US: Chapter 374 (Patreon)

There he was, naked and woozy down on the ground. He felt like he was run over by a car which then turned around and hit him once again. Luckily for him, there were some healing pills in the room that he crawled into.

“I’m back…”

While slowly standing up he pumped his fist in the air which caused some of the wounds to sting. This he didn’t care much about as he was visibly pleased by having his long journey be at an end.

It all started on that fateful day where he fought off the third iteration of the monster. Then he was tossed into the void between worlds. This taught him secrets that he was not meant to know.

The person behind the creation of these separate dimensions was still unknown to him. It did give him valuable information about how his own world worked. The existence of higher beings that watched over these worlds became known to him. For him to not suffer an untimely death he would need to avoid them at all cost.

This was not a problem that he would need to handle yet, now he needed to rejoin his family. The simple fact that this room was in place meant that things looked well. With heavy steps he traded out of the side room, his vision was blurry but this didn’t keep him from seeing the bright monitors.

His vision focused and he could see the familiar scenery that he remembered well. The sect buildings were there, he was back home. The monitors in this room were fashioned by him and he had his own version of cameras placed around some key locations.

The first thing he noticed was the lack of people. Out in the yard at his home there was no one, he hoped to see his children playing with their mother but there was no one there. No people in the streets either, it looked like a ghost town.

His attention was drawn to a certain monitor, on it he could see movement. There he finally saw her, his beautiful wife. At the moment he was drawn into her face but soon he noticed that something was off. She looked rather perturbed and the reason behind this became apparent.

“What?”

This realization was soon followed by his AI giving him an alarm.

“Other system holder detected in close proximity to the user, caution is advised!”

“How could that be possible?”

From what he could tell there would be one person with a system summoned. Even back in the other world, Takeshi was the main system holder. All the girls that came with him were only borrowing some of its functions.

Was this person related to him? Could he have been summoned at the same time and possessed some off-shot system?

“Calculating… answer available. The possibility of a new system holder being summoned after the perceived disconnection from the source by the user is 99.99%”

“The source?”

Zhang Dong thought back to the time when his system started acting strange. It was back when he was forced down into the expedition along with his clansmen. There he suffered a near-death experience after using up all of his spiritual energy.

“Are you telling me, that this world’s overseer thinks that I’m dead and so he summoned another person to replace me?”

“Affirmative.”

“Could you explain yourself, you’re not really helping much…”

“Attempting to access the database to answer the quarry… error… error…”

“Figures…”

His little AI helped appear after he got thrown into the void. It was unknown to him how Bob really worked and if he could actually fully trust him yet. All the questions that he posed towards the people that were working in the background were met with errors.

Bob did assure him that if he reached a higher state of being that some of this information would be revealed to him. This AI was probably something that was left behind when he absorbed that first cube during the expedition.

The initial absorption cut him away from the source and altered his old system. Then when he was thrown into the gap between worlds Bob was activated. Perhaps this thing needed certain requirements to unlock its secrets.

One of these requirements was gathering more cubes and gaining more power. If there was another person with a system that was summoned to this empire. This meant that there was another cube powering a different teleportation formation as the one that brought him here.

“Wait, did this person come from my world? Why is he here then?”

It didn’t seem that a battle had broken out just yet so Zhang Dong decided to wait. He needed more information, if he bolted outside he might have just escalated everything.

“I don’t like this but maybe they can talk it out…”

The barrier was surrounding the whole area and the civilians had been evacuated. It seemed that the construction of this base had been finished and they were following his old instructions.

He never liked that other sects that used large cities as their base of operations never cared about the populace. They would mostly bunker up in their own buildings while the civilians were left to their own devices. They could just run during an attack and the outer walls were loosely protected but mostly against weaker foes.

While the situation looked to be sketchy he did have a smile on his face. It took a bit of time to move his gaze away from his wife. All the people he knew were there, Huo Qiang, Zhang Jin, and even Zhang Zhi. He did not see many people of the younger generation like Feng Nuana or his two disciples for some reason.

With a wave of his hand, he activated the monitors to search for them. He did not want to activate his spiritual sense as that could cause him to be discovered. The monitors tapped into some hidden cameras that were spread out like a net through the whole sect and city. In a few seconds, he managed to find both of his disciples.

“Wha…”

They weren’t alone though, with them there was Feng Nuana that was visibly angered at something. She was pacing back and forth while fuming and talking fast. This was not what drew in his gaze, no what he was looking at was a child that was sitting in Zhang Xue’s lap.

‘Wait is that… no…’

He took a step back as he realized that this was his son, Zhang Jun. The thing that took him aback was his size, for him not more than five to six months had passed but the child that he was looking at was far above that age.

Next to the boy he also noticed another child that was slightly bigger. This was clearly his daughter Zhang Xiu. While the boy wasn’t doing much the girl had a rather grumpy expression.

Zhang Dong quickly brought up his faction interface. He did not have time to check yet but now would be the perfect time. He zoomed on his wife and also found his children there. His eyes moved towards the age indication and his mouth opened wide.

“Five years… I was gone for five years?”

He staggered backward and onto a replica gaming chair that he had created. Five years he was gone, five years his children did not see him. While he was able to interact with his daughter this could not be said for the youngest. For all intents and purposes, he would be a stranger to the boy while the oldest might recall him existing.

‘No, what matters is that they are both fine and healthy.’

This was no time for spacing out, while his children might not recall their father it was enough for them to be alive. His wife was out there and danger loomed over the sect, this was no time for this.

The person that replaced him came into view. Right from the start, Zhang Dong could tell that something was off. When he left the ship that he was on he was surrounded by scantily clad women. It was clear from the start that this man was living the bachelor's life.

His looks were also somewhat peculiar. He clearly picked a good-looking avatar but while Matt chose to go with a more muscular version this person went with a slimmer variant. The face was of a pretty boy that would give women a run for their money.

“Wait… what did he say? Milkers?”

He thought that he might have misheard it but when he turned up the sound he could tell that this person was a bottom feeder. The more he heard him talking the more he wanted to just fly out and punch him in the face. There was far too much at stake here though and he managed to keep it cool.

Everything became apparent rather quickly, it was clear that this man wanted to violate his wife. It didn’t seem that he had many character-building encounters and was consumed by this world’s more sinful characteristics.

“Soaring Dragon Sect… I guess he went with the young master option…”

He recalled his life as Matt and how he received that strange e-mail. One of the options he could have chosen then was to become a young youth and be part of a prominent sect. This person here hit the jackpot and was now part of the big three that ruled the whole empire and it seemed that he had built himself up into a good position.

It didn’t seem that this person had the morals that he had. With so many women by his side, it felt like he should have been satisfied. There was no real reason to go to other sects and capture the wives of sect leaders. It was clear to him that this person had a screw loose.

“Or he could think that this is some kind of game…”

There was a system that allowed him to see stats. Spirit points could be gained, it worked like any role-playing game. Killing enemies gained a person more points that made them stronger. Some might lose themselves in this world, run on power, and unleash their deepest desires. This person was apparently a sexual deviant and the more he looked at him, the more this became apparent.

“If he thinks that he will get away with this, then he has another thing coming…”

Zhang Dong snapped his fingers and a wall opened up. While the elders from his sect consulted with each other he needed to prepare his counterattack.

When he entered this closer room he was greeted by glittering lights. His stack of spirit stones and other valuable resources greeted him. Weapons, armor, and untested treasures were all here.

He leaned down and picked up a handful of spirit stones. Quickly they turned to dust which fell down to his feet.

“Come to my home and try to take my wife, don’t think you can leave with your balls intact!”