--

Having the World System appraise a martial art wasn’t a difficult process, really. It just involves going through channels that Ren doesn’t really have access to right now.

The common way to do it is by personally sending a request through the world system, which could be done anywhere. However, this requires the user to be a registered user of the World System to begin with, something that Ren is not right now.

For Ren to be registered, officially that is, to the World System, he had to wait until he was of the Bone Forging Stage and after he cleared his first dungeon, either solo or with a party. It must be a career, not just an experience.

Well, Ren isn’t a Bone Forging practitioner right now, and he probably won’t be for the next three months or so. Ren couldn’t possibly wait for that long, so he had to search for alternatives.

Fortunately, he does have a reliable alternative. And that is the VR World.

The VR world uses the world system to function. Although man-made AIs are good, relying solely on them won’t guarantee a stable and smooth VR world. The success of the VR World relies largely on its connection to the World System.

GMU had to relinquish their complete control over the VR World for this simply because the World System cannot be subdued by them. But for the sake of the success of the VR World’s launch and for long-term profits, it’s a sacrifice that they were willing to make.

Because of this, Ren had a reliable and direct access to the World System even before he was considered a registered martial artist and dungeon explorer.

This night, Ren went into his VR cabin with an elevated heart rate. He was definitely nervous, but he didn’t let it freeze him completely or make him indecisive.

When he logged on to the VR world, he received the familiar greeting and chime of the virtual reality around him.

He arrived to his personal small world and immediately felt at ease. This was his home in this virtual space. He had been conditioned to react this way despite everything around him being only virtual objects and scenery.

Ren didn’t do it immediately. Instead, he cleared his mind and reviewed the steps of his next action. He wants to make sure that the process will be as smooth as ever.

Ren reviewed what he knew of the World System.

He knew that it was strict, direct, and no-nonsense. It appraises everything objectively. It can’t be expected to flatter him or make things difficult for him. It won’t give him face, but it also wouldn’t go out of its way to humiliate him.

The appraisal was completely factual and transactional.

However, the World System doesn’t appreciate being disturbed for something that it considers not worth it.

Everybody, regardless of age, gender, status, and strength level, only had three good chances of testing the World System’s temper. There will be no 4th time because after the 3rd, the World System will start banning the responsible party.

And there’s no fooling the World System. It knows everything. It knows humans more than they know themselves. It knows who’s trying to mess around from those who genuinely had some important business to discuss.

The World System wasn’t one to show mercy either. It’s harsh and really decisive in its decisions, and for good reason too, because chances are, it has already calculated everything multiple times before making a decision.

This callousness and indifference of the world system was something that the ’hero’ would intimately experience years in the future.

Nobody would probably believe this, but the hero actually came very close to being banned by the world system because of his pathetic antics. But, well...that’s a matter for the future.

Ren had a different matter to pay attention to right now.

"Ahem. World System, if you can hear me, please respond. I’d like to submit a martial art for appraisal."

...

There was silence for a bit. It lasted for a whole minute, making Ren think if he needed to call out again, but before he could do so, the system message—one that is different from the regular ones he usually sees in the VR world—flashed before his eyes.

Also, it was voiced.

Hello, User [Anon]! This is the World System at your service. Please place a virtual copy of the martial art you want to be appraised on the table before you.

Ren knew that it was going to ask for this and had already prepared a copy. Before he got into the VR Cabin, he had the physical copy of the technique scanned and uploaded as a virtual copy.

He double-checked it and made sure that everything had been copied word per word. No omissions, no unclear parts, no smudged inks, and no grammatical errors too. He even made sure he used proper punctuations all over the book.

Ren brought out the copy and placed it on the table before him just like the World System told him to do.

Moments after he did, the World System’s message text turned into a horizontal line, which then became a scanner that scanned the virtual copy.

Within a few seconds, the scan was completed, and a new set of messages appeared before Ren’s eyes.

[Scan complete! ]

To confirm, the name of the martial art technique you want to be appraised is called the Green Lotus Core Technique. Is this right? ]

"Yes. It is."

[Understood.]

[Notice: your submission has been sent to the database. Please be patient and wait until the main system processes your request and completes the appraisal of your technique.

[Approximate time of appraisal’s completion: 2 hours and 34 minutes.]

[Rest assured, we will return to you once the appraisal is complete. Please be patient and wait for the results.]

This message lingered for a bit before fading slowly from his vision.

"2 hours and 34 minutes, eh? I thought it’d take longer." Ren sighed and decided to be patient some more.

Actually, he was prepared to wait for days to get a response. He didn’t think that he could expect one within this night, which is a good thing, obviously.

The truth is, it wouldn’t have been surprising if it took longer. The world system handles a lot of things every day at every given moment. The only reason why it’s faster is because this is his first time submitting something.

He basically jumped up the queue. The World System prioritizes new submissions and requests before the urgent ones or the follow-ups. The lowest at the priority were the ones that were only looking to waste the world system’s time and data, which is surprisingly a lot.

But this shows that he has done it.

The submission was sent. The Green Lotus Core Technique was on its way to being appraised by the world system.

Ren has no control over it now. It’s totally out of his hand.

All he could do was wait until the system came back to inform him of the results.

**

Unknown to Ren, the World System already noticed him.

Not just today, no. But from the moment he awakened his previous life’s memory.

No, the World System has no idea about Ren’s identity as a transmigrator. It doesn’t know that Ren knew the story of this world intimately.

The reason why it started paying distant attention to Ren was because he emitted some strange fluctuations on the same day his previous life’s memories were awakened.

This fluctuation wasn’t something that regular martial artists could feel. Even the World System itself barely caught it. It pays attention because it’s watching whether Ren is an anomaly that would destabilize the human civilization.

Fortunately, Ren wasn’t. At least based on what the World System gathered so far.

But because of this distant attention, the World System already knew what Ren did even before he decided to inform anybody about it.

In truth, when Ren completed his first draft of the completed Green Lotus Core Technique, the World System already scanned it and made its preliminary judgement.

It’s safe to say that Ren could expect a good review from this. Actually, no, beyond that.

The World System deemed Ren’s creation as a generational discovery. It’s more than enough to propel him to the hall of fame and have his legend immortalized for generations to come.

But the World System wasn’t one to get ahead of itself. It has its own rules and codes to follow. It can’t do anything if Ren decides to submit this to the GMU instead.

Fortunately, Ren made the right decision.

But if the world system already appraised the potential of the Green Lotus Core Technique before Ren even submitted it, why make him wait 2 hours and 34 minutes? Why delay it? Wasn’t the world system proud of its efficiency?

Well, there’s a very good reason for this.

The 2 hours and 34 minutes of waiting wasn’t for the World System to give a proper response and appraisal for the technique. No, the world system already had its judgment.

That time frame was for the Martial Gods of the GMU to appraise the same technique. Because even though the World System had an independent existence beyond human control, it still works with humans. The Grand Martial Union, to be exact.