Goddess Collector: Every Hole is a Goal

Chapter 480: Bias

Shout-out to Stephen Hodge for supporting me on Patron.

***

Nik gulped. From the beginning, despite knowing that he had to do stuff for the Paradise and its roots were deep into his existence, Nik didn't have the drive to break such shackles away since the Paradise never committed anything undue against him. This made Nik turn all his attention over to the threat his previous lineage proclaimed and the objective of creating a space with its own time realm to allow his beloved to live, if not with him, then inside him. However, tonight's action where the Paradise actually abused its own power truly opened his eyes.

[Please transfer the world ring to the Paradise.]

The notification requested but Sky's words provided a new depth to the words.

"Nik... the surrounding space is locked... even I can't do anything with my current status."

Looking at his own skill, Nik felt helpless. If Sky couldn't do it, then surely, even he couldn't.

[Space Manipulation: Lvl 17

Use: This skill allows the host to control the fabric of space based on the potency of the level of the skill.

Level 10 Boost: Shift- Passes a limited volume to a particular length instantly in any given direction. Current Weight Limit: 170 kilograms.

Next Lvl: 29 SP]

Despite his sudden fears... well, Nik has never been fearless. So, his mind had been blessed with certain deviance that allowed him to hold the core point through its neck and this time, the most obvious point was the fact that despite its forceful actions where Nik was made to hold the [World Ring] and even connected to what seems like the will of the Transmigration Paradise, the Paradise 'requested' the item instead of taking it away as casually it committed its previous deed. But the paradise is still forceful in a way that it miraculously locked the space around Nik. This led to two main doubts within Nik. First, to him, it looked like, despite System's control, the hosts still had certain crucial rights and the privacy of their inventory seemed to be one of them. Second, Nik wished to understand if System located Nik and then used this skill of locking the space around him or the system used Nik as the connecting point and then activated the skill.

If it was the former, then, Nik could now try to find a few ways to hide from the system's locator... but should it turn the latter... Nik needed to add another objective in his long list to be accomplished.

With the screen hovering in front of him and understanding the fact that he could not move out while the system could not take what it wanted, Nik settled and took out one of the three red medals. As a red vortex formed from the medal, Nik pushed his hand into the vortex and casually pulled out one of the items. It was a green sludge ball.

The next two tries brought Nik nothing of particular except for the System's demanding request flashing time and again. Heck, Nik finally felt depressed when the remaining two red medals also seemed to be full of garbage. Well, Nik couldn't judge the dead since his own inventory was filled with empty beer cans, wrappers, and whatnot.

Taking out the last item of the night, a purple scroll bound by a thick belt, Nik looked at the flashing notification from the corner of his eyes, and finally, once he had activated the skill scroll, it levitated and unfurled with a blinding flash that brought another notification.

[Skill Gained:

Explosion: Lvl 1

Use: Spend a small amount of energy to induce explosive blasts in the surroundings.

1 Unit of Explosion= 1 ENG

Next Lvl: 2 SP]

"Well... I'll take it~!" A certain, one-eyed blonde youth with a perversion of explosions emerged within Nik's mind as he snickered. Now he really wished to say the holy word...

Explosion!

Now that he had gained everything that he could at the moment, it was time to probe the system itself and find the limits of its actions and the advantage Nik can try to gain over the seemingly omnipotent existence that continued to place its forceful request through the flashes of the notification screen.

"No."

Nik directed his gaze towards the notification and stated simply. He had tried to contact Ray and Brian and surprisingly, he could. Still, instead of inquiring then about the strangeness of the situation, Nik decided to keep things to himself, and to his response, the notification screen disappeared and once again, reappeared in front of Nik.

"Ah... you want this?" Nik grinned, with a fake bout of confidence, and took out a dull ring in his palms, "I think not!"

The notification window disappeared and reappeared once again.

"Maybe... I should propose someone with a ring that even the system wants, huh... no, wait, how about turning this ring into a c.o.c.k ring for one of the thinner spirit beasts?"

