Gregor leans his head back and stares at the ceiling for a moment before sighing. “You aren’t lying about that. Even if someone else has done the research, I doubt we would have it heard. People around here, thank the gods, don’t worship the System. But the number of people who would support it against any perceived slight is much higher than I would prefer for this kind of thing. Just the idea that it could be wrong about something or missing anything is nearly taboo.”

Jason shrugs, “Easy enough to understand that. People have a hard time with the whole idea that correlation does not imply causation.”

Gregor nods, “As far as most of my fellow locals are concerned, since the System shows them their stats and abilities it must be the thing providing them. Not hard to connect either, as the System gives out stat points and such. Nevermind that you can train stats without the Systems help. And as you prove, more does not always equal better.”

Jason scrunches his face at that. “I’m not exactly the best example, though. The System did give me a leg up through my cultivation technique. I sort of side-step the issue of stats because my abilities where I come from could in theory match or exceed what I can do here. Maybe not physically, but I can process it well enough and our bodies can handle a lot more here.”

Gregor sighs, “Well that’s cheating.”

Jason laughs, “With the line stuff, I’ve gotten a new take on it. First off, I’m special. And not just traveller special.” He turns to Rosha and Courtney, “Give me some time to figure it out irl and I might thing of something for you to try out. If I don’t have some spec ops fall down on my head. Not illegal, mind you. Just probably touching on some secret stuff.”

Jason turns back to Gregor, “All that traveller nonsense out of the way, there is one important thing I take from that one little quirk. The System didn’t give me that effect on my cultivation. I bet if given half a chance, the System would strike it from existence. It had no choice because I break the rules. My very existence breaks some basic parts of how the System controls NeoRealm.”

“You might have heard of it from other travellers, but our world doesn’t have stats. As I’ve now found that the System’s control isn’t in everything and there is instead a natural form of lines, I came up with another guess. Stats aren’t real. Not as in some sort of thing were, they are an overlay representing reality. Rather, stats are not connected to reality. The System instead is forcing them upon reality.”

“Without the System, all the extra points added to the stats would vanish. Like an illusion being seen through, they would cease to exist. Of course not everything would seem to disappear. But that wouldn’t be added stats. It would be trained stats, and honestly? Going by how slowly I am advancing, I would bet not even all of the so-called trained stats would stick around either.”

Jason goes silent to see if anyone has something to add. If he was hoping for someone to pick the conversation up, though, he was destined to be disappointed. The other four all sit there frozen as they go over what he had just revealed to them. Even Courtney is struck by the revelation, and she has a much deeper understanding of some of the oddities the world has to offer.

Though someone has to eventually break the silence and that person ends up being Peter. After absorbing the crazy ideas, he eventually shrugs, “Well. I didn’t want to get involved with the System, anyway. Never have really. Still, I can’t seem to avoid getting into trouble. Left, right, and center has me falling into System mess after System mess. All of that? I really would like to forget, and yet there it is. I bet now the System will be even more annoying and it’s going to be all your fault.”

“Though the worst part? It all makes sense, just way too much sense. My husband there might deal with many travellers, but that is mostly through impersonal judgement type situations. Me? I’ve dealt with a lot of you guys on a more one-on-one basis. With all my experience, a number of sensitive things have crossed my ears. Things that if I tried to repeat them would likely get me censored by the System.”

“The idea that the very basis of our lives is a falsehood isn’t even the strangest thing I’ve heard. Not by a long shot. And you know what? No matter how many monsters, beings, and other miscellaneous living objects are under the System’s control, there are way more normal things which are not. For every monster there will be tens of normal critters to feed said monster. It isn’t until you get deep into some local tyrant’s domain that the normal flora and fauna starts to take a back seat. After all, you need so many animals to feed even the basic level of monster.”

“You three haven’t really seen it much, but most of the world is safe. There are of course areas of extreme danger, but they are spread out. If only because monsters capable of causing such areas to develop have quite a wide range even if the danger zone is small. Even if the danger at the center of the forest you came through doesn’t leave the old growth, if a similar level of monster came too close it would attack. “

“My only question is, why are your stats different? Whether it is the beefiest adventurer or the willowiest child, a person’s strength and agility can pin down what they can do. I can understand the fact that you aren’t getting extra System provided points in the stats. But you are still hitting just as hard, if not harder than others of a similar or higher level despite such a clear lack of stat totals.”