When A Mage Revolts

Due to the special location of the Mercenary Association, even if the city was in a slightly dismal state, this building would never lack crowds of people. For example, during the previous political shift, some mages were able to avoid being chased out to the square because they hid here.

He arrived at the counter, took out the receipt for a mission which he had previously requested and placed it on the counter.

"Hello, I have a message for the person who has accepted my mission." Benjamin said with an air of formality, "Please tell him to come look for me at 10pm tonight. I have matters to discuss with him."

Too many things had happened since they first arrived in Regina. The situation too had changed and Benjamin now felt that he needed to seek help from Chief "Silverfox". At the very least, the old man could help him by confirming if Augustine had really been taken away by the Mage Guild.

The middle-aged woman at the counter skimmed Benjamin’s receipt, then took out a book to cross-check. Frowning, she said, "This mission of yours...seems to have ended."

Benjamin nodded his head, "Yeah, it did. But, I have some unfinished business with my hired hand. In short, I just need you to pass this message to him." There was nothing else he could do; he didn’t know the exact position of Chief "Silverfox" so he could only rely on the Mercenary Association to act as a middle-man and pass the message.

"Are you sure? If the mercenary does not reply, we will not be offering you any sort of help, so you shouldn’t get your hopes up," replied the middle-aged woman.

"It’s fine," said Benjamin.

And just like that, the middle-aged woman returned the receipt to Benjamin. After Benjamin had stored it properly, he nodded at the woman and quickly left the Mercenary Association.

Walking on a remote street, he purposely activated his water particle detection spell and observed the situation in Regina. Quite a few guards were patrolling the street; It seemed they were still investigating if there were more spies from the Church. Most of the citizens were fearful of leaving their houses, but mages were on the streets now, walking proudly and merrily.

Thinking about it now, the imprisonment of a few members of the Mage Guild was probably all an act orchestrated by both the Queen and the Mage Guild.

Benjamin was curious about this plan of luring out spies of the Church. Was it because the Queen suddenly had a desire for control, or could it be that the mages see the Church as an enemy, and so thought of this elaborate plan to bait them out?

Benjamin also found it hard to determine the relationship between the Queen and the Mage Guild. No doubt, they are on the same boat - to be able to cooperate and put up such a convincing show, their level of trust in each other was truly astounding. He figured it would be better to stay far away from the Mage Guild.

Benjamin walked on the streets; after confirming that no one was tailing him, he carefully returned to the hotel.

Many things had happened this afternoon. He even walked to Hell’s door, and was close to taking a trip to Hell itself. He was understandably exhausted. He returned to his room, shut the door, and collapsed on his bed. He rested for a bit and after regaining his energy, entered the Space of Consciousness.

The Space was a boundless darkness but it allowed Benjamin to feel an inexplicable peace of mind. The three runes shone in bright blue and formed a neat triangle. At a closer inspection, the distance between them was slightly closer than before - probably the result of the training from these few days. When they eventually do touch, who knows what would happen.

Benjamin looked left and right. He began to search for another familiar silhouette. But, even after looking everywhere, the System was no where to be found.

Where did it go?

When Blondie tried to slit his throat, it was because the System suddenly "hatched" that it managed to save Benjamin’s life with some strange power. At the time, Benjamin couldn’t properly examine the changes in the System. So now that he was relatively free, he was decided it was finally time to understand what the System had truly become.

Furthermore, he was curious about how the System saved him. After all, the scircumstances at that time was too strange. He was desperate to know what new ability had the System obtained which allowed it to perform such an unbelievable feat.

Although he had no proof, his instincts told him it had something to do with the Pure Blue Space.

"Hello, where are you?" Benjamin shouted. "System? The unbeatable incredible artificially intelligent System? Where did you run off to?"

A familiar robotic voice emerged slowly behind him. "Uhm...Like… I’m not sure myself why things turned out this way."

Benjamin turned around, and in the darkness behind him, was the sudden appearance of a "funny" emoji.

That’s right, a 3D "funny" emoji.

A cartoonish, yellow ball, with arching eyes, and a gleeful-to-the-MAX smile...what appeared in front of Benjamin’s eyes was like a CGI-ed cartoon character in a movie. It was as big as a basketball, casually hovered in mid-air, and gave out a faint aura which made one want to beat it up.

"..."

Benjamin went silent. What the hell is this?

"Uhm...Can you say something? I feel so awkward…." The System’s voice rang out from the "funny" emoji, with a subtle undertone of rage.

Benjamin took a deep breath, and tried to compose himself before looking at the System and asking, "What is this shit?"

"What?" The System didn’t understand.

Benjamin shook his head and said, "What I meant is, what in the world is this thing? Is this the result of you hatching? What the...why does something like an emoji even exist in this world? This antithesis is too strong isn’t it? What the fuck is going on?"

Benjamin struggled to articulate due to his shock. He could only incoherently throw out questions - unsure himself of what he was asking.

"Do you think I wanted to become like this?" it was like the System found a channel for catharsis. The System’s voice grew louder. "When I was hatching, I felt all the things in my database unleashed suddenly; all the images, screens...whatever bullshit it was, were pooling over to the other side. Then, I don’t know why, it felt like everything was spinning, the display froze on the emoji folder within Tencent file, before it finally stopped spinning on this emoji."

"..."

Benjamin wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. It sounded like a sick tragedy. But...the System had already hatched into a "funny" emoji, there was nothing he could do now. He couldn’t just change it back to its previous state, now could he?

Truthfully speaking, this weird way of being born also made Benjamin feel an inexplicable sense of that he had been pranked. If the System’s appearance after hatching was decided from the storage files, then how did it so coincidentally settle on the "funny" emoji?

His phone and laptop were full of saved images. Like those web games which forcefully installed themselves, wasn’t there a whole bunch of pretty ladies in there? It would still be fine if it didn’t take on that image, Benjamin could still accept it if it took a more majestic image - maybe something like a dragon or a lion.

But...This motherfucker went with a "funny" emoji. Benjamin was so angry he kind of wanted to laugh.

"What kind of shitty luck is this?" Benjamin could only helplessly exclaim. "Also...Why do I feel like this 3D emoji form of yours looks very low quality?"

"...It does?"

"Yeah, it really is low quality." Benjamin immediately began complaining, as if he had caught on to a vital point. "Take a look at those three runes, that shape, that texture, those are special effects worth at least 500 bucks. Then, take a look at yourself. You’re, at best, 5 cents? How did you end up with such trashy special effects?"

"..."

Although the System was wearing a "funny" face, Benjamin could feel rage radiating from behind that taunting smiley-face. He knew it wasn’t right, but he couldn’t help bursting into laughter.

"...What are you laughing about?" The System leaped up like a cat whose tail had gotten stepped on. "What? Look at yourself, how can I not laugh?" Benjamin stopped smiling and looked stern as he bluntly asked. "Your animation quality is so terrible, it has pulled down the standards of the whole Space of Consciousness. Please reflect on yourself and stop trying to intimidate others."

"..." The "funny" emoji got so angry it began to shake in rage.

Benjamin thought he heard the sound of mechanical parts exploding from behind the taunting smiley-face.