Fang Yuan blocked the gate.
"Fang Yuan, what's going on?"
"This is-" before Fang Yuan could finish the sentence a notification popped up from the system.
Warning! System cannot allow such an act of extortion that will damage the user's reputation.
Fang Yuan snorted. As if a simple warning would stop him. "-ext-"
Warning! If you proceed with this, the system will be forced to detonate your gu worms stored in your inventory!
Now that was enough to give Fang Yuan pause. He had very valuable gu worms in his inventory, far more valuable than any number of primeval stones he could get from extortion.
Just the extra Liquor Worm was worth more than 1,000 primeval stones to him. Forget the rest of them, some of which were worth several times that.
Immediately, he tried to withdraw them from his inventory.
Inventory currently locked.
He had expected that response, and even if he could take them out, how would he resolve the problem of them existing and of feeding them?
"Hey, Fang Yuan, what's up?" one of the students asked quizically.
"Ah, nothing..." Fang Yuan said, realizing it was futile. "I just forgot I was doing something..."
He then walked away.
"What was that?"
"What's up with him?"
"I thought he was almost about to attack us or something..."
"And then he just leaves like that..."
"Weirdo..."
"Whatever, he's always been like that..."
Fang Yuan grit his teeth as he walked away.
Even now, he had no idea what this 'system' was or who had created it. And it clearly had ulterior motives.
That was why he did not want to become dependent upon it, and commit himself to cultivating Human Path.
It was clear that this system was using him for some reason. Fang Yuan did not mind that in principle, over his 500 years of experience, he had learned that it was fine to be used. People used each other all the time - and at least, being used meant that you were useful. As it was said, 'if you're useless, no one can use you.'
So long as the rewards were decent, he would go along with it. But he was also on guard constantly because he did not know the origins or goals of the system, and it had not deigned it necessary to tell him.
However, it might be worth becoming president just for the extra primeval stones if he couldn't extort anything.
The system also seemed to be pushing him towards the same. It mainly stopped giving him primeval stones as a reward for daily quests, instead giving him things like 'boosts to his luck', cultivation blessings, or one or two Human Path dao marks.
Regarding luck, Fang Yuan had very little idea. Luck path originated from Giant Sun Immortal Venerable, and had been kept secret by him. Fang Yuan did not mind boosts to his luck - but how much was his luck being boosted? How was his luck right now?
These were all questions the system refused to answer him.
He still had a good portion of the primeval stones left from his earlier quests and reward, but they would not last him forever.
The system also stopped giving him food for his gu worms now. Arranging to feed his Moonlight Gu was rather simple so long as he had enough primeval stones (and he wasn't going to run out anytime soon in the coming months). Since everyone knew about the Liquor Worm, ordering wine for it was not suspicious. But, all of these things cost primeval stones.
The system knew that if it stopped giving him food and primeval stones, and continued to keep him from extorting his classmates, becoming president would become a more appealing prospect over time. 3 primeval stones a week were not enough to feed two of his gu worms, but if he had 10, it would be a different story.
This was the 'carrot and stick' approach it was applying, something Fang Yuan was quite familiar with. However, just because he understood it didn't mean that he agreed with it. He wanted nothing more than to shake off the yoke of this system as soon as he could as it was clear that it would greatly restrict his movements in the future.
As for the White Boar Gu, he had found a somewhat acceptable solution a few days later.
"Thank you," Fang Yuan said as he neared the edge of the village boundaries. A hunter handed him a few wrapped packages and accepted a primeval stone as payment.
This hunter was related to the group of hunters he had drank with in the inn the night he found the Liquor Worm. His graciousness had made a large impression upon them, and they as well as their other fellow hunters regularly hunted boar.
Fang Yuan simply offered to give them a fair price for the same, and many of them regularly agreed to hand over their kills directly to him rather than selling it to stores.
He was quite confident that this would not attract any scrutiny whatsoever. The reason for it was simple: Gu Masters did not even think of mortals most of the time.
For them, mortals were much like furniture. They existed, sure, but they didn't think of them as 'people.' The majority of Gu Masters, even if they tried to investigate Fang Yuan, would think nothing of these mortals.
Fang Yuan was taking advantage of this. Even if he was caught, it was not against the rules for him to buy pork. Sure, he was buying in some large amounts, but he could disguise this somewhat by distributing them to the poor and starving later. Or, he could just deflect it by saying he wanted to support the hunters economically as they were his drinking buddies.
He had spent a lot of time helping mortals lately, so no one would doubt that excuse.
In total, he had to spend about 5 to 6 stones a week to feed his three gu worms. His weekly allowance was not enough, and if the system did not give him any more stones, he would slowly expend all of his savings. Unless of course, he became president.
Of course, once he was stronger, he could hunt wild boar on his own and save himself a stone or two. The thing was though, that with his higher aptitude, it was a more efficient use of his time to pay others to do it for him and focus on cultivating.
He easily hauled the pieces of meat in his hands, surprising the hunter. Fang Yuan had accumulated a lot of strength already, and this was no issue for him.
The meat had been preserved and processed somewhat by the hunters, which needlessly increased its cost, but he couldn't exactly start demanding raw boar meat from the hunters. Or who knew what kind of expression they would have on their faces!
In order to keep up appearances, this was necessary.
Once the hunter left, Fang Yuan went outside the village, found a secluded area, and then fed most of the boar meat to the White Boar Gu before taking a much smaller portion back to his dorm room.
The meat was much harder to preserve than wine, otherwise he would've bought this in bulk.
He then focused his gaze on his aperture. First, he used the White Boar Gu to gain as much strength as he could this day, and then focused on the Liquor Worm, concentrating his primeval essence.
The light membrane of the aperture was nearly completely eroded - Fang Yuan was close to breaking through a minor realm already, more than 2 weeks before anyone would've expected.
In his previous life, this had taken him an entire year, and now, it only took him slightly longer than a month. The difference was staggering.
"This is all thanks to the system... but it restricts and benefits me at the same time..."