You Mean Supreme Cultivation System, Right?

"Who 's there?!"

 Hearing an unknown voice in such an abandoned place, Nikolai looked around in alarm trying to find the person responsible. As if already expecting such a reaction, the voice sounded again, but this time in a much calmer and more compassionate tone

"Wait, calm down, there is no need to be so alarmed my dear host, I do not wish to hurt you. On the contrary, I am here only to bring you fortune and happiness"

"Fortune and happiness you say, huh? Sorry if I sound a little skeptical about this, but the last time a woman told me that, she ended up being married and had a very angry husband"

"Fufufu, I don't have a husband. So, you don't need to worry about your safety in this regard, dear host"

"Oh, in that case... Ahem, nice to meet you, my name is Nikolai, but you can just call me Nick if you prefer. And you are?" 

"Oh, look at this, where are my manners? I was so excited that I forgot to introduce myself," the woman paused before continuing in a friendly voice, "It's a pleasure to finally be able to talk to you Nick. My name is Adrestia, I'm a Goddess and also the manager of the incredible and wonderful system that brought you back to life"

"A Goddess, you say. Well, if your appearance is as beautiful and charming as your voice, I can imagine such a thing"

"Fufufu, thank you"

After lightly flirting with the self-styled Goddess, Nikolai regained his composure and continued with a serious expression

"Alright, putting that aside for a moment. Please answer me, Adrestia... Why am I here? Was it you who brought me to this word? For what purpose?" 

"About this—"​

"Please don't tell me that you brought me here to save this world from a demon king who threatens the safety of this world. If so, I would like to write my resignation letter right now, as I honestly don't think I'm the right person for the job. Instead, you should have summoned a bunch of students to be your heroes, more specifically a bunch of high school students from Japan"

"Wait-" 

"Yes, you didn't hear wrong, Japanese high school students, this is a classic. According to what I read, despite it being a bit of a cliche, in the end, they are much easier to convince to be your heroes. Still, please be careful not to exclude or earn hate from any student who seems weak or who just wants to go home. I mean, usually these are usually the protagonists, which can cause you a real headache, going against the other heroes or even aligning themselves with the demon king. Furthermore..."

"Slow down, slow down. Please, Nick, you can rest assured that I'm not here to force you to defeat the demon king. In fact, I'm not even sure if there is a figure similar to a demon king in this world", interrupted Adrestia, feeling that if she let him continue, at some point, she too would start to believe in his crazy theories

"Eh...? No demon king? 

"Yes, no demon king" 

"So, why am I here exactly?" 

"Well, I was about to explain this before you interrupted me" 

"Oh, sorry about that. I kind of got carried away"

"Now, answering your questions. First of all, I wasn't the one who brought you to this world. No, the only reason you're here is because you were in possession of the Eye of Time when you died back on Earth"

"Eye of time? What is that? I don't remember having an item with such a catchy name"

"Fufufu, look at the tattoos on your hands, they look quite familiar, don't they?"

"Oh, this? Yeah, they look like the pendant I had– Wait, you mean?"

"Yes, that simple pendant you wore was actually a powerful artifact known as the Eye of Time"

Faced with this explanation, Nikolai thinks about the strange pendant. Just as mentioned by the Goddess back on Earth, the former assassin wore a pendant with the strange eye symbol. It was something he found during his first assassination mission as an apostle 

The target of that mission was a rich and eccentric antiques collector. According to the information he received from Rassvet at the time, the man was a threat to the stability of the world and needed to be eliminated. Now, years later, that Nikolai thinks about it properly, following Rassvet's modus operandi, this was pure nonsense. And most likely the man was one of the old customers who refused to pay after using the group's services

Anyway, regardless of the reason, Nikolai completed the job, but before leaving he decided to pick up a souvenir item to remember his first mission. In the end, the item he chose was the strange pendant, which seemed to stand out among the hundreds of others. Since then, he always wore it around his neck, like a kind of good luck charm

'Well, considering the way I died, the amulet clearly wasn't very effective'

Unaware of Nikolai's confused thoughts, Adrestia continued with her explanation

"The Eye of Time was a powerful artifact known for allowing its user to travel, possess another body with all its memories after their death. However, it also hid another function, that is, a system"

"A system you say?"

"Indeed. This system was designed to help a mere mortal achieve the powers of a God. Part of me, lives inside the Eye of Time, waiting to play my role as a manager, guidem the system holder, helping them along the path they have chosen. In that case... you. However, to activate this system, two conditions needed to be fulfilled. First on need to make a blood sacrifice to the artifact, which is basically staining the pendant with theirr blood. As for the second one, all one needs is to have a strong feeling of repentance. As long as these two conditions were met the system would be activated"

"That simple?"

