"Aaaand done."
John had successfully given 31 moons a personality—and the system was kind enough to reward him with 310 Obsession Points.
"That's pure, unfiltered flavors of crazy."
"And I love it!"
"What's true love if not a little crazy?"
"Now that I've designed everyone like a build-a-sex-doll spiritual construct with emotions, I can finally get my rewards."
After clicking on the Submit button, John felt a searing sensation in his head. The yin energy was slowly churning and being removed from his body and soul.
Usually, this would excrete as a form of thick, black, stinky residue, along with impurities. But in this case, the yin energy was being used to give life to 31 barren wastelands.
At one point, the burning sensation became so bad that John almost keeled over, holding his head. All he could do was moan and curse loudly. Ironic, actually.
Usually, when yin and yang energy mix, they create new life in the womb. But since there was no spouse to share the cycle with, the system had no other choice but to take all the excess spiritual energy and throw it at a bunch of rocks, hoping for the best.
After a full minute of pain, John finally gave out and hit the floor. When he woke up, he had no idea how long he had been unconscious, but when he looked around, he was shocked to the core.
"I AM ALIVE!" shouted a red-headed demon girl in a short suntan dress.
"Sofie, can you refrain from yelling? We're all alive," a young high elf woman spoke up.
"Don't be such a sourpuss. We get to meet our lord. This is time to celebrate!" an ancient dwarf with twin tails shouted back at the high elf.
"I'm not into dwarf porn, so I basically gave her a loli-style body with a mature-looking face. I wanted diversity, but not much. That's also the reason she's the only dwarf. Fortunately, she's just another subrace, not an entire species on her own."
"Ah! You're right! My lord!"
All 31 women and girls looked his way with fervent, excited expressions.
'I don't think I thought this through. Maybe I should've lowered their obsession to 8?'
After getting that look from everyone, John chose to look them all in the eye one by one out of curiosity. Their reactions were mixed.
Some looked proud or shy. Others looked bored, but in their eyes, he could clearly see the fanaticism. They were all disturbingly loyal. Clearly inhuman.
Just as he was about to say something, he heard the familiar notification for a system reward.
{CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE CREATED 31 SENTIENT MOONS. YOUR SOUL IS NOW TIED TO THEM.
SOUL BONDING ALLOWS YOU TO DUAL CULTIVATE AT ANY DISTANCE IN THE UNIVERSE.
YOU CAN ALSO SHARE SPIRITUAL ENERGY WITH NO COST TO OTHER MOONS, TEMPORARILY ELEVATING THEM TO 1-STAR "PLANET" RANK.
YOU WILL NOW RECEIVE YOUR REWARD.}
{REWARD: Naiad's Tears
This tear can be placed on any piece of land. With enough qi in the air, it can begin producing pure spiritual-energy-infused water.}
"The reward is pretty underwhelming, but it serves a purpose," John said. "Especially if I combine it with the qi transfer function."
{Would you like to transfer Naiad's Tears to a connected moon?}
"Did you hear that notification?" John asked.
All 31 nodded. Some of them were already spread out. Two girls were asleep on his bed, others were walking up and down the aisles. They were attentive, but casually so.
After a bit of thought, John was about to send it to someone at random when one of the girls on the bed shot upright and shouted:
"My lord! I have a good feeling about this. Give it to me!"
It was Jace, sitting in the Sphinx Position. Doing yoga… for some reason.
Jace was the cool and calm type… until she suddenly wasn't. John had given her the personality of a cat, so her behavior checked out.
"What makes you think that?" John asked.
Jace, answering with a complete lack of confidence or proof, shrugged and said anyway:
"I don't. I just feel like I was meant to swim in the ocean. I want to wear a coat of water so large I can rival your size!"
'…Did she just call me fat?' John thought.
The dwarf spoke up: "If that tear can create beer, then I might be tempted." She said this while completely ignoring the fact that beer contains water.
"I get it," Sofia added. "I'm more likely to burn stuff and heat things up if the reward was mine."
John checked Jace's moon bio again. It already had water, locked under frozen ice. Most other moons had iron, or minerals, or no water at all. The 31 John had chosen were the ones most similar to potential life-bearing planets.
John didn't overthink it this time.
He gave the artifact to Jace.
"Yay!" she cheered.
John tapped Confirm.
{DING: Naiad's Tears have been transferred to the moon recognized as Jace.}
Another alert sounded immediately.
**{DING: The system smiled upon Jace.}
{DING: Secret mission completed! Reward overwritten!}
{CONGRATULATIONS! Jace has received the ancient cultivation method [Thousand Sea Method, volumes 1–9].
This method allows her to study martial arts, taming techniques, and water spells needed to increase one's comprehension of the Water Law.}
Everyone froze in shock. No one had expected such a reward.
Jace clutched her head, her spiritual energy twisting violently under the overload. John doubled forward too—but only because he remembered how much these spiritual uploads sucked.
"How did the others react?"
They sprinted toward John, asking if he was okay.
Jace would've felt betrayed if she wasn't just as worried for him.
After a few minutes, John was back on his feet again, being comforted by 30 different beautiful but very spiritually unstable women. It was weird, but honestly? He almost laughed at how insane his life had become when he glanced toward Jace.
She was pale but standing again too.
Loyal, obsessive, and completely serious when it counted.
"Jace, are you okay? That was a lot of information to take in at once," John asked worriedly.
Jace stood proudly and answered seriously: "I'm fine! I can handle it!"
The other constructs glanced briefly at her before immediately focusing back on John.
John didn't notice. He was mentally sorting through the spiritual knowledge he had gained.
Through the bond, he now had a technique on how to summon and manipulate water into any shape or form. He also gained several martial arts techniques—ones usable on land or sea. The techniques themselves were incredible.
The taming methods were impressive too, but not immediately useful… at least not right now.
John tested his new technique by holding out his hand.
"Water Orb."
A small ball of water formed instantly above his palm.
The constructs cooed and gasped like he had just split the sea or invented oceans.
Jace formed one right after.
She got the spell right too.
Half the attention.
John snorted.
'Yeah. These women are crazy.'