Chapter 786: A New Concept; Establishing Merit Points

As long as the members of that faction are marked with collective Merit Points, they will be immune to attack during the protection period. Any aggressor will be penalized with a deduction of their own Merit Points.

However, this fourth point also has limitations. If anyone abuses this protection to commit misdeeds, their protection period will be shortened, and the offender will have their personal Merit Points gradually deducted. Furthermore, any protected individual whose Merit Points drop to zero or become negative will be stripped of their protected status.

This was basically another version of “probation.” ‘Just try committing a crime while on probation and see what happens.’

Considering the ways to earn them and the scope of their use, Cheng Zongyang believed that neither individuals nor factions could afford to ignore these Merit Points.

He had also added negative Merit Points to establish that good deeds and bad deeds could not simply cancel each other out.

Maliciously killing someone wouldn’t reduce one’s existing Merit Points. Instead, it would add a separate negative value to their tally.

Thus, Merit Points were divided into positive and negative. A negative balance indicated that the person had committed misdeeds.

As long as one’s positive Merit Points outweighed the negative, they would generally be fine, barring any special circumstances.

However, if their negative Merit Points exceeded their positive ones, any further offense would automatically place them on a bounty list.

If a Cultivator was unable to complete the bounty, an Immortal Official from the Immortal Realm would intervene.

The purpose behind creating all these rules and systems was to bring stability and order to the Immortal Realm.

If he wanted everyone to just do as they pleased, there would have been no point in creating the Immortal Realm in the first place. He might as well have let everyone develop on their own.

After finalizing the general framework, he saw that the Ring Spirit was still analyzing it. He could only speak up first.

“Ring Spirit, record these Merit Points rules for now. If you confirm there are no issues with the proposal, you can update the Ten Thousand Races Spirit Seal interface and send out the notification.”

But the Ring Spirit didn’t respond, which puzzled Cheng Zongyang, so he called out again.

The next moment, all the draft papers in Cheng Zongyang’s hands vanished, and the Ring Spirit’s voice finally sounded.

“Recorded. Your proposal is executable.”

Cheng Zongyang’s expression faltered. He couldn’t help but ask, “Which proposal?”

Ring Spirit: “Your ‘Universal Points’ proposal. After analysis and processing, your proposal can be implemented. However, there are limitations. I cannot enact rules that exceed my own inherent limitations. For instance, the most important aspect: the commission percentage.”

Suppressing his excitement, Cheng Zongyang asked, “What’s the highest percentage you can manage?”

“The current ratio is 2%. When you gain Points from the residents of the Realm of Ten Thousand Races, only 2% of the transacted Points can be attributed to you. The rest will be turned over to me.”

Cheng Zongyang: “…So out of 10,000 Points, I only get 200? Isn’t that a bit much?”

“Yes,” the Ring Spirit replied. “Using 10,000 Points as an example, you only receive 200. After the remaining 9,800 Points come to me, I can also only keep 2%, which is 196 Points. The rest is reclaimed according to the system’s rules.”

Cheng Zongyang: “…Shouldn’t this rule update follow the original 20% commission you used to take from me?”

“That was the ratio before the rule update. This final update sets it at 2%. This is something I cannot change. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be taking only a 2% fee from you,” the Ring Spirit stated bluntly.

“Sigh… 2% it is, then. Every little bit helps, I suppose,” Cheng Zongyang could only say with a sigh.

It was already a huge win that the Ring Spirit could implement his proposal at all. He had been prepared for it to be rejected entirely.

He’d wanted more, of course, but a 2% commission was better than nothing.

It was like getting a tiny fraction of a Point from every single person. Multiplied by tens of millions of people, that would still add up to tens of millions of Points.

‘That’s pretty damn good.’

“Alright, take a good look at these rules and see if they need any changes or additions. After all, these Merit Points are truly tied to our fundamental interests,” Cheng Zongyang said.

He wasn’t planning to expand the ways to use or earn Merit Points just yet. The current methods were enough to send everyone into a frenzy. Still, he needed the Ring Spirit’s input.