Battle Royale of the Sinners

Tong closed his eyes, and a lucid dream appeared in front of him. He could see the peaceful environment and the wish of Hua Shi.

It was a picture of a mother and her daughter, laughing and dancing together in a flower garden.

"Sunday, you …" A bitter smile appeared on Tong face as he realized what she wished for. He was speechless and moved by her motherly love.

"You didn't want my power for yourself, but you want it for our child. You are … really."

Tong concentrated and adjusted the lifespan compensation and the power-scale. Just like what he made with Friday, Tong set the lifespan upkeep to the lowest, one lifespan per year, and the given power to 100 percent.

The devil contract had been finalized, and [Sloth] merged with Hua Shi's body. Her skin glowed as if it was covered by a black light.

A barrier appeared around Hua Shi.

Friday looked at the barrier in curiosity, "What did you wish?"

"Hehe! Domain, expand!"

Hua Shi tried to use her power for the first time, and the black light barrier enveloped everyone in Tong's courtyard.

The servants and bodyguards were panics as they did not know what the glowing dome was, but Tong and Hua Shi watched it with a smile.

"This is your [Domain], huh?" Tong muttered.

Friday snapped her fingers as she figured what Hua Shi had wished, "An absolute domain for you and your child! Am I correct?"

Hua Shi nodded, "Yup! As long as I'm alive, I can create a domain that can protect my family and allies. Also, I can eject or bar all hostiles with the barrier!"

"Smart, but I think it gives Tong a lot of burdens if you continue using it for a long time."

The face of Tong twitched as he felt something was draining his power. He opened his menu to recheck his status.

…

*******************************

**Status**

Name: Zhang Tong

Age: 17

Lifespan: 216,120 Years

*******************************

…

The previous battles gave him plenty of lifespans from his [Sword Mastery]. Tong even had lost count of the soldiers he had slaughtered in the Battle of Liyang.

For each kill by throwing the hot oil from his inventory or the direct killing using his melee weapons, the skill stole lifespans from the slaughtered targets.

Thus, he regained a sizable amount of lifespans back. Besides, the reward from his soulmate quest had not finalized yet, so Tong expected that he should get more.

*BEEP*

… 216,119 …

*BEEP*

… 216,118 …

His lifespan ticked down each minute that the domain deployed.

"Sunday, disable it for now. I'm losing lifespans," Spoke Tong, who was sweating as he feared that Hua Shi might abuse it and ruin him in the future.

Hua Shi disabled it and looked at the two with a proud smile, "See? I'm now useful, right?"

Friday smacked the back of Hua Shi's head, "Useful your sister! Don't use it recklessly. It's taking a toll on the master of the soul. Only use it in the emergency or Tong will die from the lifespan shortage!"

Tong sighed. Seeing his happy wives, he was satisfied even though every skill of his was mysteriously wiped.

"System, any updating announcement?" Tong tried to talk to the system goddess again.

Like the previous attempts, no one answered his call.

Not.

…

*DING*

[Attention please, attention please!]

[This is your new system administrator. My name is Lilim. I'm taking over the universe system as of today.]

[All of you should notice the sudden earthquake and the sky shattering. There is nothing to worry about. I've taken everything under my control.]

[However, there is a pressing issue at hand that involves all sinners in this world, which resulted in your skill disappearing. The powers that you, one hundred sinners have created, have caused the instability of this dimension. Those skills of yours give this dimension too many burdens that it is on the verge of collapsing, FYI! As long as the skills exist, the crack and the earthquake will happen again in the future.]

[I've managed to suppress it for now. But I'm afraid that in the next ten to twenty years, it will happen again. To prevent this incident, I have to be cruel to you.]

[First, all of your skills will be disabled as of today! When I said "Disable", it meant "Disable", not deleted! However, I'll allow you to salvage back a couple of your skills in exchange for your hard work.]

[To get your skill back, you will have to donate 100,000 of your lifespans to the [Central Pool], and I will return one of your skills. You should be able to see the [Donate] tab in the system menu now. You can access it from there.]

[I did not want to sabotage your lifestyle or anything, but I need those lifespans for maintaining this universe. Even a year of lifespan matters! I can easily kill all of you anytime to take your lifespans back, but as a neutral admin, I won't do it. You should be grateful!]

[The skill that I will give you back will not be a system skill anymore, but a permanent skill that embedded into your soul. So once you reincarnate into a new life, that skill will go with you. Then, I won't be able to interfere or meddle with your ability ever again! However, it will be your soul that will bear the burdens of the skills. You soul might shatter if you possess too many skills, so don't be greedy!]

[It's a bargain trade that I can give it to you for a limited time in this life of yours, just saying.]

[Even if you don't have enough lifespans, you can gather some by forming or joining a clan to get the annual rewards. You can also drain life essence from the nature if you happen to awaken your wings.]

[Second change, I will randomly give you a mission if by chance you got your one or more of your skills back. However, I will not provide any quest or a task to anyone who doesn't have a system skill so he or she could live in this world in peace.]

[This will be your choice. You can choose to abandon all of your previous skills and live like ordinary natives in this world with your increased lifespans, or you can still get your cheats back. If you choose the latter, there will be a bit of risk because I will continuously give you tasks to perform.]

