Chivalrous

"Bro, do you know that our patriarch is gonna die soon?" A youth flat nose whispered to a sharp front tooth youth.

"What does that have to do with us? Let him die or live, if we get our timely share of resources all is good. Otherwise, I will simply switch sect." Sharp front tooth youth replied arrogantly without bothering to lower his voice.

"You are right bro, cultivators should not bother to have high-end values like integrity or loyalty. They are worth shit in Devata realm." Flat nose youth said as if he had uncovered a truth.

Not only the two youths, but the majority of the Sun sect disciples also had a similar opinion. Still, a minority of the disciples felt ditching the sect was a sign of betrayal and refused to agree with the majority. Apart from the majority and minority, many fence-sitters didn't bother to express their opinion and simply enjoyed watching the entire world burn with fire.

If the sect disciples were like this, you might expect that at least sect elders would be loyal. But my friend, sorry to disappoint you, elders were even more scummy than the disciples. Many of them were already calculating where to sell which resources after the patriarch dies.

Some elders even went so far as to make an advanced deal with other enemy sects so that when the time comes they could safely switch the boat. Of course, the condition for that was to give a constant update on the patriarch's health. You guessed right, those scummy elders readily agreed without batting their eyes.

You must be guessing the reasons for the current state of the sun sect. Either patriarch was probably not good at sect management or he didn't try hard enough to develop feelings of unity. If not the above then the sect was not probably cohesive, to begin with, and became disorganized eventually.

Congratulations, you are partially right on each of them but the main reason was the lack of a value system in the Devata realm as a whole. Yes, you heard me right, value system. It's something a person develops through socialization using the help of parents, friends, school, and neighbors.

You must be shocked to find out that similar problems were faced by all the major sects in the Devata realm. Shortage of resources, over-dependence on seeking power, the commodification of women, propagation of money can buy anything ideology that corrupted the entire Devata realm.

Now, let's go and meet the sun sect's patriarch who was already at the end of his lifespan.

An old man with a long beard was sitting on a swinging chair. His skin was withered and bones were visible. He looked as someone just crawled out of a grave but his posture was steady and his wrinkled face couldn't hide the fact that he was once a handsome man. He was constantly nodding at his thoughts and tapping the chair's armrest in a peculiar rhythmic using his left hand while caressing his long beard using his right hand. Suddenly he started talking to himself.

"With this idea, I can finally start searching for my last successor. But if I execute my plan, I would immediately die and all my hard work, building my sect foundation would go to waste. What should I do?"

After thinking a lot he shook his head and said "But if I leave everything to these ungrateful bastards then my soul would not find peace in heaven."

Although patriarch had many bad qualities and limitations, one thing that made him the number one expert in the entire Devata realm was his decisiveness. Once he made up his mind, even God would not be able to stop him.

"Well, it's decided then." Patriarch used his Divine senses to scan the entire sect one last time out of curiosity. But he immediately regretted his actions as he heard some vicious remarks from his 'beloved' disciples.

"These wretched bastards won't change."

Patriarch didn't hesitate anymore. He used all his power to create a system that instantly digitized sect's techniques from his storage ring. The system also sucked all the resources inside the vast sect like a black hole.

Many elders were dumbfounded when the sect's spirit medicine garden became empty all of a sudden. Not only spirit medicine garden, spirit mines, spirit pet beasts, sect array formations, sect alchemy equipment, pills, library, and anything valuable inside the sect was sucked inside the system within a fraction of a moment.

Patriarch infused the last of his consciousness into the system and died on the spot with a smile on his face. His last words were "Goodbye suckers, you can only eat my shit from now on."

Oh, I forgot to tell you the name given by the Patriarch to the system. Since he thought he was the only true gentleman in the entire Devata realm, he named it as 'Gentleman's system.' According to him, a gentleman has a strong value system, bottom lines, respects women, and be a role model to the people around him.

Although the patriarch's intention was good he underestimated others. The microchip he created was spotted by many sect elders who kept an eye on him 24/7. Before they could capture the chip, it vanished into thin air.

The entire Devata realm was shocked after hearing the news. Countless adventurers departed from the realm in search of the microchip. One must understand that the sun sect was truly a mammoth in the realm despite its in-cohesiveness. If someone finds the chip, he could immediately turn the entire realm upside down.

Well, dreams were dreams and reality were reality. It's already 500 years since the incident happened. Forget about getting the microchip, they couldn't even find its location.

But one thing I can tell you for sure, even today, there is no lack of people in the realm who dream about the microchip like a long-lost girlfriend.

*****

After 500 years, we are already in the 21st century.

John was an ordinary student in a well-renowned high school. To describe him, even an established author would struggle to find words. Instead of words, let's understand him through this incident.

One fine day during a lunch break,

An average-looking girl, Alisha was proposing to the most handsome guy in the school, Richard on the school's rooftop. Both of them were facing each other wearing school uniforms. Alisha was looking down, her hands were sweaty and her heart was beating like a deer. She clenched her skirt tightly but her nervousness didn't go down. Richard on the other hand was very relaxed.

He felt amused looking at the girl. He lost count of how many proposals he had received so far, according to his overall estimate 90% of the girls in the school already proposed to him. He couldn't help but feel proud knowing that he was ruling the proposal market. But his target was not ordinary girls. He was secretly hoping that the number one beauty in the school would propose to him eventually.

There was another guy beside the two of them on the terrace busy reading comics in a corner. Both Alisha and Richard treated him as air and didn't even bother to take a glance at him. Even if they wanted to pay attention, nothing was striking about him. Everything was average, his looks, hairstyle, and even his uniform was faded with repeated washing.

Anyway coming back to Alisha, she finally steadied her heart and looked up, to face Richard. Richard gave his signature smile as if encouraging her. He found an odd sense of pleasure when someone tried hard to propose to him. It started as some sweet feeling, now it had turned into some drugs. He couldn't stop the 'drugs' even if he wanted to. Hence, as soon as some girl called him during the lunch break, he would readily agree.

" Richard...I liked you for a long time...please go out with me!" Alisha finally vomited her feelings on Richard.

Richard drowned in the vomit and felt exhilarated, swimming and shouting in his mind.

'Finally.....this is it...I can't get over it no matter how many times I hear this.' Richard closed his eyes and started enjoying the effects of the 'drug'. Alisha thought Richard was actually considering her proposal which made her very happy. But his next words poured cold water on her expectations.

"Sorry Alisha, I already like someone." Richard patted her shoulder like a good friend and leisurely walked back to his class.

Alisha was devastated and started crying in disappointment. She didn't expect that just when she needed a tissue, it would appear magically in front of her. Alisha instinctively took it and wiped her tears and snot.

"You are?" She remembered that there was another guy on the rooftop but didn't expect that he would be so chivalrous.

"My name is John. We are in the same class by the way." John replied with a standard answer.

Alisha blushed. She didn't remember anyone named John in her class. One can't blame her as John didn't create any sort of impression in the class over the years.

"Alisha right? I have secretly admired you for a long time. Why don't we go out?" John asked with a sincere expression.