Omni-Mastery

"Just like I quickly unlocked more and more of the next level when NPCs used my ability, influencing people using the knowledge that I obtained from Analytical Prediction paved my path to the next level far more easily."     

'A Support Player to the Bone.'     

The fact that Xin Yu's Innate Ability had the very basic requirement of letting other people use his ability to their advantage truly showed the essence of a Support…     

'More like a pushover.'     

It was truly a cancerous ability. Thankfully for Xin Yu, his personality wasn't compatible with his Innate Ability, otherwise, he would have become more of a convenient meat puppet.     

"What I received wasn't any less shocking than the previous level's ability. It was very clear that a Quest was something that is created for the Player's enjoyment, yet what I became capable of doing next was nothing other than making quests!"     

'It all fits together now.'     

The idea that another player could issue Quests might feel intrusive, maybe even downright impossible, but so was the other ability that Xin Yu possessed.     

He was a Chaotic Existence that was as hard to understand as the hardships he faced at the start.     

Considering that Innate Abilities always evolved in uniform directions, a Quest Maker did indeed feel like the advanced class of a Fortune Teller.     

"Moreover, I even got the ability to make two types of Quests, the first type, Party Quests, even seemed like it might be the solution to my combat problem. I could assign Quests to people who I have 'Read' and they would obtain an enhanced amount of EP, the catch was that they had to share a portion of that with me."     

'That does sound like a solution.'     

Being basically capable of reading an mc's whole 'plot', it only made sense that he would have the ability to issue a Quest pertaining to that matter.     

Of course, what truly mattered was being able to level up without spending much effort. Getting carried was definitely one of the few tangible benefits of a Support Player!     

"It was fun and games & sunshine and bubbles thinking about actual growth, but the identity of the second type of Quest was just too devastating."     

Considering that I didn't obtain any boosts nor relinquish any of my EP, I could already tell that the Quest I was handed was the second type.     

"Rather than just those who I have 'Read', General Quests was a tool that I could use wherever and whenever to give a Quest to any person who I wanted. Unfortunately, just as there was so much freedom in creating them, the receiver just had as much freedom to refuse these Quests or just ignore them. Most importantly…"     

'Isn't this completely useless?'     

Whether it was powerful NPCs or even players, the chance that they would have no problem being ordered around and given tasks was almost negligible. Of course, that was…     

'Unless the reward is worth it.'     

The picky powerful NPCs had to be satisfied for that to have any chance of working. On the other hand, weakling NPCs weren't worth the trouble. They were better as Party Quest farmers!     

"The rewards of these Quests were none other than the EP that I managed to obtain by leeching off NPCs, to begin with. It was only a hollow loop that seemed to rid me of the one benefit that I had just received."     

'Oh…'     

The situation that I was met with at the end of successful Demon Vanquishing was now very easy to explain.      

"Naturally, I almost completely ignored this overpriced feature's existence, believing that there would never come a day when I needed to use it… Until the day the Demons' threat started to appear in my predictions."     

'So that was how prophecy started?'     

The source of the Player Initiated Quest and its generous rewards were obvious at this point.      

"The many people that I helped were more than ready to farm EP for me, even going as far as to form something like that…"     

Still holding the fishing line over the pond, Xin Yu's eyes traveled into the far distance until they landed on a group of people hunting down a large monster.     

"Cool, right? I call them the Level-Up Legion. With their help, it looked like the day when I would be able to get by on my own could come very soon. I thought I would finally have the strength to personally do whatever I wanted instead of relying on others, but before I was able to realize that dream-"     

All while keeping up the suspense, Xin Yu tried to pull one more precise fishing trick only to fail even more miserably than the first time!     

"Woah, why do I keep failing so many times today? Hmmm… Do players count as too strong a variable compared to the stable NPCs? Is your position next to me really enough to make my ability fail this frequently even if you aren't doing anything?"     

I was just as curious as Xin Yu himself when he asked that question, but it didn't look like he wanted me to give him an answer as he just lost himself in his own thoughts     

'That would definitely be in my favor in case things turned south.'     

"Where was I? Right… At one point, it was like every file in the Fire Domain had gotten corrupted all of a sudden. Whenever I tried to calculate anything, it always ended up with the Demons' appearance."     

After tinkering with it a bit for a few seconds, Xin Yu threw the fishing line to the side and turned to me with an enigmatic smile.     

"This almost left me helpless and at the end of my wits just like at the start. Thankfully, this time, I also received a Quest of my own. A Quest to receive and guide you!"     

"...Me?"     

"Well, not specifically. As the Quest Maker, you have a duty to guide the reinforcements that might land in the Fire Domain soon. Prepare a suitable Quest to put them in the right direction… It was something like this."     

'Oh?'     

Was the System finally interfering to pull everyone in together?