"Yes, simple as that. Yet, even after possessing the artifact for years, you were never able to meet the conditions to activate the system. I mean, the first one was long several times. The real problem was that the second one never happened. This is something that leaves me intrigued, something that I can't understand even after seeing all your memories" 

Reaching this part the Goddess stopped for a moment, before asking in a curious voice

"Please tell me, Nikolai... Why have you never regretted anything in your life?"

"It's simple, I never saw any reason to do so"

"When you were a kid, don't you regret following Rassvet's people?"

"Not really, if it weren't for me doing this, I would probably have starved to death some time later"

"So, what about when they trained you, turning you into one of their killing machines? Don't you regret of not having a normal childhood?"

"No, I have no reason to regret something that was not under my control. Like, yes, those were difficult times in my life, and there were days when I felt like it was better to be dead. Still, in the end, not only did I survive, as a bonus, I also learned a lot of things that I wouldn't have learned anywhere else. For example, how to kill a person using just a paper straw, that is not the kind of thing that I would have learned if I had had a normal childhood, right?"

"…"

"Moreover, when I discovered that all that talk about the apostle and savior of the world was a lie. Although I was a little disappointed at first that they tricked me, I kind of got over it. I mean, that's how the world works. Every day and everywhere, people use other people to achieve their own goals all the time. Ultimately, this was just an experience for me. A bad experience, but one that helped me mature and see the world as it really is. So no, I don't regret my choices"

"Just one last thing, in your last moments, given your skills it wasn't difficult for you to kill the man who stabbed you, but even so he didn't do it. Don't you regret letting your killer get away in the end?"

"What, you mean killing the cuckold? No, I don't regret it. I already knew that one time or another I would end up dying, so I wasn't too surprised by that. As for killing the guy, that never crossed my mind. I already fucked his wife, if even after that I chose to kill him I would feel really bad. Like, that would be really fucked up, even for me"

Facing Nikolai's righteous expression, Adrestia could no longer hold back her laughter

"Fufufu, you really are quite strange and interesting mortal"

"Thank you… I guess"

"Anyway, back to the explanation. Even though you didn't activate the system until your last breath, that doesn't change the fact that you owned the Eye of Time. So, when you passed away, its first function was activated, causing your soul, instead of entering the reincarnation cycle, to be absorbed by the artifact. After that, the artifact set out to find a body compatible with your soul, bringing you into this world"

"Wait, let me see if I understood correctly. Are you telling me that my soul was trapped inside a mystical pendant for hundreds of years before I finally transmigrated?"

"No, this is wrong. It's more like thousands or even millions of years. Fufufu, please understand one thing, time doesn't work linearly. Even more so when we are talking about time at two different points in the universe. Now here may be tomorrow elsewhere, but, at the same time, yesterday, in a third point in the universe"

"..."

Noticing the frightened and confused expression on Nikolai's face, the Goddess smiled before continuing in a patient voice

"You don't need to look like that, nothing I told you will change anything, you have already transmigrated to this world and there is no way to go back there. Even if you did, like you said, you don't have any regrets or ties to that place, so why worry about details like that?"

After a while of silence, Nikolai finally recovered, and nodding his head continued

"Well, yeah… I think you are right. Sorry for showing such an embarrassing side of me"

"Fufufu, it's okay, most people would have a much worse reaction"

"Regardless, moving on to a more relevant topic. Adrestia my dear, you just mentioned the existence of a system, right?"

"Yes, I did indeed mention that", Adrestia then paused as if she was clearing her throat, before continuing in a cheerful and calm voice, similar to that of a saleswoman doing her best to sell her product, "Congratulations, Nikolai, you were the lucky one selected to be the host of the wonderful and all-powerful… Supreme Cultist System!"

"Hahaha, Supreme Cultivator System, you say. So, now I can cultivate like the martial artists I saw in those novels?"

"Well, sort of, but, it's not Supreme Cultivator System, it's Supreme Cultist System"

"Oh, the Supreme Cultivation System you said. The system that allows me to become the strongest farmer in the world?"

"No, that's wrong, it's the Supreme Cultist System!"

"S-Supreme Cultist System?"

"Yes, Supreme Cultist System!"

"Hmm, please elaborate that", asked Nikolai, narrowing his eyes, when he inexplicably felt something fishy in the situation. As if not noticing Nikolai's unnaturally pale expression, Adrestia continued with a proud tone

"Modifying your words a little, this wonderful system will allows you to become the strongest cultist in the world"

"Maybe having to defeat the demon king wasn't that bad after all"