[The third change will happen in the next ten to twenty years. It's regarding the wings I mentioned earlier, but I'll tell you if you survive until then.]

[The last one, I've adjusted a bit of your clan donation taxes. I think the rate of "Ten years donation to get one year in the allocation pool" is a bit unfair and nobody has used it so far. I've reduced it from 10-1 to two to one. For every two lifespans you donate, you get one lifespan in the clan pool. Well, I need those lifespan taxes to reinforce this dimension, so you'd better not complain.]

[That's all the announcement for now. GLHF!]

…

Friday, Hua Shi, and Tong read the announcement messages with an astonished look on their faces. The change in the system also changed the rules and their lifestyle.

"System! This is bullshit! This is a ransom! Give us back our skills!" Hua Shi protested.

[To begin with, the skills aren't even yours. You have no right to complain.]

The reply from Lilim hit them at the sore spot. They were all system's skills which were bestowed on them when they reincarnated here. It had been so long to the point that they took it for granted that the skills were parts of their properties.

Tong looked at the system menu while he was gritting his teeth. These system administrators kept changing their rules every year as they nerfed or buffed without caring about their opinion.

Losing all his skills was a serious issue to Tong since he still relied on his [Create Food] to maintain Julu's economy. He had to regain it back.

Without hesitation, Tong pushed the donate button in his menu and added 100,000 lifespans into the [Central Pool].

<<Ding>>

<<You have obtained [Time Stop] LV.2>>

"I can't choose my skill?" Tong was shocked.

"What? Did you just try to get your skill back?" Hua Shi asked.

"Yes. But it seems the system will give us back our skill randomly. I wanted my [Create Food] back, but I just get [Time Stop] instead."

"You have another try. You can try it again."

"Yeah."

Tong tried to insert another 100,000 lifespans into the [Donate] menu.

<<Ding>>

<<You have obtained [Firearm Creation] LV.1>>

Tong scratched his head. A wry smile appeared on his face as he reported his gain.

"It's not [Create Food] again. It's my [Firearm Creation]."

Friday rubbed her chin. He opened her clan menu and donated 200,000 of her lifespans into the pool, and the clan lifespan asset increased by 100,000.

"Allocate the clan lifespan to yourself and try again. I still have another 1,300,000 lifespans unused, so you should random it until you get it back." Friday spoke.

"Oh, you should get that [Immortal Yang Vein] skill back, too! We need to duel-cultivate again!" Hua Shi supported.

A smile appeared on Tong's face as he appreciated what the girls did for him. He allocated his lifespans from the clan pool to himself and donated them to the system again.

<<BZZ>>

<<We're sorry. You can only regain two skills a year>>

Tong almost shouted in frustration. He groaned as his face reddened from anger.

It took Tong another minute to settle his emotion, taking deep breaths.

The five skills that Tong had yet to obtain back were [Create Food], [Radar Map], [Inventory], [Immortal Yang Vein], and [Sword Mastery].

His [Demonic Curse], [Demonic Seal], and [Weak Demonic Body] were not deleted by Lilim as they were skills which merged with Tong's soul.

In the worst case scenario, if Tong were unlucky, he could be able to obtain his [Create Food] back within three years as Tong only had five system skills to get back.

"What's wrong?"

"We can only get back two skills a year, I can't get another skill," Tong paused, "It seems we might have to rely on Feihong's farm if I don't get my [Create Food] next year."

The face of everyone grimed. Without the [Create Food], they would also lose their favorite meals that Tong used to create for them.

The city food and spice supplies also relied heavily on Tong's skill. If Tong could not get [Create Food] back, the economic power of Julu would face a crisis.

"Sunday, try to get your [Inventory] back."

Hearing Tong's suggestion, Hua Shi's face turned pale. She had stored 2.5 million gold and back up supplies in her [Inventory], and she was not confident that everything would remain in there even if she could get the skill back.

...

At the end of the day, Hua Shi got lucky and got her [Inventory] back with one try. To their delight, all gold and other supplies, such as back up food and spice, were still there.

In her storage, they still had enough food and gold for a year and a half, which should be enough.

Hua Shi also borrowed Friday's lifespans and regained her [Homing Arrow] back.

The three contacted Li Feihong about the issue, but they worried about him for nothing.

Li Feihong only had two skills, so Friday spent another 400,000 years to get his [Private Farm World] and [Self-Resurrection] back.

Friday also gifted Feihong 100,000 lifespans to extend his life and for the payment of his service. Ding Yuan, Zhang Jiao, and his two brothers also got 1,000 years each so they could stay around for a few centuries.

With all of the allocation, Friday alone spent 900,000 lifespans either by giving it to the clan asset or her comrades. There was still 42,000 lifespans in the clan bank to spare.

"Friday, you don't feel pity for your lifespans at all?" Hua Shi asked. She knew that Friday spent half of her lifespans for the clan, but the girl herself did not show any sign of worry at all.

"Why? I can get them back any time I want to. I'm sure Liu Yan and Yuan Shao will try to invade us in spring next year. I can drain their men's life essence, and I'll be above a million again. Also, it's about time I teach all of you about devils and our wing power."