# Chapter 16: Joshua System Officially Online
"Master... can this thing really be eaten?"
Mycroft World, Moldavia Territory, Lord's Mansion.
The silver-haired girl pinched a strangely shaped silver ball between two fingers, looking at it with confusion under the light. After a long while, she cautiously asked the tall man before her: "This thing... looks a bit dangerous."
The silver-haired girl's concern was not without reason.
The silver ball in her hand was about the size of a human thumb—simply putting it in her mouth would be quite difficult.
Moreover, this silver ball was made of metal, with extremely complex runes inscribed in circles on its surface, radiating a domineering Life Energy fluctuation—no matter how you looked at it, it seemed dangerous and full of destructive power.
Based on her master's usual habits and the immense destructive force contained within the ball, the silver-haired girl had no doubt that if she threw this thing out, it would immediately explode, blowing up an entire small hill.
The tall man, Joshua, furrowed his brow and said with extreme seriousness: "To be honest, I don't know either... but you're not an ordinary human, Ying. You should be able to try."
"Oh right, I'm not human."
Finally remembering her identity as a weapon, the girl suddenly understood and, without further hesitation, swallowed the silver ball in one gulp.
(...These two people definitely have some problem.)
Watching this scene silently, Lin thought to himself. (Or maybe I'm the one with the problem.)
After swallowing the silver ball, Ying was stunned for a moment. She covered her mouth in surprise and whispered: "Eh? How did that ball disappear as soon as it entered my mouth... Master, what exactly did you give me?"
Lin also turned to look at Joshua curiously.
Not long ago, Joshua had just returned from the Fairyland. As soon as he came back, he went straight to the workshop of a factory in the southern part of the city. A few hours later, the warrior returned to the Lord's Mansion with this ball, called Ying and Lin over, and told them to swallow it.
Although Joshua's actions were always unpredictable and erratic—enough to make anyone trying to find him want to spit out blood—this time was truly too bizarre. Even the Divine Mechanism siblings, who knew him best, couldn't make heads or tails of it.
"It seems there's no problem."
Joshua didn't directly answer Ying's confusion. Silver light flickered in his eyes, and through his Steel Vision, he confirmed that the silver-haired girl was in good condition.
Then, he pulled out another black-gold ball and handed it to the bewildered Lin: "This is yours. Swallow it too."
"Alright..."
With his sister's experience and his trust in Joshua, Lin naturally had no hesitation in swallowing the black-gold metal ball. He also exclaimed softly: "Eh? How did this thing suddenly disappear?"
Seeing that both of them had indeed swallowed the metal balls, Joshua nodded slightly and smiled: "Good. Now try calling 'System' with your mind."
"System?"
The silver-haired girl blinked at this, then followed Joshua's instructions and called out to the System in her mind—instantly, Ying was shocked to find a pale green data membrane appearing before her eyes!
[Basic Panel]
[Name: Ying]
[Race: Unknown]
[Realm: Gold High-rank]
[Attribute Panel]
[Energy Level: 326]
[Control: 193]
[Soul: 47]
[Comprehensive Combat Power Evaluation: 265]
[Skill List]
[...]
A long string of data tables spread out before Ying's eyes without obstructing her vision. She stared in shock as the pale green membrane continuously refreshed and refined itself, even listing out all the skills she had mastered. The girl exclaimed in wonder: "What is this? It's amazing!"
Lin, who also called the System, saw a series of information before his eyes.
[Basic Panel]
[Name: Lin]
[Race: Unknown]
[Realm: Gold High-rank]
[Attribute Panel]
[Energy Level: 394]
[Control: 310]
[Soul: 66]
[Comprehensive Combat Power Evaluation: 321]
[Skill List]
[...]
The black-haired boy was also stunned for a moment: "This—it can actually digitize our abilities?"
"Indeed."
Joshua seemed able to see both of their data. He couldn't help but laugh: "Joshua System 0.1 Beta version, the most basic foundation. It can only see some general data and skill lists. It's very crude now, but I'll improve it later—at least I'll add an upgrade system and identification system."
But for now, having this much was already enough. Allowing a person to clearly understand their own information and have a general self-awareness was already many times better than having no System at all.
"Is this what you learned in the Fairyland, Master?"
Ying looked over the System several times, then closed it with her mind. She opened her eyes wide and looked at Joshua. "It's amazing, but what do Energy Level, Control, and Soul mean?"
"Energy Level is the total sum of various energies and physical strength contained in the body. Control is the ability to manage that power, including both neural reactions and mental control. As for Soul, it's simple—soul strength."
Sitting on a chair in the Lord's Mansion hall, Joshua explained in detail to the siblings: "One unit is based on an ordinary Black Iron-rank male servant in our Lord's Mansion. Silver-rank exceeds 50, and Gold-rank is in the hundreds but doesn't exceed 500—exceeding 500 means that person has definitely surpassed human limits in some aspect and reached the Ultimate Realm."
At this point, Joshua frowned slightly and muttered in confusion: "But strangely enough, calculated this way, Soul values are unexpectedly low. According to my original data tests, these three values should all be roughly similar, without much difference."
But it was a new thing, so some data errors were normal. Joshua didn't mind.
As for Ying and Lin, they wouldn't dwell on such trivial matters. They were now having a great time playing with it, even comparing data with each other.
"Wait!"
Ying was shocked for the third or fourth time today. She tremblingly pointed at Lin: "Why is your data so much higher than mine?!"
Lin thought for a moment and replied seriously: "Diligence, focus, and talent."
"Ugh..."
At that moment, a feeling of genuine 'shame' was born deep within the silver-haired girl's heart. In that instant, she vowed to train hard—even if she died, died right there, jumped from the top floor of the Moldavia Lord's Mansion—she would surpass her younger brother and maintain her dignity as an older sister!
