Looking at the injured, despairing villagers before him, Sun Yi let out a silent sigh. It didn’t matter which world he was in; the bottom tier of the pyramid always bore the brunt of the systemic failures.

Since he had encountered this error, he naturally wouldn’t leave it unpatched.

He reached out towards a nearby well and made a grasping motion. True Qi surged, defying gravity to lift a large sphere of water into the air.

This display of telekinesis startled the villagers, gasps of awe rippling through the crowd.

“Immortal arts! This must be immortal arts!”

They looked at Sun Yi with faces full of worship. Several dropped to their knees, kowtowing rhythmically, their foreheads banging against the dirt.

Sun Yi ignored the feudal display. He retrieved a Vitality Pill from his inventory and tossed it into the suspended water sphere. The pill dissolved instantly, infusing the liquid with potent healing energy. With a thought, he divided the water into smaller globules and navigated them to hover before the mouths of the injured.

“Drink,” Sun Yi commanded, his voice calm but authoritative. “I have dissolved a high-grade pharmaceutical in the water. It will repair your hardware damage and extend your operating lifespan. Long life of a hundred years, and all that.”

Hearing that an actual “Immortal Pill” was dissolved in the water, the villagers didn’t hesitate. They opened their mouths and swallowed the floating liquid greedily.

The effects were immediate. Wounds closed, color returned to pale faces, and groans of pain turned into sighs of relief.

“Alright, initiate reconstruction protocols,” Sun Yi said, waving a hand. “I will perform a pest control sweep within a hundred-mile radius. The demon beast threat will be neutralized.”

“Thank you, Immortal Master, for your life-saving grace!”

“Immortal Master, please leave your name! This old man wishes to erect a longevity tablet in your honor!”

Sun Yi offered a faint, professional smile but didn’t answer. He was an administrator, not a deity seeking worship. He engaged his thrusters—True Qi—and soared into the sky.

Mid-flight, he retrieved his Spirit Plate. The radar interface pinged immediately.

Two hostile signatures detected. Range: ten miles.

He hadn’t expected the density of threats to be this high near such a small settlement. He adjusted his trajectory, turning into a streak of light as he homed in on the targets.

Moments later, Sun Yi breached the perimeter of a mountain range, hovering above a massive cave entrance. A faint, foul demonic energy drifted from within. The ground was littered with calcium deposits—bones belonging to both humans and wild beasts.

“Trash mobs,” Sun Yi scoffed.

He pointed his right hand at the cave. The Dragon Roar Sword materialized, transforming into a streak of golden light that struck the cavern entrance like a bunker buster.

Boom!

The cliff face shuddered violently. Two black shadows rushed out from the dust cloud, snarling in agitation.

Scan complete. Target: Black Wind Leopards. Rank 1, Late-Stage. Attributes: High Agility, Moderate Attack.

They were stronger than the average human cultivator at the same level, but to Sun Yi, they were obsolete hardware.

With a simple thought command, the Dragon Roar Sword split into two golden beams. They descended from the heavens like orbital strikes, nailing the two leopards to the ground before they could even activate their movement subroutines.

Targets neutralized.

Sun Yi collected the carcasses—valuable raw materials—and continued his sweep. With the Spirit Plate providing real-time telemetry, finding the beasts was trivial.

In short order, the area was sanitized.

Hovering in the high atmosphere, Sun Yi glanced back toward the village. With the local fauna culled, the villagers would enjoy a period of stability.

But it was a temporary patch. A single village was surrounded by so many threats; how many millions of demon beasts infested the entire Chaos Demon Commandery? How many commoners were deleted from the database every year?

To fix this bug permanently, he needed to acquire the root directory—he needed to unify the Chaos Demon Commandery.

“Just wait,” he murmured to the wind. “I’m currently optimizing the system. Soon, you won’t have to worry about being eaten.”

He accelerated, turning into a blur as he shot toward the horizon. Although he wore the skin of a cultivator, his operating system was still distinctly Earth-based. He couldn’t just watch humanity be treated as livestock.

