missions, why can’t the system options be hidden at first, invisible to the host, and then gradually unlocked through tasks? I’m not their grandpa—why should I hand out everything for free…”

This wasn’t a baseless speculation; it was grounded in firm evidence, validated countless times by others before him.

In his previous life, he’d played some pay-to-win games where essential system functions were locked behind certain VIP levels—ten-item draws, auto-building, auto-battling, the list was endless…

A single payment would unlock them, without needing to update the game or download anything new. Clearly, the functions were in the installation package all along, just hidden from the player.

At this realization, Fan Bei’s mind felt unusually clear and refreshed, and many difficulties seemed to dissolve.

It was best, after all, to learn from the mature experiences of predecessors, since games themselves were a kind of system. Mental energy was like premium currency; the host was the player.

He, as the system creator, was both developer and designer.

With this in mind, he decided: “Hide system options for now, unlock them through mission guidance,” and passed this thought to the “Father of Systems.”

A new prompt appeared on the manufacturing page.

“System options can be hidden. However, if the host’s power surpasses that of the system creator, these options may be sensed in advance by the host.”

At this, Fan Bei’s heart skipped a beat. Reality was not a novel, and a creator was not omnipotent.

Players could push back against developers too—too much controversy, and even a developer must compromise. Smaller studios even had to cater to top players, just as he had done for Dabai in recent days.

He quickly jotted this down in his personal diary, lest he forget.

“July 13th: I’ve come up with a new idea—directly borrowing the experiences of game developers can greatly reduce the flaws in my system and accelerate its completion… Of course, I must remember, here each host plays with a unique system. That’s the biggest difference from ordinary games. The ‘Good Person’ system’s features can’t be used for the ‘Butler’ system, or I’ll dig my own grave.”

“And I must always strive to enhance my own power, to stay ahead of all hosts. Having the status of system creator allows wealth to come easily, but not strength.”

After careful consideration, Fan Bei removed the two most energy-consuming options—Upgrade & Attribute Allocation and System Mall—keeping only Mission Guidance and the Novice Gift Pack.

These were essential for a butler; the other two could be gradually unlocked via missions.

And this “unlocking” was not simply revealing hidden options, but required post-launch system maintenance, so the host would never sense them prematurely.

He wasn’t unscrupulous—he’d only charge a maintenance and option fee. If a host became too powerful to maintain, it would simply display “Option unlocking in progress…”

As for when the unlocking would succeed, only the gods would know.

He couldn’t guarantee he’d always be stronger than the host, unless the host suddenly became useless.

A new prompt appeared:

“System ‘Butler’: Current production requires the consumption of 2,050 points of mental energy.”

That was much more reasonable; sixteen thousand had seemed frightening, like a cram school in his past life.

Next, Fan Bei focused on writing the content for “Mission Guidance.” This time, he had to craft long-term mission series for “increasing the revenue share” and “unlocking new options,” which took quite some time.

He decisively clicked “Create,” and the “Butler” system was born.

Tomorrow, he’d assign it to some lucky fellow. Yes, truly a fortunate soul.

With that thought, drowsiness overtook Fan Bei, and he soon fell asleep…

…

Early the next morning, July 14th.

After Fan Bei and Dabai finished eating, Chef He suddenly reminded him, “Mr. Fan, there may be another evil tide tomorrow. You’re aware of this, right?”

“Oh, thank you for the reminder, sir. I know about it, and I’ll be especially vigilant today for any vulnerabilities.” Fan Bei nodded. Ever since he’d learned about the “Mental Link” yesterday, his trust in Chef He had deepened.

As long as Xiaobai still cared about Dabai’s system, it would certainly keep him on the right path.

If only he didn’t have to be on hand to distribute systems, he’d have made Xiaobai the butler, which would be cost-effective since it could link mentally and had many skills worth mining. Once bound to a system, it would be a windfall…

But that was just wishful thinking. Xiaobai was too clever; if two systems appeared in quick succession around him, how could it not suspect something?

If only it were as easily deceived as Dabai, trusting him implicitly, like the kindly grandfathers in other families, everything would be so much simpler.

Fan Bei glanced at the iron ball rolling around, supervising Dabai’s push-ups, his mind turning.

Xiaobai was overseeing Dabai’s training, and the latter, having just completed his fiftieth push-up, still had plenty of energy left.

Suddenly, Xiaobai said to Dabai, “Hey, I have a hunch I just missed out on a jackpot worth tens of millions. It’s so frustrating…”

“Hmph, that’s because you’re too clever,” Dabai replied gleefully. “I’ve heard people say that luck only favors the foolish.”

“Even though I know you’re talking nonsense, I suddenly find myself at a loss for words,” Xiaobai muttered sulkily.