The screen started flashing at an even rapid pace. So, one thing is confirmed that whoever was manipulating the screen wasn't a coded A.I. but someone more mundane. After all, an A.I. wouldn't care if the [World Ring] found itself over the wood skunky's tiny tool. "Then..." Nik's voice turned low. Taking a bet that the space lock around him won't turn into a space grinder, he continued, "I want to exchange the ring for a service..."

Nik's senses were stretched and his own Space induced Energy came into contact with invisible but very substantial and dangerous walls a few centimeters away from him. The danger of space lock was that ahead of the seemingly simple hardened surroundings lay a deep maelstrom of warps that could tear the infiltrators to shreds. That's why Nik didn't even try to [Shift] and stay put. As the flashing of the system's notification became moderate, the words on the screen finally changed.

[State your wish.]

"Kill the three founders of the infernal society."

[Cannot be accomplished. It is not within the right of the system.]

Suppressing a relieved sigh but still keeping a healthy amount of doubt for the Paradise's words, Nik continued, "Then... remove all my rank limitations."

[Cannot be accomplished.]

"Why?"

[Cannot be stated.]

"Remove the restrictions on [Battle Arts]."

[Cannot be accomplished. The owner of the [Talent] has entered into a deal.]

Taking a deep breath, Nik felt that most of his requests that directly alter the rules of the system itself could not be accomplished. 'If I assume that the hosts of the system are not affected directly... then what about the ones that aren't a host? If I assume that Klas's kingdom only has a single host then...'

"I want you to locate my L.u.s.t's Recruitee— Klas's— homeworld and bring all her lineage members of every evolution tiers into the [Harem] space. And, this wish is to be understood subjectively. I would not trade the ring if you try to find loopholes into my request and give me the short end of the stick."

The screen stopped flashing completely as lines started appearing on the window once again.

[Locating the Host... system's resistance found. Host 1788293Y emerges from the planet 5635 of plane 33 and timeline 623. The current homeworld is similar. Lineage identified. Evolution tier identified. Locating the similar species... 29 beings found...]

'Only 29... didn't Klas say that she emerged from a kingdom?'

[Hijacking... complete. Transferring... please accept the request of the transfer.]

Seeing another notification pop up, Nik accepted the transfer request as twenty-nine new existences appeared in Nik's [Harem].

[Please transfer the World Ring.]

"Let me confirm."

Nik stated drily and pulled gave Klas's consciousness a slight nudge before giving her the view of his Harem where twenty-nine crystal-men floated in an empty space.

Seeing them, Klas's eyes widened as she shouted happily.

"Master... t-they! They are my family! Ah, Queenite, Green Diamond... Antarctite! All of them were safe! That's great!"

"Wait... didn't you say you had a queen?"

Klas looked towards Nik and nodded happily, pointing towards the gold jeweled existence with a pale... skin?

"She is Queenite, stronger than Bort! After sensei left, she took care of all of us since we couldn't open our apertures... well, I can now, but they still can't."

Nodding his head slowly, Nik smiled, "Well, the first objective is achieved. I'll try to help you meet everyone once again. You should sleep... I need to deal with something..."

"Alright, Master. Ah, before I sleep... um... can I come here again?" Klas inquired softly, her gaze falling over to her family members once again. Internally, Nik was astonished to see the sheer elegance her family actually sported. For instance, a headful of crystal hair just like Klas. Nodding, Nik shrugged, "Well, of course, you can, they are your family."

Smiling, Klas tiptoed around Nik and waited. Due to Nik's increasing proficiency in the realms of mental capacity and consciousness realism, Klas could feel extremely 'lively' even when connected to Nik's mind. Seeing the twinkle in Klas's emerald eyes, Nik's smile softened and he gently stroked the top of her head, letting his hand wave through the soft, silk-like thick locks with gem-like integrity and humanly elasticity. Over the course of months, though similar to Nik and a single ring away from completing her own spirit, Klas's demeanor took an interesting change. She... started opening up to everybody as if her earlier reservation and coldness were her masks and the bubbliness around her nowadays is who true Klas really is.