Joshua watched their interaction and couldn't help but laugh, but then his expression immediately turned serious.
Creating an artificial System was something he had long wanted to do.
Ever since his own System had collapsed and its core had merged with his soul—a more thorough form of destruction—he had never seen any trace of it again.
Most importantly, the nearly omniscient database of the System, which Joshua had once desperately wanted to control, had also disappeared.
This was actually a huge loss. Before reaching the Legendary Realm, Joshua could always rely on the System to quickly learn the true nature of strange things. Now, he could only rely on guesses and analysis, spending a long time without necessarily figuring out the truth.
Of course, some would say that relying on the System was a cowardly act, like a parrot that only knows to gain knowledge from the System. In most cases, these people weren't wrong—endlessly drawing power and knowledge from the System without limits would indeed gradually erode one's ability to train independently and explore the unknown. But having a database and simple ways to get stronger and not using them wasn't a matter of cowardice—it was a matter of intelligence.
A knife was placed there. You could use it to cut meat or fight enemies, as long as you didn't treat the knife as your only reliance—after all, there were also sticks, axes, swords, and halberds as weapons. But if, when facing an enemy, you insisted on not using the knife and relied solely on your bare hands to fight, that was...
Joshua looked at his own hands, thought about it, and decided this point seemed fine.
Moving past that.
Joshua had no intention of actively destroying or abandoning the System. He actually quite liked the data panel and identification system, and the achievement system was really interesting.
Unfortunately, the purpose of that thing seemed to be to make him progress quickly in strength. After reaching the Legendary Realm, it would self-destruct and dissipate. The warrior had no good way to preserve it—otherwise, just collecting it as a treasure would have value.
Moreover, he felt that this System might be closely related to the Sage, or perhaps some unknown World Will. Otherwise, there was no way to explain that omniscient database.
But now, the System was gone.
Since that was the case, he would have to make one himself.
By inscribing runes onto Steel Force, creating various detection modules to accurately probe every bit of data from the holder, and then using the ritual of 'ingestion' to fuse the Steel Force module aggregate with the flesh, achieving 100% integration and merging all the System's abilities and data with the holder's body and soul, making them a single whole.
No need for blood recognition—it was done. As long as someone had the courage to swallow a Steel Force aggregate (which looked completely like a bomb), anyone could obtain the System.
Thinking this, Joshua looked at Ying and Lin before him, his gaze softening.
The creation of the Joshua System had many purposes. It was a very important part of his future plans, closely related to the Human Perfect Prototype and the External Exploration Team. This was a necessary step. But beyond that, Joshua could also use the System to explore the relationship between the 'System Creator' and the 'System Holder.'
Through imitation, he could grasp some of the thoughts of the unknown creator behind his own System.
"At least now, I create this System out of complete goodwill."
Joshua analyzed himself, thinking calmly: "I just hope they can become stronger, grow quickly, until they can walk on their own... can exist independently and safely in this world."
As for what purpose he had, what he wanted to accomplish through the System holders...
What purpose? He was already this strong, already able to create something like the System. Was there any need to drag things out and rely on others to accomplish things?
Joshua simply couldn't understand that logic. He would rather believe that the System creator's purpose was benevolent, rather than some strange, illogical malice.
Just as the warrior was pondering some strange questions, Ying and Lin had somehow ended their interaction and come over to Joshua's side.
"Master."
The silver-haired girl spoke in a particularly curious, particularly gentle voice: "Um, what's your data?"
Beside her, Lin also nodded slightly, looking especially curious about this.
Joshua naturally understood the two little ones' curiosity, so he smiled, condensed a System for himself, and tried to probe his own data.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, a faint explosion sounded from within the warrior's body.
Ying and Lin both heard the sound. They looked up in confusion at Joshua's face.
"A little accident."
Joshua blinked and said decisively. Then, he tried again.
"Boom!"
The explosion was a bit louder than before—this time, both Ying and Lin nervously touched their own stomachs, their expressions uneasy.
"Cough."
Joshua tried again.
"Boom boom boom boom—"
A series of explosions rang out, faintly accompanied by a strange electronic voice that seemed to be saying 'Overload, System error loop...' and other strange phrases.
Ying and Lin's expressions grew increasingly strange. They looked at each other's stomachs, full of worry, while Joshua's expression remained unchanged. He stood up and walked upstairs, saying as he went: "I need to go back now and digest the information I obtained from the Fairyland..."
He should have realized earlier—even the unknown creator's System had self-destructed because of his power. How could his own inferior imitation possibly handle this?
In reality, the detection limit of this System should be around Mid-Ultimate-rank. Once an Ultimate-rank expert began to gradually transform their existence form, the System would immediately collapse from overload.
Although the explosion from the System's self-destruction caused no harm to an Ultimate-rank expert, Joshua was still determined to completely eliminate the damage caused by this self-destruction next time.
Downstairs, the Divine Mechanism siblings poked each other's small stomachs. They looked at each other, their eyes full of doubt.
—Sister, that thing really does seem to be a bomb. Lin's gaze was full of worry.
—Brother, it's fine. Trust Master. Ying comforted him with her eyes. —Maybe it just explodes; it's not really a bomb.
Upstairs.
Joshua hadn't lied.
He sat in the chair before his desk, closed his eyes in contemplation, recalling the process of his communication with the various Fairy Empresses in the Fairyland.
It had to be said that the Fairy Clan was the best-preserved and most complete Transcendent race in the entire Mycroft World. Joshua had indeed obtained a large amount of valuable information from their heritage.
For example, the Fairies' thoughts on worlds, star rivers, and even the entire Multiverse, along with some very bizarre but surprisingly somewhat realistic deductions.