Half an hour later, Sun Yi arrived above a city nestled near the mountains. Below him lay a square metropolis, ten kilometers in diameter, bustling with activity.

Water Source City.

Considering the Black Wind Stockade had likely deployed a wide-area search algorithm for him, Sun Yi decided the best place to hide was in a high-traffic node.

He landed discreetly outside the city limits and merged with the foot traffic. The road was crowded with ordinary commoners, resembling a pilgrimage.

However, Sun Yi’s pattern recognition software flagged something unusual. The faces of the people rushing toward the city weren’t just busy; they were ecstatic, bordering on fanatical.

Curious, he grabbed an old man shuffling along the road. “Old sir, is there a sale going on? Why is everyone’s dopamine levels so high?”

The old man looked at Sun Yi like he was an alien. “Young man, aren’t you here for the Immortal’s Dharma Transmission?”

Sun Yi blinked. “I’m a traveler from out of town. Could you brief me on this event? Are there really Immortals here?”

The old man’s face lit up with reverence as he cupped his hands toward the city. “Of course! The Immortals in Water Source City can fly, ride clouds, conjure treasures from thin air, and cure all diseases. They are omnipotent!”

“This time, the Immortals are broadcasting the Dao to us common folk. Rumor has it that just listening to the transmission will delete all illnesses and patch your lifespan to a hundred years. People have come from hundreds of miles around!”

The old man patted Sun Yi’s arm. “You have excellent luck, young man. To arrive just in time for a once-in-a-millennium event? Do not miss this opportunity.”

Sun Yi nodded, feigning gratitude. “Thank you for the data, old sir. My luck does seem statistically improbable.”

“Hurry up! The broadcast starts soon. If we’re late, we’ll be stuck in the overflow seating.”

The old man quickened his pace, leaving Sun Yi behind.

Sun Yi looked up at the city walls, the polite smile vanishing from his face. His eyes narrowed.

Immortals? They’re just cultivators.

Flying? Basic movement technique.

Conjuring items? Storage bags.

Curing diseases? Low-tier alchemy.

As for “transmitting the Dao” to commoners to grant longevity? That was pure marketing bullshit.

Based on Sun Yi’s analysis of this world’s user agreement, cultivators viewed mortals as NPCs at best, and ants at worst. The idea of a high-level cultivator wasting bandwidth to teach mortals was absurd. The only person eccentric enough to do that was Sun Yi himself.

This smells like a scam. Or a Ponzi scheme.

Deciding not to walk blindly into a potential trap, Sun Yi diverted from the main road and scaled a nearby hill for better vantage.

From the peak, he had a panoramic view of Water Source City. The streets were gridlocked.

In the city center, a massive plaza was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with over a hundred thousand civilians. It looked less like a seminar and more like a cattle pen.

On one side of the plaza stood a high stone platform. Several figures in black robes stood atop it, looking down at the masses. Even from this distance, Sun Yi’s enhanced vision resolution allowed him to identify their attire.

Black robes. Familiar design.

They were the standard uniforms of the Black Wind Stockade.

“Why are Black Wind employees here?” Sun Yi muttered. “And gathering commoners under the guise of a Dharma Transmission? Unless…”

His processor ran a simulation, and the result made his blood run cold.

They weren’t here to teach. They were here to harvest.

Blood Sacrifice.

It was a forbidden technique to farm XP—cultivation—by liquidating the biomass of mortals.

Water Source City was currently a container holding over a hundred thousand units of raw material. Once the Black Wind Stockade initiated the protocol, the entire city would be formatted. It would become a living hell.

Sun Yi shook his head. What were the odds? He had just cleared a demon beast infestation, and now he had stumbled upon an evil sect preparing a mass slaughter.

Could I ignore this?

Strategically, engaging was risky. He was a fugitive with a massive bounty on his head.

Ethically?

Sun Yi sighed, cloaking his aura and stealthily moving toward the city walls.

He was a CEO, not a monster. When he saw a competitor engaging in unethical business practices, he didn’t just write a complaint.

He initiated a hostile takeover.

“Since I’ve encountered injustice on the road,” Sun Yi whispered, his eyes cold, “it’s time to crash their system.”