"Hmm~ haven't you grown too naughty?" Nik whispered while stroking her left cheek alongside the top of her head as she rested her face with a pleased expression. Well, Nik could somewhat understand her reservations since their meeting wasn't the best of scenario and the long time of their relationship soothed most of the negative aspects that still remained.

Best thing of all, Klas is still nasty in bed, so it is a plus point overall.

---

"Ehm, you did not let me finish, I also wanted a sum of thousands of skill points and stat points," Nik stated softly once he confirmed that all of Klas's family had been transferred. Alas, his expectations of the Transmigration Paradise's will to be at its nascent and unintelligent state seemed to crumble when the space lock did turn into a grinder, eliciting yelps of surprise from his spirits within his spiritual world.

Chuckling, Nik took out the world ring and dangled it through his pinky finger, "Geez, learn to take a joke like a champ, O' Paradise... really makes one wonder if you are a short-tempered mistress or not... well, they are the best kind~!"

Throwing the ring at the space grinder, Nik instantly felt the spatial maelstrom placated while the ring disappeared with a short message on the screen.

"Always a pleasure."

"Umm... Sky... am I the only one with cold sweats?"

"No... now that we can sweat... I am flooded..."

"Me, too~ I almost came with fear!" Asmodeus' chuckled resounded while Lilith admonished the woman. Finally, a playful giggle resounded, "Master... I call shots to eat the special pie from that Paradise's hole once you are done with her!"

"How do you know that she is a woman?"

"A female's intuition."

"More like a chicken's!" Asmodeus snickered as the voice cried out.

"Elder Lilith... Asmodeus is bullying me again!"

"Damn that slimy s.l.u.t! Here, don't feel sad! You are not a chicken, no... you are the Pure Pheonix! There, cheer up..."

Nik's spiritual situation had changed quite a bit... to the direction which he truly did not like. The most obvious one was the fact that the egg hatched into a humanoid spirit of the Pure Pheonix... at least, that's what Lilith and the remaining duo described her as. Beautiful brown hair, a lithe figure, and a face exactly similar to Ziyun's.

Alas, what Nik didn't know was that the only way to access his spiritual world, or at least, a part of it was through gaining the recognition of the spirit... friends and casual flirter he maybe, but the only way to actually gain their recognition is to defeat them fair and square in their tests. Until then, he could kiss goodbye to the n.a.k.e.d forms of his current, humanoid spirits.

"This is so wrong..."

Nik muttered as the new spirit that Nik called Pure for the time being cooed, "Oh, Daddy, what are you feeling sad for... just defeat me and ride me~ So simple and elegant! Heck, I've been told that my real body before its death was your disciple's mother... maybe, we could get a mother-daughter action~!"

Yeah, Pure turned out to be just like Nik, rotten, debauched, and holy to the core.

"Well... you lost the rock, paper, scissors, and have to step forward out of the four every time I challenge... so I don't have any choice!"

"Ah! I did not lose! I am just excited to meet my master! Hmph! I'll let you know that I am far s.e.xier than the bully, elder, and the sage!"

She meant— Asmodeus, Lilith, and Sky.

"So? It was my mistake to let you absorb with the entire set of pure Pheonix spirit bones..."

"But... the tests are not based on my strength but yours, master... hmm, let's do it this way... for sister Tanya, I am willing to make the test more difficult. That way, when I tell your legends to that cute button, she can finally realize how awesome you are!"

"You know what..." Nik smiled happily, "Screw all of you! I am heading back to Tanya... she is the goodest girl after all!"

"Hey!" Sky seemed offended as she snorted.

"But it's the truth... Sage. Did you not see that nose and that tiny pair of limbs... man, I never felt so helpless before..." Pure sighed at the sheer charm and holiness portrayed by Tanya.

"Whatever... just hurry and finish your challenges... it's getting too boring."

"Says the Supreme Grandmaster of Space and Dream... you all are shameless. Now I know that."

"We all are you!" The four of them chimed simultaneously. josei

Pursing his lips, Nik decided to focus on the space in front of him before a small explosion, the size of a fist, emerged out of nowhere, bringing a puff of smoke that Nik waved away as he smiled.

"What was the saying? Ah, Explosion is an Art... need to get better at Art, as they say!"